Joint Quest and Keeping in Check (4)
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The Guild interior was unusually bustling today. A crowd of adventurers had gathered in front of the large status board that had been set up earlier.
A few had their heads together, groaning in concentration; a few were holding pens, frantically writing or sketching something. The counters, which normally had empty spots here and there, were running at full capacity today.
People sure were diligent from the crack of dawn. If I weren't mooching off Ariel's mansion, I'd probably have to live like that too, right?
Not that I particularly wanted to live a diligent life. But watching others work so hard, it kind of made me feel a little...
"Kept man..."
"Hmm?" "Spot on."
"..."
When I shot her a glare, Yuri quickly looked away, feigning innocence. Damn it. She was way too sharp.
"It's crowded, so wait here for a moment. I'll go put in a message and come back."
"Ah, okay. Take care."
I stood at the counter, waiting in line for a few minutes.
"Ah, Yoo-jin! Welcome!"
"Ah, hello."
The beautiful green-haired receptionist I was seeing again after several days.
I already knew that she used a suggestive combination—a snug white shirt emphasizing her chest and faintly visible black underwear—as a weapon to subtly fleece adventurers.
Today, however, her outfit was even more daring.
She'd tied her hair back loosely, a few strands escaping down her nape. Her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and several buttons on the front of her shirt were undone, leaving her cleavage completely exposed.
My words caught in my throat at the sight of that cleavage. M-my girls never wore stuff like that for me...
Lize was the first to speak.
"Ah, if you're here about forming a clan, I'm afraid you'll need to wait a little longer. I'm terribly sorry."
"Huh?"
Lize let out a sigh and explained.
"You know how there was a distortion in the dungeon recently, right? So there's a huge amount of information that has to be updated. That means things like new clan registrations end up a bit lower on the priority list... Ah, n-not that I think so! That's just the Guild's policy!"
Lize was flustered, a rare sight. Hmm. I hadn't known her that long, but she didn't seem like the type to stammer like this.
Looking closer, I noticed faint dark circles under her eyes. Was she pulling all-nighters or something? Even in another world, overtime was apparently inescapable...
"No, that's not why I'm here. I need to get in touch with someone."
"Get in touch?"
When I gave her a quick rundown about the joint quest, Lize's eyes sparkled.
"Wow. Making connections already—you really are impressive. Oh? Did you mention this last time? Did I already know about this?"
She seemed so exhausted that her mind was drifting in and out. What a shame. For some reason, Recovery Sex and a massage came to mind, but I shook the thought away.
"Please, as quickly as you can."
"Ah, get it together, me. Is that all you needed? If you're planning to head out today, please let me know. Handling everything at once would be more convenient for you, too..."
"Ah, no. I'm just planning to coordinate things today. Departure will probably be tomorrow or later."
"Alright. Understood. I'll just let them know you're waiting in the Guild lobby? I'll put the message through right now, so you can head back and wait~."
Lize pulled a "Be Right Back" sign out from under her desk, hung it up, and shot to her feet, walking off somewhere.
"...!!!"
I couldn't tear my eyes away from Lize's retreating figure. The tight miniskirt, the carelessly untucked shirttail. And instead of heels, she was wearing slippers.
The image of a worn-down office worker, exuding a sense of real, lived-in exhaustion. But that wasn't the problem.
The problem was Lize's stockings.
Lize's stockings had a run in them.
Stockings with a run, the white skin visible through that slight tear in the fabric! I was seriously going crazy. Losing my mind! Fortunately, she didn't seem to have noticed it herself!
She was the very picture of a decadently disheveled office worker. Damn it, my dick—calm down!
"If your business is concluded, would you kindly step aside?"
"Ah, s-sorry."
Shaking my head, I returned to the girls...
...
"Over here, Yoo-jin."
Reni spotted me and waved from where the tables were lined up.
It looked like she'd been tracking my back the whole time. Yuri was glaring at the pile of training-hall pamphlets she'd spread out in front of her, and Ariel sat with perfect posture and closed eyes, as if meditating.
"You're a bit late, aren't you?"
"A lot of people were waiting. Apparently, they're swamped because of the information updates."
"Makes sense. Those people have it rough. For newbies like us, it barely matters, but those guys have to redraw all the old maps and everything, right?"
Yuri gestured with her chin toward the adventurers clustered in front of the large map.
So the terrain itself had changed.
Calling it difficult would have been putting it mildly. People sometimes got lost simply because a place looked different by day and by night, and here the terrain and landmarks themselves changed.
"Having to redraw the maps... Just thinking about it gives me a headache."
"Well, we don't have to worry even if it changes every time. I've got absolute bearings in my head."
"Awakened ability?"
"Yeah."
"No fair..."
Yuri pouted. Yeah, honestly, being an Awakened was basically a cheat code in a lot of ways. Yuri, legs crossed and tapping one foot, suddenly leaned her body toward me.
