The Hero Searches Everywhere For The Companion He Expelled (3)

“We’re looking for Yuri… no, Roylotte Blake. Are you sure he really hasn’t come here?”

“Hero-sama, we have a duty of confidentiality regarding other adventurers’ personal information, so I cannot answer that.”

After arriving in the commercial city of Eto, Vanrost first went to a barbershop and had his hair cut short.

After having it styled with hair product as well, he visited the Eto Branch of the Adventurers’ Guild Hall.

Feeling pleased by the admiring gazes directed at him by female staff members and adventurers, Vanrost asked the girl at the reception desk whether Roy had come here.

However, the girl, who introduced herself as Erin, continued smiling as she invoked the Guild’s duty of confidentiality.

It was true that the Guild Hall was ordinarily bound by confidentiality.

But he was the Hero.

People often made exceptions and told him that sort of information.

Until now, receptionists had readily told him whatever he wanted simply because he introduced himself as the Hero. Many of them had even gazed at him with infatuated looks.

Yet this girl showed surprisingly little admiration for the Hero. If anything, she was looking at him with contempt.

He tried glaring at her to intimidate her, but perhaps she did not understand how frightening the Hero could be, because she stubbornly refused to answer.

At that moment, an adventurer who happened to be nearby raised the bottle of liquor in his hand and answered instead.

“Hero-san, are you looking for Roy?”

“Hey! You can’t just tell him that!”

“Even if I don’t, someone else will.”

Ignoring Erin’s reproach, the drunken adventurer continued talking.

“That guy seems to be working with his partner, some kid.”

“A kid?”

“Yeah, a pretty small kid with dark bluish hair.”

(A small kid with dark bluish hair… Yuri? He’s that plain B-rank bastard’s partner!?)

Remembering the face of the man who had looked like nothing more than a dull, unimpressive middle-aged man, Vanrost bit his lip.

Rosa’s remark had confirmed that the B-rank adventurer had left the tavern together with Yuri.

It was also easy enough to assume that the two of them had visited an Adventurers’ Guild Hall somewhere.

But he had never imagined they were actually working together as partners.

“What could that E-rank weakling possibly do?”

Vanrost muttered mockingly as he recalled Yuri’s shabby appearance, but Erin smiled pleasantly at him and replied.

“Yuri-san is S-rank now.”

“What!?”

“That’s why we’ve sent them to a workplace appropriate for their rank. That’s all I’m permitted to say.”

“They took the promotion exam on their own without getting my permission!?”

“Huh? Didn’t Hero-sama dismiss Yuri-san? Doesn’t that mean they have nothing to do with you anymore?”

Vanrost’s face nearly twisted with rage at Erin’s enormous jab despite her cheerful smile. Unable to think of any rebuttal, however, he forced an awkward smile.

“No, actually, there’s something important I have to tell Yuri. I need to contact him immediately.”

“Yuri-san is working somewhere far away, so contacting them right now would be impossible.”

“Then where exactly is ‘far away’!?”

“That is confidential, so I cannot answer.”

Vanrost could no longer hide his irritation, but Erin remained completely unfazed and continued answering with the same cheerful smile.

Seeing the Hero looking ready to grab the young receptionist at any moment, Rosa sighed in exasperation, lightly patted Vanrost on the shoulder, and spoke.

“We’re not getting anywhere here, so let’s ask somewhere else.”

“B-But…”

“No matter how much you threaten that young lady, she’ll never talk. She’s an excellent receptionist.”

“Tch…”

Rosa lowered her voice so those around them could not hear and spoke to Vanrost.

“An information broker I know should even know who accepted which requests. Let’s go ask him.”

“…”

A smile spread across Vanrost’s lips at Rosa’s words.

This woman really was useful.

Hiring her had cost a considerable amount of money, but she was worth every coin. She was nothing like Yuri. Still, Yuri had been somewhat useful for menial work in his own way. That was why he intended to keep him by his side from now on.

“Rosa, take me to that information broker.”

Zenk’s General Store.

It was a general store located a short distance from central Eto.

At first glance, it looked like a rundown shop that hardly received any customers, but its owner was actually a highly skilled information broker, and that was his true profession.

Apparently, he and Rosa had known each other for a long time.

He was eighty years old.

He lived in a ruin-like house down an alley, about a twenty-minute walk from the Adventurers’ Guild Hall.

He had been reading a newspaper behind the counter, but when he noticed Rosa, an adventurer he knew well, standing beside the Hero, he gave an annoyed yawn before speaking.

“Well, if it isn’t Rosa. What brings you here today? Got some profitable information for me again?”

“Nope. I’m buying today.”

“Going adventuring with the Hero, huh? You’ve got strange tastes.”

“There are two noisy little birds tagging along, and Hero-sama needs plenty of looking after too, but the money’s decent enough.”

Vanrost frowned unpleasantly at Zenk’s words.

By “noisy little birds,” he was probably referring to Irina and Camula standing behind them. The two seemed completely unaware that he meant them and merely tilted their heads.

“Camula, were there any birds here?”

“Who knows? He probably means some birds Rosa keeps.”

Camula, entirely unaware of how noisy she herself was, replied with a sigh.

Rosa stepped forward and questioned Zenk.

“We’re looking for Roylotte Blake, the perpetual B-rank adventurer.”

“Roylotte Blake? What’s this, you lot have business with that man too?”

““?””

Vanrost and Rosa tilted their heads.

Incidentally, Irina and Camula were not participating in the conversation and were instead looking over the miscellaneous goods displayed on the store shelves.

“Someone else was looking for that old guy besides us?”

“That’s right. Someone came asking me to tell them where Roy lives. They were awfully intense about it.”

“Who the hell would be weird enough to chase after some B-rank old man?”

“Pay me, and I’ll tell you.”

“Even a small piece of information could become a clue. Tell us, won’t you?”

Rosa proceeded with the conversation on her own.

…Vanrost almost pointed out that he was the one who would be paying, but he did not want to complain and look petty, so he kept quiet for the time being.

“The one who came asking about Roylotte was Nick Bluestar, who stopped by recently. If both the Hero and a great hero like him are interested in that man, I suppose Roylotte really wasn’t just some ordinary B-rank adventurer after all.”