Chaos in the Mercenary Guild
The moment the guild door opened, a glass shattered at my feet and a torrent of violent curses slammed into my ears. If the knight hadn’t opened the door first to shield me, that glass would have smashed straight into my face.
I nearly died the instant I stepped into the guild. I’d thought a guild was still a place where people lived and worked. Clearly I needed to revise that opinion. Part of me wanted to spin on my heel and walk straight back out.
“Fight! Fight!”
“Uahaha!!”
“That’s it! More! Hit him harder!”
Wasn’t the normal reaction to a brawl supposed to be breaking it up? Instead, the men who looked like mercenaries stood there with mugs of beer in their hands, cheering and egging the fighters on.
“What in the world…”
The knight spoke to me as I stood there stunned. “This is what a typical guild looks like.”
The peaceful street outside had given no hint that the interior would be a war zone. I couldn’t understand why these people were acting this way.
“Why are they all fighting like this? There’s blood everywhere…”
After getting beaten up like that, they’d just come crawling to our temple begging to be healed, wouldn’t they? The mere thought made my blood pressure spike. Unless they possessed miraculous self-recovery that could mend those injuries in seconds, every single one of those wounds would become our problem.
I’d assumed the reason mercenaries visited the temple so often was because exploring the Labyrinth was dangerous! Realizing the injuries might not be from the Labyrinth at all, but from beating each other senseless, made it impossible to swallow my irritation.
“They could just talk it out…”
“If something like that worked, those bastards wouldn’t be living as mercenaries, now would they?”
The voice didn’t belong to the knight. When I turned, an unfamiliar female mercenary stood there with her arms crossed, watching me.
The knight stepped in front of her. “Do not speak to him so casually.”
“He’s a priest, right? I know he’s an important person, but isn’t that a bit too stiff? Once you enter the guild, you follow the guild’s rules.”
“It’s all right, Sir Knight.”
I had come here to hire mercenaries. Acting disdainful toward them would defeat the purpose. I believed we should show respect first.
“Hello. I am Arthur, a priest who serves the Sun God.”
“…A noble person like you has no need to know the name of a lowly mercenary, so I’ll skip the introduction. What brings someone like you to a filthy place like this?”
“I came to post a request.”
“A request, huh… What kind?”
“You don’t need to know that. Priest, allow me to escort you.”
“How prickly.”
The knight clearly disliked the mercenary who had approached first and continued to radiate wariness. There was no reason to defy him just to chat with her, so I offered a polite greeting and followed the knight deeper inside.
“May the Sun God’s blessing be with you.”
“Good luck expecting manners from the rest of them.”
“Please ignore her.”
Following the knight’s lead, we moved farther in. The brawl that had been destroying everything around it had already ended. There was no need to figure out who won. Both combatants had lost consciousness and collapsed.
I just want to tell them to settle it themselves and wash my hands of the whole thing.
But with so many eyes on me, I couldn’t simply pretend not to notice. Maintaining the dignity of a priest was also one of the required evaluation criteria.
“Sir Knight, one moment.”
“Yes? What is it—surely you don’t mean…”
When the knight saw where my gaze had landed, his expression hardened.
“How could I, as a priest, turn a blind eye when they’re collapsed like that?”
“There is no reason for you to intervene, Priest.”
“I don’t know why they fought, but they’re injured. I can’t ignore it. Would you allow me to treat them?”
“Haa~”
The knight let out a long sigh, then nodded. “If those men try anything strange, I will use force immediately. You must understand this.”
“Yes. In that case, I will follow your lead, Sir Knight.”
I had been heading for the counter but turned back. If the knight hadn’t been with me, I might have tried to post the request while pretending I wasn’t a priest. Since he was here, I might as well display proper priestly dignity. When else would I get the chance?
“Excuse me. I’m a priest—may I treat these two gentlemen?”
The mercenaries who had been laughing around the two fighters—who didn’t have a single uninjured spot on them—turned to look at me.
“Huh? A priest? What’s a priest doing here?”
“I came to post a request, but it looks like there are patients.”
“Hmm. If you heal these idiots right away, they’ll just start fighting again.”
What surprised me was that the surrounding mercenaries didn’t seem to welcome the idea of treating the men who had fainted from brawling.
“Wouldn’t it be better to just leave them? You might feel sorry for them, Priest, but both of them are morons who deserve to look like that. The moment their bodies are healed they’ll go right back at each other.”
