Four individuals gathered in a luxurious room. This was no ordinary hotel room but one of the noble suites of a top-class hotel in the Imperial Capital.
The whole room was brightly illuminated by notably expensive magic lights. Polished floors and walls that were regularly cleaned by professional hotelkeepers. So neat that one couldn’t find a speck of dust at each corner, let alone trash.
The room has its own bar and bathhouse with a hot tub, a feature that is rare even in noble houses. A room truly for the service of important people such as riches and aristocrats
Luxurious services mean luxurious expenses; a single night costs a hole in everyone’s pocket. Yet the members of a mere B-ranked adventurer party, Myriad Wings, are staying in one of these royal chambers.
There is a reason for them to be here. A matter that the Guildmaster had tackled with them in person.
In accordance with the Guildmaster, Michael and the ladies are patiently waiting for the other party to arrive, the vampires from Prussilvania.
Looking back, Myriad Wings has been consistently supplying the guild with raw materials that are rarely harvested from the Imperial Dungeon. One of these is the Tyrant Lizard, a quasi-dragon monster.
There are many species of dragon-type and quasi-dragon monsters, but most of them are too powerful for average adventurers to subjugate. Only a few had the nerve to face one. Dragons are, after all, one of the most powerful races.
One of the weakest was the C-ranked Raptor, but it only applied individually. Raptors gathered in groups to hunt under the leadership of a Greater Raptor, or Raptor Lord. One raptor is one thing, but a whole pack is quite troublesome.
B-ranked Basilisk was not that strong but very troublesome, annoying, and a big waste of time and effort. The Basilisk had a petrifying gaze that stoned anything it saw. But most of all, it had an extremely poisonous body that it utterly considered inedible.
Tyrant Lizards left them with few options. Ranked as B, hunts and roams alone and has a composition quite similar to dragons. That is to say, these bipedal monsters are in demand by the guild.
Although Tyrant Lizards didn’t have much mana, their mana veins and blood resembled those of a dragon. Veins and arteries that stably flow not only blood but also mana.
The main consumers of these materials, the vampires, were pleased by the slight increase in the number of Tyrant Lizard parts imported to their country in these recent months.
There’s almost no supply of Tyrant Lizards from the dungeon since they usually roam around the Desert Floors of the dungeon, that is, Floors 50 and beneath.
Tyrant Lizards are rarely seen in the Vagoth Forest. Not many adventurers venture into the forest and risk their lives to hunt and earn. One obvious reason is the absence of resurrection, which was only effective inside dungeons.
That notion caused a great scarcity of Tyrant Lizard supplies to meet the vampire’s demands. The current events piqued the interest of some members of the vampire nobility.
Before the other noble vampire clans could react, a clan made a direct approach to the guild to inquire about the reason for the change. Later, they found out which party contributed the most Tyrant Lizards to the guild.
They set up an appointment with the members of Myriad Wings in a luxurious hotel room in the capital. The lodging expenses have been paid by them, of course.
“…Hmph. Are they going to arrive?”
“Let’s wait a little longer.”
Inside the room, Michael reclines his back against a comfortable couch while his twin sister and the ladies fit themselves together on a settee. A glassed-in table was set in front of them, and Michael faced the width and the length for the females.
Glasses and bottles were stationed atop it; some glasses contained half-drunk red colored beverage. The alcohol content is quite strong, but as long as they activated their Poison Resistance, they would remain sober even if they were ingesting much.
They have been waiting here for more than half an hour as they enjoy their drinks to kill time. Occasionally play free-for-all online games through their minds, though Uriel always had the luck of the devil.
“Oh. Some people are coming.”
Lucy detected some presences along the hallway of the fifth floor of the hotel. Well dressed figures silently race the corridor before stopping themselves in front of their room.
Guessing them to be the other party, Michael and the others fixed their sitting positions and gestures to look presentable. For this occasion, the party didn’t equip themselves with battle gear but covered themselves with their formal garments instead.
“…Be ready, everyone.”
The doorknob twitched and clanked before revealing the people behind it. A pair of people clad in monochromatic clothing showed up and entered the room.
One was an elderly man, probably a manservant type. Dressed in a typical butler outfit and strike an unmoving and statuesque pose. He is definitely a well-trained and veteran servant.
He had a closed umbrella in his hand, which he has been using as a cane for a while. He turned around elegantly to put the umbrella kept inside the umbrella stand.
