Chapter 4: The First Sale and Its Outcome

First day at work. At exactly 8:45 in the morning, Shouzou “left for work.”

In this city, adventurer’s guilds were open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The time before and after the opening hours were for preparation and other admin work.

His seat was all the way in the back, on the left side when approaching the counter from the entrance.

It was chosen so that he would be as far away from the customers and be as inconspicuous as possible. Though in the first place, as someone in sales, Shouzou intended to be out most of the time during opening hours anyways.

Before doing anything else, Shouzou first sat down to read through all the materials they had in regards to the laws that applied to adventurer’s guilds. The way he saw it, becoming familiar with the rules that set the boundaries within the industry was an essential first step. But after reaching the last page, he found himself dogged by a baffling question.

(That’s strange. I can’t find it written anywhere though?) A certain rule that he thought would be present was nowhere to be found, even after he scanned through the materials a second time.

The reason why quests became concentrated at large scale guilds.

The reason why none of the quests got around to bottom feeder guilds.

Based on what Adora had said the other day, the general idea was that “quests don’t go to places that people don’t trust.” But after going home and ruminating on it, Shouzou came to doubt whether that was the only thing going on.

Thus he scrupulously searched through the materials in expectation of something that would provide a more rational explanation...... but it was nowhere to be found. There wasn’t even anything close to describing what he was looking for.

With the question, “Why, then?” looping around in his mind, he then turned his eyes toward the ledger to gain a grasp on the financial status of the guild.

(What... is this?) He found baffling entries that seemed out of place.

(Could it be......) Suddenly realizing what could possibly be the answer to the question that he had been struggling with up till then, Shouzou turned towards Adora.

“President, may I ask you something?” As always, she was sitting slumped in her chair and nodding off. Upon being called out to, Adora looked up sluggishly.

“Sofie, all yours......” She splayed herself over her desk even while managing that reply.

“Oh, Auntie...... We’ve been open for quite a while already, please sit up and look sharp.” From his seat, which was located behind Sofie’s, Shouzou could see that she was pouting slightly.

“Sofie, let’s cut her a little slack, shall we? After all the hard work she puts in at night, I’m sure that the President is really tired right now.”

“How on earth did you—?!” All the blood drained from Adora’s face as she leapt up in alarm.

“I am looking through the ledger right now. No matter how you read it, this guild isn’t earning enough to keep four people fed. More like, your finances are entirely in the red. Which logically means that someone is doing something that’s helping to keep the coffers filled just enough. During the daytime, everyone is working here, but there’s just one person obviously very sleepy—”

“AAAH! Enough, that’s enough already! What is with you, sheesh. Your perception is too sharp, all right? Sheesh, that sort of thing is supposed to be left unsaid, all right?”

“I think you’re the only person who thought it was being kept a secret.”

“Eh?” Adora quickly panned around the room. Moko-san shot over a mischievous smile from her spot at reception.

“All of you guys, you knew......?”

“Of course they did. There’s no way that the crew of a ship wouldn’t notice the efforts of the ship captain who’s desperately trying to keep the ship afloat. It appears that President was so focused on protecting you all that she didn’t realize she was being considered as someone to be protected in turn—”

“That’s enough, I get it already! How do you manage to always throw me off balance, seriously......”

“And so, back to my question.”

“I handed that off to Sofie already.” Adora planted her beet red face onto the table as if to conceal it.

Having been nominated by name, Sofie turned to ask Shouzou, “Yes, what is it?” with a wry smile still on her face.

“According to the rules that apply to adventurer’s guilds, ‘Upon completion of a quest, the quest giver is to pay an amount of several percent to several tens of percent to the adventurer’s guild, depending on the total reward amount.’ In other words, that would be our commission. But in the ledger, I see an item separately labeled as ‘Deposit.’ What is that?”

“The deposit is a certain amount that adventurers are to pay the Guild in advance when they accept a quest. Even if the quest is not completed, we get to keep that amount as our income. If the quest is successfully completed, then the quest giver pays the guild the reward amount minus the deposit. This is done in order to protect the guilds.”

“Protect?” Something was tugging at Shouzou’s attention. However, he first asked a separate question.

“However, the word ‘Deposit’ is nowhere to be found in the rules. Didn’t the President also say yesterday that ‘if the reward isn’t completed, then not even a single bronze coin comes into our pockets’?” The person who answered his question was Adora, who still had her face planted onto the desk.

“That was just a figure of speech. That was hardly the time to go into such details.” Sofie elaborated. “There are several things that are not in the rules, but that the guilds decided among themselves or do as common practice. They sometimes get changed due to the times, which is why they were never actually put into writing.”

