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Parting with the girl that came to thank me, we returned to the room Maxwell booked, and Ashella welcomed us back together with the rest.

Then Maxwell decided to ask about the only changed part of me—my eyepatch.

“By the way, Nicole. What is that eyepatch? Could there be some after-effects? If so, I will not calm down unless I blow burn that Kufar to dust along with this entire city…”
“Please, don’t do that!”

Ashella broke into a cold sweat and stopped Maxwell who was saying dangerous things. I’m sure if this old man got serious, he could cover the entire city in some strange heat and burn everything aside from the World Tree down.

Of course, he wasn’t serious.

“No, no. That Whitey healed me, but I gained a strange power due to it.”
“A strange power?”
“Power to attract and charm people. Her husband gave me this eyepatch to seal that power.”
“Ohh?!”

Given what a magic nerd he was, he got very excited when he heard that and leaned towards me. Ashella grabbed him by the nape and pulled him back.

“If you are going to approach a girl, I think it would be better to set a mood first.”
“Oh dear, that was rude of me. I have an immense interest in magic items. At any rate, there are no after-effects, yes?”
“Well, I can’t say that this isn’t an after-effect… But yeah, don’t worry. And Kufar has been dealt with too.”
“What?”

I conveyed to him that I locked Kufar into the Labyrinth.

There were more slimes inside it, so it would be impossible to tell Kufar apart.

However, Baa was overseeing the World Tree, so it would be impossible for him to come back out. I also conveyed that Baa was Whitey’s acquaintance and also not a human being.

As long as he was monitoring him, Kufar wouldn’t be able to get out. He would most likely either get attacked by the Labyrinth monsters and disappear or get subjugated by Adventurers.

Baa and the God of Destruction’s lifespans were practically infinite, so the moment he leaves would be the moment these two take him down.

This was pretty much a seal at this point.

“So you are saying that the possibility of you being targeted again is gone?”
“At the very least, I think it would be impossible for him to come out as long as I’m alive.”
“Hearing that makes me glad.”

We could say that Kufar’s matter was settled.

Fortunately, Maxwell’s anger had calmed down. This old man didn’t use tricks like Cortina, but he had a tendency of resorting to any means necessary to achieve his goals.

He probably wouldn’t blow away the entire city as he said earlier, but he had many more options other than that.

That would’ve caused this city to fall into chaos. I was glad that the situation had settled without it having to come to that.

“Oh well. Anyway, we’re really leaving tomorrow so we have to get ready.”
“You were guarding a merchant to Stollar, yes?”
“Yeah. It’s Mr. Temuru’s request.”
“Hmm?”

Hearing that, Maxwell rubbed his beard. After pondering for a few seconds, he looked at me as if evaluating me.

“W-What is it?”
“You have been healed, but you have suffered a major injury, yes?”
“Yeah, my eyeballs got destroyed.”

And there was also Kufar’s poison.

“Then you should not force yourself. Can you not turn down that request?”
“I’m not sure that’s something I should do as an Adventurer.”

My current situation was certainly under a lot of strain.

I suffered an injury that almost killed me. And right after it was healed, I had a duel with my fated opponent, the Devil from my previous life. As the recoil I got from using all my power, all the joints in my body screamed in pain right after. It had calmed down considerably after a night’s sleep, but the damage was still present.

“There’s certainly some damage left, but abandoning a commission would affect my honor as an Adventurer.”
“Well, I suppose you have a point, but…”

Maxwell looked at me in worry. He was feeling a bit overprotective after hearing that my injury was something even Maria could not handle.

“Hmm, then let us do this. I wish to talk with this merchant called Temuru.”
“……………What are you plotting?”
“How rude. In short, we simply need to protect that merchant until he reaches Stollar, yes? In that case, I could just send you all there with Portal Gate.”
“Woah.”

Given his monstrous level of magic power, this old man could send us all to Stollar and still have some of it leftover.

And now that Kufar’s threat was gone, the need to be constantly ready for attacks was greatly reduced. There would be no problem even if he goes a little wild with his magic power usage. That said, I wasn’t sure about this.

It certainly didn’t go against the request. But I felt a little reluctant to accept him use such a high-level spell just to quickly release me from duty fast.

I would’ve welcomed it if it was private teleportation.

“I… I’ll ask Temuru later.”
“Go ask him now. I will also put in a good word.”
“That would be pretty much forcing him to do it, wouldn’t it?!”
“My apologies, Madam Ashella. I have to excuse myself for said reasons.”
“Not at all. There is no helping it if it is for Maria’s daughter.”
“Listen to me, you two!”
“It was a blessing in disguise that I had an honor of getting to know a lady such as you with this visit. I hope we can build a good relationship from now on.”
“Yes, that would be my pleasure. I gave Nicole my holy seal to contact me, and I am glad to have gotten acquainted with you too. These past few days have been really pleasant for me. So Nicole, please visit me anytime, okay?”
“I feel like I would get dragged into some schemes, so I kinda don’t wanna.”
“No need to be shy.”
“I’m not being shy!”

I leaned over and protested, but Maxwell picked me up like a cat and put me on the chair. Ashella laughed in amusement at that, and then she excused herself from the room with a bow.

She probably did it in consideration that staying any longer would get in the way of my work.

After that, we teleported straight to the inn near the gate.

Trading merchants who didn’t have personal stores were generally using inns before the gates, so that was why.

The negotiations naturally ended in success. Rather, he wholeheartedly welcomed it, as it shortened the needless travel time. He seemed to feel reserved about it at first, but he gradually became excited that he would be able to experience Maxwell’s magic.

I got dragged around by Maxwell without keeping up with the rapid developments, and once we returned to the room, there were Michelle and Finia with equally lost expressions.

Cloud quickly returned to his own room and prepared to depart.

He had pretty bold nerves since he was receiving training from the Heroes. However, I needed him here so we could sum up the situation. I had Cloud stop what he was doing and come here so we could put our opinions on the table.

“Finia, Michelle, Cloud. As you can see, Maxwell will be sending us back tomorrow.”
“Got it. But is this fine?”
“Yeah, in a way this commission’s goal was for us to practice long trips as well as for Cloud to get used to dealing with half-demon discrimination.”
“And we fulfilled both of those, huh.”
“All that was left was to journey back for a month. We can experience this much with the outward journey, so I guess we can skip it.”
“Right. And us aside, Mark’s group seemed to be pretty tight on the food budget for the trip. It’ll save them some costs.”

Well, Mark’s group would be earning quite a bit with this expedition, so maybe it was a little different. Still, if they were planning to buy better equipment, it would still do them good to save costs.

“You have become a proper leader, Nicole. It is as if I am looking at young Lyell.”
“Huh, Lord Lyell was this clumsy?!”
“Michelle, I think we need to have a little talk.”
“A-Ahahah…”

She forced a smile, but I knew she didn’t say it out of spite. I heard her anger at the western gate made Cloud shudder. It was thanks to the God of Destruction’s help that we could mess around like this now. For this one point, I was wholeheartedly grateful to her.