Thomas 2: The important news

As we get back to Wolfe's Mansion, there's a servant waiting for every single one of us. Why does this guy have to be so excessive in his hospitality towards us? I suppose that could be part of the reason he managed to climb the ranks so quickly, despite not being much of a warrior.
If you can't fight, help those who can, so they perform the best they can.
Or something like that. I can't read his mind!

Everyone gets guided to their own rooms, except for me; I apparently have important business to discuss yet. I wish we had some more time to recover, but this is probably about another magic beast, isn't it?

As I enter the meeting room, the lord and three other people are already seated, waiting for me to enter. Before I even get the chance to bow, the lord immediately starts speaking. "No need to worry about formalities, let's get to the matter at hand. Pick a seat."

Did he just tell me to ignore his title in the presence of other people? Either he has a lot of other work today, overestimates my position, or needs a big favour from me. Considering how skilled he is in diplomacy, I doubt it's the second. My bet is on the favour option, but considering there are this many of us... I can guess what we will be discussing.
"Very well."

"First and foremost, I would like to thank all of you for gathering here on such short notice, even if it is by coincidence for some. Secondly, I would like to apologise for the incomplete information I will provide now. Even more importantly, my sincere apologies for the faulty information provided to Thomas' party yesterday. I openly share the information available to me, but it is my fault and responsibility when the quality of my sources is lacking..."

I already knew the limited information was not his fault. The apology is a bit reassuring, nonetheless.

"Oh well, time to bite the bullet. A messenger on horseback arrived today. There is a double-evolved lizard of at least class six attacking a very important coastal city. The townspeople have been evacuated, but the beast decided to make the place home. To make matters worse, there have also been multiple sightings of other magic beasts in the area. We don't know how organised they are, but somehow there's an entire army of magic beasts gathering there, presumably led by the lizard as they only started migrating shortly after it arrived."

Damnit, considering I recognised one of the three other people in the meeting room as a member of the meeting, I figured it was a large-scale deployment. I wish I could give my party a rest after all the heavy fighting we've been doing. Instead, I'm supposed to send them into another hellish battlefield where it's only a question of how many human lives are lost. None is wishful thinking.

"Because of the high class of the ringleader and the total amount of magic beasts, direct interference is impossible. Instead, all nearby cities are to send any mercenaries, armies and excessive guards to help deal with the issue. I'm afraid refusing isn't an option either. As you all know, emergency law states that any combat-capable individuals are to help when a high-level magic beast crisis happens nearby."

The buff blonde guy next to me seems to lose his cool, slamming his fist on the table as he yells.
"Damnit, I should've tried to hide from that messenger after all! Multiple enemies, including a class six? You could as well just tell us to walk off a cliff with our eyes open!"

One exaggerated way to phrase it. If planning is okay and there are enough nearby villages, towns and guard posts sending reinforcements, we should win against a class six. There is no doubt we'll lose at least a few men fighting something like that, though. We managed to hold our own against class five, but classes get stronger exponentially, the difference between a class one and two is barely noticeable, yet the difference between four and five is Pierre taking it out by himself, or our entire party possibly getting wiped.

Lord Wolfe is lucky we were the ones to fight the boar. Amongst the entire anti-magic-beast department, we aren't quite at the top, but we sure as hell are closing in on that spot with every single year that passes.
I would love to claim that's due to my skilled leadership, but everyone knows the main reason is just that Pierre, August and I are extremely strong in hand to hand combat, while Andy and Henry are great at reaching the magic beasts. Leo is a fairly strong fighter himself, but because he's a great medic and the only other medic is probably among the ten strongest in the entire empire, he only gets to shine after combat is over.

"You'll have access to my manor for the time being. Once all responses have been gathered by the local governor, we'll hear the hunt starts, as well as a better estimation of the number of magic beasts and a better idea of what the lizard's abilities are. The amount of magic beasts moving nearby makes scouting highly dangerous, so scouting reports take a long time to arrive, if they do at all..."

Some small talk later, we leave the meeting. I don't look forward to telling everyone, but most of them already figured we're doing another big job when Henry said Wolfe wanted to talk to me instead of just passing a message to convey. I hope the newbie doesn't take it too badly.

After about a week has passed, we get to leave on our war against the beasts. The lizard apparently mainly uses ice magic, while the magic beasts that gathered are numbered in the hundreds and use every single element in the spectrum.
At least every single one of us has decent armour now, though. Because we took out that boar, despite the misinformation, Mister Wolfe has given us two of his best armour sets at a very big discount. They're not quite as good as the armour August used to have, but it is nice not to have ventilation holes. We also got a shipment of potions. During this kind of big fight, they can't afford to spare any expenses. The empire is a lot better off supplying us well instead of having to send out another party when we fail.

Nobody likes this kind of job, but refusing them means losing your status as well as your job. Even the party from the buff guy who complained during the initial briefing is travelling with us.