"Anything happen yesterday?"
"Mm... nothing."
A day passed, and the next morning Ran and Moor made their way to the place they had been told about in advance. Moor had finished his paperwork and gone to sleep early, so he hadn't heard about the previous evening.
"You took your time answering."
Moor said it with a smile. He had a fair idea of what that meant, but he asked nothing further.
Their walk brought them to where everyone had gathered. On one side stood a raised platform, and on it, people who looked to be imperial soldiers.
"It appears everyone is here, so we'll begin."
One imperial officer stepped forward and started to speak. He began briefing them on the Imperial Army's current situation.
Things were worse than expected.
Contact with the isolated company had already been lost. There was no telling where they were — or whether they had been wiped out.
On top of that, fighting had broken out in other regions too, leaving little capacity for a rescue; and with the monsters appearing in packs, dispatching small detachments was equally out of the question.
"Given the circumstances, you will form teams of at least five, each including one soldier of the Imperial Army, and locate the isolated unit. The first team to find them will receive additional compensation, as per your contracts."
When the Imperial Army's explanation ended, the crowd began to murmur.
"What? So it's not an all-out fight with the monsters?"
"And after we find them? What are we supposed to do then?"
Questions were flung at the officer on the platform from every direction, in no particular order.
"For now, please submit your teams before noon today. We will then assign one of our soldiers to each, and the details will be conveyed through that soldier. Those who have not formed a team by the deadline... will be assigned to one at our discretion. That is all."
When the officer on the platform finished, people began breaking into groups and talking.
"So there was a reason they gave us a day."
Moor drew a cigarette from his coat. Teams of five had been requested for the sake of operational and administrative convenience.
But those who had come in parties of fewer than five — like Ran and Moor — would have no choice but to team up with people they barely knew.
"Maybe I should have gone around with you yesterday."
Moor said it looking at Ran. But Ran was scowling, as if he couldn't adjust to all this noise.
"What's wrong?"
"Forming a team... I don't like it."
Moor understood at once. Since that day, of everyone who had traveled with Ran, Moor was the only one who hadn't died.
"If it really bothers you, shall we look for another way?"
"Ah! There you are! I've been looking everywhere."
Moor had asked for Ran's opinion — and before the answer could leave Ran's mouth, a middle-aged man called out to them.
"And you are?"
"Good morning. We're with Viper Guild. You and I have met, haven't we?"
The brown-haired middle-aged man greeted Moor first, then turned to Ran as he spoke.
The red-haired woman stood behind him.
"You know him?"
"Briefly. Yesterday."
Ran gave Moor a short answer. Hearing it, the middle-aged man smiled and looked at Moor.
"I'm Galan, and this one is Ariel. We happen to be two as well. If you're willing, how would you feel about forming a team together?"
The man who had introduced himself as Galan made the proposal with an air of familiarity from the moment he appeared.
At first glance, with so little time left, the offer looked in no way suspicious — but Moor didn't much care for the suddenness of it.
"...You speak as though you knew from the start that there were only two of us."
Moving the cigarette from his lips to his hand, Moor asked it with a smile. Galan's face flickered slightly at the sharpness of the question. Moor was smiling, yes — but plainly on his guard.
"......You're quite right. According to our information, two paladins were dispatched this time. And one of them, we were told, is among the paladins' strongest assets."
Galan seemed to judge that a clumsy probe would get him nowhere, and laid it out honestly.
"Strongest? I'm that big a deal among the paladins?"
"No, not you. He means me."
When Ran drew the wrong conclusion from Galan's words, Moor corrected him. Listening from the side, Galan and Ariel both broke into smiles.
"Heh — so yes, a large part of it is that we'd like to work with you two. What do you say?"
Galan put the offer to Moor and Ran once more.
At his words, Ran and Moor exchanged a brief glance.
"Are there no other Viper Guild members?"
"No. We're short-handed as well, so it's just the two of us on this job."
Moor nodded at that.
"They say jobs are hard to come by these days, and yet every actual site is short of hands. Very well."
With no real alternative on offer, Moor accepted.
And so the four of them went to the registration desk the Imperial Army had set up and completed their entry.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Howard, senior soldier, assigned to accompany you on this operation."
'Senior soldier... one step above junior soldier, the lowest, is it? A fellow not long enlisted.'
As Howard made his brief greeting, Moor thought it over privately.
Howard, black-haired and cropped short with a sturdy build, greeted each member in turn. Ran and Moor returned simple greetings of their own.
"I'm Galan. And this red-haired friend of mine is Ariel, also of Viper Guild."
Introductions done, each of them saw to their gear, then reassembled at the appointed place.
"On the surface this is set up as internal competition, so let's move out right away. If you have questions, I'll answer them as best I can as they come."
Howard finished and took the lead. The other four fell in behind him.
"Moving out is all well and good, but where are we going? Looking at the map, the area to search is anything but small."
Moor put the question the moment they cleared the improvised base camp.
"You're right. Which is why the search directions and sectors have in fact been assigned. We're in this area here."
