Several hours later.

“Tsk…no… How can I be defeated by mere human scum… If only…I had been able to maintain this flesh…”

With those last words, the lesser demon vanished. He was not dead. He was just no longer able to maintain the body which was not whole. And so the three had been victorious.

“Ye-yes! We killed the lesser demon!”

“We did it! I knew that we could accomplish anything if we tried!”

“Good. I am so relieved. I was so sure we were going to die…”

They celebrated for a moment, but then the coming flames made their expressions change.

“Damn it! The fireballs he unleashed are starting to burn up the building!”

“This is bad! We have to get out now, or we will be burned into a crisp!”

“Don’t stand there in shock. Let’s hurry up and get out of here.”

The three of them frantically began their escape.

Thankfully, the door had been destroyed during the fight, and they were able to get out…however…

“By the way…the ten gold pieces…”

“Don’t talk about that! We just came here to rest. Right?”

“…Yes. The mansion is burned down and…”

“What! So we worked for free again!? But I want to live in luxury already! I was thinking about buying beautiful robes with the reward money!”

“I told you, don’t bring that up! It’ll only make you sad.”

“Well, I’m hardly surprised this happened again. I guess we should just be happy that we’re alive!”

“Ugh, it’s always that… We say the same thing every time.”

Still, in spite of the complaining, all three of them looked cheerful. This kind of thing happened all of the time, and they knew from experience, that as long as you were alive, good things will come to you.

◇◇◇

They finished making their report at the nearest guild and then stayed in a bar until late into the night.

After that, the three of them were summoned by the guild master.

They nervously entered the room.

“It seems that you let greed get the best of you again, and you took on a job that you never should have.”

The guild master said, before Gido had even closed the door behind them.

“Oh, but we didn’t make any money. Please don’t punish us!”

Cabal said frantically.

However, the guild master just snorted and continued.

“Well, that’s fine. If you survived it, you must have gained something at the same time.”

They were at a loss over how to react to this. But they were at least relieved that the guild master seemed to be in a good mood…

“Still, you three are too reckless! Idiots!!”

The guild master continued in a fashion that was scarier than any ogre. The lecture continued for hours, which was odd, considering how busy the guild master should be. Things just kept getting worse for them, and they wanted to cry.

Finally, the guild master said to them,

“However, the Twin Serpent was discovered because of your report. It was far from the village, just outside the forest. That was because you lured it over there, right? Well done. And you made it out alive. Next time you should be more careful.”

“No, we weren’t thinking about anything but running. And we only went in the opposite direction as the village by accident. You know…we don’t have the best sense of direction…”

“Yes, yes. It was so frantic!”

“How clumsy of us. There would have been soldiers waiting for us in the village.”

They said in denial, but the guild master seemed to see through it and said, ‘Fine. That will be all,’ and then turned away from them and towards some documents. That was the guild master’s way of showing gratitude.

The three of them bowed and left the room behind them.

Several days later.

The three of them had come to a certain village for work.

“Ah, miss! Thank you for killing that scary monster last time!”

Small children shouted as they came running towards them to crowd around.

They were all smiling.

When the three of them had come here last time, the children were all worried about their parents and couldn’t stop crying—but there was no hint of that now.

“Just seeing your smiles is all the reward that I need. That’s what I think!”

“Yeah. Not bad.”

“True. There are things that are more important than money!”

The childrens’ smiles were infectious, and it did not take long for the three of them to smile as well.

And just like always, they looked forward and started to walk.

Their adventure had only just begun.