Chapter 93: Bisang

“Deneb!”

“Yes!”

Deneb thrusts the staff in her hand toward the approaching Demon Beasts.

Deneb immediately begins chanting a spell. There’s no longer any tremor in her voice.

“—Divine Light!”

Golden light ripples around the charging ogre Demon Beasts.

That light heals and buffs allies, while dealing heavy damage to enemies.

BOOM!

The golden light clinging to the ogres’ bodies flared even brighter and exploded.

The ogres, now cold corpses in the smoke, crumbled into dust, leaving behind Magic Stones.

“Good job.”

While I handled the Demon Beasts charging from the front, Deneb took care of the ones targeting us from the rear.

“It’s thanks to you, Ms. Verdi!”

“Heh heh, yeah. Let’s keep going like this.”

This Gate raid was going smoothly too.

“Found the boss room!”

Marcel’s voice rang out from a distance. We immediately headed toward the sound and spotted Marcel along with an unusual structure in front of him.

The door to the B-Rank Gate’s boss room.

* * *

“Kughaaack!”

BOOM!

The B-Rank Gate’s boss, a giant ogre, collapsed powerlessly under our coordinated attack.

“Good work today as well. I’ll handle the report to Royal Knights, so you two head in first.”

“Thank you. I’ll leave it to you, then.”

Leaving Marcel, who’d volunteered for the report, behind, Deneb and I exited the Gate first.

“Good work today too.”

“You worked hard too.”

Two years had passed since we became C-Rank Hunters.

In that time, I’d become an A-Rank Hunter, and Deneb had just become a B-Rank Hunter a week ago.

It was hard to find traces of the immature Deneb from before. Though we were still together now, she’d matured enough to go on Gate raids on her own even without me.

Her appearance too—before, she still looked boyish, but now you could clearly tell she was a girl.

Marcel was still an A-Rank Hunter, but his standing had changed a lot.

For one, there were no more Hunters who looked down on him. Even within Royal Knights, the way people saw him had changed significantly.

This was largely due to Marcel’s effort and perseverance—surprisingly, he’d chosen to go as a mercenary to the guild he’d originally been part of.

He’d faced a lot of harsh talk at first, but as time passed, they acknowledged him.

Even from my perspective, Marcel had changed a bit lately. I guess you could say he’d become more dependable.

As for me… aside from the changes to my body, nothing much had changed.

I was just moving forward to reclaim my former position, that was all.

If there was one thing that felt a bit off, it was… well, my chest had definitely gotten bigger than before, and it was uncomfortable sometimes.

Other than that, nothing really. Besides, even my period had become a very familiar thing to me.

“I think it’s about time to form the guild.”

I said it as the thought suddenly came to me after a few steps.

“Finally, is it?”

“Yeah.”

Over the past two years, we’d closed hundreds of Gates. Most of them were High-Rank Gates, so the purity of the Magic Stones we mined was very high, and we’d saved up money quickly.

Of course, that was possible thanks to the help of Jihyeok, Mateo, and the Royal Knights and Crescent guilds.

The guild’s establishment approaching also meant, in a way, that the End Cave raid was drawing near.

“I should talk to Royal Knights about it soon too.”

Muttering to myself as if talking to no one, I turned my head toward Deneb and continued.

“My brother will definitely listen if I tell him.”

Deneb said with a playful smile. She no longer called Wilhelm “brother.”

“Yeah, let’s think about that later. For tomorrow, you’re free to do what you want. You can rest. Pass that on to Mr. Marcel too.”

“What about you, Ms. Verdi?”

“I’m going to the Association headquarters.”

“Then…”

“Yeah, I need to apply to establish the guild.”

“Have you thought of a guild name?”

“Yeah.”

I’d been thinking about it for a full two years.

Honestly, Solge… even I thought it was too thrown together, and since I wasn’t solo anymore, it needed to change.

“Tell me!”

“That’s for later.”

“Ehh~”

“There’s a certain joy in deducing it yourself.”

The truth was, I just felt embarrassed saying it.

* * *

The next day.

Upon arriving at the Hunter Association headquarters, I immediately applied to establish a guild.

The approval didn’t take long.

Honestly, I’d been preparing for months already.

I just needed a little more time to gather the funds.

The amount required to establish a guild isn’t exactly small.

Even though I’d been steadily saving money for two years, it still wasn’t enough, and since I’d only recently paid off my debt to Mr. Luca, I ended up borrowing from him again.

But if you think about it, Mr. Luca’s practically going to be a guild member anyway, so isn’t his money basically ours?

…I probably shouldn’t say that to Mr. Luca.

“That’s quite a roster.”

The receptionist said to me. She had a surprised look on her face, and for good reason.

To establish a guild, you need at least five signatures from members besides the founder, and two of them were S-Rank Hunters.

