“Blood Spraying Sword”
「…Strange. Something’s definitely not right」
After sunset, at the receptionist counter inside the guild where only a few remaining shadows could be seen….Lidelle muttered with furrowed brows.
Her expression was one that must not be shown to adventurers of course, but even to her colleagues as well.
She was unconsciously making that face because she was under attack by a strong feeling of unease.
「Senpai! I’ve made some tea for you—Hm? What’s wrong? You look like you just saw a cockroach come out of the closet, you know?」
「…Please stop with that analogy, especially when you are serving someone food or drinks」
「Ohh, right. Senpai is an urban child, right? Since I’m from the countryside, I wouldn’t really mind because I’m used to seeing insects already」
「Whatever. I don’t want to know about the life in the countryside. More importantly, Parfait, what happened to the werewolf incident at Atend ridge?」
「Ah, yes, I just got confirmation on it. It has been subjugated! The gryphon from Mount Skim, the banshee from the public cemetery, the scylla from Lake Toya, and the werewolf at Atend ridge today! All the headache causing quests were cleared one after another. In fact, the guild master was just praising me on this! Vee!」
Lidelle was slightly annoyed by her cute junior who was making peace signs with both of her hands.
However, on second thoughts, she thought that it can’t be helped that her junior would be happy about this.
The credit of clearing those troublesome preserved quests belongs to the adventurers, of course. However, the evaluation of the receptionist who entrusted those quests to the adventurers would also be raised at the same time.
For a guild receptionist, an important skill to have is to have a way of words that can “convince” the adventurers to take on those troublesome quests. Therefore, they will be highly praised if the preserved quests were to be completed.
It was four quests in a row. Moreover, they were only the large-scale quests. The smaller-scale ones numbered more than ten. Parfait managed to clear so many preserved quests in a short amount of time, so it was only natural that she would be happy.
The beautiful receptionists are all star employees of the guild, but to achieve what she did is by no means easy.
Just assign quests to adventurers and hand out their rewards when it’s over– Their job is nothing like that.
The receptionists have to determine whether or not the client’s request was achievable first, and then make sure that there would be appropriate rewards.
If there’s no money then they are not allowed to accept the client’s request. Telling farmers who had their family kidnapped by goblins “We’re sorry we cannot accept your request for this amount of money” when they would come to the guild in tears to start a quest for help– was something that every guild receptionist had gone through no matter who it is.
There are times where they have to deny newbie adventurers who want to go for quests that are way out of their league and they would get flamed and hated because of it as well. There are times where they have to try to butter up the prideful veteran adventurers to get them to take on the troublesome quests too.
There are also times where they would misjudge the difficulty of the quest and cause newer parties to be wiped out. They would have to take the harsh blame for their deaths from the fallen’s companions and friends just because the information provided by the client was inaccurate.
Since that’s what being a guild receptionist is like, no matter how excellent the individual is, sensitive people would all quit before long. If not, they would request for a department change.
Everyone jokes about how the guild’s receptionists have as much guts as veteran adventurers, but being a one is actually a harsh job that people without guts would not be able to handle in the first place.
Therefore, it wasn’t just Lidelle who had been a guild receptionist for over five years who has quite the guts, but even Parfait, who’s only been around for just about a year as well.
Parfait addresses Lidelle like “senpai, senpai” as if she admired her, but she’s actually secretly aiming for Lidelle’s seat- the “long time” manager of the guild’s receptionists.
Normally Lidelle would just rub this off after saying something like “That cheekiness is going to last a while…” with a bitter smile, but because of the way things are going right now, she couldn’t do it.
The people behind the shadows who raised Parfait’s reputation. She could feel that those people did not like her.
「So? What quest did you recommend to Lunamaria-san next?」
「Oh about that, listen to this, senpai! She has been taking on tough quests that had little pay all this time, right? So, I recommended her a quest from a noble. You know? The one that came from the house of Earl about them wanting to get their own stuffed gryphon after they heard about the gryphon’s defeat」
「Ah, the girl who master said to give her first priorities, huh?」
「Yes. Then how do you think Lunamaria responded? Jeez! She straight up rejected that yummy quest that would have let her network with the Earl, that Lunamaria-san!」
「…Is that so?」
「I was surprised. Then I wondered about what she wanted to do. Remember the request from the orphanage a little while ago? The one to gather some Ald grass from the Titis forest? She took that instead」
The reward of that quest is five copper coins. It’s an amount that would be all gone by the time you add milk to your food cart after buying some sausages and bread. It’s like doing volunteer work rather than a quest.
Usually, that kind of quest would be bounced off at the reception stage, but it was accepted as a special case since the guild did not want to deny a request coming from the orphanage and the poorhouse.
