Chapter 23 (1/2)
The Adventurers’ Guild.
The place had been bustling with people since morning. It was, as the name implied, a gathering place for the world’s adventurers.
Naturally, most of the people inside were coa.r.s.e and out of place against the city scenery, but on the other hand, plenty of merchants and ordinary townsfolk were crammed inside too.
Considering the guild’s goal, it made sense.
The Adventurers’ Guild’s primary objective was pretty much to manage jobs for the jacks-of-all-trades known as ‘adventurers’. Adventurers accepting work would naturally gather, and of course, so would the parties with work to be done.
And they usually weren’t adventurers themselves.
So it was a gathering of various professions and social cla.s.ses.
Even leaving all that out, the Adventurers’ Guild also functioned as a source of local information.
Adventurers with work inside the city, or possibly outside, were always returning with all kinds of intel. For example, ‘Take care near so-and-so because this or that monster has appeared there’, or ‘The highway bridge at whatever location was half-destroyed by the bad weather the other day, take that into consideration when you set out’.
Adventurers aside, these tidbits were also valuable to the traders. Of course, the Adventurers’ Guild didn’t release all the information it received, so misinformation would occasionally surface too.
Still, that information was precious, and worth a lot of money to people.
As a result, even more people gathered.
And in most cases, they did so in the morning.
See, the standard day for an adventurer would go something like this: take a request in the morning, finish it during the day, return in the evening. And because traders usually departed in the morning, they would stop by the Adventurers’ Guild in order to get the most up-to-date information.
Aira murmured, “There’s an amazing number of people…”
Which I completely forgot.
While I stared at the scene before me, thinking, ‘Oh yeah, it was like this’, Aira and Palmira watched the same scene in blank amazement.
The Adventurers’ Guild in front of me was so packed with people that even ‘an amazing number of people’ could barely describe it.
The building was of considerable size, as an Adventurers’ Guild of Telaberan’s cla.s.s, but it was full as far as the eye can see. Even the outside teemed with people. Inside, I bet it was a scene out of h.e.l.l.
Well, even so, although the Telaberan branch I recalled was certainly crowded, I didn’t remember it being this bad.
Did something happen?
“Sure did. You should know that better than anyone else.”
Somehow, my eyes landed on Rupert while I was pondering my doubts, and he looked back at me with eyes that said, ‘Come on, you don’t know?’
He was treating me more and more casually.
“Why?”
“Mm, I’ll explain. It’s the change in administration. In this transition period, the city’s gotten a bit disorderly. This is the city lord we’re talking about, after all.1 And the Guild was suppressed somewhat under his rule. Throw in the elimination of the goblin colony on the highways, and trade will get moving too, won’t it?”
In response to Palmira’s artless question, Rupert neatly laid everything out.
It seemed that in Rupert’s internal pecking order, I ranked the lowest. I’d have to re-educate him sooner or later.
That aside, he was right.
When the Lord changed, so did the city’s power structure. Leon had said it too, but in the middle of the transition, it was chaos. It really was the key moment of the change-over.
And so, the odd-jobs men, the adventurers, had gotten busier.
Things that had been lying dormant until now, things that would usher in the s.h.i.+ft to the new city framework.2
They were converging.
When I was an adventurer, I would definitely have considered it a good time for business.
Since I thought so, no doubt everyone else had the same idea.
The result: ta-da.
“So what now? Wait?”
“Nah, it’ll probably be like this until noon. Let’s come again in the afternoon.”
“Anywhere else you want to go?”
“No, this is it for me.”
My conversation with Rupert was quite simple. I didn’t much care, so I was fine with leaving the decision up to Rupert. Well, hopefully it wouldn’t be anything tiring.
While we were talking, a commotion erupted from the direction of the guild. In the next moment, a man flew out, smas.h.i.+ng open the door on his way. His body was folded in a >.
Even so, the man roared as he rose to his feet and charged once more into the guild.
“It’s a fight. C’mon.”
Aira was surprised by the sight. Giving her a sidelong glance, I nudged Rupert.
With a crowd that dense, one or two fights were bound to happen.
“You’re kidding. I’m off-duty today. If it’s that bad, someone from Vyde’s end will come sort it out.”
“You were supposed to be on break?”
“Well, yeah. But it’s because I’m on break that I have the luck to go on a date with beautiful women like this. Seriously, it’s like I’ve got my own harem.”
Rupert responded to an apologetic Aira with heartfelt happiness.
Listening to him talk like he was on top of the world, I simply felt exasperated.
“Alright then, we’ll handle Chris’s errand later. Airi, Polly, anywhere you want to go?”
“I want to go to the weapons shop.”
Sure enough, it was Palmira who spoke up, her voice without inflection. Of course, even Rupert was momentarily taken aback.
“Okay. Weapons shop it is. Airi, what about you?”
But he recovered immediately.
However, Rupert’s pecking order had become Aira → Palmira → me. Well, whatever.
“I don’t have…”
Even as she spoke, Aira seemed most worried about the fight, her eyes flickering in the direction of the guild.
“Like I said, it’s alright. Now then, shall we be on our way to the weapons shop?”
“Both of them got thrown out just now. There’s no problem.”
“Ehh–?!”
Sure enough, two people flew out, curled up like b.a.l.l.s.
Well, that’s the Adventurers’ Guild for you. Something like that was an everyday occurrence. They could handle things just fine by themselves.
–
–
The weapons shop!
There was hardly a boy out there whose heart wouldn’t race at those three words.
Weapons. Symbols of strength.
Lump all bladed objects together, and a fairly familiar example would be the kitchen knife. After all, a kitchen knife could become a weapon. Mostly in the hands of a housewife. When raging at her husband for sleeping around.
Though it did have potential as a weapon, the usual application of a kitchen knife was more peaceful. Its blade was used on vegetables, meat, and fish.
In other words, although a kitchen knife had a blade, it was just a tool.
But its bladed cousin, the sword, was different.
The sword was forged solely for the purpose of repelling foreign invaders. Its purpose was to bring about the end of its own violence, and nothing more.3
So it generally held a special place in the hearts of the boys who pursued or admired power. In other words, it had a certain romance.
And the weapon store had them arranged in neat lines. Naturally, the air was full of romance. Any red-blooded male should feel an irrepressible surge of emotion at the sight.
Such was the romance of the weapons shop, but in my current ball-free state, I didn’t feel particularly emotional.
No, I don’t mean to peg this on my transformation into a woman.
Basically: I just got used to seeing them. But I’ll say this once — the first time I laid eyes on a sword, it was an especially moving experience for me.
But the adventurers’ trade was just as indebted to these weapons shops as it did to the guild. Reasons aside, if a guy gets that emotional every time he steps into a shop he’s visited several hundred — or even thousand — times, all I can say is, ‘Wow, what an unimaginable guy.’
I didn’t know if Palmira, who insisted that she wanted to come here, felt moved by all that.
Or rather, I didn’t know why she wanted to come here.
Of course, I knew Palmira wasn’t the type to say [I want to see the sea from the harbor], or [I want eat something swee~t].
If anyone, that was Aira. Well, maybe Irene was an even better example?
Anyway, people visited to a weapons store with some goal in mind. It was a bit intense for a spot of window-shopping.