And I figure my appearance played a part too.

Even though two years had passed, my current look was at best middle school to high school level.

People my age who’d reached A-Rank Hunter could probably be counted on one hand.

“Ahaha…”

I answered the receptionist with an awkward smile.

“Just write the guild name and your signature here, and you’re all set.”

The receptionist said that and handed me the documents.

I scribbled my name for the signature, and finally, the guild name.

I’d thought of the name long ago. But when it came time to actually write it down, all sorts of thoughts ran through my head.

‘…Will everyone be satisfied with it?’

Truth was, I hadn’t told anyone the guild name.

Still, I was… confident it wasn’t a name that would divide opinions.

“Here you go.”

Screw it, I thought, and scrawled the guild name before handing it to the receptionist.

“Let me confirm… The guild name is ‘Bisang,’ correct?”

“…Yes.”

It wasn’t a weird name or anything, but when the receptionist asked me as part of the confirmation process, I felt a little embarrassed.

“All right, processing is complete. Please check your Artifact.”

Following the receptionist’s words, I checked and saw that the guild ‘Bisang’ had appeared in my information.

Bisang.

Higher than now.

A guild name I’d thought of with the meaning that I’d soar higher than before, higher than my days as Verdiol.

* * *

When I got back to the office like that, everyone was gathered, as if they’d confirmed the guild’s establishment.

“That’s a surprisingly normal guild name.”

The first to evaluate the guild name was Jihyeok.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It is a compliment.”

I snorted at that. Guess this guy was aware that Solge was a weird guild name after all.

“Bisang, huh… I like it. I wish my business would take flight again too.”

Mr. Luca said with a wide grin.

“Come to think of it, you’ve started operating again, right?”

“Yeah. Everything burned to ashes, so it took a while to rebuild.”

Mr. Luca’s lodging, which had been reduced to ashes by Claire’s scheming, was rebuilt just a few days ago. He got support from the Association, but even so, it cost a considerable amount. Even in that situation, the fact that he lent me money to establish the guild… I can’t help but think he’s amazing.

Well, anyway, everyone seemed positive about the guild name.

“So, since the guild has been established… I’m sure you’ve all caught on by now.”

I spoke to everyone with a fairly serious face. Then I turned my head, directing my gaze at the man sitting alone in the corner.

“Mr. Wilhelm.”

As I called his name, everyone’s attention focused on him.

The Guild Master of Royal Knights, Wilhelm. I had invited him to coincide with the guild’s founding day.

At first, I thought he might send a representative, but surprisingly, he came in person.

I was planning to visit the Royal Knights office separately anyway, so it worked out well for me. Unless the representative was someone I could fully trust, it would’ve been a bit awkward to discuss this matter with them.

“And.”

I turned my head again. The person sitting where I looked next was…

“Ms. Ames.”

As I called her name, Ames turned her gaze to me.

Two years ago, when Ames appeared to capture Karelin, she told me that if I gave her the location and schedule, she would come find me herself.

I thought, ‘No way she’s still waiting on that, right?’ and contacted her, but surprisingly, Ames, whom I’d contacted after two years, remembered those words, immediately brought up that matter, and came all the way here like this.

“Now that everyone who needs to be here is here, I’ll talk about the plan going forward.”

I spoke to everyone.

“We’ll begin the assault on End Cave exactly one month from now.”

“Finally.”

“So I have a request in advance. Mr. Luca, Mr. Wilhelm, and Ms. Ames.”

At my words, the three of them leaned in to listen.

“We need to buy the assault rights for End Cave from the Association and the other Five Great Guilds. It’ll take a considerable amount of funds, but please think of it as an investment.”

The assault rights for End Cave.

S-Rank Gates become the property of the Association first, regardless of region.

Other guilds then compete by bidding for those rights, but since it’s S-Rank, the Association judged that a single guild couldn’t handle it, so they decided to split the shares among the Association and the Five Great Guilds.

So the allied Five Great Guilds attempted the assault together, but the assault on End Cave ultimately failed.

As for how Karelin, who had no rights, was running rampant in End Cave — that’s easy to explain.

The Gate was deemed impossible to conquer and was left abandoned for years, so interest in it died out. Surprisingly, that’s the truth.

But this time is different.

Since we’re going to publicly announce the assault on End Cave to the world, we need to purchase the rights.

The fortunate thing is that two of the Five Great Guilds — Royal Knights and Crescent — are cooperating with us.

So we just need to buy the remaining 60 percent of the shares.

First, the Association, which holds 10 percent of the shares.

And then the other three guilds.

Hermes, Tachyon, and Death God.

We’ll buy the shares from these three guilds.

And then the final goal is for us to assault End Cave on our own.

After we succeed in the assault… I’ll no longer be a murderer, and the Bisang Guild will literally take flight.