I turned and looked at the person who suddenly put her arm around my shoulder. A beautiful woman with her red hair put up in a twin tail made eye contact with me.

"How come you civil servants still haven’t left work at this hour?"

Rosellis smiled and waved her free hand as she ordered, "Owner! One Tomahawk here and a good amount of any stew!"

"Okay!" A guild worker in charge of operating the restaurant skillfully received any orders from a distance.

Rosellis laughed vigorously and said, "The Tomahawk steak here is the best! Try it. Even if that ahjussi can’t cook anything else, he cooks one hell of a steak."

Certainly, the guild workers were all adept at cooking stew and grilling as they were retired adventurers. There was a limit to how complex meals could be in the field. So, by the time they retired, they were masters of cooking simple dishes.

"But what brings you here? You always have dinner with the Guild Director.”

At Flam’s remark, Rosellis threw a punch at him with her arm still on my shoulder. "Get lost!"

Hold on. This made it look like she was hugging my head. Well, I'm not saying I dislike it. Let's be thankful that Fiona isn’t here.

"Gah, Den is suffering! Hurry and let go."

No, it isn’t that bad.

When Flam made this point, Rosellis snorted but still punched him. Flam looked at Rosellis and me strangely. "You two seem to have gotten close all of a sudden. When did you get so close?"

Obviously, anyone would think that Rosellis and I were close if they saw her suddenly sit next to me and put her arm around my shoulder.

I agree with Flam. When did we get so close that she would put her arm around my shoulder?

Rosellis smiled cheerfully and spoke as if it was nothing. "It's been a while. About 15 days ago?"

15 days ago? That was when I ran away after abandoning Flam to Fiona, who was in fanatic mode. Thinking about it, it was truly a shocking scene.

"Yes, it was an informative time where I learned a lot about the Guild Director."

Rosellis said with a grin, "That’s right. It was an informative time."

There was no pretense inRosellis'stone. She actually seemed to think it was really beneficial.

Perhaps Rosellis's favor towards me increased since I hadn’t spoken about the conversations we had during the past 15 days. Even so, it was only to the level of recognizing each other nonchalantly.

"But really, what are you guys doing here? Aren't you going home after work?"

Organ answered Rosellis's question, "I'm on night duty tonight, so I will be teaching these two about the night duty work."

"That's right. I think it is necessary since we will have to do it soon." Flam said as he nodded. Organ also bobbed his head in deep agreement.

I guess both of them felt connected to being uptight.

"Huh, really? So you're both sleeping here tonight?”

Flam shook his head at Rosellis. "No, Mr. Roseland says we can leave around ten."

"That late?”

When Rosellis looked at Organ, he replied slowly, "If we do it quickly, it’s possible we could even leave before eight. There really isn’t much work to do. We’re just keeping them until ten to tell them when night duty should be finished."

Rosellis replied with a deep smile. "Really? Then can I take this one and that guy around eight?"

Rosellis spoke while pointing to Flam and me. Organ’s face hardened. "Are you perhaps trying to take them to that place again?"

HearingOrgan’sworried voice, Rosellis shrugged her shoulders as if it was nothing. "Ayy, it’s fine. It's customary for newcomers."

Organ shook his head. "It's a bad habit rather than a custom."

"Ayy, what's wrong? That punk, Demuir, said he had some fun there.”

Rosellis giggled and laughed, but Organ was still pessimistic. "Aren’t places like that where he shines? At worst, he wouldn’t lose everything. But even so, I don't think it's going to be a positive influence."

Rosellis murmured at Organ’s firm words, "And I heard you were emptied out?"

Then Organ got up in a fit of rage. "Who, who said that? Was itDemuir?Demuir, right? It must be Demuir!"

Organ was certain of the culprit even before Rosellis answered, and he gritted his teeth at Demuir, who had already left work.

"Puhaha, no? That's what Dane Walker ahjussi said." Rosellis laughed loudly, grabbing her belly.

Organ frowned at Rosellis' confession. "Mr. Dane Walker!"

Dane Walker was one of the five adventurers with a platinum plate in the adventurer’s guild, and he was nicknamed the Magic Swordsman of Thunder. Although we hadn’t met yet, as a civil servant in the adventurer’s guild, I knew the personal details of the platinum plate adventurer.

As far as I knew, he was one of the elites who rose to a high rank in the former court magician division and was an eccentric among eccentrics who suddenly resigned and turned into an adventurer. He was an elemental magician who mainly used lightning-based magic, fitting his nickname of Magic Swordsman of Thunder.

According to the personal details, he could only produce a weak sword aura, meaning his level with the sword was only at the level of self-defense. He was more of a magician rather than a magic swordsman.

