CH 53

Translated by SoundOfDestiny

On a certain day, an unusual visitor came to the adventurer’s guild in the royal capital.

The Royal Guild, which oversees all the guilds in the Kingdom of Zain, receives many visitors every day, including adventurers, clients, and merchants who bring in medicines and weapons.

The day was already drawing to a close, and the receptionist was beginning to show signs of fatigue when the man appeared.

The doorbell clanged and a pair of men and women entered the guild. The young men and women, all in their teens, had swords at their waists and appeared to be adventurers or mercenaries.

“Oh? I’ve never seen them before. Is it a newcomer?”

Looking them up and down, the receptionist nodded her head.

The woman is a bit of an upstart, scurrying around the guild looking curious. The man seemed to be more familiar with the city, so he might have been an adventurer who had moved to the capital from another guild.

The man said something to the woman and left her there, and came to the reception alone.

“Welcome to our guild, is there anything I can help you with?”

“I’d like to see the guildmaster, is he around at the moment?

“Um…eh…”

A man who is new to the guild in Zain insists on meeting the guild master. A letter is presented to the bewildered receptionist.

“It’s a letter of introduction. Please check it.”

“Oh, yes. I’ll take a look.”

The receptionist opened the letter that was presented to her and looked inside……. Her eyes widened in surprise.

She looked back and forth between the letter and the man’s face, then said, “One moment, please!” She disappeared into the back of the guild.

The receptionist came back to the reception in less than five minutes.

She was in such a hurry that she repeatedly breathed hard on her shoulder and called out to the man waiting at the reception desk.

“The guildmaster is here to see you! Please make your way to the back, Your Royal Highness!”

“Oh, thank you”

With sweat beading on her forehead, the receptionist leads him deeper into the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Nice to meet you……Your Royal Highness, Prince Raidorl.”

“……sorry to bother you. Guild Master.”

“My name is Saina Cruz and I am in charge of this guild. Please make my acquaintance.”

He was ushered into what appeared to be a parlor, where he was greeted by a young woman with green hair and blue eyes.

Raidorl’s eyes widened slightly at the sight of such a young woman, who looked nothing like a guild master.

“When the famous adventurer Zafis introduces you, I can’t afford not to meet you. And even more so when it’s the hero of the moment.” 

“So …… Zafis is such a famous adventurer?”

Raidorl’s eyes narrowed quizzically as he thought of the face of his sword master, Zafis Bartolomeo.

For Raidorl, Zafis is a drunkard with nothing to his name but his swordplay. He is not the kind of man who would command the respect of a high ranking guild master in Royal Capital.

But as Cruz offers Raidorl a chair, she continues to offer words of praise.

“He is the one who proposed the construction of a pioneer city as a frontline base for the demons that are often found in the southern area of the Kingdom of Zain. In addition, the royal court was reluctant to provide funds, so he gave up his personal fortune to persuade influential people to build a city. Many adventurers look to him for his pioneering spirit and his willingness to defend his country against the threat of demons.”

“……………… I see.”

Raidorl nodded his head somewhat reluctantly.

The fact that she was praising Zafis, his sword master and second father, with open arms made him feel more embarrassed than happy.

In order to change the subject quickly, Raidorl started the conversation.

“By the way, Miss Cruz, you’re very young. How did you manage to become the guild master of Royal Capital at your age?” 

“Oh, I’m not so young as you think.”

Cruz brushed a strand of hair out of her ear with her fingertips, revealing a pair of pointed ears underneath the green hair.

“I’m an elf, so I age more slowly than most humans. I may look young at your age, but I’m the same age as your father.”

“An elf. …… That must have been a lot of work.”

Elves are a sub-race of people who live mainly in the south of the continent.

They live in the forest and rarely leave the forest of their birth, and although they are very closed-minded, there are occasional oddballs who venture out of the forest into the outside world.

They are rarely seen in the kingdom of Zain, and this was the first time that Raidorl had seen them in person.

“The discrimination against sub-humans is not very strong in this country, so we haven’t had much trouble. But it wouldn’t have been so easy if the Empire had taken over…….” 

“The Alsatian Empire is notorious for its discrimination against sub-humans. Well, that’s not surprising, since that country is often at war with the subhuman nations of the south….”

“It is in this sense that I owe His Highness Raidorl a debt of gratitude. I will help you in any way I can…… So what can I do for you, my prince?”

Cruz cuts to the chase.

Raidorl nodded with a smile on his face and said, “Hmmm”, and spoke of his purpose for coming to the guild.