Departure

Morning came after the previous night, when Konoha had come ever so close to climbing the stairs to adulthood. What happened that night could be told another time; for now, the two girls slept peacefully beside each other with their fingers intertwined.

While the bond between the two had deepened, the Guild Hall in Racluzero was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere. Forest woke them, they ate breakfast, Tree fussed over Konoha’s hair and coordinated her outfit, and they headed down to the Guild Hall at around ten. Normally, there would already be adventurers drinking at this hour, but today not a single person had touched alcohol.

When they entered the Guild Hall, a murmur spread among the many adventurers. These were the two girls who had slaughtered nearly five hundred goblins, including the Goblin King. Some had gathered simply to catch a glimpse of them.

“What is this, some kind of spectacle?”

“Ahaha, everyone’s staring at us…”

“I won’t let anyone have Konoha-chan!”

“Tree, I’d appreciate it if you stayed quiet for a moment.”

Meiro and the others first went to the reception desk to collect their reward.

“Between Konoha and me, we killed 536 goblins. Well, we didn’t bring back every horn, so we only have proof for 231 of them. Could you convert the 1,155 silver coins into eleven gold coins and fifty-five silver coins?”

“Y-yes. However, the reward for defeating the Goblin King is one gold coin. Here you are.”

“Then twelve gold coins and fifty-five silver coins. Making this much from something so simple—what an absurdly profitable business.”

“Ahaha, yeah. And then, this…”

Konoha handed the entire pouch directly to Sid.

“What’s this?”

“Relief funds. Please use it to support the bereaved families and rebuild the villages that were destroyed. It isn’t much, though.”

“You expect me to take this? After all the work you girls did? I can’t accept it.”

“Please take it. This is about the only way I can atone…”

“I’m the one at fault. My bad judgment put more than two hundred adventurers in danger and got nearly fifty people killed. Blaming yourself for that is wrong, you know, miss.”

“Even so!! …I want to make amends.”

Sid scratched his head awkwardly. Forest turned to Meiro.

“You’re fine with this?”

“I don’t mind. In exchange, I intend to claim another reward separately.”

“Another reward?”

“Promote our tag colors.”

“!”

Yes, the disaster had happened precisely because Konoha and Meiro had been White Moon-class. No matter how high someone’s level was, being White Moon-class meant they were not considered trustworthy.

“My level is eighty. Konoha’s is eighty-seven. What we lack isn’t experience, but authority. The Kingdom’s Guild Alliance Association falls under the jurisdiction of the Seven Generals, but as long as the requirements for promotion don’t deviate too far from the established standards, the individual Guild administrators are allowed some discretion over tag-color promotions. Naturally, if they made some worthless piece of trash a Gold Moon-class adventurer, they’d be guaranteed a beheading, so they still can’t go completely outside the established framework.”

“With you girls, there’d be no problem at all. You’re among the strongest fighters in the Kingdom. I’ll guarantee that.”

Meiro continued matter-of-factly.

“I’m not asking you to falsify anything. What I want is for you to introduce us to the Guild Hall in the Neutral City of Lichten, where we’re headed next. I’ve heard it’s a very large Guild Hall and has enough influence to make various arrangements.”

“I see. Still, we can promote your tag colors based on the goblin subjugation alone.”

“I’ll take you up on that.”

And so Konoha and Meiro became Green Moon-class adventurers through an extraordinary four-rank promotion. Defeating the Goblin King had been a much greater achievement than they had expected. On top of that, their defeat of the Black Ape and the rescue of Tree and the others were also counted among their accomplishments, which allowed them to rise this far entirely within the regulations. Rest assured, no laws were broken.

“Also, I want you to register as little information about us as possible.”

“And why’s that?”

“No particular reason. We’re planning to go with the whole ‘mysterious, overwhelmingly powerful newcomers who suddenly appeared’ thing, so the less information there is, the better, right?”

“Huh!?”

Of course, that was a lie. The real goal was to prevent too much information about Konoha from reaching the Kingdom.

The Seven Generals oversaw all Guild information. The general actually responsible for the work was not particularly diligent, so Meiro was not too worried, but it was better to be safe than sorry. That meant they would also need to falsify Konoha’s name.

“Name: Meiro. Occupation: mage. Secondary occupation: observer. And only register my subjugation record. What about you, Konoha?”

“What should I use for my name…?”

“Anything is fine. You could call yourself The Crab Cannery Ship for all I care.”

“There are so many problems with that!! Hmm, then I’ll go with Hikari.”

“Why?”

“My Demon King name means Moonlight, right? So, Hikari!”

“Keep your voice down! Fine, that’ll do.”

