145. The Reference Letter
Fran examined the permit she got from Dias by flipping it over and shining a light on it.
「Is something wrong?」
「Nn. Might have hidden mechanism.」
「Hahaha, wow, you’re mean. I’m right here, you know?」
「…」
Dias had made his claim with a smile on his face, but that hadn’t been nearly enough for him to earn Fran’s trust, she continued to gaze at the letter suspiciously regardless.
「Just trust me on this okay? I won’t play any more pranks on you. The only pranks I ever play are ones that end up benefiting the adventurers that get pranked, you know?」
「Meaning?」
「Think of my pranks as a form of parental love. I use them to make sure everyone doesn’t get too relaxed on a day to day basis. I don’t just play them to have fun.」
「…」
Fran stared down Dias, whose expression remained serious despite his obvious bullshitting. I didn’t even need the Principle of Falsehood to know he was straight up lying to our faces.
「Well… Okay, I guess it is half for my own entertainment.」
「Nn.」
「A-Ah, right, that reminds me. Just letting you into the eastern dungeon isn’t all I’ve come up with. I’ve also got a few other ideas that’ll benefit you.」
The Guildmaster ended up just flat out changing the topic, not that I really mind given that I was interested in what he’d brought up.
『Other ideas, you say?』
「Yeah. To be more exact, I’ve thought up three different courses of action. The first is to issue a proclamation regarding the protection of younger adventurers, something we, as the guild, ourselves would also benefit from. I’m fairly certain that this is something you’ve already noticed, but Ulmutt’s got a relatively large proportion of younger adventurers.」
「Nn.」
「Our dungeons [1] fall in somewhere in the lower D ranked area, but we’ve a system that allows F and G ranked adventurers to explore the upper floors regardless so long as they party up with people ranked in at E or higher. This system really helps newbies that want to gain experience, as well as G rankers, as they aren’t allowed to enter any of the country’s other dungeons.」
「That’s why, G ranked kids, lots?」
「Exactly. The problem lies with the fact that many of the people out there like to take advantage of them. They manipulate them and use them as bait. I’ve been thinking of enforcing a penalty for actions like that for quite some time now.」
So Fran just happened to end up as the spark that’d set his plan into action? Makes sense.
「Second?」
「My second idea would be to go around telling everyone how much Erza likes you. Ulmutt’s adventurers typically prefer to be on his good side rather than not.」
Right. All the adventurers seemed to quiet down the moment he showed up. Yup, makes sense. There’s no way anyone would be willing to go head to head with that after all.
「Last?」
「That would be to quickly raise your rank.」
「??」
「You know, Fran, the guild really values all the contributions you’ve made to it. We’ll bump you up to C rank the moment you complete enough requests to qualify yourself for it.」
「Surprised.」
Yeah, me too. Was it because they took what we did back in Barbra into consideration?
「The royalty you escorted named you an incredibly valuable asset. The reports they sent contained nothing but praise.」
Oh, he must be talking about when we escorted Prince Flut and Princess Satia.
Fran’s expression remained unchanged, but I felt Dias’ words ignite a fiery passion within her.
「Will do best.」
「Please do. We’ll do for you as we have for every other adventurer that’s reached C rank here at the Ulmutt branch and make a series announcements in order to spread your name far and wide. That way, almost everyone in the city will know you’re a C rank, and consequently, there’ll be far fewer people that’ll want to try picking a fight with you.」
Fewer? So there still will be some? Can’t be helped, I guess. Oh well, that works too. Less is always more when it comes to this kinda thing.
「I’ll give you a few requests you can complete during your time in the eastern dungeon. You should be able to finish them and easily rank yourself up while going through with your training. 」
Dias handed us twenty something requests as he continued to speak.
「You’ll need to complete another 23 D ranked requests if you want to qualify for C rank. Take all these, and start doing what you can.」
「Got it.」
『Thanks.』
And so, we ended up being allowed into the dungeon. I’d been expecting us to have to be examined or something, but I guess this is fine too. It’s a shame that Klimut’s reference letter ended up going to waste, but oh well.
Actually, I guess there’s no harm in giving it to him anyways, right?
「Here.」
「That looks like… Alessa’s Guild’s crest. Would that be a letter from Klimut?」
「Nn. Reference letter.」
Dias’ face paled in unease the moment Fran nodded to affirm his suspicions. Wait, what? You okay, old dude?
「By the way, Fran.」
「Nn?」
「Umm… You’re not going to tell Klimut about how I tried to play a bit of a prank on you, right?」
For some odd reason, his tone voice of voice had immediately turned into a flattering one.
「Why?」
「I guess it’d be better for me to say since I’m the one asking for a favour here. Klimut is one of my seniors and someone I look up to as an adventurer. He gave me a hand when I was just starting out, so I owe him quite a bit. I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to face him if you told him what I did. Er, actually, that’s not it at all. To be honest, I’m just flat out terrified of him.」
I’d used the Principle of Falsehood to verify his words, and apparently, he wasn’t lying. He was actually afraid of Klimut.
Well, I’m glad that reference letter of ours ended up actually seeing some use. In fact, it more or less ended up functioning as a sort of trump card, huh?
「Will tell Amanda and Klimut next time something weird done.」
「I’m sorry. I’ll never do anything weird to you ever again.」
You know, it’s really pretty rare to see a Guildmaster prostrate himself on all fours. Man, I wish I had a camera right now. Oh well, either way, it looked like Dias is going to stop with his pranks now, so all’s good. [2]
「Nn. Got it.」
「Hahaha…」
Seeing Fran take a haughty stance while holding Klimut’s letter with Dias prostrating before her almost made me want to say “Case Closed!”
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[1] Raw does not say if plural or singular. The manner in which the writing is presented is pointing towards the first, but context from the previous chapter is pointing towards the second.
[2] Dogeza. Universal Japanese apology/begging tool. Basically getting on all fours with your knees touching the ground and prostrating. Normally only used for overdramatic apologies and whatnot.