And that’s where B-Ranks come in.
A-Ranks were powerful, but they were few and far between. They couldn’t take all the important requests if they wanted to, so the guild would deploy its B-Ranks. They risked upsetting the aristocracy if one of them gave offense.
“Not that you have no manners, judging by your conduct at the award ceremony.”
Fran’s manners were impeccable thanks to Royal Etiquette, although the same couldn’t be said for her speech. Maybe she could play the strong and silent type? No, maybe not.
“Which is why Fran will remain a C-Rank for now. Sorry.”
“Hm. It’s okay.”
You did all you could.
A twelve-year-old B-Rank would set too strange a precedent. Fran would have to store up points and work for her promotion like everyone else. But it would make for good training.
“Still, I wanted to give you the promotion if I could, if only to thank you.”
“Thank me?”
Dias looked at her seriously. “Yes. I have you to thank for telling us of Kiara’s whereabouts. I would’ve gone on resenting the Beast King if you hadn’t come in contact with him. I would’ve been suspicious of his every move.” He bowed his head. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I kept up my end of the deal with Lumina, too, so that’s a load off my shoulders.”
I’d never seen him so earnest before.
I wondered what would happen with Lumina now. The Black Cat knew that Kiara was safe, but she’d spent a huge amount of her power helping Fran evolve. Ulmutt’s dungeons would definitely be affected until she could recover, but I was more worried that she would be disposed of now that she was no longer useful.
Speaking of, how are the dungeons doing?
“Right. There have been fewer monsters since Lady Lumina lost her powers. We’re probably going to drop its difficulty rating.”
O-oh.
“I’m sorry.”
I would have some choice words for us if I were Dias, but the old Guildmaster just shook his head and laughed. “Remember that her previous plan involved sacrificing herself to help Black Cats evolve.”
Dias had known about Lumina’s plan, though she didn’t tell him the details. She was willing to turn herself into a Fiend and die in order to help Fran evolve.
“Looking at it that way, dropping the dungeon’s difficulty is a small price to pay.”
But you can’t get as many materials and crystals from it.
“True. But now lower-rank adventurers can use it to train. The economy might experience a slight boom if beginners start flocking to our city.”
I was glad to hear that Ulmutt was going to be all right. Fran would’ve been depressed if the once-bustling city became deserted for the sake of her Evolution.
“We can finally get to talking about your quest.”
You mean the C-Rank personal quest?
“Oh yeah.”
It had been put in place to guard Fran from the wiles of the Beast King. Not that we had any use for it now, since Rigdith was our ally…
“I’ve notified the other guilds that you’ll be taking on this quest. You can’t refuse, I’m afraid.”
Okay, what’s it for?
“I’ve been thinking about it, and how would you like to go to the Beastman Nation? You’ll be able to complete the guild’s immigration inspection as you go, and you could get the support of the guild there, too.”
“What would I do when I get there?”
“Confirm the whereabouts of a missing adventurer. There are still people looking for her, and we would like to know how she’s doing.”
Dias wanted to know how Kiara was. He was really good at putting the guild to personal use.
“Uh-huh…”
That’s nice of you, Dias.
The Beastman Nation was full of fluffy ears. I would love to check it out.
“But we have an auction to go to.”
The one in the capital, right. It’s not like we have to attend, so let’s head to the Beastman Nation first.
But you could get good crystals at the auction. Fran wanted to go to the auction for my sake.
But we might not. Besides, we can get crystals just as easily in the Beastman Nation. Who knows, some of them might be interesting. Don’t worry about it.
“But…”
Dias noticed Fran’s inner conflict. “Something bothering you?”
“There’s an auction in the capital I wanted to check out. It’s in June.”
“I see. Well, you still have over a month. Going to the Beastman Nation and finishing your errands should only take about three weeks.”
There you go.
“Hm. The Beastman Nation it is.” Fran nodded happily, unable to hide her enthusiasm.
“Ha ha ha. Thank you for your cooperation. Now—”
A knock came on the door.
“I’m letting myself in. Oh, Frannie! Hey.”
“Elza.”
Elza entered the room, looking great despite Amanda’s beatdown. Her skin was bright and bouncy, and she seemed to be in a good mood.
“Hello, Elza,” said Dias. “Have you found out anything?”
“Lots. They were a lot more cooperative once I wore them down.”
“What are you talking about?” Fran asked.
“I had Elza interrogate Solus and Seldio’s accomplices.” That explained her bright smile. “They told me a lot of interesting things.”
Given their ambush in the dungeon, Seldio and Solus were definitely taking orders from someone else. This someone must’ve been crooked, judging from the strange enchanted swords in our attackers’ necks and the fact that they were able to bust Solus out of prison.
“Looks like they were working for Marquis Aschtner.”
Marquis Aschtner? Never heard of him. But it sounded like Seldio was somehow related to the man.
“Do you know why they wanted to take Fran’s sword?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s a really dumb reason. The marquis ordered them to look for Godswords. Seldio was a disgusting pig, but he was still an A-Rank, so he had access to all the guild’s hidden information. But you remember how crazy he was? That’s why he took everything that looked like an enchanted sword. Seldio was so far gone that he couldn’t even serve his master’s purposes. What a joke.”
“They broke their own guys?”
“Marquis Aschtner gave the order that Seldio was to be drugged to keep him in line. He looked like the leader of his own party, but the bandit and mage were the
