A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation

“Eleven’s smile is sometimes outrageously lewd, isn’t it?”

“What’s that supposed to mean. You mean erotic? Or you mean it looks snide?”

Eleven was once again being toyed with by one of Lizel’s random comments. Gill thought he ought to get used to it already, but since Eleven himself clearly seemed to be having fun, he kept the thought to himself.

Personally, Gill wanted someone to call Lizel out more often on his gradual shift toward casual speech and his frequent misuse of words and phrases, picked up day by day from those around him. Lizel looked like the most sensible person in the room, yet he occasionally said the most outrageous things.

Like the other day, when he idly tried out some rough adventurer-style slang, sounding quite pleased with himself. Judge, who happened to hear it, cried.

They’re all hopeless, Gill sighed inwardly as he opened the guild door.

The moment they stepped through, Lizel and his companions drew the gaze of the entire guild, as usual.

No matter how used to them people became, they were the sort of individuals your eyes were drawn to despite yourself. Of course the collective attention of the room would gather on this little cluster of such people. The three of them, long accustomed to this, calmly ignored the stares and headed straight for the quest board.

They stopped in front of the rank f section to, as usual, look over all the quests first.

Lizel’s policy was to at least skim everything before deciding what to take, yet he was already pulling one of the sheets off the board.

Finding that unusual, the other two looked at him as he read the detailed description.

“Hmm… Recruiting strong-armed types. Think I can do it?”

“Nope.”

“Just dump it on Big Brother and you’re golden.”

“It’s rank f, so I was actually thinking I’d take this one alone.”

“Hah!? No way, man, I came out today planning for all three of us to move together!”

Eleven’s expression matched his words—he looked truly displeased. Maybe he was more excited than he realized about being in his first proper party. Gill, who had thought Eleven was only attached to Lizel, now wore a vaguely dubious look at being included.

From Lizel’s point of view it was obvious that Eleven harbored something close to a sense of rivalry toward Gill. At the same time, though his attitude was twisted as ever, Eleven had also grown attached to Gill, who possessed the kind of strength he longed for.

Lizel laughed, and Gill clicked his tongue and turned his gaze aside.

“Letting the world-famous One Blade take rank f quests doesn’t feel right.”

“We’ve taken them before.”

“That time I was just babysitting. You weren’t the one who accepted the quest.”

Well, if there’s no real problem, it’s fine, Lizel thought, turning his eyes back to the sheet.

Eleven leaned over his shoulder to peek at it as well.

“Aaah…” he said, suddenly understanding why Lizel would be interested in a rank f job.

[Assistance in Healing Potion Production]

Rank: F～

Client: Healing Potion Workshop

Reward: 2 silver coins (per person)

Details: Simple work: continuously turn a device that grinds magic stones into powder.

Recruiting strong-armed types. About three people. No payment in goods.

“I’ve been wanting to see how healing potions are made here.”

“Totally sounds like something you’d like, Leader.”

To Eleven, Lizel had given the same explanation he’d given the guild: that his upbringing was rather unusual and he’d come from very far away.

Eleven hadn’t entirely swallowed it, but the way Lizel said “here” didn’t sound off enough for him to think it a lie.

“Headcount’s fine, but ‘strong-armed’…” Lizel looked at Gill. No doubt there—he was more than qualified.

Then his gaze moved to Eleven. Whether it was a beastman trait or just Eleven himself, his slender frame didn’t exactly scream “powerhouse.”

Perhaps sensing the intent behind the look, Eleven pouted.

“I’m technically front line, y’know？ I’m not as buff as Big Brother, but I’ve got decent muscle.”