“Blood Spraying Sword”
「…Strange. Something’s definitely not right」
After sunset, at the receptionist counter inside the guild where only a few remaining shadows could be seen….Lidelle muttered with furrowed brows.
Her expression was one that must not be shown to adventurers of course, but even to her colleagues as well.
She was unconsciously making that expression on her face because she was under attack by a strong feeling of discomfort.
「Senpai! I’ve made some tea, please go ah—Hm? What’s wrong? You look like you just saw a cockroach come out of the closet after opening it, you know?」
「…Please stop with that analogy, especially when you are serving someone food or drinks」
「Ohh, right. Senpai is an urban child, right? Since I’m from the countryside, I wouldn’t really mind because I’m used to seeing insects already」
「Whatever. I don’t want to know about the life in the countryside. Rather than that, Parfait, what happened to the werewolf incident at Atend ridge?」
「Ah, yes, I just got the confirmation on it. It has been subjugated! The gryphon from Mount Skim, the banshee from the common cemetery, the scylla from Lake Toya, and the werewolf at Atend ridge today! All the headache causing quests were cleared one after another. In fact, the guild master was just praising me on this! Vee」
Lidelle was slightly annoyed by her cute junior who was making peace signs with both of her hands.
However, she immediately reconsidered the fact that it can’t be helped that a junior would be happy about this.
The credit of clearing the troublesome preserving quests belongs to the adventurers, of course. However, the evaluation of the receptionist who entrusted those quests to the adventurers would also be raised at the same time.
For a guild receptionist, an important skill to have is to have a way of words that can “convince” adventurers to take on those troublesome quests. Therefore, they will be highly praised if the preserving quests were to be completed.
It was four quests in a row. Moreover, those are just the large-scale quests. The smaller ones numbered more than ten. Parfait managed to clear so many preserving quests in a short amount of time, so it was only natural that she would be happy.
The beautiful receptionists are all star employees of the guild, but to achieve what she did is by no means easy.
Just assign quests to adventurers and hand out their rewards when it’s over– Their job is nothing like that.
The receptionists have to determine whether or not the client’s request was achievable and make sure that there would be appropriate rewards.
If there’s no money then they are not allowed to accept the client’s request. Telling farmers who had their family kidnapped by goblins “We’re sorry we cannot accept your request for this amount of money” when they came to the guild in tears to start a quest for help– Every guild receptionist had gone through something like that no matter who it is.
There are times where they have to deny newbie adventurers who want to go for quests that are way out of their league and they would get flamed and hated because of it. Then there are times where they have to try to butter up the prideful veteran adventurers to get them to take on the troublesome quests.
There are also times where they would misjudge the difficulty of the quest and cause newer parties to be wiped out. They would have to take the harsh blame for their deaths from the fallen’s companions and friends just because the information provided by the client was inaccurate.
Because that’s what being a guild receptionist is like, no matter what kind of excellent individual, sensitive people would all quit before long. If not, they would request for a department change.
Everyone jokes about how the guild’s receptionists have as much guts as veteran adventurers, but being a guild receptionist is actually a harsh job that people without guts would not be able to handle in the first place.
In that sense, it isn’t just Lidelle who had been a guild receptionist for over five years that has quite the guts, but even Parfait, who’s only been around for just about a year as well.
Parfait addresses Lidelle like “senpai, senpai” as if she adored her, but she’s actually secretly aiming for Lidelle’s seat- the “long time” manager of the guild’s receptionists.
Normally Lidelle would just say something like “That cheekiness is going to last a while…” with a bitter smile, but because of the way things are going right now, she couldn’t do it.
Lidelle could feel the shadows of the people who rate Parfait highly. And she could also feel that those people did not like her.
「So? What quest did you recommend to Lunamaria-san next?」
「Oh about that, listen to this, senpai! She has been taking on tough quests that had little pay all this time, right? So, I recommended her a quest from a nobleman. You know? The one that came from the house of Earl after they heard about the gryphon’s defeat and wanted to get one stuffed? 」
「Ah, the girl who master said to give her priorities, huh?」
「Yes. Then how do you think she responded? Jeez! She straight up rejected this yummy quest that would have let her network with the Earl, that Lunamaria-san!」
「…Is that so?」
「I was surprised. What did she want to do then? I wondered. Remember the request from the orphanage a little while ago? The one to gather some Ald grass from the Thetis forest? She took that instead」
The reward of that quest is five copper coins. It’s an amount that would be all gone by the time you add milk to your food cart after buying some sausages and bread. It’s like doing volunteer work rather than a quest.
Usually, this kind of quest would be bounced off at the reception stage, but it was accepted as a special case since the guild did not want to deny a request coming from the orphanage and the poorhouse.
