Chapter 207

“I really thought we could win… Haa…”

“Cheer up…!”

“Come on! At least we heard it was delicious!”

“Ah. Thank you.”

Liche weakly smiles and expresses her gratitude to Arisa and Yuri’s encouragement.

The three of them were currently sitting in the Adventurer Guild’s hall, having a conversation.

The topic of their conversation was about how the dish they proudly brought earlier was already a cooking method Kurt knew.

“So… that bad adventurer mocked me, saying he already knew my cooking method…!”

“Huh, how could he do such a bad thing…!”

“That’s impossible!”

In truth, Kurt had never mocked Liche’s cooking after tasting it, but to Liche, who harbored a one-sided rivalry with Kurt, it seemed like he was genuinely mocking her by claiming he already knew her recipe.

Hearing Liche’s distorted words, the innocent duo sincerely got angry and started badmouthing the adventurer, not even realizing it was Kurt they were talking about.

After a while of chatting, Liche managed to regain some energy. Seeing this, Yuri enthusiastically proposed an idea.

“If you want to defeat that adventurer, instead of sitting here, why not take on a quest!”

“Huh? What do you mean…?”

Liche, just starting to recover, was baffled by the sudden suggestion.

“By taking on a new quest and hunting monsters, we can get ingredients for cooking! With those ingredients, you can challenge making a dish to defeat that adventurer!”

“Are you saying you’ll still try my cooking in the future?”

“Of course! I’ll try it as many times as you want! We’re already in the same party!”

“Yuri…!”

Touched by Yuri’s words, Liche looked like she was about to cry. The two, now united in spirit, excitedly headed to the quest board in the Adventurer Guild, ready to take on a quest immediately.

Watching the two enthusiastically look for a quest to hunt monsters for ingredients, Arisa quietly thought to herself.

“Taking on a quest just to get ingredients for cooking… Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse…?”

Of course, timid Arisa didn’t have the courage to point this out, so she quietly joined them in choosing a quest.

It seemed the concept of prioritizing high-reward quests to become a Silver Rank Adventurer was nowhere in their minds.

—

After accepting a quest to hunt some decent-looking monsters, the three headed outside Astram.

However, they never got to hunt the monsters for ingredients.

Rustle.

Rustle.

“I had a feeling… This is how it would end up.”

It was because of the two people who appeared from the bushes, blocking their path.

Seeing the two, Arisa widened her eyes in disbelief at meeting them in such an unexpected place.

“Y-you are…?”

“Do you know them?”

“Yes. They’re the Sisters of the Holy Kingdom I met a while ago.”

“T-the Holy Kingdom…!?”

At that, Liche turned pale and shouted.

Indeed.

Emerging from the bushes were the special holy sister of the Black Tentacle Cult and her guardian knight, Daria and Aila.

Liche stammered, her eyes trembling as she looked at the two. The once kind expressions they showed in Astram were gone, replaced by cold, piercing stares.

“When we first approached, you didn’t show any suspicious movements, so we let our guard down. Who would have thought you’d contact the Ancient Empire’s specter behind our backs?”

The two had come looking for Arisa’s party after hearing that Arisa was teaming up with Liche.

She was one of the individuals to watch out for after her previous contact with Kurt in the Ancient Empire’s ruins.

However, she was originally set to be removed from the watchlist after a single contact with Arisa, as she didn’t seem to possess any particularly dangerous artifacts or forbidden knowledge.

But upon hearing that Arisa had teamed up with Liche, they not only kept her on the watchlist but raised her danger level.

The reason was Liche’s race.

Liche appeared to be an ordinary human and acted as one, but the Holy Kingdom’s long history of witch hunts allowed them to identify her as a Wizard.

Wizard.

Also known as Witch.

A race closely tied to the forbidden history of the Ancient Empire.

Could it really be a coincidence that an adventurer who obtained artifacts from the Ancient Empire’s ruins teamed up with a Wizard who appeared in Astram at the same time?

The timing of Arisa obtaining the artifacts and the Wizard’s appearance in Astram was no coincidence.

That was the conclusion Daria and Aila reached.

The Holy Kingdom is one of the few nations on the continent that promotes equality among races, not discriminating against most human races.

Their obsession with racial harmony went beyond mere kindness.

For example, they even accepted orcs and goblins from the western continent, who had slaughtered countless humans as minions of demons, arguing that they were also victims under demonic control.

However, there were human races the Holy Kingdom would never advocate harmony with.

Commonly referred to as the Four Great Evil Races, they were races that could not and should not coexist with other human races.

Demons, Vampires, Dragons, and Wizards.

Demons historically enslaved various human races and waged war against humans.

This once brought humans to the brink of extinction, making demons an irredeemably evil race.

Vampires, needing to constantly take the lives of other human races to survive, were like broken jars requiring endless refilling with others’ lives, making coexistence impossible regardless of their morality.

While demons and vampires posed significant threats to other human races’ survival, Dragons and Wizards were races the Holy Kingdom deemed should not coexist with.

For some unknown reason, the Holy Kingdom harbored an intense hatred for these two races.

When the Holy Kingdom was first established, they hunted Wizards like monsters.

This was the history of witch hunts.

Of course, this history was erased alongside the Ancient Empire’s history, as it didn’t align with the Holy Kingdom’s stance on equality. The number of Wizards harmed was so small that few now know of it.

Fortunately, in recent centuries, public witch hunts have ceased, perhaps due to the dwindling number of Wizards or internal changes in the Holy Kingdom.

But even so, the Holy Kingdom’s name alone was enough to instill terror in Wizards.

One of the reasons Wizards lived secretly in remote areas, forming their own societies away from prying eyes.

Thus, Liche couldn’t help but freeze at the sudden appearance of the Holy Kingdom’s two sisters.

It was an instinctive fear ingrained since childhood by her parents.

“…What business do the Holy Kingdom’s sisters have with us?”

Liche, trying to overcome her trembling body, asked in a shaky voice.

But to Daria and Aila, her actions seemed like a thief caught red-handed.

They only pressed her more sharply.

“Did you really think we wouldn’t find out?”

“…In the end, everyone who touches the Ancient Empire’s artifacts changes the same way.”

“W-what are you talking about…?”

Meanwhile, Arisa, unable to grasp the situation, looked back and forth between the three in confusion.

At first glance, it seemed like she was a clueless fool, unable to understand the rapidly changing atmosphere.

But Daria and Aila only looked at her with disdain.

“Still pretending, huh!”

“But we won’t be fooled!”

Come to think of it, it was said that Arisa was the adventurer who first discovered the Ancient Empire’s ruins.

What a coincidence, right?

Just as she found the path to the ruins’ depths, a Wizard appeared in Astram, and the adventurer who obtained the Ancient Empire’s artifacts teamed up with the Wizard.

Perhaps everything was meticulously planned from the moment the ruins were discovered.

No, the probability of it all being a coincidence was even more absurd.

Yet, here she was, acting like she knew nothing.

For a moment, her boldness made them wonder if it was all a misunderstanding.

But soon, Daria and Aila rationally concluded.

Common sense dictated that the probability of this series of events being a coincidence was as absurd as a Lizardman being a master chef and a martial arts master.

“We’ll interrogate you about your true intentions after subduing you!”

“You, the apprentice adventurer! You seem clueless, so run away now!”

Ignoring Arisa’s protests, Daria and Aila immediately charged at her and Liche.

And so, an entirely unexpected battle began.