Chapter 108: The Idol Adventurer?

“Fufufu… Looks like they’ve come back from the Hydra subjugation.”

Spotting the group returning to the Adventurers’ Guild, Lua grinned with a smug little smile.

In her mind, that party should have dragged the entire raid down and ruined their reputation beyond repair.

She crept closer, trying to overhear what they were discussing as they gathered.

But what drifted to her ears was nothing like what she had expected.

“I’ll speak to the Guild myself and ask them to give Shifa-san’s party a special bonus for their outstanding performance.”

(Outstanding performance? What on earth is he talking about!?)

Lua’s ears twitched at Loin’s words—the very person who had served as the raid leader. That couldn’t possibly be right. She strained her ears even harder.

“No, seriously, we owe you our lives.”

“For real, for real. If you guys hadn’t joined the raid, who knows what would’ve happened to all of us.”

“Loin made the right call. Good thing we switched in a new party.”

Even the other adventurers chimed in with gratitude and praise.

(W-w-why!?)

(Hey, Lua, stop! If you go any closer they’ll notice!)

Just as Lua looked ready to burst into their conversation, her party members panicked and yanked her back.

Once they had dragged her away, she exploded.

“What is going on!? I was so sure everything would go perfectly!”

“Where did that confidence even come from…?”

Even from the perspective of her own party, her plan had been full of holes.

“They all looked pretty healthy to me…”

“It makes no sense! After staying in a dump like that, there’s no way they should still be fine! I—I mean, someone I know stayed there once, and their whole body was itchy for three days straight! They couldn’t even think about adventuring!”

Most likely, they concluded, she herself had stayed there and suffered for it.

“Maybe they didn’t actually stay there…?”

“No way…! Are you telling me they ignored the place I went out of my way to recommend!? What horrible people!”

You’re the last person who should say that… the party thought collectively.

“In that case, I’ll just have to give them something special.”

“H-hey, Lua, how about we stop there…”

“What are you talking about!? If we back down now, they’ll steal the title of idol adventurers from us!”

“…Wait, hold on—since when were we idol adventurers…?”

While they were arguing, the other party seemed to finish talking and began to disperse.

And for some reason, Lua immediately started tailing the group of women.

“W-what are you planning?”

“We’re going to follow them for a while.”

“Follow them?”

“That’s right. Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated.”

Lua declared proudly, quoting a famous proverb.

Her party members sighed and, reluctant as they were, followed after their runaway leader.

“They’re probably heading for an inn after finishing the raid.”

“I wonder where they stayed? Maybe someplace expensive?”

“…Possible. Maybe they’re rolling in money.”

“Grrrr… If those younger girls are staying in a nicer inn than us, I’ll never forgive them!”

“There’s nothing to forgive…”

As they continued tailing them, for some reason Shifa’s group headed straight out of the city.

“Hey—where are they even going? The sun’s going to set soon!”

“No way… Are they planning to keep adventuring?”

“Maybe they’re going after monsters that only appear at night?”

“They work way too hard…”

“They left town at dawn to join the Hydra subjugation, didn’t they!? Take a break already!”

Of course, Lua wasn’t worried about their health—she just didn’t want her rivals outworking her.

Then it happened.

Shifa’s group disappeared into a small thicket.

“Wha—… They’re gone…?”

Lua’s group arrived moments later, but no matter how they searched the brush, the others were nowhere to be found.

Looking around the area didn’t help either.

Even if they had noticed the tail and fled at full speed, it would’ve been impossible for them to vanish in such a short time.

“T-they disappeared…?”

◇　◇　◇

After leaving the Adventurers’ Guild, we decided to return to Arcel.

Our garden was just outside the city, so we had to head out first.

“…Someone’s following us.”

As we approached the area, Anii-san whispered to us.

“Eh?”

“I don’t know who they are, but they don’t feel friendly. They probably don’t realize we’re adventurers. Idiots—maybe they think we’re just a bunch of girls and kids.”

But before whoever it was could make a move, we arrived at the garden.

We’d hidden it inside some bushes, even though we were using the concealment spell on it.

“What do we do?”

“No need to deal with them.”

“Then let’s just ignore it.”

So we entered the garden and returned to my home in Arcel.

“Nyaa-nyaa!”

“Pii-pii!”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

Milk and Pippi always came running to greet us happily—but something about them seemed off.

“Is someone here?”

“Nyaa!”

“Pii!”

The two of them led us to the back of the garden.

There, in the corner, the twin Dryads—Lala and Nana—who usually spent their time buried comfortably in the soil, were huddled together and trembling.

“Masterrr!”

“There’s an intruuderrr!”

We looked in the direction they pointed.

In the corner of the garden, someone was crouched on the ground.

“Wh-who…? Wait—Merlin-san?”

The person there was none other than Merlin-san, the herbalist.