Chapter 120: Troublesome Stuff (1/2)

After Elena, Sara, Carol, and Akira returned to Shikarabe, Shikarabe listened to their explanation and understood the current situation. He then sighed and looked disappointed. Although the SOS request that they took was considered to be completed after searching the target area, the reward was far less compared to if they returned back with the rescue targets.

With this, not only Shikarabe ended up coming all the way there while forced to bring along a burden with him due to the gang that he was in, but his first request of the day also ended up badly. He then let out all of his disappointment and psychical tiredness together with a sigh before continuing.

“So our first request for today is a dud, huh. I feel like today will be an unlucky day. So then, what’s the plan next?”

Elena answered his question.

“We didn’t use much ammo, so I’m thinking of heading to the next request-target right from here. Although, I don’t mind heading back too in case you guys used most of your ammo when we were not around.”

Shikarabe glanced at Togami, he thought that Togami would make a complaint. But unlike what Shikarabe was expecting, Togami was still standing there with a serious face while properly keeping his eyes peeled.

Shikarabe was wondering the entire time while waiting for Elena to return, he was waiting for Togami to act out. In the end, nothing happened at all, which indicated Togami had changed. This questionable fact made Shikarabe feel a little bit disturbed as he continued.

“We’re okay with that, after all, nothing happened at all when you were gone.”

Elena watched Shikarabe’s face closely. Although it did not say that nothing had happened, it did not seem that it would affect his performance during the rescue request either.

“I see, in that case, let’s hurry up and head to the next location.”

“…Hmm? Wait for a sec, I just got a notification from the Hunter Office, give me a few seconds to check it.”

Shikarabe noticed that a notification from the Hunter Office had reached his information terminal. As he pulled out his information terminal and was about to check it, almost at the same time the same notification reached Togami, Elena, and Sara too albeit a little later. Sara also pulled out her information terminal to check the details of that notification as she turned to Akira and said.

“It seems that we also got notification from the Hunter Office too. Akira, wait for a bit while we check the details.”

“Okay.”

The people who received those notifications started checking their own information terminals and they reacted differently when they read the details of that notification.

Elena and Sara looked obviously annoyed as if they just got roped into something troublesome. Togami on the other hand, seemed rather excited as if he just got something that he had been waiting for. While for Shikarabe, he seemed a bit panicked and extremely irritated.

Elena and Sara then started talking to each other. Shikarabe immediately used his information terminal to call for someone and he seemed to be negotiating with the person he was calling, he also sounded really displeased. While Togami just stood there waiting for Shikarabe to finish his negotiation.

Suddenly, a call reached Elena’s information terminal. Elena stopped discussing with Sara and picked that call with a stern face, she then started talking with whoever on the other side of that call in a bad mood.

Akira frowned and asked Alpha.

“Alpha, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Nope. But looking at this, one thing for sure, it doesn’t seem to be anything good.”

“Thought so…”

When Akira checked Elena, Elena sounded a bit angry, which was rather rare for her.

“…Leave that aside for now… Yeah, that’s right. You should at least know where we are right now, right?! We’re in the middle of the ruin, we’re in a situation where we might get attacked by a swarm of monsters any second, you know?! At least give us some time to relocate!! Or are you actually trying to kill us or something?!!”

Elena then cut the call and immediately gave Shikarabe an order.

“Shikarabe, we’ll head back now.”

Shikarabe was still talking in his information terminal as he glanced at Elena and nodded to convey his affirmation. He then signalled Togami to get into the APC with his hand and went to the APC himself while still on the call.

Elena, who was not even trying to hide her displeasure, was taken aback when she noticed that Akira was looking at her. She then lightly sighed to calm herself down before she apologetically said to Akira.

“Akira, I’m sorry, but is it okay if I tell you the details later? We need to return back to the Hunter Office for now. I’ll tell you the details after that.”

“Sure, I don’t mind, is it better if we hurry up then?”

“No, it’s fine. There’s no need to hurry up… After all, we have no obligation to go that far.”

Elena was only mumbling in a small voice in the last half of her sentence before she returned back to her vehicle. Sara smiled bitterly and followed behind Elena.

Akira turned to Carol. Carol seemed so relaxed and calm there. Unlike Akira who did not understand what was going on at all, it seemed that Carol had some inkling about the current situation.

Akira then threw a question to Carol.

“Carol, do you have any guess about that notification that the others just received?”

“Nope. But it’s not like I have no idea at all though. I gathered some information regarding the Mihazono ruin yesterday, so I at least have some guesses.”

“So, what is it?”

“Rather than making poor guesses, it’s faster if you hear it from someone who is directly connected to it. That aside, we need to hurry it up if you don’t want to get left behind.”

“Whoops!”

When Carol pointed that out, Akira immediately hurried up back to his vehicle, Carol followed suit behind him.

Carol looked at Akira and thought.

