Chapter 51
"You're pretty pushy, aren't you?"
"Depends on the time, the situation, and the person."
"I see."
For some reason, the conversation petered out there, and we made our way to a nearly empty lounge.
The lounge had several private rooms, all soundproofed. They were used for meetings and guild discussions.
After borrowing one and stepping inside, I turned to Sierra and got straight to the point.
"Let me help you acquire your Job, Sierra. In exchange, if you successfully acquire it, I want you to join the guild I'm creating."
"...Let me ask you one thing. Why would you go that far? You and I haven't had much to do with each other, have we? I don't understand your reason."
"Because my guild is recruiting members right now?"
"Why are you phrasing that as a question? What I mean is, it doesn't have to be me, does it?"
"Well... I'd like you to hear me out without getting exasperated."
"You're going to say something exasperating, then."
"Yeah. I chose you for your 'looks' and your 'Job.' That's just my personal opinion and prejudice, mind you."
"...... I'm sorry. I don't really understand."
Sierra tried to seriously parse my words, but couldn't, and gave up.
Well, I couldn't blame her.
"All right. First, your 'looks.' You're undeniably beautiful. So beautiful that cheesy, flirtatious lines slip out of my mouth when I'm around you. So you pass."
"Haaaah..."
At that point, Sierra let out a deep sigh.
It was like all the tension she'd been holding drained away in an instant.
Did she think I was joking? 'Looks' are pretty important, you know? For motivation, among other things.
Everyone gets more motivated with popular or cool-looking characters.
Games are all about character stills.
"Next, your Job. I want all my combat Jobs to be high-tier."
"...Isn't that impossible? There are only a tiny handful of high-tier Jobs. And most people who acquire one are snapped up by high-ranking guilds."
"Then if you get a high-tier Job, will you join a high-ranking guild? If so, then that's the end of this conversation."
"............"
This was still recruitment, not charity. I made it clear, if only implicitly.
"It's 【Shield Princess】, right?"
!!
"Haha, I knew it."
When I named the Job Sierra wanted to acquire, astonishment colored her beautiful face.
Oh wow. That expression alone was worth seeing.
"How do you know that? Only one person in all of history has ever taken that Job—my great-grandmother."
Huh! That's new information!
In the game 〈Dan-Katsu〉, I knew there was information saying only one person in history had ever taken 【Shield Princess】. But there were no further clues beyond the scant detail that she was 'the daughter of a count,' so we players had to deduce the conditions for unlocking 【Shield Princess】 from that.
In the end, after wracking our brains over this and that, we compared the conditions for unlocking other Jobs and tried every similar set of conditions we could think of, eventually narrowing it down.
In other words, that would be impossible in this world, where people weren't at all familiar with the conditions for unlocking it in the first place.
I never expected that count's daughter from the story to be Sierra's great-grandmother.
Another page had been added to my database.
But where had I gotten that information again? Something about there having been the strongest shield user...? Oh, right, the quest 〈The Strongest 【Shield Princess】's Keepsake〉. It's not like I'd forgotten.
"If you join my guild, I'll tell you. By the way, I know the requirements for 【Shield Princess】."
"What did you say!?"
"I know the requirements for 【Hero】, too, you know? It's not like that should be surprising at this point, right?"
"No. Everything about this is strange."
Huh? Well, whatever.
Maybe I'd let too much slip, but after talking with Sierra, she didn't seem like the type to spread information carelessly, so it was probably fine.
Now, that bombshell I'd just dropped had clearly made Sierra more receptive.
From what she'd said, becoming 【Shield Princess】 seemed like her lifelong dream. Faced with information that could make it come true, Sierra couldn't help but bite.
That said, I figured it was a fifty-fifty chance of success.
This is getting into game mechanics, but in 〈Dan-Katsu〉 there was a guild contribution stat called Fame.
It started at zero. As you formed a guild and raised its contribution to the academy by completing quests and events, Fame increased. In other words, the guild became famous.
Fame was required to recruit certain Races, and unless it was above a certain threshold, you couldn't recruit Races capable of taking powerful Jobs.
And the daughter of a count belonged to the 'Count' and 'Princess' Race categories.
'Princess' was a category given to daughters of royalty and nobility, and recruiting a 'Princess' required a very high Fame of 150. For comparison, 'Count' alone required Fame 30.
Even with the fastest possible progression, it took at least half a year to reach that value.
Since Sierra had the 〈White Feather Symbol〉, I knew she had the 'Count' and 'Princess' categories.
So this was also a test to see whether she'd accept an offer from me when I hadn't even formed a guild yet and had zero Fame.
This was real-life 〈Dan-Katsu〉. There were many things you could do in reality that you couldn't in the game.
So I thought, maybe this could work, too. If it did, I might even be able to form a party of Princess Job users from the start, ignoring Fame.
The reason 'Princess' had such a high Fame requirement (also called the Recruitment value) was simple: it was easy for them to acquire extremely powerful Jobs.
It was a group we players called 〈Princess Jobs〉. You can tell how high their level was from the fact that nearly all the lower-tier Jobs available to them were ranked high-mid or higher.
【Shield Princess】 was one of those 〈Princess Jobs〉, and a tank Job at the very top.
Rank-wise, it was unquestionably high-top among lower-tier Jobs.
In other words, it was a Job almost on par with my 【Hero】.
That's why I was so pushy about recruiting Sierra. I absolutely needed 【Shield Princess】 for our future progress.
What would Sierra say?