Chapter 8: Their Greatest Enemy Moves

On a certain clear day, Sofie was visiting a large material store all by herself.

“Blois-san, thank you very much!” She bowed her head with such vigor that her small, round glasses seemed at risk of falling off.

“Thank you too, for personally coming over every time. It’s a great help, really.” Normally, when registering a quest, the quest giver is the one who is supposed to go over to the guild.

On his very first day, Shouzou had come to the store in person, but this was something that was very rarely done. Or rather, it was seen as a shameful thing to do, so guilds actively avoided directly pitching sales to stores.

However, this trend was currently changing. The reason was because Elunheine Adventurer’s Guild had adopted this practice of actively making rounds in person to gather quests in order to make themselves stand out from other guilds, and it was working.

“And Sofie-chan, now you’re even allowed to do sales all by yourself. Good for you!”

“Thank you. I might still be insufficient in many areas, but please continue taking care of me from now on.” Once more, Sofie bowed her head deeply.

Sofie’s task was done as soon as she got the quests, but she stayed a while longer to chat with the store owner. This was her putting into practice what Shouzou had taught her. Namely, that within seemingly aimless conversations, sometimes possibilities lurked that could connect them to more jobs.

“Which reminds me, Sofie-chan, I heard the news. You guys are trying to do something with Raulo, aren’t you?”

“Fuee?” The abrupt change in topic caused Sofie to become very flustered.

The Raulo that he brought up was undoubtedly in reference to Raulo Adventurer’s Guild. It was the city’s third largest adventurer’s guild.

Currently, Elunheine Adventurer’s Guild was in the middle of business talks with Raulo, intending to form a partnership with them.

It was the other side who had approached them first.

According to what Shouzou said, they had felt a fire lit under their butts, and so were aiming to steal all the business strategies from Elunheine through this so-called “partnership.” However, Shouzou was plotting to use this against them instead, aiming to eventually absorb and annex them in order to make Elunheine big enough to approach Goldas—the city’s largest adventurer’s guild—in size and scale.

Sofie did not really understand all the probing and mutual outfoxing by those in management. However, what she did know was that this was not information that was supposed to be public.

“Umm, that’s... I’m......”

“Ahh, I’m not trying to get inside information from you or anything like that. I mean, if Elunheine becomes even more successful, then I only stand to gain more. You guys have my support.”

“Oh, ohh. Thank you very much.” As expected of the owner of a store with history, apparently he knew quite a lot of things.

“But things are going to get tough from here on, eh? What with Marquis Goldas personally getting involved and all. It’s so rare to see that happen, isn’t it?”

“Eh?”

“Oh my, did you not know? What I heard was that the guildmaster of Goldas was going to be replaced, since it seems they’ve been outmaneuvered by Elunheine lately.” The head honcho of this city’s biggest adventurer’s guild was going to be replaced. If true, this was extremely huge news.

“Though well, I heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy, so even I’m not sure whether this information is real or not.”

“What kind of person will be taking over?”

“That’s the thing,” said the store owner in a quiet voice. “Apparently it’s going to be the Marquis’s third son, Jirahal.”

Sofie blinked several times in shock, and then—

“EHHHHHHH?!”

A cold shiver ran down her back as she cried out loud in dismay—

“Jirahal-san... uuu... that person, he’s coming back to town......?” Even after leaving the store, Sofie could not rid herself of her shivers.

However, it was but a rumor. It was not yet confirmed. While clutching onto that last straw of hope in her heart, and also clutching the quest posters to her chest, she took one step toward the guild to get back and get praised by Shouzou.

At that moment, a little girl ran in front of her. She was a cute girl with silver hair who looked to be around 5 years old. As she heartwarmingly watched the girl run off, suddenly, the little girl tripped and fell.

“A-Are you all right?” Sofie rushed over in a hurry and helped the girl get back up.

“No problem. This doesn’t even... hurt Hina-sama at all~” Blood was oozing out from the little girl’s knee, and she was putting up a strong front despite tears welling up in the corner of her eyes.

Sofie took out her handkerchief and gently applied it to the wound.

“Umm, where’s your mommy and daddy?”

“Otoo-sama is working and I can’t find Okaa-sama~”

“A lost child?!” Public order in the fortress city Treia was on the better side, but it was big enough that it would be quite time-consuming to look for someone.

It was common practice to bring lost children to the closest city guard station.

Sofie was about to do that when—

“Oh, Hinacchi spotted!” A high-pitched voice reached her ears.

A sizable distance away down the large avenue, a girl with short hair was pointing over their way.

“Kana-onee-sama!” The girl who called herself Hina stood up, then began waving her hands energetically toward the girl she called Kana.

