Ch 24: Fhuren and Ilwa.

Aiko Hatayama.

An extremely responsible teacher who does everything for her students.

Aiko had only been a teacher for a short time, but she was extremely competent. One day she and her students were transported to another world and were forced to take part in a war.

They began to train, and one of them died. This was a terrible moment for Aiko. She who cared for her students above all could not easily accept the death of one of her students and yet... her brother went looking for him alone and reported him missing. Three months had passed and the student had not been found. There was no way anyone could survive that long without food, so everyone thought that the two brothers had died.

Only a group of students thought that Rimuru was alive and were searching for him in the Orcus Dungeon.

Aiko was helping the Kingdom with the food situation. She had a great class that improved the crops. She traveled to various cities and helped the crops.

Currently she was in a city known as Lake City. She had a guard of knights along with her for protection.

The students who were not in the dungeon were here as well. The reason they were here was for different protection.

All the men in Aiko's guard were very handsome and fit. This was probably a plan of the Church to keep Aiko. One of the students Sonobe Yuuka realized this and told the others. And so they put their hands together and spoke "Let's protect Ai-chan from the hot guys!"

Aiko didn't know the real motive of her students, but she was happy to have them together. She was quite happy that her students would no longer be forced to fight and was slowly getting over the death and disappearance of her students. However...

Another of her students disappeared.

●●●

Rimuru, Hajime and his group were having coffee in a nicely decorated restaurant with outdoor tables.

They were currently in the city of Fhuren. This city was known for its goods and also for containing the headquarters of the Adventurers Guild.

The 5 of them were at a round table and some envious looks rained down on Hajime and Rimuru because of the beautiful girls. Some thought Rimuru was a girl and only looked enviously at Hajime.

Everyone was eating a candy. Rimuru and Sakura were having juice and the others were having coffee.

Sakura seemed very interested in sweets. That was understandable since as she had been a magical Beast for 400 years she had never eaten candy and Rimuru was looking at her kindly.

Yue saw Hajime looking at his plate as if wondering what it tasted like, so

"Hajime. Aaaaah"

Yue held up her fork with a piece of candy and offered it to Hajime. He ate and enjoyed the candy.

"Hajime-san, me too!"

"Just this once."

Hajime ate from Shia's fork as well. This display of affection made Envy's gazes multiply several times over.

Sakura looked at Rimuru and her cheeks flushed. She should be thinking whether to do this with Rimuru or not. If they weren't in public she would have done it without caveats, but she was a bit shy in public. However in private she was totally backwards like in the 'shower incident'. And she still had the reason that she and Rimuru were not boyfriend and girlfriend.

"Sakura-chan that's kind of embarrassing in public, you know..."

Rimuru spoke scratching the back of his neck in shame.

"Y-yes I know. Can I come closer?"

"Yes."

She moved her chair closer and clung to his arm. She also didn't forget to place her breasts against his arm causing Rimuru to be embarrassed and the envious looks to increase.

At that moment...

A disgusting man approached them. This man was short, with sweaty noble clothes and badly cut hair. He had a greasy body and face and had a pig nose.

This man was casting disgusting glances at the girls, especially Shia. The pig man came to the side of the table and spoke in an arrogant tone and posture

"Hey brats. I'll give you a million Ruta and you give me the girls. I will make them my concubines."

This man must have been some kind of idiot. In the Kingdom you couldn't 'buy' someone, that was totally illegal with humans. There was no way for the dirty man to know that the girls were not human, so he was basically doing a crime in public.

The man tried to touch Shia, but was met with Hajime's murderous intent.

"Hiii!"

The pig fell to the ground startled. The envious looks around also stopped.

"Disgusting."

Sakura spoke calmly. She was referring to both the man's appearance and attitude

"Guys, let's move."

Everyone stood up. Just as they were about to leave a large black haired Man appeared in front of them.

"Lagid! Kill that arrogant brat! Kill him slowly!"

The Pig shouted his orders as soon as he saw the man.

"I'll leave him half dead so there are no consequences. Then go for the reward."

"Got it!"

Hajime was about to attack the man, but Shia stopped him.

"Hajime-san, we'll take care of him."

"Hmhm... it's us they want."

