The royal palace.
"Progress going smoothly?"
"It's still lacking, but at least it's enough to cover the required numbers."
"Sigh... Even we have to recruit Silver ranks from the Explorer Guild. This is somewhat embarrassing..."
In a dimly lit spacious room, several vague silhouettes conversed with each other as if discussing something important among themselves.
Some leaned against the large window looking out, some lay back on the sofa organizing documents, playing with phones, while others polished swords with cloth as if playing a violin.
"Watch your mouth, Floki. We're short on resources right now. If they hear you say that, they might lose interest and cancel their participation."
"You're overthinking, Jeanne. The budget we're spending is twice as much just for preparations and attracting—"
"Enough! If you want to argue, do it outside. Not here." The silhouette organizing documents on the table reprimanded before the debate could escalate further.
The atmosphere quieted briefly with light tension. But that didn't mean there was any hostility.
Sometimes a little clash is needed when opinions desynchronize, caused by physical and mental fatigue.
"How many passed the test?" The silhouette standing at the window spoke casually without shifting their gaze at all.
"Wow~ unusual for you to ask that. Something piqued your interest?"
"..."
"Quiet... To answer your question, over 200. About 130 from our side, less than a hundred from the Explorer Guild."
"Haha~ the previous expedition really left scars, huh? Even the number of participating mercenaries is far fewer than before."
"Watch your words, Floki~"
"Sigh... I'm just stating facts?!"
"But why didn't the Viscount specify detailed information about 'something' there? Don't we just need to wipe them out and be done?"
"Right. Even involving 2 of the 13 Moonlight Swords is suspicious. What happened back then?"
"I was shocked to hear that during the meeting earlier..."
Everyone shared the same thoughts about that statement. Unspoken wariness lingered among them.
"..."
"I don't know either... The only ones who know what happened are those who survived..."
"They couldn't even speak during interviews. What do we expect?"
"That's illusion magic's effect. In the end, we'll have to find out about it ourselves later."
"To think they'd hand this over to us..."
"As the younger generation, isn't it normal for it to fall on us? Each family has high expectations..."
"..."
A stray piece of paper lifted from the organized stack.
The paper floated in the air, lifted by the telekinesis of the silhouette organizing files. With that action, its contents clearly displayed neat sketches and writings inside.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Raid/Expedition: The Mountains of Silence
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Description: Uncharted zone.
Primary target: Extermination and area cleansing.
Recommended ranks: Silver, Gold, Platinum.
Target category: Criminal organization
Maximum requirement: Soldiers/knights with mental resistance to illusions.
Advance payment: xxxx
Completion reward: xxxxx (May increase based on contribution)
Validity period: xx xx xx
Time and location: xx:xx. Viscount Daniel Golio's territory, Northern Mountains.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Further description: ________
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A long sigh. "Seriously... Why did the Viscount make this so complicated?"
---
Swooooosh~~! Swoooosh~!
"Uh-huh... First time on an aircraft after so long."
'But... Can this even be called an aircraft when it looks like a ship? Maybe this is what they call an airship...?"
Yesterday, I visited the Guild branch according to the scheduled time, and found a massive ship docked at the guild's field.
The ship was twice as large as what a branch guild should have. And when I saw the emblem on its bow, I realized it belonged to the kingdom's official military.
From its structure, color, polish, to weaponry that looked far more advanced and combat-ready...
"Really pathetic..."
Well... That's part of life. Nothing is truly fair in this world, and nothing is truly unfair either. It's just... how the world works...? Yeah, maybe that's it...
But hey... Look at the view ahead.
Although shrouded in pitch-black night, a massive transparent glowing dome soared sky-high with thick faint mist inside.
At first glance, it looked like just an extremely vast foggy mountain range. But after sensing the subtle energy faintly prickling my skin, my sensors activated and revealed the faint energy emission shaped like a giant dome.
And not just any ordinary giant dome—it had many small wormholes connected to somewhere.
