Estio 196

Estio chapter 196

196

Estio Volume 8

– Episode 18

“It’s not necessarily like that. Actually, when the leader is with you, I feel reassured no matter what kind of animal I meet.”

It was great trust. Even if there was no particular reason attached to it, Mubin nodded her head in understanding. Then she pointed out the word that caught on to her.

“Huh? Only animals?”

“Yes. It’s embarrassing to say this from the point of view of a human being, but people don’t know what kind of means they will use to achieve their goals.”

Working in the guild and meeting all kinds of people, Parker has developed a moderately suspicious habit. Apart from his social personality, he likes people, gets along well, and feels rewarding in the process of helping others, he needed to be vigilant.

“Estio, why are you like this?”

“……no.”

Estio, who was staring blankly at the traces of Lero that had disappeared through the trees, turned around. Now it was time to go back to normal.

* * *

The next day, Estio and his party headed straight for the Galatia branch. The area moved by the portal from the headquarters was the local portal management office, which was a bit far from the city of Galatia. The guild members who were contacted in advance and came to meet them greeted them warmly.

“Hey! Welcome, Estio-kun… not Estio-sama.”

“Rosalie.”

Rosalie, a member of the Galatia branch, with her long hair tied up high, held the paper tray in her arms and bowed her head. Estio, who greeted her with her eyes after seeing her after a long time, turned her gaze to her middle-aged man with her.

“Mr. Hawk.”

“Haha, come here.”

It was Hawk Rowley, director of Galatia. Appearing in a neat suit as he had seen before, he took off his hat and greeted him politely. Not only his warm atmosphere, but also his mustache, which had grown into his eight (八) shape, was the same.

As soon as Hawke finished greeting, he held out a glass bottle full of candies to Estio.

“ruler.”

“……”

“Don’t be shy, just pick one up. Heh heh, the friends next to you.”

Hawk, who was originally only going to take care of Estio, offered candy to the rest of the party as if he were generous. Following Estio, who first picked the candy, Parker and Mubin also took out candy one by one involuntarily. The glass bottle didn’t go to Tsuki and Neju, because they didn’t know if it could be harmful.

“Wow! Candy has a very unique taste. It’s spicy and savory. What’s the name of this?”

“Your choice tastes like hot crispy, Bernie Parker delivery man.”

“I’m no longer a delivery man.”

A parker liked the spicy candy, so he hung it with a convex ball. Then, one step late, the head of Hawk, who re-aware of Parker’s affiliation, responded with an apologetic expression.

“Ouch, did you say you moved?”

“Yep! This is the Leader Support Team!”

Next to Parker, who responded bravely, Mubin covered his mouth and was in pain at the taste of candy he had tasted for the first time in his life.

“Uhh…”

“Twitch, the strongest-looking young man is so fragile. It tastes like waves. It’s a Delphian specialty that has the most special taste in the world!”

“Damn, damn Delphia…”

For the first time since he was born on this day, Moobin was criticized for being weak by others. While Moobin chewed the Delphia family, which was not compatible in many ways, with his teeth, Hawk turned off his interest in him, who did not know the taste of candy. Then he smiled again and turned to Estio.

“Fufu, didn’t you miss this taste that headquarters doesn’t have?”

Estio, who took turns watching the dying Mubin and the Hawk branch manager who gave a thumbs up, also took his share of the candy in his mouth. As soon as it touched, the smell of the waves rushing in and out was strong enough to paralyze his nose. Estio laughed quietly.

“…Yes, I missed you.”

His expression was calm, but even a small cough could not be stopped. At the same time, Mubin’s dark pupil, who could not withstand the aftermath of the wave-flavored candy, and wiped tears with the back of his hand, shook violently. Movein was willing to follow Estio wherever he ordered, but it seemed that he could not follow his master’s taste.

After a brief incident, they boarded a wagon prepared in front of the portal and headed to the Galasia branch. Inside the swaying wagon, they talked about the request in advance.

“Hmm. By the way, I heard you are busy these days.”

Hawk, who secretly broke his luck, gave Estio an apologetic look. Maybe it was when I was a former low-level employee, but last year, when I became a guild executive, I was not very sorry that I had to bring Estio, who was at its peak, down to such a province. But Estio shook his head.

“If it’s Hawk’s request, I can help at any time.”

For Estio, the Galacia branch was special. I was also grateful for the fact that Hawk remembered the request to be treated as comfortably as before and accepted it without change. Nevertheless, he personally went to the portal management office and set an example for the executive. The head of Hawk, who knew Estio’s inability to speak empty words, smiled and then let out a long sigh.

“Wow, thank you for taking over the work. You came here at a time like now, so I was really relieved.”

“……?”

Estio felt something strange and looked at Hawk. He said it was not a difficult request to transport the animals to the headquarters. It was obviously tricky to take care of the dozens of animals in the process so as not to get hurt, and to be careful not to lose a single one, but it wasn’t as troublesome as Hawk is now.

