CH 34

Chapter 34 - Anxiety and Darkness

Five days had passed since Souya had reissued the blank-class adventurer’s card that had been burned after the last adventure. In the meantime, as promised, Souya had borrowed an empty desk at the adventurer’s guild to teach Mia some arithmetic.

“I understand fractions …… but fractions of fractions? …… It’s mind-boggling.”

“Multiply the top value by the bottom value and up. Upper and lower Multiply the intervening values by the lower value. That’s all you need to know for now.”

Whenever Mia was stumped by a problem, Souya gave her a precise explanation. The reason for being here was to teach her how to study and to prepare for the next request, but it was hard to find a request that both Souya and Mia could handle.

“That’s it for today then …… Are you going to do your task now?”

“Yes. I’m going to the temple of the Earth Mother Goddess Mikaela to pray. I’ll be back before dark.”

“You’re very dedicated. I’m so proud of you. I can’t do as well as you, Mia-kun, because I’m too serious.”

“No, you’re not …… And I think there is something else good about you, Souya-san. Thank you for your time today …… I’ll be off then.”

Mia picked up the Cleric’s Staff she kept by her side and left the Adventurer’s Guild with a slow gait. She went to do her task twice a day, morning and evening, at the temple of the Earth Mother Goddess Mikaela when she was on break without adventures.

Her job as a cleric was to perform Cure Wounds and Cure Poison on the wounded in the temple of the Earth Mother Goddess Mikaela and receive an offering. Most of the money is paid to the temple, but a small portion is given to the healer as living expenses.

(Mia-kun works at the temple, so she doesn’t have to worry about living without adventures. Come to think of it, Merylou-kun also said that she earns her living expenses by playing the ocarina. And I …… can’t really use magic to do that, though.)

In this world, there is a large organization called the Magicians’ Guild, which strictly enforces laws against the clear use of magic in business.

Although the guild does not pursue personal use of magic for non-commercial purposes, for example, the guild does not permit the use of rock golems to do the heavy lifting and earn money directly.

It has a close relationship with the Adventurer’s Guild, and being blacklisted by the Magician’s Guild could jeopardize your position as an adventurer.

When Souya moved to the reception desk, Louise, the receptionist, was reading a technical book with her cheekbones on the counter. The work of the receptionist and mediator seemed to have a sharp contrast between busy and boring times.

“Oh …… Souya-san. How are Mia’s studies going? Is she making progress?”

“Thanks for the good work. Mia-kun is a smart girl. She just hasn’t had the opportunity to learn as much as she should have.”

“Oh. I wonder if we’ll see a smart Mia in a month …… Souya-san, would you like to sit down? I’ll be free for a little while longer.”

At Louise’s invitation, Souya sat down in a chair by the counter. Louise, on the other side of the desk, was as bored as ever, even when she was resting.

“Where did you learn things, Souya-san? You seem to have a pretty good grasp of advanced mathematics, but you don’t belong to the magician’s guild, do you?”

“I’m self-taught …… Yes, I suppose it would be better to belong to a magician’s guild, but the membership fee is too high.”

“Well, yes, that’s true …… I’ve also heard that the Mage’s Guild is not very friendly to those who are not from the Academy. I think It’s not a good fit for Souya-san …… Oops, I can’t say anything bad about that. It was disrespectful to the adventurers from the academy, as well as to the clients we work with. “

Louise made a gesture of holding her mouth with the palm of her hand, as if she had misspoken. As Louise said, magicians from the Academy established by the Magician’s Guild have a strong sense of elitism, and a certain number of them are not very nice.

Souya recalled that twenty years ago, he had humiliated a proud court magician from the academy, and it had become a problem for him later on, and Souya smiled wryly.

“I heard that Louise-san is a platinum-class swordmaster. I’ve heard that you rarely go on adventures now. Do you have any regrets about that?”

“…… Oh, who told you that?”

“From Mia-kun. So let’s compete. I don’t want to talk about anything like that. I don’t want to get hurt either.”

“…… If there’s a chance, please let me see you fight at least. I’m very curious about it. It’s not that I have no regrets after being an adventurer …… It’s just that my current job is definitely more rewarding. I am proud to say that I can only serve as an intermediary if I can fully utilize my knowledge from past experience. “

I’m sure she has the ability to make adjustments because she’s been through a lot of adventures and knows the scene.

“The rest of the time, when I was an adventurer, people would praise me for being strong or brave or scary or an ogre …… A few rude ones, too. It’s more fun now to be told that I’m beautiful. Well, there are still times when people say I’m scary.”

“I see. I think you are beautiful, even in your adventurer’s clothes.”

“Oh, I’m happy even if it’s flattery. Would you like to see it?”

Louise shook her honey-colored hair and smiled seductively. When she said would you like to see it, it’s probably an invitation to a sword fight.

“– The tiredness from our previous adventure is gone now, so I am ready to move on to the next one. Is there any request that we can handle?”

“…… Hmmm, let’s see …… It’s pretty limited if there are two of you, and one is a blank-class. Of course, I know you’re not really at that level, Souya-san …… Would you be willing to add more friends?”

Louise seemed unsatisfied to Souya, who dodged the topic with a straight face, but she quickly responded as an intermediary and recommended that Souya increase the number of his friends.

“…… Well, for now. I’m a shy person, as you can see. Well, they say hurrying will lead to failure, so I’m going to take it easy …… I’m sorry to ask you this, but when will I be able to get my blank grade paper?”

“If you want to graduate, you can do so at any time. If the request is clearly equivalent to bronze-class, the minimum number of times you can get it is two. If it’s a goblin extermination like the other day, well, there’s no doubt about it.”

If you can kill goblins, you can clearly say that you have the ability of Bronze-class. It seemed to me that the quickest way to prove my ability was to fulfill the request to kill them. However, Souya had already hunted the direwolf he encountered in the Thrail forest to prove his ability, so it was a little late for that. It’s a bit of a letdown, but if he had brought back the head, he might have been able to prove it.

“…… Come to think of it, I wonder if the Windbreakers is okay. It’s a day and a half each way to the village. The fort is an hour away. On the fifth day …… if everything is going well, they should have left by now.”

Louise had a worried look on her face. She probably feels responsible for acting as an intermediary for the request.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine since Randy-kun is a Silver-class. Even if they’re up against a goblin lord, they should be able to keep up. “

Souya also remembered the hero Randy and the Windbreakers that he met four days ago. 

He was a little self-confident, but as far as I could tell, his ability as a hero is certain, and I didn’t think he would lag behind the little goblins.

–At that moment, the guild’s entrance door slowly creaked open.

Louise was suspicious of the half-open door, turned to look at it — and exclaimed.

“………… Louise-san. I’m sorry …… We’re in a lot of trouble.”

It was Thomas, the hunter of the Windbreakers, who appeared from the doorway of the Adventurer’s Guild and muttered lowly. The red-headed magician Rebecca, with a bloodstained bandage around her forehead, was being carried on the back of his large frame.