467 Take Your Quest Rewards Quietly

Well… Nothing much happened on the way back aside from the few times we had to knock out the Off-Worlder when he woke up.

He was then handed over to the Knights without any problem and we turned in the quest uneventfully.

Err… Ok, maybe not that uneventfully because…

"You… The nine of you… Took out this many Orcs… On your own?" The Guild staff muttered in disbelief.

In front of her were all the Mana Crystals that we had extracted out of the Orcs from the Stronghold.

When Emilia found out that we could extract Mana Crystals out from the Orcs that the Off-Worlder summoned, she had suggested tying him up to a tree and forcing him to summon more Orcs just so that we could farm the Mana Crystals from him.

I shot down that idea pretty quickly since the risk was not worth it.

Who knows if he would summon something even bigger than an Orc and then escape using that.

Emilia tried to argue that we could simply just knock him out again if he does but I still rejected her.

I didn't want to tell her that the real reason why I did not want to risk it was because of the fact that he was an Off-Worlder. Since my [Screened] does not show what boons he had taken, I don't want him suddenly using some boon to free himself or even hurt one of my party members and it's not like he had any reason to obey us.

And no, I don't think that offering him freedom in exchange for this is a good idea either.

Besides… As you can already tell from the Guild staff's reaction, we already have a sizeable amount of the Mana Crystals already.

Emilia leaned on the counter, "That's three hundred and thirty six Orc Grunts, six Orc Berserkers and one Mountain Orc General. That would be six thousand, eight hundred and sixty Creas for the quest reward and an additional twenty seven thousand, six hundred and eighty Creas for the Mana Crystals. In total, please prepare thirty four thousand, five hundred and forty Creas for us, please."

I wouldn't be surprised if Emilia did all that calculation in her head on the spot just now.

The Guild staff stared at the Mana Crystals on the tray for a while more before robotically picking said tray up to bring them to the room behind the counter, presumably to count them out and process our rewards.

"Thirty… Thirty four thousand?" Chamie muttered, looking just as shocked as the Guild staff who just left. "That's… That's more than the price of our family's manor house…"

Emilia turned to her, "Oh don't be too happy, we're only getting about three thousand, eight hundred and thirty seven Creas each."

Hearing that number didn't make the two girls feel any less shocked since it's still a big amount of money for poor people like us.

Even after dividing the money amongst the party, the money we're getting was a quarter of my entire savings which I had spent years to save up. All this was earned after just three days of work too.

If I add this on top of my savings… I'd have about sixteen thousand Creas saved up right now.

Pretty sure that amount of money was enough for me to even buy a house in the capital's Commoner District and still have enough money left over to live relatively comfortably for at least a few years.

The Guild staff soon returned with a similar looking tray but laden with coins this time. He had even helpfully divided the money up into nine piles with each pile having three large silver coins on top of several other smaller coins as well.

Delmare's eyes widened at the sight, "Oh wow… I'm only just realising how much money we made from this… Is this normal?"

Odeta laughed, "Wahaha! Of course not! It's only possible because of Sister Aster!"

Umm… Actually it's thanks to Tiara since she was the one who found the quest and suggested we take it… Oh whatever.

Katsuki spoke up then, "Miss Delmare, as far as I know, this is indeed a rare event. The quest was classified as a D rank because it is believed that there would only be less than a hundred Orcs in that stronghold. Otherwise, it might have been moved up to C or even B rank. That would require at least an entire Assembly of fifty Mercenaries to take on the quest under those circumstances."

"And assuming that everybody comes back alive, which is very highly unlikely, you'd get a split of six hundred and ninety Creas and eighty Decreas," Emilia calculated for us.

"That's still a lot of money though," Delmare pointed out.

"Not exactly, because a quest like this might take a week and the battle itself might last more than a day. Not to mention the fact that the risk for this quest would be quite high as well."

But that's just part of the life of a Mercenary anyway.

Delmare and the two sisters were still comprehending what they were just told when Lisa came up to hug my arm from the side without warning.

"Aster! We've got money now! Let's go shopping!!"

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Right now?"

"Of course! We're already out aren't we? We can just buy your dress that you'll wear to meet with the… Oops… Err… For our date!"

Ah, she almost said to meet with the King and Queen later this week… Which I also almost forgot if Lisa didn't remind me just then.

I turned to Katsuki in a slight panic, wondering if I should be worried about what I was going to wear.

Katsuki simply bowed, "Mistress, Madam has already taken care of your attire for the event so there is no need for you to worry about it."

Lisa puffed her cheeks, "It doesn't hurt to have more dresses right? Come on! Let's go!"

"Yes~ My ship is still in the harbour with a wide variety of dresses that you can choose from. I'll be happy to guide you there~" Emilia suggested, her hands rubbing together.

Actually, that's not a bad idea… Because there's bound to be exotic sweets on her ship too right?! I want those sweets~

As though reading my mind, Emilia raised a finger, "I have set aside some special sweets just for you, Miss Aster! So how about it?"

"Let's go!"

I turned to walk towards the exit but ended up bumping into someone who just happened to be there when I did so.

I stumbled back but Odeta caught me before I fell, the Amrap's hands holding my shoulders tightly.

"Ow, ow, ow! That hurt a lot, lady!" The guy I bumped into whined, holding his arm and grimacing like I've broken his arm.

As if on cue, a few others came up behind him and surrounded us in a semicircle, a few of them looking at us with a rather uncomfortable gaze.

The man narrowed his eyes at me, "Hey lady. When you hurt someone it's common courtesy to apologise, you know?"

Tch… I can already guess what this guy wants but I'll just play along for now.

I did a curtsy, "My apologies good sir. I had thought that you might be a big strong man who would not be hurt by a bump from a weak person like myself, but it seems like I need to work on my ability to judge other people's strengths since it is clear that I was wrong about how strong you were."

Heh, two can play at that game.

The man scowled at me, "What?! Hey! Why you… Ahem… Ye… Yeah! You hurt me! So you need to compensate me for this injury! I think three thousand Creas would do the trick!"

Ugh… This guy and his friends must have heard we earned quite a lot of money from our quest and thought they could try and swindle it from us.

I gave him my fake smile, "Oh dear! Did I injure you that badly? Do you need a healer?"

"Of course I do! You broke my arm! I'm going to need to find an Iatromancer that is at least on the level of Medic tier! Do you know how expensive they are?!"

I tilted my head, "A Medic tier Iatromancer can charge three thousand Creas for just healing a bone?"

"Ha! Of course not! I'm including the compensation fee that you need to pay for making me unable to work while I'm looking for a healer! 

I smiled at him, "Oh! In that case, aren't you fortunate? Because I just so happen to be a Medic tier Iatromancer! So if I heal you, there wouldn't be any problems right?"

"Wa… What? No way! You're bluffing! No wait… Even if you are--"

I didn't wait for him to finish his spiel before I raised my palm to point at him, "[Heal]!"

His body glowed for a moment but obviously there was not really much change since he wasn't hurt in the first place.

I then stretched out my palm to him, "Now, please pay for the healing fee and also the compensation fee for making me use my mana. Oh! And also the emotional distress you caused me for scaring me like that. I think three thousand Creas would suffice~"

Hey, you think I'll just let him get away with trying to scam me? Hell no, I'm taking everything he's got~

So cough up the dough buddy!