Chapter 11
#11화 Newbie Adventurer Bern (9) - Gift Preparation
When Bern and Blanca turned in their quest completion report to the guild, their first reaction was this.
“The goblins kidnapped humans, threatened them, and wrung techniques out of them? Their total number was over two hundred, and every single one of them was armed with armor and weapons? And their leader had intelligence beyond that of an ordinary human and planned to absorb human civilization? And two adventurers wiped them all out? Blanca. Did you switch careers to playwright or something?”
To be fair, the guild’s position was understandable. Adventurers lived on a bit of exaggeration, sure, but this was going too far.
But Blanca insisted fiercely that if they were so suspicious, they should go check for themselves, and the office manager, tempted by Blanca’s promise that if it was fake she’d be employed as a receptionist for life, sent investigators on the assumption that he might as well be fooled once.
“…Shit. This is the first time I’ve seen this many goblin corpses piled up together. If we’d been a few days later, the rot would have been a nightmare.”
“There are huge burn marks deeper inside too. Looks like at least a hundred of them got hit all at once.”
“There are signs that people were kept captive and made to live here too.”
At first, the investigators had been half stunned and half speechless, but as the investigation continued, their expressions could only harden.
It was rare enough for several hundred goblins to band together as a single force instead of splitting into separate groups, but the fact that force had all been equipped with at least rudimentary gear, and some had even made custom equipment, was not something to shrug off.
The seasoned investigators realized that this could have been a disaster that might have shaken the entire kingdom.
The investigators’ report was unusually escalated all the way to the Eastern Branch Manager for what was supposed to be a Rank 2 quest, and he spat out a curse.
“You let it get this bad before doing anything, and then filed it with us as a simple goblin extermination quest?”
The branch manager pressed the Atra Viscounty, and at first they claimed they didn’t know either, but once the guild kept up the pressure, they turned around and played the victim, saying, “Aren’t you the ones who made this bigger by not solving it faster?”
Another page was added to the long history of hatred between the Adventurers’ Guild and the nobility.
Of course, this was just a pride fight between the powers that be.
For the people under them, what mattered most was the reward right in front of them.
“For now, we can’t pay you any more.”
Seeing Blanca’s face rapidly sour, the manager hurriedly added,
“If you had figured out the situation first, reported it to the guild, and then taken the quest after the guild finished renegotiating with the client, then of course you would’ve gotten a reward that matched the job. But in this case, you solved it before the renegotiation was even done. Naturally the payment has to stay at the original rate.”
“Can we leave the official explanation at that? What’s the real reason?”
“…Viscount Atra dragged in another noble. They’re dead set on never giving us any extra compensation. They were practically sticking out their belly like, ‘Go ahead and cut me if you can,’ and I just wanted to rip them open right there. Even that foreign affairs bastard was grinding his teeth.”
If you compared only the military strength of the Adventurers’ Guild’s Eastern Branch and the Atra Viscounty, the Eastern Branch had the advantage.
After all, what kind of military strength could idiots who couldn’t even manage their own territory and had to outsource their work possibly have?
But if the guild tried to use force to “collect” from the viscounty, then they’d have to make enemies not just of one viscounty, but of the kingdom’s entire nobility.
The nobles of Birka were undoubtedly vicious, corrupt bastards, but precisely because of that, they reacted sharply to anything that seemed likely to break their authority or the current system.
“Well, if those bastards can no longer outsource to us, they’ll be in trouble too. Before long they’ll sacrifice some underling and settle for a compromise, saying, ‘I didn’t know things were being run like this,’ so just wait until then.”
“No, forget it. How are we supposed to just wait around when who knows when that’ll be?”
“…Don’t tell me you want me to open the guild’s purse and hand it over to you? Well, payment in kind is difficult, but if what you want is to wipe out the debt you owe the guild, that might be possible.”
“Not that. Just count it as an official merit.”
