Chapter 10 - Volume 1

By the time we reached home from the City of Winds, it was already late in the evening.

While thinking that it’s good that we were able to return before night arrived I came to the front of my house.

「Ah, Axel-sama.I have been waiting for you.」

The shrine maiden of the temple of job change was already there.

And she was not alone.

「Axel-san. I’ve been waiting!」

For some reason, Fang also was there.

「You… Didn’t you go back to the capital after finishing your escort mission?」

「No, I came with a report or rather a talk regarding those bandits. Well, half of it is a mere excuse, I simply wanted to hear the explanation from the people of the temple of job change on why they gave you this job. 」

「Ain’t you pretty frank.」

As I say astounded, the shrine maiden, with a serious expression, turns to Fang.

「Fang-sama, personal job-related information is considered confidential. As expected, without permission from the person in question, I won’t be able to speak of it in your presence nor can I provide any information to you directly.」

「Eeeh… You kidding…!」

「This is something I won’t budge on even for the hero. What will you do, Axel-sama?」

After she remonstrated Fang, the shrine maiden looks my way.

To give or not to give permission, she wants to entrust that decision to me.

Since the job is something that directly indicates a person’s power or talent, concealing it was a reasonable approach, however—

「Well, I guess he can stay present this time.」

Fang’s eyes immediately lit up after I said that.

「I can?!」

「Well, let’s see. It’s merely the very beginning, and you also know the circumstances to some degree already. Having someone who understands the real state of affairs might also make it easier for me to move later.」

「Yes, thank you very much! Please tell me if you have any trouble. For Axel-san’s sake, I will run myself into the ground!」

Fang blurts out in the spur of the moment, but he is actually a serious guy and can’t tell a lie.

I don’t think there will be any disadvantage of him knowing about this.

「So that’s how it is, Shrine maiden-san. I, Berzelia, and Fang, the three of us will hear the words from God of New Jobs, is that okay?」

「Since Axel-san gave his permission there is no problem.」

「Then please get inside the house. I will serve tea.」

Then, I made tea, got to the table in the living room and settled to listen to the report from the shrine maiden.

「Well then, please look at this.」

After taking a seat, the shrine maiden first said that and then produced a single sheet of paper.

There, closely packed, were written words like《Guardian Knight》or《Magic Warrior》that looked like the names of professions.

「What is this?」

「Those are the professions for which Axel-sama has an aptitude.」

「Haa?! What does this mean?」

「What God of New Jobs said on account of Axel-sama’s job is that every god competed to decide which job you should receive. The gods written on this form would be those that took part in that struggle.」

「Competed? Who? Gods? I don’t think I follow.」

「Eeeh. Change of job is supposed to give the most appropriate job for that person…」

The shrine maiden gave a nod when both I and Fang raised our doubts.

「Yes, exactly so. However, when multiple aptitudes are equal it will be treated as a lottery. …As I remember, Axel-san never had any other job other than dragon knight?」

「Yes. I was wearing the dragon knight’s helmet from the very beginning, so I always was one. I took it off several times when I had a chance, but it soon would be back on my head again.」

That helmet was hard to remove, and even if I do so it will try to force itself back onto my head, it was terrible. It was on the level appropriate to be called a curse, that’s what I was recalling during my reply—

「Since Axel-sama was a dragon knight since the beginning and did not undergo a normal rank up, your foundations were a blank slate. Therefore, it seems that you had the same level of aptitude for every job.」

「And thus the lottery?」

「Yes. It seems that several gods raised their hands. And after exchanging words and blows they were unable to decide on anything. As the result, after drawing lots, the god of carriers was chosen.」

To think a fight occurred over my job. Just how gods are making decisions.

Well, at least that’s better than having no aptitude at all.

「Which means that he became a carrier, just because《Carrier》’s god accidentally won him?」

「That would be the case.『Little god of【Carriers]said『Sorry… I got him…』with a half crying pale face…』is what God of New Jobs has said.」

I see. I understood how I became a carrier now. But—

「But it does not explain what happened to my ability scores?」

I still don’t know the cause for it. So, I asked for further explanations, but the shrine maiden apologetically lowered her head.

「I am sorry. It is still being investigated by gods. It’s a very rare phenomenon, so it appears that the gods in charge of the investigation are having a lot of fun.」

「Ain’t gods pretty easy going. Well, it’s great if they are investigating it, but really, what might be the reason….Normally, ability scores won’t just become S rank like this, right?」

Of course, as I showed my status sheet, the shrine maiden nodded vigorously.

