I Want to Be an Adventurer Again

I had failed to break Philstone's stubbornness, and so I returned to the guild. It was a quiet hour, with few adventurers about, and Tina was absorbed in her paperwork. As I approached the reception desk, she noticed me and looked up.

"Oh, Yunoa! How did it go? Did you meet the Master?"

"I did meet him, but..."

I told Tina that the owner of the Koubel Refinery was also serving as Guild Master. She looked a little surprised. So she hadn't known either. Then again, if she had, she would have told me before writing down the address.

What kind of Guild Master never even showed his face at the guild? He wasn't some figurehead. No matter how I turned it over, the whole arrangement was absurd.

I recounted my conversation with Philstone. Tina listened with interest, then spoke.

"That does sound like him... When I was hired as a receptionist, they drilled the principles of document processing into us as the top priority. Delivering documents to the Master only once a month is part of that, too."

"Honestly, it feels like receptionists like you are the ones who suffer because of that guy."

"Ahaha... It's the job. Can't be helped."

Tina laughed, looking a little uncomfortable. That expression reminded me of something — the look of a corporate drone ground down by overwork just to make a living, that particular brand of weary resignation.

"So it looks like resurrecting the deleted records is a lost cause. I'd like to register as an adventurer again."

I made the request of Tina. Not that I intended to go through with the registration right away. If I couldn't start at Silver Rank, there was no point in registering at all. With my current abilities, climbing from Bronze Rank wouldn't be hard — but this was a matter of pride. Besides, the rank evaluation system had a minimum time requirement at each rank. You couldn't just blaze from Bronze to Silver to Gold Rank in two days. So one way or another, I wanted Silver Rank from the start.

"A new registration, then."

"But I won't register unless I get Silver Rank right away. Could you check the requirements first and tell me what rank I'd qualify for?"

"Well... there are quite a few conditions. Let me take a look."

Tina pulled the adventurer registration forms out from under the counter. It had been a while since I'd seen those — the registration documents packed with fine print like an insurance policy. I never imagined I'd be looking at them again under circumstances like these.

"Normally you'd sign here first and then we'd go through the questions, but I'll start with the questions, as you requested."

"Please do."

"Have you received training at an institution such as a knight order training camp, an academy, a swordsmanship school, or a magic college?"

"No."

"Does your family include a Gold Rank or higher adventurer, or the founder of a swordsmanship school or magic school recognized by the kingdom?"

"No."

Right. These were the questions, all right. Hearing them again brought the memory of my first registration flooding back, and just like back then, I had no choice but to answer no. Listening to them a second time, I was reminded that being an adventurer was actually a pretty good career — if you had solid backing and connections. The startup costs were surprisingly high, and they even looked at your family and education. Born into a well-connected house and trained at a good institution, and you started from a completely different line. Well. That was how it was wherever people lived.

"Do you have any wartime experience, mercenary work, or a record of defeating monsters in combat?"

Finally, a question I could answer with confidence.

"Two subjugation expeditions, and I've taken down more monsters than I can count. I even fell through a hole in Horn Canyon that led to the Demon Realm, and I made it back here alive. That's a pretty solid resume, isn't it?"

I said it to Tina with full confidence. But she looked at me with a strange, troubled expression.

"Well..."

"Is there a problem?"

"All of that happened while you were already an adventurer, so it can't be used for a new registration."

"What?"

That was a bolt from the blue.

"Wartime experience only counts if you served as a soldier, and mercenary work only counts if you were actually a mercenary. The Yunoa who was an adventurer and the Yunoa registering as a new adventurer are treated as different people on paper, so any records documented during your time as an adventurer can't be used."

You've got to be kidding me. They'd already declared a perfectly living person dead, and now this.

"That's ridiculous..."

"I'm sorry, but... you have no qualifying experience at all. Of course, I'm not saying I doubt your record. It's just guild policy..."

That damn potion-addicted Guild Master. How ridiculously strict had he made the guild's rules? It felt like dealing with a government office so rigid that not even a hair's worth of flexibility could squeeze through.

"Lastly, what class would you like to register under with the guild?"

Tina asked the final question. Wait a second. That meant none of my answers had changed from the first time I registered.

"Uh... before I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠answer that, you can tell what rank I'd get now, right?"

"That's right..."

"I'm only asking because I have to, but..."

"Yes?"

"There's no way it's Novice Rank... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right?"

Tina hesitated at my question. This had to be awkward for her too. She knew better than anyone how I'd lived as an adventurer. She looked deeply apologetic as she spoke.

"Novice... that's correct."

Forget it. I'm not registering.

I put the new adventurer registration on hold. I couldn't even accept Bronze Rank, and they wanted me to start as a Novice? I'd busted my ass in the military all the way to corporal, and now they wanted me to go back to being a recruit. Until I found another way, the new registration was on ice.

Fortunately, I had some money — enough to get by for a while without working. I'd thought following the Narration's hints would lead me to a solution somehow, but apparently it wasn't that simple.

To blow off some steam, I bought a few chicken skewers from a street stall. Ahh. It soaked right in. This was the taste of the human world...! I'd been stuck in the Demon Realm longer than I'd planned, and I'd missed the food of human society more than I could say. The gloom from the registration fiasco lifted a little with a few chicken skewers.

"Haa... so what am I supposed to do now..."

Feeling a bit better, I walked the evening streets and tried to think. Should I go back to Philstone and try to persuade him again? No, that wouldn't work. Every credential I could put forward had been earned as an adventurer, so none of it was usable. Should I head into the nearby forest right now and start knocking down monsters to build a verifiable record?

A little more digging revealed that solo monster kills didn't count — only subjugations with plenty of witnesses could be used as credentials. You needed at least three witnesses, no matter what. Unless monsters suddenly attacked a village, or I deliberately brought people along to watch me hunt something strong, meeting the conditions wouldn't be easy.

Three people, huh... Let's see. Who could I bring... Silphy, Tina, Meruru, maybe. If I asked Silphy, she'd probably come along in a heartbeat — "Sunbae! I'll help!" Tina and Meruru were receptionists, though, so dragging them around to witness my resume-building would be an imposition. Meruru seemed to have a bit more free time, but Tina was genuinely busy. Shari... was a ghost, so she was out. Mireia wasn't here, so that was that.

And asking a stranger, "Please watch me beat up monsters so I can use it for my adventurer registration!" ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would be even weirder. Wasn't there some other way?

Then what the hell was I supposed to do? I couldn't just accept being reset to Novice Rank and start my adventurer life from scratch.

The Narration kept talking.

The first two were conditions I already knew. But what did the third one mean? Earn the Guild Master's recognition in the process of meeting those conditions? I wasn't born into a famous family, and I hadn't graduated from any particular institution, so earning the Guild Master's recognition could fill in that missing background.

"Hrm..."

I sure hoped so. Something terrible for Philstone, huh. In that case, I definitely couldn't give up.

I hoped the Narration might give me a little more of a hint, but after that, it went silent. Damn it. It always fed me information and then left the important parts vague.

At least I knew the direction. Hunt a monster worthy of Silver Rank recognition with three witnesses, and earn the Guild Master's acknowledgment. Getting that pigheaded bastard's recognition wasn't going to be easy.

I turned the Narration's words over in my head again. The phrase in the process, earn the Guild Master's personal recognition snagged on something. It sounded like I wasn't supposed to check off each condition separately — I had to accomplish them all at once.

Well. That meant I had no choice but to go see Philstone again. Before the night grew any later, I hurried toward the Koubel Refinery.