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After leaving Ice Heatland on the Black Wyvern, we headed for Encris first.

Yuri glanced back over her shoulder and said,

“Van really isn’t following us…”

“He probably doesn’t have the strength or willpower left to chase us.”

“Roy, what are you really? You even defeated the Hero… You’re not that, are you?”

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘that,’ Yuri, but I’m just an ordinary B-rank adventurer.”

“Roy, ordinary B-rank adventurers can’t defeat the Hero that easily, you know? How many times have we had this conversation now?”

Yuri laughed in amusement as she spoke.

She didn’t seem particularly bothered by the fact that I rarely talked much about myself.

“You never really press me about myself, do you, Yuri?”

“Well, you can’t talk about things even if you want to, right? There must be parts of your previous life that even you can’t remember.”

“Yeah. My memories of my previous life only come back in fragments.”

“I understand. I was an orphan too, and my memories of my parents are vague. I don’t know anything about my own roots, so there are plenty of things I couldn’t answer even if someone asked me.”

Come to think of it, she was right.

Neither of us had any family. In that sense, we had something in common: neither of us really knew who we had originally been or where we came from.

“Who you’ll be from now on matters more to me than who you were in the past, Roy.”

Those words made me so happy I could have cried.

I wanted to make her happy… because I myself was happy now. I wanted to see her smile more and more.

I wanted us to spend our days smiling together.

I wrapped my arms tightly around Yuri from behind.

After reaching Encris, we changed out of our desert gear and back into our usual clothes.

Although Ice Heatland existed in the same world and on the same landmass, it was a region isolated by supernatural phenomena and completely unaffected by the seasons or climate of the surrounding areas.

Conversely, Encris was not affected by Ice Heatland’s climate either.

It was spring, but Encris was in the north, so it was still cold. I put on the jacket I had worn on the way there. Yuri bundled herself into her fluffy cat-eared hood as well.

This Black Wyvern, which belonged to Wolk, flew faster than ordinary wyverns.

If we continued flying without trouble, we should reach the commercial city of Eto by evening.

After eating and making sure we were thoroughly protected against the cold, we mounted the Black Wyvern again and departed.

The Eto Branch of the Adventurers’ Guild Hall.

There was an open plaza on the grounds for wyverns to take off and land, so we touched down there.

Wolk must have spotted us coming through binoculars. He was already waiting in the plaza and immediately led us to a reception room.

Once Yuri and I sat down on the sofa, Erin-chan brought us some tea.

Wolk sat across from us and placed a pouch filled with gold coins and a transparent, gleaming card on the table.

I likewise placed the Storage Ball containing the Ice Deer on the table.

Wolk picked up the Storage Ball and checked its weight and contents.

When you peered into the sphere, you could see the Ice Deer sleeping inside the storage space.

“Yep, that’s definitely an Ice Deer captured alive. Finishing the job in a single day is impressive, as expected.”

“I had Yuri’s help this time.”

Yuri and I looked at each other and smiled. Without her help, it probably would have taken me a little longer.

Then I suddenly felt a peculiar gaze and looked toward Wolk, only to find him grinning as though he had seen straight through us.

I casually looked away from Yuri and took a sip of tea.

“So, you two. When’s the wedding?”

Wolk threw that question at me so directly that I nearly spat out my tea.

D-Damn it… It went down the wrong pipe.

As I coughed, Yuri hurriedly rubbed my back. Thanks to the Healing Magic she cast on me, the discomfort quickly disappeared.

With tears in my eyes, I instinctively shouted at Wolk.

“Hey, that’s not what we’re talking about right now!”

“We’re already done talking about work. You two got together because of this job, didn’t you?”

“…We did.”

I answered in a voice quieter than I had ever used before.

How the hell had he figured that out? Did we really seem that different from before?

Yuri, sitting beside me, had gone bright red as well.

“I’m not saying you need to hold the ceremony immediately. But submit your marriage registration at the reception desk. If you do that, even the Hero will have a harder time laying a hand on Yuri-kun.”

“G-Got it. Yuri, are you okay with that too?”

“Y-Yeah. Ever since that night, I’ve thought of myself as Roy’s wife.”

Th-That night… She meant that night, didn’t she?

Remembering the night I had spent with Yuri made my face grow hot.

Besides, I had already declared in front of the Hero that she was my wife. I needed to make it official.

The thought of newlywed life with Yuri almost made me grin, but this wasn’t the time to get carried away.

There was something important I needed to report.

“Speaking of the Hero, he followed Yuri all the way to Ice Heatland.”

“All the way to Ice Heatland!? He must have been seriously struggling without Yuri-kun.”

Wolk looked utterly exasperated with the Hero, despite him not even being there.

I hadn’t expected the great Hero to chase Yuri all the way out there to take her back either.

“But where did the Hero get the information that you two were going to Ice Heatland? We’re supposed to enforce confidentiality thoroughly.”

“He probably bought it from an underground information broker.”

Underground information brokers were information dealers who did not belong to the Information Brokers’ Guild.

They gathered information through illegal methods and would even sell client information if the price was right, making them extremely risky people to deal with.

On the other hand, they could obtain information that was difficult to acquire through ordinary means.

My personal information had probably leaked too… I couldn’t imagine what anyone would want with the personal details of some middle-aged guy like me, but to an information broker, even trivial information could potentially become valuable.

Wolk let out a huge sigh and scratched the back of his head.

“…There may be an information broker’s spy among the staff.”

The Eto Branch of the Adventurers’ Guild had a lot of employees.

It might take some time to identify them. And even if there wasn’t an actual spy, there could still be someone who had impulsively sold information for money.

“Either way, a clash with the Hero was probably unavoidable. The idiot tried to take Yuri from me by force, so I crushed him.”

“Don’t talk about the Hero like he’s an insect.”

“But from my perspective, a guy like that is basically a bug—”

“Stop there. Sometimes that vicious personality of yours from the old days comes right back out.”

Yuri, who had been listening to our conversation, asked hesitantly,

“Um… Guildmaster, you don’t seem very surprised that Roy defeated the Hero…”

Oh, right. From Yuri’s perspective, the way Wolk and I were talking probably seemed strange.

Wolk grinned at her question and answered,

“Yeah. I’ve known this guy for a very long time. I already knew that Hero wouldn’t stand a chance against Roy.”