After a full day inside, we finally made it out of the cave. The air above ground was refreshing.
Bright sunlight shone down from above. Savoring its warmth for a moment, I let out a tired sigh and brought a hand to my shoulder.
THUD— With a heavy sound, I set my backpack down on the ground.
Damn, this thing is heavy.
Even though this backpack—which I had scraped together my remaining money to buy right before setting out on this commission—supposedly had minor weight-reduction magic cast on it, if it was still this heavy, its true weight would clearly have been more than I could even lift.
Then again, statues, coins, and the like were crammed in so tight the backpack was practically bursting at the seams.
If anything, I should probably be relieved that its weight had been reduced to a level I could carry out at all.
"Phew."
Letting out a light sigh, I wiped the sweat rolling down my forehead. Quite apart from having infinite mana, my physical strength and stamina were at an ordinary level. Moving around this intensely for the first time in a while had left me pretty winded.
Still, my heart was light.
I had successfully cleared the dungeon and swept up every last reward, including the two runes.
Satisfying results. A clean finish.
Ah, of course, one minor matter still remained.
Namely, Renia's gaze fixed straight on me.
"..."
Eyes wide as saucers. Lips twitching as if she were about to say something, only to stop herself.
Now that we had run like mad and safely reached the surface, what had just happened down inside seemed to be coming back to her naturally.
She probably had more than one or two questions right now.
Her face looked as if she didn't even know where to start asking. Still, true to form for an adventurer with a blunt personality, her lips soon parted.
"...Um."
In a tone a bit different from before, naturally.
"I think I'm going to need a bit of an explanation... sir."
Out of nowhere, she was speaking politely, which didn't suit her at all. With a reluctant look on my face, I stared at her.
I could roughly guess the reason why.
The Wind Blade spell I had used to trigger the mechanism on the cave ceiling, plus the way I hadn't even batted an eye after firing the Hand Cannon that ate up an absurd amount of mana.
Unless someone was a mage—and one of a considerable level at that—those were things that simply couldn't be explained.
Since a mage above a certain level was practically a quasi-noble, in a way it was a natural reaction.
Quite apart from that, though, watching her stammer out ill-fitting polite speech with a look as if she had swallowed something stuck in her throat was actually more uncomfortable for me.
"Just talk comfortably. Like earlier."
"..."
Renia's eyes darted about as if mulling something over. Soon, as if making up her mind, she opened her mouth.
"By any chance, are you a Master Mage?"
Casual speech mixed with a title. It wasn't natural, but it beat her awkward stammering from a moment ago.
Smirking, I answered calmly.
"Yeah."
"...!"
A flash of surprise. Still, since it was an obvious answer in a way, she nodded.
"Good grief. So that's why..."
She seemed to realize anew that my attitude hadn't been the reckless bravado of a clueless rookie, but the confidence of someone who trusted in his own skill.
"A Master Mage with enough mana to casually fire off a cursed Hand Cannon, and senses sharp enough to detect secret passages in a dungeon, huh."
Renia looked at me with a hollow expression.
"...And here I gave you pathetic advice. I must've looked ridiculous."
Recalling the things she had said and done at the shop and the tavern, she let out a self-deprecating sigh.
Having written off a mage far superior to herself as a rookie and lectured him seemed to make her feel embarrassed all over again. Looking at her, I smirked.
"Well, not necessarily. Thanks to that, I managed to buy the item for cheap, too."
Her tone had been a bit prickly, sure, but in a situation where she could have just walked past and ignored me, she had stepped in to give advice out of good intentions, so I held no ill feelings toward her.
"Right. What about the others?"
The whereabouts of the other adventurers suddenly crossed my mind. Hearing my question, Renia furrowed her brows slightly and answered.
"Who knows. Whether they all croaked or not."
Words with a slight edge to them. It wasn't a particularly strange reaction.
Unlike mercenaries, who mostly operated in groups and therefore had a bare minimum of camaraderie, among adventurers—who were basically independent freelancers—loyalty was a practically nonexistent concept.
In all likelihood, hadn't there been some friction while they were fleeing from the horde of monsters?
"Hmm. Is that right."
Not that it was any of my business, though. I had taken everything worth taking, and I had no intention of crossing that endless stretch of forest again just to check whether the remaining adventurers were alive or dead.
Now there was only one thing to do next.
"Well then, let's head back."
Returning to the big city of Cailen. Looking at me with my bursting backpack slung over my shoulders, Renia let out a faint dry laugh and took the lead, blazing a trail through the forest path.
Roughly four days of travel. My pack was far heavier than when we set out, yet my heart was light.
"...Phew, finally."
Spotting the familiar city walls visible in the distance, Renia breathed a sigh beside me.
Even though she hadn't gained any loot, she seemed relieved just to have made it back alive from a perilous dungeon.
We headed straight for the Adventurers' Guild. Spotting us—or rather, Renia—the guild clerk near the entrance jumped to his feet.
"Miss Renia!"
As befitted an experienced adventurer, she was recognized right away. Walking over to us, the clerk glanced behind us and spoke.
"Have you finished exploring the dungeon? What about the others...?"