Kana ran out onto the road toward her younger sister.

Just as she was making the crossing, looking so happy, so innocent, and so single minded, “Ah, look out!” A carriage pulled by two horses was bearing down on her from behind with incredible speed.

Of all things, Sofie’s cry of warning caused the girl, Kana, to stop dead in her tracks. Exactly in the path of the carriage.

Sofie could not even blink, much less look away, due to the sheer terror coursing through her body, such that she saw everything that happened in its entirety. The appalling scene of a girl mercilessly trampled and run over by a carriage—did not occur.

Without even looking back, Kana lightly jumped up. Up she went, higher than even the tall carriage. She did a back flip in midair while holding her knees to her chest, then landed back in the exact same spot as before, with both hands spread out.

During that time, the carriage had passed beneath Kana.

It was not only the surrounding passersby who were surprised. The two horses were also so startled that they reared up and whinnied. When the coachman finally managed to calm the horses down and make them stop, the carriage was right next to Sofie.

“Dammit, what happened...? Oh, look. Is that Sofie?” As Sofie watched on dazedly, a familiar yet very unwelcome voice reached her ears.

The door of the box carriage opened, and a young man appeared from within.

He was wearing a brand new suit made of high quality material, and had a very handsome face. Brushing up his golden-colored hair, he drew close to Sofie with a grin plastered on his face.

“Jirahal... san......” The young man’s name was Jirahal Goldas. The very person who had come up in her conversation with the material store owner earlier.

“What were you thinking?! Have you forgotten the speed limit for carriages inside the city?!” To prevent traffic accidents, it was forbidden to run horses inside the city. The rule was to make them walk at a slow pace.

“I was in a hurry. Seriously, why did I have to go to the trouble of coming all the way here in person......” After bitterly muttering to himself, he did a 180 and grinned at Sofie, before talking up a storm without paying any regard to her reaction.

“It’s been a bit more than two years, hasn’t it? You’ve become even more beautiful than before. Both your parents passed away, right? Yet I heard that you’re still working in the same guild as a mere assistant. If you’re having a tough time, I can take care of you. I can’t allow a demihuman to marry into the family, but there should be no problem with keeping you as a concubine.”

Sofie was struck completely speechless due to shock. She wasn’t one to easily hate anyone, but even she couldn’t muster any emotion other than disgust at Jirahal’s self-serving words.

“In any case, you’ll have to wait for another time to have a longer talk. I’m quite a busy man, but I can free up some time for you.”

“Jirahal-san, instead of that, I want you to apologize to that girl.” Sofie pointed toward Kana, who was bashfully being showered with applause and cheers.

“Me? Why?”

“Just now, your carriage almost ran her over!”

“Ahh, so that’s why the carriage...... Thanks to that, I hit my hip inside. Goodness, what a lack of common sense to walk in the middle of the road. I’m the one who deserves an apology here.” While still muttering to himself, Jirahal got back into the carriage, which then drove away.

Finally, Kana made it over.

“Hinacchi, you shouldn’t do that. Don’t just go off on your own like that.” Kana rubbed her younger sister’s head as if nothing had happened.

Sofie patted her chest in relief. With this, this child was no longer lost. Now, all that’s left to do is to bring these two to their parents......

“Um, Kana-chan, right? Where are your parents?”

“Mm? Oh right. Speaking of which, where’s Mama and Yuna-nee?” As it turns out, the number of lost children had just increased to two.

For now, she grabbed Hina’s hand, then off they went toward the city guard station.

Thankfully, the closest station was right beside Central Plaza, which was the opposite of the direction that Jirahal took—

★

Shouzou found himself called to the guildmaster’s office in order to handle a guest.

Adora, who was supposed to act as a consultant, was not present. Apparently, she had vanished immediately upon hearing the name of the guest.

The person who eventually was guided to the room was a superficial-looking young man with a middle-aged man in tow.

“Hey there, Eliza. It’s been quite a while.”

Elizabeth greeted him with a full-faced smile that Shouzou had never seen on her before.

“It has indeed been a while, Jirahal. If I could have helped it, I would have liked to never see you again.”

“Hmph, I see you’re still a woman who always has a word too many. Though I suppose that’s one of the things that makes you so charming as well.”

“And I see you’re still as devoid of charm as ever. So, what? Did you fail at a business and get called back?”

“As if. I am returning in triumph.”

“Guess you must have had a really capable person at your side, then.” Elizabeth shot a look at the man standing behind him.

In spite of his medium build, the man had a very masculine face. His body clearly identified him as a man of the pen, yet his razor-sharp eyes gave him a close resemblance to a man of the sword.

