"Wasn't it supposed to be the Vice Chief Grand Magus he was close with?"
"Yeah…that's what I heard too."
"Well…he's close with both, I guess.
Saw three of them talking once and he seemed quite chill with them."
The senior mage replied to the adventurer's question, with another one of her fellow senior mages chipping in as he remembered the scene she spoke of.
"I remember that day, that was the first time I saw Vice Chief Ritz speak more than five sentences to someone in one sitting.
I was in shock for close to half an hour after that."
"For real? It was that shocking to see her talk for long?"
"It was.
She isn't called the 'Laziest Mage Alive' for nothing, you know?
She's really good at her job when it counts, to the point where even the other Grand Mages have given up on finding fault with her.
But it's common knowledge that she'd rather sleep all day than work for even half a minute."
"Bet she would have gone back to her home country if it wasn't for the Chief Grand Magus."
The gossip about Evan's party continued, reaching the point where they began talking about the boy's contracted spirits and how powerful they were.
"How many does he even have?"
"Three, I guess?"
"I think it's actually four."
"Where did you see a fourth one from?"
In response to the soldier's question, one of the high-level knights held up his four fingers as he began his reply.
"There's the black-haired lightning spirit you all have definitely heard about."
"Yep. Definitely heard about that one."
"Saw her in action during the undead subjugation, she did this thing that engulfed my sword in lightning and flames.
I'd never killed undead as easily as I did that day."
"True, I remember that.
Anyway, you know about her. Then there's this other red-haired spirit who uses flames. She's quite reclusive so I've only ever seen her twice besides the undead subjugation attack."
"The one with the large flaming tiger!"
"Yeah, her.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThen there's another one I recently saw this morning. With blue hair and all; might be stereotypical but I think she's a water spirit."
One of the other knights who also saw Milena in the morning spoke to affirm his colleague's words before the man tapped his fourth finger and concluded.
"Then there's the black cat who's always with Lord Evan's girlfriend."
As soon as he was done speaking, one of the Mages sitting opposite him gave him a strange gaze and asked.
"You said a black cat, right?"
"Yeah."
"Like the one beside you?"
The Knight turned to his side and saw the black cat sitting on the table before nodding and replying.
"Yeah, exactly like this on-!"
The man paused and did a double take, eventually realising that the cat beside him wasn't 'like' the one he was talking about but was the exact same one he was talking about.
As for the cat in question, he just continued sipping his glass of banana milk under the gazes of all those at the table, even drawing attention from nearby tables as they were confused why the group had suddenly turned silent.
Kuro finished his milk drink, took some of the tissues on the table and cleaned his mouth before tossing the rolled-up tissue into the bin and scorning a hit.
Those at the table could almost swear that Kuro had a satisfied smile on his face at this feat. He then looked up to the Knight who was staring at him dumbfoundedly, and spoke with a calm voice like always.
"You made a slight mistake with your earlier words.
My fellow spirit, who is of the fire element, is not contracted to the same person as I am.
She is contracted to the elder sister of that guy over there who's in an arm-wrestling match."
Head turned to the direction Kuro pointed with his paw and they were all greeted with the sight of Greed, who was for some reason, arm-wrestling an S-rank adventurer.
"Why am I not surprised at this?"
"Probably cause its Greed?"
"Definitely because it's him."
"Come to think of it, Greed's sister is actually 'broken' in her own right."
"Indeed, she is."
After agreeing with the last adventurer's words, Kuro turned his gaze to the stairs where Eliza was walking down, before jumping into the shadow cast by the upper body of the knight beside him and re-emerging out of Eliza's own shadow.
He then climbed up onto her shoulder and assumed his place there, purring lightly when the girl patted his head.
"That cat is seriously a 'My Pace' kind of cat."
"I agree."
"I heard he's the one who usually reins in the lightning spirit when she goes overboard."
"Seems like that could be the case."
The adventurers nodded to themselves before returning to their conversation about Pride.
"Ignoring their names, those two siblings are way too powerful for their levels."
