I received the keys for two rooms and went and entered one of them. Fiona's and my room was number 202. Haruka's future room was 204. The room in the middle, 203, belonged to the adventurers that came before us. I sort of felt separated from Haruka.
Inside the room it was… Hm, not bad.
It was just a simple room in a completely wooden building, but it was pretty large. There was even a bed, although it seemed like it would be pretty hard. It looked like there was also a bath. Personally, I had no complaints.
Well, to be honest, not having a bath was actually pretty normal for this world. In fact, it was more normal to not have a bath in the game. I was actually pretty impressed with how things had progressed in one thousand years.
The inn's fees were also pretty cheap at only 30 el a night, surprisingly. So for three people it was a very charitable 90 el. I guess Haruka's sense couldn't be underestimated, given how fast she'd picked this one out.
"Now then, We suppose We should just wait for Haruka to come back for now."
"Yes, Lady Naru."
Although I said that we'd wait for Haruka, she most likely wouldn't have much of a part to play this time.
Rather, anyone other than myself would simply die when faced with Penny.
It was true that Fiona was a member of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians, just like Penny, but their matchup was just horrible. While Fiona was the type to use her abundance of skills to bring things into a war of attrition, Penny was a specialized exterminator who wanted to deal huge amounts of piercing damage right from the start. As long as one had less than 100k health when facing Penny, they'd just be unilaterally turned to ash.
As long as one managed to get past that, Penny, who had no way to heal herself, would suddenly turn into the easiest of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians to defeat. But at any rate, her first attack was far too strong to allow that.
Even though I'd finally managed to get Fiona under my control again, there was probably no choice but to have her wait in the back, unfortunately, now that we were fighting Penny.
"Fiona. We must ask. Do you know of the whereabouts of the other Twelve Zodiac's Guardians?"
"Uhhh, let's see… Well, I was concentrating on bringing down Svel, so I don't know that much. But… I do remember Tayuya of the Capricorn constellation inviting me to join the grimmfolk once. She said, 'Come with me to the grimmfolk,' so she's probably allied with them."
You'd think that since they're the 'Sheep' and the 'Goat', they'd get along, but that wasn't the case at all.
Tayuya… She was an archdemon and looked like a demon among demons.
When she transformed, Tayuya's head grew two pairs of demonic goat-horn, and her body also grew a pair of wings of a bat and reptilian-tail. She was the very picture of a legendary demon, from what I remembered.
Well, if I were to speak honestly… She was a person who wouldn't be at all out of place with the grimmfolk. In fact, I felt she was way more of a 'grimm' than any of the grimmfolk.
"Hm… What about the others?"
"The others are… Sorry, I don't know."
"Understood. So you don't all know what one another is doing, even though you're all of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians, it seems."
I thought that, as long as I had one Zodiac's Guardian, I could learn where all the others were, but it seemed that wasn't the case.
I guess there's no other choice than to work off of what info Haruka has for a while yet, huh?
For now, let's just take it easy until he comes back.
—As soon as I thought that, I heard a knock at the door with perfect timing.
"Ah, I'll get it."
"Mmm."
Fiona stood, taking the initiative to open the door.
It wasn't Haruka at the door, but the four adventurers who'd just been arguing with the inn's owner at the counter. Today should have been the first time we ever met… What did they want? From first glance, it didn't seem like they harbored any ill will…
At any rate, I didn't know what Fiona would end up saying if she were left alone, so I also walked up to the door.
"You four should be the ones who were arguing with the owner at the entrance, no? Do you have some business with us?"
"No, not business, per se. We just thought we should thank you for what happened. It's thanks to you that we don't have to camp out." A man with short-brown-haired who seemed to be the leader replied to my question.
He has a well-trained body. His sharp eyes reminded me of a carnivore, and I knew that he was overflowing with confidence.
"Oh, that is all? It was no trouble. You are all rather conscientious for adventurers."
"Even if you didn't think much of it, we did. We repay our debts. That's our way."
Unlike their hoodlum looks, it seemed they were actually rather honest and honorable men. Given how many people didn't even know how to say thanks properly these days, I'd really like these youngsters to stay as they were. And I should take a page from their book, too.
"We'll be in this village for a while. If something happens, you can count on us. That's all, see ya."
After saying what they had to say, the adventurers left. Apparently, they really were here just to say thanks.
And as if they were switching places, Haruka showed her face right afterwards, entering our room.
"I'm back!"
"So you are. How was it?"
"Perfect. I got permission to both stay and explore the Black Empress's grave. By the way, I passed by some people I didn't recognize. Who were they?"
"Just some rather conscientious adventurers."
With Haruka back, we could now boldly walk into the grave under the pretense that we were exploring it.
Being able to explore one's own grave is a pretty rare experience, isn't it? Let's take it easy the rest of today and go in tomorrow.