Chapter 522 – The Senior Adventurer Team

The B-rank adventurer team that had come at the request of Nol village introduced themselves as “Fangs of the North Wind.”

They were apparently a fairly well-known team at the adventurers’ guild that oversaw this region.

It was about time Tauro and the others introduced themselves.

“If you’re adventurers, you must know this already, so I’m sure you haven’t gone accepting requests and carrying out subjugations in another guild’s jurisdiction without going through the guild, now have you?”

Gulp!

Tauro had already gone and defeated two basilisks, so he was instantly at a loss for words.

Originally, he had planned to introduce himself first and then take the basilisk corpses out of his magic storage, but in that split second he decided to stop himself.

“O–Of course not!”

Tauro blurted out a lie without thinking.

Aeris and the others had also forgotten about it in the excitement of their first hunt in a while, so they put on an innocent act as well.

“…So then, what’s your team name? You have one, don’t you?”

The leader of Fangs of the North Wind asked Tauro, who was speaking on behalf of the group.

Tauro realized that, since this was his first journey in a year, he had left the insignia marking him as an honorary noble and the tag showing his adventurer rank tucked away in his magic storage, and had missed the chance to take them out.

The same was true for Aeris and the others—most of their luggage was entrusted to Tauro.

“Um, well, it’s not really a name B-rank adventurers would remember, so…”

Tauro answered evasively, thinking that if he gave their name and was remembered, they might get angry if it came out that he had stolen their quarry by defeating the basilisks.

“Hey now, don’t sell yourselves short compared to us. You’re still young. Work hard and become a strong team from here on out.”

The leader of Fangs of the North Wind misunderstood Tauro’s attitude and offered encouragement.

He doesn’t seem like a bad person.

“…Thank you.”

Tauro had been misunderstood, but decided it was fine and answered anyway.

“If you want, we could use our B-rank team privilege and hire you as local assistant adventurers and let you join the subjugation. We’ll have to search the surrounding area based on eyewitness reports anyway to find the target. For the time being, it’s a basilisk, but you don’t run into such rare monsters very often— I think this one is probably a fire-breathing lizard.”

The leader of Fangs of the North Wind made the suggestion, perhaps thinking he’d let this beginner-looking team get some credit too.

Standing nearby, the village chief seemed to vaguely understand the situation between the adventurers and decided not to butt in and cause trouble for Tauro’s group, giving Tauro a wink instead.

They’re being strangely considerate… but since we already defeated the basilisks, I can’t deny it…

Tauro accepts the village chief’s concern and says to the leader of Fangs of the North Wind,

“Then please, we’ll do it that way.”

They shook hands and formed a contract.

“Leader, wouldn’t it have been better to just leave this village to that team and move on ourselves?”

Ankh asked Tauro that question in an open lot at the edge of the village.

“We told the village chief we’d patrol the surrounding area for a few days to check things out, so we can’t just abandon them, right? But we also can’t embarrass another adventurer team either. In that case, isn’t it better to make a contract and participate in the quest?”

Tauro was concerned about the balance of things, since they had effectively taken Fangs of the North Wind’s job.

“…I guess it can’t be helped. Tauro’s right. We haven’t even reported to the adventurer’s guild that we’re working here, so let’s think of it as a good thing that we got hired and avoided that hassle.”

Aeris showed understanding of Tauro’s reasoning.

“But what are we going to do? We’ve already defeated two basilisks, and even the King Basilisk. There might not be any search targets left in this area.”

Ragune voiced a very reasonable concern.

“That should be fine, don’t you think? That team suspects the ‘basilisk’ is actually a fire-breathing lizard anyway. It seems those fire-breathing lizards do live around here, so let’s quickly find one of those instead.”

Tauro suggested substituting another monster to wrap things up.

“As expected of you, Lord Tauro! If that’s the case, we can solve this quickly and head to the nearest adventurers’ guild!”

As always, Zion praised Tauro enthusiastically.

“Alright then, everyone. The basilisk matter stays a secret, got it?”

Raising his index finger, Tauro firmly reminded everyone, then returned to the village chief’s house.

That evening, a small dinner party was held at the village chief’s house to welcome the adventurers.

The leader of Fangs of the North Wind introduced himself as Kantaro.

He was a spearman, and the rest of the team consisted of a female warrior, a priestess, a male archer, and a male thief—five members total, forming a well-balanced party.

“If you want to succeed in the adventurer business, you’ve got to prioritize balance.”

Leader Kantaro, his face bright red from drinking, gave Tauro that advice.

“I agree.”

Tauro shared that same opinion, so he nodded.

“From what I can see, your team seems well balanced too, so keep it up. Ours was an unbalanced, offense-only team up until C-rank—”

Leader Kantaro tried to pass on his experiences to the young Tauro and his companions.

In reality, Tauro’s team Black-Golden Wings was a B-minus team, while the others were full B-rank, making them their seniors.

It wouldn’t hurt to listen, Tauro thought, so he listened to the senior adventurer’s story while enduring the smell of alcohol.

Tauro already knew much of what they were talking about, and it seemed like he was getting a little bored, but when the conversation turned to how B-rank adventurers were expected to conduct themselves within the guild, there was a lot he didn’t know.

There were more politically motivated commissioned requests from nobles, and negotiations for that will become necessary.

Though B-rank adventurers were considered first-class adventurers, Kantaro lamented that there were many things they couldn’t do freely.

Tauro and the others had entered the Dragon’s Hole immediately after becoming B-minus rank, so in truth they knew nothing about what life in the B-rank tier was like.

Because of that, the drunken team leader Kantaro’s stories turned out to be surprisingly informative.