by Hiro Ainana
“Viscount Siemmen, I would like to thank the general for his concern as well. How should I go about doing so?”
“You needn’t worry about it. I’ll go thank him tomorrow.”
As a former office worker, I couldn’t simply accept this.
“If it would be best for me not to accompany you, then I understand, but…”
“You’re an upright fellow, aren’t you? Very well, I’ll send someone to collect you tomorrow afternoon. General Erthal prefers sweet wine. I’ll ready some casks, so perhaps you can prepare some appropriate snacks to accompany them.”
“I’d be happy to, if such a modest thanks is acceptable.”
“There’s nothing modest about it.” Viscount Siemmen looked almost annoyed. “Your legendary ‘miracle’ cooking is worth its weight in gold. You proved that in the old capital, as I’m sure Marquis Lloyd and Count Hohen would agree.”
Now, those names brought back memories. The gourmet-loving pair of nobles really did seem to deeply enjoy my food, almost as much as my group did, which made it well worth cooking for them.
“Very well. I will be careful to avoid debasing myself with regards to my food.”
He made me feel a bit like I’d been scolded by a teacher, and I took his words to heart.
“Hmm. Good.” Viscount Siemmen cleared his throat and changed the subject. “I shall hold a banquet tomorrow evening to celebrate your safe return. Given the short notice, I may not be able to gather all my noble friends, but I am sure that at least half of them will make it.”
It sounded as though he was planning to introduce me to some well-connected local nobles.
There seemed to be some rather troublesome nobles here, too, like Sokell, so it would be nice to know I had some good ones on my side.
He went on to add that he would normally hold the banquet a few days from now, but he would be leaving for the royal capital on a flying ship the morning after next and wouldn’t return for several weeks. He couldn’t delay it any further.
Viscount Siemmen had seemed busy since we first met in the old capital, so I was very grateful to him for making time for my sake.
Maybe at the banquet I could give him an original spell that might be profitable as thanks.
The fireworks seemed to be popular. Maybe I could combine Magic String and Mana Light to create firefly lights that could be freely controlled by the user.
I had already analyzed the modules for those, so I could probably make it by the next day.
“…Young noble!”
I heard a young woman call out from the Celivera City side of the passageway.
“Thank goodness!”
“You’re all right!”
The two Lovely Wings explorers who we’d saved in the chain rampage incident came running up to embrace me.
The iron pair of Arisa and Mia managed to cut the embrace short, but I did get to enjoy the muscular physique of Miss Charming and the soft curves of Miss Beauty.
They both seemed to have assumed that we’d gotten lost in the midst of the rampage.
“I’m glad you two are all right, too.”
“Thanks to you, mister.”
“Yes, you really saved us.”
Once we’d enjoyed our little reunion, Viscount Siemmen informed the pair that their services as explorers would no longer be needed and paid them for their troubles.
He explained to me that he’d been planning to hire the two women as labyrinth guides for the search party.
Once the women had thanked the viscount, they said they had to get to work for now and went into the labyrinth.
Since they’d caused trouble for the labyrinth army by causing the chain rampage, they were working to pay off a fine.
After all, they were considered partly responsible along with the man called Besso and his party for exploring the maze ant nest.
The fine was so expensive that even the money for the ant nectar wasn’t enough to pay it off.
Though they dodged this point, I assumed they paid what they were lacking with borrowed money.
Once the two women were gone, Viscount Siemmen said he was returning to the city.
After we saw him off along with his retainers, my group and I headed to the guild’s trade counter.
“Congratulations on your safe return.”
“Thank you,” I said to the friendly guild employee with a smile.
“How did your exploration go?”
“We’ve got cores, maze ant materials, and maze frog meat.”
I placed a flat shoulder bag on the table, and the guild employee smiled, undoubtedly thinking that we hadn’t brought much back.
Arisa grinned impishly as she looked from the clerk’s face to mine.
“First, a hundred and thirty-seven cores.”
“…What?”
I opened the bag, which was actually a magic Garage Bag, and pulled out five pouches full of cores. The clerk’s face froze.
Opening one of the pouches, I showed her the cores.
“Most of them are low-grade, but the large ones like these are grades three and above.”
I was glad Count Kuhanou had taught me about the grade levels for cores before.
“Incredible! These are maze beetle and soldier mantis cores, aren’t they?”
This time, her expression moved from one of shock to gleeful surprise.
Judging by her reaction, it was probably wise of me to leave the cores from stronger monsters like the dendrobiums in the storage room of our labyrinth home.
We’d actually collected over a thousand cores in total, but this time I brought only enough to earn us our bronze badges.
“These ones are around grade one or two, too—there’s not a single dust or white one to be found.”
According to the information I got from her later, “dust” was a nickname for a small core that was less than an ounce in size.
I remembered the small white cores we’d gotten from the likes of the walking beans and hopping potatoes. I could see why those would be considered little more than dust.
