After finishing the Dungeon subjugation, we returned to Baim and headed to the Guild to file our report.
We arrived in Baim around midday, and after going back to the manor to review the report, I set off for the Eastern Branch of the Guild.
Monica had latched onto me in a hug, and prying her off was quite the ordeal, so I was a bit worn out by the time we got there.
Upon arriving at the Guild, I naturally headed to the third floor. When I got there and faced the staff member who came to assist me, I was taken aback.
Long blonde hair and slightly drowsy eyes. Her irises were green, and she had this fluffy, soft-spoken air about her.
"Oh my, it's been a while~"
She spoke with a drawn-out lilt, flashing me a beaming smile as I entered the private room. She rose from her seat, prepared the drinks available in the room, and set them on the desk.
"Marianne? Wait, why are you here?"
As I stood there in confusion, Marianne offered a wry smile.
"Ha ha ha, truth is, I got fired from my position as the receptionist for newcomers on the first floor. Was it because of my age, I wonder? I suppose even for an older woman, I was still too far removed from them. Someone who seems within reach but actually isn't — that's what really matters when handling new recruits, though."
So that was her job? I thought about it but decided not to press further. Besides, if I chimed in on a conversation about age, it would probably come across as sarcastic given how young I still was.
So I smoothly changed the subject.
From inside the Jewel, the Fourth Generation spoke up—
'Tell her twenty is still within acceptable range, why don't you? After all, Selma is what, thirty-six already?'
What was this guy even saying? I ignored him and settled into my seat across the desk from Marianne with an ambiguous smile.
"That must have been tough. Ah, here's the report for this time."
Marianne took the envelope I offered and began reviewing it. She pulled documents from a drawer in the desk and cross-referenced them with the report.
"…There's almost no discrepancy between this and the Guild's own report. The paperwork looks good."
Adle had handled all the documentation work for me. Thanks to that, I'd been able to focus entirely on the trial run of the Valkyrie series.
However, the Valkyrie series had one major problem. That problem was, unless I became their Master, I couldn't build the so-called 'Network' they spoke of.
This would increase my burden alone, but there were plenty of other issues as well.
—It cost money. Just operating them cost money. Fighting cost even more. Now I understood why mercenary groups full of adventurers scrambled so desperately to raise funds.
"That's good news. We won't be moving for a while due to equipment checks and vacations, so we'll visit the Guild again another day. We'll pick up any available commissions then—"
As I finished the formalities and turned to leave the room, Marianne smiled at me.
"Yes. Good work on this. Please take plenty of rest."
When I descended to the first floor, a different staff member was sitting at the counter where Marianne had been previously.
A bright voice reached my ears, and looking over, I saw a brunette with a cute look. She was younger than Marianne, and gave off a different aura.
Not puffy, but more... perky, perhaps?
But, ultimately, the job was the same.
"That's amazing! You were only rated D before, but now you're at C. At this rate, you'll get your equipment together faster than expected. Really, my plans have been subverted in a good way. Let's keep at it, okay? I'll be doing my best too."
Menial jobs—like city cleaning or assistant work—would normally earn a C rating.
If you were deemed exceptional, you might get a B. An A rating was rarely given, because it would trigger the payment of additional bonuses.
Well, until now, they'd been terrible, so perhaps they'd finally started receiving normal evaluations.
"Wow, if we get serious, something like this is easy, right?"
With a smile, I praised the rookie adventurers, leaning forward with animated gestures as I complimented the young adventurers—the rookies. Their equipment was shoddy, and they were likely dirty from rushing straight to report after a mission, but I greeted them with a smile.
(There must be a replacement. Someone younger than Marianne? My age, or maybe a little younger?)
I didn't think age restrictions were that severe, but the rookie-handling staff member wore a slightly customized uniform and dealt with newcomers with a smile.
I felt like I'd seen her face somewhere before.
(...Lyle, was it?)
It looked perfectly fitting on her, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
While I was watching the counter, I noticed a group of people staring at the same spot I was.
Erhard's party.
He was wearing a tank top up top, which fit the season, but I wasn't sure about an adventurer exposing vital areas like that. The greatsword on his back was an ordinary blade, but its name was Gram.
He'd led his companions over and was studying the spot with a complicated expression.
Then, after a party member called out to him, Erhard started to move toward a different reception counter when—
"Oh."
"Hey."
—our eyes met.
I left the Guild and ducked into a shop, hoping to hear Erhard's party's story over a meal.
