Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 110: The Investigation Party
The following day, Aeris revealed her background to Shin and Rumeya as well.
Merely hearing that she was a noble delighted the two of them like excited fans.
“We’ve never spoken to a noble before!”
Tauro reminded them that Aeris was unusually tolerant for a noble. Most nobles placed great importance on etiquette and social position, so the two should be careful around them.
He also asked them to keep Aeris’s identity secret and continue treating her exactly as they always had.
It was rather strange for Tauro to make the request on her behalf, but Aeris nodded beside him.
“Please continue to look after me.”
She bowed politely. Shin and Rumeya hurriedly bowed in return.
“Of course!”
Tauro laughed at the overly formal scene. The others soon joined him, and the room filled with laughter.
A few days later, a message reached the Adventurers’ Guild.
An investigation party was coming to Dansas from the royal capital.
The government had responded to the guild’s report about the dungeon. The speed of its reaction suggested that officials believed studying a newly formed dungeon might provide clues for conquering the state-controlled dungeons that continued to grow.
The government knew of dungeon cores only as one hypothesis. It probably didn’t know what happened when a core was destroyed—or that, at the moment of its destruction, it appeared to produce an item desired by the person who destroyed it.
The message requested guides for the investigators. It was a designated quest available only to teams that had participated in the dungeon assault, but every other qualifying team refused.
Despite being a government request, the reward was miserly.
It paid about as much as an ordinary E-rank-range quest—and was low even by that standard. Before long, Chloe brought the request to Black-Gold Wings.
“Please, Tauro! Your team is the only one left!”
As an E-minus-rank team, they found it difficult to refuse a personal plea from the branch manager.
Even so, Tauro didn’t want the job.
The reward was poor, the time commitment was long, and he feared the government investigators might confiscate his dungeon-core fragment and Bow of Artemis in the name of research.
They represented the state; anything was possible.
On the other hand, refusing would put Chloe in a difficult position.
Reluctantly, Black-Gold Wings accepted the quest to guide the investigation party.
On the day the investigators were due to arrive, Tauro and his companions waited at the village entrance.
Before long, an imposing procession appeared in the distance.
Mounted figures in armor were immediately recognizable as knights from the royal capital. Two carriages traveled between them, guarded at the front and rear.
There appeared to be about thirty knights alone.
Since the government had been so stingy with the quest reward, Tauro had imagined a small party. The actual delegation was much larger than expected.
When the investigators reached the village, a thin, scholarly man stepped from one carriage. He wore spectacles, a square cap, and loose purple robes.
A red-haired woman followed him. She appeared to be his assistant and wore similar robes in yellow.
“You must be the adventurers serving as our guides. My, my… What an interesting group! And you’re the leader? Remarkable, considering how young you are. My name is Sharga. A pleasure to meet you.”
The scholar was unexpectedly friendly.
Tauro had prepared himself for a much tenser meeting, so Sharga’s manner caught him off guard. When the man offered his hand, Tauro shook it and introduced himself.
“Well then, Tauro, could you guide us to the mountain village near the site immediately? If we leave now, we should arrive by evening.”
Sharga was so excited that he could hardly wait.
“Lord Sharga, the plan was to stay here tonight and reach the site tomorrow at noon. We also traveled from the capital as quickly as possible. Please allow my men to rest.”
The man who appeared to command the knights admonished him.
“He’s right, Professor! You’ve already pushed everyone hard enough. We can’t ask for more,” the female assistant added.
“Hmm… I wanted to leave at once. Very well, we’ll remain here today. Would you show us to the inn first?”
Tauro and his companions nodded, then guided the party to the Resting Pavilion, where rooms had been reserved in advance.