Disciple of Immortal

Act 2: Chapter 39: Guild's Decision

「Now, I’ll announce the results of the adventurer guild’s personal investigation regarding this Ragno incident.」

After seeing that all seats had already been filled, Gannet spoke as he stood from his seat.

「We, the adventurer’s guild, have concluded that the matter of Ragno’s outbreak is related with the appearance of a demon king. The outbreak of monsters of the same species, the appearance of a superior species– these two monster calamities happened because of the demon king.」

The adventurers started murmuring amongst each other upon hearing Gannet’s explanation.

「D-Demon king? Are you kidding me?」

A male magician asked with a puzzled look on his face.

「This isn’t joking. As if I can joke about the appearance of a demon king, a walking disaster.」

Color also drained from Alfred’s face.

Even Alfred who dared to challenge Pomera reacted like that, that’s just how terrifying the existence of the demon king is.

Rosemonde gripped her knees, heaving a deep sigh.

「As I thought. Tch, can I tell the citizens if I leave now?」

「R-Rosemonde-san, what are you talking about!?」

The guild staff criticized Rosemonde upon hearing her words.

「What is so bad about my actions? I have no intentions of abandoning my life just because of your order. How I live or die is for me to decide. I don’t care about your circumstances.」

「Nevertheless, now isn’t the time…!」

「Enough.」

Gannet glared at the staff.

「Rosemonde-dono, we called all of you to this place, meaning that we also prepared a suitable reward for the risk that you would take. Can you at least hear me out for now? I don’t care what you’re going to do after that. Naturally, I won’t stop you from leaving either.」

「Hah, naturally.」

Though Rosemonde said those words with sneer on her face, it was filled with irony.

Seeing Gannet didn’t bite at her provocation, Rosemonde also showed a rather awkward look on her face.

I had also guessed somehow that this matter was related to the demon king. But, I understood the gravity of the situation upon seeing everyone’s face.

The demon king’s appearance wasn’t a trivial matter.

It seems Rosemonde had already reached a conclusion that the magic city of Manarak was beyond saving.

And then, Gannet or the surrounding adventurers were also reaching the same conclusion.

That moment, Kotone suddenly raised her hand.

After sending an annoyed look to everyone who gathered in this room, she opened her mouth.

「Are you sure that… it’s the demon king? I mean, even if it is just a monster outbreak, or the appearance of a superior species, monster disasters aren’t just limited to the appearance of the demon king. According to the conclusions that I heard, it has yet to be verified. Moreover, ragno outbreaks like this usually take a really long time to happen. If it’s the sign of a demon king’s appearance, the movements of the ragnos during this outbreak is simply too slow. Moreover, the fact that no one noticed this for so long itself is already strange enough.」

She spoke with a rather indifferent voice.

After she finished what she wanted to say, she sat back down in her chair, closing her eyes as if ignoring the others.

「T-That’s right. A demon king’s appearance is usually way too fast, as if they came out of nowhere.」

A male adventurer nodded as if he was agreeing with Kotone.

It seems Kotone had a great deal of popularity amongst the adventurers.

Even Rosemonde was looking at Kotone with respect. It seems she had arrived in this world quite a long time ago.

「If it was only the appearance of a superior species then it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But, the jumbo ragno that were discovered by Pomera-dono and Alfred-dono were located far apart in separate places. Thanks to their information, we received many other reports about strange tracks on the ground found in many other places. Those tracks might have been made by other jumbo ragnos too.」

So that meant there were at least three separated places that confirmed the appearance of jumbo ragno. But then, what was the meaning of saying all those things?

「Normally, an outbreak of a superior species of the same monster is impossible to happen at the same time. Since it DID happen, there must be a factor that triggers the appearance of those superior species. Well, I might dismiss the possibility of a demon king if there are only two pieces of information about them, but when it reached three, I couldn’t dismiss the possibility of a demon king anymore. I can only think as those three, maybe more, are born in the same place.」

Gannet left his chair as he spoke, and then circled three different places in the map hanging on the wall.

「These three locations are where the appearance of the jumbo ragno was reported. And these additional five places are the places where the appearance of a large number of ragnos was reported.」

Gannet was drawing another five new marks on the map.

And then, he started to connect the eight points with lines.

The line was connected, forming a giant, semi-circular oval-shaped ring.

The adventurers were raising a ruckus again upon seeing that.

Even Kotone, who pointed out that it was still too early to make a conclusion that the demon king was the one behind this ragno’s outbreak, was visibly drenched in cold sweats upon seeing the map.

Gannet’s finger then ran across the surface of the map, and then pointing at one of the three locations where there was a report of jumbo ragno.

「For some reason, the ragnos look like they appeared from one location. To make the matter worse, the place where they came from was a vast hill with low height.」

「W-What does that mean!」

The male magician struck the table as he spoke.

But, I think he simply wanted to avoid the truth implied behind Gannet’s explanation.

「I’ve said since a while ago that this phenomenon is rather unusual. The individualistic ragno suddenly formed a swarm, and then appeared around this city in that swarm as if it had already pre-arranged this before. Most of you should have already know about this but let me to repeat this again, ragno are specialized in digging underground.」

Gannet explained while clenching his fist in frustration.

It was as if he was surpressing his fury.

But then, his actions fanned the unrest amongst the adventurers instead.

「Those ragnos might have built a giant nest in the underground. And the center of their nest is most likely the center of this ellipse. On top of that, the master of that nest seems to be working hard in preventing the ragnos from coming out from underground as if they want to stay hidden as long as possible. The crowd we saw might be just a small portion of them that overflowed from the already extremely saturated nest. All of these factors make it even clearer that the master of the nest is an extremely evil and cunning monster. Normally speaking, the only kind of monster who can create such giant nest and predict human behavior is only a demon king, right?」

The room fell silent.

Even Kotone, and the male magician who agreed with her was the same.

「… Demon kings will only become stronger if we leave them alone. When the unnatural behavior of the ragnos has been detected, it means that the demon king has already progressed through the first phase. It means that it’s no longer on the level where ten or twenty A-rank adventurers can beat it anymore. It has already turned into a country-level crisis. In my opinion, it’s already beyond the scope of what Manarak’s adventurers can handle.」

The air in the room cooled down starkly along with Gannet’s explanation.

Rosemonde was also at a loss for words.

I had no idea what kind of expression was on her face right now thanks to her mask.

Alfred’s forehead was also forming a deep frown and his nostrils were twitching non-stop since a while ago.

「If you took some time to think about it, or subjugated the jumbo ragno, you should have noticed this fact. This city, Manarak, is way too close to the demon king’s nest. We already informed the citizens to evacuate to the other city. They’re told to take a minimal amount of luggage and take a detour circling around the demon king’s nest when they evacuate the city. And if you choose to leave, I want you to take the commission to escort the refugees from the demon king’s attack along the way.」

… As expected, Gannet had already made preparations to abandon the magic city Manarak.

It shouldn’t be a simple matter for him to make such a decision.

I mean, he was the guild master of Manarak’s adventurer’s guild and at the same time, he was also the leader of the biggest research institute in this city.

It was an act akin to telling him to abandon all of his achievements until now. But, it was a much better choice than risking the lives of Manarak’s citizens.

「I won’t stop you guys from leaving. But, I want to avoid you from spreading the news about the demon king to the civilians to prevent a more chaotic situation. Let’s just tell the citizens that a large number of ragno swarms are going to raid Manarak. After this, the guild will prepare the evacuation procedure. Anyone who wants to help the city can gather in this place right after the dawn. The reward for anyone who wants to stay is negotiable and I’ll personally handle the negotiation.」