The place served generous portions and the food wasn't bad, so it seemed like a blessing for adventurers who couldn't earn much.
I'd already eaten, so I ordered just a drink and watched Erhard's party dig in.
Usually I was surrounded by women, and mealtimes tended to feel more refined—more genteel, I suppose. But Erhard's crew had no reservations whatsoever.
"Oh, miss! Another steak! Same thing!"
"Me too!"
"Bread, add some more!"
"Drinks—freshly squeezed juice! Ice!"
"Dessert is the lightly frozen fruit thing. One for each of us, please!"
The staff handled their orders with practiced ease. The other patrons glanced over at Erhard's party's spread and shot me sympathetic smiles.
Since it felt wrong to get information for free, I offered to cover their meal. They had already placed massive orders from the menu, sorted by most expensive first.
He was completely at ease, but that was almost endearing.
"Do you come here often?"
As he waited for his extra steak, Erhard chatted with me.
"You lookin' down on me? Might be a dive to someone like you, but this place is a famous joint where successful adventurers come to reminisce. It's the best spot in Baim."
No matter what I said, he was belligerent, but he wasn't challenging me to a duel like before.
I looked at the menu. You could tell they offered cheap meals for adventurers who weren't making much money.
"No, I think it's a great place. I used to eat at spots like this back in the day."
It brought back memories. When I had just become an adventurer, I used to have meals at places like this.
That was when I was staying at inns and couldn't do any housework. Even after I started living in a house in Darion, I'd eat out after exhausting myself completing quests.
Back then, it was just me and Novem. Then Aria joined us along the way, and I was pretty clumsy and unreliable.
"...You're with a woman, right? Must be nice, being a good-looking guy."
Erhard shot me a jealous look, but he wasn't bad-looking himself. If he tidied his appearance a bit, he could probably walk around with a woman too...
(Now that I think about it, there was Lark at Cartaphus.)
He was an adventurer who carried a greatsword like Erhard, but his situation was different.
"Yeah, well..."
"Hah! So, what did you want to know?"
I decided to ask about Marianne. Erhard and the others were now working as proper adventurers, taking quests and earning enough to live by defeating monsters around Baim.
You could call them respectable adventurers, and I was curious why Marianne, who had trained them to that level, had been removed from her role overseeing new recruits.
"It's about Marianne."
At that, Erhard and the others stopped eating. Each of them looked down, their faces twisted in frustration. Wondering what had happened, Erhard started to speak in bits and pieces.
"…That woman betrayed us. She kept praising us, saying we had talent, but she was laughing behind our backs the whole time. I asked around and apparently, she was one of those staff members who'd trick new recruits into doing work for them. They reassigned her to the third-floor reception desk, and she rose through the ranks, so she didn't need to put on an act anymore. I bet she's still putting on a fake smile for capable adventurers, though."
It seemed like some kind of problem had come up between Erhard and the others. As I listened more closely, it turned out that when the great army of Monsters had appeared, Erhard and the others had wanted to participate.
And she had persistently tried to stop them from doing so.
Jobs outside the city walls came with extraordinary rewards. That was probably what had drawn them in, but Erhard and the others would have been better off not participating.
They could have died.
I was about to open my mouth to clear up the misunderstanding when a voice came from Jewel—Mireia's voice.
"Raier, now is not the time. They seem to have their blood up, and no matter what you say, they won't listen. Let them grow a little more as people, and once they're able to laugh about this, you can tell them then. If they survive as adventurers, the day will come when they can laugh about it. That's when you should tell them. They do seem to have real potential… and Marianne, the girl who drilled all those fundamentals into them so thoroughly, must have truly cared about nurturing these kids."
I considered whether I should clear up the misunderstanding immediately, but sure enough, Erhard and the others were still dwelling on it. I doubted my words would get through to them right now.
(Maybe it's like how Hawkins used to handle reception at Darion for me?)
I felt a wave of nostalgia. He was someone who was intimidating just by being there, yet he always treated me with the utmost courtesy. I remembered that now.
"Is that so…"
"Yeah. We're done talking about this, okay? We were stupid enough to get played—that's on us. You can laugh, I don't mind."
"I'm not going to laugh. Thank you for telling me."
I decided to thank them for being willing to talk to me about it. Right on cue, the additional food Erhard and the others had ordered was brought out. They buried themselves in the dishes in front of them, trying to forget the unpleasant conversation.
A day off.
I had gone out shopping and brought May and Monica along to the market.