"Who knows."
Her reply was short. Swallowing hard, the clerk spoke with a slightly regrettable look on his face.
"...I see. The guild will dispatch personnel before long to search for the bodies... no, the missing persons. If you could give us detailed information about the dungeon—"
"No."
Renia cut the clerk off. Glancing my way, she spoke.
"It'll be faster to ask him. He practically cleared it all by himself."
"P-Pardon?"
A flustered reaction. His face doubted whether he had heard her right.
Knowing that Renia wasn't the type to crack jokes, however, surprise slowly rose onto the clerk's face.
'Well, no wonder.'
Meeting the clerk's blank stare, I smiled wryly.
He surely remembered me receiving my guild registration tag for the first time just a few days ago.
I recalled the slightly odd look I had gotten when asking about the Parnil Forest commission.
"Go ahead with the settlement right away. Since it's just him alone anyway, the math shouldn't be hard."
Renia's words drove the point home.
"Uh, um..."
With a thud, I set the backpack I had been carrying down onto the counter in front of the stammering clerk.
"Are we doing it right here? Or inside?"
"...!"
Loot brought back from the dungeon. Snapping out of his daze as if burned, the clerk scrambled into action.
"P-Please come inside! I will escort you right away!"
A completely different reception. Speaking politely, the clerk quickly lifted the backpack in my stead. Though because the pack was heavier than he expected, he let out an "Oof!" and staggered for a moment.
Just as Renia had said, the settlement proceeded quickly.
The split written in the contract was seventy-thirty.
Considering that the guild handled everything from prior intelligence and preparations to the aftermath, it was a fairly reasonable ratio.
Granted, given the nature of expeditions carried out by groups ranging from three or four people to dozens, once that seventy percent was divided up, the amount a single adventurer actually pocketed wasn't all that large.
Right now, however, I was an exception.
Aside from the two of us, the remaining adventurers hadn't returned. And Renia had cleanly given up her share.
Calling in an appraiser affiliated with the guild, the sorting process took quite a long time.
Waiting wasn't particularly boring, though. In the meantime, I explained the information about the dungeon to the guild staff.
Telling them everything wouldn't have been a very wise call.
What I stated for certain was strictly the parts I had visited myself. Listening to my explanation—the rest of which was delivered in a half-guessing tone—the guild clerk took detailed notes and nodded.
Around the time my explanation ended, the sorting work was wrapping up as well. Sipping the tea they had served me, I leisurely watched the appraisal process.
After roughly thirty minutes, the appraisal was completely finished.
"Gold and silver coins, statues and metal ornaments presumed to belong to a former kingdom... In total, it comes to 784 gold and 35 silvers."
A hefty sum. An amount ordinary commoners couldn't even dream of saving up in a lifetime.
"Hmm, and excluding the guild fee from this, Master Kael's share comes to..."
"Roughly 550 gold, then."
I finished the math quickly. Hearing my words, the clerk gave an awkward smile.
"Haha. That's right. To be exact, it is 549 gold and 5 silvers. How would you like to receive your settlement...?"
From their perspective, they would probably prefer to write up a note of credit and keep the funds deposited inside the guild, but I answered right away.
"All of it in cash. I'd like to be paid right now."
"Understood."
He didn't show any displeasure. If anything, his eyes darted about busily as if trying to gather information on a rookie adventurer like me.
Someone whom a seasoned adventurer like Renia described as having "practically handled it all by himself" could be of great help to the guild, after all.
"Here you go."
A politely offered leather pouch. Inside were large platinum coins, gold coins, and a handful of silver coins.
From penniless to a heavy pocket. Lightly slinging the now-empty backpack over my shoulder, I left the bowing clerk behind and walked out of the guild building.
"All done, Master Mage?"
Renia seemed to have been waiting for me near the entrance. I gave a light nod.
"Yeah. Guess that wraps this up, then."
A cleanly concluded commission. Yet Renia looked as if she were still lingering over something.
"You aren't leaving the city right away, are you?"
At her question, I smirked and shrugged my shoulders.
"Well, I'll probably stay for the time being. I still have a few things left to take care of here."
"Yeah?"
Her face brightened slightly. Clearing her throat softly, she spoke to me.
"Then how about grabbing a light meal? You saved my life, after all, so just parting ways like this doesn't feel right."
"Hmm."
I thought it over for a moment.
I had a mountain of places to visit next. For several of them, I had already mapped out rough plans.
I had no intention of wasting time needlessly, but...
'Ah.'
As a sudden thought crossed my mind, I stopped in my tracks.
Renia was an adventurer with plenty of experience around this region. Even if we didn't travel together, she clearly knew quite a lot when it came to gathering rumors about my next destination or the political situation and intelligence of the neighboring territories.
What I knew was strictly system- and story-related information.
With her help, I would probably be able to take a much more realistic approach.
Wasn't grasping that flow the whole reason I had come to a big city in the first place?
Finishing my thoughts, I nodded.
"Sounds good. As it happens, I have a favor to ask you, too."
"...A favor? From me?"
Slight puzzlement crossed her face. Smirking, I headed toward the street lined with taverns and restaurants.