That quest was displayed on the bulletin board in hopes of encountering some kind adventurers. Like that, adventurers with nothing to do might see it and accept the quest with a laugh.
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However, Ald grass does not grow on the outskirts of the forest, but rather quite deep inside. It wasn’t a place where one would think of doing volunteering work at.
The grass is an herbal medicine that can cure fevers. They probably made the request because of a patient from the poorhouse. Most likely, it wasn’t going to make it in time for treatment. Of course, that part was properly explained to the client when they made the request, but the client still did not want to withdraw it.
Whether or not someone was going to take the quest, they still wanted that shred of hope.
In the end, that hope was realized.
Parfait tilted her head to the side and spoke,
「Lunamaria-san became active all of a sudden after she left “Falcon Sword”. Back then, she felt like a person who just smiles while standing behind Larz, but now she’s moving on her own…No, the one who is really active is the “Parasite”, probably」
『Falcon Sword』, the party of smart, promising youths. You can’t really miss it when one of its members was walking in and out of the guild with a slave collar around her neck.
Because of that, what happened with Lunamaria and 『Falcon Sword』 had already become known by many of the guild’s regulars.
Even a child knows that the “Master” behind her right now is the one named Sora.
Lidelle folds her arms and says,
「Lunamaria-san and this other girl named Ciel are hardly away from Ishka. Which means that Sora-san was the one who subjugated the gryphon. That’s not something a level one can do. No… a level one human wouldn’t be able to beat Larz in a one on one in the first place」
「Ah! I wanted to see the duel too! Rather, I am the one in charge of 『Falcon Sword』. Shouldn’t you have called me over to see it, senpai?!」
「I was the one chosen to be responsible for that event. Anyway, the way Lunamaria-san is moving right now is weird. If possible, I don’t think you should give her too many quests to do…」
Parfait laughs at Lidelle’s fears.
「I don’t think it’s anything that we need to be cautious about. She’s clearing the preserved quests that no one wants to do. She’s doing us a favor, no? Maybe the “parasite” wants to come back to the guild really badly?-」
「-I don’t think anyone would really refuse when they are a ninth-tier adventurer who the guild master personally tried to invite back」
「He gave in to his emotions and refused the master’s proposal in the moment, and now he’s regretting it after, isn’t he? And since he did that himself, he couldn’t come out and say that he wants to return to being an adventurer after all. That’s why he’s showing his usefulness through Lunamaria. Thinking of it like that, he’s a surprisingly adorable person」
「…I don’t think he’s such a simple person like that」
Lidelle voiced her disagreement, but she could also clearly see that Parfait has no intention of listening to her words. Since Parfait lost the party “Falcon Sword” that she was in charge of, she obviously wouldn’t care about what Lunamaria and Sora are up to as long as they are raising her reputation as a guild receptionist.
Her way of thinking isn’t wrong. If anything, it’s natural. And it’s true that the quests that Lunamaria had been taking were what the guild couldn’t manage.
Their actions are beneficial to the guild, the clients, and the people of Ishka. Rather than trying to restrain their movements, Lidelle should be complimenting them instead.
『Every person belonging to the guild has the duty to work for Ishka, whether you’re an adventurer or the guild’s staff』
She remembers the words she told Sora two months ago when she expelled him from the guild.
Right now, it’s Sora who is working for the sake of Ishka, and Lidelle is the one who is thinking to prevent that because of her suspicions.
Their roles have surprisingly reversed.
Don’t tell me…He did all that to create this situation…? She could somehow sense Sora’s intention of insulting the guild in his actions.
An expelled adventurer was clearing up the quests that the guild couldn’t manage. On top of that, they slayed a gryphon, a banshee, a scylla and a werewolf.
It was as if he was saying to everyone that the guild was the one who was wrong for kicking him out.
So in the end, is everything he’s doing done out of spite towards the guild? Was he just mocking Lidelle and the others for not having a good eye for people?
From what she heard, Sora had been tipping the Blue Little Bird Cage inn’s owner and his daughter very generously every day ever since his return.
If she considers him doing that as the same thing as what he’s doing to the guild, it would all make sense.
It made sense, but Lidelle believed that there was more to it than that.
Even with various circumstances to it, there is no way that a human who would enslave his former companions and break their party apart would be satisfied with just that.
…Her worries came to life a few days later.
On that day, Lunamaria submitted a withdrawal notice and left the guild, officially abandoning her rank as a sixth-tier adventurer.
At the same time her request to withdraw was made, multiple clients of the guild had also applied to pull out from the guild. They were fed up with the way that their quests weren’t getting done so they wanted to rely on someone else.
And that someone else was an adventurer party that did not belong to the guild. It was a newly formed party that took down a gryphon, a scylla, and a werewolf.
Its name was 『Blood Spraying Sword』.