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Next day.

My receptionist duties would start in the afternoon, so I could focus on overlooking the Acradist situation. After seeing Frank off, I finished my meal and returned to my room for a breather.

“Now then.”

I used Clairvoyance to see what was going on, and when I checked on the five, they were right in the middle of a confrontation with the Divine Beast. They had succeeded in restraining them without any trouble, and there were no separate units in the surroundings either.

Just as I thought everything would work out fine, it happened.

“Illya!”

I deactivated Clairvoyance and turned around to face whoever knocked on the door in such panic.

Lashelle standing at the door grasped my clothes with a pale expression, her hands shaking.

“What happened?”
“At the arena, monsters have…!”

I doubted my ears. I heard they would only transport the monsters over once the experiments in the other villages showed results, and that should’ve happened a little later.

Did they bring in monsters they caught by mistake? Even if they rush to complete it, they shouldn’t have done that without any report.

…That said, Frank and Ector might have received a report about it.

I mean, I’m just a receptionist.

“Illya…! Blair… Blair is…!”
“Calm down. It’ll be alright.”

Blair was Lashelle’s boyfriend. A non-combatant like Lashelle who could only imagine how it would feel facing off a threat of a monster couldn’t be blamed for acting so shaken.

As I was calming her down, I met with Glen, who came to report that the patrol unit was standing by on the first floor. He seemed wounded and exhausted, showing that he had been through a battle.

“I-Illya…”
“I’m sorry, but could you give me the immediate report?”
“Sure…”

It appears that the patrol unit encountered monsters when they headed inside the arena.

As they couldn’t allow them to get out in a city full of evacuees, they ended up locking the arena down.

They came to me to ask for reinforcements.

“Understood. Lashelle, please let Glen rest on the second floor. Use the medicine too.”
“O-Okay…!”

I hope she gets to rest along with him with this.

At any rate, I went to quickly explain the commission to the guild members in the building.

“I’m sure some of you have already heard it, but presently, ≪Lunevillous≫ is attempting to subjugate the escaped monsters inside the arena. We are holding emergency recruitment for their reinforcements. We will be starting the registration in ten minutes, but please make sure not to arbitrarily head to the arena so we can avoid a chaotic situation.”

Some people immediately showed their willingness to participate, while some others rushed out of the branch to call their comrades. Meanwhile, I headed for the office.

“Dajeel.”
“Should we just issue the emergency fees for the time being?”
“Yes, please.”

We would normally need to factor in the subjugation conversion of the target monsters there, but we didn’t know what monsters were even taken there this time, so we had no other choice but to calculate that later.

“Should I go get a hold of the trader?”
“Could I ask you to do that?”
“Don’t be like that. Of course!”

Claude laughed it off and headed out of the office.

We needed to identify the monsters so we could convert their body parts into reward money, so Claude had nothing he could do for the time being. That said, I felt a bit awkward to have an office worker like him go out and search for people.

“Cathy.”
“What?”

I called out to her who was observing the situation and received a clear answer that seemed strangely full of expectations.

“Please ask Claude. Infer the trader’s whereabouts from the clues you find.”
“Okay!”

Bard watched her with unease as she dashed away.

The gaze he was giving me gave away what he was thinking even more than his impatient behavior.

“Bard, can you help me carry the wind crystals that we used previously.”
“That’s all…?”

He looked quite disappointed.

“Then please also transport them to the arena.”
“G-Got it!”

Wow, he’s happy.

I guess he couldn’t move his body enough by just working as a receptionist and waiter. Maybe I should give him some opportunities?

As I was thinking that, I headed out of the office and to the hall where the guild members awaited.

“Thank you for gathering with such an urgent summons.”
“Enough with the ceremonies and get to the point, agh!”

I heard some angry yells. Did it come from that person who’s being beaten up by the surrounding crowd? If he was someone new in this city, my condolences for that. But since it’s a waste of time, I’m gonna ignore him.

I distributed a simplified rough sketch of the arena and explained the strategy.

“First, joining up with ≪Lunevillous≫ takes top priority.”

I took out one of the boxed wind crystals and raised it up for everyone to see.

“Once you meet up with them, distribute these wind crystals.”
“What are those for?”

Though we did use it in the previous game tournament, there weren’t many even among Luneville residents who knew about them.

“They are crystals that allow distant communication if you put magic power into them. Using these, we will have everyone contact and coordinate with each other in that vast arena.”

The familiar people seemed to just accept my wild statements after gaining immunity to them during their life here. Since most people were like that, those who were having difficulty accepting it also decided to at least hear what I was saying.

“We will unify and send you the detailed instructions of the scene. Those who accept these conditions please come over for registration.”

Some newcomer groups just watched over, apparently finding it too suspicious.

But that was no problem since we managed to get enough reinforcements to send.

“Bard, you will go ahead and deliver the crystal to Frank.”
“Got it.”
“Make sure to take your own share of it too. You might end up working the most, after all.”

Bard looked surprised for a moment, but then broke into a light laugh.

“Bring it on.”

He didn’t say anything else and focused on accepting registrations. I was thinking he was more of a ******… but is he actually the opposite?

“…Done.”

I returned the registration cards to the owners and commenced the strategy.

“I wish you luck.”

Once I saw them off, my role began.

I returned to my room, soothed Haku who ended up waking up, and dispelled my barrier.

I slowly released my magic power, spreading it so the effective area of the crystals would include the entire arena.

“Suuu……. haaa……”

I calmed my feelings down by taking deep breaths. I was scared. I was really scared, but I don’t wanna regret my actions after being stingy. I would regret defeating them even more, so I want to leave that as the final option.

“…Okay.”

Presence Sense skill, maximum output.
Detection activate.

I could detect every single thing in this world. Of course, that also included all those disgusting bugs too.

“Ugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Along with goosebumps and chills, pain assaulted my head.

No, I can’t faint here…

“Waaaaaaaahhhh! Ugh, hic, aaaaahhhhh….”

I couldn’t endure it and started sobbing with tears and snot leaking out. I hugged and squeezed Haku who was licking me. This child was the only being that could endure my full strength now.

I constantly regretted making it too strong, but I couldn’t describe how dependable it looked now.

“Uggghhh… hicc…..”

I somehow suppressed my power and succeeded in limiting the detection scope to just Luneville. I noticed there were monsters on the border of Luneville but I decided to ignore them since they were going away. I didn’t have time to deal with them.