Chapter 46 (1/2)

Yes, the meeting room where Hobbes had given the description of the Orc subjugation force.

Other than Rei, the figures of 5 other adventurers could been seen in the meeting room. A total of 6 people, including Rei. These were the people taking the rank up test to rank D.

In addition, among them, the figure of Arogan could be seen, his original plan of spreading his name had been carried out in the opposite meaning after the farce with Rei. The moment their eyes met, as Rei walked into the meeting room, if you observed Arogan’s expression as he quickly glanced away, you could understand his feelings about Rei.

(The rank up test, is it?)

The day before, Lenora, who could be said to be in charge of Rei, had called out to him as he entered the guild. He recalled the conversation he had with Lenora at that time.

『Ah, Rei-san. About the rank up test, because it will start tomorrow, please come to the meeting room in the early afternoon tomorrow.』

『……That’s awfully sudden. Can’t you inform us in advance normally?』

『Well, you’re certainly right. However, in the end, this part of the adventurer rank up test. For urgent and emergency requests, as there would be no time, would you be able to ask for them to wait a little longer?』

『Indeed, that’s certainly true. So tomorrow afternoon?』

『Yes. Registering with the guild and taking the rank up test in under a month, this is the fastest time recorded in the city of Gilm. Please do your best.』

While recalling such a conversation, he turned his eyes to the other people who were also taking the rank up test.

First of all, needless to say, was Arogan. Nevertheless, even if he disgraced himself in that event the other day and was a rotten person, he had a magic sword at rank E. His personal skill aside, since he had a considerably high quality magic sword, he liked to fight by pushing forward with raw power.

2nd person. It was a woman who had her hair cut short to allow easy movement. As with her hair, she wore leather armour, made from the skin of some monster, so as to not obstruct her body’s movements. She had two daggers at her waist. She might be a thief, who’s job was to scout ahead and handle traps. Her age looked to be in her late teens.

3rd person. Wearing a robe on his body, similar to Rei, he held a cane in his hand. This man was a typical magician and had a plain face. As Rei was looking around, the man smiled at him before continuing to talk with the previous woman, who was sitting next to him. He was probably acquainted with the her. His age also looked to be in his late teens.

4th person. It was a male warrior who had a sharp gaze. His equipment was overwhelmingly inferior when compared to Arogan’s magic sword, it was a common long sword that could be bought in the city. However, Rei felt that his ability as a warrior was better than Arogan’s. His age was similar to Arogan’s, probably in his early twenties.

5th person. Sitting on a chair was a woman with her eyes closed. If anything, it could be said that she had decent features. What should be mentioned specially were her ears. She had ears with a much sharper point compared with ordinary humans, that showed that the woman was an elf. Seeing the the large bow placed on the table in front of her, she was probably an archer. She appeared to be in her late teens.

(Then there’s me, it seems. I wonder what kind of test will be held.)

While thinking about that, his eyes coincidentally met those of the female thief.

『……』

They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. In the end, the female thief’s patience ran out and she spoke out.

「Do you have any business with me?」

「No, nothing in particular.」

「But you were staring at me just now. So what do you want? Or what, are you trying to hit on me right now?」

「Wai-, Culotte. Suddenly picking a fight. Umm, I’m sorry. Because Culotte is taking the rank up exam for the first time, she’s a bit tense. Please don’t mind it.」

The male mage who was sitting next to Culotte, the female thief, bowed his head as he apologised for her.

「Scola, why are you lowering your head. This is a bad fellow. Staring at people indecently.」

「Ah, come on. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry about this. I’m sorry……I mean, usually she isn’t this stubborn……」

「Don’t worry about it. I don’t really care about it at all.」

「What, is my worth to you……」

「It’s noisy.」

In the room with Culottes noisy cries, a voice suddenly sounded. Aside from Rei, who had felt a person coming towards the meeting room, the others reflectively turned their eyes to the voice.

