“Everything you said,” Marcus sounded beyond serious. “Is it real?”

  He felt thumps in his chest. She said there was soap that smelled like flowers, liquid dishwashers that cleaned plates and cookware to perfection, and even soap that could stop infections.

  Most importantly, there were detergents that could perfectly clean clothes.

  It must be the result of four hundred years of magical and technological advancements in sanitation. Oh lord almighty…

  He remembered how absolutely horrendous their sanitation was during the glorious expedition.

  They had clothes that rotted due to demon blood, soldiers who died from infection, and thousands of broken weapons and pieces of equipment from corrosion and rust—the list went on. It was a fact of life they agonized with between every battle.

  Attrition was simply mind-numbing, and there was absolutely no replacement for every lost person or piece of equipment. What they had with them, they had to maintain with crappy-ass soap and normal water in limited supply.

  If what she was saying was true, then…

  From now on, dealing with laundry and dirty equipment will be easy if I have detergent.

  No, he had to restrain himself.

  Yes, that’s right, he never saw those things yet. One must always focus on what’s in front of them. Who cared if there was some magic powder out there that could turn his cleaning cloth white again or his sword shiny?

  “W-well,” Stella stammered a bit. “To be fair, I only ever really saw them largely in the palace, but yes. They are real.”

  Ah, right, she’s a princess.

  Of course, the wonderful new ‘products’ she tells me about are a bunch of luxury goods.

  That must mean those new cleaning products were expensive. He therefore needed more coins to sample it. After all, a lot of them were apparently new formulations by alchemists and mages for royalty.

  Regardless, their capability seemed outright magical.

  “I see,” Marcus nodded. “How wonderful. I’ll definitely try to acquire some if we find any sellers.”

  “...Sir Marcus,” Stella frowned. “Are you now distracted by detergent? You seem to be ignoring something.”

  His strict, steely voice returned, his childlike curiosity gone.

  “Of course not. I would never ignore your achievements. I suppose I’ll share some tentative comments about your earlier perfor—”

  “I was talking about that, Sir Marcus.”

  She pointed at two hydras emerging from the water. One of them had a darker blue color, its scales were considerably thicker, and there was cool blue fire coming from its eyes.

  [Cave Hydra: Platinum Rank].

  [Cave Hydra: Gold Rank].

  “Ah…that.” Marcus blankly stared at the monsters. Then, he pulled out his two rapiers, reciting a flurry of skills in quick succession.

  [Levitation], [Blink Step], [Swift Blade].

  He briefly rose to the sky and teleported multiple times, all while using his blades to cut down the monsters rapidly within seconds. Then, he used one last [Blink Step] to land right beside Stella, completely unharmed.

  It only took three seconds, but when he sheathed his rapiers back into their respective scabbards, the hydras—now nothing but a collection of cleanly sliced chunks of meat—fell straight into the water.

  “And done.” Marcus clapped his hands as he turned to Stella, who looked at his work dazed and horrified. “Let’s go. We still have two quests to wrap up before nightfall.”

  “S-sir Marcus…” Stella weakly called out as Marcus walked past her. “You…just…what?”

  Marcus, on the other hand, focused on the heads of the dead hydras, cutting them using his dagger to retrieve their monster cores. They would serve as proof of their quests' completion later.

  It only took him a minute, then he called out at the awestruck elf once more. It took a while to snap her out of her stupor, but when she did, the two made their way out of the cave to continue their hunt.

  “Did you at least level up this time?” Marcus asked as he stood on top of a rock. “What about your stat attributes? Any increase?”

  Stella was below him, breathing heavily, a swarm of powerful obsidian wolves surrounding her, their corpses all cut cleanly in half, some with their monster cores exposed.

  “I…” Stella huffed. “That’s almost a hundred of them killed, but I only gained a few points…I did reach level 56 though—”

  Then, her eyes widened.

  “Wait, Sir Marcus! Didn’t this quest only say that we’re only supposed to exterminate two dozen of these monsters?”

  “The quest doesn’t matter. I told you it’s just an excuse for me to test you.”

  “Hmph. I know that already. Still—”

  Another obsidian wolf, almost as big as Stella herself, rushed out of the darkened forest. Marcus, of course, detected it ages ago, but he allowed it to bum-rush Stella to test her reaction time. Now, it was closing in on her, mouth bared and ready to devour her whole—until a pulse of light pierced the monster cleanly.

  Its lifeless body plopped near the [Saint], who now held a staff in her hands. She seemed to have switched weapons. She must be getting tired of doing melee.

  “Good,” Marcus smiled. "Though, that one was a good silver-ranked threat compared to its brethren around you. You just destroyed its monster core.”

  Marcus jumped off the boulder he was standing on before landing near Stella. He calmly analyzed the situation around him, grunting a bit.

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  “So many low-level adventurers are going to be angry at the lack of monster spawns to fight for a good while here,” he facepalmed. “And at least half of them have their monster cores destroyed.”

  “I…are you blaming me for following your orders?”

  “Heh. Welcome to the real world—where your superior commanding officer can blame you for following his instructions," Marcus chuckled a bit. "Best to get used to it."

  “I feel like you’re just being a meanie.”

  “Who says 'meanie' in this day and age?”

  Marcus walked to the monster she had killed, while Stella behind him pouted at him. It was quite a childish display.

  She’s definitely a youngster.

  He, of course, continued to refrain from asking for her age. To a lot of elves, especially those who lived with humans, it was somewhat of a touchy subject.

  He remembered the healer of his first platoon. She was an elf who looked like she was in her mid-twenties, which led to some dumbass rookie asking about her age. It turned out that she was most likely an ancient hag. At least, in this case, though, Marcus was sure that wouldn’t be the case.