The second one, on the other hand, was a beautiful silver-haired woman clad in a maid’s dress. Her skin was pale, and she has a pair of gleaming scarlet eyes.
There is something that caught their eye. She has a blessed pair of assets that are comparable to Uriel’s. But that wasn’t the thing they were wondering for.
Both of them seemed to be a bit different from average. The creepiness they emitted all over evidently distinguished them from humans. Both of them were not humans, but vampires. 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑜𝑟𝘨
The old man glanced at the party with his deep blue eyes. “Good afternoon. You must be the members of the Myriad Wings, aren’t you?”
“…Yes, we are the Myriad Wings.” Michael politely answered, representing the party.
“You must have been waiting for long. We deeply apologize for our late arrival.” The elderly remorsefully bowed to the party, and the maid also did the same.
“…It’s no problem with us. You answered our lodgings, so there’s no need to complain.”
“Then if you excuse us…”
The old man was seated on a couch in front of Michael and diagonally across from the ladies. The maid was just standing still behind the couch, prepared for any orders the man might implement.
“You must have known what we were doing here. Let me introduce myself. My name is Maximilian, the Head Butler of the prestigious Trandafir family of Prussilvania. I was sent as the proxy for my master, Lord Trandafir.”
Maximilian presented himself as a servant of the Trandafir family, one of the noble vampiric families of Prussilvania and a powerful one to be considered.
If compared to human realms, Trandafir should have been at the rank of Duke since they contain the purest blood next to the vampiric royal family.
“It’s a pleasure to meet someone who works at the honorable Trandafir house.” Michael bowed with respect. “My name is Michael, the leader of the B-ranked party, Myriad Wings. They are my party members, from left, Uriel, Lucy, and Gabrielle.”
The ladies smiled and waved their hands at Maximilian and the maid. Maximilian nodded and peered at the ladies. The maid, on the other hand, constantly fixed her gaze between Uriel and Gabrielle, but consistently more on Uriel.
“Now that the introductions are done,” Maximilian said with a serious expression. “Let’s proceed with the main topic.”
“Yes, sir.”
Maximilian skipped the irrelevant and started the discussion right away. The matter they wanted to discuss related to the supplies of Tyrant Lizard materials in the market.
The Trandafir wanted to form a contract between them and the Myriad Wings regarding the materials. A contract for prioritizing the reservations of dragon-type monster materials to the Trandafir.
Maximilian has begun to break down the details of the contract with the party. The contract consisted of deals that were beneficial for both sides. They seemed to be making the best offer before the others.
Agreements such as purchasing the materials at a higher price than the guild, providing incentives for every carcass they provide, and many other appealing offers.
Michael and the ladies thought it was too good to be true but reconsidered it since they were giving it their best shot not to be overshadowed by other nobles. Maximizing the effort in one fell swoop.
The party of Michael ultimately signed the contract since they don’t find any suspicions behind it. But they have a problem to face first. The Tyrant Lizards themselves
It’s not that the lizards were the problem, but their hunting spots. From the start, the party has been collecting most of the lizards from the Great Forest of Darkness, not from the Vagoth Forest.
Though temporary, they decided to catch some T-Rexes and release them into the Vagoth Forest. Then they would make an excuse to implement a short mating season for the T-Rexes to mate and repopulate.
It might increase the supply of T-Rex in the capital if they infest the forest once again. Outside adventurers would profit more if there were more valuable monsters to harvest, increasing the number of suppliers.
“Thank you for the wonderful and fruitful transaction, Mr. Maximilian.” Michael appreciated it as he was shaking Maximilian’s gloved hand.
“There’s no need to thank me. It’s the master who wrote the agreement.”
“Your master must be a wise person.”
“That’s right.”
After an hour of negotiation, the contract was signed with flying colors. Myriad Wings has been able to establish a connection with the Trandafir family.
“Now, then. It’s our time to leave.” Maximilian then took the black umbrella back. “Farewell.”
Maximilian and the maid bowed to the party before Maximilian shut the door. Silence took over the entire room for a while. Michael is the first one to open his mouth.
“…What do you think of them?”
“There seemed to be no problem with the butler, but the woman was somewhat weirdly strange.”
“Yeah. She keeps staring at me like a creep.”
“Not only Uriel, but she’s been fixing her eyes on me for a while, though she’s more on Uriel.”
“…It might be the reason why she hides it. Well, let’s not let our guards down.”