A man in his mid forties could be seen. However, with his trained body, it would be fair to say he was comparable to an active adventurer.

「Hey, I will begin the explanation of the rank up test. Are you all ready to listen?」

(……I should have seen his face somewhere. If I’m not mistaken……ahh, it was during the dispute with Goblin Drool.)

That was right, it was the person who had determined Rei had enough fighting strength to get to rank G after the dispute with Claws of the Hawk, it was Gran.

While remembering his face, Rei turned towards Gran, ignoring Culotte.

Culotte probably also realised who Gran was. She scowled at Rei for an moment before finally turning her eyes towards Gran.

In addition, Scola turned to Gran after giving Rei another apologetic bow.

「Now then, it seems that everyone is ready to listen. Then I’ll begin the explanation of the rank up test to rank D immediately. First of all, I’ll have you fight each other.」

The moment Gran said that, Arogan who had watched Rei’s exchange with Culotte indifferently, looked at Rei, startled.

It had only been 5 days since he had been reminded of the difference in fighting strength. The colour slowly drained from his face, if he had to fight Rei, he had no chance of winning.

However, Gran continued to talk as if to reassure Arogan.

「That said, you won’t be disqualified immediately just because you lose the fight. ……Well, I won’t deny that it will be referred to during the assessment. The main purpose of fighting each other is to learn each others abilities. So, for the compulsory part of the rank up test, you will have to clear a bandit hideout about 2 days from here. The bandit subjugation is the trial for the rank up test.」

Subjugating bandits, after that was said, the meeting room fell dead silent.

Because everyone was here to take the rank up quest to rank D, they had more or less only received requests up to E rank. Though tentatively speaking, it was possible to receive a request one rank higher, hearing of the barrier between rank’s E and D from senior adventurers, there were very few adventurers who would take rank D requests at rank E.

Because of that, there were less requests at rank E and more at rank D. There was also a clear difference when the target of a subjugation request were humans, such as bandits.

In this world, fighting monsters was a daily occurrence. However, there were still a lot of people opposed to the act of killing a person. Therefore, the type of request for subjugating bandits and the rewards from it were normally higher than rank D.

「Although everyone here seems to know the circumstances, a request to subjugate bandits or act as escorts to merchants and travelers is rarely D rank and is usually higher. In these types of requests, if you hesitate to kill the enemy in a dangerous situation, your companions or the people you are escorting might be killed, that’s the worst thing that could happen. The former is still better, in the latter case, there will be an issue relating to the trust of the whole adventurers guild. That’s why, the rank up test to rank D is basically asking you to kill people.」

Only Gran’s words could be heard in the meeting room, the people taking the rank up tests, listened quietly.

However, among them, Rei wasn’t as strained. After all, He had killed the 4 members of Dark Night’s Star with his own hands during the Orc subjugation request. Though it wasn’t that he wanted to kill a people willingly, he had no weakness such as hesitating in an emergency.

There was also one other person.

(Him as well, it seems.)

It was the warrior other than Arogan, whom Rei had glanced at earlier. Though he was concentrating on listening to Gran’s words, he didn’t have the feeling of being tense like the others. With just that, Rei more or less understood that he probably had a similar experience in killing people.

「Now then, that’s all the information. Then I’ll have you fight each other at once. Since you have come to take the rank up test, I assume you’ve naturally brought the weapons you use?　Follow me.」

Saying that, Gran left the meeting room. Rei followed next.

「Listen up, because there’s a training ground at the back of the guild, you will fight there.」

「Training ground?」

To Rei’s unintentional words, Culotte looked at him with an amazed face.

「I’m shocked. Didn’t you know there was a training ground at the back of the guild. And you managed to get to rank E.」

「Ahh, come one. Why do you keep lashing out at him. I’m sorry, I’ll be glad if you don’t mind Culotte’s words.」

「Don’t worry about it.」

He thought about the training ground while a wry smile floated onto his face at the combination of the pair.