Volume 6 Chapter 4 Candidate
"By the way, if Mr. Ivan was called for the duel, doesn't that mean Adventurers will be asked to help for real?"
"Yeah, that's probably what it means."
"If so, who else will come? Are there any candidates?"
"Well, there are three Adventurer groups led by SS-ranked members. They're called Worldsworn, Muspelheim, and Moonlight Nine. Their leaders will probably be called."
"There are three groups now with SS-ranked leaders, huh?"
Sumeragi, Nousa, and Ivan had come back to the garden's snack area. They were sitting on a long bench, eating soft rice cakes with sweet syrup.
"Worldsworn is Mr. Ivan's group, right?"
"Yeah, Ms. Nousa."
"What about the other two? What are they like?"
"First, both of them are Adventurer communities."
"I see..."
If only one Adventurer is working, it's called a solo.
If two or more are working together, it's called a party. A pair isn't called a combo in official papers.
If a few parties join up, it becomes a team. If people like blacksmiths or merchants join too, it becomes a community.
If the group gets good results and fills out a form to send and take quests, they can become a guild.
Worldsworn is a guild. Muspelheim and Moonlight Nine are communities.
"So... what's inside them?"
"Muspelheim was made over 200 years ago. It started when people solved a big problem."
"A problem?"
"Yeah. There was a huge fire that could have burned down a whole island. Six people from the Theocracy Nation lit a great fire signal and stopped the flames. That's how it began."
"I see..."
"They say the fire signal still burns today, and you can take a bit of that fire. Things made with it are said to be very strong."
"So the Adventurers there follow that flame, Mr. Ivan?"
"Yeah. That flame is a symbol of pride."
Big groups like that often need something to bring them together.
In Muspelheim's case, the fire from the signal—called the bonfire—stands for their legend and success. It's very important to them.
Even just taking a small flame from that bonfire can make a big difference in the things they make.
It's not just weapons and armor.
They make tools for farming out of iron, so they can grow food on their own.
They also use fire to make the center parts of magic tools, raising the level of their technology.
Because fire lets people melt iron and build better things, humans have improved.
For 200 years, Muspelheim has stayed strong.
"I see... what about Moonlight Nine?"
"It's a community led by a council of nine people, ranked from one to nine in power. They're very well organized. They've made bases deep in dungeons and run monster-hunting camps many times."
"They sound really organized."
"They were founded over a thousand years ago, after all."
"A thousand years!?"
"There were times when they got smaller, but they kept going."
"That's amazing... even countries don't last that long."
By the way, the Diamante Kingdom has lasted 400 years. The Chaos Stone Dragonstone Kingdom started a thousand years ago under a different name.
"But... something's been on my mind."
"Something bothering you?"
"Yeah. I met someone with a rank once. They said the group's headquarters has a statue of a goddess. It's really important to them."
"A goddess statue? Out of the Five Divine Gods, two are women. Which one is it?"
There's the God of Provisions, Arzent.
The God of Sealing, Shildress.
And the God of Iron-Cutting, Sumeragi.
Shildress is a woman, and one of the other two is also said to be female.
But...
"They say it's not one of those... I don't know the details though."
It's called a goddess statue.
Of course, it must be treasured. And since Ivan hasn't looked into it much, it probably wasn't meant to be talked about outside the group.
"I see... Even though Adventurers and the Theocracy are separate, they still keep a goddess statue and pray to it. There must be some story behind it, right?"
"Who knows? Even if someone knew, they'd be from a thousand years ago. No point thinking too hard about it."
"Yeah, you're right."
Stories that old can't be known by many people.
But not no one. Sumeragi, sitting right beside them, is over two thousand years old.
Still, that doesn't mean he knows what happened in every group.
(Also, Sumeragi doesn't really seem like the type who cares about this stuff, right?)
He doesn't look like someone who keeps up with news or holds on to knowledge.
He might remember the things he did, but he doesn't seem to know that much otherwise.
"I don't know why, but I feel like you're judging me."
"It's just your imagination."
"It's just your imagination."
Ivan and Nousa kept talking, brushing off Sumeragi's quiet complaint.
Character Notes:
• Sumeragi - One of the Five Divine Gods, known as the 'God of Iron-Slicing.' He introduces himself with a pleasant smile and seems to have a purpose in meeting Horace.
• Nousa - Horace's little sister.
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