Tsige has problems piling up, but there’s also things that have changed for the better.
One of those is the Adventurer Guild.
There’s a lot of people who have adventurer and mercenary as their side-job, but they are different jobs.
In this world, registering yourself in the Adventurer Guild is important for people who look to get stronger, so all mercenaries are registered in the Adventurer Guild.
On the other hand, there’s a good amount of people who are registered in the Adventurer Guild but have no mercenary experience.
Adventurer, mercenary, and soldier.
Delineating these types of jobs is difficult.
Commonly when it is war, the military personnel would command the mercenaries and the adventurers who volunteered, but Tsige is special.
There may be a private army, but there’s no military personnel.
It was a serious problem especially in this situation where order is required, but the employment of a seasoned mercenary group the other day finally made it take shape.
There’s surprisingly few who know about how dangerous the situation was.
Their inexperience in war was creating a warped perception here.
The friction between the strong, no matter how silly of a reason there is, can cause real harm, which is a troubling matter.
“Well, that’s the gist of it.”
A silver haired woman in a room of the Adventurer Guild wearing a peculiar priest garb closed the file.
A table where the Tsige Branch Chief, and the Top of the Adventurer Guild, Root, were present in.
One of the members of the Adventurers of Origin that left Lorel after who knows how many centuries and is now staying in Tsige, Ginebia, moves her shoulders and stretches, pushing the packed file towards Root and the Branch Chief Lucas.
“It has been a while since I have seen it, but you really have above average skills in office work, Bia.” (Root)
“If I knew you were here, I would have pushed the schedule so that we would come at a later time. Just to make it ckear, don’t count us in the mercenary numbers, okay? We came here as guardians. We won’t involve ourselves in the winning or losing of this.” (Bia)
“Guardians, huh! Ahahaha! If you are talking about guardians, aren’t you guys the guardians of all adventurers?” (Root)
“…Please stop that. As if adventurers need guardians. If they need guarding, then they should just not do adventures that don’t match their skills.” (Bia)
“True. They have no need for guardians. I would say that mercenary groups don’t need it either though.” (Root)
“Oh my, what’s so bad about worrying about our cute cute disciples? There’s a person that threw something that we have to worry about in Lorel after all. It can’t be helped, right?” (Bia)
“The Kuzunoha Company wasn’t instigated by me though…” (Root)
“You basically did. With the Doma egg matter and all.” (Bia)
“Ugh.” (Root)
“I have a message from him, Faltz-san. ‘I will never forget your treatment. Don’t think about meeting me for several hundreds of years on the other side’, he says.” (Bia)
“His way of getting back at someone is also shutting-in, huh. That guy is hopeless. He doesn’t try to learn about others, which makes him stay in his narrow view. Even though he is still a cringy boy that can’t read the mood.” (Root)
While Ginebia and Root were enjoying a conversation as old acquaintances, Lucas was looking at the file that had added explanation memos and was groaning real real deeply.
It was wonderful.
It was easy to read, and the data was made in a way that flowed well for understanding.
It tells the reader what the numbers are trying to tell in a way that’s easy to absorb.
Just by arranging it and adding items made it change so much that he couldn’t hide his surprise.
The Adventurer Guild in Tsige doesn’t have any incompetent people. They wouldn’t be able to handle the work.
Since the time Lucas was left this place, the quality of the employees has been more than enough, and he was proud in the fact that he has also nurtured them further, but even so, the work of this woman called Ginebia was enough to tip his hat.
When you are the Top of all the Adventurer Guilds, you can have these kinds of connections? His respect for Faltz, who called Ginebia here to work on a part of the paperwork, increased even further.
“…I am in admiration. Faltz-sama’s personnel connections, Ginebia-dono’s processing ability; I tip my hat to both.”
Lucas was left with the Adventurer Guild of Tsige at a young age.
He is a staff member with a bright future.
He was unable to show ability as an adventurer, so he retired promptly and started his second life as a guild employee.
There, his talent splendidly bloomed, and he climbed the stairs of promotion, catching the eye of Faltz (Root), and leading to the present.
Lucas already understands that Faltz, who hasn’t aged at all and leads the guilds with that same appearance, is not just a hyuman.