"No shit!
Didn't you see what the other one did during that subjugation attack? She's the first person I've ever seen make undead creatures that shouldn't know fear to become scared of her."
"And those sinister black flames of hers, even though we were allies, those flames gave them the chills."
Another one of the adventurers who was standing by the table spoke as she rubbed her arms as if trying to make her goosebumps go away.
"She's also got this skill that lets her make giant arms with energy, saw her using it to pick up someone who fell during the subjugation.
It was quite funny to look at."
"Now that's a sight I would wanna see."
One of the soldiers who was quite close to Greed placed his hand on his chin and tilted his head to the side as he asked.
"Isn't that similar to Greed's skill?"
"Well…they're siblings. Not too strange for them to have similar skills."
"Yeah, just that Greed's skill generates gigantic red arms."
"Arms? Doesn't Greed's own make a sword?
Saw the dude cleave a lot of giant ghouls in half with that thing."
"He can probably do both."
The gossip continued until the person who identified Eliza earlier turned his gaze to the girl who was saying something to Greed and sighed before speaking.
"That whole party is just filled with anomalies. They sure as hell chose a suitable party name."
Voices of agreement rang out from across the table, with one of the knights downing his glass of wine before speaking.
"Starting from Lord Eris.
He isn't your regular noble's son."
"Yep…He's an Irregular one."
"The 'Irregular' Evan. Has a nice ring to it."
After unanimously deciding on Evan's new nickname without his consent in the matter, they moved on to the rest of his party members, starting with Eliza.
"The Warrior Priestess?"
One of the A rankers who was at Position H, spoke up as he sat down and joined the conversation.
"Come to think of it, she did say it wasn't 'Warrior' but 'Battle'."
"There's a difference?"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Well… even though she's good at melee combat, she's not exactly to the level that you'd consider her a 'Warrior'."
"True…makes sense."
Moving on, they went on to talk about Pride and Greed's titles, before eventually ending the discussion about the 'Anomalies' and moving on to other parties.
They talked about other adventurers and knights, sometimes having people at the table being the topic of conversation, hyping each other as they continued chatting away.
Sometime later, another powerful adventurer joined the table with a tray filled with beer cans in his hands, sitting down beside Tisha who was watching two soldiers argue which platoon had a better commander.
"Hmm?"
"Hey, guys.
Heard your conversation earlier, when you were talking about the irregular kid.
I'm just arriving in Bultom and was at the counter turning in my quests so I couldn't come up till now."
He set the tray of beer on the table and pushed it to the middle of the table before continuing his words.
"Mind telling me more about this kid?"
Before Tisha could speak, one of her party members who was on the man's other side beat her to it.
"You can pretty much find out just by asking any random person outside, but since you were so kind as to get us some drinks, we'd tell you what we know.
And more too-OW!"
The man began shouting in pain when Tisha suddenly grabbed his arm and twisted it while saying.
"How many times have I told you to stop acting like you're some sort of hotshot information broker."
"I might not be one now, but I'd definitely be one in the future.
When I retire as an adventurer after about 9 or 10 more decades, I'd spend my next few centuries of life as an information broker.
Sounds like a cool job."
(A/N; Grandmaster level existences have longer lifespans, making them able to easily live hundreds of years without issue.)
Tisha only sighed and turned back to the man who sat beside her and studied his appearance. It was a fairly tall man with a dark complexion and distinctive red irises. He had a muscular build and short messy black hair.
As for his strength, although she could see a B-rank guild card hanging from his neck, she as well as every other grandmaster level being at the table could tell that he was well over level 300 in level.
'At the very least, 320.'
Tisha thought to herself as she grabbed one of the beer cans and opened it as she spoke.
"You're just arriving, huh? Welcome to Bultom's adventurer community.
I'm Tisha. A rank.
What about you?"
In response to the green-eyed woman's words, the man opened his beer can and clanked it against her outstretched can before replying.
"Nice to meet you, Tisha.
I'm Yetu."