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Chapter 357: A Guild Request, and a Mole.

(Author note: For this chapter, the POV will change for the second part. The next chapter might continue using the new POV as well.)

“Hm, guess that’s everyone?”

I had just finished the one-minute mock battle with the 27 rank-up test takers. Not a single one of them was able to touch me, though. Well, that means there’s no one among this group that’s as strong as a gold-ranker, I guess?

As for the result, of the 27 people, 7 of them were judged to have enough skill to reach green rank. The other 20 people failed to reach that standard. Of those 20, 13 are black-ranked and 7 are purple-ranked.

For those 20, the test would not continue past this point. Once they’ve passed their cards to the guild staff and finished their rank promotion, they’re free to leave.

Galen-san began speaking to the seven left.

“Now then, for the seven of you who remained, you were all judged to have equivalent skill to at least a green-ranked adventurer. However, that only means you have the minimum combat skill necessary, and nothing else. Being an adventurer requires you to receive many different kinds of requests. There are requests one would be good at, and conversely requests one would be bad at.”

For an adventurer, depending on their main focus their job style changes as well. For me, I was bad with escort requests.

It’s hard to work well with strangers without any conflicts. Among them, there’s also the type of employers who would go “I hired you, so don’t complain. Just follow orders” or something like that… There’s also times when you have to do the escort request with other adventurers, and the problems were a headache as well. The time with Suu went smoothly in comparison.

“For example, imagine there’s a magic beast in front of you. If you were a knight or a warrior, you would make efficient attacks in order to bring the magic beast down efficiently. Something

like piercing the heart, or crushing the head. However, if you were an adventurer instead, there are times when that would actually be a bad move. Do you know why?”

When Galen-san asked that, a girl with a small build within the seven raised her hand.

“Ho. Ojou-san, you know the answer?”

“Yes, that’s because it may damage parts that could be sold as materials!”

“Hohoho, exactly. If a magic beast’s skin could be sold at a high price, and yet it was burnt with fire magic, that’s a complete waste. A horn that is valued as a good material for crafting accessories would have its value reduced if it’s broken. An adventurer needs to take those things into consideration as they defeat monsters. Of course, if a life hangs in the balance, the story is different.”

I got it! Was what the girl’s smile expressed as she radiated a joyous atmosphere. I stared daggers into her though. Didn’t I tell you to not stand out?

I don’t know if she noticed that, but she looked in a different direction and started whistling. That girl…

A head of short-cut hair that’s a bit messy. The girl, who’s wearing a short muffler and clothes that look easy to move in, is called Sarutobi Homura. She’s part of the Brunhild knight order’s intelligence department; a legitimate knight.

For the rank-up test this time, since I wanted some inside information, I had her mix herself into the participants. I’ve properly gotten her boss, Tsubaki-san’s permission.

Basically, since she’ll be acting as an inside spy, don’t do anything that stand out too much was what I said to her but… It’s probably part of her inborn character, but she’s a bit too lively. Is it ok for you to not have patience even though you’re a ninja? (Note: classic joke here. The word “ninja” in Japanese consists of two kanjis that read as “one who endures”.)

Karina nee-san, who was looking at her besides me, had a wry smile. I’ve told Karina nee-san and Galen-san about Homura, just in case.

“Now then, I’ll have the members here accept a certain request. This is part of the rank-up test. The client is the Adventurer’s Guild. Since it’s a proper request posted through the official

channels, if you succeed there will be rewards as well. Of course, if you fail, it will also leave a record with the guild. Do be careful.”

For an adventurer, failing a request is not only something that damages their credibility, but also something that could lead to negative evaluations hereon. While it may be obvious, between two adventurers of the same rank, one who fails quests often and one who has never failed a quest yet, it’s clear as day which one the guild would recommend to clients.

Upon hearing Galen-san’s words, one of the seven, a young man raised his hand up. Oya, it’s the guy with the long brown hair from earlier. He was the one who raised a question before this too; wonder if he’s the cautious type.