[Normally speaking, for a Hunter as strong as him, he should have the ability to gather that level of information. But it seems that Akira is basically an amateur in gathering information, huh… I wonder if I can make my move from that side?]

Seeing from how Akira was behaving yesterday and today, Carol was sure that Akira properly recognized Elena and Sara as beautiful girls.

Akira did say in the past that he had more interest in food than girls. But it was not like he had no interest in girls at all either, being able to confirm that was already a huge success for Carol.

So with that in mind, Carol compared herself to Sara and Elena, the 2 girls that Akira properly recognized as the member of the opposite sex. Although both of them were indeed beautiful, she did not think that her beauty would lose to any of them. As in matter of fact, Carol had gathered and spent a lot of money to polish her body, as such, she actually thought that she had a better figure than Sara and Elena.

Of course, it depended on the personal taste whether someone was attractive or not. But Carol did not think that the difference between her and Sara and Elena was that big as to make such a factor so important, unless Akira was only interested in a very limited type of girls. But according to her experience, she did not think that was the case at all.

Carol thought that there might be some kind of particular requirement for Akira to properly recognize someone as a member of the opposite sex. After all, unless that was indeed the case, it was unnatural for him to be so disinterested in her at all. But the reason why she thought so might simply be because she had absolute confidence in her own body.

But Carol had no idea at all what this particular requirement might be. Which meant that she either had to do something to investigate what this particular requirement was, or she should change the way she approached Akira. Akira was indeed a Hunter who was very skilled at fighting, but in contrast to that, he was utterly lacking in knowledge as a Hunter. She might be able to get closer to Akira by sharing that kind of knowledge with him. And the closer she got, the easier it would be for her to investigate the type of girl that he liked.

“Well, I guess there’s no need to be in a rush here. Let’s be patient about this.”

Carol was sitting next to Akira, who was driving his vehicle, while smiling and thinking about her next plan.

Elena and her team were able to return back to the Hunter Office without any incident at all. They did not even encounter a single monster on their way back. Although they detected some monsters, those monsters let them pass through without trying to attack them. Akira who thought that those monsters called for reinforcements and were waiting to ambush them on their way back. So, that ending felt rather anti-climatic.

When they stepped off from their vehicles, some Drankam Hunters and Hunter Office staff were already standing by near the Hunter Office as if they were waiting for Elena’s team. Elena was obviously annoyed and sighed when she saw them.

Elena was going to negotiate with them from here. And judging by the fact that those people were already waiting for them there, it seemed that she would not have the chance to explain the current situation to Akira and Carol.

Elena then glanced at Carol and remembered that she was rather skilled in negotiation too. She then suddenly asked Akira a question.

“Akira, is it okay if I borrow Carol for a bit? From here, I’ll have to get into a rather, no, a really annoying and troublesome negotiation with those people.”

“I don’t mind though, but…”

Akira then checked on Carol. Although he hired her as a guide, she even helped during the battle too, and now Elena asked her to help to do some negotiation. Akira thought it would be way outside of the role that she was paid for, so it would not be strange if Carol refused.

But Carol just casually said.

“Sure, I’m okay with helping out.”

Akira was a bit surprised by that.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep, I’m here because you hired me. So I don’t mind doing that much.”

Akira slightly bowed.

“I see… Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Carol smiled at Akira as if it did not bother her at all while taking a note of that strange and sudden change of attitude from Akira.

Elena then said to Sara and Akira.

“Well then. We’ll be temporarily parting ways here. Sara, can you explain to Akira what’s going on for the time being?”

“Sure, I’ll leave the negotiation to you.”

Elena, Carol, and Shikarabe headed to the Hunter Office’s branch. But before Shikarabe left, he gave Togami an order.

“Togami! Take my APC back to Drankam temporary base!! After that, just wait for the next order from Drankam there!!”

Togami flusteredly replied.

“Wait for a second there! What will happen to me after this?”

“Like hell if I know?!”

Shikarabe sounded annoyed when he shouted back and just left it at that. Togami seemed like he could not completely accept it, but he then dragged himself back to the APC and did what Shikarabe told him to do.

Akira and Sara were told to move their vehicles so as not to block the way, so they did. After Akira relocated his vehicle, he stepped off from the driver seat and stretched out his body, that was when Sara came to him.

He then asked Sara a question.

“So then, what is going on? It seems that both Shikarabe and Elena-san looked pretty annoyed though.”

Sara seemed to be hesitating for a bit before she opened her mouth.

“Well, there’s just this troublesome thing. Although I said that, I’m not really sure what’s going on in Shikarabe’s side, but I think it’s the same reason why we’re also roped into this troublesome thing.”

“It’s that notification from the Hunter Office, right?”

“Yes, the content of that notification is a rather troublesome thing from the Hunter Office that we usually receive from time to time. So about that though… Well, it’s not that simple, but to explain it properly…”

“If it’s something that is hard for Sara-san to talk about, then there’s no need to do that.”