“Is this enough to advance to bronze badges?”
I was pretty certain that this would bring us all from wood to bronze badges, but I asked just to be sure.
“Yes, more than enough. Rick, can you calculate the payment for these, please? But first, bring the paperwork for the bronze badges.”
“Of course, Chief Vena. Eight forms, correct?”
“Yes, please.”
I smiled as I listened to their exchange. It was nice of them to get the forms for my kids without me even needing to ask.
“Goodness, it’s been a long time since we saw so many cores from anyone but a garnet-badge party. You’re quite a promising group of new explorers, young master.”
Now the clerk was calling me “young master,” too. This was only our second time meeting, and the first time was six days ago, so maybe she forgot my name.
At her “promising new explorers” comment, Arisa struck a silent victory pose, looking extremely pleased.
Because Tama and Pochi were tucked under Liza’s arms, they could join in only by raising their fists along with her.
Mia and Nana didn’t seem to follow Arisa’s excitement, tilting their heads cutely in a sign of confusion.
Lulu and Liza, meanwhile, watched the rest of the group with warm smiles.
“Now then, what materials might we have to look forward to?”
The guild clerk looked excited as I began to produce our materials from the Garage Bag.
“Here are seven maze ant carapaces.”
The clerk beamed.
“Also, ten guardian ant blade arms.”
“…Eh?”
Surprise began to register on her face.
“Oh, and three sets of elite ant wings for making Antwing Swords.”
“Ant…wings?”
Now her face was frozen in shock, as if she’d seen something unbelievable.
The guardian ants and elite ants were mo
nsters we’d encountered when we entered the ant nest after parting ways with the Lovely Wings ladies. They were stronger than the maze ants, but my group still defeated them without a problem.
I had more pieces than I could count in Storage, but I decided to turn in only a number that would be consistent with the length of our stay.
“You didn’t go into the nest, did you?!”
The clerk’s exclamation had a note of reproach to it.
I couldn’t blame her for that. More than half my party were children, or at least looked that way, so it was shocking that I would take them into a monster nest on their first time in the labyrinth.
From her perspective, I was sure she wanted to tell me off.
“No, they were roaming around outside the nest. It may have been because of the chain rampage.”
I used my “Fabrication” skill to make an excuse.
Technically, it wasn’t a lie. The materials I’d given her were primarily from ants we’d found outside the nest.
I didn’t want to cause a commotion, so I decided to cover up the fact that we actually entered the nest.
“And here’s the meat of three maze frogs.”
With Liza’s help, I produced the maze frog meat, which we’d broken down into hundred-pound increments.
“That’s quite a lot. Huey, measure the weight, please.”
“Yes, Chief Vena.”
An elderly man in an apron began weighing the frog meat on a scale.
“This must be the last of it, correct? None of these is prohibited from Labyrinth City, and they’re all on the list of requested materials.”
With that, the clerk paused in thought.
“However, we can only pay up to a certain amount for some of these, so I would recommend that you bring them to the workshops and distributors listed on that board.”
I was surprised that the woman wasn’t prioritizing the guild’s profit.
“Is it really all right to recommend something like that?”
“Yes, while we may be called the explorers’ guild, we are actually a public organization under the management of the Shiga Kingdom department of labyrinth resources.”
That made sense. Labyrinths were like mines of valuable resources. Of course the king of the Shiga Kingdom would have a hand in managing them.
“Any profits are put toward operating expenses, but most of that comes from fixed monster core collection.”
Oh right. It was compulsory to sell cores to the government.
“The guild’s exchange program is primarily to ensure that explorers who aren’t knowledgeable about trade don’t get taken advantage of by crafty merchants. Once explorers reach a certain level of wealth, they can buy better equipment, which means they’re more likely to survive.”
So it all comes back to making sure they can continue to collect cores, huh?
“Still, I’d like to sell most of the frog meat here, if that’s all right.”
“Are you certain? With this high quality, you could sell it for anywhere from two to even three times higher a price than what we can offer you here.”
“That’s all right. I don’t have a business relationship with any particular merchants.”
I felt a little bad when she seemed so concerned, but I had mostly just brought this stuff here to see how she would react, so I didn’t feel like dragging it all the way to a workshop to sell it.
I could worry about things like that once I’d made some connections in Labyrinth City.
“Very well. Please fill out these forms while we complete our calculations.”
The only required fields on the forms were our names and wood badge numbers.
Other than that, they just contained the words “…has brought the appropriate number of cores back from the labyrinth and requests promotion to a bronze badge.”
“This is a fairly simple form.”
“Well, in many cases, people who wish to be explorers can’t understand anything too complicated,” the clerk explained.
With the low literacy rate of this land and the lack of many schools or other places of learning, I supposed that was inevitable.
“Once you have chosen your party name, please write it above your names.”
Oh right. We hadn’t chosen a party name yet.