After returning from the Dungeon subjugation, I'd finished inspecting my equipment and sent off anything that needed repairs. I decided to spend the time before taking on my next job as a vacation.
In the bustling market, I carried the bags of ingredients Monica kept buying one after another. There was more spent on seasonings than on meat, fish, or vegetables.
"Hah… It would've been so much better if it were just me and Chicken alone. But back at the mansion there's the clunker, the mass-produced model of the clunker, and those three mass-produced units, so I can't even have any fun with Chicken…"
The person Monica was grumbling to was May. When she heard we were going to the market, she had tagged along. Her eyes were shining as she looked around at all the stalls.
I turned around toward Monica, who was standing diagonally behind me, carrying the bags of purchases in brown paper sacks.
"When was I ever flirting with you?"
"Please don't be shy. This Monica understands Chicken's love perfectly. Even if you resort to violence, in my heart, that too is a form of affection."
"No, there's no violence involved. I don't want that kind of love."
Still reeling from Monica's remark, I shifted my gaze to May. She was wearing a tight miniskirt that left her shoulders and midriff exposed.
In Baim, passersby wouldn't give it a second glance, but in any other city, she and Monica both would have drawn plenty of attention.
May was staring at some exotic fruit.
"What's this! Hey, what's this!"
The old woman running the fruit stall smiled at May and explained.
"It's a fruit imported from across the sea. You can't eat the skin, but the usual way to enjoy it is to cut it in half and scoop out the insides with a spoon."
Was the surface black or purple? As I reached out to pick up the fruit, Monica spotted it.
"Oh my, they even have something like this. Shall we purchase some?"
After we bought a few, the old woman noticed me lugging all the bags and packed them into a smaller sack before slipping it into the brown paper bag for us.
"Miss, this one's on the house. Come back and visit, alright?"
Since May had stopped in front of the stall and we'd made a purchase, the old woman handed May the same fruit as a complimentary gift.
May took the fruit, beaming with delight. She held it in both hands, clearly excited to dig in right away.
I looked over the array of fruits lining the stall.
"Baim really does have everything, doesn't it?"
The old woman let out a hearty laugh.
"You bet it does. This is the most developed city on the entire continent. It doesn't lose out to the big cities of any great nation."
I let out a wry smile. The Seventh Generation had thrown out a barbed remark.
"Indeed. A great metropolis built by squeezing money, resources, and blood from neighboring countries and many others. A truly terrifying city."
But the old woman's expression clouded over just slightly.
"Still, I've been hearing that Rusworth and Galleria have started fighting again lately. There'll be things we can't get our hands on once more. Those two countries are a real nuisance."
Rusworth and Galleria were nations that had been warring with each other for years on end. They lay on the far side of where Rolfis currently stood.
The Third Generation spoke up in a displeased voice.
"What? At a time like this? It's normal to start wars after autumn passes. Or do foreign countries have different busy seasons?"
In terms of territory size, the Third Generation's era had the smallest holdings among the remaining lords. He was voicing his dissatisfaction with a mobilization that came at such an untimely moment.
But the Fourth Generation saw it differently.
"They're fairly large nations. Surely keeping up appearances would suffice? There are times when full mobilization isn't necessary. Besides, they have knights, and depending on the region, they might hire mercenaries to make up the numbers."
The Fifth Generation listened to the Fourth Generation's opinion and looked unhappy.
"Hiring mercenaries costs money too. Well, I suppose they could just let them plunder the places they conquer. Sigh, I don't want any part of it."
While I was lost in thought, May borrowed a knife from the old woman and cut the fruit in half. Then she handed one of the pieces to me.
"Here, Laiel."
"Hm? Oh, thanks."
I took it with my free hand. The inside was packed with flesh. Juice overflowed from it, making my fingers sticky.
I took a bite and was a little surprised by how sweet it was.
"Huh. It tastes a bit different from any fruit I know."
May seemed to share the same opinion.
"Right? This is delicious."
Monica looked at the two of us.
"It's a tropical fruit. It has a tropical feel to it."
Then, the aunt looked at Monica and laughed.
"You knew, young lady? Well, yes, tropical fruits are a bit unique. I see, it certainly has that 'tropical' feeling."
Monica smiled.
"It is tropical."
Wondering what this girl was talking about, I decided to take the two of them and continue our shopping.
I thanked the aunt.
"Thank you. I'll stop by again sometime."
"Thanks for the fruit!"
May also waved cheerfully at the aunt. But I couldn't just stay focused on the fruits.
(Galleria and Rusworth. It might be time to make contact.)