Now that he is back, it is just in time for lunch.
"Let’s eat."
...
"Have they arrived?"
Lord Gauss and his companions arrived at the city gate, and Aaliyah stood on tiptoe to look into the distance.
"I can see Toga and his team."
In the direction of the horizon, a convoy wearing uniform attire was slowly approaching.
Seeing that familiar black and red, Lord Gauss and his companions knew the Red Dragon Team members they were waiting for had arrived.
Although traveling by boat is faster than land, it could never match the speed of Hephaestus flying in the sky, so their arrival at Gray Rock Town was significantly delayed.
After another while.
The convoy gradually approached.
"Captain, I’ve safely escorted everyone here, fulfilling the mission," Ivan said as he saw Lord Gauss, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Encounter any unexpected events on the road?"
"Ran into some small-time bandits two days ago, but I took care of them," Toga waved his hand dismissively.
Lord Gauss glanced at the members of the convoy. Despite traveling through mountains and rivers, their spirits seemed quite decent.
"Please come in." Soldiers nearby saw the convoy preparing to line up at the city gate and quickly pointed to a side gate to signal them.
"No inspection needed?" Dwarf Toga looked up and asked.
"You are all partners of Lord Gauss, naturally no inspection is needed."
Upon hearing this, Toga turned to look at Gauss, who remained composed.
As expected, it’s the privilege of the captain’s "hometown."
Before entering the city, they were already enjoying extraordinary privileges.
The convoy, carrying the Red Dragon banner, smoothly entered the city through the side gate.
As for the team’s temporary residence, Abelhard had already arranged it for him.
It was an idle mansion of a wealthy merchant, whose owner had sold it in recent years, purchased by the Gray Rock Town Adventurer’s Guild to be used as a spare training facility.
The mansion came with a courtyard, warehouse, main building, and supporting ancillary buildings, perfectly meeting the needs for living, working, training, and storage.
And it could easily accommodate dozens of people.
The mansion had already been cleaned in advance, and when Gauss pushed open the door, the courtyard was extremely tidy, and the flowers and vegetation in the garden had been pruned.
Although it couldn’t be compared to the estate residence crafted at great expense by the Red Dragon Team in Farlim, it was still a considerably luxurious setting compared to the ordinary inns and taverns that most adventurers rent.
Especially in a small place like Gray Rock Town, such idle and independent buildings are quite scarce; without special connections, even money wouldn’t easily find them.
This is because the owners of these buildings may not reside in Gray Rock Town for many years, nor do they rent them out.
"This is truly nice," Toga and the others looked around, with satisfied expressions on their faces.
Actually, most of them didn’t have high demands for living conditions, but living better doesn’t hurt.
"Ivan, please make some arrangements."
"Also remind the others to be a bit careful while living here; after all, this isn’t our own territory, but a spare training ground belonging to the local Guild."
Although Gauss believed that with his reputation, as long as his subordinates don’t demolish the mansion estate, Abelhard wouldn’t have any objections, of course... maybe even if they did, there wouldn’t be any objections, but since it’s a borrowed Guild facility, they should try not to create too much trouble.
"Understood," Ivan nodded, indicating he was aware of the situation.
Before coming here, he had already inquired about the relationship between Lord Gauss and Gray Rock Town.
Knowing this was the starting point of the captain’s professional career, it was considered half a hometown, and notably, months ago, in the face of enormous risks, it was protected from an onslaught of thousands of monsters.
He speculated that this town probably held significant weight in Lord Gauss’s heart.
So even if Gauss didn’t mention it, he would still restrain the others; in fact, he had brought up this matter on the way here.
Fearing someone might think of themselves as coming from Farlim and look down on Gray Rock Town, this country place, appearing arrogant and causing embarrassment for the captain.
After casually telling Ivan about this, Gauss didn’t say much more.
Ivan is reliable in his work, putting Gauss at ease.
"Today you all take a day’s rest."
"Starting tomorrow, the members of the field team should be ready to accompany me to the Black Water Town region."
...
Gauss’s squad did not reside at the mansion estate; instead, after settling the adventure group members, they left.
Walking down the streets of Gray Rock Town.
There were many more adventurers on the roads.
This was actually inevitable.
Surrounding towns were attacked in the past few months, like Forest Crown Town, which was defended at the cost of some personnel sacrifices and property loss, while the unfortunate ones like the entire Black Water Town area were overrun.
Gray Rock Town, thanks to Gauss’s squad, was already the least affected compared to neighboring towns.
Thus, it appeared the sturdiest and safest, naturally attracting adventurers from outside areas.
On the way back to the residence, a sudden voice sounded from behind.
"Captain Gauss, I didn’t expect to encounter you here."
Gauss stopped, turned around, and looked behind him.
Behind him stood a man and a woman, and the speaker was the male, standing at a height of 1.9 meters, wearing a wolfhead-shaped faceplate. Beside him was a short, pink-haired human female.
Strangers he did not recognize, and evidently, they were outsiders, with a rather formidable presence.
Gauss instinctively became slightly vigilant, but since he was in his hometown, within the city, he wasn’t overly concerned—only curious about the identity of the newcomers and their reason for addressing him.
"And you are..."
Though the other party accurately called out his name amidst the crowd, Gauss truly did not know them, nor had he ever seen them before.