“Is that request a ‘personal request to an individual’?”

“Wrong. It’ll be a request to the seven of you as a party. Basically, the seven of you will share the responsibility for the success or the failure of the request.”

To Galen-san’s words, the members in front of us raised a light buzz. I thought the only one who didn’t react was Homura, but there was one more person who was unfazed.

It’s a female beastman with cat ears. I wonder if she’s from Mismede. Her age is in the early twenties, and had black hair as well as black ears which jumped out from her hair.

She was wearing light leather armor, and a large knife hung from her waist. A cat’s tail, with a white tip, extended out from behind the culotte.

It’s a getup focusing on agility. During the mock battle, her fighting style was one which utilized fast movements, too.

A man from within the test takers raised his voice.

“Just wait a second. That means if someone else here drags our legs and caused the request to fail, I’ll fail it with them?”

“Exactly. I said you all will be sharing the responsibility, no?”

“Tch… Don’t joke with me.”

The man clicked his tongue with an unamused expression. He’s man with a well-built body that stands at nearly 2 meters tall. Around his late twenties, I’d say? He’s scratching his short red hair. He’s wearing armor on his torso and shoulders, as well as his hands and shins, and a broadsword was sheathed on his waist.

He was decently strong when I fought him. Probably first or second in terms of strength among the seven. He seems pretty used to fighting against a person, so he might’ve been from a knight order or a mercenary band somewhere.

“I wonder who it is that’ll drag our legs. Depending on the request details, it’ll be troubling if we had a useless blockhead with us, you know.”

“What was that?”

A woman sent provocative words towards the warrior-like man from earlier.

She’s wearing a no-sleeve vest as well as shirt, and a pair of short pants with a large belt attached. A whip was rounded up and hanging from that belt. On her right shoulder, there’s a tattoo of a snake.

She looks to be around her early twenties, and her dark silver hair was swept to the back of her head to not be a hindrance.

The woman was sending a sideway glance at the red-haired man while she folded her arms. Her chest, which was being pushed up by her arms, was threatening to burst out of her shirt. Un, quite big.

Galen-san was already staring at that one place with sharp eyes akin to that of a hunter even while he was laughing with a “hohoho”. He’s not even blinking.

“Are you saying this me is a deadweight!?”

“You seem like you’re good at fighting people, but that experience won’t work against magic beasts, you know? You should go and splurge on some antidotes before we leave if you don’t want to suffer from eating poison attacks.”

“P, poison you say!? Ku…”

Seems like the red-haired man didn’t consider the danger of poisonous attacks.

Well, it can’t be helped. Subjugation requests for poisonous magic beasts aren’t low-ranked requests. If they do accept one, the guild receptionist would inform them that, though.

“Well well. We’ll be in the same party for a request after this, you know. Please don’t start fighting already.”

The one who got between the two while sighing was the young man with long brown hair, who raised a question to Galen-san just now.

Although he looks gentle at first glance, he’s actually quite the swordsman. He’s around the same level as that red-haired man. Judging from his demeanor, he might be of noble birth. Having said that, though, his equipment consisted of things like dirtied pieces of armor and a rough sword that’s only got its sturdiness going for it. Could he be a fallen noble?

“Aah? Why do I have to be told something like that by…”

“We were just told that we now share the responsibility for the request, right? It’s already no longer your own problem, you know.”

“On a side note, it’s fine if you drop out right here. You can receive a promotion to green rank, and you can start receiving requests as early as tomorrow.”

The test takers were silenced by Karina nee-san’s words. The seven of them here were all recognized to have enough strength to be a green-ranker. We won’t mind even if they don’t accept the request for the test and drop out here.

“I don’t intend to step out. If you guys want to, get out quickly. You all are noisy.”

A male dwarf spoke with a dismissive tone.

He had the dwarven characteristics of a short and stout body, and a beard that almost covered up his face entirely. I couldn’t tell his age. Even when they’re young, dwarves have huge beards, and the older ones can easily go over 100, after all.

