by Hiro Ainana
“Young master, are these children your family, too?”
“No, we’ve just been looking after them here.”
I briefly explained the situation that led to us nursing them back to health.
“Please, Mr. Noble, let us make it up to you!”
The eldest child gazed at me earnestly, but Miteruna stepped between us.
“Know your place. Working in a noble’s mansion is not as easy as you may think. If you simply hope to make a living, seek work elsewhere.”
“It’s not that! We just want to thank him.”
The eldest kid responded strongly to Miteruna’s cold words.
“Mr. Noble’s the only person who saved us from dying unwanted.”
“He healed all our hurtful pain.”
“He was nice t’us.”
“He fixed my leg that wouldn’t work.”
“We were happy!”
The other kids supported the eldest’s statement with their limited vocabulary.
Miteruna simply stared back at the children quietly.
For some reason, my kids were gathered by the door, too, watching with bated breath.
“…Very well.”
Miteruna sighed and turned to me.
“Young master, if you’ll permit it, I would like to temporarily hire these children for some odd jobs. I will take care to teach them the minimum level of proper manners, too.”
Judging by her willingness to take on all this trouble, Miteruna was actually quite kind.
“Sure, let’s hire them. We’ll have to get them some work clothes, though.”
“Very well. I shall go to a secondhand store later to purchase appropriate clothing.”
“Great, thanks.”
Not long after, a bell rang at the door. Miteruna went to answer it and then returned with a letter. It was a message from the guild, saying that our bronze badges were ready to be picked up.
Just as I was reading this letter, someone else arrived, so I brought them into the living room.
“Ayaumeee?”
“Mr. Kajiro, too, sir!”
The new visitors were the Saga Empire samurai duo Kajiro and Ayaume.
“Tama, Pochi. Have you been training?”
“Aaaye?”
“Your leg, sir!”
“Oh, this? Yes, I’m afraid a monster in the labyrinth took a big bite out of me.”
Kajiro chuckled lightly, but his left leg was missing from the knee down.
“Does it huuurt?”
“Pain, pain, go away, sir.”
Tama and Pochi tearfully approached his leg, casting a little charm on his injury.
“You’re both very kind. Don’t worry—it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Kajiro smiled gently at the pair.
“As long as you still have your life, you can surely recover from anything, I declare.”
“That’s right! I couldn’t call myself a samurai if I let a little thing like this bring me down.”
He responded to Nana’s encouragement with bravado.
“I have a friend who’s an excellent magic tool craftsman, so I’ll see if he can’t make a prosthetic leg for you, Sir Kajiro.”
“Thank you. I’ll take you up on your kindness, if you don’t mind, Sir Pendragon.”
I thought I caught a glimmer of something in Kajiro’s and Ayaume’s eyes as they bowed their heads, but I pretended not to have noticed.
“I’ve requested Sir Kajiro and Miss Ayaume here to keep the house safe. Miteruna, could you show them to their rooms?”
The children didn’t seem to need any more nursing, so surely three adults could keep an eye on the children we’d hired for weeding and cleaning.
Because the carriage we had here couldn’t carry eight people, we decided to take a stroll to the explorers’ guild.
“This is strange, indeed.”
On a slightly elevated platform near the west guild, I spotted the noble in green gazing at the crowds around the street stalls.
For once, he wore a peevish look instead of his usual smile.
“It shouldn’t be this weak, indeed…”
What was weak?
We were fairly far away from him, so I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I was a little curious to find out.
“Damn it!”
A young explorer came from the direction the noble in green was looking in, scratching his head with one hand.
“What’re you yelling about?”
“Milinda’s sake is getting watery again.”
“The sake there’s always weak, isn’t it?”
“I’m tellin’ ya: It’s gotten even weaker!”
The noble in green couldn’t have been talking about the sake, right…?
I looked back in his direction, but he’d already disappeared into the crowd.
Judging by the marker on my radar, he was heading over to the street stalls to investigate.
“Unhand me, fiend! Thou art a brute!”
My “Keen Hearing” skill heard Princess Meetia shouting from the direction of the west guild.
Looking that way, I saw Princess Meetia flailing angrily in Sokell’s grasp.
The squire was guarding her, but she was too timid to stop a noble like Sokell.
I couldn’t just ignore a friend in trouble.
Closing the map, I told my group that I was going on ahead, then sped toward the guild building, prepared for trouble.
“Sir Satou!” Princess Meetia shouted my name shrilly when she noticed me.
When our eyes met, Sokell’s face twisted with hatred. “You ought to treat a lady more gently, sir.”
He had Princess Meetia’s slender arms tight in his grasp, so I pried off his hand one finger at a time, taking care not to break them.
Distressingly, he left a hand-shaped mark on Princess Meetia’s arms.
“Y-you violent little brat!” Sokell glared at me, nursing the hand I’d pried away.
What a rude thing to say after I was polite enough not to break his fingers.
“What’s going on here, indeed?”
“L-Lord Poputema!”