So, commercial practice, basically. But if that was the case—

(The only parties who benefit from the practice of deposits are the large places...... I see, so that’s why quests don’t go to bottom feeder guilds.) The question that he had been puzzling over from the start, its answer had finally become clear.

Shouzou had been under the impression that “Each quest can only be registered at a single adventurer’s guild.”

And that that was the reason why quests only went to the large guilds.

But there was nothing like it stipulated anywhere in the rules.

Which meant that “registering one quest with multiple adventurer’s guilds” was not forbidden.

In that case, then it wouldn’t have been strange to see quests that can be repeated without issue—such as gathering quests for materials that are in constant demand—being thrown at every single guild in the city. In such a situation, it would be really strange to see not even a single one of those quests here at this guild.

But once the deposit—which is effectively a burden on the quest giver—enters the equation, then everything changes.

This was the true form of the fetters that had prevented quest givers from registering quests with guilds that they did not trust.

“Could it be that there is also a cancellation fee when a quest giver wants to cancel a quest?”

“Yes there is. This is also one of those things that isn’t in the rules, but that all the guilds do.” It seemed that Sofie saw both of them as “good practices that ensured a minimum amount of income for bottom feeder guilds.”

(I could just correct the misunderstanding here, but......) Experience is always better than mere knowledge. If she is to learn something, having her experience it firsthand would be far more effective. So Shouzou stood up, declaring, “I’m heading out now. Sofie-san, I’d like for you to come along with me.”

“We’ll be doing sales?!”

“Indeed. We’ll be making our greetings and also doing some work at the same time.”

“Understood!” Sofie was full of enthusiasm.

Shouzou returned a nod, then—

“Furthermore—”

He also called out to the solitary girl who’d been sitting by herself a distance away and muttering to herself the entire time.

“Lalaine-san, we’ll need you too.”

“............?!” Her muttering stopped abruptly. Then, after being petrified for a few moments, the face of the young Naga girl shot up, and began shaking left to right with incredible vigor. And it kept on shaking.

Her long, black hair flew horizontally to reveal intermittent glimpses of a face that was so pale that it looked almost sickly.

It was Shouzou’s first time seeing her face, but he found it rather cute and shapely.

“Umm, Onigawara-san. Lalaine-san is extremely shy of strangers, so going outside is a bit......”

“That seems the case indeed, but I really must insist. I won’t ask her to do anything unreasonable like talking to someone. She just has to follow along behind us and mutter whatever comes to mind. Just as she always does.” Lalaine’s movement stopped abruptly.

“If... if that, is all, then......” Her voice was as soft as a whisper, but Shouzou caught it perfectly.

“Thank you very much. Well then, let’s make haste. Avoiding noontime would be in our best interests.” As Shouzou went to grab his attaché case, Sofie bustled about readying things while asking, “Where will we be going? There were places that I didn’t manage to go to yesterday—” Her eyes were practically sparkling behind her round eyeglasses.

“The store where I met you yesterday.” Shouzou replied.

“Eh?”

“I’m thinking of signing one or two large contracts with that place. Today.”

Sofie repeated Shouzou’s words to herself as if to process them, then, “......EHHHHH?!” A cry of astonishment projected out from the very depths of her diaphragm.

★

They reached their destination later than originally expected.

The reason was because Lalaine could only move at a very slow pace. Having shut herself up indoors for as long as she had, a mere twenty minutes of walking proved enough to already render her unsteady on her feet. Though, well, in her case, rather than “feet,” her bottom half (specifically, everything beneath her thighs) was that of a snake. So rather than “walking,” it would be more accurate to say that she progressed by slithering and wriggling onward.

After resting for about 2 minutes, Shouzou and company entered the store. This material store was one of the highest ranked in the city.

The name of the store was Blois Firm.

It boasted a long history, within which the family line that owned the store had been bequeathed the name of the store as a family name.

The ceiling was more than 2 stories high, and the shelves lining the walls were buried under a vast array of goods. The upper shelves were so high up that access to them apparently required the usage of ladders.

“Wha-?! Y-You’re from yesterday......” The slightly chubby man who had chased Sofie away yesterday was there. Shouzou had learned from Sofie beforehand that he was the owner of the store. He was still in his thirties, but because his father had retired early, he was now the one who managed this large store.

“Good day, Blois-san.”

“Wha-, what did you come here for? Wait, are you seriously going to threaten me—”

“No, no, that was a misunderstanding. Today, I’ve come to offer you my thanks.”

