"Arthur, it's already getting late. You probably haven't had the time to buy the basic things you need to get by on your own, right? As it happens, I have an extra blanket at home… I can bring it to you later!"
The guild receptionist spoke with a gentle smile, her hands resting on the wooden counter of the main hall. Her voice was warm and almost maternal.
"Um… I really don't need that. And it's not even cold today…" he replied, visibly uncomfortable.
"Don't be so polite with me." She shook her head as if scolding a child. "It's not easy for someone your age to survive alone in this world."
"Ahh~~ alright then…" Arthur sighed, giving up on resisting. "Thank you."
Faced with the receptionist's insistent kindness, Arthur eventually grew tired of refusing and accepted. To be honest, he really didn't need a blanket, but continuing to reject that goodwill would have been, at the very least, impolite.
It was at that exact moment that the calm of the place was shattered.
The guild's door burst open, and the atmosphere immediately grew noisy.
"Paul's back!"
"Damn, look at the size of that deer!"
"That's definitely a D-rank monster! Paul, you really got lucky this time!"
A buzz spread through the main hall. Several adventurers stood up from their tables just to watch the enormous deer carcass being dragged inside.
Paul was a young man with a slender yet clearly muscular build. His short, spiky hair matched his confident expression. He wore light leather armor reinforced with metal pieces protecting his wrists, legs, and chest. On his back, he carried a staff nearly two meters long, which looked like it had seen many battles.
"I'm going to sell the hide and the antlers of this giant deer," he announced, dropping the monster's body to the floor with a dull thud. "Tonight, we're having venison for dinner!"
Ellen's eyes immediately lit up.
"Roasted venison…" She practically drooled. "Paul, I want double the usual!"
Paul's expression stiffened instantly, and he replied bluntly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world:
"Double? Ellen, just look at how much fat you already have—"
Silence.
Girls hate being told they're fat, and Ellen was definitely no exception.
"Paul, you idiot!" Ellen stomped the ground hard, her face red with anger. "I'm not fat!"
Paul crossed his arms and tilted his head, completely serious.
"I'm talking about your chest." He shrugged. "You can eat as much as you want, it's not going to grow. It's just a waste."
For a second, no one reacted.
Then—
"Hahahahaha!"
The hall exploded with laughter. Some adventurers doubled over, others slapped the tables, and a few even had tears streaming down their faces.
Ellen was completely stunned by his words.
The very next second, she lunged forward.
Bam!
A perfectly aimed punch to Paul's stomach made him double over, the air leaving his lungs all at once.
Arthur watched the entire scene from the sidelines while calmly drinking his juice.
Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—he still maintained that childish appearance. Because of that, no one in the guild even considered selling him any kind of alcoholic beverage. Of course, he could have simply taken some out of the Gate of Babylon, but he decided to keep up the disguise for now.
After a lavish dinner filled with laughter, roasted meat, and exaggerated stories of past adventures, the adventurers began to leave one by one. Gradually, the once-noisy guild returned to its usual calm.
Outside, the stars filled the night sky. The breeze was cool and pleasant, and the chirping of insects created a surprisingly peaceful atmosphere.
Arthur temporarily stayed in Ellen's room at the inn attached to the guild.
The room was simple and, for some strange reason, followed a traditional Japanese style—perhaps due to the influence of Yuuki Kagurazaka. There wasn't a second bed per se; only a futon carefully laid out on the floor, more than sufficient for a good night's rest. It wasn't inconvenient at all.
Ellen, on the other hand, seemed unable to sleep.
Lying on the bed, she just kept talking.
The topics jumped from one subject to another with no real logic. One moment she talked about the guild's daily routine; the next, she complained about her two silly companions; then she reminisced about past adventures and, inevitably, ended up talking about the guild's Grandmaster, Yuuki Kagurazaka.
"Sorry…" she suddenly said, turning her face toward Arthur. "Once I start talking, I can't stop. You must be getting bored."
Realizing she had talked too much, Ellen felt a bit embarrassed.
"It's fine." Arthur smiled, placing his hands behind his head as he settled more comfortably on the futon. "It was fun."
It didn't make much sense to have a futon there, much less a Japanese-style inn.
Of course, there were no hot springs or anything that truly reminded him of an authentic ryokan, but it definitely wasn't something to complain about.
"It reminded me of the conversations I used to have with friends back in university."
"University?" Ellen frowned. "What's that?"
"It's… basically an educational institution in my world," Arthur explained.
"In your world?" She blinked, confused.
That was when Arthur explained, in simple terms, that he wasn't from that world.
When she finally understood, Ellen nearly jumped out of bed in excitement.
From that moment on, she practically hijacked the conversation.
She was completely fascinated by the world Arthur described. Her energy was renewed, and any trace of sleep vanished. She asked questions nonstop, her eyes shining with curiosity.
Time flew by.
When Arthur noticed that Ellen's eyelids were starting to droop, he decided to end the conversation.
"She really likes to talk…" Arthur chuckled softly as he watched her fall asleep.
But in the very next instant, his expression turned serious.
He rose from the futon.
A faint tremor ran through the ground—almost imperceptible, yet constant—as if something were approaching.
"What is it, Arthur…?" Ellen asked, waking up abruptly from the movement. Her eyes were unfocused, her voice drowsy, which made Arthur laugh briefly.
Her sleepy face was… surprisingly cute.
"Get up. Quickly." His tone changed. "It looks like we have some unwanted visitors coming this way."
"Visitors…?" she murmured, still half-asleep.
"Monsters," Arthur replied bluntly. "And a lot of them."
"What?!" Ellen woke up immediately. "Monsters are attacking?!"
She ran to the window and threw it open. Outside, everything seemed far too calm.
"Where are they…?"
"Can't you really feel that amount of magicules approaching the city?" Arthur asked. "There's an absurd number of monsters heading here right now."
Magicules…?
Ellen was intrigued.
Was this some kind of special ability he had?
Without time to think, she quickly changed her clothes, not caring in the slightest that Arthur was in the same room, and ran straight to the Guild Master's residence.
Upon hearing the report, Fuze became serious immediately.
Lately, monsters had been behaving strangely. A large-scale attack would be an absolute disaster.
Even so, Fuze couldn't sense anything unusual approaching the city.
But the information had come from Ellen, and the source was that strange boy.
That was enough for Fuze to take the situation seriously.
The city's alarm bells rang.
The entire capital entered a state of emergency.
Adventurers, city guards, and even some ordinary citizens grabbed their weapons and rushed to the walls.
As a nation close to the Jura Forest, they were extremely experienced in dealing with monster attacks. Their mobilization speed was frighteningly efficient.
Even so…
Even after everyone had taken their positions, there was still no sign of the monsters.
Time seemed to drag on.
It didn't take long for murmurs to start spreading. Some suspected it was nothing more than a false alarm.
But those complaints didn't last long.
Little by little, a strange sensation began to spread.
And then—
The horizon began to fill with silhouettes.
The number of monsters was simply absurd.
They advanced in hordes, like a living tide of beasts, making the ground tremble with every step.
There were hundreds of them.
They were obviously normal, low-intelligence monsters, but their sheer numbers, all heading toward the city, were enough to terrify anyone.
---
(End of the chapter)