The quest was displayed on the bulletin board in hopes of encountering some kind adventurers. Like that, adventurers with nothing to do might see it and accept the quest with a laugh.
However, Ald grass does not grow on the outskirts of the forest, but quite deep inside. It wasn’t a place where one would think of doing volunteering work at.
The grass is an herbal medicine that can cure fevers. They probably made the quest because of a patient from the poorhouse. Most likely, it wasn’t going to make it in time for treatment. Of course, that part should have been properly explained to the client when the quest was made, but the client still did not want to withdraw the request.
Whether or not someone was going to take the quest, they still wanted that shred of hope.
In the end, that hope was realized.
Parfait tilted her head to the side and spoke,
「Lunamaria-san became active all of a sudden after she left “Falcon Sword”. Back then, she felt like the person who just smiles while standing behind Lars, but now she’s moving on her own…No, the one who is really active is the “Parasite”, probably」
“Falcon Sword”, the party of smart upcoming youths. You can’t really miss it when one of its members was walking in and out of the guild with a slave collar around her neck.
Because of that, what happened with Lunamaria and “Falcon Sword” had already become known by many of the guild’s regulars.
Even a child knows that the “Master” behind her right now is the one named Sora.
Lidelle folds her arms and says,
「Lunamaria-san and this other girl named Ciel are hardly away from Ishka. Which means when it comes down to it, Sora-san was the one who subjugated the gryphon. That’s not something a level one can do. No… a level one human wouldn’t be able to beat Lars in the first place」
「Ah, that thing! I wanted to see it too. Rather, I am the one in charge of “Falcon Sword”. Shouldn’t you have called me over to see that, senpai?!」
「I was the one chosen to be responsible for that event. Anyway, the way Lunamaria-san is moving right now is weird. If possible, I don’t think you should give her too many quests to do…」
Parfait laughs at Lidelle’s fears.
「I don’t think it’s anything that we need to be cautious about. She’s clearing the preserving quests that no one wants to do. She’s doing us a favor, no? Maybe the “Parasite” wants to come back to the guild really badly?-」
「-I don’t think anyone would really refuse when they are a ninth-tier adventurer who the guild master personally tried to invite back-」
「-He gave in to his emotions and refused the master’s proposal in the moment, and now he’s regretting it after, no? And since he did that himself, he couldn’t come out and say that he wants to return to being an adventurer after all. That’s why he’s showing his usefulness through Lunamaria. Thinking of it like that, he’s a surprisingly interesting person, isn’t he?」
「…I don’t think he’s such a simple person like that」
Lidelle voiced her disagreement, but she could also clearly see that Parfait has no intention of listening to her words. Since Parfait lost the party “Falcon Sword” that she was in charge of, she obviously wouldn’t care about what Lunamaria and Sora are up to as long as they are raising her reputation as a guild receptionist.
Her way of thinking isn’t wrong. If anything, it’s natural. And it’s true that the quests that Lunamaria took are what the guild couldn’t manage.
Their actions are beneficial to the guild, the clients, and the people of Ishka. Rather than trying to restrain their movements, Lidelle should be complimenting them instead.
『Every person belonging to the guild has the duty to work for Ishka, whether you’re an adventurer or the guild’s staff』
She remembers the words she told Sora two months ago when she expelled him from the guild.
Right now, it’s Sora who is working for the sake of Ishka, and Lidelle is the one who is thinking to prevent that because of her suspicions.
Their roles have surprisingly reversed.
Don’t tell me…He did all that to create this situation…? She could somehow sense Sora’s intention of insulting the guild in his actions.
An expelled adventurer was clearing up the quests that the guild couldn’t manage. On top of that, they were slaying gryphons, banshees, scyllas and werewolves.
It was as if he was saying “It’s you who are wrong for kicking me out of the guild” -mocking Lidelle and the others for not having a good judgement of people’s characters.
From what she heard, Sora had been tipping the father and daughter of the Little Blue Birdcage Inn very generously every day ever since he came back.
It would make sense if you think that he was doing the same thing to the guild as well.
It made sense, but Lidelle believed that there was more to it than that.
Even with various circumstances to it, there is no way that a human who would enslave his former companions and break their party apart would be satisfied with just that.
…As for Lidelle’s worries, they came to life a few days later.
On that day, Lunamaria submitted a withdrawal notice and left the guild, officially abandoning her rank as a sixth-tier adventurer.
At the same time her request to withdraw was made, multiple clients of the guild had also applied to pull out from the guild. They were fed up with the way that their quests weren’t getting done so they wanted to rely on someone else.
And that someone else was an adventurer party that did not belong to the guild. It was a newly formed party that took down gryphons, killed scyllas, and subjugated werewolves.
Its name was 『Blood Spraying Sword』.