“What should our party name be?”
When nothing came to my mind, I asked the rest of the group.
Arisa was first to make a suggestion.
“Sir Pendragon and His Lovers.”
Nope.
“Pochi and Master.”
“Aw, you don’t want the rest of us around, Pochi?” Lulu teased gently.
“O-of course I do. Let’s call it ‘Pochi and Master and Tama and Liza and Lulu and Mia and Nana and Arisa’!”
“So looong?”
Even Tama thought the revision was a little ridiculous.
“Perhaps we should choose something shorter. How about ‘Demon Lord Slayers’?”
“Doesn’t that sound too much like a title?”
It’d be a pain if anyone believed that name, and otherwise, most people would probably just laugh at us for being would-be heroes.
“‘Larvae Protection Squad,’ I suggest.”
“Whaaat? Then we’d be stuck protecting all those kids outside the labyrinth.”
“Although I would at least like to make sure they don’t starve…”
Aren’t there any soup kitchens in this city or anything like that?
“I like ‘Sir Pendragon and His Darling Friends.’”
“Lulu, you really are Arisa’s sister.”
“What do you mean by that, Miss Liza?!”
Arisa’s penchant for Showa era–inspired cheesiness was rubbing off on Lulu.
“Fairy Friends.”
“Well, we are friends, but…that doesn’t really sound like a party name, does it?”
Now Tama was the only one who hadn’t made a suggestion.
“Mm? ‘Meat-Eater Squad’?”
“Fried-Chicken-Eater Squad.”
“Chocolate-Parfait-Eater Squad.”
Tama’s suggestion set off a chain of similar ideas from the rest of the group.
Were they just saying what they wanted to eat under the pretense of suggesting a party name?
Speaking of chocolate parfaits, I would have to check in with Nea the elf soon to see how her chocolate-making experiments were going.
At this rate, we would never come up with a party name, so for the time being, I just put down my surname as our party name.
Once I’d checked that all the forms were right and handed them in, the guild employee signed each of them with the words “receipt of cores confirmed—Labyrinth Gate Supervisor Vena,” then put them away in a folder.
“The application is complete. Your bronze badges should be ready within three days or so. Until then, please keep carrying your wood badges.”
She added that we could pick up the badges at the east guild when they were complete.
While we waited for the calculations to be finished, I asked the clerk about taxes, handling charges, and things like that.
She stared at me in surprise for a moment, until she glanced at my aristocratic clothing and seemed satisfied.
No doubt she found it unusual that an explorer would be interested in things like taxes.
“The taxes on the cores sold here are deducted in advance,” she said, then glanced at me to make sure I understood before she continued. “Aside from the cores, anything explorers bring back from the labyrinth is tax-exempt.”
“Tax-exempt?”
“Yes, since our main priority is the safe and consistent retrieval of cores.”
What? In my mind, feudal societies always taxed commoners as much as they possibly could…
“We do take taxes wherever we can,” she added with a wink.
They must take heaps from merchants and artisans instead.
“I’ve finished the calculations, Chief.”
“T
hese ones, too.”
Receiving the results of the calculations from her lackeys, the head clerk informed me of the results.
“Cores differ in value based on size, grade, and any damage on the surface.”
Looking at the piece of paper, I found that the maze ant cores were worth one copper coin each, while the maze frog cores were worth two silver coins each.
I’d also included a single core from one of the 30s-level monsters that my group had defeated in droves every day, just for reference. A particularly large one, it was worth five gold coins—a significant difference.
“The prices vary quite a bit, don’t they?”
“Yes, grades three and higher are in great demand for potions and magic tools, and there are many tools that can only be made with cores of a certain size or larger.”
That would explain the massive difference in prices.
The cores from the whales—like the giant monster fish Tobkezerra—were a deeper red than even red grade 9. I didn’t intend to sell them, but I was a little curious how much they would be worth.
“This is the amount we can pay for the other materials. Please have a look.”
I examined the other paper the guild clerk handed me.
At the guild’s buying rates, the seven carapaces were worth fourteen silver coins total, the ten blade arms were worth forty silver coins, and the three ant wings were six silver coins. If I brought them to a workshop, the carapaces and blades would be worth several times more, while the intact wings would be worth two or even three gold coins apiece.
Incidentally, two pounds of the frog meat was worth around a silver coin. Hunting frogs might be more stable for making money than cores.
Doing a bit of calculations, I guessed that an explorer up to level 10 would be able to just barely scrape by, level 15 or so would be able to make a normal living, around level 20 would be relatively profitable as long as the explorer wasn’t injured, and anyone above level 30 would be able to make a pretty cushy living for themselves.
Of course, that’d be for a normal explorer without any of my advantages, like my map and other information.
Going by these prices, I could understand why most low-level explorers had such light armor.
“This is the total for the cores and materials.”
I did a little mental math and confirmed that it was correct.