Yue agreed with Shia and Sakura asked

"Do you guys want me to help or can I just keep enjoying it?"

By 'enjoying' she meant the good food and also cuddling with Rimuru. They heard some people saying that this guy Leganid was famous and was of the third highest ranking of adventurers. The girls thought that if they defeated this famous person in public the looks of envy and kidnapping attempts would diminish. Shia then spoke up...

"No, no need we are more than enough."

"Gahaha. Are these young ladies going to become my opponents? That's really funny. I'm going to..."

"Quiet."

"Kh!"

Before Langid could finish he felt a deep cut on his cheek. It was a wind blade from Yue.

Cold sweat dripped from his body and he wondered where the corner and the magic circle were.

Shia and Yue approached and Langid spoke....

"Hey, hey, Miss Beast Man. Could you stand still? I don't want to hurt you. It's the contractor's request."

He must have thought that a bunny girl couldn't do anything to him.

*KASHUN*

Shia picked up Doryucken and easily shortened the distance between her and Langid.

"Yaaa!"

"Kh!"

Langid was thrown into the wall while thinking "how does this bunny have so much strength?" He broke an arm and was going to get up to run away from these two freaks, but he couldn't move due to Yue's gaze.

Yue raised her hand, made a fake corner and cast her new Flower of the Wind magic. This magic used gravity to launch a cannonball of wind. Yue threw it and everyone thought "Eh? It can't be going that way, right?

But it was. The attack hit Lanid in the groin and cries of "Oooow" could be heard from the onlookers. Hajime moved over to the dirty man.

"Hii! Stay away! I am a baron! Baron ming!"

If you looked closely, you would realize that he had pissed himself. Hajime approached and stepped on the pig man's face.

"Puyah!!!"

The pig was crying and letting out snot, making him even more disgusting.

"Hey, piggy, don't show up in front of me anymore. If you do that I won't let you go again."

He stomped once again much harder.

"Pyaaaaaaa!"

The pig man collapsed. And at this moment guards arrived. They asked the group to answer questions and asked for their Status Cards. Hajime was about to make up some excuse, but Yue called out to him

"Hajime, the letter."

"Eh? Ah. yes, read that."

That was the letter that the receptionist Katerine gave them in case they got into trouble with the guild. The soldier read the letter, and then his eyes widened.

"Please come with me. You need to speak to the director of the branch."

He asked one of his colleagues to call the director and show him the letter.

The group was confused as to how a Receptionist could have such influence.

●●●

"Nice to meet you, I am Ilwa Chang the branch director. Hajime, Rimuru, Sakura, Yue and Shia right?"

A well-dressed blond man introduced himself.

"Yes that's right."

Rimuru confirmed.

"Our names were on the letter?"

Hajime asked.

"Yes. Sensei said that you have great potential, but that you have a Pre-disposition to create problems."

"We are troublesome people. Huh? She might be right in this respect."

Sakura couldn't deny that they were problem people.

"Well then, are we cleared? Did that serve as identification?"

"Yes the sensei said that you have good character and I will leave that as your identification."

"By the way why do you call her Sensei?"

Shia asked and Ilwa explained. Katerine was the leader of the adventurers' guild. Several people who are in charge of the guild today (including Ilwa) were trained by her in how to run the guild. Today she is retired and hunting talent as a receptionist.

"So she really was someone important."

Hajime spoke when he heard the story.

"Well, before you go I have a request for you."

"No, thank you."

Hajime spoke and started to get up.

"Hajime-kun I think we better listen."

Sakura spoke up to stop him. He was a little confused and asked.

"Why?"

"If we don't listen to his request he probably won't approve of using the card instead of the Status boards."

Hearing Sakura's guess everyone turned to Ilwa. He looked a bit embarrassed to be read so easily.

"Well... exactly, but I'm not going to force them to accept it. I just want them to listen to me."

"I guess we'll listen to you then."

"Okay. The request is to rescue an adventurer named Will Kudeta. He is the son of Count Kudeta and is very stubborn. We had to force him to go with other adventurers on their adventures. He and the other adventurers were in the northern mountains and disappeared. That was two days ago.