Hawk raised his two thumbs between his clasped hands, expressing his embarrassment.

“Actually, there is a problem in the contents of the quest.”

“What’s the matter?”

“that.”

There was no sign of Hawk’s mouth opening. His assistant, Rosalie, also dropped his heavy gaze on the papers. Estio didn’t rush and waited for Hawk to report the problem. For a while, only the sound of a wagon running on a rough country road could be heard loudly from the window.

“That’s what it means.”

Hawk, who had finally decided to speak, revealed the truth with dry lips.

“After all, the animals to be sent to headquarters are gone.”

“……”

Estio blinked his eyes slowly.

‘Live?’

It was such an absurd expression to come all the way here. The request letter from the Galatia branch clearly stated that the animals were ready to be sent to the headquarters.

“No, it’s gone? Everything on this list?”

Parker raised his voice more excited than Estio, who was bewildered. Parker hurriedly took out the request form he was keeping in his cross bag. More than 50 guild pets were listed on the list.

“Not all, but some of them and they disappeared.”

“part?”

“About five?”

“There are six left, Chief Hawk.”

Rosalie corrected the number in a dark, subdued voice. Parker opened his mouth when he realized that the number of guild pets that would come to the headquarters had decreased to the point that they could be counted on his finger.

“Chief Hawk, I don’t understand what you’re saying. It’s not that he’s sick or dead, he’s gone, now?”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t inform you in advance. I should have reported it to the headquarters right away and defended it properly…”

Unable to overcome his cramped heart, Hawk took a wave-flavored candy from the glass bottle and put it in his mouth. He took out only one egg, but the characteristic pungent scent vibrated inside the carriage.

“…that means.”

It was then that Estio, who had been listening silently, opened his mouth.

“You mean you knew it was going to happen?”

Again, everyone’s eyes turned to Hawk. He heard that Hawk was talking as if he knew the animals were going to disappear. Indeed, his head nodded.

“Actually, a ghost story has been circulating all over the River region recently.”

“Isn’t that a myth?”

“It’s a horrific rumor that monsters targeting livestock appear every night.”

The rumor itself was nothing special. Even if it was a big city or the capital where the emperor lived, rumors of a similar kind were often circulating in the River region where the Galatia branch was located.

“No evidence, no witnesses, no other information. I don’t even know what kind of monsters are targeting livestock.”

All that was left were bloodstains and traces of the animals struggling to survive. It entered the village like a ghost and fled with livestock. About monsters attacking livestock, rumors abounded in each village, and reliable information had not yet been captured.

“Fortunately, there are no casualties, but I’ve already heard that the theft damage is considerable. The economy has deteriorated very badly as hunters gossip about whether they even ate livestock as well as mountain beasts.”

“I see. In a mountain village, even in winter, if you don’t catch prey, your livelihood is vague.”

Parker, a joiner from a high-mountainous village, muttered with deep sympathy for Hawke’s explanation.

“Relevant requests kept coming in, so several combat teams were dispatched, but no significant results have been achieved so far.

A deep wrinkle settled on the forehead of the branch manager Hawk, who had blurred the end of his speech.

“But it’s strange. For a monster, you’re too meticulous.”

Suddenly, Parker raised a suspicion. Then Mubin, who was leaning against the wall of her carriage with her arms crossed, also expressed affirmation.

“Oh, I thought of that too.”

“You mean the monster isn’t the culprit? Can you tell me more about your thoughts?”

Even after hearing Hawk’s mournful voice, Moobin did not correct his poor posture.

“No Evidence, No Witnesses, No Other Evidence.”

Moobin, who recites the rumors about the monster that Hawk had spoken of earlier, was muffled and continued.

“Isn’t this at the level of a high-ranking wizard beyond meticulousness? It’s impossible not to leave evidence of a monster that has almost no other sensibility and intelligence other than its killing instinct.”

“That’s right! It doesn’t make sense for a monster to invade a village and kill all livestock overnight without anyone being noticed.”

“How can they eat so many in the first place. I don’t know if they stole it in a wagon.”

Hawk, who listened intently to Mubin and Parker’s arguments of give-and-take, added a word.

“So there is a concern that it might be a monster that is huge enough to kill a large amount at once.”

“More, a bigger monster? Ugh.”

Parker’s complexion turned white in an instant. From the standpoint of the cowardly Parker, he was the kind of person he hated the most. On the other hand, Moobin snorted without agitation at all.

“No one knows when such a large monster invades the village? It makes no sense anymore.”

“Ah! That’s right. Even one wild boar comes down from the mountain and it becomes a complete wasteland. Even without any witnesses, traces of their visit remain. There are also excavations of crops, and a lot of bloodstains and footprints, even at the mouth of the mountain!”

Estio chapter 196

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