...A strange ceiling.

Anne slowly opened her eyes in the bed.

She was Anne, one of Tanya’s friends who had been rescued from the Gnoll territory.

Anne sat up, feeling incredibly awkward due to the unfamiliar sleeping arrangements.

As a mercenary, sleeping in uncomfortable places was nothing new.

But the place where Anne opened her eyes now was uncomfortable in a different sense.

A soft bed. A spacious room.

It was a room so good it couldn’t even be compared to the inns she had stayed at in Orsia.

If she were to stay in a luxury inn like this, she couldn’t even begin to guess how much it would cost per day, having never even stepped foot in one before.

"Ah.... Right."

Anne remembered that yesterday, Ian, the leader of the mercenary group Tanya belonged to, had offered to provide them with a place to sleep for the night.

At that time, Anne had just expected him to get them a room in a common inn.

...But to think it would be a place like this.

The thought occurred to her belatedly that it might have been better to just refuse.

As Anne looked around the room with an awkward face, the other two soon woke up as well.

Karen and Seria wore the same expressions as Anne, exchanging glances as they gauged the situation.

Wouldn’t they have to pay compensation if they even slightly touched something wrong?

With those thoughts, everyone cautiously rose from their beds.

While everyone was spending their time in such awkwardness, a knock was suddenly heard at the door.

"Is everyone awake?"

"Ye-yes!"

Everyone in the room flinched as they answered.

A moment after the response, the door opened and someone entered the room.

The person who entered was a mercenary with flowing red hair and a fierce gaze.

It was the person who had cut down the Gnolls with a single strike in the forest yesterday. It was Lia.

"The Captain says he has something to talk to you about, so if you’re up, please get ready and come out."

"Yes! We’ll be right out!"

Everyone scrambled to their feet, finished preparing in an instant, and followed behind Lia.

The three followed Lia up to the floor where Ian’s office was located.

...Going up the stairs.

The three who had lived their mercenary lives only in Orsia could not understand the fact itself—that a single mercenary group owned such a large building.

A mercenary group with a better building than the Mercenary Guild in Orsia.

While everyone gulped with nervous faces, the office door opened, and Ian appeared.

The heavy atmosphere flowing quietly from within the room felt as if it were weighing down on their shoulders.

In the Labyrinth, do you have to be someone of this caliber to be a mercenary captain?

Cold sweat trickled down Anne’s back.

"Did you rest well?"

"Ye-yes! Thanks to your consideration...."

Ian looked at the three people in front of him one by one.

Except for the fact that they were Tanya’s friends, they were just ordinary, typical E-rank mercenaries.

Though Ian hadn’t spoken to them directly yet, he had roughly grasped their situation from listening to their conversation with Tanya.

Coming all the way from Orsia to here meant they likely planned to operate in the Labyrinth from now on.

"You three, do you happen to have any plans for the future?"

"Eh... ah, no. Not yet."

When Ian asked, everyone shook their heads in a panic.

Since they didn’t even know what kind of place the Labyrinth was yet, there was no way they had a plan.

Ian briefly checked their abilities one by one as they made eye contact.

Compared to the common mercenaries at the recruitment office, they had no grand abilities, but they were adequate enough.

Ian made a proposal to Tanya’s three friends.

"How would you like to work here?"

"Pardon? Us?"

Receiving an entirely unexpected offer, Anne asked back in total shock.

Ian nodded.

As the mercenary group continued to grow, they now needed a support party in addition to the core main party.

Due to stress and fatigue, the main party couldn’t go out on missions indefinitely.

The time had come when a "Second Unit" was needed to handle low-level requests, material collection, and field exploration while the existing First Unit focused on growth and handling critical missions.

Conveniently, there were exactly three of them.

The fact that they weren’t Level 1, but had their levels raised appropriately, was also not bad.

Due to the nature of a Second Unit, they would have to go on missions on their own without Ian’s company; if he hired complete novices, he would need time to take them along and teach them personally.

Hearing Ian’s proposal, the three exchanged glances in an instant and replied immediately.

"We will work hard if you give us the opporchunity!"

Anne bit her tongue while speaking in a hurry and groaned.

I blew it....

The three felt that instinctively and gauged Ian’s reaction, but fortunately, Ian didn’t particularly mind Anne’s mistake.

Instead, as if in exchange, Ian brought up one condition with a serious face.

"I have one condition, though."

"Yes, anything... we’ll do anything!"

This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Anne had that intuition.

What kind of condition would be necessary to work in a mercenary group like this?

Since it was an opportunity she couldn’t miss, she had to achieve it even if it meant risking her life.

"Reconcile with Tanya."

I’m doomed....

* * *

Lunchtime.

Along with the members of the Ian Mercenary Group, Tanya’s three friends—who were still in the position of guests—sat at the table together.

"Captain. Here."

"Thanks."

Tanya smiled as she set the bowl down in front of Ian.

"Thanks, Tanya."

"It’s been a while since we had something you made!"

"Hmph."