He remained expressionless and reactionless.

“When used by me, almost anyone would seem capable.” Without being bothered in the slightest, Jirahal plopped down onto the sofa for guests.

“You’re going to let a commoner sit with us?” When Shouzou proffered his card while exchanging greetings, Jirahal made no attempt to even hide his displeasure.

Elizabeth and Shouzou sat across from him.

“So? Why did you come here? Showing up all of a sudden without prior notice. There’s a limit to how rude someone can be.”

“I’m also here unwillingly, under orders from my father. He said ‘Go take a look at the faces of the people who will be your greatest opponents’ or something stupid like that.” One of Elizabeth’s eyebrows twitched.

“So that rumor was real after all. I for one cannot understand how he could make someone like you the guildmaster.”

“Managing a guild is mere child’s play, right? In light of all my recent achievements, this is just my father’s way of telling me to chill and take it easy.”

“Kuh... who’s the one who always says a word too many? With you being the new guildmaster, it seems that the moment when we overcome Goldas Adventurer’s Guild is not as far off as I originally thought.” While looking on at the exchange between the two, Shouzou was genuinely impressed at how Elizabeth was managing to restrain herself to using sarcasm only, in light of how proudly she thinks of guild management.

Jirahal shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ll praise you for crawling up from the bottom with your eccentric ideas, but you are no match for me. From now on, you will act as befits your true station. If you want your guild to survive, that is.” Elizabeth glared daggers at him, but Shouzou actually found himself slightly impressed.

His arrogant manner was unpardonable, but the way he spoke with complete confidence was indeed one of the traits necessary for someone who stands above others as a leader. In other words, it could perhaps be said that he had talent at being a manager.

(It would make me happy if his appearance causes the industry to become invigorated. But......) It needed not be said that that would depend very heavily on whether he truly had the ability to back up his words or not.

(Or otherwise, if he has a truly gifted aide by his side, as the President said.) Shouzou directed his eyes toward the middle-aged man. He decided silently that this man, who up till now had yet to even name himself, merited extra investigating.

Jirahal set his hands on the black tea prepared for him, insolently pronounced it “disgusting,” then began staring closely at Elizabeth with a smirk on his face.

“So, you haven’t grown much, have you?”

“I dare you to say that again, huh?” It was all too clear that Elizabeth was on the verge of exploding.

“Your beauty merits you some points, but your foul mouth, that’s a fatal fault. Neither do you have a body that guys would like, so I can imagine how troubled you are with finding someone who’d take you as a wife. What do you think about quitting this guild pastime and coming with me? Hey, that’s a pretty good idea, if I do say so myself. You come from nobility, so there’ll be no issues with your pedigree, at least. Personally speaking, I prefer women with a bit more chest and hip, but for the sake of appearances, I guess I can compromise a bit.”

By this time, Elizabeth had gone way past rage and into a state of mind colored with despondency and exasperated disbelief.

“Can you leave already? More like, leave.”

“Your foul mouth and temper, I will do you the favor of helping you correct them.” Shouzou almost thought he heard the sound of something snapping.

He laid a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder, pressing her back into her seat right before she was about to lunge forward. At which—and who knows what came over her—she blurted out something outrageous.

“Hah, sucks to be you. Unlike your pitiful self, who no girl would willingly marry, I have someone that I’m actually in love with. Why do you think I let this man sit in on this meeting? This person is the one who will shoulder this guild one day, a man that I trust from the bottom of my heart!”

“O-Oi, what are y—”

“Isn’t. That. Right. Darling♪” She flashed a very beautiful smile, but her eyes were dead serious.

It didn’t matter what he said now, none of it would mean anything.

Shouzou gave up, but still didn’t want to play along with this farce, so he just ambiguously shifted his eyes away.

“This... man that looks more magic beast than man......? To think that you’ve developed such peculiar tastes when I take my eyes off you for just a while.” His mood soured abruptly, Jirahal stood up.

“Well, enjoy yourself while you still can. There’s no way you can win against me anyways.” Leaving behind this declaration of war, he finally exited the room. His companion nodded farewell before following after him. In the end, the man did not utter even a single word, let alone name himself.

Silence descended upon the office.

Elizabeth was hanging her head, with regret weighing upon her shoulders. However, she then gave her own face a sharp slap, before standing up with courage. “Well, you know, yeah.” She had her arms crossed, and was avoiding meeting Shouzou’s eyes. “I intend on choosing a man who can understand me as I currently am. I don’t mind things like appearance or age difference. In that light, it’s not like I won’t consider you as a possible candidate—”

“I have a wife.”