Somewhere inside the head of Lucas, he thinks that in order to climb even further, there’s the need to deal with people that are not people, or are not people to begin with.
“It isn’t that big of a deal. I simply know a bit more than the people of the Adventurer Guild.” (Bia)
“Right right, she is an original after all.” (Root)
“Rather, you are doing well, Lucas-san. It seems like this place was on the verge of collapse at a point in time, but you managed to make it recover splendidly. I think that’s an achievement you can hold proud.” (Bia)
“…Hoh, Lucas~, you are getting praised real good there. That’s an incredible thing, you know?” (Root)
Ginebia shakes her head to the sides, and says ‘it isn’t’ to Lucas.
And then, she praised him from the information about the situation of the Adventurer Guild in this city she learned about.
Root pokes at Lucas with slight jealousy mixed in it.
“Faltz-sama, please don’t joke around. But…original?” (Lucas)
“…By the way…” (Bia)
“?”
Ginebia dodges the question with a vague smile, and with her gaze swimming as if looking at Lucas but not really, she continues speaking.
“The image I had of Tsige was that of boorish protective walls and a fortress though. This place really makes me feel the fearsomeness of the work people can achieve.” (Bia)
“?”
Boorish walls? Fortress?
Lucas tilts his head.
There was no such period in Tsige after all.
“Well, in those days, there was the best man, who was reckless, thoughtless, and was indiscriminate when it came to beauties, that cut down a mountain and opened it up. This place came to be soon after that.” (Root)
“Right. I agree with everything aside from ‘the best’. It was something that man did. At that time it was…Daguza territory? If I remember correctly, it was the territory of a tribe with that name.” (Bia)
“Daguza, what a nostalgic name. There’s no shape or form of them anymore though. Tsige is now one of the world’s largest cities, growing in scale as it sucks up the gold of the wasteland.” (Root)
A massive amount of ‘?s’ jump in Lucas’s brain.
The two speak of that past, not like they know about it, but as if they experienced it themselves.
It is true that Faltz has not shown any signs of growing since the first time he met him.
But the possibility of him seeing and knowing about the period before Tsige existed and the moment it was made, is impossible.
(It should be impossible.) (Lucas)
“On top of that, saying that there’s no need for the control of the country. A city-state is not a well-known thing in this world.” (Bia)
Ginebia furrows her brows in disbelief, but she doesn’t look like she is criticizing it.
On top of that, Lucas heard something from her that he couldn’t just let it pass by.
‘This world’.
That’s certainly what Ginebia said.
“He is more interesting than the heroes, right?” (Root)
“Him? Or the so-called Rembrandt Company that thought of it after observing him?” (Bia)
“Eh? Rembrandt? That guy is simply a skilled merchant that had his family face something harsh and went ‘the Goddess is shit’, you know?” (Root)
Lucas draws the figure of Patrick Rembrandt for an instant in his mind.
But his name came right after, so that means he wasn’t referring to Rembrandt.
In that case…the ‘him’ that Faltz speaks about, there’s no other than him.
Lucas remembers the pitiful hyuman that has no particular features that stand out aside from his appearance.
The representative of the Kuzunoha Company, Raidou.
The man that, on top of being friends with the Rembrandt Company, registered in the Adventurer Guild and maintains level 1 despite being decently old.
There’s many people who have witnessed him defeating many mamonos, so his level really being 1 is quite doubtful.
There’s a lot of extreme rumors surrounding him, and if you were to explain it in few words, it would be ‘he is a joke-like existence’.
“You overevaluate us a lot after all. Also him…you like that unbalanced part about him the most, right?” (Bia)
“You can tell?” (Root)
“Of course I do. Not all gentlemen are like that musclehead and your husband, you know. Haku and I were worried that you might end up assaulting that late bloomer of a boy.” (Bia)
“I studied a whole lot about how to bring down a late blooming boy though. But there’s troublesome people at his side.” (Root)
“Tomoe-san and Mio-san. The reason why he can somehow still stay normal is thanks to those two.” (Bia)
“In my opinion, as long as he is okay with it, I don’t mind becoming a woman. Whichever it is, I want a child, so it is vexing.” (Root)
“Hohoho, don’t go full pervert mode all of a sudden with a straight face.” (Bia)
“Lucas already knows that I don’t mind gender and have reached true love after all. There’s no need to worry.” (Root)
Lucas doesn’t falter at the weird things the Guild Master said.