Tanya’s friends also thanked her, but Tanya ignored them without even looking at their faces and returned to the kitchen.

"...."

"...."

"...."

Afternoon break time.

Anne stealthily approached Tanya in the lounge.

Mika, unable to stand the sight of the three, had come over and informed them of the places and shops Tanya usually liked to visit, so the plan was perfect.

"Ta-Tanya! Do you want to go out together?"

"Drop dead."

"...."

Anne was kicked out of the lounge without being able to say a single word of what she had prepared afterward.

Ian, who had been watching the scene from the sofa in the lounge, looked up.

...The problem he gave to Tanya’s friends as an entrance exam seemed unlikely to be solved easily.

Several days passed like that.

Empty rooms were plenty, and the cost of a few more people staying didn’t even make a dent, so Ian didn’t particularly care.

However, from the perspective of Anne’s group, who had already been staying for several days for free, it was a time that felt like their blood was drying up.

Thinking that this matter would never end at this rate, Ian finally went to find Tanya late at night.

"Phew...."

"Is something bothering you?"

"Ah, Captain."

Tanya, who had been spending time quietly in the kitchen, stood up in a hurry.

Tanya occasionally spent time alone in the kitchen like this when she couldn’t sleep.

Accepting Ian’s suggestion to talk for a moment, Tanya hurried to clear a space and brewed some tea.

In the kitchen, which was slightly cramped for relaxing, the two sat close together and began to talk.

Tanya, who had been pondering, spoke first.

"Um, I heard that you’re going to hire my friends."

"If you don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do."

"No.... It’s not that I don’t like it, but you didn’t hire them specifically because of me, right?"

"No. I happened to need more people, and they were a perfect fit."

Tanya could roughly tell why Ian had come to find her.

It must have looked like her relationship with her friends had soured because of her attitude.

"Actually, I’m not really that angry anymore."

Tanya muttered, fiddling with the teacup that was radiating warm heat in her hands.

"Of course, I was a bit mad at first.... but in a way, it’s thanks to them that I could meet you, Captain... and everyone in the mercenary group."

When she had first arrived in the Labyrinth, she thought she just wanted everyone to be safe no matter what.

It felt like she was just simply venting her anger.

Whether it was them leaving her behind and departing on their own.

Or them lying without properly telling her the news.

Including them falling into danger due to reckless greed.

She had told them so many times not to do anything dangerous when they left the village.

As she confessed those thoughts, Tanya laughed awkwardly.

Thinking about it like this, it really was just venting.

Tanya, letting out a sigh, said to Ian.

"I’ll reconcile... soon. Since you must be troubled as well, Captain."

"I’m fine with you being angry a bit longer, though? Everyone is finding it quite entertaining to watch."

Perhaps because they were old friends, Tanya’s reaction was a quite new side of her that was hard to see usually.

Watching Tanya and her friends was interesting in its own way.

Hearing that, Tanya, thinking about how it must have looked to others, blushed in embarrassment.

"Um... Tanya?"

"...Anne?"

After finishing their brief talk and Ian had headed back first.

Tanya, who was about to return to her room, discovered her friends hiding nearby waiting for her.

"Tanya. Take this."

Anne, approaching with a nervous face, held out a gift to Tanya.

"This is...."

"We haven’t saved enough to set up a shop for you yet, but for now, even just this...."

What Anne held out was an item that was also faintly in Tanya’s memory.

A cookbook set.

It was something peddlers occasionally brought when they were in the village, but because the prices of such professional books were astronomical compared to general books, it was something she hadn’t even dared to buy.

They must have had to save up with a lot of determination even with an E-rank mercenary’s pay.

They had been apart for a long time, and there were some misunderstandings in between, but....

Tanya realized that her friends still hadn’t forgotten their thoughts of her.

"...Thank you."

Tanya smiled brightly and accepted her friends’ gift.

Only then did everyone feel that the emotional distance that had been briefly apart had returned.

* * *

To celebrate their complete reconciliation, Tanya took her friends to a shop she frequently visited.

A small, antique shop located near the street of guild houses.

An interior decorated with only a few tables and pots of flowers and herbs grown personally.

A cake shop.

It was a space where one could feel a serious murderous intent for an E-rank mercenary to step foot in.

"Here. Let’s sit here."

"Ta-Tanya.... Is it okay for us to just walk into a place like this?"

Everyone followed Tanya and sat down hesitantly.

Tanya, who had walked in and sat down as if it were nothing, exchanged greetings with the shop owner as if they were well-acquainted.

The proprietress at the counter greeted Tanya warmly and, remembering what Tanya had requested last time, spoke up.

"Ah, Ms. Tanya. The herbs you requested last time have arrived."

"Oh. Really?"

"Shall I send these to the mercenary guild building as well?"

"Yes. If you happen to get more, please do the same."

Tanya pulled a gold coin from her pocket and held it out as if it were nothing.

"...."

"...."

"...."

A serious emotional distance was created between Tanya and her friends once again.