“Heh?”

“I also have three children.”

“Hoh?”

The dumbfounded look on Elizabeth’s face gradually gave way to a deeper and deeper shade of red.

“THIS IS MY FIRST TIME HEARING THIS!!”

“Oh right, I don’t think I’ve told Adora and the others yet either.” As someone with a personal policy of not letting his private life mix with work, Shouzou did not talk much about himself.

“What’s wrong? Why are you on all fours?”

“I am currently wallowing in self-hate, so it would be great if you’d just leave me alone for a while......”

“Is... is that so......” Just as she asked, Shouzou quietly left the office, carefully making sure not to upset her any further—

★

The news of Goldas Adventurer’s Guild getting a replacement guildmaster spread throughout the city within the day, evoking a certain amount of astonishment.

While some felt expectation and joy, those who knew Jirahal’s character succumbed to unease.

The very next day after Jirahal’s declaration of war, an issue had already cropped up at Elunheine Adventurer’s Guild.

Gathered in the office was Elizabeth and Shouzou, as well as Adora in her role as consultant.

“Raulo Adventurer’s Guild are saying that they want to start anew on the partnership talks.”

“Even though they were the ones who approached us?” asked Shouzou.

“Yes. Though if I had to venture a guess, they probably got pressured by a certain place.”

“As if there would be anywhere else that would do such a thing other than Goldas’s idiot son’s place.” Adora spat her words out bitterly.

“Hmm. So that means Goldas is trying to swallow Raulo?”

“That’s not going to happen.” Elizabeth shot the idea down with certainty.

“Jirahal may crush his business rivals, but he’s not the kind of man to even consider taking rivals in.”

“Is that so. In that case, then we can just let Raulo do what they want.” This time, it was Shouzou’s turn to make a call with certainty.

“You sure? We had made quite a lot of progress with the talks.”

“Raulo came to us in the first place because they had ran out of options. Now that even Goldas has identified them as an enemy, it’s only a matter of time until they reach the end of their tether. When that time comes, we will kindly offer them a hand. We will be able to restart the talks with even better starting conditions than before.”

“You are pretty ruthless as well, aren’t you.” Despite feeling reassured, Elizabeth also felt a cold shiver run down her back.

However, several days later, another issue came up—

★

“Shouzou, do you have a moment?” Right before he was about to head out for his rounds, Shouzou got called back by Elizabeth.

Together with Adora, the three of them took a moment to gaze at the guild’s reception counters.

“It’s gone down quite a bit, hasn’t it.” Just as Elizabeth noted, the inside of the guild was a lot sparser than it had been a few days ago. The number of visiting adventurers had gone down quite significantly.

“That damn Jirahal, he’s sure pulled out the stops. To think that he’d go so far as to lower their commission......” Recently, Goldas Adventurer’s Guild had taken to greatly reducing the commission retained by the guild upon the completion of quests.

The less they retained, the more the adventurer got to keep.

“Before, the line for our consultation booth stretched all the way over there,” lamented Adora.

“It’s only human nature, of course everyone’s going to go to the place where they get more money......” Elizabeth bit her lip.

“Hmm, the long lines. You’re right, I also think we need to do something about it as soon as possible.”

“Um, no, that’s not the problem here—”

“I get what you’re saying. However, what they’ve done is just sheer folly. There’s no need for worry.” He had already had this talk with Sofie way back.

The commission is something that is clearly stipulated in the rules, and is the guild’s deserved remuneration. The act of whittling it down would one day turn into a noose around their necks.

“But in actual fact, we are losing customers as we speak. If Goldas just waits for us to go out of business and then reverts the commission rate, then they’ll become the sole winners, won’t they?”

“This is indeed a good short-term strategy for a large guild with much more capital and stamina to cull medium or small-sized guilds. However, the middle to long-term damage is huge. President, if you were an adventurer and saw a guild changing its commission rates so frequently, how would you feel?”

“I’d feel disgruntled, I suppose. I’d be constantly afraid of them raising the rates much higher. I wouldn’t be able to trust them. Aha, I see what you’re getting at.”

Shouzou nodded deeply, then continued.

“There are very few people who interpret temporary advantage as good will. People will always make the best circumstance they remember, be it the past or the present, the standard to compare against. Dissatisfaction is extremely difficult to get rid of. In a city where the only guild remaining is one that adventurers cannot trust, then those who base in that city will decrease. If the number of adventurers who can complete quests decrease, then in the end, Goldas would also collapse.”

“But even so, we can’t just do nothing. Even if we put more resources into directly pitching to adventurers, if no one comes to our counters then we can’t handle all the quests we have on hand.”