Howard answered while showing Moor the map. He explained the operation in detail — how the sectors assigned to each group didn't overlap, and so on — and went over the compensation structure as well.
"Is it all right to just tell us all that? On the surface it's a competition, you said. A team assigned somewhere with poor odds might lose all motivation."
Galan was grateful for Howard's thoroughness, and at the same time a little worried by it.
"Well, for one thing there's no telling where the odds are actually good — and for another, once a team clears its assigned sector, it can move into a sector where progress is still lagging."
Moor agreed with both sides. But what nagged at him lay elsewhere.
'Coordination and rescue between teams look impossible. Are we expendables, then?'
Hearing out the operation left Moor thoroughly uneasy, but he kept it behind his teeth.
They left the base camp far behind and reached the forest trail; no other teams were in sight.
"Well then. Shall we make this easy on ourselves?"
Moor spoke and drew up his mana. Black fog began to form around his body, and the fog gathered into separate clumps that took shape as crows, rabbits, and more.
"Oh — a sorcerer after all."
Galan watched Moor's sorcery with open admiration. The sheer number of animals was impressive on its own, but the fact that each moved independently marked Moor as a sorcerer of considerable grade. Moor answered the praise with nothing but a smile.
"They'll scout the assigned area for us. We'll move slowly and work out a plan as we go."
Moor introduced the sorcery simply, as if it were nothing at all.
"You can walk?"
"Hm? Yes, of course. Why do you ask?"
Ariel was more than a little surprised by his condition.
As a rule, casting sorcery on that scale left people drained, or pinned in place to maintain it.
They had been walking the forest trail a good while when Moor stopped dead.
The other four turned to look at him.
"What's the matter?"
Galan regarded him with a puzzled expression.
"My familiars have just found a pack of monsters nearby."
At his words, everyone's hand went instinctively to a weapon.
"Now. We have two options. One is to go around them. The other is to wipe out every monster heading our way."
Everyone there grasped Moor's compressed summary at once.
Clearing monsters counted toward the compensation too — but above all else came finding the isolated company.
"I'd say we hunt the ones coming this way. We need our line of retreat secured."
Howard gave his opinion, and everyone agreed.
"Direction... left. Numbers, four — no, eight."
Moor set both palms over his eyes where he stood and shared sight with his familiars, relaying what he saw as he went.
"Could you tell us what type they are?"
"Ah, my apologies. This is my first time facing monsters — I have no knowledge of them."
Ariel had asked for details, but Moor, with no adventurer experience, couldn't give her a proper answer.
"Arrival in about forty seconds. Five big ones, three small ones. Two of the big ones resemble golems, and one of the small ones flies about like an enormous fly."
Moor described them to the limit of what he could. Galan and Ariel asked questions along the way, but his answers stayed thin.
"Short on information, but it can't be helped."
GRAAAAH—!
The howl of a monster. Every one of them drew a weapon to match it. Ariel drew twin swords; the other three drew one apiece.
"Three! Two! One! Here they come!"
The great trees ahead came crashing down as the monsters attacked the party almost all at once.
Every one of them slipped the attacks with practiced ease.
Moor, too, let his stance go loose and drew 'Jaka.'
Galan's sword was what people call formal swordsmanship. Disciplined, without a wasted motion, exceptionally clean. Using his wide field of view, he anchored the center and gave direction to teammates he was fighting alongside for the first time.
Ariel's blades were lighter than Galan's, and far showier. She used that quality to leap through the air, mostly taking on the monsters whose size put their vital points high up.
Howard clearly had drilled imperial-style swordsmanship faithfully. But he only barely kept up with the pace Galan set, and now and then his face showed the strain.
Moor supported them from the rear with his gun.
And Ran displayed movement and destructive force on a level that overwhelmed them all. Above all, his silver energy proved lethal to the monsters. In the time it took each of the others to handle one, Ran beat down all the rest.
"No wonder he mistook it for himself."
Watching him dispose of three monsters in the space of a breath, Galan was left astounded by the sheer quality of Ran's movement.
"Mistook what?"
Ariel hadn't followed, and asked. She was smeared with sweat and monster blood, and looked thoroughly worn.
"Ah — I mean that boy, Ran. Before we set out, he assumed he was the one meant by 'among the paladins' strongest.' At the time I put it down to a kid's conceit, or a misunderstanding. Turns out he had grounds enough."
"Ahh......"
Ariel understood exactly what Galan was getting at. And two feelings rose in her at once.
Moor stole a glance at Ariel and the unreadable look on her face.
While the others rested, Moor examined the monster corpses carefully. Then, without a word, he called Ran over with his eyes alone.
"What?"
Catching the signal, Ran approached him quietly.
"Look at this. A distinctive spell formula, inscribed right here. Artificial by anyone's reckoning."
"Which means?"
Ran's eyes went wide at the words.
"Right. It seems the Order's intelligence team did their job properly this time."
At that, Ran's eyes began to shine.