“Blood Spraying Sword”
「…Strange. Something’s definitely not right」
After sunset, at the receptionist counter inside the guild where only a few remaining shadows could be seen….Lidelle muttered with furrowed brows.
Her expression was one that must not be shown to adventurers of course, but even to her colleagues as well.
She was unconsciously making that expression on her face because she was under attack by a strong feeling of discomfort.
「Senpai! I’ve made some tea, please go ah—Hm? What’s wrong? You look like you just saw a cockroach come out of the closet after opening it, you know?」
「…Please stop with that analogy, especially when you are serving someone food or drinks」
「Ohh, right. Senpai is an urban child, right? Since I’m from the countryside, I wouldn’t really mind because I’m used to seeing insects already」
「Whatever. I don’t want to know about the life in the countryside. Rather than that, Parfait, what happened to the werewolf incident at Atend ridge?」
「Ah, yes, I just got the confirmation on it. It has been subjugated! The gryphon from Mount Skim, the banshee from the common cemetery, the scylla from Lake Toya, and the werewolf at Atend ridge today! All the headache causing quests were cleared one after another. In fact, the guild master was just praising me on this! Vee」
Lidelle was slightly annoyed by her cute junior who was making peace signs with both of her hands.
However, she immediately reconsidered the fact that it can’t be helped that a junior would be happy about this.
The credit of clearing the troublesome preserving quests belongs to the adventurers, of course. However, the evaluation of the receptionist who entrusted those quests to the adventurers would also be raised at the same time.
For a guild receptionist, an important skill to have is to have a way of words that can “convince” adventurers to take on those troublesome quests. Therefore, they will be highly praised if the preserving quests were to be completed.
It was four quests in a row. Moreover, those are just the large-scale quests. The smaller ones numbered more than ten. Parfait managed to clear so many preserving quests in a short amount of time, so it was only natural that she would be happy.
The beautiful receptionists are all star employees of the guild, but to achieve what she did is by no means easy.
Just assign quests to adventurers and hand out their rewards when it’s over– Their job is nothing like that.
The receptionists have to determine whether or not the client’s request was achievable and make sure that there would be appropriate rewards.
If there’s no money then they are not allowed to accept the client’s request. Telling farmers who had their family kidnapped by goblins “We’re sorry we cannot accept your request for this amount of money” when they came to the guild in tears to start a quest for help– Every guild receptionist had gone through something like that no matter who it is.
There are times where they have to deny newbie adventurers who want to go for quests that are way out of their league and they would get flamed and hated because of it. Then there are times where they have to try to butter up the prideful veteran adventurers to get them to take on the troublesome quests.
There are also times where they would misjudge the difficulty of the quest and cause newer parties to be wiped out. They would have to take the harsh blame for their deaths from the fallen’s companions and friends just because the information provided by the client was inaccurate.
Because that’s what being a guild receptionist is like, no matter what kind of excellent individual, sensitive people would all quit before long. If not, they would request for a department change.
Everyone jokes about how the guild’s receptionists have as much guts as veteran adventurers, but being a guild receptionist is actually a harsh job that people without guts would not be able to handle in the first place.
In that sense, it isn’t just Lidelle who had been a guild receptionist for over five years that has quite the guts, but even Parfait, who’s only been around for just about a year as well.
Parfait addresses Lidelle like “senpai, senpai” as if she adored her, but she’s actually secretly aiming for Lidelle’s seat- the “long time” manager of the guild’s receptionists.
Normally Lidelle would just say something like “That cheekiness is going to last a while…” with a bitter smile, but because of the way things are going right now, she couldn’t do it.
Lidelle could feel the shadows of the people who rate Parfait highly. And she could also feel that those people did not like her.
「So? What quest did you recommend to Lunamaria-san next?」
「Oh about that, listen to this, senpai! She has been taking on tough quests that had little pay all this time, right? So, I recommended her a quest from a nobleman. You know? The one that came from the house of Earl after they heard about the gryphon’s defeat and wanted to get one stuffed? 」
「Ah, the girl who master said to give her priorities, huh?」
「Yes. Then how do you think she responded? Jeez! She straight up rejected this yummy quest that would have let her network with the Earl, that Lunamaria-san!」
「…Is that so?」
「I was surprised. What did she want to do then? I wondered. Remember the request from the orphanage a little while ago? The one to gather some Ald grass from the Thetis forest? She took that instead」
The reward of that quest is five copper coins. It’s an amount that would be all gone by the time you add milk to your food cart after buying some sausages and bread. It’s like doing volunteer work rather than a quest.
Usually, this kind of quest would be bounced off at the reception stage, but it was accepted as a special case since the guild did not want to deny a request coming from the orphanage and the poorhouse.