But…not faltering is slightly different from accepting and agreeing.
It is possible to understand and give tacit consent to it as one of the sexual inclinations, but he doesn’t intend to take the initiative to open the door to that world.
He can watch over it as if it were something happening at the other side of the shore.
That’s all it is.
“I understand that Faltz-sama has a special sexual inclination. That’s all I know.” (Lucas)
Lucas puts his own piece, especially when in the presence of a beautiful woman.
“So he says. He only has surface level knowledge then.” (Bia)
“What. I thought that since you read the documents about the Guild’s history a whole lot, you would know a bit more into it though, Lucas. Won’t you do things like peeping and wiretapping in order to catch my weaknesses? Being such an ambitious person and all.” (Root)
“!”
“I am not bisexual, Lucas. See?” (Root)
Faltz changed his appearance to that of a woman in an instant.
“…Huh?” (Lucas)
It wasn’t on the level androgynous.
Slender fingers that had clear female charm trace the chin of Lucas.
“How is it? Am I a man? Or a woman?” (Root)
Lucas was flustered at the beauty that closed her face right in front of his.
There was no action from him.
His head couldn’t keep up with the situation.
“By the way…just as you can tell from my chest, the below is also that of a woman, you know?” (Root)
“?!”
“I can also get pregnant and give birth.” (Root)
“…Faltz, stop teasing him.” (Bia)
Root continued throwing obscene questions at a dangerous distance.
Ginebia steps in to stop him with an exasperated look.
Root is the type that can begin doing stuff even with a third party present. Ginebia already knows this from experience, so she quickly stopped it.
“By the way, about the Adventurer Guild…” (Bia)
“…Yeah?” (Root)
Root reacted to the part about the Guild and directed his attention to it.
“It has turned interesting. You could say, it finally happened.” (Bia)
“Interesting?” (Root)
“Yeah. The Adventurer Guild that you created, the plan that was spoken at first has succeeded, but it ended up wrapping up in quite the small result.” (Bia)
“…Really? I on the contrary think that it has become quite the big family though.” (Root)
“I am not talking about the scale. I am talking about the width, the width.” (Bia)
“I don’t understand what you mean, Bia.” (Root)
“The hint is Picnic Rose Garden that’s currently in Tsige. When thinking about their scope, they have quite the varied job compositions at their disposal. Ah, I ended up saying the answer.” (Bia)
“Meaning that the amount of jobs is low? But I have properly considered the possibilities, and honestly, when thinking about efficiency, anyone can perform their roles to a certain extent, right?” (Root)
“That’s the part. Having a lot of jobs, even the joke jobs, is the core of the Adventurer Guild. Well, we were the first serious composition and went around to a whole lot of places, so your image might have settled to a certain extent because of that.” (Bia)
“…”
“In that point, the current Tsige is in an incredibly good state -an interesting state. There’s many adventurers who have obtained unique jobs, and there’s a lot of parties that are challengers. This is how the Adventurer Guild should be. Looking at the information of Tsige’s Adventurer Guild, everyone in our group would think that.” (Bia)
“…I see, even Azu-kun and Roku-kun?” (Root)
“No doubt. For example; Lucas-san, bring me the second one from the top.” (Bia)
“Ah, yes.” (Lucas)
“Here, there’s close to 10 rare warrior classes, Rounin, performing well.” (Bia)
“Rounin? Was there a job like that?” (Root)
“There is. A choice that comes to a part of the swordsmen that follow the path of attack specialization rather than being just the offensive type.” (Bia)
“Hmmm, attack specialization.” (Root)
“Normally, even if it appears as a choice they would go for the safe jobs like Bastard Knight, or Rune Knight. Azu, Rokuya, and Lorel are trying pretty hard to make it so that the warriors go mostly for the Rounin path.” (Bia)
“…I didn’t know.” (Root)
“It is a japanese-like job after all. But, in the end, there’s only a handful of people who have been able to advance that path and have left their name in history.” (Bia)
“…”
Root waits for the continuation of Ginebia’s words with a serious expression.
