Chapter LXVI - Saving (part 1)

Thank god that wasn't a firebomb…

As I arrived downstairs, Keila called for me from her desk. Looks like she was done with her work, and simply wanted to chat.

"I got kicked out after almost burning his office..."

I said to Keila at the receptionist desk.

She let me in to chat with her inside the receptionist room, since she was bored with her work, and there were no more adventurers coming for a service. 

She ended up pitying me for nearly burning down the master's office, and possibly the whole building.

"I see... and that bracelet was able to limit your magic?"

"Yeah. It's both useful and useless."

I stared at the new golden accessory on my left hand, above my long sleeves. I wore it on my left, because it's where my main magic hand is.

"Also, this thing had another use."

"Which is?"

"It can trick enemies into thinking you are weak."

"How so?"

"Let's say the enemy saw you conjuring a small fireball. Simply pressing this gem, and voila. You somehow made a giant fireball eight times the size of the original."

"… That is… actually scary."

She is actually paying attention to me talking, even though she is working on some documents. I'm glad there's someone I can talk to normally like this. I miss talking to people I knew.

"Say... where is Klane?"

I asked as I looked around, and Keila shook her head.

"She is on a day off. She was quite shocked when she heard you went missing, but then she said 'Rize is fine!!' with a really angry face."

"Ah... She is learning..."

"Heheh. You tell me. You're the cause of it."

Klane is always overly worried about me. Like, always.

But now, hearing that I went missing, she wouldn't let herself be eaten by the bad news and believed that I am fine. I'm quite glad for that.

"What about the other adventurers?"

I asked her. She pondered over which to answer first.

"Hmm... Let's see... Jrake is away on some high ranked mission. I think it was a Yellow ranked."

I forgot Jrake is a Blue ranked now, and he was able to take on high ranking missions, like a Yellow rank.

"Jonah basically left the kingdom for another White ranked mission, just around a week ago. It will be another extremely long mission, so he probably won't be back for another... Two or three months."

"Holy hell. I can't even stand a month long mission. And two weeks of that, I was actually knocked out."

"You were... knocked out for two weeks?"

"I... yeah… I did. I was getting pushed around by the waves on the ocean for a week, and it took me another week to wake up after being hospitalized."

"... Wow. Just wow."

"Please don't tell Klane!"

It's fun talking with someone about my experience during the mission. But I guess that experience was quite rare for everyone, so it's interesting.

"What about... Hod and the others?"

I couldn't call them when I was at the inn, so they might be on a mission.

"They are on a mission. Though, they haven't returned in three days."

Bingo.

"Do you think something happened at the mission?"

"Definitely. It was a high ranking mission. Do you want to go and meet them?"

"Well, I have nothing much to do anyways. Tell me where they are."

Keila stopped writing her document and lowered her body to search the mission scroll that belonged to Hod and the others. There is a pile of papers, right under her table. Every single one of those are mission scrolls, and there are a bunch of on-going missions right now.

"Ah, I think it's this one…

Yep... Something definitely happened to them..."

She read the content and nodded. While reading, she immediately changed into a worried expression.

Keila gave me the mission scroll. I took a glance at the content, and chuckled.

"I probably... Should go and get them."

"Yeah… If you don't return by tomorrow, the Office will do our usual protocol, and will send backup. 

We do that if an adventurer doesn't return within five days since the mission started. Also if you meet them, you should ask them about some stuff you missed while you were gone. There is quite a lot of stuff you missed, if you ask me."

I stood up from my chair, and flexed my muscles a little bit.

"Right, right. If they came back here when I just left, tell them to contact me with the crystal, okay?"

"Sure thing."

"Tell Klane I said sorry!"

I closed the receptionist room's door and left the Office, heading back to the inn.