Chapter 3 – A Lukewarm Welcome

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After getting through inspection, Tor drove the magitec car into the city of Crambarrow.
He was relieved to see how wide the streets were as he observed his surroundings.
It was a lively city, with busy streets. The great gates and the main street was like the city’s face, and it was lined with stores selling art. It was no wonder that it was considered to be the art capital.

As it was such a big city, it was not difficult to find an inn that had space to park carriages and magitec cars.
And so he drove slowly, after marking the inn, and then he entered the parking lot that was behind the Adventurers Guild. Adventurer Clans often used magitec cars, and since carriages were used to transport materials, guilds always had spaces like this in the back.

Tor parked the magitic car so that it would not get in anyone’s way, and then a guild worker came out of the building.

“I’m sorry. Which clan are you from?”

As there was no clan crest on the magitec car, the guild worker looked suspicious.
But then he saw how young Tor was as he stepped out, and was equally surprised by the pretty twins that followed him. And then he looked at the magitec car more closely.
Magitec cars were luxury vehicles. If you did not know about their situation, this trio would look very odd indeed.

“We’re not part of a clan. I’m a B-Rank Adventurer.”
“B-B-Rank Adventurer?”

At hearing this, the guild worker looked at Tor with even stronger suspicion.
Tor chuckled, and gestured for them to go inside.
Euphie and Mailey seemed amused by the reaction they were getting.

“… I feel like I understand now, why Mr. Tor hides his rank in the hierarchy.”
“You feel a sense of superiority when you get these reactions. Though, perhaps it is a little mean to enjoy it.”
“Who are you calling mean?”
“You, of course. Mr. Tor.”

They said in unison, and Tor shrugged his shoulders. It was two against one, and so he could not win.
Inside of the building, there were paintings decorating the walls, which was unusual for an Adventurers Guild. They depicted monsters and magitec beasts. And all of them were highly dangerous.

“They are pictures of monsters and magitec beasts that are above B-Rank, which were hunted around Crambarrow. You can see the names of the artist and hunter, as well as the date on the plate below the frame.”

The guild worker said smugly as he pointed. Indeed, the names and dates were recorded there.
Tor looked at them and narrowed his eyebrows.

“It seems like the scout-type magitec beasts have increased during the last fifteen years?”
“I’m impressed that you noticed that.”

Praised the guild worker.

Among the scout-type magitec beasts, only a few were categorized as B-Rank and above. In the first place, they were not meant for combat, and so they were not very dangerous, which meant they were usually at C-Rank.

However, the ones depicted here were a rare scout-type that were made for battle. They had a wide range of scouting abilities, which made them good at spotting enemies. And they would send this information to other magitec beasts. Because of this, Adventurers could never ambush them, and were forced to fight them head on.

“I suppose the Adventurers in this guild are very skilled.”
“Hahaha…”

The guild worker laughed dryly. Tor looked at him with suspicion.
Euphie and Maily were also interested in his reaction, and stared silently while nodding for him to continue.
However, he turned his gaze away awkwardly, and then started walking away from them and to the front desk.

“Let us proceed then.”

He said, clearly wanting to change the subject. But they had to do it anyway, since they came to Crambarrow.
And so they filled in the papers and handed them back. The guild worker smiled politely, glanced at them, and froze. And then he frantically ran to the back where his superior was.
Euphie saw this and tugged on Tor’s clothes.

“I sense something. An incident.”
“Well, someone like me has arrived in the middle of this vampire business, so I can imagine what it is.”

Tor turned away from the guild worker and looked at the other Adventurers in the building.
They were all weak. Two that were around C-Rank. The others were all D. At the very least, he did not see anyone who would be able to take down a B-Rank scout-type magitec beast.
Were the others somewhere else? Perhaps they were part of a clan, and gathered in a different place.

The guild worker returned and handed Tor the request sheet.

“With your ability considered, Mr. Tor, this request…”
“If it’s about the vampire incident, then you’ll have to ask someone else. While I will investigate, I don’t want to make enemies by actually accepting the quest. In the first place, I’m not even sure this is something that can be solved.”

Tor rejected it immediately. ‘Ah, yes.’ The guild worker muttered, and began to roll it up.
Clearly, he did not expect any decent Adventurer to accept it in the first place.
As Tor started to feel a little bad for him, Mailey popped out from behind him.

“Please don’t be too disappointed. We are personally quite interested in this vampire incident, and want to look into it. And so we were hoping you could give us any information you may have.”

After hearing those words, the guild worker raised his head as if he had been saved.
However, he then glanced around, as if worried about the other Adventurers, and then he whispered so that only Tor could hear.

“Thank you. But if it is not too inconvenient, could we continue this discussion in your magitec car in the parking lot?”
“In the magitec car? Why not the drawing room?”
“…I’m sorry.”

Perhaps there was some reason that the drawing room could not be used right now. And so Tor nodded and turned on his heels.

“Very well. We will be waiting in the magitec car. You can come later, when it will not look suspicious.”

Tor said, and then he left the reception desk with a nonchalant expression.
And then he walked over to the quest board as if searching for a quest. And then he walked back towards the magitec car.
Euphie and Mailey walked on either side of him.

“It sounds like he has good information.”
“Indeed. We should refrain from investigating now, since we do not understand the situation. We will have to talk to some other people as well.”
“This is getting exciting. We are like spies.”

Euphie and Mailey chuckled.

“It might not be so amusing for long.”

Tor said with a look of annoyance as he entered the magitec car.

Next Chapter

On The 10th Year The Transferee Who Gave Up Returning Finally Becomes The Protagonist