Chapter 11 (1/2)
As a wry smile floated on to his face, Ranga poured a cup of water from a jug and took a sip to show that there was nothing strange in it before giving it to Rei.
「Sorry about this.」
As he hadn’t eaten or drank anything while riding on Set, Rei gulped the water down in one mouthful.
Cold……though the temperature wasn’t great, it still felt good because he was thirsty.
「How about another cup?」
「Yes thanks.」
Pouring another cup of water, Ranga finally sat down opposite Rei.
「Well, what should I hear first. No, let’s go with the self introductions first. Although I said this earlier, my name is Ranga and I’m serving as a guard captain in this city of Gilm.」
「My name is Rei. The Griffon out the front is Set.」
With the short self introduction over, Ranga finally spoke about the main subject.
「Is that so, first of all, we’ll start with this question. What is your purpose in the city of Gilm.」
「I want to know something before answering the question. This city of Gilm you mentioned. Is there an Adventurers Guild here?」
According to Zepairu’s knowledge, there would be a branch office of the Adventurers Guild if it was a big city. However, Zepairu’s knowledge had been relegated by Rei to be used as a reference only. And……
「Naturally of course. It is common to have branch offices of the Adventurers Guild in small villages, is there any reason why there wouldn’t be one in this city of Gilm?」
Naturally there are, Ranga said as he nodded.
(I thought so. With this it’s definite. Zepairu’s knowledge is……quite old. I should check how much error there is later.
He started to speak while letting out a sigh in his mind.
「That’s good. After all, I’ve only been living with my master since I was born. I’m ignorant of the state of society. As for my purpose, that’s easy. I came to become an adventurer.」
「……Judging from your question a little while ago, you didn’t even know if there was an Adventurers Guild branch in the city?」
Although his tone is soft, not missing the feeling of a lie, Ranga asked another question.
On the other hand, Rei lightly shrugged his shoulders.
「I said it just before, I’ve been living with my master since I was born. Because my master was crazy about magic, I’m quite ignorant about common sense.」
「……Magic (majutsu)? Wait, magic (maho)?」
TLN: Okay, this gets a bit confusing, the two words used here are Majutsu and Maho, technically they both mean magic. However the first one has the character for Art in it while the second one has the character for Method. Because of this, I’ll put which one it is referring to in brackets.
Ranga asked curiously. In this respect again, the unreliability of Zepairu’s knowledge became apparent again.
「Magic (maho)? My master called it magic (majutsu)……is it called magic (maho) here?」
「……I see. You certainly don’t know much about the world. It was called magic (majutsu) several hundred years ago. Nowadays, that name isn’t used much and is instead called magic (maho).」
Several hundred years. Rei, who frowned his eyebrows, immediate continued his story.
「It that is true, then my master is certainly ignorant to a great extent.……well, I was told to go out to train and was sent away with space magic (majutsu) ……no, how to put it, I was teleported to a strange place I don’t know and it wasn’t very funny.」
「Training?」
「Ah. After I mastered basic magic (maho), my master told me to train myself to improve my power.」
「I see, so you want to be an adventurer for that reason. By the way, is the Griffon outside from your magic (maho)?」
Rei shook neck after taking a sip of water.
「Set doesn’t follow me by magic. Have you heard of a skill called tamer?」
「It’s a skill to tame a monster. Then, in that case?」
「That’s right.」
「Un, so it’s not summoning magic. ……In that case……」
Ranga started to think after listening to Rei’s words.
Rei had a bad feeling about the silence. Ranga opened his mouth to speak.
「There are adventurers who more or less tame monsters in the city. However, even then, they were rank D monsters I think. For a rank A monster, Griffon……there are no adventurers.」
Though Ranga said so, for Rei who didn’t have a concrete understanding of the world, the difference between rank A and D wasn’t very clear. However, he expected that it was ranked by fighting power and danger.
「Also with that, though I digress, you also have to pay taxes to enter the city.」
In this world of Elgin, one silver coin equals ten copper coins. One gold coin is ten silver coins. One platinum coin is ten gold coins and ten platinum coins is one light gold coin.
For Rei to explain it in simple terms, one copper coin is 100 yen, one silver coin is 1,000 yen, one gold coin is 10,000, one platinum coin is 100,000 yen and one light gold coin is one million yen. TLN: The largest currency literally translates to light gold and I can’t figure out if it is something the author made up or is referring to a material I don’t know, the previous one was white gold or platinum.
「So, with the exception of adventurers, both merchants and travelers have to pay a tax of one silver coin to enter the city every time. 」
Adventurers not being charged tax was a simple story, that is because adventurers don’t use the city as their home. Though it is natural is you think about it, if there is a request, it is necessary to go in and out of the city. Paying one silver coin every time they entered would cost a lot. Therefore, the nobles that ruled the city gave an exemption to taxes if an adventurer who belonged to the Adventurers Guild showed their guild card. This is because the return they get from adventurers returning requests is greater than one silver coin.
On a side note, the idea originally spread because a certain avaricious lord refused exemption of taxes for adventurers in the territory he governed. Because of this, all the adventurers left the territory of the lord and new adventurers didn’t come. As a result, all the people who could receive monster subjugation quests were gone, and in a vicious circle, merchants who heard about it didn’t come either ……the lord was surprised that the tax revenue had decreased and forcibly collected more taxes, it caused the people to revolt and in the end, the lord was killed. After the story spread, the exemption of adventurers from tax became an unwritten law.