I was wandering aimlessly around the base without any particular purpose…

But the stares are painful.

Groups of people clustered under eaves or at the corners of the street, chatting about something, are blatantly staring at me.

They don’t look like the usual types I’d see in the domain capital, but they should know who I am… so what’s with these looks?

“Nuun…”

The reason I came here was to do a brief inspection before developing this place into a town.

Not that I planned to do anything in particular, but since there’s a possibility I might visit again in the future, I wanted to get a basic idea of the place.

That’s the lighthearted reason I came, but…

It’s not like the place is desolate or run-down, but the whole base has this tense, dangerous atmosphere hanging over it.

Though judging by the people around, this seems to be the normal state of things.

Man, I don’t know…

There are piles of lumber all over the place, probably cut from the nearby forest, and outside, they’re butchering monsters they’ve taken down, tanning their hides and such…

Thanks to 【Water’s Garment】 being active, I don’t smell a thing, but I’m sure all kinds of odors are floating around.

The base still seems to have plenty of land available, but I suppose it’s because they haven’t divided it up into proper zones yet.

Also, maybe it’s more convenient for everyone to be grouped together like this.

It reminds me of the area where the Adventurer Guild used to be back when the domain capital was still called Lutol.

I doubt it’ll stay this way forever, but chances are this place will become the adventurer district eventually.

I don’t know how big they plan to make the town, but I imagine this section will take up a good portion of it.

Well… when you think about it, this is basically a town centered around adventurers who specialize in rare materials from the monster-infested wilderness, so it makes sense to prioritize it.

“Sera Vice-Captain.”

“Whoa!?”

While I was ignoring the stares and wandering around the base, just about to complete a full circuit, someone called out to me from inside a building.

He’s a familiar guy.

A local adventurer, probably from the warrior corps made up of people from Riana.

Now that I think of it, I hadn’t seen him around lately—guess he was assigned out here.

In the domain capital, people always end up talking to me whenever I wander around, but not a single soul approached me here.

I even let out a weird noise out of surprise…

Tilting my head, I decided to step inside the building.

◇

It didn’t have a door, just one big opening—a large structure resembling a warehouse.

Inside, logs cut down to suitable sizes were scattered everywhere and being used as makeshift chairs.

Incidentally, there are no tables.

Combined with the intimidating looks of the people inside and the barren atmosphere, it only adds to the sense of roughness.

There’s also a counter along one wall, where a few older men are waiting around… though it seems they’re not busy right now.

They’re leaning on the counter, looking my way.

There also appears to be a back room, with a few people inside who seem to be on break.

So what is this place? It’s the Adventurer Guild.

The Adventurer Guilds I normally use are in Riana’s domain capital, Zelkis’s capital, and the royal capital—basically the headquarters for each respective territory, all very fine buildings inside and out.

Compared to those, this place…

Well, you could say it fits in its own way, but it’s a humble, barebones structure.

The Adventurer Guild in Lutol back in the day was shabby too, and definitely not elegant, but it was better than this.

If they put up some flowers or paintings or something… nah, that wouldn’t fix it.

That said, this is more like a branch office, so maybe this is good enough for now.

I suppose they’ll rebuild it eventually.

Anyway, putting that aside…

I should probably ask what they wanted.

It’s probably not just idle chatter, and maybe they want to ask about the messenger who arrived this morning.

“Hey hey, how’s it going?”

“Eh, can’t complain. But more importantly, I wanted to ask you something. Some Knight Order folks came from the domain capital early this morning—what’s going on? It’s kind of a pain having those stiff types wandering around…”

Just as I guessed, he wanted to ask about the messenger… though his reason was a little different.

With his words, the people at the counter—guild staff included—all turned their eyes toward me.

Seems like they’re all thinking the same thing.

If this place is going to become a town, even at this stage there’s still plenty of available land, so it’s natural for people to want to claim some of it.

That’s why we’ve been keeping information somewhat restricted, but… in their case, it looks like they’re more concerned about whether the 1st Unit will be stationed here like in the domain capital.

Yeah, I get it. For the kind of rough crowd gathered here, the presence of a unit like the 1st might be a little suffocating.

“Nuun…”

Now then, how should I answer this?

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Sera ・Blessing・【Hideout】+1【Prayer】【Mira’s Blessing】【Water’s Garment】

Blessed Item・【Floating Orb】+1【Shadow Sword】+1【Scarlet Bee Needle】【Fairy’s Eye】【Dragon’s Lung】【Amber Sword】【Danrem’s Thread】【Serpent’s Tail】【Ankle Bracelet】【Amber Shield】【Purple Wings】【Red Sword】【Monkey’s Arm】・8 cards

Seriana・【Area Identification】・【】・0 cards

Elena・【】・【Green Fang】【Amber Sword】・4 cards

Alec・【Power Strike】・【Red Shield】【Fierce Horned Trumpet】・10 cards