He had a battle axe on his back, and a small easy-to-handle hatchet on his waist. He used the hatchet when he fought me during the mock battle.

It’s likely that he came from Lail Kingdom. In that case, he might be connected to the chief or someone else in the dwarven group that made the Dvergs.

“For me, while I have no intentions of backing off now, I’d like to reserve that decision until I know the request details. I might drop out depending on the contents.”

Following the dwarf, the next person who raised his hand was a serious-looking man in his late twenties. He has a medium build, and doesn’t have any physical characteristics that stand out; he’s wearing a light brown coat, and holding a staff in his hands. It’s not something close to the cane Galen-san was holding, but a proper magician’s staff.

The rugged-looking staff had two different magic stones embedded on its tip. Yellow and brown. A dual attribute setup of light and earth.

He had used magic during the mock battle with me as well. He was making good use of his spells with nice combos like a [Earth Bind] followed by a [Light Arrow], but somehow, he takes a while to focus, and as such there’s a delay to his spells. At that level, it won’t work against anyone who’s decently used to fighting against magic. I had easily escaped from his [Earth Bind] and dodged his [Light Arrow], too.

His skillset is good against magic beasts, but conversely, he would be bad in anti-personnel combat or group combat situations. The exact opposite of the red-haired man, huh.

“Hmm, it’s true that you may find it hard to make a decision without hearing about the request in question first. The location would be the dungeon islands beyond the transfer gates in this country. You are to proceed to one of those islands, and retrieve some ‘Firewheel Grass’ from the mountainside in the northern part of that island. This would be the grass.”

Galen-san took out a detailed drawing. It’s a grass with fiery red leaves that grow in a spiral pattern.

“The time limit is three days. Since there’s quite a few dangerous magic beasts there, the reward would be two white gold coins per person.”

The looks of several of the test takers changed upon hearing that. Well, if they heard that it’s possible for them to obtain two white gold coins, around two million yen, in just three days, that kind of reaction isn’t that weird.

Originally, it’s a request at the level where it might be tough for green-rankers to complete it. Well, there’s our ninja girl with them as well, and we’ll make sure that there’s no casualties at least during the process.

The reward would be for the completion of the request, so regardless of whether they get a promotion in rank after that, they would receive it. Even if all seven (six, in actuality) of them are judged to be only at the green-ranker level, they would still receive the two white gold coins if they completed the request.

Of course, if they failed it, that would be left in their guild records, and would be taken into consideration in future rank promotions.

In the end, none of the 7 dropped out. While some discontent remained, they at least acknowledged the fact that they’ll be challenging the request as a party of seven.

Guild staffs went around to collect the signs of all seven of them, and the guild master, Rerishia-san gave her approval. With this, the request had been officially accepted.

The ninja girl, Sarutobi Homura.

The deadpan cat-eared girl, Miu.

The red-haired warrior man, Gallon.

The well-endowed tattooed woman, Rose.

The young man with long brown hair, Abert.

The boorish dwarf, Dom.

The serious magic user, Sarges Paltes.

Besides Homura and the magic user Sarges, none of them had surnames.

Most adventurers don’t have surnames. There are ones who were of common birth and never had one since they’re born, and ones who have hidden their family names due to various circumstances.

Many of the beastmen and the demi-humans are like that too. Although in their case, a lot of them used their tribe name or the name of their birthplace instead, it seems.

“The entrance fee to the dungeon islands would be undertaken by the guild. However, all other expenses would be your own responsibility.”

“Oi oi, you won’t even give us at least three days’ worth of foodstuff or something?”

“I’ve said it already. This is a request made through the proper channels. What reason would there be for a client to pay so much care for the adventurers undertaking the request?”

“Tch.”

Gallon clicked his tongue upon hearing Galen-san’s reply. Things like this would depend on the client, after all. Some would provide those, and some wouldn’t give a thing. It would also change depending on subsequent negotiations carried out by the adventurers themselves. In the end, if you don’t like that, don’t take the request; it’s something like that.

