Liesel and the civil officials had been estimating the date and time of the attack based on the number of monsters in the horde, but Seriana had predicted my return time and had prepared a bath for me.

When I left Liesel’s office and moved to Seriana’s room, the bath was already ready.

That’s seriously impressive!

With that, I headed straight for the bath in Seriana’s room.

After finishing the exploration, I had immediately departed for the city of Arios, so I hadn’t had time for my usual post-exploration bath… Finally, I could take a breather.

Now, I could spare some thought for other matters.

With that in mind, I decided to put my brain to work a little.

Back in Liesel’s office, the civil officials had been discussing something that caught my attention, but I found it too much of a hassle to question them at the time, so I had let it slide.

“Hey.”

A somewhat muffled voice echoed through the bathroom.

Right now, I had a towel covering my face.

I had finished washing my body and was soaking in the tub while Teresa washed my hair.

Floating in the warm water, it felt somewhat like a salon from my previous life.

“What?”

The one who responded was Seriana.

This bathroom wasn’t as spacious as the guest bath, but it was still large enough to accommodate multiple maids.

Right now, there were three people inside, including Elena, though they weren’t here to assist Teresa.

Since it was a bath, no one would be coming in, making it a convenient place for a private discussion.

Recently, Seriana’s office had been seeing an increase in people staying in the capital city, and at night, the servants were on standby.

Because of that, it had become common for them to gather here while I was in the bath.

Anyway, back to the question at hand.

“Hey, do you think the reason those guys were so flustered earlier was because the monsters’ movements were affecting something?”

They would probably inform me if anything serious was happening, but I still wanted to be mentally prepared in advance.

Since all three of them had left the room halfway through the discussion, our knowledge on the matter shouldn’t differ too much.

However, when it came to everything else, the gap in information was significant.

At the very least, I should be able to come up with some guesses.

“Ah… You mean the strange monster activity to the west of the capital? The ones leading this horde seem to be of the wolf species. Do you know their characteristics?”

“…They move in packs and are found everywhere?”

“That’s right. So this time, we need to prepare for a mix of different monsters, but in the end, they’re just monsters. Any adventurer capable of hunting in the Demon Territory should have no trouble dealing with them.”

“Well… That’s true.”

That was why Liesel and the others were planning to handle it primarily with adventurers.

“But thanks to your information, the area we need to monitor has suddenly expanded. With such a vast range, adventurers alone won’t be enough. Most likely, the Knight Order will have to take the lead. They’re calling Alec and Zighart, so they’ll probably have them command squads with adventurers integrated into their forces.”

Seriana spoke in a single breath, then sighed deeply.

“…Is that bad?”

Liesel and the others seemed to have an issue with not being able to proceed with an adventurer-led approach.

Sure, adventurers might earn less, but wasn’t it better than having damage within the territory?

“It is bad… Sera, you frequent the Adventurers’ Guild, so you should know that while there are a lot of adventurers in the capital right now, they’re mostly in small groups and lack coordination.”

“Yeah.”

It was true—most operated solo or in small parties.

Large-scale organizations, like clans, hadn’t really emerged aside from the pre-existing ones.

“If Alec or Zighart leads them, they’ll be able to function somewhat as a unit, but that would mean those two won’t be able to move freely. That’s why we wanted to use this attack as an opportunity to integrate adventurers into the Knight Order. We anticipated something like this happening soon, so the timing was perfect…”

Seriana sighed again, this time even more deeply.

“…Ah.”

So, the plan was to create a sort of hierarchy, making it easier to manage the adventurers.

Seriana’s frustration likely stemmed from losing this chance.

After all, monster attacks didn’t happen frequently.

And one that allowed for such thorough preparations… was even rarer.

“Seriana-sama, it was always a long shot. Let’s move on.”

Elena spoke in a soothing tone, trying to console Seriana, but her demeanor was rather lighthearted.

Maybe the situation wasn’t as dire as I thought?

“I know. But still, the dungeon opening coincided with this event, you know? This was the perfect opportunity to gather all the new adventurers under our organization’s wing…”

It seemed Seriana had been aiming for maximum efficiency, and she wasn’t pleased that it had fallen through.

Liesel had been in a hurry as well—had he been thinking along the same lines?

That didn’t really seem like him, though…

—————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Sera・【Hideout】+1【Prayer】【Mira’s Blessing】【Wind’s Garment】・【Floating Orb】+1【Shadow Sword】【Scarlet Bee Needle】【Fairy’s Eye】【Dragon’s Lungs】【Amber Sword】【Danrem’s Thread】【Serpent’s Tail】【Ankle Bracelet】【Amber Shield】【Purple Wings】・25 cards

Seriana・【Area Identification】・【】・33 cards

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

Alec・【Strong Strike】・【Red Shield】【Fierce Horned Trumpet】・9 cards