The quest was displayed on the bulletin board in hopes of encountering some kind adventurers. Like that, adventurers with nothing to do might see it and accept the quest with a laugh.
However, Ald grass does not grow on the outskirts of the forest, but quite deep inside. It wasn’t a place where one would think of doing volunteering work at.
The grass is an herbal medicine that can cure fevers. They probably made the quest because of a patient from the poorhouse. Most likely, it wasn’t going to make it in time for treatment. Of course, that part should have been properly explained to the client when the quest was made, but the client still did not want to withdraw the request.
Whether or not someone was going to take the quest, they still wanted that shred of hope.
In the end, that hope was realized.
Parfait tilted her head to the side and spoke,
「Lunamaria-san became active all of a sudden after she left “Falcon Sword”. Back then, she felt like the person who just smiles while standing behind Lars, but now she’s moving on her own…No, the one who is really active is the “Parasite”, probably」
“Falcon Sword”, the party of smart upcoming youths. You can’t really miss it when one of its members was walking in and out of the guild with a slave collar around her neck.
Because of that, what happened with Lunamaria and “Falcon Sword” had already become known by many of the guild’s regulars.
Even a child knows that the “Master” behind her right now is the one named Sora.
Lidelle folds her arms and says,
「Lunamaria-san and this other girl named Ciel are hardly away from Ishka. Which means when it comes down to it, Sora-san was the one who subjugated the gryphon. That’s not something a level one can do. No… a level one human wouldn’t be able to beat Lars in the first place」
「Ah, that thing! I wanted to see it too. Rather, I am the one in charge of “Falcon Sword”. Shouldn’t you have called me over to see that, senpai?!」
「I was the one chosen to be responsible for that event. Anyway, the way Lunamaria-san is moving right now is weird. If possible, I don’t think you should give her too many quests to do…」
Parfait laughs at Lidelle’s fears.
「I don’t think it’s anything that we need to be cautious about. She’s clearing the preserving quests that no one wants to do. She’s doing us a favor, no? Maybe the “Parasite” wants to come back to the guild really badly?-」
「-I don’t think anyone would really refuse when they are a ninth-tier adventurer who the guild master personally tried to invite back-」
「-He gave in to his emotions and refused the master’s proposal in the moment, and now he’s regretting it after, no? And since he did that himself, he couldn’t come out and say that he wants to return to being an adventurer after all. That’s why he’s showing his usefulness through Lunamaria. Thinking of it like that, he’s a surprisingly interesting person, isn’t he?」
「…I don’t think he’s such a simple person like that」
Lidelle voiced her disagreement, but she could also clearly see that Parfait has no intention of listening to her words. Since Parfait lost the party “Falcon Sword” that she was in charge of, she obviously wouldn’t care about what Lunamaria and Sora are up to as long as they are raising her reputation as a guild receptionist.
Her way of thinking isn’t wrong. If anything, it’s natural. And it’s true that the quests that Lunamaria took are what the guild couldn’t manage.
Their actions are beneficial to the guild, the clients, and the people of Ishka. Rather than trying to restrain their movements, Lidelle should be complimenting them instead.
『Every person belonging to the guild has the duty to work for Ishka, whether you’re an adventurer or the guild’s staff』
She remembers the words she told Sora two months ago when she expelled him from the guild.
Right now, it’s Sora who is working for the sake of Ishka, and Lidelle is the one who is thinking to prevent that because of her suspicions.
Their roles have surprisingly reversed.
Don’t tell me…He did all that to create this situation…? She could somehow sense Sora’s intention of insulting the guild in his actions.
An expelled adventurer was clearing up the quests that the guild couldn’t manage. On top of that, they were slaying gryphons, banshees, scyllas and werewolves.
It was as if he was saying “It’s you who are wrong for kicking me out of the guild” -mocking Lidelle and the others for not having a good judgement of people’s characters.
From what she heard, Sora had been tipping the father and daughter of the Little Blue Birdcage Inn very generously every day ever since he came back.
It would make sense if you think that he was doing the same thing to the guild as well.
It made sense, but Lidelle believed that there was more to it than that.
Even with various circumstances to it, there is no way that a human who would enslave his former companions and break their party apart would be satisfied with just that.
…As for Lidelle’s worries, they came to life a few days later.
On that day, Lunamaria submitted a withdrawal notice and left the guild, officially abandoning her rank as a sixth-tier adventurer.
At the same time her request to withdraw was made, multiple clients of the guild had also applied to pull out from the guild. They were fed up with the way that their quests weren’t getting done so they wanted to rely on someone else.
And that someone else was an adventurer party that did not belong to the guild. It was a newly formed party that took down gryphons, killed scyllas, and subjugated werewolves.
Its name was 『Blood Spraying Sword』.