“Th-Thanks......?” Blois frowned suspiciously.

“Yesterday, I was really just coincidentally passing by. I’m a bit ashamed to say this, but I was actually wandering around in search of a place of employment. I just happened to be there at that time.”

“Is, is that so......? But what are you thanking me for then?” Blois tilted his head.

“Thanks to the fate of that encounter, I was able to become employed at the place where this girl works, Elunheine Adventurer’s Guild.” Sofie bobbed her head. However, she was not looking at Blois. In order to not miss a single gesture or action from Shouzou, she was glaring so hard at him that it almost seemed like a scowl.

Shouzou really wanted to caution her, but they were currently in front of a customer, so he couldn’t say anything.

“Hm~mm...... But it can hardly be said that I played any significant role in that, right?”

“I beg to differ. Due to having caused that misunderstanding with you, I approached her to offer her my apology. And then matters proceeded from there. If you had not misunderstood, then I would have simply passed by without saying a single word.” Shouzou lowered his head deeply.

“Normally, such an occasion merits bringing a gift of some sort, but now it has simply become merely words of thanks. For that, I am deeply sorry.”

“Oh, that’s quite all right. All I did was misunderstand something. Now that I’m actually being thanked for it, it only just makes me embarrassed, truly.”

“Oh no, how could I. I have been quite inconsiderate, I’m afraid......” Shouzou scratched his cheek in embarrassment, which caused Blois’s expression to soften.

“Well anyways, please don’t let it bother you any longer. Here I was, thinking you were a scary person, but you’ve turned out to be so humble. More like, rather than being employed at a guild, shouldn’t you just become an adventurer outright?”

“I’ve been told that by a lot of people. However, it seems that it just doesn’t suit me.” By then, both of them were smiling, and the atmosphere had become quite relaxed. Or so Shouzou thought, until Blois’s eyes turned to scrutinizing him.

“So then? You came in here under the guise of thanks, but why are you actually here?” As expected of a man who had taken over a large firm while so young, he proved himself quite sharp indeed.

However, Shouzou kept his cool. Instead of answering immediately, he panned to take a good look at the interior of the store. “This view, it’s quite incredible indeed. With a store this huge, I literally have to look up due to the sheer number of products on the shelves.”

“But of course. In terms of handling of raw materials, we are the very best in all of Treia. It’s our policy to not deal with tiny transactions. So naturally, we have no appropriately sized quests to give to bottom feeder guilds.” Before Shouzou could broach the subject, Blois had already implicitly asked them to make their exit.

“Naturally, I am well aware of that.” Shouzou displayed no sign of being perturbed, instead even going so far as to make a smile while answering in an indifferent tone. “What we want to ask is for you to register the same quest with us that you have already registered with other adventurer’s guilds.” Not only Blois, even Sofie and Lalaine were astounded.

“Posting the same quest at multiple guilds at the same time is not forbidden, right?”

“You are correct, but if I also post at your place then I’d have to pay another deposit. Doing something akin to throwing precious money down the drain is something that I—”

“We will not ask for a deposit.” Once again, everyone aside from Shouzou froze with astonishment.

“And also, if the quest is completed at a different guild, we will not charge you a cancellation fee.” The first person to recover from what seemed like bombshells dropped in quick succession was Lalaine. She began muttering furiously to herself.

Next was Sofie, who raised her voice in protest.

“Hold on a second, Onigawara-san! If you do that then—”

“What problem would there be?”

“But, then, our money......”

“Sofie-san, you mustn’t mistake your assumptions. We, as an adventurer’s guild, must always have the mentality of ‘quests that are accepted are to be completed,’ and do everything in our power to make that happen.”

An “Ohhhh” escaped from Sofie’s lips as figurative scales fell from her eyes. However, she still harbored a certain amount of unease.

“Deposits and cancellation fees are both bad practices, understand? For bottom feeder guilds, it’s the main factor that wards off quest, while for large guilds, it’s merely a way for them to pilfer small change. If you ask me, it seems stranger that they were even adopted in the first place, and that they remained in effect for so long.” There might be a place and time where such measures would be needed, but at the present moment, the only thing it was doing was acting to the disadvantage of bottom feeder guilds. Neither were they doing any service to the quest giver side either.

Blois murmured “Heeh~” as a satisfied smile spread over his face.

“Blois-san, so how about it?”

“......Well, if you’ll be accepting quests completely free of charge, then that makes me want to give you all of them.”

“I’m sorry, we will be the ones to decide which quests we’ll be accepting.” Wrinkles appeared between Blois’s eyebrows.