The noble in green had appeared.
“I believe you are meant to be under house arrest, indeed.”
At that, Sokell growled and stomped off furiously.
“What a troublesome fellow, indeed,” the noble in green murmured, but he was watching him leave with a satisfied smile.
Somehow, his words and actions never quite seemed to match his expressions.
“I thank thee, Sir Satou.”
“Not at all. I’m glad I was able to be of some help.”
I smiled at the princess.
“Are you all right, Your Highness?”
“Mm, heal. …”
When my group caught up, they saw the bruises on Princess Meetia’s arms and let out cries of concern.
“What happened, exactly?” I asked.
“Harrumph. The cur continues to propose marriage to me, though I have declined many a time.”
As the princess sighed glumly, she was bathed in the light of Mia’s Healing Magic.
“I thank thee as well, Lady Misanaria.”
“Just Mia.”
Once Arisa found out what happened, she scolded the squire until the stern-faced knight arrived from the direction of the nobles’ quarters and led the two away.
“Hello, we’ve come to get our updated badges. Is this window all right?”
Making my way to a service window at the busy west guild, I held up the letter we’d received.
“No, please proceed to the guildmaster’s office. An attendant will guide you there.”
“Yessss, it’s all happening!”
Arisa got excited about the receptionist’s words, pumping her fists in the air.
Her triumphant shouting startled the receptionist, who shrank away.
“Arisa, try to keep it down when we’re in public, please.”
I dealt Arisa a light bop on the head.
&nbs
p; “Ziiip?”
“Arisa, you hafta zip your lips, sir.”
Having been scolded by even Tama and Pochi, Arisa pouted, so Liza lifted her under one arm.
She hung limp as a corpse, like Tama and Pochi usually did.
“I apologize for all the fuss.”
The guild employee accepted my apology with a wry smile.
Before long, an official-looking woman in her thirties approached us.
She was attended by two staff members, meaning she must have been fairly important.
“Are you Sir Pendragon?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Hello. I’m Ushana, the guildmaster’s secretary. Please follow me to the guildmaster’s office.”
Although Arisa’s reaction had been excessive, I didn’t think just anyone would get to meet the guildmaster just for earning their bronze badges.
This was probably about the rumors I’d heard in the bar that we had acquired our spoils through some foul means.
We followed Miss Ushana up the stairs. It appeared that the guildmaster’s office was in one of the spires of the west guild.
“Guildmaster, I’ve brought Sir Pendragon and his party members.”
Miss Ushana entered, while the rest of us waited outside the door.
Then, before long…
“Sir Pendragon, do come in. Alone.”
…an old woman’s voice that must have been the guildmaster’s invited me into the room.
Then a cane came flying toward me.
It was as sharp as a spear on the end, jabbing toward my eyes the second I opened the door.
The strike was sharper than even Liza’s spear, but I parried it lightly with one hand.
The attacker swung the deflected cane around and attacked me again from the opposite side.
What is this, extreme cane fighting?
The long cane kept coming at me, so I kept blocking and parrying.
What was this person trying to do?
The unprompted attack finally stopped when Miss Ushana appeared from the next room over.
“Guildmaster! If you don’t stop this mischief, Lady Sebelkeya will scold you again!”
“Tch, and it was just getting interesting… Right, Satou?”
The person who’d been attacking me with the long cane was the guildmaster.
She was an eighty-seven-year-old woman, which was why I’d just been dodging and blocking her attacks without striking back.
She was a level-52 magic user, with the “Blaze Magic” and “Light Magic” skills.
“My apologies, but I don’t particularly enjoy being ambushed.”
I wished she would follow the example of the serenely composed head priestess of the Tenion Temple instead of acting so immature.
“Oh, come now. Surely a man who spent days in the labyrinth on his very first trip and recovered more than a hundred cores must be a lover of battle?”
Excuse me?
The number wasn’t the problem. It was the fact that she said I did it.
“My party members are the ones who did the fighting. I was just watching over them.”
“Ha! Who would believe such rubbish? Even if that was true, the monsters must’ve been too weak to be worth fighting them yourself, right?”
No, that wasn’t why I didn’t fight. I stayed out of it because I knew they could defeat those monsters without my help.
“Besides, isn’t that sword made by old Dohal? That geezer wouldn’t give a sword he crafted himself to just anybody. If you want to hide your strength, you’d better cover that seal with some cloth or something.”
I was already hiding enough of my strength. I didn’t want to have to hide my sword, too.
“Elder Dohal is a drinking buddy of mine.”
I couldn’t tell her that I had made the sword along with Elder Dohal.
As soon as I said “drinking buddy,” the guildmaster’s eyes glinted like a predator spotting its next prey.
“Is that right? Then perhaps you and I should be drinking buddies, too?”
“Certainly. I’d be happy to provide some drinks and snacks, if you like.”
I wasn’t thrilled about her battle-crazy nature, but she did seem to have the same air of likability as Elder Dohal.
