After arriving back at Elis's location, Firefly found her staring blankly in the direction she had come from.
"The mission is complete. Let's go."
Coming before her, Firefly grabbed her arm after speaking and flew into the air; as for the Mutated Chicken, Firefly grabbed it with her other hand.
Although the chicken kept clucking "Cluck cluck cluck! Cluck~" and making other unintelligible yet somehow understandable sounds, the Mutated Chicken quieted down after Firefly stared at it for a while.
"Um, Mister Sam, did you do all of this?"
Lifted into the sky by Sam, Elis pointed at the charred area below with a slight tremble and spoke slowly.
She had been staying where she was, even playing with the Mutated Chicken for a bit, but to her surprise, a terrifying fire broke out in the forest just over a minute later.
Although the fire didn't reach her and was at least several kilometers away, it dyed a large portion of the sky red, making it impossible for her not to notice.
At first, she thought a forest fire had occurred, but she never expected it to be so massive! It had directly burned a vast area into a charred wasteland.
How could this possibly be a natural fire?
Thus, Elis thought of Sam, who had said he was going to clear the remaining Mutated Beasts. Combining the facts of his armor's flamethrowers and his S-rank status, she guessed it was almost certainly Sam's doing.
"Yes." Firefly didn't intend to hide it and directly admitted it was her work, "I ran into a group of lunatics, so I simply just use the annihilation strategy."
"So amazing. If only I had such great strength," Elis said with envy upon hearing Sam's reply. "At least I wouldn't be left at home due to a lack of strength when my teammates go out for revenge..."
"I've said it before: your ability's potential is more than what appears on the surface."
After all, it could even affect me. Although it was very slight, it was still incredible.
Hearing Elis's words, Firefly thought to herself after answering her.
Elis clenched her fists and looked at the charred forest, murmuring to herself:
"...Thank you, Mister Sam. Since my ability's potential hasn't fully manifested, there must be a way to activate it! I must become stronger!"
Firefly merely gave her a silent glance upon hearing this, then continued flying toward the city.
Before long, they were less than three kilometers from the South Gate. Firefly controlled Sam to land on the ground, and Elis successfully touched down on both feet again.
"We're here. We'll walk the rest of the way back."
After speaking, Firefly took the lead and walked toward the South Gate, with Elis following suit.
"How much does it cost to treat a dislocated arm?"
Halfway there, Firefly suddenly remembered that Elis's arm, which she had dislocated, hadn't been treated yet. So, she turned around and asked Elis, who was following behind.
"About three hundred credit points. A dislocated arm is a common occurrence among mercenaries, so it's not very expensive."
"Three hundred credit points..."
This amount really wasn't much, but because of these few credit points, she inexplicably felt pulled back to when she first arrived at the Pit Bottom District.
Back then, Lauren and the others could only earn fifty credit points at most for a mission, and they had to face things like firearms.
Yet here, simply treating a dislocated arm cost over three hundred credit points, and that was considered one of the cheaper treatments.
...
Firefly sighed, then transferred five hundred credit points into Elis's terminal.
"I've transferred the credit points to you."
Hearing this, Elis quickly checked her terminal. "Mister Sam, you transferred an extra two hundred credit points. I'll return them to you now."
"No need." Firefly shook her head. "I'm not short of these two hundred credit points. Keep them for yourself."
"Thank you..."
Upon reaching the city gate, after each of them paid ten credit points, they entered Grenource.
A large crowd had gathered at the city gate, but they didn't seem to have any intention of leaving. Instead, they were clustered together discussing something. Seeing this, Firefly began to eavesdrop.
"How could such a massive fire break out in the forest? Did someone set it on fire?"
"But that doesn't make sense. Wasn't the fire burning on the edge of the deep forest? There's so much moisture and water vapor there; how was it even possible?"
"Could they have brought accelerants?"
"Probably not. Even with accelerants, the fire shouldn't have been that big. Besides, that lunatic organization would surely have stopped it, right?"
"That organization... maybe the fire was put out by them?"
After listening to a few sentences, Firefly instantly understood what they were talking about. Weren't they talking about her setting the forest on fire just now?
Knowing this, Firefly lost interest and continued leading Elis toward the Mercenary Association.
Upon arriving at the Mercenary Association, Firefly stopped and turned to Elis behind her.
"I'll go turn in the mission first. As for the guide duties, we'll talk about that tomorrow." Speaking of this, Firefly looked up at the sky, which was almost completely dark. "After all, it's very late today; there's not much guiding to be done."
"Alright, Mr Sam. Just message me on the terminal when you need me."
Elis nodded, not finding Sam's suggestion strange. After exchanging contact information, she said goodbye to Firefly at the association's entrance.
She still had to go treat her arm.
After the farewell, Firefly walked into the Mercenary Association. After showing her platinum card to the The receptionist, the lady took Firefly up to the eleventh floor via the elevator.
Just as she stepped out of the elevator, Firefly saw Lux already waiting at the elevator doors.
"I've finished the commission. You can go and confirm it anytime."
Upon seeing Lux, Firefly spoke to her. Then, stepping out of the elevator, she casually tossed the Mutated Chicken in her hand onto the floor. "Also, I'd like to sell some Mutated Beast carcasses while I'm at it."
"No need," Lux shook her head. "The news of that massive forest fire has already spread throughout Grenource. And as it happens, the fire occurred right near the target location. There's no such thing as such a coincidence."
"That fire was your doing, wasn't it?"
"Yes." Firefly nodded. "I didn't originally intend to clear the Mutated Beasts in such a violent manner. It was mainly because I ran into a group of lunatics."
"A group of lunatics?"