117 Chapter 117 - Investigation: End (2/2)
That just made Gren want to know even more but they were getting close to the eastern market.Gren could see the top of the fountain and there was the sound of lots of people shouting out; most likely trying to sell their goods to the shoppers.”I don't like going to these types of markets.I'm always tempted into buying something that I don't need.”Gren was surprised to hear Ophelia suddenly reveal something personal.Given the topic that they were just on, perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise.”The last time I was here, I ended up buying an entire set of antique silverware and a bunch of paintings from some late noble's estate.”
”That doesn't sound so bad.I once bought a weapon that was almost completely useless.It helped me kill a boar once but that's it, really.”Gren wasn't angry that the crossbow-like weapons were useless.He might not have needed them but he also didn't spend too much buying the original.”What about you, Rodge?Did you buy something you regretted afterwards?”
”Alcohol.Rumi got pretty angry at me when she caught me drinking since she can't have any right now.”Rodge's gloomy mood could almost be seen in the air as he continued his complaining.”I don't get it.I'm not pregnant so why would I need to stop drinking?I was only having a couple of sips anyways.”
”I think that it's best not to fight with her on that one.Pregnant women can become irritable over minor things.”Gren tried to give Rodge advice but even he didn't know how to help him.Estella's pregnancy was very different from Rumi's pregnancy and Jessica didn't really get irritable.”It's not good for the child if Rumi's stressed out.That's why I haven't been asking her to watch the kids lately.”
”I just don't know what to do.In the Church I could at least listen to the acolytes practicing their singing or I could play cards with the other knights.There's nothing to do in the guild.”Gren had heard that complaint a lot but couldn't entertain people all on his own.Rodge did give Gren a good idea though; he could always hire some people to sing for the guild members.”I just train during my free time now.”
Gren was now able to see some people wearing the FMC's signature steel armor.”I've been trying to solve that problem but it's harder than I thought it'd be.I plan on creating a gallery of paintings for everybody to look at with new additions being added every time I come back from a request but I didn't think about singers until now.”Gren pointed off in the direction of the two short armored people that began to wave at them.”It looks like the others made it before us.After this is over and I've fixed the slums, I'll start putting more of a focus on the guild's happiness.We're already at a point where we're finally earning money instead of burning through everything I've got.”
”It'd be good if that were true.Right now my only fun comes from running around doing requests like this.I'm not really looking forward to going back to the guild with the way it is now.”Rodge really didn't seem happy.”It's almost like it has become a dungeon.We can't even leave right now.”
”You'll just have to wait a bit longer and it'll be safe enough for people to leave the guild.We haven't taken out all of our enemies yet.”Gren didn't like keeping the people indoors like they were prisoners but his highest priority was their safety.”Hey!Choco!Noir!”The two short armored people that were waving towards their group came running to Gren.”Did everything go well on your end?”They had helmets on but Gren still patted their heads.
Instead of being greeted with happy barks, the two kobolds pulled at his arms and tried to bring him towards the rest of the group.Gren quickly realized that something was wrong and ran to the people gathered at the fountain.The sight that greeted him was a bunch of people with scorched armor and bandages; some of which seemed to be in agony.”What happened?”There were injured people so Gren quickly got into action and started healing people.
”Things were going fine at first.I didn't think anything bad would happen.”Jasmine seemed the most shaken up as she was speaking.”There were flames everywhere.I didn't know that would happen.”She wasn't making much sense which only made Gren more worried.
”They had an alchemy lab set up in their guild that nobody knew about.”Annie stepped in to give a proper explanation.”The medicines they were producing exploded when hit with Jasmine's flames.Nobody's missing their limbs thanks to the armor but the hot gases from the medicines burned their skin pretty badly.”Although Jasmine's armor had scorch marks on it, her skin seemed to be fine and she didn't need to be healed.”Thankfully, Jasmine was up front.Her race has tough skin and scales that can resist high temperatures and her armor is thicker so the debris just crashed into her.Nobody knew that they had an alchemist or else things would have gone differently.”
”We had a similar problem.It seems that the information we got was missing a lot of details.”Gren was finished healing the people with the worst injuries and had moved on to those with minor burns.”The Returning Heaven guild was never abducting people.I've got all of the paperwork that proves Ophelia's story.Ophelia's the armored woman back behind me that's standing with Rodge.”
”We managed to get our mission done without a problem but two of the five guilds we visited today were missing important information and that isn't good.I'll take a small team to spy on the remaining guilds but we got lucky that nobody died so far.”Annie was going through the paperwork again to see which groups they still needed to deal with.”Although the other guilds don't seem that difficult, I won't be taking any other risks.After you're done healing everybody, let's head back home.I'll deal with everything else starting tomorrow.”
”Alright.If you need my help then just let me know.”Gren was glad that everybody could be healed but he wished that he was there to help them sooner.Separating up for the missions was a bad idea even though it allowed them to clean out Old Town in one day.”Tell everybody that went with Jasmine that I'll give them five silvers each for their trouble and that we'll give them time to shop right now if they want to.It's the least I can do to pay them back for what happened.”He could afford the hit to his finances but if the independent mercenaries lost trust in their guild then it would be hard to regain it.That would be especially bad right now with their plans to expand their presence into other cities and villages.