Chapter 518: Starting from the Dragonfolk Village

A full year had passed since the youngest honorary viscount, Tauro Giro Sugar, who had been the talk of the Royal Capital, and his B-minus team, Black-Gold Wings, had suddenly disappeared.

For the first month, people thought they had simply set off on a journey somewhere. By the second month, however, when even the Adventurers’ Guild couldn’t confirm their survival, rumors of their deaths began to circulate. After half a year, public interest faded.

And by the time a year had passed, with adventurers constantly coming and going, their name had been almost completely forgotten.

“We’re Black-Gold Wings, the team that disappeared from the Royal Capital a year ago and has been lying low ever since! And this man here is our leader—the youngest honorary viscount, Lord Tauro Giro Sugar!”

An adventurer loudly proclaimed this as he entered the Adventurers’ Guild in a town near the border with the Empire.

“Tauro Giro Sugar? Who’s that?”

“I vaguely remember hearing that the youngest honorary viscount had been born from among the adventurers about a year ago.”

“Oh, that one! …But didn’t I hear he died?”

The town’s adventurers whispered among themselves about these seemingly arrogant newcomers.

“We’ve just returned from a special mission in the Empire. The rumors of our deaths were a cover for that mission. A lot of our comrades died and our membership changed considerably, but as you can see, our leader, Lord Tauro, survived and returned despite his changed appearance. Look—this honorary-viscount insignia on his collar proves it!”

The man calling himself Tauro and his companions proudly displayed the proof that he was an honorary viscount.

“That insignia looks real…”

“So this team called Black-Gold Wings infiltrated the Empire and came back?”

“Just what you’d expect from an honorary viscount!”

The man calling himself Tauro and the other members of “Black-Gold Wings” strode proudly between the adventurers who made way for them and headed to the reception counter.

“Please present your adventurer tags to verify your status.”

After confirming the honorary viscount insignia, the receptionist asked for their tags as a formality.

“…All right. Here you go.”

“Tauro” handed the tag hanging from his neck to the receptionist.

He looked a little tense.

The other members also presented their tags, though they didn’t seem nervous.

“I’ll check these now. …Hm? The response is slow… Ah, there it is. —Yes, confirmed: Lord Tauro Giro Sugar. I’ve verified that you’re the person in question. Let me see the activity record for the past six months… There’s quite a lot of activity recorded on the Empire’s Adventurers’ Guild side. Welcome back to the Kingdom of Sart’s Adventurers’ Guild. You’re cleared to operate here again. —Here you are.”

When the receptionist returned the tag, Tauro visibly relaxed and put it back around his neck.

“All right! Now the leader can finally move around openly as a famous figure again.”

One of the companions slung an arm roughly around Tauro’s shoulders, acting even more arrogantly.

The receptionist couldn’t help but find it odd that the companions seemed more overbearing than the honorary viscount himself. Still, the honorary viscount was accompanied by five companions.

All of them wore their hoods pulled low over their eyes.

She had checked all their tags. Three of the adventurers were from the Empire, while the remaining two were from the Kingdom of Sart.

And yet, wasn’t the honorary viscount the one who looked to be in the weakest position among them?

Though suspicious, the receptionist found both the honorary-viscount insignia and the adventurer tags to be genuine. Despite her doubts, she welcomed the return of “Black-Gold Wings.”

Meanwhile, in the Dragonfolk Village, five people who had become familiar sights there—three humans, one half-beastfolk, and one dragonfolk—had finished preparing to depart and were visiting Chief Ryuga.

“Lord Tauro, if you continued training for another year or so, you would become even stronger.”

Seeing how much more robust Tauro and the others had become, Chief Ryuga invited them to extend their training.

“No, please spare us from that… I’m still all right, but I really don’t want to see Aeris and Zion muttering at a wall again like they were around three months ago.”

During their training in the Dragon’s Den, everyone had spent each day enduring a hell tailored to their individual aptitudes. They were pushed so relentlessly that there was no time even to encourage one another, and they could meet only once every few days in the dormitory lounge.

Whenever Tauro saw Aeris and Zion there, their expressions were completely blank as they muttered to themselves while facing the wall.

Yes—the training was so brutal that their minds were on the verge of breaking down.

Tauro had been genuinely relieved when everyone finally returned to normal during the “emotional adjustment” the dragonfolk conducted in the final month of training.

“As for you, Lord Tauro, even your instructor was astonished. He said you were the first person your age to remain conscious and keep your will intact at all times. Everyone else did very well too. Ankh’s age was a concern, but perhaps his accumulated experience helped; his instructor was impressed by how well he endured it. Ragune is dragonfolk, of course, so we already knew how much she could take, which made planning her training schedule easy.”

Chief Ryuga gave his assessment of each of them.

“Haha… It was tough for me too, you know.”

Tauro had been able to endure the Dragon’s Den training, which pushed him past every limit, largely because he already possessed abilities such as [Abnormal Status Resistance] and [Super Recovery and Regeneration].

Even so, it had been extremely painful. For Aeris and the others, it must have been even worse.

“…I don’t think I ever want to do this again…”

Aeris muttered honestly.

Fortunately, she managed to avoid adding any ominous catchphrase to the end of her sentences.

“I can’t count how many times they forcibly killed me and then resurrected me… Damn it… Just kill me…!”

Ragune had already completed the foundational training, so she seemed to have been subjected to even more dangerous exercises. Some unsettling information slipped from her mouth.

“…I’m sorry, everyone. I put you all through that because of my selfishness. Damn it… Let me die…!”

Ankh seemed to have acquired a dangerous catchphrase as well, though otherwise he was fine.

“…I’m glad everyone made it back safely. I nearly broke down so many times. Damn it, I’ll live!”

Zion had apparently come closest to breaking mentally, but she endured by focusing solely on becoming stronger for Tauro, to whom she owed so much. At least her catchphrase remained the same positive one as before.

“Hahaha! You’re all exaggerating. Fatalities are rare in the traditional Dragon’s Den, and we take care not to leave anyone permanently broken!”

Chief Ryuga laughed as he pointed this out.

No, you do let people die—you just resurrect them afterward!

Every member of Tauro’s group silently made the same retort to Chief Ryuga in their heads.