Sofie became so flustered that her behavior bordered on being suspicious. Apparently this girl was the kind who, upon being emotionally shaken down, would externally betray her inner turmoil.

But now was not the time to talk to her about that.

“Your anger is fully justified. Surely you are thinking, ‘A bottom feeder guild is choosing jobs?’ However, yes, we are a bottom feeder guild. The quantity of quests that we can process at any given time is very limited. In order to ensure completion of the quest, careful consideration on our part is of critical importance. We ask for your understanding.” Upon seeing Shouzou lower his head once again, Blois exhaled, then scratched his head.

“‘Ensure,’ huh. That’s quite some confidence you have there. Well, I don’t lose anything either way. So I’ll play along, then. Having said all that, I’m sure you have certain conditions in mind, right? Let’s hear them then.”

“Thank you for your consideration. We would like quests that have a rather far off deadline. Something due a month to three months later would be perfect.”

“So you want something that can be done slowly over time? Well, that’s fine too. Wait here a while.” Blois’s heavy body withdrew into the depths of his store.

During the wait, Sofie repeatedly sent Shouzou glances, as if she had something she was dying to ask. When he could no longer bear her restlessness any longer, Shouzou decided to broach the conversation from his end.

“If there is something that you want to say, then let’s hear it.” Having been prompted, Sofie straightened her back.

“Umm, the large majority of large-scale quests require several veteran adventurers working together to be completed. I don’t think such people would come to our place of their own accord.” She sounded so full of confidence while making this utterly pathetic declaration.

“Naturally.”

“Then—”

“But who said that we’re going to just twiddle our thumbs and wait for them to come?”

“Eh?” Sofie stroked her chin, then abruptly raised her voice with an “I got it!” face.

“Hawking! We’ll go out onto the streets and call out to them in a loud voice, right?”

“Wrong.”

“Hauu......”

“Has that ever succeeded before?”

“......No, it hasn’t.”

“I’m not surprised. Ah, Blois-san is coming back. We’ll continue this conversation later.”

Shouzou wrapped up the conversation for the moment, but not before whispering to Sofie, “When I talk with him, try to catch what she is muttering.” His eyes were directed toward the girl muttering alone to herself, Lalaine.

“For now, here are five of them. Which would you like?”

“Allow me to take a look please.” Shouzou accepted the papers that detailed the quests, then read each and every one of them out loud.

Though this made Blois suspicious at the start—perhaps due to his initial impression of Shouzou being “a weird guy”—he did not interrupt him.

“Well then, next is...... this is for Keroriga wings, I see. Ones coated with moth scales, of which you need 12 large bags...... that’s quite the quantity...... the largest allowed quantity for a quest, I see. If I recall correctly, this is an ingredient for...... Magic Repellent Powder, the stuff that repels magic beasts.” Even while spinning his words, Shouzou concentrated his attention on his ears.

He had no prior knowledge about what a Keroriga was, nor what its scales were used for. Neither did he know that 12 large bags was the largest allowed quantity for a single quest.

It was all knowledge that he had learned right then and there, after reading the paper out loud.

The source was the tiny, tiny voice coming from behind his back.

Incidentally, was Sofie not gluing herself to Lalaine just a bit too closely?

“The approaching season is the one in which the magic beasts are more active, after all. The deadline is 2 months later......” Seemingly unable to bear being silent any longer, Blois spoke up before Shouzou could continue again.

“The portion for this year had already been secured last year. And it’s not something that would rot or go bad, so every year around this time we gather them in advance for the next year. But with that said, the person who is going to fulfill this quest is pretty much already set in stone.”

“......So it would seem.”

“And from what I hear, that adventurer and your place go quite far back, eh?” Judging by the blatant smirk on his face, this was a quest that he had brought out for the sole purpose of enjoying the reactions from Shouzou and the rest upon seeing it.

In actuality, Sofie’s face was looking quite pained. It was a rather rare expression for her.

“Indeed, so it would seem. All right then, we’ll be accepting this quest.”

“Eh?!”

“Ha?”

Sofie’s cry of surprise was first.

Blois looked like he just got pricked by his conscience, as his face turned into awkward embarrassment.

“I apologize for doing that, I admit it was in bad taste. You really don’t have to force yourself to take it.”

“No, no, don’t mind us. We’ll be accepting this one because we believe we can complete it.” After that, Shouzou chose one more out of the remaining quests.

He quickly took care of the paperwork to officially accept the quests, then deeply lowered his head.

“Thank you very much. We will continue to be in your care from here on.”

