Chapter 1230: Their Objective

We waited for a little while, and the group of adventurers at the entrance to the village. The warrior at the forefront appeared to be their leader.

Maybe around the Rank D level? He wasn’t particularly strong.

「Hey, you guys fellow adventurers?」

「Nn. We’re adventurers.」

「Ah, I see. This should be pretty simple then.」

The leader nodded with a smirk while clearly looking down on Fran and Eiworth. White was dressed like a government clerk, so he didn’t appear strong either.

I guess this warrior didn’t have enough of an eye to gauge our abilities.

Despite being incredibly rude, the adventurers didn’t weren’t immediately hostile. It might just be a stalling tactic, but we wanted information. Thus, we decided to engage with them for the moment.

「What do you want?」

「Oi, oi! What kind of greeting is that?! All we want is to hunt a bit around here with this village as a base, just like you guys.」

I see. They thought Fran and Eiworth were ordinary adventurers who happened to be staying in the village.

「Not happening.」

「Huh?」

「No entering the village without permission.」

「We’ve been entrusted with a request from the Kranzel government. Anyone unrelated to the request isn’t allowed inside.」

Fran and Eiworth’s response made the adventurers very displeased.

「A government request? You think such a pathetic lie is gonna pass?」

「Yeah! How could some girl and geezer get a government request? There’s no way!」

「Get out of our way, you weaklings!」

So they bring out all their friends and try to intimidate us now. The adventurers raised their voices, expecting Fran and Eiworth to cower in response.

Of course, the two were obviously unfazed.

They simply stood there without a single change to their expressions, which caused the leader to get a bit irritated. Things weren’t going according to his plan.

「Tch. Just move aside. I don’t have any time to waste on you.」

「No.」

「Hell if I care! Boys, let’s go!」

「Yeah!」

While they had yet to draw their swords, the adventurers tried to push through forcefully. Well, not that they could get through Fran and Eiworth.

A wall of earth rose to block their path.

「I said no.」

「These men are truly poor of hearing. Perhaps they need to be shown a bit of pain before they understand?」

「…Don’t get ahead of yourself, weaklings! You’re the ones in for pain unless you let us talk to the villagers.」

「Tell us and we’ll relay the message.」

「Also, the man with us is essentially the village’s administrator.」

「Indeed. And as the administrator, I must say your words and actions were far from polite. As such, I cannot permit you entry to the village.」

As soon as White spoke these words, the men changed their atmosphere. Each lowered their shoulders and put their hands together, as if begging Fran.

「Please, you’ve got to help us here! We didn’t come all this way to return empty-handed! Our losses will be huge at this rate. You should understand if you’re fellow adventurers, right?」

So the next strategy was a desperate plea? Did they really think Fran could be tricked just because she’s the youngest?

They thought a fellow adventurer might sympathize with being forced to return without any gains. There’s no way such an obvious lie would work on Fran.

「We’re running low on food too. I’m begging you, let us stay in the village.」

「That’s your own fault.」

「Kukuku, so the third-rate adventurers don’t have enough of a brain to plan a day trip! Kuhahaha!」

Fran simply told the adventurers to deal with it, while Eiworth laughed in their face like a psychopath. Trying to get pity out of these two was clearly counterproductive.

Amidst Eiworth’s raucous laughter, most of the adventurers turned hostile. However, the leader only furrowed his brow slightly.

There’s something off about this guy. They must have some hidden agenda considering the squad they sent to the back of the village…

The leader merely continued staring at Fran and Eiworth, seemingly deep in thought.

「Hey, can I ask you one thing?」

「What is it?」

「Is it true that there’s a dragon in this village? And it’s said to be an evil dragon, right?」

『Who leaked the info!?』

Were these guys after Bisdra? Even low-level dragon materials will fetch a high price, so there’s no shortage of hunters for a baby dragon. They’re much easier targets, after all.

Fran’s lack of facial expressions and Eiworth’s cunning came in handy, as they showed zero response to the question. Very impressive.

A few merchants and adventurers were allowed access to the village. One of them probably leaked Bisdra’s existence, like casually mentioning him while drunk or something.

The fact that he was an evil dragon wasn’t public knowledge, but I guess the villagers would know. Maybe someone let it slip.

「Dunno.」

「Is the dragon here or not?」

「You’re annoying.」

「Hurry up and answer my question already.」

Just as Fran said, they were being quite annoying. It seems they wanted to elicit some kind of reaction. That said, Fran and Eiworth were the only ones with good poker faces.

The man took one look at White’s face and smirked.

「I see! So the dragon must be here!」

White!? I thought you were supposed to be an intelligence agent!? Well, I didn’t notice any change in his expression, so it must have been a really tiny twitch. We can give credit to the adventurer leader for being able to discern such a detail.

「So can we just take a quick look at the dragon or whatever? Please?」

「It’s not here.」

「…Tch. Damn you assholes from Raydoss! High-rank dragon materials sell for a lot, so hand it over!」

The leader clicked his tongue and shouted. At this point, we could definitely say there was someone leaking info about the village.

My appraisal on the leader indicated his combat abilities were average, but he possessed skills like Negotiation, Intimidation, and Deceit.

This man was probably some kind of fraud or rogue adventurer, with a specialty for negotiations through intimidation and other tricks. Such an approach might be pretty profitable if backed by his strength as an adventurer.

But this time, he picked the wrong opponents.

「I’m not from Raydoss.」

「Me neither.」

Fran and Eiworth denied his statement, and the leader only got more furious.

「W-Who cares?! Just hand over the dragon! You want us to report to the Adventurer’s Guild that you’re hiding an evil dragon?」

Go ahead and try it, honestly. The guild was already well aware of Bisdra. Perhaps whatever source they found didn’t get the full picture.

「Kukukuku… Kwahahaha! Black Lightning Princess, show them your card.」

Eiworth burst into laughter in response to the man’s pitiful threat, then encouraged Fran to show her adventurer card. Yeah, I agree that revealing their identities would settle things pretty quickly.

「Nn. Here.」

「Take a look.」

「Huh? Your card is… gold?」

It appears they didn’t think they were up against anyone strong. The men went silent as soon as they saw Fran’s card.