GILF Hunter

’What is... this?’

Tanya asked, lifting an unidentified insect glowing gold in her hand.

’It’s a Golden Ladybug.’

’I’ve never heard of such a bug existing...’

’That’s because it’s rare.’

Ian didn’t feel the need to explain the reason further.

Its gold-shining body looked more like a gold-carved ornament than an insect.

Even someone with zero knowledge of rare items would recognize it as expensive at a glance.

’It’s valuable, right?’

’It looks expensive just by looking at it.’

Ian nodded at Tanya and Mika’s obvious questions. It was a quite hard-to-find magical ingredient.

’This has the effect of increasing affinity for the lightning attribute.’

’Lightning?’

Everyone looked at Lia upon hearing the word lightning.

Only Mika pointed at herself, but no one paid her any attention.

Ian asked Lia first.

’Do you want to eat it?’

’E-eat it?! An insect?!’

Lia shook her head violently as if it were absolutely impossible.

Since Lia seemed to be misunderstanding something, Ian corrected her again.

’You don’t eat it as is; it’ll be made into a potion, obviously.’

Hearing Ian’s explanation, Lia shook her head even harder. Thinking of a potion extracted from a bug made her hate it even more.

Seeing that reaction, Ian felt slightly puzzled.

Does Lia... not know the ingredients of the [Haste Potion]? She drinks that all the time without a second thought.

Ian decided not to tell her what goes into a [Haste Potion].

Lia, who had been rejecting it fiercely, stole a glance when Ian stopped suggesting it.

’I-if I absolutely have to eat it...’

’It’s not that serious. If you’re not interested, we can just sell it.’

If it were a power increase, he would have insisted she take it, but affinity wasn’t essential unless one were a mage specializing in lightning.

Unless one intended to make lightning their primary attribute and learn high-level techniques, it was a stat that wasn’t strictly necessary.

If she wasn’t interested, selling it wasn’t a bad choice either.

Mika, who had been pointing at herself until then, finally lowered her hand quietly.

For a Barrier Mage, it was a stat that was surprisingly useless.

＊　＊　＊

A small hut on one side of the farm.

In that place Ian had rented for a brief talk, a mercenary was quietly kneeling on the floor.

It was the mercenary named Luca, who had gone scouting with Rin.

He was also the discoverer who held a share of that Stinger warehouse Ian’s group had opened recently.

’...Why are you doing that?’

’W-well, I’m sorry, but I have someone I’m marrying soon... dangerous work is...’

A large leather pouch lay in front of Luca.

Inside... it was filled with gold coins.

The moment Luca saw the contents, he had slumped to his knees like this.

’I’m not trying to give you a dangerous job.’

’I-in plays... they all say that while asking to do just one simple task together...’

’No, seriously. Luca! It’s the discovery share from when we went scouting last time!’

Hearing Rin’s explanation, Luca spoke as if he remembered.

’Ah, that? I heard it was somewhat valuable loot, but still, this much...?’

’Quite a bit of expensive loot came out of there.’

Understanding that it wasn’t a request for some dangerous, covert mission, Luca finally stole a glance at the pouch in front of him.

Inside was a shocking amount of gold coins.

’The most expensive item hasn’t been priced yet. For now, I’ve put in an amount calculated at market price. I’ll send more once the price is finalized.’

’T-t-t-this much money is...’

Luca’s face had now turned into an expression of ’What kind of new scam is this?’

Luca had rushed over saying the atmosphere was strange and asked for help, so Kiri, the vice-captain of the same mercenary group who sat in on the meeting, was also flustered upon seeing the amount.

Clea, who attended as a notary at Ian’s request, answered confidently.

’Don’t worry! I checked the amount, and it’s definitely based on the Merchant Guild’s average price!’

’I’m not doubting the amount...’

’In fact, I’ll buy it! I’ll give you 1.5 times the amount right now!’

1.5 times... here?

While Luca was frozen, unable to answer, Ian expressed his refusal to Clea first.

’Sorry. I’m planning to send this to the auction house.’

’Hmph... if it goes to auction, I might not be able to buy it...’

The flustered Luca did something he would normally never dare to do. Luca, cutting into the conversation between B-rank mercenaries, shouted first.

’I-I’ll sell it!’

’Yay! Really?!’

Clea lunged forward and gave Luca a big hug.

Actually, Ian preferred handing it over to Clea, whom he knew, but since Luca from another mercenary group was involved in the share, he had tried to sell it as expensively as possible.

If he handed over something that could be sold for more to an acquaintance for cheap, rumors might spread later.

Ian asked to confirm Luca’s intention once more.

’Are you sure? If it goes to auction, you could get 3 to 4 times more.’

’3...?!’

