Chapter 79: A New City

After several dozen days of travel, they arrived at a relatively large city. They were only halfway to the dungeon city, but that also meant their journey was already halfway over.

"Finally, a bed!"

After sleeping outdoors for so long that his entire body had begun to ache, even the hard mattress of a cheap inn felt like the softest and most luxurious bed in the world. As soon as they arrived at the inn, Qiu Nuoya immediately threw himself onto the bed.

"Even you do something like that?" Igor laughed.

Oops. Qiu Nuoya had gotten a little too excited about staying at an inn for the first time in ages.

"All right, everyone. After you’ve had a little rest, please go to the guild and report the completion of your missions. I will go as well." With that, Viktor swept his robe around himself and disappeared.

Viktor would accept missions at an Adventurers’ Guild somewhere else, complete them, and then rejoin them. In practice, he was completing twice as many missions as everyone else, yet Viktor never seemed tired.

Of course, the missions Qiu Nuoya and Warren accepted were low rank missions suited to their abilities, so they were relatively easy. Still, the missions Viktor accepted personally at other guilds were presumably appropriate for his own rank.

Viktor always completed those missions quickly and returned, but Qiu Nuoya was incredibly curious about what kinds of missions he was actually taking and how he managed to complete them so efficiently.

Viktor never told him.

Qiu Nuoya was only worried that he might be pushing himself too hard.

"All right, then. Shall we go too?" At Igor’s prompting, Qiu Nuoya and the others left the inn as well.

This city seemed larger than Coalora, and the streets were much more crowded. Warren held out his hand toward Qiu Nuoya. It seemed he wanted them to hold hands while walking, but Qiu Nuoya hesitated slightly.

Warren had already been like this back when they were in Coalora, but recently, he had become almost as overprotective of Qiu Nuoya as Viktor.

Qiu Nuoya suspected it had started after the day he had been attacked by the orc.

"I’m fine, you know?"

"Just let me!"

"Hahaha, big cities can have kidnappers too. I’ll feel better if you two stay together." Igor said that with a laugh.

Come to think of it, Igor had often picked Qiu Nuoya up and carried him around back when they were in Coalora. Perhaps this really was a dangerous world where it was unwise for small children to wander around carelessly.

If his companions thought it was safer for him to hold hands with someone, then perhaps he should just do it. Besides, if he refused, Igor might simply pick him up and carry him anyway. When it came to embarrassment, neither option was any better. So Qiu Nuoya obediently took Warren’s hand and began walking beside him.

"Could it be that you have younger brothers or sisters?"

"Hm? Why?"

"Nothing. You just seem really used to this."

Qiu Nuoya gently swung their joined hands as he spoke, but Warren simply looked away and said, "I was an only child, so I’ve never really done anything like this before."

"I’m an only child too."

"Really?"

Once again, Warren refused to meet Qiu Nuoya’s eyes. He simply held Qiu Nuoya’s hand tightly and refused to let go. So Warren was not used to this because he had no younger siblings after all.

"Nuoya..." Warren began to say something, then hesitated.

Qiu Nuoya tilted his head curiously.

"If I leave you alone, I feel like you’re going to get yourself into some kind of trouble." Warren said it while looking away.

"Am I really that unreliable?" Qiu Nuoya was certainly unfamiliar with this world, but on the inside, he was still a grown man. He thought he was reasonably responsible.

Apparently, Warren saw him as a helpless and troublesome child instead. Being worried over by a boy younger than him was a little embarrassing. He really needed to become more dependable.

"I’ll work hard so I can become someone reliable enough that you won’t have to worry about me, Warren!"

"Uh... Yeah." Warren’s face seemed to turn slightly red as he quietly answered.

Igor had apparently been listening to their conversation without making it obvious. Suddenly, he snorted with laughter.

"Nuoya, you really are dense," he said, bursting into laughter.

"Am I really that slow? Do I need to exercise more and improve my footwork?"

At Qiu Nuoya’s reply, Igor burst out laughing again. "Yes, yes. You’re serious and hardworking, Nuoya, but you should broaden your perspective a little."

As he said that, Igor vigorously ruffled Qiu Nuoya’s hair.

My perspective? Was his field of vision really that narrow?

It was true that whenever Qiu Nuoya was faced with a problem right in front of him, he tended to focus entirely on that one issue and lose sight of everything else. But was that a bad habit for someone who specialized in long range attacks?

Igor continued laughing as he said, "You two really are adorable," then proceeded to mess up not only Qiu Nuoya’s hair but Warren’s as well.

Come on! Viktor had taken the time to fix his hair, and now it was completely messy again!

When they arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild, they reported all the requests they had completed so far.

Since Warren was the party representative, he handled all the necessary procedures while Qiu Nuoya and Igor simply stood behind him and watched.

The guild employees looked slightly puzzled that Warren, who was clearly lower ranked than Igor, was acting as the party representative, but the report was completed without any problems.

Since they had accepted several missions and reported them all at once, the reward came to a fairly substantial amount.

Qiu Nuoya could not hide his excitement as he holding silver coins in his hands for the first time.

"At this rate, you two might be able to take Rank E promotion exam by the time we reach Oraria," Igor said this while glancing at Qiu Nuoya and Warren’s Adventurers’ Guild cards.