No one wants to accept this request because the group of adventurers that was with him was very famous for its strength and also because of the dangers of the Northern Range. So I want to offer it to you.

"Hey, are you sure? We're just a group of blue adventurers after all."

Hajime tried to disguise it, but it didn't work.

"Blue adventurers who easily defeated a black adventurer. "

"Still, we already have our goals and don't have time to find a lost boy."

"So how about, in exchange for you doing this, I bump you up to black rank? That's not something you do every day."

"We don't care about that."

The others nodded.

"What if I cover for you in everything that has to do with the guild? I have a great deal of influence."

"Don't you think you're overreacting because of a nobleman?"

"Tsk. It's not because he's a nobleman. I was the one who delivered that request to him. I didn't accompany him like the other times because I wanted to show him that life is not easy. So it's not an exaggeration.

Hajime thought for a while and confirmed some things with the others. Then he said

"If you insist I have conditions. The first is Status board for these 3, and I want you to promise never to speak what is written on them. The second is that we will use all the connections you have, including outside the guild."

"What... That's too much."

"In that case I don't accept."

"Wait. Why are you asking me this?"

"No big deal. It's just for when the church comes after us."

One of Ilwa's subordinates was about to ask why they had a rock with the church, but Ilwa interrupted him.

"The church?....All right, I accept your terms."

"All right. We'll go find it right now."

As the group was leaving the building the subordinate who was in the conversation earlier called out to him.

"Chief, are you sure about these conditions?"

"Will's life is at stake, we have no choice."

"I'm curious. What kind of problem could someone have to not want to show the Status boards."

"Didn't you know Tod-kun? It seems that the Church has summoned some heroes with incredible statuses. They call themselves the Apostles of God."

"Are you saying that..."

"A few months ago one of them fell into the abyss of the Orcus Dungeon, he was said to be the Weakest. If he wanted to survive he might end up losing an arm or an eye."

"Are you sure?"

"Not with that alone he wouldn't have, however... they say his brother went looking for him. His brother was said to be stronger than the Hero and his description was long blue hair and wore a fine sword."

"A...that boy."

"I don't know what they found out down there, but I am also very curious about them. Especially about the church part."

"I hope you know what you're doing."

"Don't worry, I do."

●●●

"Wow, Hajime-kun is very good at negotiations. That's why I always leave it to you."

Rimuru spoke as they walked out of the guild.

Then Rimuru looked back as if he heard something.

"What is it?"

Shia asked curiously.

"Look I have an ability to amplify hearing you know? E..."

Rimuru spoke and was about to continue, but Hajime interrupted him.

"Well you're basically a super human who can achieve anything so I won't be surprised by these things anymore."

Rimuru realized that Hajime had come up with new ways to call him a cheater now.

"Huuu... well, I did that and managed to hear their conversation."

"Huh? But I didn't hear anything."

Shia looked disheartened to have her hearing ability that she was so proud of overcome.

"Shia don't be discouraged by being outdone by someone who is clearly no longer human."

"Even Yue-san!?"

It seems that even Yue thought Rimuru was a cheater. Rimuru saw that it would do no good to complain and continued

"From what I've heard they know our true identities."

"Did they say anything about us denouncing the Church?"

"No."

"Then it's okay."

"Yes, I think so too."

They decided to trust Ilwa.

●●●

The group was heading to the northern mountains.

They had already been traveling for 1 day and were halfway there. They stopped to rest and eat.

They were eating next to a wheat field when....

"Look!"

Shia pointed at the plantation and out of it came an orange kitten.

"How cute, but how did a cat get here?"

Rimuru spoke up curious.

"I don't know... I'll give him some food."

Sakura gave some treats to the kitten who seemed to enjoy them. At this moment Rimuru's magical perception and Hajime's presence detection beeped.

"There's someone coming."

The two spoke and stood up. They didn't reach for their weapons as they thought it might be the cat's owner.

"I found you!"

A girl came out of the plantation and took the cat in her hands. She didn't even seem to have seen the group.

"Missy, how did you come so far? Shizuku-chan will be worried."

The girl was lecturing the cat. The girl had black hair, white clothes, a cape of the same color and a thin sword. On top of that she was really beautiful.

"Chloe!!!!"

Rimuru shouted in surprise.