'Some kind of teleportation mechanism installed there...?'
A sigh. "Only those with high sensitivity can see that dome..."
[Ding, dong, Ding...! The ship will land in 10 minutes. Everyone is requested to check their belongings before disembarking.]
"Belongings, huh..." I closed my eyes and observed myself from a third-person perspective.
A simple plain hooded shirt, long black patternless pants, black flip-flops, a mini sling bag, a wristwatch, a long-barreled rifle, and two magic bullets I modified to resemble Desert Eagles...
'Not sure from which memory this is, because I remember being quite obsessed with Desert Eagle types for no clear reason...'
"Strange memories..."
My appearance looks more like a tourist than a mercenary. But it's comfortable. Comfortable enough to make me slightly careless in unexpected situations...
"Yup. Nothing missing..."
Even if I carried many items, I could just store everything in Sub-Space since it's more practical. Coincidentally, I wear rings on all five fingers of my left hand with various functions as gimmicks.
"Hmmm...?" I glanced downward, then enhanced my vision.
"Situation seems normal down there..."
Below looked quite normal with a camp containing tents, some light vehicles, bonfires, and... Two people with prominent auras there conversing in the middle of the field.
They weren't just prominent—they were surrounded by... fans? Not sure, but... "Seems I've seen them in some newspaper...?"
I maximized my vision again and focused on their faces.
"A young man with dark red hair and an upright posture... Then beside him..."
I shifted my gaze beside that man and found a young woman there.
"Hm? Ahh... She noticed me..."
We made eye contact briefly after I observed her. Then the woman looked startled before smiling and waving at me.
'Not bad...'
Probably didn't expect someone watching from over 1000 meters high, so her reaction is understandable.
"Is she in extra alert mode...?"
Then, when the man beside her started looking my way because of his female companion's reaction, I immediately shifted my gaze elsewhere.
"Hmm...?" I narrowed my eyes toward the forest around the camp.
"Maybe just my imagination..."
Zzzwoooooossss—! The ship slowly landed. Emitting melancholic sounds from smooth engine, air, and energy friction.
SWOOOOS~~
From above, I saw many people gathered at the camp fully equipped. And if observed more carefully, their numbers were roughly around 200.
Seeing other ships neatly parked, it seemed ours was the last group to arrive here.
This is normal, since our branch guild is in the south directly bordering the ocean. So the distance we needed to travel to the mission location was much longer.
And if we wanted to use teleportation gates, it would incur expensive costs practically burning through our entire wallets.
"Financial disparity, huh..."
Then, as the ship was about to touch ground...
"Hey look over there! It's the Moonlight Swords!"
"Whoa~ they actually showed up!"
"Kyaaa~! It's Sir Albert and Lady Shani~!"
"Oh my, so handsome~"
"Good grief... You youngsters..."
"You don't get this because you're old, old man."
"W-what did you say?!"
Watching their reactions made me nauseous yet amused. "Haha... Their NPC mode is active..."
Their behavior and reactions resemble background NPCs, always making weirdly exaggerated reactions whenever they see something... ordinary...?
"This makes me sick..." I muttered jokingly, watching the two people I'd observed earlier.
They were the targets of attention.
Although actually, there were quite a number of fairly strong people around too, hidden in tents and blending with the darkness.
"Hmm... Their aura isn't trivial for creatures trapped on a planet..."
That Albert guy's aura pierced like a hot blade. He might act quite calm, but his brutality potential is no joke.
Then the woman beside him... calm, yet tense like a bowstring. If guns in this world were stronger than bows, she'd probably resemble a silent deadly sniper...
[Bzzt... bzzzt... Ding, dong, ding~! Ship has landed safely. Please watch your step and disembark in an orderly manner.]
"Maybe the rumor Leon mentioned was true...?"
With that, I pulled up my hood and followed the others down the ship.
---
TO BE CONTINUED!