Chapter 288: Chapter 288: Secret Meeting

Author’s note: Please note that the protagonist won’t appear for about two chapters from now on.

◇◆◇◆◇

This was a tavern where the Adventurers commonly gathered. One boy opened the door and walked into that tavern.

The young waitress serving the drinks noticed the boy and addressed him casually.

“Welcome Kufar. You’ve taken your time today.” “Hey, Lizith. Is everyone here already?” “Yes, the usual table. Ready to order yet?” “Same as usual.” “Got it, I’ll bring it right away.”

He was about 15 years old. The waitress was of the same age so they were quite close. Sometimes some Adventurers poked fun at him for that, but he tended to let it pass without raising a fuss.

The boy—Kufar, headed deeper into the tavern, and joined the table with several Adventurers gathered there.

It was still noon, but three men there were already going hard on the alcohol there. They had swords and staffs, but the only shared trait was the fact that they all wore hats or bandanas.

And one more fact, all of them gave off an aura of a skilled Adventurer.

“Hey, a little late today, huh?” “Yeah. I received an important piece of information.”

Kufar sat down and immediately got down to business. There was nothing strange about it, as they were his comrades. However, they were very vigilant about their surroundings. They lowered their voices, as if to let the noise around conceal it.

“Something important?” “Yeah. The bunch headed for the nest in question had been arrested. Well, they were just underlings so they shouldn’t reveal anything important.” “Those guys? I can’t believe they failed even in gathering the pieces.” “Five baits wouldn’t be able to draw any important prey. I think we can just leave this be.”

The men expressed their opinions at the boy’s words one by one. But then, they all held their tongues and the conversation stopped.

“Sorry for the wait. Orange juice for Kufar, as well as grilled chicken. I will bring the salad later.” “Thank you. I can finally fill my stomach.” “That’s what you get for not waking up sooner.” “Sorry, I’m not a morning person.”

The young waitress brought food and cackled on the way back. After confirming that she was far enough, they resumed their conversation.

“…Are you sure it’s fine to meet up in a place like this?” “It’s because it’s a place like this that no one pays attention to what others say. If we use that place too much, we’d stand out.” “Oh well. That aside, I got that those underlings got arrested, but is that really something to fuss about? Surely they didn’t have any classified information?”

One of the man made an argument after moistening his tongue with alcohol. He was downing the alcohol, but his eyes still held the light of reasoning in them. Their behavior until now was nothing more than drunkard-pretend.

“That itself is nothing much. The problem is the one who caught them.” “The one who caught them?” “It seems to be a woman called Haumea. Apparently is quite a beauty, but the problem is the guild number that she provided.” “Was it fake?” “No, it was someone else’s. And—”

Kufar lowered his voice even more. That would normally look suspicious and have the opposite effect, but this is how Adventurers talked in this bar, so it didn’t draw that much attention.

“It was the number of Maxwell, one of the Six Heroes.” “Ma—!?”

One of the men almost shouted his name, but he held his mouth and suppressed it at the last second. Even so, his expression remained shocked. However, people in the surroundings did not catch his surprise.

“…Is that true?” “Yeah, no doubt about it. How in the world did he sniff us out?” “That damn old fool… Wait, the fact that he’s on the move probably means he has the Strategist behind him too.” “There’s a high chance of that. That Haumea person might be one of his pawns.” “Since they were able to pinpoint the summoning location like that, they might be aware of our movements.” “Quite possibly.”

After Kufar’s assent, the three men’s expressions turned dead serious. They were working in the inner circle, so the fact that the information had gotten leaked could only mean…

“…There’s a betrayer?” “Probably. And if it’s like that, the disappearance of the merchant in Lilith should also be related to this.” “We have to thoroughly investigate our members.” “We also have to feel around for the enemy’s movements. It appears that we are not the only ones who want to find this Haumea person too.” “So there are other opposing organizations?” “Yeah, it seems that the royal palace is at work, you know?” “Oh… Organs of the state would be one thing, but are you saying the king himself is moving!?” “Quite a difficult situation we found ourselves in.”

With a sigh, Kufar reached towards his food. It had cooled down quite a bit, but still, the chicken meat that had once been run through fire and had the surface fats melted was still plenty tasty.

Even still, the juices came flooding out with a bite, being a testament to the skill of the cook.

“At any rate, we should refrain from any conspicuous activities. And do a strict internal audit. At the same time, investigate this Haumea. And also to confirm the old fool and the Strategist’s movements. Looks like we have a lot on our plates.” “Can’t be helped. We have too few pieces for making any open moves. And since the king is moving, we have to look for the reason behind that too.” “We still don’t have any collaborators inside the royal palace. The last “Count” we had has been lost.” “We finally managed to make contact with the “Margrave”, but that incompetent fool…” “Well, that’s different from our main goal, so it’s fine either way.”

The king would die, and the usurpation would follow. Those incidents would have greatly shaken the public order of this kingdom. Making use of that disturbance would make it very easy to gather the sacrifices.

As such, they tried to fan Tarkashire’s flames, but it didn’t go well. Be that as it may, they could continue as they had been, so there were no problems.

However, Kufar still felt that it would get troublesome now that the vigilance around the king had been strengthened.

◇◆◇◆◇