The Adventurer’s Guild
AN: A short extra arc before arc 3. (TN: for those curious: bangaihen. Also, “short” means nothing to me. It’ll still take a while. Uni starting in less than 2 weeks.)
The Adventurer’s Guild.
Wherever there lived people, so too would be present a branch of the Guild, in the nearest town or city.
The Adventurer’s Guild had its roots in a mercenary guild used by the Emeldia Sanctuary, a temple complex dedicated to worshipping the Creation Goddess Anastasia, to ward off foreign influences.
Emeldia eventually formed its own organization, the Templar Knights, which took over the mercenary guild’s role. However, the demand for the mercenaries themselves continued throughout mankind’s history as long as the fighting continued, and so, the mercenary guild continued to exist.
A divide grew between the mercenaries who only fought wars for a living, and others, like people who did odd jobs or treasure hunters who explored the ruins of ancient civilizations.
Eventually, some of them broke off from the mercenary guild to found a new organization.
That was the birth of the Adventurer’s Guild.
As monsters caused more and more damaged, the Adventurer’s Guild quickly grew.
Since its members did not just fight in wars, but also fulfilled miscellaneous requests, it became a valuable institution to the countries ravaged by monsters.
To the commoners, the guild was the place where they could trust that any request they submitted would be fulfilled by an appropriate person.
To the nobility, the guild allowed them to divest their knights as defense against monsters, and apply them to more pressing matters.
Sometimes, the Guild would also receive requests regarding major problems from the country itself.
A gathering of diverse talents — that was the Adventurer’s Guild.
Simurgh was the capital of the Remulshil Empire.
The Guild had four branches in the metropolis that was Simurgh. One in the northern part of the city, one in the southern part, one in the eastern part, and one in the western part.
And in front of the three-story high building that was the eastern branch, there stood two children.
A boy, and a girl.
Judging by their heights, the boy was a bit older than the girl.
However, the boy didn’t seem to be even 10 years old.
The little boy pushed open the door, and entered the building.
“So this is the Adventurer’s Guild…”
As he entered, he saw a large hall before him.
Right in front of him, he saw three receptionists dealing with both adventurers and their clients at the counter.
To his right were ten large round tables with six chairs each. Further in, he saw a bar, with 10 stools lined up along it.
On the wall, there were sheets of paper detailing various requests, affixed to a bulletin board.
To his left, all he saw were a set of stairs, and a small side door.
The boy encouraged the girl clinging timidly to his left arm as they made their way to the end of the line of people in front of the receptionists.
Several of the adventurers seated at the table, and also some of the people standing in line with them looked curiously at the two children.
The Adventurer’s Guild did have children as members.
Some of them were children of other adventurers, while others were children who lived in the slums around the city.
Unlike pickpocketing or burglary, becoming an adventurer was legal.
By joining the Adventurer’s Guild, the kids could earn some small change taking odd jobs.
Most of the time, they would lose their limbs from injuries or even their lives in the process.
However, only a few of them were lucky enough to make a fortune.
‘Someday, I might become a famous adventurer.’
Despite only a small minority of adventurers prospering, there was no end to the children who dreamed of such success.
Due to that, it wasn’t strange to see children at the Adventurer’s Guild.
However, the two children were especially young.
The boy did not seem like one of the children who dreamed of becoming an adventurer at all.
Both his shirt and trousers alike were covered with patches.
He would not seem out of place among the children from the slums.
On the other hand, the girl, who was trying desperately to seem invisible, stood out.
Anybody could see that her clothes were of high quality, as if it had come straight out of a picture book. She appeared frightened of the gazes gathered on her, but all those present could only imagine how pretty she would grow to become.
The two children eventually reached the front of the line.
“Hello, and welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild.”
The lady who was at the reception desk smiled at the nervous-looking children.
‘I wonder which noble’s request or company’s request will be submitted?’
The receptionist, Lilia thought to herself as she observed the two children.
She assumed that the girl was the daughter some affluent person, while the boy was her servant.
“Umm… Miss, we would like to become adventurers.”
“Eh? You came to become adventurers!?”
Lilia let out an astonished voice.
She looked at their faces to make sure she had heard correctly.
The girl’s shoulders just barely reached the countertop.
Even for an adventurer’s child, she seemed rather young.
The youngest person to register as an adventurer was only around the boy’s age.
“Umm, How old are you two?”
“I am nine years old, and she is seven.”
Lilia was troubled.
They were so young.
Even children from the slums were about ten when they started working as adventurers.
In her three years working as a receptionist, she had never seen such young children want to register.
“Umm… Don’t you know that adventuring is really dangerous? It’s too early for you, much less this girl over here.”
Of course, not all of the work was dangerous, but she didn’t think such young children, especially the little girl, would be able to do the work.
The Guild valued its credibility.
If it failed to fulfill requests, its credibility would decrease.
Something else bothered her.
‘No matter how you think of it, that girl is from a well-off family. Is it fine for her to become an adventurer?’
If they wandered the streets, she might get kidnapped.