"Baby, couldn't you teach me this instead?"
"Teach you what?"
"This."
Yuri thrust a pamphlet at me. It was one I'd seen before, a promotional flyer going on about archer skills and training halls.
"Baby, you're an Awakened. Didn't you say Awakened can easily learn all kinds of abilities? Magic and stuff. Couldn't you learn some and then teach me?"
Yuri started whining through her nose and even acting cute.
"I can't go back to the place I went before because I made such a scene. And the other places have bad conditions and just feel like a waste of money. Hmm? Hmm?"
"I'm not sure about that..."
Of course, I could learn archery-related skills myself.
「Arrow Enhancement - Basic」, 「Elemental Imbuement - Basic」
Things like that. But,
"Even if you ask me to teach you..."
It felt like pressing a hotkey in my head. So even if I wanted to explain it, I couldn't.
"It probably won't work."
"What? Why not?"
"So... how do I put this..."
I tried my best to explain the sensation of pressing a hotkey, but Yuri looked completely lost.
"...It's something you use subconsciously, instinctively. To use a rough analogy, it's like walking or breathing. But those aren't things you can just learn by being taught, right? Am I wrong?"
"Tch..."
Yuri stuck out her lip, disappointed.
"Hmm. Ahem."
Ariel opened her eyes and cleared her throat. Composing herself as if she had something to say, she looked back and forth between us.
"Hrmm. Ahem. Perhaps I may be able to assist."
"Huh?"
"Hmm."
Ariel cleared her throat again. Her face remained expressionless, but to me, the gesture seemed meant to hide her embarrassment.
"As you likely know, all the mana I generate flows directly to Niniel. However, it was not always this way. The condition did not exist from the moment Niniel was born."
"And?"
Yuri's prompting had a slight edge, but Ariel didn't lose her pace.
"For a time, a small, faint amount of mana remained that I could use personally. I devoted myself to researching how to operate those meager reserves with maximum efficiency. Like so."
Ariel pulled a small wooden rod—something that looked like a wand—from within her robes and made a gesture. At the wand's tip, a flame the size of a lighter and a chip of ice the size of a fingernail flickered into existence, one after the other. After dismissing them both, she drove the wand into the table.
"!"
The wand's tip was blunt beyond belief, yet it bored into the table like a sharpened blade. Yuri stared at the sight, mouth falling open.
"With such a paltry amount of mana, this is all I could accomplish. But it should prove useful to her. Teaching it will not be difficult, provided she is willing."
"..."
Aha. I was starting to get it. That was her way of apologizing for going off like that earlier, wasn't it?
Yuri stared at the wand before asking like an idiot.
"Uh, so... would I have to pay?"
"No need. I am already deeply in your debt in many ways; taking such a thing would be unseemly."
Ariel answered immediately. Based on her attitude alone, I couldn't tell who was making the request of whom. She must have been truly mortified.
I tapped Yuri's leg to catch her eye and then nodded. Yuri's face brightened at once.
"What, does that make me a wizard's apprentice? Do I have to speak formally to you now...?"
"That won't be necessary. The techniques are not so grandiose. In the first place, calling me a wizard is something of a misnomer. My total mana is far too minuscule. Regardless, I shall teach you what I am able, within the limit that my mana allows."
"Wow..."
Reni let out a small exclamation and then whispered to me.
"I-I don't know much about it, but I've heard somewhere that it's a big deal to receive personal instruction in magic. To offer it so readily..."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
Was that why Yuri was this flustered? Well, the fact that locals had to go through tremendous hardship just to learn something was knowledge I tended to forget, since I'd bought my skills so simply at the Point Shop.
"Uh... um... eek! Now what?!"
I poked Yuri, who was still stammering, in the side.
"Here, repeat after me. 'Thank you very much.'"
"Thank you very... Who do you think I am, a little kid?!"
"You're welcome."
"Gah! Hey! Your hits hurt! Don't actually hit me! Kya!"
...
And so, a small, pitiful commotion unfolded. Yuri giggled to herself. Ariel closed her eyes again, apparently meditating. Reni tilted her head.
"Ah, um, Ariel, but..."
"What is it?"
"I-I thought you said before that you couldn't use magic? Which was why the big bomb was so..."
"Ah. I received amplification from him, so my total mana has increased. Thanks to that, I can manage such trivial tricks. And since the effect has already begun to accumulate, at that."
"Already... accumulated?"
"Indeed. It is accumulating. I find myself looking forward to what lies ahead."
Sparkle. Sparkle.
Everyone's eyes glittered. Hmm. For some reason, a chill ran down my spine, as if my body were breaking out in goosebumps.
"Ah, hello."
"Welcome!"
At the quiet greeting from behind me, I shot to my feet and turned around. Yes. Perfect timing.