Joining

“What now?”

The Batta Bear had been instantly killed by the black-robed man.

The crisis was over.

And with them, it had only been a temporary party anyway.

Logically speaking, now was the time to say goodbye.

But after going back… where was I supposed to find people to party with?

That was a serious problem.

Sure, this team was trash-tier in every sense.

Still, for someone like me with no better options, joining them didn’t seem like the worst choice.

“Heading back, I guess? Thanks a ton for saving us this time. Oh—right. Interested in joining us?”

The elf girl tilted her head up at a perfect 45-degree angle, eyes sparkling with expectation as she stared at me.

Her suggestion was exactly what I wanted.

So I nodded without hesitation.

“Sure. I’m Liv Shadowsong. Class: Lancer.”

“Welcome to the Yuli Squad! I’m Yuli Windwhisper—just call me Yuli. I’m the captain, class: Mage.”

“I’m Anton Noite. Class: Defender.”

“Lilith Duyu. Class: Assassin.”

“I’m Font Wayne. Class: Swordsman. Pleasure to have you, beautiful Miss Liv!”

Besides Yuli, the introductions went: the somewhat rugged shield guy first, then the cold-faced rapier girl, and finally the slightly delinquent-looking greatsword boy.

“Alright, now that we’re acquainted, let’s deal with these corpses first. We shouldn’t linger here.”

Yuli clapped her hands lightly, voice bright and cheerful.

Font immediately started collecting the Batta Bear corpse.

Lilith slipped into the forest to retrieve the other one.

When she came back out, for some reason her gaze toward me had changed slightly—there was a faint trace of awe mixed in.

“Was this your original quest?”

“Hm? No way. A low-tier team that can’t even fill its roster properly wouldn’t get assigned a high-level quest like this.”

“Then if it’s not a quest… why collect the corpses?”

“Huh? You don’t know? After finishing a guild quest, you can still accept more and get rewards for them. Even if the guild doesn’t want the materials, you can sell them elsewhere.”

“Oh. I see.”

Sure enough, this world was different from games.

In games, you could only get rewards for quests you had accepted.

Kill ten thousand monsters without a quest? Zero reward.

And private trading was forbidden—terribly player-unfriendly design.

Back then, tons of players demanded changes.

The company never budged.

Pure “play or leave” attitude. Extremely annoying.

“This time you carried the heaviest weight, so I’ll give you a bigger share of the reward. Hehe, how’s that? Pretty generous, right?”

Isn’t that just obvious? What does your generosity have to do with it?

I really wanted to say that.

But seeing her beaming so brightly, I swallowed the words.

“Yuli, are you an elf?”

The five of us walked while staying alert to our surroundings.

Since I was a little bored and curious about her, I decided to chat.

“Half. I’m half-elf.”

Half-elf.

In the Holy-Demon Continent, they were somewhat special existences.

Legend had it that long ago, the Demon King who brought catastrophic disaster to the world was a hybrid of demon and elf.

The game’s history touched on it briefly.

“My mother is human, my father is elf. I was expelled from the tribe when I was very young. I grew up among humans, so by nature I’m closer to human side.”

Yuli’s expression was neutral—neither sad nor happy.

I couldn’t read her emotions at all.

Someone like Yuli probably faced a lot of unfair treatment from both elves and humans.

“…”

I didn’t know what to say.

At that moment, Lilith suddenly shot me a glare, as if warning me not to bring up such topics.

After that, no one spoke in the party.

We continued traveling in silence.

I walked at the back, quietly observing them.

“Heh.”

If there had been a mirror in front of me, it probably would’ve shown me smiling coldly.

Soon, we exited the forest.

At the station, many armed villagers were patrolling everywhere.

Almost certainly because I ate the divine beast and killed Villager A, B, C, D…

Ignoring their murderous glares, we boarded the waiting beast carriage.

After paying the fare, the carriage sped off at a furious pace.

The jolting was as bone-rattling as ever.

After a long while, we arrived at the guild.

We staggered down from the carriage.

Yuli couldn’t hold it anymore—she immediately leaned over the roadside and vomited violently.

Her condition looked truly pitiful.

“I’m gonna die…”

Her face was deathly pale.

Apparently this girl’s motion sickness was several times worse than mine.

Lilith gently patted her back.

Anton and Font just wore indifferent expressions—completely unmoved.

Once Yuli recovered a bit, we entered the guild to turn in the quest.

The reward for the Batta Bear was unexpectedly high.

Just my share alone came to 12 gold coins.

Total haul: 14 gold coins.

With this money, my livelihood was finally secured.

“We’re heading to the tavern in a bit. Come join us, Liv!”

“Sure. You guys go ahead—I’ll catch up later.”

After temporarily parting with the group, I went to the reception counter.

Before I could even speak, Ninina spotted me.

“Heyyy, my little beauty came back safe and sound!”

“Thanks to you.”

I was starting to build up some resistance to her teasing.

“Fufu~ Looks like you did pretty well.”

“Not bad. Anyway—Ninina, I want information on Plastic Wind Village.”

The black-robed man’s final actions left me deeply uneasy.

This probably wasn’t going to end so simply.

A strong premonition told me so.

“Plastic Wind Village? Not a nice place at all. Even within the entire Dawnlight Kingdom, it’s quite special. In short—it’s a cult village.”

“A cult? How does the kingdom allow something like that to exist inside its borders?”

“The kingdom can’t really do anything about it. This cult originated from the Western Continent. We have quite a bit of trade with them—can’t afford to offend easily. For extremely exclusionary and fanatical cults like this, the usual approach is to herd them into one place and let them fend for themselves. Plastic Wind Village is exactly that kind of settlement.”

“A few years ago, because they were proselytizing everywhere, destroying other religions’ churches and killing clergy, our guild fought them multiple times. Only recently did we finally sign a peace treaty. They’ve been relatively quiet since.”

“Isn’t that just a ticking time bomb?!”

“Ticking time bomb—good analogy. Anyway, best not to provoke them if you can help it. Those people are extremely extreme. Oh, right—news just came in. Their divine beast and several villagers were killed. The whole village is in an uproar right now. If they can’t find the culprit soon, expect a lot of trouble. Really gives me a headache.”

“Uh… yeah, quite the headache-inducing cult, haha…”

A cold sweat trickled down my forehead.

My insides went ice-cold.

I had actually offended such terrifying people!

“Hm? Did you hear anything while you were over there?”

“Nothing at all.”

I shook my head, eyes darting everywhere.

“Really?”

Ninina stared at me.

Her sharp gaze felt like it could see straight through to my soul.

“Mm!”

I nodded vigorously.

“Hmph~ You’d better not get involved with that cult. Otherwise, you won’t even know how you died in the end.”

When Ninina let out that little hum, there was a cute nasal tone to it.