Blanca held up three fingers and said,
“Bern, please get us promoted to Rank 3. Isn’t that the kind of achievement that deserves it?”
“Hey, before the quest started, what you said was, ‘Let us take Rank 3 quests too.’ And not just one quest either—you said it had to be on the condition that we clear three more as well.”
“The quest contents changed, so the reward should change too, obviously. If you need results to use as an excuse to other people, this should be enough.”
“He only just got promoted to Rank 2 less than a week ago.”
“The guild goes by results, not seniority. Weren’t those your usual words?”
“Tsk.”
The manager frowned deeply, but in the end he seemed to admit defeat and let his shoulders relax.
“The cash reward still won’t change. Even if Atra comes crawling later, none of it is going to you.”
“Fine.”
“Haaah. Go on, get out. Dealing with you is exhausting.”
The manager waved his hand as if shooing away flies, and Blanca left the office without looking particularly bothered.
A man at the guild entrance saw Blanca and bowed at a perfect right angle from the waist.
“Welcome back, big sister!”
The adventurers nearby saw the exchange and started whispering, and Blanca blushed and snapped in annoyance.
“I told you to just call me Blanca! What the hell do you mean, big sister!?”
“A big brother is a big brother, and a big sister is a big sister. Not to mention you saved my life and even healed my ankle—how could I possibly address such benefactors carelessly!”
The man named Renya was one of the slaves Bern and Blanca had rescued.
Even inside the cave, he had stood out with his quick-fire speech and abrupt shifts in attitude. He had been an adventurer who was staying there for a while when the goblins attacked the village, and unlike the other slaves who took the goods the goblins had gathered as seed money and went off to find a new place to live, he had latched onto the two of them, saying he’d do anything if they’d just tell him to be a porter or whatever.
Blanca had been wary of Renya after noticing his sycophantic streak, but Bern said they should take him in.
The reason, however, was truly ridiculous.
-As expected, people like that can sniff out danger amazingly well. If we keep him nearby and watch him, it’ll be useful when he notices something.
What more could you possibly say to, “Let’s get ourselves a canary for the mine!”
“Did everything go well? Big Brother said he’d order food ahead of time at the restaurant and told me to lead you there when you were finished.”
If only he’d stop with that damned big-sister business. More importantly, you’re older than me anyway.
Even while letting out a deep sigh, they followed Renya for a while.
After visiting a restaurant that wasn’t top-class but was still rather pricey, they joined Bern, who had already taken a seat, and began talking.
“The negotiation was successful. The manager’s pretty quick, so the Rank 3 adventurer certificate will probably be issued tomorrow.”
“Good work. Renya, how about your side?”
“Yep, Big Brother! I successfully finished changing my affiliation! I’m now with the Eastern Branch, not the Southeast Branch! Please take care of me from now on! I’ll devote my whole being to serving you!”
“Wow.”
“Yes, please take care of us.”
Blanca’s reaction was the kind that made you squirm from secondhand embarrassment, but Bern himself remained calm.
As the Crown Prince, after all, he had experienced every kind of flattery and bootlicking imaginable. Compared with their subtle wording and stagecraft, that kind of blatant fawning felt more like harmless clowning around, which actually put him at ease.
“Was there anything said about the goods the goblins had gathered?”
“Nothing special. The byproducts were ours to begin with, so even if they had said something, there wouldn’t have been anything to feel guilty about.”
At first glance, the two of them seemed like they had only racked up merit as adventurers and gotten almost no financial gain, but in reality it was different.
The enormous stockpile the Goblin Lord had gathered for his own kingdom by practically ravaging the surrounding area.
Meat and oil were awkward things to transport or sell off, but leather was another story.
If you bound the leather together into a huge bundle, Bern alone could carry and move large amounts of it.
The money they got from selling it in different places wasn’t enough to count as a life-changing windfall, but it was still a decent sum.
“I heard you owe the guild money, so how about paying that off first? If you’re short, you can even hand over my share for now.”
