Ryu had been summoned to the Adventurers' Guild upon hearing that he had received a request for his services.

But when he arrived, he was met by Sophie and the others.

Ryu: "You came all the way here to greet me. That's pretty thoughtful of you."

Sophie: "Of course, I wanted to apologize. I think I said some terrible things to you the other day when I was flustered. I'm sorry, Ryu."

Ryu: "Well, I tried to kill your family member, so I can't say I don't understand."

Sophie: "No, thinking about it calmly, my brother should have learned his lesson from what happened. I've heard rumors that my brother would easily kill commoners for disrespect. If he kept doing that, he would have made enemies and could easily have been killed somewhere. I'm grateful to you for punishing him without killing him."

Ryu: "Oh, I see..."

Sophie: "And I promised to keep your teleportation magic a secret, but I ended up telling my brother. Actually, my brother saw you teleport. Knowing his personality, if he found out there was a mage who could teleport, who knows how he'd treat them... I had to do something, so I blurted out that you were my fiancé, thinking that maybe he'd refrain from doing anything crazy. I'm sorry, Ryu."

Sophie bowed her head. (Marie and the others flinched at the sight of the princess bowing, but they didn't say anything.)

Ryu: "Well, if you think about it, I was using teleportation without hiding it, like you said. It was only a matter of time before it got out."

Sophie, seeing that Ryu wasn't upset, looked relieved.

Ryu: "So, you came to apologize before returning to the capital?"

Sophie: "...What? I'm not going back to the capital."

Ryu thought she was coming to say goodbye, but Sophie looked confused and denied it.

It was a temporary party formed for novice training. There was no reason to continue after completing the dungeon training. He assumed they would disband after returning from the dungeon and never see each other again.

Besides, during the duel with Harris, Ryu had swung his sword without hesitation at Sophie's brother, cutting off his arms and stabbing him in the chest. Although Harris was eventually revived and unharmed, Sophie seemed to be shocked and repulsed by Ryu's brutal actions.

From her reaction, Ryu thought she would abandon him and return to the capital. He was fine with that.

Ryu intended to return to being solo after Sophie's training was finished and withdraw from the guild's novice training. He didn't think a party was right for him, someone with such a lack of cooperation.

However, it turned out that Sophie didn't see it as a temporary party for training; she was ready to continue working with Ryu and taking on requests.

She had been waiting for Ryu today because of the request for his services.

The request was for Ryu personally, but the client was the lord. Sophie was staying at the lord's welcoming villa, so she heard about the request that came directly to Ryu's "party" from the lord and rushed over because she thought it was her cue.

She said that Golant, the captain of the guard, was there as the lord's representative, so they shouldn't keep him waiting. Ryu decided to hear Golant's story first.

Ryu entered the guildmaster's office. Sophie and the others followed, as if it was natural for them to be part of the party. Ryu thought he'd have to talk to Sophie about disbanding the party later, but he shouldn't have let Golant tell his story first. Once he heard the story, it was natural to fall into the flow of doing it together.

(Scene Change)

Golant told them that there had been a string of missing young women in Mimul town lately. Initially, it happened mainly in the slums and the surrounding areas, and the guard was investigating after receiving complaints.

※ Previously, the city guard ignored complaints from slum residents, but Golant, since becoming captain, had been making an effort to help slum residents without discrimination.

The guard suspected a criminal organization within the slums, but they hadn't been able to catch them.

Apparently, recently, missing women incidents began to occur in the residential areas as well, not just in the slums. With the situation becoming urgent, Golant had suggested to the lord that they should seek help from Ryujiin, who knew the slums well and was also skilled.

Ryu: "I don't know the slums that well..."

Golant: "You'd know a lot more than those who live in the noble district."

Ryu: "Well, maybe that's true..."

But the criminal organization in the slums was supposed to have been destroyed by Ryu recently. The only remaining one was the "Silver Wolves" led by Zone. While the Silver Wolves were one of the criminal organizations in the slums, they weren't necessarily bad. Their main activity was more like that of an Robin Hood-esque vigilante group targeting "bad people," and they wouldn't attack ordinary citizens.

Ryu didn't believe Zone would do anything so underhanded. However, Golant said he suspected Zone.

Ryu had no intention of taking on the request. - He was an F-rank adventurer after all. F-rank adventurers have no obligation to accept requests. It's unusual for an F-rank adventurer to receive a request. - But hearing that Zone was suspicious made him curious, so Ryu decided to take the job. He also owed Zone a favor from the past.

The quickest way to get to the bottom of things would be to go to the slums and talk to Zone directly. With his divine eye, Ryu could read people's minds, so he should be able to find out the truth immediately.

However, the problem was that Sophie and the others wanted to join him on the request.

Ryu didn't want to work in a party. He tried to convince Sophie to return to the capital, but she refused. Apparently, she hadn't been told that it was a temporary party for training and believed they were to continue working as a party.

When Ryu looked at Catherine, she bowed apologetically without Sophie noticing. Ryu thought to himself, "I really need to give Catherine a good scolding." At the very least, there was no reason for him to help the guild anymore.

Regardless, Sophie argued that they were a party, so they should naturally accept the request together. Golant agreed, saying that it didn't matter if it was Ryu personally or the party who took the job. In fact, he couldn't just ignore the wishes of the princess, who was a guest of the lord. He begged Ryu to let the princess have her way.

In the end, they were going to the slums as a group of five.

(Scene Change)

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(Text: They visit Zone in the slums, but where is Zone? Don't miss it!)