<h4>Volume 4 Chapter 9.2</h4>


    Trantor: Reflet


    Editor: Weasalopes


    Makoto now understood why no one around her had used such beneficial magic before after hearing Tatsuya’s exnation. If such a spell didn’t work on dungeon monsters, obviously no one would use it in dungeons. Maybe someone she knew could use it effectively, but it had been nearly a year since she tried field hunting and got sted off here. That was also a boss hunt, so there was still a high probability no one would have the opportunity to use it.


    Digressing, once you learned Oxide Circle, you would find that the spell only had enough range to block off the mouth and nose of rabbits near Wulls and only enough time to possibly suffocate them. Also, the spell didn’t affect the body so it had no binding capabilities. You instead had to either have someone restrain the target or use a binding skill or spell of your own and then suffocate the target. Repeat the process thousands of times and your proficiency would go up by one. This was the reason why Oxide Circle was stuck as one of the minor spells.


    「Well, we diverged a bit there, but I assume none of us are participating then?」


    「Nope. We don’t even got a reason to, do we?」


    「Gotcha. Then we don’t do anything in rtion to the tournament, yes?」


    Hiroshi’s mannerisms were a bit dodgy when Tatsuya confirmed this, and Tatsuya did not let that slip by his observant gaze, ring at Hiroshi.


    「You’re nning something sinister again, aren’t you?」


    「Sinister, more like a prank really」


    「What in the world would that be?」


    Tatsuya questioned Hiroshi, whose gaze wavered midair as he attempted to exin. While it was truly worthless, Hiroshi figured it would affect many things if implemented properly, so he had to express it in a way to where he wouldn’t get shot down.


    「Well, I’m still formting it, but there’s two things I wanna do」


    「Oh? Such as?」


    「First off, this is a good opportunity to get ahold of the practice weapons Haruna-san made and tweak ‘em to where we sell ‘em at a street stall. And I do got the permission from the guild.」


    「Well yeah, it’s not like we have practical uses for them, so might as well sell as many as we can. What’s the other thing?」


    While a bit taken aback at how wholesome, or normal, the request was, Tatsuyamented while keeping his guard up. This was Hiroshi they were talking about; who knew what he was thinking this time. Seeing as the other members were also somewhat on guard, you could tell no one trusted Hiroshi on even a matter as seemingly simple as this.


    「The other thing is also rted to takin’ care of the tweaked weapons Haruna-san made.」


    「If that’s the goal in mind, I don’t think you need to try anything else……」


    「But just sellin’ that stuff ain’t no fun at all」


    Sure, Haruna’s creations were nothing great, but she still couldn’t bear the thought of someone messing around with them, so she scolded Hiroshi with her own objection, to which Hiroshi responded with the gut of only the most talented entertainer tobat her objection. Seeing this version of Hiroshi behave all jittery only made everyone feel more at unease.


    「’N so, for the other thing I wanted to tackle……」


    Leaning forward, Tatsuya and the others just waited with nervousness and unease for Hiroshi to continue with his rather grandiose-sounding n.


    「Don’tcha think it’d be fun if some nobody won the tourney with the power of equipment?」


    「Heck no! That’s going overboard and you know it!!」


    As expected, Hiroshi was always up to no good.


    「Periodic message, periodic message」


    Rainy contacted Layotte, while feeling relieved inwardly that her weight had not gone up this week.


    『Anything different as of yet?』


    「Several matters to report. The first is that Deary and his friends went to Stiren.」


    『Hm, took them long enough』


    As he inwardly remarked on how long it had taken, Layotte gestured for her to continue.


    『And how were they doing?』


    「Same as always, for the most part. They don’t seem to be operating a stall this time.」


    『I did think they might skip out on the tournament, but they’re not even going to sell, huh……』


    「Yeah. They moved their base yesterday and didn’t do any adventuring like searching for bases or running off ces while they were in that hotel.」


    As he heard the periodic report from Rainy, Layotte furrowed his brow at this first part. He could feel something was wrong.


    『Is Hiroshi outside?』


    「Deary’s been inside since he started using the workshop.」


    『I really do not get a good feeling about this……』


    Nine times out of ten, Hiroshi being a shut-in never led to anything good. No, it never resulted in huge casualties, but it frequently screwed up the expectations of both friend and foe.


    『And what are the others doing?』


    「Haruna and Mio are doing something with Deary. Tatsuya and Makoto seem to be doing odd jobs and hunting monsters.」


    『Hm……』


    This was truly suspicious. Preconceptions were never good, but Layotte could not see anything gooding from this.


    『……Well, even if they’re up to no good, the only ones who will have to keep up with their shenanigans are the country they’re in and the evil god followers. Fane will likely not be affected all that much.』


    「Your Highness, that’s an awful thing to say」


    『I am merely stating fundamentally what will happen. And it isn’t as if Fane can intervene in Forre affairs without them asking us to, yes? You intervening where you can is one thing, but things will get much too convoluted if I were to get involved.』


    「How awful my master is. He won’t even let me see Deary, and yet forces me to do everything just because I have no power……」


    『That’s always what those in authority do. Give it a rest. So what else is there to report?』


    They couldn’t keep up this two-manedy skit. Forget the nonsense and move on.


    「The big news is that no one can reach Elza Temple Main Branch」


    『……That is very big news……』


    「Yeah. The situation being as frantic as it is, I though to emergency contact them, but the first source of information wasn’t trustworthy enough so I tried to get higher reliability info. Simply contacting them based off a dubious rumor at best would only lead to this getting out of control, which I figured it was best to avoid.」


    『Hm, I see. And when did you first pick up this info?』


    「The night before yesterday. So even if I don’t get urate enough info, I intended to report to you today. If this were right after the previous followup and I managed to gather enough by the afternoon the next day, I would have used the emergency contact without hesitation. Maybe waiting one week would have been rather bad, but waiting too days, I figured wouldn’t affect too much.」


    Layotte nodded at how Rainy had handled the situation, for better or for worse. If there were dubious rumors such as this spreading around, they had to have had time to spread this far. Taking time to assess the validity of this information, whenpared to that, was not going to have that major of an effect.