"Ha?"

At that moment, Shien thought that he heard wrong.

What did he just heard?

"R-rose up by depending on women?"

Shien completely failed to respond to just what that sentence ment.

Seeing that, not just Vivian but also Diere, Lumia, and even Melika showed a somewhat difficult expression.

"I know that you're quite surprised, but that is indeed the truth."

Vivian continued to smile bitterly as she opened her mouth to explain.

"Unlike young master Markray, Leon wasn't born from a noble family. He wasn't even a proper citizen, but a child born from the slums."

Based on Vivian's explanation, Leon's parents were thieves who had records of the many times that they ended up captured and thrown into prison. Leon himself also lack any real talent or potential. He was already 25 this year, and he was only level 22. Compared to other adventurers of similar age, the difference wasn't something minor.

Thus, Leon had know for certain from a young age that he had no way of climbing up the social ladder using his own abilities.

However, Leon was still very ambitious. Not only did he want fame and fortune, he also wanted to become someone highly placed, even become a noble.

Thus, Leon put all his effort into the one advantage that he had from birth.

And that was his face.

"Although it is just information that came second or even third hand, but from what I've heard, ever since he was little, Leon had be continuously training his appearance. No only did he use every way that he could get his hands on to beautify himself, he also trained vigorously to practice his manors and social abilities. Then he tried to devise various ways to make contact with various women in Lamdrion who might be able to help him in his goals.

As she got to that point, Vivian's tone had noticeably turned strange.

"In the beginning, he got close to some normal older women, and borrowed their funds to help him get through his day to day costs."

"Next, Leon made contact with the younger sisters or daughters of certain wealthy shops, and used them to get some monetary support."

"Then, Leon started making contacts with some female adventurers and woman from merchant families. He used various methods to get their aid and to utterly entrance them into helping him unconditionally."

"It's under that situation that Leon managed to get the position that he has now. I heard that back in the very beginning, he managed to pass the probationary testing because the leader of the party he was assigned to was a female adventurer who really loved him. His equipment was also gained through the aid of all the woman who have fallen for him. His choice in becoming an adventurer was also not for the sake of leveling up or training himself, but rather as a way of getting more money, and to use the relations of adventurers to initiate contact with more women of status."

"Through those methods, there were many quest givers who also fell for him. Not only did they give him various kinds of aid, but they'd also, for the sake of gifting him money, every once in a while purposefully send quests to the guild specifically naming him as the recipient. The contents of those quests tend to be unbelievably minor issues, but the reward tend to be frighteningly huge."

"Under such circumstances, Leon finally managed to create his own adventuring party and even started trying to do all he could to collect or make contact with people who might be of aid to his goals. The original reason that young master Markray ended up joining his party was probably because Leon purposefully tried to make use of those relations. Also, Leon's target doesn't seem to be Markray himself, but rather that Leon wanted to use the relations between him and Markray to make contact to one of Markray's older sisters."

Vivian's explanation made the corner of Shien's mouth twitch uncontrollably.

Never mind Shien, even Lumia and Melika, who had long since more or less heard all about Leon, were showing an expression like they had no words to say. The expression on their faces, can probably be summed up with the saying of "You see all kinds of things as you live on."

However, they were still not done yet.

"Did you see that woman called Eudrice next to Leon?" Diere coolly interjected from the side, "She's the only daughter of Lamdrion's biggest magic item merchant. Ever since two years ago, she had been completely head over heals for that guy. She even ended up becoming an adventurer just for the sake of staying near that guy."

At that, Shien's eyes started twitching too.

So, basically then?

"That party is basically composed of a stalker, a gigolo, and a love-sick fool?"

Shien felt like his image of what an adventuring party should be like was being ruined.

Especially when he thought of Leon's elegant, beautiful, and picturesquely handsome face. Shien had never even imagined that party leader, no, that boss, would be so amazing.

Compared to him, all those other boys who lived by mooching off of rich woman back in his previous world were all compete weaklings.

"It can't be that he also had his eyes on you guys, right?"

Shien looked at Vivian and group with an uncertain gaze.historical

Vivian and group's expressions had turned even more strange at that.

Vivian herself even hesitantly let out the following statement.

"I am Leili's childhood friend after all. It's pretty normal for him to want to make contact with Leili through me. Diere is also one of the top prodigies of the entire Kingdom, so he has quite an eye on Diere's future potential and always wanted to try to improve his relationship with her. Even Lumia and Melika are people worth connecting with in his eyes. He must have wanted to diversify his portfolio, to invest in them who has the potential to be people of note in the future, right?"

Those words almost made Shien split up blood in response.

At this point, Shien only wanted to say a single statement.

"What's a Hero? That's a Hero!"

And it's even a hero with a completely worthless starting status. It was really worth freaking mad respect.

At the very lest, Shien felt like his own status as the current Hero was unbelievably weak ass.

However, other than that, Shien had something that he wanted to say even more.

"Is it really fine to let a party like that join in this particular quest?"

Even if that rich boy young master had some talent, and his level shouldn't be too low, that party leader's level was far lower than the others here. The love-sick fool remaining is a merchant's daughter, and she ended up becoming an adventurer for such a half-baked reason, so her own level probably wasn't all that high either, right?

Of course Vivian wouldn't have felt that there aren't any problems, so she sighed over and over.

"The highest level person in Leon's party should probably be young master Markray. However, Leon's party isn't just made of the three of them. Using Leon's abilities, his party has at least another few dozen people. That's how they managed to become one of the most famed adventuring parties in Lamdrion and was even recognized by Sir Balon, right?"

While she did say so, Vivian still had an expression like she couldn't believe it at all.

"This particular quest involves a number of things. Leon and group probably also used certain methods to forcibly join in. Their goal is probably to forcibly steal merits, right?"

The prisoner being escorted this time was a major criminal who was one of those responsible for the plot ten years ago that killed countless nobles and even royalty. The moment that they successfully transport him to the capital, given the grudges that the nobility and royalty have against Jillian, the escorts themselves would definitely be greatly rewarded.

"I think, it's because he grasped that particular point that young master Markray's father arranged for his son to join in this particular quest. Leon also couldn't have possibly let go of this great opportunity. If he could use this chance to make contact with the women of high nobility in the capital, then he could truly transform in status."