“Rounin, Samurai, and Master Samurai… Sadly to say, I have not seen a single one who is the peak that is Mugai . There’s currently a good amount of Rounin here, and one Samurai has appeared recently. It is great to see. The people living in the present are doing their best with the possibilities we have given them without us having to do anything.” (Bia)
“Ginebia…” (Root)
“But well! In my personal opinion, I would like to see Kurobakamas , Instructor, and Yagyu , but there isn’t a single Kurobakama… What a pity.” (Bia)
“Just how far have you memorized the job tree?” (Root)
Root asks Ginebia, slightly baffled.
“It is a basic skill of a gamer, a basic.” (Bia)
“…”
On the other hand, Lucas was at a loss for words.
Ginebia was spitting out new information as if nothing.
It doesn’t look like she just came up with those things on the fly, or is lying.
The superior of Lucas said ‘memorized the job tree’.
He has done something like that himself too.
But…he learned just recently that there’s the Samurai job that comes after Rounin.
There’s no way of knowing what’s even higher than that.
(Just what job tree did this Ginebia memorize? She knows top secret information of the Guild to even names that are not there… There’s no way there’s more information in jobs than what the Adventurer Guild has… Original…? But what meaning of Original is it?) (Lucas)
“Now then, it is probably about time to explain to Lucas.” (Root)
“What. If you were having him present with that intention, then please tell him beforehand. It has ended up in extra work now.” (Bia)
“?”
“Tsige Branch Chief, Lucas-kun.” (Root)
“Y-Yes.” (Lucas)
“I was smitten by your zeal to learn despite your harsh work everyday. I have been thinking all this time about what reward I should be giving you. You could say that, looking at the current situation, being the Tsige Branch’s Chief is the best of rewards, but it could be said that it was in part you that raised it to this state. That’s why I decided to teach you a single piece of truth about the world.” (Root)
“Truth…about the world?” (Lucas)
“That’s right. Like how the Adventurer Guild came about. Like…who were the first adventurers.” (Root)
“The first adventurers?” (Lucas)
Lucas returned the question while thinking that it is certainly true that that information was not in the confidential documents of the Adventurer Guild.
Were they people given the power of the Goddess?
No, if they were, they would be called Heroes.
Thinking in that way, Lucas couldn’t even begin to imagine who the first adventurers were.
“Yeah! Well then, let me introduce you! This one here is a member of the first adventurer party, Ginebia-san from Apple!” (Root)
“Nice to meet you, I am Ginebia. My partner Haku Mokuren is also in this city, so I will be bringing her here in the future —wait, that introduction was as light as a feather coat!!” (Bia)
“Ahaha, you are as unamusing as ever! And so, how old are you?” (Root)
“SHUT UP.” (Bia)
Lucas was being shown an unbelievable charade, but he still didn’t know…
That he was touching the innermost part of the Adventurer Guild.
About just how important of a meaning there is in knowing of their existence as a guild staff member, as someone involved with the adventurers.
And just how lucky he is that he has been given the chance to speak to one in person.
‘A boring man wearing his cool-headedness as clothes and whose only redeeming quality is his income’, the wife of Lucas has that kind of evaluation of him at his back, but in this day, he opened the door of his house in a strangely good mood with a popular cake and a lot of food in hand.
The servants had a pale face and their backs and hands sticking cleanly on the wall at that unbelievable state of his.
His wife that received him at the living room had no words from the shock she received, and she somehow managed to get up from the sofa to welcome him.
He was like a kid that had been playing the whole day and had returned after it was getting dark.
Lucas enjoyed the food, enjoyed his conversation with his wife, and on this day, he changed so much he was like a different person, as if he began to enjoy life.
No, he had been enjoying life in his own way seeing his work as his reason for living, but he now began to take interest in other things aside from his work, and changed in a way as if saying that life is great.
His wife at first suspected this of being a disease or a curse, but she slowly began to accept the favorable change of her husband, and their cooled married relationship had completely been restored as if they had just married.
Even the child that she had given up on having, he said that next year would be okay. Everyone suspected that drastic change of his.
Since that day…
“I just had a talk. It was like counseling.” (Lucas)
Every time they asked this to the man, who had been supporting the Adventurer Guild of Tsige, he would laugh and answer in that way.