“Mm, and so that is why—”

Elizabeth and Adora’s eyes glittered with expectation as they waited for Shouzou’s next words.

“We will set up more consultation booths.”

““Hahh?””

The first one who flared up was Adora.

“You, were you even listening to the conversation? The number of adventurers coming to our counters is DECREASING. Why on earth would we be increasing the number of booths?!”

“It was popular enough that long lines were forming. Having left this issue unresolved for so long was a mistake.”

“Isn’t it too late for that?” Elizabeth looked troubled.

Shouzou replied in an admonishing tone. “Adventurers complete quests to earn money. When they hear of another guild offering more reward money, naturally they will head over there. But you musn’t forget the most important thing. Reward money is something they can get only if they complete the quests.” Elizabeth and Adora came to a start. “The consultation booths in our guild perform the role of introducing quests to adventurers that match their ability and characteristics. That is what makes our high completion rate possible. They may dangle their small sum of money, but adventurers will only flock to them at the start. What we should be doing is expanding our services in order to adequately do what we’ve been doing all along—providing the added value of helping them ensure that they can complete the quests they accept.” The two nodded in understanding, but Elizabeth’s brows were still furrowed.

“But it’ll be hard to acquire the personnel we need for that. Wasn’t that the reason why Shouzou wasn’t able to address the long lines earlier?”

“We have enough people for the consultation booths. However, we don’t have enough people for the reception counters overall.” Those in charge of the normal reception counters were regularly reassigned to be in charge of the consultation booth on rotation. With Lalaine as support, due to her deep knowledge of the quest details and adventurers’ characteristics, there they would accumulate the know-how that they need.

However, if they increase the number of consultation booths, then there wouldn’t be enough personnel to man the reception counters.

Those at the reception counters needed to be capable of providing simple consulting, and also needed to have specialized knowledge regarding the characteristics of the quests currently in the market.

“Lucky for us, Goldas has helped us resolve this problem.”

“I don’t get it. Why would Goldas help us?”

“Going back to the thing from several days ago, Raulo is currently in a tough spot due to the pressure that Goldas is exerting on it.”

A flash of understanding crossed Elizabeth’s face, and she finished the thought for him.

“I get the main gist of it now. So we will be poaching Raulo’s staff. But we were in the middle of partnership talks with them just recently. To go from that to poaching their staff, how is that going to look......”

“They betrayed our trust first. Don’t worry about it. Rather, their staff must be really worried for their livelihoods right now, so if you think of how we’d be effectively saving them, we would actually be the good guys. In the same blow, we would be weakening Raulo, and thus hastening the schedule for the eventual absorption and merger.”

“What a brilliant way to turn Third Son’s schemes against him. You truly amaze me to no end.”

Shouzou wasted no time in getting down to headhunting—

Within a mere week, he managed to poach seven members of staff.

He didn’t only approach those who manned Raulo’s reception counters, but also others who were familiar with quests and adventurers, such that they now had more than enough manpower.

True to Shouzou’s prediction, the previous bustle had returned to the guild.

“But now there’s a big burden on Lalaine, isn’t there.”

“She is extremely shy around people, it’s true. But that’s where Moko-san is helping her out. More like, I think the burden on Moko-san is the bigger worry here......” Moko was sociable with everyone new who joined, and also took on the role of translating for Lalaine.

“Or rather, that girl is just way too social, so I think she probably doesn’t even see it as a burden.” They looked over from afar.

“Nyahaha♪, I’m telling you, it’s fine~ That occhan might look scary, but he’s not going to bite—” Shouzou couldn’t help but smile wryly at Moko’s peals of laughter—

On the other hand, at the same time...

In the office of Goldas Adventurer’s Guild.

Surrounded by luxurious and gorgeous furnishings, Jirahal slammed his fist on his desk.

“What the fuck is going on?! Why are the adventurers going back to Elunheine?!”

The middle-aged man standing off to the side replied in a calm voice.

“The way the adventurers see it, at Elunheine they can earn exactly what they have as before, and also get introduced to quests that they can complete with certainty, so it is only natural that they would gather there.”

“Then we’ll copy that. The consultation booths or whatever. Set it up now. Make it double what they have.”

“As you say.” The man respectfully bowed his head without moving an eyebrow.

However, Jirahal’s plan quickly went awry.

The reason was that they could not perform appropriate matches between adventurers and quests. It could be said that this result was only natural, as they did not have the specialists who could do this.

In the end, people stopped using their consultation booths altogether.

Several days later, the sound of furious foot stomping could be heard reverberating from the office of Goldas Adventurer’s Guild—