The girl was hiding behind the boy, so she could only see her face.
“It’s fine. Even though we look like this, we’ve already trained ourselves.”
‘No no no’
In her mind, she shook her head.
‘Just give up, please…’
At that moment, she heard the voice of a young Adventurer from the door. “What is it, Lilia?”
“Oh? Aren’t these the two brats from The Roost? ”
“Paul, do you know these kids?”
The eighteen-year-old Paul had finally graduated from being a novice Adventurer.
“Yeah, I don’t think there is anybody who stays at The Roost that doesn’t know who they are.”
Paul called out to Lilia, his crush, with a delighted expression.
But he soon frowned.
‘Even though they’re just brats, they’re quite quick.’
After he had woken up, Paul had made his way from the Wandering Bird’s Roost to the Adventurer’s Guild through a back alley.
On the way there, he had seen the two kids at the inn’s backyard swinging around wooden swords as they did every morning.
When he first saw them, he thought to himself: ‘How nice, for them to be so lively this early in the morning.’ But upon looking closer, he was surprised at how deftly they handled the swords and their bodies.
‘Could they be faster than… Nope, nope. No way that’s true!’
Paul shook his head, getting a puzzled look from Lilia.
“Ah, isn’t it fine to let them just register? Apart from the little girl here, that boy can handle some work.”
He made a suggestion.
“Fine. Can you write your own name?”
“I can.”
Most of the kids from the slums couldn’t write.
But the boy wrote his own name neatly on the documents he was given.
All he had to fill out was his name and age.
Since many adventurers didn’t have a fixed residence, that was not required.
“Wynn Byrd. So you’re Wynn.”
As Lilia scanned over the documents, she felt a tug on her sleeve.
“Leti also wants to do it!”
The girl exclaimed, while standing on the tip of her toes to reach as far as she could.
“Umm… It’s a bit too early for you, young lady.”
“I wanna register!”
She had just been hiding behind the boy, behind Wynn’s back, but was now tugging on Lilia’s sleeve as hard as she could.
“Miss, Leti has also been training with me, so it’s fine.”
In resignation, Lilia took out another registration sheet and handed it to the girl who called herself Leti.
“Are you also able to write?”
“I learned it from Onii-chan”
Shakily, she wrote the letters L, E, T, I onto the form.
“Please wait a moment.”
With a sigh, Lilia stood up.
She took out two plates from a locked box, and handed one to each of them.
“These are your registration cards. You have registered in the Simurgh’s eastern branch of the Guild. It also serves as your identification, so please take care not to lose it.”
Lilia proceeded to explain the work of the Adventurer’s Guild in an easy to understand manner for the two children.
As a novice, they couldn’t accept requests from the bulletin board, and instead, they had to take jobs that the Guild assigned them.
Only when the Guild acknowledged that a novice was ready would they be able to take requests from the board.
The guild card could also serve as identification papers.
To adventurers without a permanent residence, the proof of identity was important. However, on the off chance that an adventurer inconvenienced the Guild by committing a crime, then not only would the adventurer have to pay a fine, but in serious cases, the Guild might send an assassin after them.
‘Do these kids really get it?’
Wynn was nodding with a contemplative expression. Leti, on the other hand, had a blank expression on her face. Whenever Wynn nodded, she would follow suit.[1]
‘These kids definitely do not get it.’
She was sure of it.
“Let’s start with some simple jobs.”
After finishing her explanation, Lilia took out a book listing the available requests and opened it in front of them.
“Hello!”
“Hi!”
Two young adventurers, Wynn and Leti, greeted Lilia cheerfully.
“Yeah, hello.”
‘These kids sure are enthusiastic.’
The kids did even better than Lilia had expected.
Wynn and Leti only went to the Guild a few days in the past month, but they completed the work reliably.
Despite her worries, they almost never made any blunders.
Their work mainly consisted of errands that couldn’t be described as an “adventure”.
They did jobs like searching for lost items, or weeding at a rich merchant’s mansion.
Most novice adventurers would say stuff like “Don’t make me do that sort of stuff,” or “Get a servant to do that.”
However, such jobs weren’t trivial errands.
By completing such jobs faithfully, one could form connections with the influential people who requested such jobs.
Through those connections, they might get designated requests from nobles or other merchants, which provide great benefits.
Such influential people might even become sponsors of the Adventurer’s Guild.
That is why the Guild assigned such jobs to novice adventurers.
Other jobs included cleaning the streets, cleaning the aqueducts at the center of the town, and working at construction sites.
By doing such jobs, novice adventurers would improve their dexterity and stamina, while gaining connections and improving their information gathering skills.
“Is there work for us?”
“Hmm… let me see.”
Leti was standing at the counter on the tip of her toes, only her head poking up above the counter. Lilia stroked Leti’s soft hair while opening up the book of requests in front of Wynn.
“… Guarding a chicken coop?”
“Yes.”
Lilia spread open the map of the capital and its surroundings.
Simurgh was enclosed by solid ramparts.