The receptionist nervously watched them complete the registration. If falsifying a name was discovered, only the person responsible was supposed to face severe punishment, but ever since the current king had taken the throne, nobody knew what might happen. In the worst case, she might even be held responsible for failing to supervise them.

“Everyone here is to believe this girl is called Hikari. I’ll leave the memory manipulation to you, Lord Carmen.”

“You make it sound so simple. Fine. I’ll cast a spell for you.”

Meiro nodded in satisfaction.

Two days later, a memorial service was held for those who had died in the battle.

The Guild known as the Den of Starving Wolves had been half-destroyed in the incident. Blue Moon-class Flora had survived, but four Green Moon-class adventurers, including Krel and Beck, had died. Many Yellow Moon-class adventurers had also been killed, causing the Guild’s combat strength to decline drastically.

Since the city’s defenses could no longer be maintained like this, Racluzero decided to request outside assistance. And so—

“Waaaaaah!! Konoha-chaaaaaan!!”

“T-Tree-san!? We’ll see each other again~!”

“I’m going to miss youuuuu!! I wanted to dress you up moreeeeee!”

“Ehhh…”

Tree Carmen clung to Konoha while bawling and shouting something or other. The students of Racluzero University had reacted much the same way when Konoha said goodbye to them. The ice carriage was stuffed full of souvenir sweets.

Yes, Konoha and Meiro were leaving Racluzero and heading for the Neutral City of Lichten. In other words, they were finally resuming their original journey.

The place Racluzero had asked for aid was the neighboring Neutral City of Lichten. As its name suggested, the city proclaimed itself neutral and dispatched mercenaries to various regions, making it something like a city-state. Clockmaking flourished there, and it also handled much of the Kingdom’s banking functions. Konoha and Meiro had been tasked with carrying a sealed letter requesting reinforcements to its Guild Hall, so they were scheduled to depart Racluzero after the memorial service.

Incidentally, they had not altered the memories of the Racluzero University students regarding Konoha’s false name. That had been Konoha’s own request.

“So you’re leaving?”

“Yes. Thanks for everything, Lord Carmen. Give my regards to your hardworking mayor as well.”

“I will. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you girls. I’ve registered you in my Telepathy contact list, so if you ever run into trouble, get in touch. You saved us twice, after all.”

“I’ll probably take you up on that. When I do, I expect you to cooperate willingly.”

Meiro gave a fearless smile and shook Forest’s hand. They pried the reluctant Tree away, tossed Konoha into the carriage, and departed. It was an extremely convenient carriage that required neither food nor rest.

Sid watched them disappear into the distance, then returned to the Guild Hall. Racluzero now had to begin rebuilding, and there was a mountain of work waiting for him.

“Guild Master, just what were those girls?”

“They’re ridiculously cute and ridiculously strong! It was like watching something straight out of a fairy tale.”

Sid had witnessed Konoha’s swordsmanship firsthand. Her impossible speed, her unshakable nerve in the face of a monster more than twice her size, and her treasure-class weapon—everything about her was beyond normal standards.

“That girl’s going straight to the top one day. She might even become a new Gold Moon-class adventurer.”

“Gold Moon-class!? There might not even be one of those in the entire world right now! There aren’t even ten Silver Moon-class adventurers. You really think she’ll get that far?”

“I’ve seen a Silver Moon-class adventurer before. She might already be able to give one of them a good fight.”

“But adventurers above Bronze Moon-class get recruited by the Inquisitors almost immediately, you know. Hopefully those girls don’t come back with their heads screwed up…”

In this world, adventurers bearing gold, silver, or bronze tags were known as 【Highest-Ranking Adventurers】. Gold Moon-class adventurers were practically legends, and honestly, almost nobody had ever seen one. Even the rumor that three of them existed was questionable.

Silver Moon-class adventurers were confirmed to exist, and people occasionally heard about their exploits. However, those exploits involved suppressing disasters severe enough to threaten entire nations. Demon King subjugations also fell into that category, and Silver Moon-class adventurers had been included in the Hero’s party during both previous Demon King subjugation campaigns. Almost no records remained from the battle against 【Pavane for a Dead Princess】 one hundred years ago, however, so nobody knew how well a Silver Moon-class adventurer could actually fight against a Demon King.

Bronze Moon-class included former adventurers among the Seven Generals, such as Eden Nosvel and Miranda Cascatis. It was also rumored that First-Class Priests among the Inquisitors had originally been Bronze Moon-class adventurers.

“Will a new hero be born, or perhaps…”

What appeared in Sid’s mind was the silver-haired girl who had beheaded the begging Goblin King without hesitation. The sight of a girl killing a high-ranking monster with an expression as though she were merely playing with a toy was—

“A Demon King… huh.”

Apparently, there was no more fitting description for her.