’Oh, come on! Auction houses drag things out for 3 to 4 months just to promote the item! I heard you’re going back to your hometown to get married, so it’s better to get the money quickly!’

’Ah. I didn’t think of that. Sorry.’

’Ah, no. Haha... it’s fine...’

Luca muttered with an expression like his soul had half-departed.

The dream of a windfall is something every mercenary has. Naturally, Luca had imagined it every day too.

But he realized this time that when it actually happens, it can feel like fear rather than joy.

Luca’s reason, sensing a crisis, cooled down coldly. Luca calmly analyzed the current situation.

This was... a scam.

Furthermore, with two B-rank mercenary groups siding together, it was a truly large-scale scam.

What on earth could these two be aiming for?

As expected, the marriage funds I saved up?

But that’s less than this money...

While Luca was lost in such worries, Ian and Clea, having finished their talk, left first after saying their goodbyes.

Inside the hut, only Luca, Vice-captain Kiri, and the money pouch remained.

Luca asked Kiri with a panicked face.

’W-what do I do?’

’What do you mean? It’s your money. You have to handle it.’

Kiri noticed what Luca was worried about and said,

’Well, hearing the talk, it doesn’t seem like a scam. You said you wanted to open a big shop in your hometown. That money should do it.’

’A shop...’

’Don’t just hold it blankly like that and show it off; go hide it somewhere.’

Kiri also slapped Luca’s back hard and went back.

Left alone in the hut, Luca hurriedly hid the pouch.

＊　＊　＊

All the business at the farm was finished.

The mercenaries who participated in the subjugation, including the Ian Mercenary Group, returned to Labyrinth together.

The farm owner sent all the first-harvested ingredients to Louise’s Workshop as promised.

It was a quantity several times larger than the amount needed for the shop.

Thanks to that, other alchemists came to Louise’s shop to get ingredients, making it quite busy for a while.

Since Louise was someone who loved such opportunities to boast to other alchemists.

She grumbled to Ian about being busy, but she couldn’t hide the smile on her face.

Now the busy work would be over for a while.

Just as Ian was thinking that, a small commotion was occurring at Louise’s Workshop.

Someone kicked open the door to Louise’s Workshop and entered.

’Hey! Who’s Louise?’

’Who are you?’

It was almost time to close the shop. Louise, who was tidying up moderately, asked as she looked at the sudden strange guest.

A woman with long silver hair flowing down. Looking at her traveler-like attire, she seemed to have come from outside Labyrinth.

Louise, with an alchemist’s intuition, realized the other party was a fellow alchemist.

’I’m Emilia. You sent a letter.’

’A letter...?’

The opponent pulled a crumpled letter from her bosom.

Louise immediately recognized the letter she had written not long ago.

’This is... a letter I sent to the Alchemists’ Guild in Orsia, why do you have this?’

’I was staying in Orsia. There was a commotion at the guild, so I went to check and saw something interesting.’

’Ah. You must have seen what I sent along with it.’

To tease the guild’s alchemists, she had sent a bit of a material found in the Labyrinth.

Surely the guild must have been turned upside down. This alchemist must have seen it when that commotion happened.

By the looks of it, she seemed to be a wandering alchemist. Could she have come all the way here after seeing that, to ask to be accepted as a disciple?

Louise let out a small chuckle internally.

Oh, my. A disciple. She hadn’t thought about it yet, but she had settled down here, and perhaps it was about that time.

While Louise was lost in such thoughts, Emilia complained while pointing at the letter.

’Yeah. How can you send only that much of the material? I could barely use any.’

’Pardon? You used it for an experiment?’

It should have been a woefully insufficient amount to do anything.

Since one couldn’t just use such a precious thing in an experiment. It was meant for everyone to just look at and envy.

The mysterious alchemist took two small potion bottles from her bag.

’I barely managed to make just two bottles.’

’Pardon? You made potions with just that one leaf? How?’

’Eh? Why did you send it if you weren’t going to make potions?’

First of all, it should have been an insufficient amount even to find out what properties that material had and how it reacted with other components.

But she made finished products immediately with a material she was seeing for the first time. Moreover, the two bottles were different potions.

While Louise, who had reflexively taken the potions, stared blankly at them, Emilia made herself at home and walked inside.

’Anyway, where’s the warehouse?’

’Wa-wait... who are you to just barge into someone else’s workshop...’

Entering Louise’s private workshop, Emilia recognized what Louise was researching just by looking at the materials and equipment on the desk.

’Hm? What’s this... ah, you want to increase the explosive power? Then don’t use this; use the Shade Wedge Flower. Cold-steep it.’

’W-what... no, I had almost figured it out!’

Louise, having suddenly heard the answer to the new potion she was developing, grabbed Emilia in a rage.