An Offer

"Are you Kiyotaka?" Manabu inquired.

"Yes, what do you need from me?" I answered politely, but my monotone voice made the priest and the mage guy raise their eyebrows a bit. If I'm not mistaken, their name were Akane and Ikuto. "...I apologize for my tone beforehand. It's tough to change."

It's troublesome to say that. But yeah, it was needed.

"I don't care about it," Manabu adjusted his glasses without changing his expression. Speaking of which, he kind of reminded me of Suzune. "Where are your comrades?"

"They're training at the guilds."

"What are you planning to do now?"

"Looking for something meaningful to do while they're training."

The paladin guy, Nagumo, grinned. "You seem confident in your abilities for not needing guilds' teaching. Well, well, how about we sit down first?"

Manabu didn't refuse the suggestion, and neither did I. The paladin lady spoke up. "You only came last week, aren't you? You bought your full fledge badge only yesterday as well."

"Oh? I didn't expect you to be interested, Fuka."

The paladin woman cackled. "Death Spots isn't such a big deal on a whole. There're good numbers of folks who can deal with them one-on-one especially when relic intervenes. Still, there were more individuals specifically volunteer soldiers who had trouble dealing with its untamed style of fighting. And this man, still in his second-hand armor along with presumably his weapon, confronted the Death Spots single-handedly and won. I don't see any traces of powerful blows to his protection as well, hinting that he may get out of the fight untouched. I never heard anything like that. How am I not interested? Well, though in that case, I don't hear many things in the first place."

The mage lady gave me a hard look. Nazuna, was it? "I just thought he's cute, y'know? After you said all those things, now I see him as a badass guy as well."

"Ergh, really?" 

'Did you really hate me that much over my monotone voice?' I couldn't help but ask. Internally, of course.

"You are an interesting individual," Manabu calmly brushed them all off. "As you may already know, we operate around the former Kingdom of Arabakia. Our members are still few. We need more. Qualified individuals. I'm not going to ask you to join right away, and I have no intention of doing so, for now. If you are interested in hearing more about the Spearhead clan, however, come to the address on this paper, or come with us right now. I'll be leaving Alterna tomorrow morning."

He handed me a small roll of paper. They all stood up from their seats, clearly trying to leave the tavern.

I sighed. 'This is a fine matter, obviously.'

'Why would I refuse?'

***

Manabu brought me to his private inn on Flower Garden Street. All parts of the house belonged to Spearhead. Although it was fairly small, the inside could make up for it. 

"Do you want some wine, warrior?" Fuka offered.

"Sure."

I accepted the glass of wine she passed.

Near a sort of clear water pond, the group gathered around a table. Not all of them. Some like Fuka and Ikuto sat apart from the others, closer to the pond. We all took off our gear and only wore casual clothes.

"Ohh, you're so muscular, Kiyotaka-kun!" Nazuna fingered my hands profusely. She seemed really impressed, and then her gaze moved to my stomach. "Can I?"

"It won't hurt me. Go ahead."

"Hehe, here we go, then! Oof?!"

Nazuna and the other members had similar shocked expressions. I was aware that I had the best build among my party. Or many people, for that matter. I had no intention of hiding that fact.

"...To be honest, I doubt you were the one killing the Death Spots at first," Nagumo muttered, narrowing his eyes. "I suppose with a physique like that, it's not impossible for you to take down Death Spots with a little bit of trick."

"How did you kill it?" Ikuto opened his mouth for the first time.

I shrugged. "I just ran around the fourth level on purpose to provoke it into catching me. I have the advantage of being faster both when Death Spots still stood on two legs or four legs. There were no other kobolds at the time. Eventually, Death Spots threw away the weapon only to catch me. I lured Death Spots into destroying nearby enclosures in the hope that it and other kobolds would've trouble navigating. And, of course, took Death Spots' weapon to use for me."

"A simple plan, but it requires great physical power." Manabu nodded. "It's also appropriate for dealing with creatures that rely more on instinct like kobolds."

"That's what I had in mind. Anyway, what else is there to explain about Spearhead?"

Manabu sipped his tea before responding. "What do you know about the Arabakia Kingdom?"

"A little. I only know they were pushed back beyond the Tenryu Mountains for a reason, and could not easily gain a foothold beyond the frontier because of that reason."

"The Alliance of Kings is the cause," Manabu sighed. "They consist of undead, orcs, gray elves, kobolds, and goblins. Led by the Undying King over a century ago."

"These undead..."

"They are the supposedly dead but somehow able to move and think like the living. After the Undying King contradicted his name by being said dead, the Undead Bishops in Whiterock appeared to have some sort of technique to bring forth undead without his help. After all, the number of undead only increased even when the Undying King was gone. I have my doubts that the Undying King is truly deceased since his powers are still affecting Grimgar. There's more than meets the eye to see... Well, we're getting off-topic.

"Arabakia was originally one of the great human kingdoms along with Ishmal and Nananka. There are stories about the discovery of those kingdoms... but they are more like myths or fairy tales, though that does not completely rule out the possibility that they were real. In any case, the races of the Alliance of Kings back then were still isolated, and some were kingless. They were subject to discrimination not only from humans but also from elves and dwarves. The emergence of the Undying King alongside the undead altered the fate of the discriminated races. As you may have guessed, the Alliance of Kings that the Undying King created was the major cause of the Kingdom of Arabakia to retreat beyond the Tenryu mountains. The kingdoms of Ishmal and Nananka were not as lucky as Arabakia. They were completely destroyed and taken over by the Alliance of Kings faction."

That was a lot of information he gave. He's a nice guy, to offer them freely.

'And Undead, huh? Interesting.'

"What caused the Alliance of Kings not to go after Arabakia?"

Manabu shrugged. "I assume because there are dragons in the Tenryu mountains."

"They're those giant scaly birds, alright?" Nazuna explained, for which I was grateful.

Manabu continued, "We plan to start in Damuro by tomorrow. In the New City. Now, do you have any interest in spending your free time to scout the city with us?"