Chapter 43: Great of Rounds ⓪
The morning of the Great of Rounds.
When I opened my eyes, I immediately noticed—the bed felt strangely soft.
“Mm… ah… good morning, Master.”
“G-Good morning.”
It wasn’t the bed.
It was Munieka-san, lying beneath me, dressed only in black underwear.
Ah, right.
There had been a mix-up yesterday—only four beds were available, so I had to share with the other four.
And last night happened to be Munieka-san’s turn.
She told me she prefers sleeping in her underwear.
For someone tall, with such an incredible figure, black lingerie on Munieka-san was… well, there’s only one word for it—stunning.
And when she sleeps, she lets her hair down and removes her ornaments.
With her long hair loose and her violet eyes softly glowing, the sight of her in black underwear inviting me into bed was…
No, no—nothing strange happened. We were just sleeping together.
Still, something’s off. She was beside me when we went to sleep—so why is she under me now?
She’s warm, soft in just the right way, smells amazing… it’s dangerously comfortable.
But this probably isn’t good. R-right, I should get up.
I carefully moved away from Munieka-san.
As I did, she sat up too, brushing her hair together and pinning it up with familiar grace.
Sitting on the bed in her underwear, even that simple motion made my heart skip a beat.
Why does it feel like… something happened, even though nothing did?
“Is something the matter?”
“N-no, um, where is everyone else?”
“They’ve probably gone for breakfast. As for me, I’ll be taking a bath now. Master, would you like to join me? If you do, I’ll wash every inch of your body. You can trust me—I’m quite skilled.”
“N-no thank you! I’ll just go get breakfast!”
“Very well. Please enjoy your meal.”
I quickly changed clothes and headed for breakfast.
So—what is the Great of Rounds?
It’s an event held once every five years,
where all First-Class Explorers from around the world gather together.
It lasts up to a week—
and it’s essentially… a conference.
Inside the Hydrangea Grand Hall’s medium-sized conference room,
a table and chairs were neatly arranged—neither too large nor too small.
“Is everyone here? Then, I declare the opening of the Great of Rounds.”
Alhazard Abramelin stood up and made the announcement.
No one reacted.
He sat down and began explaining the schedule and duration of the event.
This time, it would last four days.
Each day:
Morning — Meetings
Lunch — Break
Afternoon — Exhibition matches in the arena
On the first day, there would also be the Opening Ceremony and Promotion Ceremony for new First-Class Explorers, followed by the exhibition matches.
The actual meeting itself only lasts about two hours.
The main agenda includes amendments or abolishments to the Explorer Guild Law, reports from individual First-Class Explorers, and reviewing requests submitted by lower-ranked explorers.
In other words—it’s a meeting.
Still, there’s something oddly surreal about it.
There are no assigned seats, except for the head seat reserved for the Grand Guildmaster.
Among everyone present, the most eye-catching were the clown, the pink sphere,
the plague-masked “Thousand Faces”, and the fish-headed Gymnema Sylvester.
A few others I didn’t recognize… oh— that one with purple hair and eyes—that must be Narcissus.
“…………”
“The Return of Generous”…
That’s exactly right.
Next to me sat a ridiculously muscular man—shirtless, arms crossed, radiating raw power.
Ugh.
Narcissus, sitting beside him, had an expression somewhere between annoyance and discomfort.
No… maybe I’m imagining it? Or is that fear? No, surely not.
That Fairial woman over there—that must be Mineha’s mother.
And though she wasn’t sitting near me, Mineha herself was present too, currently in her Fairial form, seated properly on a chair.
As for “Sword of Swords”, he wasn’t in his seat— he was lying down along the wall like we were, not sitting.
In his place sat Celeste-san, though she couldn’t speak anyway.
Agaro and the others weren’t here—they weren’t First-Class Explorers yet, after all.
“Now, the first topic continues from last time: whether or not to introduce the new Iron or Steel threat levels for monsters.”
From last time?
So this discussion has been carried over from five years ago.
Let’s see, the current monster threat classifications are:
Copper, Silver, Gold, Gem, and Treasure class.
“If added, it would be placed between Copper and Silver. The main point of debate is whether simply using a Relic makes a monster worthy of Silver class. Many monsters can wield Relics but still pose little threat— so should there be an additional tier to distinguish them?”
I see. So that’s what Iron or Steel class would be for.
The first to raise her hand was the Witch.
“I’ve said this every single time, but I still think it’s unnecessary, you know? And for the same reason as before—Relic usage varies from monster to monster. A Relic’s danger depends on who wields it. So if they can use one, Silver class is fine as it is. If we add an Iron rank, some explorers will start underestimating them.”
She has a point.
I remembered that hobgoblin who once found an OOPArt and went on a rampage—
that threat was definitely Silver-class.
A few others nodded in agreement—clearly on the “no need” side.
“Hmm~ I’m on the side that says we should add it~.”
Chive-san said, raising her hand lazily.
“When I post a Copper-class extermination request, sometimes it turns out the monster’s got a Relic— and then I have to pay Silver-class commission fees~ it happens now and then~.”
“Ahh, yeah, that does happen.”
“The problem is~ that once it’s Silver, the payout skyrockets~. I mean, thanks to Appraisal there’s no cheating, but still, it’d be nice to have a middle ground~.”
I see.
When a Copper becomes Silver, the commission cost spikes— so for clients, having an Iron tier in between would be convenient.
“Oh my, an explorer siding with the clients, are you?”
“Well~ explorers exist because clients do, right~?”
That’s… a tough one.
Both sides have fair points.
Soon enough, voices went back and forth—
the pro side, the against side, all trading arguments.
But in the end… yeah, no resolution.
The biggest issue is that even the weakest monster can possess a Relic.
That’s been proven by old Lab military experiments recorded in the database.
As long as a creature has a vessel for the soul, it can hold a Relic.
And since all living things possess one, there’s technically no such thing as a being completely without Relic potential.
So this debate would clearly be postponed again— and sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.
“The next topic: whether to extend the use of Titles—currently applied to Class I and II Explorers— to Class III and IV as well. Also, whether to unify Title rights currently managed separately by race.”
Ugh, here we go again.
The first part might be fine, but that second point—
that one’s definitely going to get messy.
Sure enough, the elven explorer Kaede Akima, known as ‘One-Cut Master’,
immediately raised his hand.