Shu's gaze flickered slightly, but he said nothing more.
Perhaps he felt that everyone has their own secrets, and that pressing too hard is no good thing?
"Let's go. We'll get to the assembly point early."
Shu let the matter drop, though there was no telling what he was thinking.
As for that innate ability of hers that worked sometimes and not others, Seraphia suddenly felt it would be very nice if the thing could be a little more stable.
At the very least, having it function properly when she wanted to know what someone was feeling inside would be best.
Guessing at another person's inner thoughts was far too much trouble, whereas if she could simply read the emotion, she could work backwards from the answer to the process.
Seraphia had entirely forgotten how much she had resented this ability belonging solely to the angel-monsters not long before. One can only say that in circumstances that favour them, people are generally capable of setting a thing's drawbacks aside for a while.
"What sort of commission is it?"
To ease the atmosphere a little, Seraphia spoke up of her own accord.
This somewhat unusual behaviour made Shu glance sidelong at her once again.
"Broadly speaking, it's connected to that business we ran into just after we arrived in this city."
"The fire?"
"Yes."
Then, as they walked, Shu gave a rough account of the connection between the background to this mission and that earlier business.
First, because of the feebleness of the Kiden Federation's centre, the various city-state conglomerates each held armed force of their own, and among them were even war contractor organizations whose main business was the sale of armed force, escort work, clearance, transport security and dungeon development.
And the attack that had occurred in the city a while ago had, on the surface, left behind the slogans of the 【Lamplight Equal Rights Front】.
In the lower city district, that name was not entirely equivalent to a terrorist organization.
At least by the account Shu had heard from the Association, the Lamplight Equal Rights Front did indeed supply the slums with medicine, grain and a certain degree of shelter, and had indeed punished a number of trading companies that openly squeezed their workers.
The problem was that Savour Bond did not belong to the category of target most easily made an example of.
Recently the Savour Bond Trading Company had raised its workers' overall income and improved some of the conditions inside its workshops. From any angle at all, attacking it under the banner of equal rights looked distinctly awkward.
More awkward still, the method of demolition at the attack site, the withdrawal route and the fragments of magitech devices left behind all plainly carried the hallmarks of a federal war contractor organization.
In other words, in the eyes of the lower city district's residents, this affair might be a punishment carried out under the banner of equal rights.
In the eyes of the trading companies, it looked rather more like industry discipline administered by certain competitors with a borrowed blade.
And the Adventurers' Association would not help either side determine the truth.
An institution theoretically absolutely neutral, this time it acted only as a platform, putting the affair up as a commission and supplying adventurers with the route, the payment and the compensation terms.
Arriving at the assembly point, the place was a good deal noisier than Seraphia had imagined.
The open ground in front of the freight station had been temporarily divided into several areas, with adventurers standing about in twos and threes. Some carried shields on their backs, some were checking crossbow mechanisms, some leaned against cargo crates yawning, and several squads plainly familiar with one another had taken up positions further to the front.
Standing among these people, Shu suddenly looked very ordinary.
His equipment was still new, the edge of his scabbard without much scuffing, his protective gear of the most basic pattern. Had Seraphia not been standing beside him, the white wings occasionally showing beneath her cloak and that ring of pale gold light above her head far too conspicuous, probably no one would have spared this country boy a second glance.
"What level do you count as among adventurers?"
The question occurred to Seraphia all at once.
After all, in fictional works of that kind there are always strong ones who can kill a heap of ordinary people with a wave of the hand. Clearly delineated tiers of strength make it convenient for the audience to understand exactly how much difference there is between the various powerful figures in a world.
But as for this world she was in now, Seraphia had not yet come to a clear grasp of the relevant premises.
"Second tier."
"Is second tier high or low?"
"Low. First tier is the lowest, tenth tier the highest. Second tier only indicates that I can reliably handle low-difficulty commissions."
"A Hero Candidate is only second tier?"
"The Association's tier assessment looks at two things. Combat ability, and what commissions you have actually completed."
Shu looked ahead at those adventurers whose equipment showed obvious wear.
"What I lack at the moment is the latter."
Seraphia raised her hand and, within Shu's line of sight, closed it into a fist, which gave off a crisp cracking sound.
She thought back seriously over the last few fights, and the sight of Shu being sent flying, having his bones broken, and very nearly eating the Church's start-up funding in medical bills.
"I think you're badly lacking in the former too."
Shu was silent for a moment.
"Miss Seraphia is unexpectedly sharp-tongued."
"You're imagining it."
After a few days of being around one another, the atmosphere between the two of them seemed to have grown considerably easier.
On the wooden platform temporarily erected ahead, the trading company's steward had already spread out his documents.
There was no question of a so-called person in charge receiving them personally.
These adventurers of theirs needed to know only the route, the payment, the risks and the compensation for failure.
As for Shu, a second-tier novice adventurer, he was not yet qualified to have the upper ranks of the Savour Bond Trading Company explain anything to him specifically.
"The objective of this commission is to escort the head of the Savour Bond Trading Company and the accompanying documents to the Lake Capital. There are six carriages in total, of which two carry people, three carry goods, and one carries protective apparatus."
The steward's voice was spread out by a magitech device for amplification, falling clearly and distinctly into every ear.
"This route uses the Kiden Federation city-state No. 3 rail line. The train departs from the Kaze City freight station, passes three stations, stops at one, and arrives at the Lake Capital outer-ring station tomorrow at dawn."
The trading company's steward lowered his head and glanced at the documents.
"The carriages themselves have already been fitted with protective inscriptions, and both the passenger carriage and the document carriage have independent sealed barriers. The line's route belongs to the key transport arteries maintained by the city-state; the Corruption Sickness, ordinary monsters and wilderness erosion are not counted among the primary risks of this operation."
The conditions inside the train's carriages could be rated highly.
"The primary risk is human attack."
The steward's next sentence pressed that breath back down again.
"The scope of your duties covers protection of the escort subject, the carriages themselves and the Corruption Sickness protective measures, the documents, and the goods. You all understand the priority order. This is a high-risk escort commission, and the relevant compensation standards are set by that same standard."
The adventurers around them grew a little quieter.
This quiet was different from the clamour before it.
Seraphia could feel that some people's emotions had turned focused, while others had begun calculating whether the payment and the risk were commensurate.
"During the escort, adventurers may not open the cargo carriages without authorization, may not come into contact with the sealed documents, and may not enter the carriage reserved for the person in charge. All temporary redeployments are to follow the arrangements of the squad captain appointed by the Association."
"What about property damage from fighting? Is that also by the high-risk escort standard?"
An adventurer in heavy armour standing at the very front spoke up to ask, the male voice coming from between the plates of his helmet sounding very muffled.
"It is."
After that other adventurers raised questions about the specifics of the mission, but all of them concerned things clearly defined within the scope of duties in the commission, and matters of property.
Full of the tedious calculation of adults.
No one pressed the question of why Savour Bond had been attacked, and no one cared whether the so-called Equal Rights Front was a terrorist organization or not.
To them, a commission was a commission.
Seraphia, standing at the back of the crowd, pulled a face.
She had originally assumed being an adventurer ought to be rather more interesting than this.
Shu noticed the change in Seraphia's expression beneath her hood, and let out a slightly helpless smile.
Before he formally became an adventurer, listening only to how things went in those stories, he too had assumed an adventurer's life was of the very romantic sort.