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Royal capital, east gate:

At the east gate, an army was formed under the leadership of Parasuna.

“Alim and Mika are both doing their best… If I don’t do the same… as an SSS-Ranker,” Parasuna mumbled, not talking to anyone.

“Miss Parasuna! It’s been too long,” a girl approached and called out to her.

Despite her appearance, she was only about 5 years apart from Parasuna in age and was an S-Rank adventurer who had worked with Parasuna several times in the past.

“Huh, been a while. Are you well?”
“Yes! Fortunately.”

Parasuna and the girl reunited for the first time in 5 months. The girl immediately noticed something different from her prior encounter with Parasuna.

“Huh…? Miss Parasuna, did you change your staff? How curious…”

Parasuna usually always used the same staff. It had been 3 years, since she had ascended to SSS-Rank, but this was the first time she had exchanged it for a new one.

“Yes, isn’t it great? It’s legend grade, you know!”
“Eh? I thought the staff you had before was legend grade, too?”
“There are individual differences in the performance of legend grade equipment. Even among legend grade weapons, this staff is first class,” Parasuna explained, throwing out her chest.
“Hah… I can’t say I get it, but… I understand it’s a good staff. By the way, Miss Parasuna, you’re wearing the hooded robe today, too, aren’t you?”
“Hm, well, yes,” Parasuna replied, while touching the robe with her hand.
“Why are you always wearing a hood?”
“We all have secrets, don’t we?”
“Hmm… true, but… Miss Parasuna, even though you’re so beautiful, the hood makes it hard to see your face…”

Parasuna smiled happily.

“Oh, really? Thank you. But I still can’t take it off… Besides, it’s not like I don’t want them to see me, but…”
“Hm? What is it, then?” the girl cocked her head.
“Well… I can only say it’s because of an important memory… I guess?”
“Bah… Now I understand it even less, you know~,” the girl made a show of puffing out her cheeks.
“It’s fine, you know, you don’t have to understand it. Look, instead of focusing on that, don’t you have proper work to do? It’s about time.”
“…Bah… Understood.”

The girl, urged by Parasuna to do her job, went back to her post.

Royal capital, west gate:

At the west gate, Lastman led a group of people called the “Slavery Abolishment Group”, since they had resolved to get rid of slavery in the Mephilad Kingdom.

“Hya-ha-ha! It’s been a long time since the 4 of us worked together, you know~!” Lahand called out. “Right, Mr. Lastman?”
“YES, A LONG TIME. PROBABLY ONE AND A HALF YEARS?”

Uruto had changed to the unnatural speech he always used when he was in his superhero¹ attire. He appeared like something out of this world.²　

Incidentally, only some of those people knew that Lastman was Uruto.

“True, hasn’t it…” Bacchus mused. “Well, let’s win this war and then all drink some delicious booze, y’know, together with Alim!”
“…Mr. Bacchus, isn’t Alim still below the minimum age to drink alcohol…?” Gabaina wondered.
“Gah-ha-ha, that was a joke, y’know.”

There were six people present: Lastman, Bacchus, Lahand, Gabaina and Lahand’s friends, Gogg and Margo.

“Is it really Alim, Mika’s childhood friend, Mr. Lahand?” Margo asked
“Yes… I didn’t expect Alim to become the hero, but…” Lahand replied.
“Mika… huh? I wonder, what she is doing now? Do you know, Mr. Lastman? How are those girls?”

Gogg asked Uruto, whether the two of them were fine or not.

“THEY ARE DOING WELL, JUST LIKE SISTERS,” Lastman replied while nodding.
“He’s right, I also got a good look at those two, y’know,” Bacchus cut in and answered Gogg’s question, too. “They seem to have a fairly good relationship.”
“I see, that’s great… Still, of course I didn’t want her to become the hero, but…”
“SAME HERE…” Lastman grumbled in reply to Gabaina’s murmur.

“DO WE EVEN HAVE A SUFFICIENT GRASP OF ALIM’S POWER? I WAS MADE TO REALIZE THIS AT NOON,” Lastman pondered, looking in the direction where Alim probably was.

Royal capital, south gate:

At the south gate, Gilmars led a group mainly comprised of members of the Peace of Hercules, one of the best adventurer teams.

“Leader, methinks it has been a long while since we had a big emergency commission, has it not?”

A member of the Peace of Hercules called out to Gilmars. He was an S-Ranker using a morning star, the 6th strongest among them. Incidentally, the numbers 2 to 4 in the Peace of Hercules were all SS-Rankers.