「Carrier is famous for handy and useful skills overshadowed by overwhelmingly terrible ability scores. Your appearance completely destroyed that concept, so even gods were surprised. The temple of job change was in a state of great panic. It’s too unprecedented!」

「Ah, it’s that much big of a deal?」

「Of course. Were this information to get out it might completely change the attitude surrounding carriers.」

「Yes, certainly. But rather than saying that attitude has changed, the very notion of beginner-tier completely crumbled. If the word of it will get out it will certainly result in a huge uproar.」

Fang voiced his agreement with the shrine maiden’s words.

High abilities scores on the beginner-tier job may result in quite a situation. It seems that since I always was a dragon knight I was ignorant of the ways of the world.

I would like to learn some common sense about this.

「Yeah, true. I also don’t wish for such a disturbance. Well, it’s not like I’m troubled with money, so I will quietly work as《Carrier》. Right, Berzelia.」

「Yup! I will do my best together with Master.」

Hearing me and Berzelia, the shrine maiden scratched her cheek while laughing wryly.

「Despite your words it feels like you have risen your level way too fast…」

「Eh? Shrine maiden, weren’t you the one who said that it would be easy to level up?」

「No… Certainly, there are cases when level-up conditions differ depending on the person, but even for a beginner-tier this speed is a bit abnormal.」

「That’s right. I said the same, didn’t I? This is way too fast.」

「Even if you say that…」

What can I do if it goes up?

It also gets easier to work as a carrier, so there is no disadvantage in raising my level.

「Well, including this matter about your level-up speed, it’s under investigation by the gods. If anything else comes up I will come with a report once again. Soon, the gods will descend to earth from the heavens for a period of time to mingle with the mortals. Maybe it would be better to ask questions during that time.」

「Yes, it will be a great help if you share with me any new information you get on this.」

「Understood. If anything strange or unusual were to happen please visit the temple again. —Then, until next time.」

After bidding us goodbye, the shrine maiden left my house. While gazing at the shrine maiden, who was walking away, I organize the information I obtained from this.

A lot of mysteries still remained.

「For now, what I understood is that I became a carrier after a formal discussion.」

「It’s seems that the gods were in chaos over what to do with master.」

「Well, I’m glad that it wasn’t a problem with God of New Jobs. It seems that I can freely work and travel.」

While I was talking with Berzelia, Fang smiled faintly.

「Y-you really have positive thinking if this is the only reaction that you’ve got after hearing that explanation…」

「Is that so? I don’t think that I heard anything problematic.」

「I mean, if your luck was better couldn’t you get a better job?!」

「No, I’m lucky enough. It’s EX, you know?」

It was even better than that of a dragon knight.

「B-but…」

「There is also nothing particularly troubling about my current job, so there is no problem.」

I might get targeted since people would underestimate me, but looking at it the other way, it could induce carelessness in enemies so there were both good and bad points.

Hearing that, Fang took a deep breath.

「Axel-san, you are really…amazing. Even this time, I troubled Axel-san with those bandits, even though I know that I can’t compare to you… I will do my best following your example.」

「O-okay? Leaving aside following my example, the part about doing your best is good, I will root for you.」

「Yes, thank you very much!」

Fang says energetically while making fists with both hands.

While thinking that this hero is really hot-blooded or in a way too high spirits, hearing the words bandits made me remember something.

「Ah, yes, so what was that talk about the bandits that you mentioned earlier?」

When I asked, Fang’s look became extremely serious.

And then he calmly began to speak.

「That is, well. When we went through the lair of the bandits captured by Axel-san, we found some dangerous stuff.」

「Dangerous stuff?」

「The magical tool that endlessly summons rampaging golems was stolen from the capital, it’s a pretty serious thing. Handle it poorly and the whole city might cease to function. For the time being, it was decided that this thing should be destroyed or sealed, but it’s hard to destroy it with its force fields and unique protection magic, and then it has been established that to seal or destroy it completely would require the equipment from the mages guild of the City of Stars.」

After saying that, Fang stood up from the chair and bowed deeply to me.

「I just said that I will do my best and I’m very sorry but… Can I borrow your strength one more time? I want you to safely and surely transport the dangerous object to this city.」

That being the case, looks like my next job is already decided.

And it seems that it will be another request from a hero.