Aearis had no qualms with apologizing if it meant having a frank exchange of conversation. The king likewise responded in an easygoing manner. Usually this would be an international affair, but other than being related deeply to the royal family, the temple had always been independent from the royal house. The only exception was Alfemina Temple, which was inside the Farlane palace, but it was still accessible to the public and the royal family could not interfere with that.
ăBut that is but a trivial issue. What I am more interested in is the information that His Highness Layotte brought back with him.ă
ăUnfortunately for his informant, who risked their life to obtain it, the information wasnât especially important. As expected, the road to the temple is completely isolated. The area near the entrance is a bottomless swamp and the trees around it have been turned monstrous. âHandsâ also come out of nowhere and attempt to snag any intruders. And lastly, if you do get captured, youâre going to lose a ton of your life force. We only know these things listed.ă
ăThat is still better than what our investigation team came up with, as they have yet to even return.ă
Aearis nodded when she heard the kingâs grave words. He then turned to the members of Azuma Workshop, who had been listening intently.
ăSo, Azuma WorkshopâŠHow do you intend to use this informationïŒă
ăHonestly, we were gonna think about it after hearinâ Aearis-samaâs plan, so we ainât got no ideas right now.ă
ăVery well. Then, Priestess Princess, what was your plan?ă
ăAfter receiving permission from Your Majesty, we were going to start by purifying the entrance and having Azuma Workshop come right after that. Alfemina-sama has entrusted us with various tools, which should provide a better result in comparison to plunging in recklessly. Unfortunately, I am but a burden when it comes to battle, so I would be staying posted with Artiem, Aranwen Templeâs priestess to keep watch over Stiren Temple.ă
Hearing Hiroshi and Aearisâs âplanâ, the king nodded. As the only current information they had involved the traps near the entrance, there wasnât much they could plan out. Considering how Alfemina herself had given them tools (of which the members of Azuma Workshop were probably the only ones capable of using), this was much better than charging in recklessly.
ăAll right. Then you mean to say that using those tools, Azuma Workshop can get into the main temple, yesïŒă
ăThis is not completely guaranteed, but no doubt better than entrusting anyone else with the plan. I am convinced of this.ă
Hiroshiâs team had difficult expressions on their faces as they heard this full display of trust. They hadnât done enough as adventurers to deserve such recognition, or so they would claim.
ăThen I make my decision. Azuma Workshop, I entrust you withfreeing Elza Temple.ă
ăAs ya wish. But donâtcha think itâs a bit soon to be trustinâ us based solely off thatïŒă
ăI know full well from speaking to you that none of ye are the kinds of folk to dirty your hands with selfish ambition or conspiracy. No one with a treacherous heart admits to their lack of planning. And besidesâŠă
ăYe cashed in on a lot of money by giving a weapon to an unnamed adventurer and betting on their victory. If ye wanted to increase yer prestige, ye would not resort to such a roundabout, uncertain method. If ye truly could make a weapon strong enough to help an unnamed adventurer win, ye could simply give it to some noble somewhere, and ye have the eyes for which people could win, so ye would not choose just any noble out there.ă
Hiroshi wasnât sure how to respond to this over-the-top praise. Sure, he thought it would be interesting to have Jon win, but he wasnât exactly assured on his victory. Doubtless the king would not accept this explanation anyway.
ăSo how confident are ye about succeeding in this planïŒă
ăSince we do have Alfemina-sama assistinâ us in this, the possibility sure ainât zero, but as we donât know the full situation, we also canât guarantee nothinâ.ă
ăWhen it comes to makinâ smeltinâ forges, which we have experience and repeated success with, as long as the location is secure ân there ainât no accidents, I can guarantee success. But in this case the conditions are unclear ân quite a bit different from what our line of business is accustomed to, so I canât just act all alpha ân tell ya to leave it to us.ă
Hiroshi wasnât trying to hide anything, make anything up, or portray himself as better than he was, to which the king of Forre smiled, truly enjoying this.
ăI like this attitude of yours. Others may have quivered at the thought of abandoning their responsibility, but ye have the guts to admit ye do not know if this shall succeed, and so be it.ă
ăThe real silly thing to do is talk big ân fail. Besides, not beinâ able to tell âem ya donât know means the quality of the jobâs unstable, ân that leads to more casualties ân trouble for the client. Runninâ from challenges ân speakinâ honestly about the risks are completely different things.ă
ăAs I thought, you are truly a craftsman, through and through.ă
ăAnd Your Highness also seems to have the temperament of a craftsman, by the looks of it.ă
ăAye. I would not be called the king of the country of iron if I did not have that mindset.ă
The king and Hiroshi were hitting it off in the strangest way. Haruna and the others opened their eyes wide at how cool Hiroshi looked for once.
ăAh, umm, Hiroshi-kunïŒă
ăUsually I feel like youâd chicken out at a task like thisâŠâŠă
ăOh. Yeah, thatâs cuz I changed my state of mind after Crest Cave.ă
Hiroshi concluded with a faraway look in response to Harunaâs insolent outburst.
ăWas just thinkinâ to myself, dungeons ân the like ainât nothinâ compared to how scary chocolate is.ă
Haruna joined Hiroshi in making a faraway look, unsure if she was persuaded by him or not. It was problematic for Hiroshi to consider something like a tower golem to be worse than the chocolate incident, but she had even more of a problem with how she felt a bit persuaded.
ăWell, I canât very well be careless, so we gotta brace ourselves.ă
ăI apologize for forcing such trouble upon you, but if you succeed, then I will give you all the metal in the national treasury that we have not been able to process and permit the connection of your workshop, Wulls workshop, and the Crest Cave base in addition to throwing a large banquet to celebrate the freedom of Elza Temple. Do the best that ye can.ă
ăWell, I can assure ya Iâll do ma best.ă
Hiroshi gave a rather lackluster reply to the kingâs generous reward. He didnât have an interest in compensation from the beginning, plus he felt parties to be dangerous, but saving Elza Temple was an important task to Hiroshiâs group.
ăYour Highness, I donât think that a banquet is necessaryâŠâŠă
ăWhat do ye mean? It is not every day that we get to have a country-wide celebration, no? Do ye think I would turn away a pretext to throw a party when we barely have anything besides New YearsïŒă
Tatsuyaâs words (concerned for Hiroshi) were cut down by His Highnessâs vigorous statement.
ăOh crap. This king is basically a dwarf in disguiseâŠâŠă
ăTatsuya, youâd best quit while youâre at it.ă
ăIâll expect good things from youâŠâŠă
Tatsuyaâs shoulders drooped at the inevitable banquet. Aearis was grimacing at his demeanor while Mio spoke to her.
ăAearis-sama, youâre not an outsider in this.ă
ăJudging by your body type, theyâll force feed you a lot. In my case it would be the perfect amount, but your stomach is normal sizeâŠâŠă
Aearis cocked her head cutely, unsure what Mio meant. Haruna felt rather uneasy at that, whispering to Douga.
ăDoul, Elle-chan and Artiem-san will probably be in a lot of trouble, so take care of them.ă
ăOf course I was going to.ă
Artiem watched them discuss this with a strange face, not familiar with Forre banquets, but she held her tongue.
ăWe can count our chickens after they done hatched, mate. First we see what Aearis-sama brought with her ân then we think about what preparations we need.ă
The carefree air in the room suddenly grew tense. This next mission would be studied with the most scrutiny in Forreâs history.