“It’s my first time being thanked after having a quest of mine accepted.” Blois’s final comment struck Shouzou deep in his chest.

No way was he going to accept being beat by all the other arrogant guilds......

After leaving the store, Sofie suddenly raised her hand.

“Um, can we continue the conversation from earlier?” Upon seeing Shouzou indicate his approval, she continued in an unconfident tone. “Every time Onigawara-san read out loud the contents of a quest, Lalaine-san muttered out loud the characteristics of adventurers suitable for the quest. At times, she even mentioned some of them by name......”

“Yes she did. So then?”

“That’s how I finally understood. We’re not going to wait passively, and we’re not going to be hawking in the streets. The plan is to actively approach the most suitable adventurers for the quests, am I correct?”

“That’s exactly it.” Shouzou’s full-faced smile cut a sharp contrast to Sofie’s slightly pained face.

“I see. So that is also forbidden by one of those unwritten customs. If I had to guess, the justification for it was that doing so would cause quests to all go to certain adventurers and thus would be unfair, or something along those lines?”

“Y-Yes. That was exactly it. How did you guess?”

“That’s just mere sophistry on the part of the major firms and larger guilds so they wouldn’t have to deal with extra admin work.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Lalaine-san, what do you think?” Having the conversation directed towards her caused her muttering to stop abruptly. But then she resumed muttering again in short order.

She was actually answering Shouzou’s question, but unlike her usual muttering, it was very slow and drawn out, so Shouzou summarized it in her place.

At the moment, the number of quests far outnumbered the number of adventurers.

Adventurers were separated into ranks. Accordingly, quests were also sorted into ranks. And the lower the rank, the more quests there were. Even if an adventurer could not find a quest that matched the level of their ability, they merely had to look one rank lower. In other words, they wouldn’t ever really be troubled for work.

Due to that, even if a certain number of quests became concentrated toward certain adventurers, it won’t cause other adventurers to become unable to find work.

Sofie listened attentively while looking at Lalaine with envious eyes.

“Those large places, they just have to twiddle their thumbs while quests and adventurers naturally gather to them. However, if we bottom feeders do the same, our situation would only grow worse by the day. We have no other choice but to go on the offensive. Both quests and adventurers, we will have to go out to seize them ourselves.” Sofie’s expression grew stiff and serious. Lalaine’s face was covered by her black hair and thus was not visible, but she was also nodding in silence. “Onigawara-san, could the reason why you chose a quest with a far off deadline be because you thought we could complete it faster than other guilds?”

“That’s right. People tend to leave things with faraway deadlines on the back burner.” Shouzou nodded with a smile.

“Well then. By playing the hand of abolishing both deposits and cancellation fees, we’ve successfully gotten ourselves some quests. The next step is to find the adventurers who can complete these quests for us.”

Sofie raised her hand like a student who wanted to be called on.

“We’ll lower the commission we take from the adventurers’ rewards!”

“That would not be a wise thing to do.”

“Why...... is that?” Shouzou was very happy to see her question him back without being discouraged.

“Unlike the deposit and cancellation fee, which were both bad practices, the commission is something that is clearly stipulated in the rules, and is our deserved remuneration. If we whittle it down, then one day, it will turn into a noose around our necks. It might be a good short-term plan, but it’s a foolish idea in the mid to long term scheme of things. Just imagine the amount of animosity that we would get from the adventurers if we employed that strategy but revoked it somewhere down the road.”

So then, what should they do? Sofie gulped, while Lalaine gazed at Shouzou through the gaps in her hair.

“We will offer...... added value.” The two of them started.

“What is that......?” But it seemed like neither of them quite understood it.

“We will offer the adventurers something that they would want but wouldn’t be able to get if they accepted quests at other guilds. In some cases, this would mean monetary kickbacks, but just like the lowering of commission discussed earlier, that would be ill-suited for us.” Shouzou continued his explanation by raising an example.

“Despite the current situation of there being a saturation of quests, each adventurer has their own strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. So how about we actively find quests that would suit that adventurer, and introduce it to them? Well, this is just one example, though.” The two of them nodded deeply in understanding.

Sofie then raised her hand again.

“So you are saying that we will be tailoring what we offer to the other party?”

“That’s exactly right. To make that happen, we need to know the other party, analyze them, and prepare several suggestions.”

Which meant......

“Let’s return to the guild, and talk it over with everyone over lunch!”

“Yes, please!”

“S-Sure......”

Thus, the three of them headed back toward the guild in high spirits.

It hardly needs to be said, but Lalaine once again ran out of strength on the way, so Shouzou had to give her a piggyback—