At Bern’s suggestion, Blanca firmly shook her head.
“No. That won’t do. If we were setting aside a fixed percentage of the reward as party funds from the start, that would be one thing, but money dealings between comrades have to be handled strictly. Plenty of strong parties fall apart because they can’t do that.”
For Blanca, Bern was a lifeline she absolutely couldn’t afford to lose.
Just because things were desperate right now didn’t mean she should be stupid enough to quietly cut the rope she’d grabbed with a knife.
“Anyway, as long as the guild sees you steadily paying back a certain amount, they won’t really press you. In fact, because of the interest, they’d rather you repay it over as long a period as possible.”
Blanca didn’t mention that before meeting Bern, she hadn’t even been able to pay back that “certain amount” properly and had ended up working as a receptionist.
She didn’t want pity.
And for that, strengthening her combat power was essential.
“Since it’d probably be better to handle the real quest starting tomorrow, once the Rank 3 certification comes through, let’s eat tonight, rest separately, and meet in front of the guild tomorrow morning. Sound good?”
“Understood.”
“Yep! Everyone dig in now! The food’s going to get cold!”
Even as she kept eating, Blanca’s mind was focused not on the food in front of her, but on future plans.
‘Buying a proper magical tool is impossible with this money. A spell scroll is honestly cutting it close too. ...A mana potion? Practical, sure, but the fact that it’s consumable is a drawback. Should I save up more after all.’
Blanca didn’t notice.
That Bern, while watching her lost in thought, was making a strange expression.
***
After parting ways with the group.
Once Bern entered the room at the inn, he sank into silent thought without a word.
Then the demon in the shadows whispered into his ear.
[What a commendable girl. Even though there’s a man right next to her who looks like he could solve anything if she asked, she isn’t leaning on him or begging—she’s trying to catch up on her own. Why don’t you go comfort her? Hm? If you make it nice and physical, she’ll feel even safer. Even with clone magic, there are still plenty of things you can do at night, so relax.]
‘...After keeping quiet for a while, you finally show up again just to say that?’
Lucidra didn’t care at all about Bern’s sarcasm.
[Then what am I supposed to say? Should I just politely suggest that the two of you go on a wholesome morning walk together?]
‘Oh, that sounds great. Since I’m a mage, there’s no point if I only know how to cast spells well, so I should work on my physical conditioning too. You’re saying something useful for once. Please keep it up.’
[……]
Though Lucidra’s face wasn’t visible, Bern could roughly guess what expression she was making.
If he had to guess, it was probably a face like someone who had chewed on a bug.
‘How about making a deal with me for a moment?’
[A deal? You? Now that’s unusual.]
Even after Lucidra taught him clone magic, she kept recommending all sorts of contracts to the Crown Prince, but each time Alond flatly refused her.
But suddenly the other side was babbling about contracts, and that sparked more curiosity than interest.
‘Do you know any spells or techniques that would help a mage?’
[There might be, but why dig them out through a trade? You already know quite a lot yourself, don’t you?]
‘Everything I know and use was independently developed by the Empire, so leaking it outside would be a major problem. If anything went wrong, Blanca could end up in danger too.’
[Aha. So you want to borrow my power? And the price?]
‘The mana and souls of the monsters I’ve subjugated as adventurer Bern. I’ll let you devour them. The ratio will change depending on how useful the techniques and spells are, and how little trouble they cause afterward.’
[No, wait. Devouring souls and mana is something I can do on my own without asking for your permission, you know? You’re offering that as the price? And it’s not even all of it, just a percentage?]
‘What are you talking about? If I don’t create a passage with clone magic, you can’t even get out of the vicinity of your true body and leave the palace. Or should I start charging you a passage fee from now on?’
[...You know, if you treated me even half as well as you treat that adventurer girl, I’d be satisfied.]
Lucidra grumbled, but once she realized not even a needle could get through to Bern, she let out a sigh.
And then she said.
[How about essence drain?]