Chapter 76: A Teleportation Plan

More importantly, they were already heading toward a dungeon city, yet he could not even earn enough money to pay for the journey.

I’m completely stuck!

"Hey, hey, don’t think yourself into a corner, Nuoya. It’s true that if you accept a mission through the guild, the information gets shared throughout the guild network. But that only applies to individual missions. If we accept a mission as a party, only the representative’s information is shared. The information of the other members isn’t."

"Huh...?"

"When a party accepts a mission, members can be replaced along the way. That’s why the representative handles the mission on behalf of the entire party. So you don’t need to worry. You can still accept missions, and once you complete them, they’ll be added to your record. Of course, the rewards will be divided among the party members."

"You’re a god!"

Qiu Nuoya instinctively clasped his hands and bowed toward Viktor and Igor. It was still another situation where he was relying heavily on others, but simply having a way to earn money was already a huge relief.

"There’s just one problem. Whenever we accept missions, the guild staff always ask us to take on high rank missions. We don’t mind doing them ourselves, but that means we’ll probably end up with missions that are a little too difficult for you and Warren. I told you about my fighting style before, right? If it were just Viktor, it wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m worried I might end up getting you two injured." As he spoke, Igor glanced at Qiu Nuoya and Warren.

Qiu Nuoya had only accepted one party mission before. It had been the goblin extermination mission, and Warren had been the party representative at the time. Since Qiu Nuoya and Warren had been the same rank back then, he had never given the matter much thought.

However, Igor had a point. Whether Viktor or Igor became the party representative, the difference between their ranks and Qiu Nuoya’s and Warren’s was simply too large.

"Oh, by the way, I won’t be forming a party with you."

"!?"

Viktor casually dropped that bombshell, leaving Qiu Nuoya completely stunned.

Qiu Nuoya had been spoiled by Viktor for so long that he had naturally assumed Viktor and Igor would somehow take care of everything this time as well. Yet Viktor was saying that he would not form a party with him.

It was obvious that there was a huge difference between Qiu Nuoya’s rank and Viktor’s, and that Qiu Nuoya would only become a burden. In that sense, it was perfectly understandable that Viktor would not want to form a party with him.

Even so, Qiu Nuoya was surprised by how deeply the rejection shocked him. He had been telling himself that he needed to become independent, yet somewhere deep down, he had apparently been relying on Viktor far more than he realized. The realization left him shaken.

As Qiu Nuoya rapidly processed everything and his face went pale, Viktor hurriedly grabbed his arm. "Please listen until I finish. It’s not that I don’t want to form a party with you. This is a strategy to deceive that person."

"Deceive that person...?" Qiu Nuoya tilted his head in confusion, and Viktor continued explaining.

"If you think about it, it should be obvious. I publicly declared in that city that I would take you on as my disciple, and the guild staff know about it. If you disappear and I disappear at the same time, naturally they will assume that you and I are together. So instead of forming a party with you, I intend to accept unrelated missions in other regions and move from place to place for a while."

"Then does that mean you’ll be traveling separately from us from now on...?"

"No. We will be traveling together. Why would I leave you? I told you that I would protect you, didn’t I?" Viktor smiled gently.

"But you just said you’d be moving from place to place..."

"I can use teleportation magic. As long as I have visited a place before, I can travel there instantly."

Ah, so that was what he meant.

For example, while Qiu Nuoya and the others accepted party missions with Igor as the representative, Viktor could accept missions somewhere else. That would make it appear as though Igor and Viktor were traveling separately.

If the Saintess mistakenly believed that Viktor and Qiu Nuoya were together, her attention would be directed toward them.

A decoy!

But wait...

"Hey, I just thought of something. Have you ever been to Oraria, Viktor?"

"I have. Why do you ask?"

"If you can use that teleportation magic to take us all the way to Oraria, then we don’t actually need to travel there ourselves, do we?"

It was an idea that was entirely to Qiu Nuoya’s advantage, but if Viktor could take them there that way, they would not have to worry about travel expenses and if they did not have to worry about travel expenses, they would not need to force themselves to accept missions along the way either. That would solve a lot of problems.

However...

"...Rejected." Viktor suddenly shook his head with a completely expressionless face.

"Huh? But we’d save money on travel expenses... Ah, wait. Is it extremely difficult? Does it consume a huge amount of magic power?"

"That is certainly one of the reasons. Teleportation magic consumes a great deal of magic power, so I cannot use it many times in a single day. Besides, my teleportation magic is normally intended for individual use. It is not a spell designed to transport multiple people."

"Huh? Huh? But what about the other day?" Qiu Nuoya distinctly remembered Viktor carrying him back from outside the city to the share house.

If that had been possible, then...

"Nuoya is small enough for me to carry. But you expect me to carry Igor’s enormous body as well? That’s impossible. Absolutely impossible."

Ah... Right.

When he thought about it that way, it made sense.