In front of the counter at the Adventurer's Guild.
A female receptionist with blonde hair handed a money bag containing dozens of platinum coins to Kenichi with a smile and said:
"Here is the commission for the quest!"
Kenichi took the money bag and opened it for a quick glance.
Dozens of platinum coins were equivalent to hundreds of gold coins.
A Copper-ranked adventurer couldn't earn this much commission even in a year of doing quests.
Yet Kenichi, Erza, and the others, now promoted to Adamantite-ranked adventurers, received this much just for taking on a simple quest.
'It seems being promoted to Adamantite rank isn't without its benefits!'
Kenichi put away the money bag, thought to himself, and then prepared to leave with Erza, Kagura, and Wendy.
However, before Kenichi could turn around, the female receptionist stopped him.
"Please wait a moment. There's a letter for you here!"
As she spoke, the female receptionist handed a letter to Kenichi.
"A letter?"
Looking at the letter in the receptionist's hand, Kenichi didn't reach out to take it.
After all, he and the others, including Erza, had come from the Fairy Tail World.
In this world, they didn't have many acquaintances.
Logically, no one should be sending him letters.
Kenichi glanced at Erza, Kagura, and Wendy beside him.
The three women also looked puzzled.
Clearly, they were unaware as well.
A few seconds later, seeing the receptionist maintaining her posture of offering the letter, Kenichi finally took it.
"Kenichi-nii, who on earth sent this letter?"
After they exited the Adventurer's Guild, Wendy stepped forward, looking curiously at the letter in Kenichi's hand.
"I don't know."
Kenichi checked both the front and back of the letter. Finding no signature or special mark, he then responded to Wendy.
"Just open it and you'll know!"
At this point, Erza, who was beside Kenichi, spoke up.
Hearing Erza's words, Kenichi casually opened the letter.
He still couldn't read the written language of this world.
The first time he accepted a quest at the Adventurer's Guild, he had to use his [Hearing Magic] to overhear the thoughts of a nearby adventurer to understand the content on the quest sheet.
This time, although Kenichi couldn't read the text on the letter, fortunately, magical items with translation abilities existed in this world.
Last time, when passing by a Magician's Guild, Kenichi had bought one.
After opening the letter, Kenichi took out a monocle.
When he brought the monocle close to one eye, the text on the letter automatically transformed into the characters he was familiar with.
"Kenichi-nii, what does the letter say?"
While Kenichi was reading the letter, Wendy asked.
"See for yourself!"
As he spoke, Kenichi handed both the translation monocle and the letter to Wendy.
Like Kenichi, Wendy used the monocle to read the contents of the letter.
The content of the letter was brief.
It was an invitation for the Fairy Tail adventurer team to go to a not very well-known tavern.
"So it's inviting us to a meal!"
"But it's really strange that the letter doesn't say who sent it!"
After reading the contents, Wendy voiced her thoughts.
Perhaps Wendy didn't know who wrote this letter, but Kenichi did.
In Overlord, when Nazarick attacked the Kingdom, Blue Roses also received an anonymous letter like this.
When Blue Roses' members went to the meeting, they were met by priests of the Slane Theocracy.
They were there to invite the Blue Roses to join the Slane Theocracy.
Now, seeing this anonymous letter, Kenichi knew that the sender was the Slane Theocracy.
As for the purpose, it was naturally to invite them to join the Slane Theocracy.
"Kenichi-nii, are we going to the meeting?"
"Of course not… It's a letter that doesn't even reveal the sender's name, so why should we care?"
…
While Kenichi received the invitation letter from the Slane Theocracy, Lakyus, the leader of the Blue Roses, also received an invitation letter from the Slane Theocracy.
However, Lakyus did not know the anonymous letter was sent by the Slane Theocracy.
Logically, for such an anonymous invitation, Lakyus' attitude should be the same as Kenichi's: to ignore it.
But the letter sent to Lakyus mentioned another Adamantite-ranked adventurer team from the Kingdom… the Red Drop.
It must be noted that the leader of the Red Drop is Lakyus's uncle.
Given this relationship, Lakyus decided to attend the meeting.
Even if not to meet the person behind the invitation, she still wanted to see her long-unseen uncle.
…
A remote tavern in the royal capital.
Accompanied by Evileye, Gagaran, and the twin ninjas, Lakyus arrived at the designated meeting place.
When Lakyus and Evileye entered a room, a foul smell assailed their noses.
Immediately after, a scene that was very awkward for Lakyus came into view.
On the sofa in the center of the room, a middle-aged man with golden hair was lounging leisurely.
Two women with excellent figures were snuggled in his arms.
Seeing the expressions on the two women's faces, Lakyus could imagine what had happened in this room before.
The golden-haired middle-aged man was naturally Lakyus's uncle… Azuth Aindra.
Although Lakyus had long known about Azuth's... unsavory hobbies, the fact that he showed no intention of restraining himself even when meeting her and the others caused a flash of anger to appear on Lakyus's pretty face.
"Uncle!"
Lakyus raised her voice to address Azuth.
"Lakyus, you're here."
Only then did Azuth respond to Lakyus nonchalantly.
After the two well-figured women left the room, Lakyus took out the invitation letter and asked Azuth, "Uncle, do you know who invited us here?"
"No."
"But we can make a rough guess."
"Those guys have been trying to recruit strong individuals from various countries for years now."
Azuth picked up a glass of wine from the table, drank it all in one go, and then answered Lakyus.
Although Azuth didn't explicitly say it, hearing his words, Lakyus and Evileye already knew that 'those guys' he referred to were the Slane Theocracy.
'If the inviter was the Slane Theocracy, then their goal was probably only one: to invite us to join the Slane Theocracy.'
Just as Lakyus was thinking this, the floorboards outside the room suddenly began to creak loudly.
It seemed as if a person of considerable weight was approaching.
Hearing the sound, Lakyus, Evileye, and the others all became alert.
Soon, an exceptionally tall man with bulging muscles all over his body and white hair, accompanied by a woman with flaxen long hair, walked in.
The moment she saw these two, the face beneath Evileye's mask changed dramatically.
"They're very strong!"
"Especially that big guy. His strength is beyond conventional limits!"
Evileye stared at the two who had suddenly entered the room and whispered a warning to Lakyus, Gagaran, and the others.
"It seems they really are from the Slane Theocracy."
Lakyus frowned slightly, staring at the two before her, and spoke.