While I wouldn’t want to deal with a complaining geriatric, I had the feeling I’d get to hear a lot of old stories about Labyrinth City if I drank with this person.
In short, I’d made my second drinking friend in Labyrinth City after General Erthal.
Still, I’d like to hang out with some men my age, to trade stupid stories with once in a while.
“All right, let’s party!”
“Hold it.”
The guildmaster’s excitement was halted by Miss Ushana, who’d returned carrying a box.
“First, please award these guild badges to their recipients.”
“Tch. Fine, fiiine.”
The guildmaster grumbled as she accepted the box from Miss Ushana.
At that moment…
“Guildmaster! That Pendragon fellow is here, they say!”
A haughty-looking woman burst into the room, shrieking hysterically.
I’d seen her face somewhere before.
“Knock before entering, please.”
“Pendragon! This is the brat Lord Sokell spoke of!”
Ignoring Miss Ushana, the haughty woman pointed at me and shouted. How rude.
Her words jogged my memory, though: She was the staff member I’d seen with Sokell in the west guild before.
“Guildmaster! Why is Pendragon receiving a bronze badge after he committed fraud?!”
“Because you’re the only one who claims he committed fraud, and you have no proof.”
The woman protested loudly, but the guildmaster was dismissive.
“If you didn’t commit fraud, then prove it by submitting to the analyzer’s test! You’ll do that, right, Pendragon?! If you didn’t lie, then you have to prove it!”
The way she was repeating herself was annoying, but I’d undergone a similar analysis from an assistant secretary after I saw a hydra in Kuhanou County, so I didn’t mind as long as it didn’t take too long.
“All right, I can—”
“Just a moment, Satou.”
I was about to agree, but the guildmaster stopped me firmly.
“You’re asking a noble, with a title no less, to undergo an analyst’s examination? Do you have any idea what you’re saying?”
The guildmaster was so furious that I could practically see flames burning in her eyes.
The haughty young woman turned pale and took a step back.
“But… But… But…”
While the woman repeated the same word like a broken record, the guildmaster continued.
“Your request is an insult to a vassal of another lord. I presume you are prepared to crush your family’s trading company’s reputation?”
The word insult reminded me of something I’d heard in the class for new nobility in the Muno Barony.
Having a noble to undergo an analyst’s examination meant that you didn’t trust them even if they swore on their family name and the name of King Yamato, making it an insult of the highest order.
“Or is it that you’re trying to provoke young Satou into setting the dishonorable precedent that he has taken an analyst’s examination? Are you setting him up for an even bigger trap?”
The guildmaster glared at the haughty woman with enough intensity to turn her into stone.
It looked like the woman might faint from the stress at any moment.
“N-no, that’s…”
“Out with it, then! If you are truly in the employ of this guild, you should prioritize the interests of the guild over those of your lover!”
That was the final blow: The woman collapsed to the floor, practically frothing at the mouth.
“Get her out of here. She’s being dismissed from her post. Ushana, make up some reason on the paperwork, please.”
&nbs
p; “Yes, ma’am.”
I guess in a feudal society, you could fire people for any reason you wanted.
“What? Hurry up and file the paperwork.”
The guildmaster frowned at Ushana, who smiled and didn’t budge.
“I shall go as soon as you award Sir Pendragon his new guild badge.”
“Oh, fine. We’ll party after that.”
The guildmaster opened the box, producing enough guild badges for our whole group.
“Satou, take this garnet badge.”
Huh? I thought we were getting bronze badges?
“Oh, don’t look so surprised. That straitlaced noble has been talking up your achievements to anyone who will listen.”
Oh right. Viscount Siemmen had gone to great lengths to get a rescue party together for me.
“I believe he called you the ‘Savior of Muno City’ and the ‘Demon Slayer of Gururian City,’ no? One of our best men was there in that Gururian City incident. Do you remember him?”
Nobody came to mind. It must have been one of the people who were fighting the demon before we showed up.
Could it be the warrior with the big shield who was fighting alongside Sir Ipasa?
“We got a report from him, too. Lesser or no, a party that defeated a demon without a scratch deserves more than a wood or bronze badge.”
“Still, a mithril badge would be too much,” Ushana added. “You’d have to at least defeat a middle-grade demon for that.”
“Hmph, if only the guild board of trustees would’ve agreed to it, you could’ve set a new record.”
I guess the guildmaster had planned to give us all mithril badges instead.
Silently, I thanked the trustees for their good sense.
I heard Arisa mutter, “Tch, damn trustees!” as she peered in through the crack of the door, but if you ask me, we were better off this way.
“Now, about the garnet badge…”
Miss Ushana explained our new badges.
Of course, the entire group received their garnet badges, not just me.
Normally, they were awarded only to bronze-badge explorers who brought back high-quality cores to the guild over a long period of time, but they’d made an exception for us.
It often took five to ten years, so just getting these garnet badges seemed like it would attract trouble.
“Are you sure about this? We’ve only gone into the labyrinth once.”