“Is their relationship that bad?”
“This level of bad blood is pretty normal around here.”
“Leaving wounds untreated is bad for the body, so when they wake up please tell them to come to the temple for proper treatment.”
“You’re a reasonable priest.”
Since it let me conserve my strength while preserving my image, I had no reason to refuse.
“Anyway, didn’t our priest say he came to post a request?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me what it is. I’m the veteran here, so it’ll be easiest if you talk to me.”
“Ah… it’s nothing special. I’m looking for a mercenary who can purchase books on my behalf.”
“Now that’s a request that suits a priest perfectly. Follow me.”
I glanced at the knight to see if it was all right to follow the mercenary. He gave a small nod. Earlier he had blocked me from even speaking to the female mercenary, yet now he said it was fine. I couldn’t figure out what the difference was between male and female mercenaries.
Following the mercenary’s guidance, we entered a small room with a table.
“Sit there. Hey! We have a guest.”
“Yeees~”
A short-haired woman with vivid red lips appeared, chewing gum with loud snaps. She wore a short skirt and a top that generously revealed her cleavage, then sat down across from me.
“When they suddenly told me to receive a guest I wondered what it was, but it’s a priest.”
The guild staff member looked at my clothes with a surprised expression.
“Would I bring just anyone?”
“True enough. So, what sort of request brings our priest all the way here?”
The room was small and shabby, but I realized this must be the guild’s VIP area.
“It’s not some tremendous request or anything…”
“Since the client is a priest, request grade doesn’t really matter. Speak comfortably.”
“I want to buy some books, but I can’t go myself.”
“Ah! So you’re looking for someone to purchase books in the city for you.”
“Yes.”
“For proxy book purchasing, it’s best to hire a mercenary with high credibility.”
“That’s what I was advised as well.”
“Even at the same rank, mercenaries with high credibility charge significantly higher fees.”
“How much of a difference are we talking about?”
As chief healer I was wealthy enough that I didn’t need to cling to money. Still, I didn’t want to be taken advantage of, so I pretended to examine the details carefully with the guild staff. A priest also shouldn’t act too obviously rich.
“That much I can manage. Please find me someone with high credibility.”
“Please write the titles and authors of the books you’re looking for on this paper. If you have a preferred location for the purchase, write that down as well.”
Since I didn’t know exactly how many books related to Cardinal Caria existed, I explained the situation instead of writing anything down.
“There aren’t specific titles. I want to purchase every book related to Cardinal Caria.”
“Ah! In that case the request fee will go up a little.”
“Yes. Also, I need someone who will continue obtaining books until I’m satisfied.”
I myself had no idea when that would be. I had to keep digging through every record until I found hints about new healing methods. I also mentioned that I preferred someone with plenty of free time.
“It may take a while to find the right person. This isn’t the sort of request we’d call minor.”
“Um… is it very difficult?”
“It’s a long-term request, so additional fees apply. Collecting materials on a specific individual also incurs extra charges.”
“Understood.”
“What duration did you have in mind?”
“The sooner the better.”
“That also adds to the fee.”
Everything came with a price. The more demands I made, the higher the total climbed.
“After calculating the request fee, the deposit, and the guild introduction fee… it comes to this amount.”
She didn’t speak the number aloud, but the figure written on the paper was brutal. I had heard that mercenary guilds were money-obsessed, but after posting a single request I finally understood why.
“This is the success fee. Since you want continuous investigation, please be aware that additional charges will keep accumulating. Do you agree?”
“Yes, I agree.”
The staff member asked me to wait, then quickly drew up a document and returned.
“Please read it over and sign.”
I read the entire document carefully, then signed. After that I handed over the money pouch I had brought.
“You could have paid later, but thank you.”
“I’ll be counting on you.”
If I paid a large sum only to be assigned an unreliable mercenary, the whole thing would be a waste of time.
“Don’t worry about the request. We’re responsible for our mercenaries’ lives, so the guild won’t just assign anyone.”
The mercenary who had been sitting quietly while I registered the request eased my concerns.
“Yes. I’ll wait for you to introduce the right person.”
Every time I received treatment like this, it reassured me that my childhood choice hadn’t been wrong. If I had chosen a different profession, I would never have received such respect at a guild. This treatment was possible only because I was a priest.
A surge of pride rose for the status I had struggled so hard to obtain. This is exactly why I became a priest healer.
I barely managed to suppress the smile tugging at my lips, then stood up from my seat.