Ah, right right, there’s one more thing.

“Also, an overseer from the guild would be following you guys.”

“Ha!? Why would we need that!?”

“This request is also a part of the rank-up test, did you forget? That person’s there to judge your skill levels. However, don’t force yourselves trying to show good things to the overseer. If the request fails due to your mistakes, it would lead to a negative evaluation, after all.”

I replied to Rose who reacted to my statement. In the first place, since that’s actually the main goal this time, it’s something obvious if you think about it.

If the situation makes a turn for the worst, the overseer would also step in to help. While it’s a proper request, it’s also a test at the same time. It’d be troubling if the test takers died while attempting it.

“Are there any other questions?”

When I asked that, the cat-eared Miu, who had kept quiet until now, raised her hand.

“I want to know about that grass that we’ll be going to collect.”

While several other test participants had a “what’s this girl saying” face on, we examiners looked at each other and showed slight smiles. So she noticed.

“The firewheel grass is a plant that grows in clumps on hills, and it grows from summer to fall in a year. Its leaves have a strong smell, and are used as spices. Also, as the magic beast fire lizard loves this grass, the sites where firewheel grass could be found are also often fire lizard habitats.”

Upon hearing my words, several test takers swallowed their breaths.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Note: change in perspective from hereon. Although it doesn’t explicitly mention who this is, I think you guys can guess.)

Ah, I knew it. I had thought there’s no way His Majesty would prepare an easy test; so that’s what he came with.

When I looked at the other test takers, seems like they’re not really surprised.

Fire lizards are giant lizards with rust-colored skin. When a fire lizard gets angry, it releases fire from its whole body. The most fearsome attack it has would be the body slamming attack while it’s in that state.

While Eashen also had those (although they were called large fire lizards), I’ve never seen one before. There were none near the Koga village anyway. (Note: the name “fire lizard” is spelt in katakana in English, while the Eashen name “large fire lizards” was in kanji.)

Even though I was told it wouldn’t be a tough mission… I wonder if I got tricked. Maybe I should’ve switched with Shizuku or Nagi.

But but! It’s ok for me to receive the completion reward of two white gold coins too, right!? If I had two white gold coins… Ufufufufufufu. I could eat as much of this and that as I want! Maybe this isn’t so bad. Or rather, lucky me!

Ah, when I started grinning His Majesty sent a stare this way. Even though he changed his appearance, his reactions are still the same, huh. I understand. I’ll do my job properly, you know?

Although the matters regarding the guild doesn’t really concern Brunhild, but we the Brunhild knight order are basically His Majesty’s private knight order, so we’ll follow his commands to the letter, oh yes!

Well, His Majesty doesn’t really give us tough jobs to do anyway.

If I have to say it, Chief Tsubaki’s the one who keeps giving out impossible orders. She’s using us to the bone. She’s never going to get married like… Killing intent!?

I looked around while feeling a shiver down my spine. I don’t know where she is, but she’s definitely here! Hii, the chief’s scary! Such a scary woman, it’s even more impossible… The killing intent increaseddd!?

“… Are you alright?”

The cat-eared onee-san called out to me who’s starting to have cold sweats.

“A, awawa. Alright, I’m alright, yes.”

“… I see.”

The cat-eared onee-san turned to look at the three examiners standing on the platform again. The killing intent had dissipated before I realized. Please don’t scare me like that, chief… I’m pretty sure the one who’s going to be the overseer His Majesty just mentioned is the chief…

Still, the cat-eared onee-san, Miu-san, I wonder if she was worried about me? It might also be because I was behaving suspiciously though. In any case, she seems to be a good person.

I wrote down “Miu + 1” on the scoring sheet in my heart. This doesn’t have much to do with her ability as an adventurer, does it.

“Then, the seven of you will come back here and deliver the firewheel grass before sunset three days from now. That would mark the completion of the request. That is all.”

The three examiners, including His Majesty, as well as the guild master then took their leaves. Now then, time to start working.

- Pixel