“Yes… that’s true. But… rather than an emergency commission, this is an honest-to-God war, isn’t it?” Gilmars replied, while performing maintenance on a weapon.
“Hmmm! Methinks that morning star of mine roars!”
“…still, isn’t it about time you replaced that thing? Those nicks are awful.”
“Tarnation… It is true, but… Me wonders if you know that too, Leader? Morning stars are not sold quite often,” he replied, somewhat dejectedly.
“Well… It’s not a common weapon, so… I’m not sure how many times I’ve told you to switch to another weapon.”
“Methinks that is bad. Me prefers such powerful weapons. Besides, that father of mine also used a morning star.”
“I know, you told me several times.”

Gilmars finished maintenance on the large sword he carried on his back, and then started on the magic sword stuck beside him.

“It is fine… Methinks legendary grade swords, staffs and bows can be found on the street in limitations. A morning star is good if it is high grade. To begin with, methinks there are no morning stars from dungeons.”
“Yes, if only you had a good weapon and were able to use your true power, you could become SS-Rank, couldn’t you? It’s unfortunate.”
“You speak true. Me wonders, does no craftsman exist someplace, who could create a morning star of supreme grade or better?”

He glared at the magic sword, Gilmars was currently performing maintenance on, with a bitter look.

“Come to think of it, that magic sword. Methinks, you added it to that collection of yours recently, did you? Where did you acquire it from? Methinks you mentioned, you bought it…”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Oh, well, methinks it is a good sword, no matter how often me sees it. Did you buy it at an auction house?”
“Not at all, I didn’t get it from an auction or anything, you see,” Gilmars replied, “I had it crafted. It’s custom made.”
“Wha… What in tarnation? Methinks, that magic sword is clearly legend grade… Does there exist someone who can craft such equipment?”

The man jumped at that story with unnatural fervor. Gilmars looked him in the eyes and could guess, what he wanted to say.

“…You think about having a morning star made for you, don’t you?”
“Ah, you understand? Yes, me wishes to be introduced to that ally at any cost. What kind of person is he? Someone with the power to create legend grade equipment… methinks it must be an experienced, old dwarf?”
“The crafter isn’t an old dwarf, or a dwarf at all. Finally, it’s not a man.”
“Eh~? It is the work of a woman?! Really…? A craftswoman who can create legendary grade equipment… huh?”

The man looked like he had realized something.

“Incidentally, methinks those bracelets everyone got… are of legend grade, are they not?”
“That’s right, they are.”
“Methinks, the one who created those bracelets… is Little Alim… So, is she the one who… Yes! Could it be, Leader?”

His face looked like that of someone who was reading a detective novel and figured out the culprit.
Gilmars didn’t want to cause trouble for Alim, but at this point, he thought it better to speak up.

“Yeah, I get what you want to say, but Alim is currently busy, isn’t she?”
“You… You’re so… mean, leader!”

The man dropped his shoulders violently and made a show of looking dejected.

“On top of acquiring a legend grade weapon, you are acquainted with Little Alim. Me asks you once again, please introduce me to her.”

Incidentally, this man was the tenth member to join the “Association of Alim Adorers”.

“You’re… way too desperate. …Well, there’s no other way. Once the war is over, I’ll talk to her. But you’ll need to prepare the materials and the payment, you hear? Also, if she refuses, that’s it.”
“Leader~! Thank you so much!”

As his tears and snot streamed down, the man tried to embrace Gilmars, but was dodged instead.

“Phew! You dodged me… Oh, me wonders, how much shall the prize be? And what about materials?”

Gilmars told the man the details of his request for a legendary grade weapon to Alim.

“1 million and a few hundred-thousand bells, and further Mithril and materials of S-Rank or higher…? Well, methinks it can be done,” the man said while grinning.
“Yes, it’s good that you’re happy about the weapon, but… we have to win the war first, you know? Otherwise, it’s meaningless, isn’t it?”
“…Yes, methinks so too!”

TL notes:
Some new characters, pity they are still nameless. Let’s hope that doesn’t mean they’ll end up as red shirts.

Lastman is such a pain to translate when he talks in his superhero speech (all hiragana is replaced by katakana which wreaks havoc on any grammar pattern recognition I developed). Also, I’m not 100% sure I got all the speakers right in the west gate part.

The morning star guy uses an archaic form for his sentence endings instead of the common “da/desu”, which I tried to localize by making him to refer to himself in an old-fashioned way.

Also, I slightly modified the different item values listed in chapter 51:
Worthless → Crude → Poor → Cheap → Common → Expensive → High → Supreme → Treasure → National Treasure → Legend → Divine

1. The original uses 特撮ヒーロー (tokusatsu hero), a genre of live-action film or television drama that makes heavy use of special effects (e.g. Godzilla) with very typical costumed superheroes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokusatsu
2. The original used here is 宇宙人 (“space alien”, “extraterrestrial being”).