Jeez, they treated anyone who knew a bit about the sword like a magic swordsman. For someone like me who was an actual magician, it was deplorable. I also learned swordsmanship, but in my own opinion, I was a pure-blooded magician.

Compared to my level as a magician, my swordsmanship was at the level of self-defense. So it was saddening to be called a magic swordsman back in my hometown just because I used a little bit of aura blade. As such, I thought I would be able to sympathize and get along quite well with the gentleman named Dane Walker.

"Where will you be taking us?" I asked.

Rosellis picked up the arm that was still hanging on my shoulder and messed up my hair. "Hahaha, you’ll know when you get there."

"Hmm, but Mr. Roseland said ten. Can we finish early just like that?" Flam asked as he looked at Organ with uneasy eyes.

Organ nodded with an uncomfortable face. "That's right. Don't you think we should keep to what our supervisor, Mr. Roseland, said?”

Rosellis laughed at Organ as she said that it didn’t matter. "It's fine, it's fine. I'll let Mr. Roselandknowwhen he comes to work tomorrow. He won't be able to say anything if I tell him that I forcibly dragged you guys away."

Rosellis spoke to Organ informally despite him being older. So, seeing how Rosellis used formal speech with Roseland, you could really feel his age. Well, it would be strange not to speak with honorifics considering that he was older by more than ten years.

Organ sighed. "That's true."

Rosellis smiled triumphantly as Organ agreed. The power of the platinum plate she had was incomparable to Roseland’s age. The platinum plate adventurers acted as commanders of large-scale adventurer units in times of national emergency, so they had equivalently powerful authority even during a typical day.

Using the military as an example, Rosellis taking Flam and me away was akin to taking away an officer in a different chain of command. One could even say that we had just been commissioned in another commander’s division.

For your information, our ranks would be as follows: Roseland was a lieutenant colonel, Fiona was a major, Dano was a captain, Demuir and Organ were first lieutenants, and Flam and I were around second lieutenant.

Organ looked between Flam and me and said, "That's not good. Please don't lose your self-control."

"Ahahaha, don't worry so much. If they go too wild, I'll make them stop even if I have to beat them half to death."

Organ nodded at Rosellis. "Definitely. When Demuir tried to keep going, Mr. Dane Walker electrocuted him to near death with magic. He didn’t even go near the place afterward."

Organ once again looked at Flam and me and sighed. "Please come back safely."

I felt uneasy about Organ's words, and I wondered if we were being sent to a dangerous place.

* * *

After a day's work, Milpia laid her tired body on the sofa. It was fortunate that the magic school was on vacation. This allowed her to just focus on the work at the Big Mama Information Agency’s headquarters. Otherwise, she would have died while doing the homework from the magic school and work at the same time.

"Well done.”

When Big Mama came into Milpia's private room and praised her for her hard work, Milpia briskly got up.

"No, you’re fine laying down."

Milpia shook her head. "That's okay. I'll get some black tea."

"Ah, I'll do it. Since you've used your brain, it'd be good to have some sugar, right?”

Big Mama slowly boiled the water and prepared refreshments. Milpia was restless but soon gave up preparing the refreshments herself. She knew full well that even if she tried to do it, she would only be nagged.

When Big Mama set the refreshments on the table and poured the tea, Milpia thanked her and slowly drank the black tea. "Oohoo, I feel like my head is clearing up.”

Big Mama smiled as Milpia's stiff face relaxed into a happy expression, and she asked, "What's going on with the problem regarding the demon’s territory these days?”

Milpia answered with a small sigh. "I think it is unusual."

"The movement of the demons?"

"Yes, that’s correct."

Milpia got up from her seat, grabbed the data, and placed it on the table. Among the many pieces of data, Milpia pointed to a map with multiple lines drawn. The map she pointed out was one that distinguished the areas of the demons within the demon’s territory.

"This is a map from half a year ago when the demons’ movements became active."

Next to the map from half a year ago, Milpia opened another map. "And this is the territory distribution chart of the demons which just arrived at headquarters."

Looking at the map shown by Milpia, Big Mama's face became serious, and she said, "This is dangerous."

Even at a glance, you could see that the distribution chart of the demon’s territory began to move in the direction of the capital.

Milpia showed Big Mama an additional bundle of documents. "The first page is the statistics of the deaths and injuries of the imperial army serving in the demon’s territory, compiled by the Warrant branch over the last half-year."

"It has definitely increased." Big Mama frowned and moved on to the next page.

"The next page is a graph of demon by-products released into the market."

The graph showed an increasing curve. This was proof that many of the demons were being caught. Yet, it was also evidence that there was an overflow of demons lately.

Milpia continued her report, and Big Mama listened with a serious face. "The strangest thing is definitely the demon’s territory distribution."

Milpia affirmed Big Mama's assessment.