  But Mom said I should never ask a lady’s age. It has to be true even today.

  He inspected the corpse for a bit, trying to gauge the power of the light magic spell that Stella used to kill it, before nodding to himself.

  “Interesting.”

  “Um, what’s interesting?”

  “Nothing. Let’s clean up. We’ll grab all the intact monster cores, then we’ll pack up and return to the guild. I’ll give you my detailed assessment tonight.”

  “I see. I’ll be on it then, Sir Marcus!”

  With that, Marcus and Stella soon returned to Almarche, holding at least a hundred various monster cores from iron- to silver-ranked beasts that they killed.

  As expected, the entire guild was in an uproar.

  “Y-you just…you actually completed it?” The receptionist nearly puked as he stared at the monster cores of the dead hydras. “In…a few hours?”

  "I called it; they had to be some kind of undercover Inquisitors!"

  "Shit. Y'all think they're tied to that ruckus from earlier?"

  "Well, those loonies did the deed, so 'course the Holy Church is gonna come knockin’."

  "Dang, I figured he was just some hotshot greenhorn."

  "Why are they wasting time adventurin’ though? They oughta be investigatin' stuff!"

  "Oi, you got a death wish, mate? Why’re you talking shit behind a bunch of Inquisitors, eh?"

  Another vein popped in Marcus’s head. He really hated it when a bunch of numbskulls talked behind him.

  The receptionist, noticing Marcus’ growing unease—and even Stella stepped back a bit—decided to begin taking the monster cores that Marcus retrieved.

  “Good sir, please give us an hour or two,” the receptionist scurried, placing the monster cores in a bag. “We’ll appraise these monster cores to see if they match the monsters indicated in the quests you took. Then we’ll wait for the guildmaster to approve payment for them.”

  Meet the guildmaster? No way, that sounds like a hassle.

  “Can’t I just have my payment and leave now? Give me a hundred gold or whatever you have at hand.”

  “No, I’m afraid not, sir! We pride ourselves on rewarding those who complete quests fairly. That hydra subjugation quest you took is worth two thousand gold. Please wait, and we’ll get you the appropriate amount.”

  “Fine…”

  Marcus looked back at Stella. She sighed and shrugged. Meanwhile, the receptionist went upstairs. Marcus talked to Stella for a bit, and the two decided to leave for now to unwind.

  Before that, though, something caught his eye.

  On the far side of the lobby, a small line of people was lined up in front of another disgruntled receptionist.

  Most of them were demihumans, all of them in less-than-desirable conditions. While their clothes weren’t tattered or worse, they were still clearly a bunch of hand-me-downs.

  The slaves. Why are they here?

  His eyes caught a familiar red-haired Lepus woman. Instead of that revealing silk dress, she now wore clothes that covered her entire body. Her bunny ears, which he remembered were drooping the last time he saw her, were now raised.

  Her eyes too indicated less misery, as if there was some faint hope bubbling within them.

  Marcus walked straight to the nearest adventurer, who flinched a bit after Marcus grabbed him.

  “Ay bud, got any idea about what’s happening over there?” Marcus asked, and the man gulped after Marcus’ tone darkened. “Be brief.”

  “A-ah, well, uhm…they are slaves from the count’s household. The guildmaster freed them. They’re lined up over there to be issued assistance money.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Good, thanks for answering,” Marcus said, giving the adventurer a light shoulder pat. “You seem constipated, though; try to live strong.”

  “I…s-sure, Sir Inquisitor.”

  Again? Do I look like some holy guy to these morons?!

  But Marcus didn’t correct him. Instead, he followed Stella outside, while a small smile uncontrollably appeared on his face after seeing those slaves.

  I hope they all live well after this.

  Then, he gave a small mental thanks to the guildmaster.

  And, well, as he half expected, they did meet the guildmaster, who was extending her hand in Marcus’ direction.

  “Greetings, you two! I’m Guildmaster Erica Everett!”

  The woman was most likely now in her mid-forties. Her face was aged, but there was a hint of motherly kindness and wrath at the same time on it.

  This wasn’t in Marcus’ plans. He figured he’d finish the quest, get the money, and then tomorrow they’d set out from Almarche, but now, they were face-to-face with its leader.

  “The name’s Marcus Lieberman.” Marcus decided to take her hand and shake it. “Nice to meetcha. I’m with her.”

  “I’m Stella Rosette vi Sordale,” Stella said as she smiled at the guildmaster. Marcus nearly spluttered at how she freely revealed herself; she even suddenly dropped her disguise!

  “...No, it cannot be,” Erica placed a hand on her mouth. “It is you, the fourth princess—”

  “I would like to keep a lid on that for now,” Stella said, locking the door behind her. “Visiting a foreign nation gets me too much unnecessary attention, so please…hush hush?”

  “Ah, I understand. My, oh my…you’ve certainly grown up to be a fine young lady. I swear, just a few years ago, you were just a feisty little girl trying to play soldier. It’s nice to meet you again!”

  Stella reddened.

  “U-um, please, not in front of Sir Marcus!”

  “Apologies, apologies. Ahem, I’m getting too carried away. Why didn’t you visit earlier if you were passing by?”

  “I was too focused on work, so, um, I didn’t check who ran this place. Not that I’d like to bother you either way; you do have a lot of work on your plate right now.”

  “Ah, don’t worry about it. I’m already handling things well so far.”

  Marcus felt like he was being ignored on the side. As usual, he truly was invisible to people. He decided to be polite and remain silent, crossing his arms as he leaned his back against the wall.

  Then Stella decided to show him off to the guildmaster.

  “Oh right! About Sir Marcus, see, Lady Erica, he took me as a student of his!”

  “You’re his what?!”