The slums were bordering the outer wall, just beyond those were various plantations, and past the plantation were fertile grasslands.
Lilia pointed to a place in that area.
“The request came from a farm in these plains. It seems that the chicken coop and fields suffered quite a bit of damage.”
“Was it caused by an animal like a wolf?”
“It seems that is still unknown, but… ”
Noticing Wynn’s eyes lighting up, Lilia paused.
She saw that he was itching to leave, she thought to herself: ‘Oops!’
“… Um, you know that it’s only keeping guard, right?”
“Huh? We don’t get to defeat the culprit?”
“All you have to do is find out what is destroying the fields.”
It was outrageously expensive to hire an experienced adventurer for a long period of time.
Due to that, it was better to hire novice adventurers to investigate the situation first.
Only then would they hire a suitable adventurer with another request..
“It’s dangerous, so you can’t. Let other adventurers defeat the culprit that is wrecking the fields.”
“… But we’re also adventurers.”
“You brats are gonna take a newbie request, right? How bout I go with y’all?”
“Oh, Paul. Good morning.”
Hearing the conversation between Wynn and Lilia, Paul called out to them.
During his time as a novice adventurer, Paul had taken many newbie requests.
As a sign of his having graduated from being a rookie, the Guild recommended Paul for a designated request.
“How about it, Lilia? If I party with these kids here, I don’t think they will be in danger.”
Blushing slightly, Paul made a suggestion.
“Is it livestock like cattle and sheep being attacked?”
“No, it’s chickens and rabbits.”
“Then it’s most likely a weasel, fox or some sort of stray dog. If it’s only a few of them, then I can drive them off myself.”
“I see… Are you alright with it, Wynn?”
“I’m fine with going with Paul.”
“Well, with me in the party, their portion of the rewards becomes smaller. But if we do drive away the culprit, the bonus should make up for it.”
“Then I leave them to you, Paul.”
“Ah, okay! Leave it all to me!”
Paul confidently pounded his chest.
Paying no attention to Paul, Lilia once again looked at the map.
The farm where the request came from was a bit close to the forest in the outskirts of the capital.
‘I hope that it’s just some forest animals… ’
After telling Randell, the owner of the Wandering Bird’s Roost, that he wouldn’t be back that night, the three adventurers set off.
They passed through the outer city gate and arrived at the ramshackle collection of crude huts — the slums.
The slums were inhabited by those too poor to pay the entry toll, and refugees from other areas.
Inevitably, the crime rate was high.
Paul warned the two kids to never let themselves out of his sight.
Leti was especially at risk.
She clearly stood out in her high-class clothes.
She was an attractive target for kidnapping.
Seemingly unaware of the dangers the place held, Leti was skipping around happily.
Worried that she would get lost the moment he let his eyes off of her, Wynn held on to Leti tightly.
While keeping an eye on the two kids, Paul tried to intimidate the group of people who were eyeing them.
The people were carrying rusted daggers and knives
Even if he was a rookie, attacking a trained adventurer would be risky for them.
If he remained vigilant, he shouldn’t be attacked.
Eventually, the crudely built huts became replaced by open fields as they arrived at the plantation area.
Paul and Wynn sighed simultaneously, looked at each other, then broke out into laughter.
“What is it?”
Leti looked up, finding it strange that they both started laughing.
“It’s nothing.”
Wynn answered while patting her head.
“Sheesh, we haven’t even began the request.”
Paul took a sip of the canteen hanging from his waist, then offered it to Wynn.
It was filled with fruit juice.
It was a bit warm, but it still tasted great.
“Leti wants some too!”
Wynn gave her the canteen.
“You two aren’t actually siblings right?”
“We’re not. Leti is a friend.”
“A friend, huh. How nice. I also wanna walk like that with Lilia”
Grumbling softly while rubbing Wynn’s head, Paul looked around them.
Endless fields extended all the way to the horizon, and off in the distance, he could spy the overgrown forest.
In the setting sun, he saw the silhouettes of shepherds guiding their sheep.
“I don’t think we’ll reach our destination before the sun sets. Hey Wynn, get Leti to keep moving!.”
Leti had stopped to look at some flowers on the roadside that had caught her interest.
Wynn pulled on Leti’s arm as she continued to stare at the flowers.
“Sigh, Lilia was the one who recommended the request, so it should be safe, but why do I feel uneasy?”
Paul’s thought were reflected on his face as he watched Leti enthusiastically tell Wynn about the flowers she had seen.
‘Come to think of it, she did tell her family about this, right?’
Leti clearly belonged to an upper-class family.
‘If an outsider saw this, wouldn’t it look like I was kidnapping a girl from a rich family?’
He was struck by anxiety as he walked behind the two children.
Then, his worry immediately came true.
“Gyaaaa! A kidnapper!!”
“It’s not what it looks like!”
They had arrived at the requesters’s small cottage.
The girl who was waiting for them took one look at them. Her smile froze, and she shrieked. Paul hastily cried out in response.
Translator Notes
Trivia: pokan face -> blank expression (ポカーンとした顔 if ya wanna google it)