""A quest~♪ A quest~♪""
We hadn't taken any adventurer jobs for a while, so we headed to the Adventurers' Guild to get back into it.
"Hey, I heard the 'Demon-Axe God' and the 'Fist-Fighter of Food' are in the capital."
"For real!?"
"If we wait here, can we meet them?"
Most of the people inside the guild were gossiping about someone called the "Demon-Axe God" and the "Fist-Fighter of Food."
""Who~?""
"Who are they supposed to be~?"
""N~?""
I don't really know who has what nickname, so I had no idea who they were talking about.
Actually, I didn't even know what the nicknames meant.
"Demon-Axe God"… hmm… definitely not a charitable name.
And the other one… "Fist-Fighter"? Something like that?
"Oh, Takumi, isn't that you!"
"Hm? Eh, Rudolph-san!?"
While the kids and I were tilting our heads in confusion, Rudolph-san, leader of the Dragon Breath party, waved to us from the back of the guild and walked over.
"I'm here too~"
"Eh, even Natally-san!?"
Natally-san, the chef who insists on gathering his own ingredients by going into the dungeon himself, was with him as well.
"Takumi, long time no see~"
"..."
For some reason, Natally-san started patting my head.
"Allen too!"
"Elena too!"
"Yup! You two look lively~"
""We're doing great~""
After patting my head, Natally-san moved on to Allen and Elena. And then—
"… Eh~"
"Hahaha~"
Rudolph-san started patting my now-empty head for some reason.
… What exactly are these people doing?
"…I'm not a kid, you know."
"Haha, let me do it, it's fine."
I tried subtly telling him to stop, but Rudolph-san kept patting anyway.
"H-hey, are Setsuna, Demon-Axe God and Fist-Fighter of Food all acquaintances!?"
"Setsuna is getting treated like a kid!?"
… Being seen like this by the other adventurers is kind of embarrassing.
"Hm?"
"What's wrong, Takumi?"
"Could it be… Rudolph-san, you're the Demon-Axe God?"
"Ah… yeah, that's what they call me."
"Then—! Natally-san is Fist-Fighter of Food!?"
Wait… Natally-san doesn't use a sword…
Oh! Fist-Fighter of food!
And Rudolph-san uses a halberd, so that's the axe part! Demon-Axe God!
"So you both had nicknames. I didn't know that~"
"You have one too, Takumi. Right, Setsuna?"
"Ah… yeah…"
Probably knowing I'm not used to being called by my nickname, Rudolph deliberately teased me with it.
"Allen has one too~"
"Elena too~"
""We're the Blue Twin Strike~""
"A shared nickname for the two of you? That's pretty cool."
""Right?!""
Unlike me, Allen and Elena proudly boasted about theirs. They must really like it.
"By the way, Rudolph-san, Natally-san, why are you two together?"
"Simply put, I left Dragon Breath. I'm teamed up with Natally now."
"Eh!? You left!?"
I couldn't help raising my voice. I never imagined Rudolph-san would quit his party.
"Yeah, Zack's about ready to aim for A-rank."
"A-rank!?"
"Right. So I figured he can't keep relying on me forever. I left Dragon Breath in his hands."
"… I see?"
So he stepped back because he wanted Zack-san to lead the party himself, huh?
He's far more suited for "teaching" than I ever will be…
"Then Zack-san and the others are working as a group of three?"
"No, they recruited new members. They should be operating as a group of five now. Though I didn't get involved in choosing the new ones, so I don't know who they picked."
"Oh, I see. And they're in the capital too?"
"No, they headed to Bailey to challenge the Dungeon of Ripples."
"Eh~ so they were in Bailey!?"
"They were~?"
"We didn't meet them at all~"
So Dragon Breath was in Bailey.
We just had bad timing when we visited the Bailey guild and the Dungeon of Ripples.
"What? You all were in Bailey?"
"Yes. We just arrived in the capital from Bailey a few days ago."
"Ah, then yeah, you were definitely there around the same time. Those guys headed over about a month ago."
Well, if they were deep in the labyrinth, they wouldn't have been in town much, and we weren't staying at an inn in Bailey either, so the chances of meeting them were originally low.
"That's too bad."
""Too bad~""
"Don't worry, you'll run into them again somewhere someday."
"You're right."
We'll meet again if fate allows.
"So how did you two end up partnering together?"
"When Rudolph was doing the withdrawal paperwork, I happened to be at the guild too. So I recruited him on the spot. Lately I've been feeling my age, traveling alone was getting rough, so I'd been looking for a partner."
Natally-san really acts fast.
And since they're together now, that means the recruitment worked.
"We're still in the testing phase, but we'll probably keep working as a team. And well, Natally-san's cooking is amazing~"
"Waaah..."
Rudolph-san… his stomach has been firmly captured.
"Tasty food is important~"
"Good food gives you energy~"
"Exactly! Food is vital. Especially when you work outside the city, eating only preserved rations and eating a proper meal makes a huge difference in stamina and motivation."
""That's true~""
Yeah, food is important.
A meal of hard bread and salty dried meat… I would absolutely hate that.
But without Unlimited Storage or a delayed-effect Magic Bag, preserved food is the only realistic option.
… Well, you can hunt local monsters like wolves or horned rabbits and roast the meat with salt, that's at least a bit better, right?
Though that still requires some cooking sense.
Iris from Dragon Breath once said her cooking was "classified as hazardous," after all…
I'm really glad I have cooking ability… that's for sure!