CH 35

Unexpected Encounter, Guildmaster

Translated by Dawn

Edited by Dawn

Bal—, I mean, Bold, brought me to an office that had a calm and serene feel.

Books laid out on wooden bookshelves on either side were neatly stored and well organized.

The table and sofa for visitors were not luxurious, but they were highly comfortable, and one could sense their intention to entertain guests.

On a chair at the office desk sat a middle-aged man of about the same age as Bold, with a strong body and a grim face as he worked on some papers.

The man with brown hair and a beard the same color as his hair wore a somewhat reassuring atmosphere, despite his stern face.

As soon as Bold entered the room, he opened his mouth without looking at him.

“What is it, Baldy? What’s going on with your work? This time is supposed to be work time.”

“I ain’t bald! How many times have I told you, Darren? This is my haircut. I’m not some bald guy who’s hair falls out and disappears!”

“I don’t care if it’s a haircut or not, you’re hairless right now. If so, you’re a bald man in my eyes.”

“Kuh–, why can’t you and that little girl see the beauty of this haircut!”

“Bald is not a haircut.”

“Shut up!”

As I stood in the room listening to the unproductive conversation, the man at the desk recognized my presence and turned his head to me.

“Who’s that boy?”

“Oh, yes, that’s right. I lost track of my purpose because you said bald bald bald. Actually…….”

“I see. So that’s why you came to me directly for help.”

Eh? I mean, do you understand everything that he just explained I didn’t understand it at all…….

While I was thinking about this, the story was continuing, and perhaps this man, whom Bold called Darren, was the guildmaster of this adventurer’s guild.

“Denied.”

“W-why!?”

“The reason is simple. Nicole disagrees with you. That alone is reason enough to refuse.”

“Why!”

“Do you really want me to explain that to you? It’s going to take three days, you know?”

“Ugh.”

I was inwardly thinking, about whether such a reason was good enough even by the standards of Guildmaster. Then, he added for me, as if he had seen the look on my face.

“It’s not just that Nicole is against it. The boy delivers quality materials. He also contributes a lot to the guild, and as the guildmaster, I don’t want to see him taken by a dismantler.”

“Haa.”

“Oops, I’m late introducing myself. I’m Darren Walm, the guildmaster of this guild.”

“I’m Rolando, a fledgling adventurer.”

It was nice that we had done a brief introduction to each other, but what should I do after this?

For my part, I had no intention of meeting a guildmaster, and I would not want to get close to one if I could help it.

Guildmasters, who hold authority over their guilds, prioritize working for their own benefit, and would often make unreasonable demands of the adventurers who belong to them.

Especially if the adventurer was a competent one, they would use the guildmaster’s power to force him to do work that other adventurers did not want to do.

The requests were sometimes life-threatening, and even then the rewards were not that great, and at best they were just an additional factor in determining the next rank up.

Of course, I wouldn’t say that all guild masters were like that, but it was clear that guild masters wished for the development of their guilds to a greater or lesser extent.

Therefore, I personally thought that it wouldn’t be a good idea to get too close to the upper echelons of the guild.

Even if the man in front of me was a conscientious guildmaster, it would be no different. Powerful people were always compelled to use their best assets when they had them.

“Nicole told me about it. The quality of the materials the boy delivers is so good that merchants from the commercial guilds are competing with each other to buy them.”

“It’s not so important, though, because we’re selling Dashboas materials. If it was Forest Wolf material, it might cause a bit of a stir.”

“I’m planning to deliver that Forest Wolf material after this……?”

“”….””

…… Huh? They became silent, eh? What’s wrong? Please give me some kind of reaction!

I screamed in my heart, but of course, there was no way they could hear me, and a heavy air flowed through the room.

The silence continued for a while, but it was unexpectedly broken by Bold.

“Well, tomorrow’s commercial guilds could be at war.”

“Yeah, a Dashboa is probably enough to get a bunch of peddlers to buy it, but a Forest Wolf is enough to get a merchant of the size of an established trading company to start moving.”

“That’s an exaggeration.”

“Maybe for the boy, but for the merchants, they put their lives on the line to obtain the best quality goods they can. In that sense, tomorrow’s commercial guilds will be rough.”

Apparently, the product I was going to deliver had a better reputation than I had expected, and it was becoming quite a big deal.

According to the two of them, the market would not be affected by the quality of Dashboas, which were widely distributed, but when it comes to Forest Wolf materials, it would be a different story.

To begin with, Dashboas and Forest Wolves were ranked differently, with each being an F-rank and an E-rank monster, respectively.

Each rank set its own standard of strength, and the lowest-ranked monster, F-rank, was considered difficult enough for a novice adventurer to defeat on his or her own.

E-ranked monsters could be defeated by a four-person party of novice adventurers and were more difficult to defeat than those of F-rank.

By the way, D-rank was the level of difficulty at which a party of four E-ranked adventurers could defeat, and C-rank was the level of difficulty at which a party of four D-ranked adventurers could defeat.

However, unknown monsters that had not yet been discovered were classified as unranked, making it difficult to determine their difficulty level.

Apart from that, the ranks of monsters that had already been determined may change depending on newly discovered habits, so the guild’s ranks were not always accurate.

“Should I not deliver it then?”

I thought that if delivering Forest Wolf’s material would cause a fuss, I should refrain from delivering it, but Darren denied it.

“No, by all means, deliver the goods. Originally, the Adventurers’ Guild wholesales materials from monsters hunted by adventurers to the commercial guilds, and there are adventurers who occasionally deliver good quality goods like the boy’s, so there is no problem.”

“But if I deliver it, there’s going to be a fuss, right?”

“……for sure. But it’s material that the boy got all by himself. Worrying about causing a fuss is……wait a minute. Did you kill that Forest Wolf by yourself, boy?”

While Darren was answering my question, I realized something important.

Something about the fact that I had killed a forest wolf single-handedly.

As I explained earlier, the standard for defeating Forest Wolves was at a level that would allow a party of four novice adventurers to take them down, and they were a troublesome opponent to take down alone.

Darren realized that it was an unusual situation when a single adventurer was taking them down by himself as if it were a matter of course.

People around me know that I was working alone, so they would eventually find out. So I honestly admitted that I killed the Forest Wolf alone.

“Yes. I killed it all by myself.”

“No way. Even though it is in the low ranks, the forest wolf is a monster that a single novice adventurer would have a hard time dealing with. And you say that a boy who hasn’t even reached adulthood defeated it all by himself?”

“In fact, here’s some Forest Wolf material. Besides, there’s no point in lying about it.”

“….”

I replied, and the room was once again quiet.

After a while, Darren opened his heavy mouth, but nothing, in particular, was said.

“Don’t be too reckless, boy. You are still young. If you die from recklessness, everything will be over. Don’t “forget that.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“You can go now. And you, Baldy, stay here. I’ll give you a sermon for slacking off on the job.”

“W-why!? I didn’t skip work! It’s just—“

“Shut up, Baldy. No questions asked.”

“I ain’t baaaaaald!”

I left the office, listening to the cries of Bold’s heart.

I then reported the request, delivered the new Forest Wolf material, and the day’s work was done.

By the way, the total reward I got was one medium silver coin and five small silver coins. In total, I received 15,000 yen.

Later, the Forest Wolf material was sold at a commercial guild, but as Daren and the others had expected, there was a bit of a commotion there.