No Sense of Business Ethics
So you ran all the way here to escape?” “Yeah…”
I couldn’t stand the crowd packed into the lodging or the roar of all those voices, so I slipped quietly out through the back alley and made my way to the adventurers’ guild. I figured this was one of the few places where I might actually avoid people. Besides, I suspected the drinkers hunting for me would head straight for the taverns first.
There, I was talking with the silver-haired female receptionist I usually chatted with.
“I honestly don’t get it. No matter how good it tastes, isn’t it still just alcohol?”
“Well… the flavor is different, but… if you’re not into drinking, you probably wouldn’t notice.”
“I don’t dislike it. I just don’t particularly enjoy it.”
The receptionist who had been patiently listening to my grumbling replied politely.
“By the way, a named request came in. Did I mention it to you?”
“A named request? For me?”
“Yes. It arrived yesterday evening.”
As she spoke, the receptionist handed me the paper listing the mission details. I took it and began to read.
“Let’s see…”
I scanned the request form, eyes narrowed in concentration, then frowned deeply.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just read it yourself.”
Requester: John Domino
Request: Lecture on beer brewing methods
“Worth frowning over, right?”
“Definitely.”
John Domino is the owner of the largest brewery in the city. His reputation, however, is surprisingly terrible. He hires adventurers to gather rare ingredients for his beer but never pays the promised reward. The rare materials he obtains never actually make it into the beer—he keeps them for himself. He runs vicious marketing campaigns that trash every competing brewery. And that’s not all.
Most taverns offer a small discount if you show an adventurer’s guild card. It’s a symbiotic relationship: the taverns lock in steady adventurer customers, the breweries get their beer drunk cheaply so word spreads, and the adventurers can enjoy affordable drinks after a hard day’s work. John Domino, though, not only refuses discounts but actively mistreats adventurers, so his name is mud among guild members.
Yet a man like that is sending a named request to someone he’s never even met, without bothering to show up in person, for something as ridiculous as this? It was absurd.
“You’re rejecting it, right?”
“Obviously. Oh, and while you’re at it, can you turn down any more requests about beer recipes that come my way?”
“Hmm… I can’t exactly filter them on my own authority… I’ll ask the branch chief.”
“Thanks.”
With that, I glanced over at the request board.
“Any B-rank jobs with tight deadlines left?”
“Let me see… Among the B-rank quests with short time limits… there’s the hop goblin extermination request.”
“That one still hasn’t been cleared?”
“Yes. A lot of adventurers have been heading to the front lines lately. They say if there are no requests, it’s better to enlist as a soldier and get paid by the kingdom than starve.”
“Hmm…”
“You’re not thinking of enlisting too, are you, Bel?”
Ugh. What a horrible suggestion.
“Ugh. I have zero interest in enlisting twice.”
“Huh?”
Oops. That was supposed to stay in my head.
“I mean, I don’t want to enlist.”
“Ah… I suppose that makes sense. They do say the front lines are hell, right?”
“Couldn’t agree more.”
Memories of my days on the front lines came flooding back. It was awful then, and even now the thought of it is still… awful.
“Anyway, you’ll take this one?”
“Yeah. Where’s the location?”
“Um… it’s at Lady Sicaria’s ranch to the west.”
“The client is Lady Sicaria too?”
“That’s right. The hop goblins have been causing serious damage to the livestock.”
“I’d better get over there quickly.”
I picked up my gear that I’d set on the floor and slung it on.
“I’ll be back. Have my reward ready.”
“Have you ever seen me pocket your pay? Don’t worry and just go.”
“Got it.”
I stepped out through the guild doors, returning the receptionist’s farewell.
But then—
“Ah.”
“Huh?”
By cruel coincidence or twisted fate, the moment I walked out the guild doors my eyes locked directly with the drinkers who had been searching for me since morning.
“Catch him!”
“Sorry!”
I broke into a sprint toward Lady Sicaria’s ranch, fleeing the drinkers on my tail.
I really am sorry! But it takes twenty days to make lager again!
*****
“Hehe… Thank you, young man…”
“Oh, you don’t need to thank me like that.”
“Thank you for clearing out all those goblins. Here, this is because you feel like a grandson to me. Take it.”
“Hey! Put that away. The guild reward will be plenty.”
When I arrived at Lady Sicaria’s ranch and assessed the situation, I realized things were worse than I’d thought. These weren’t ordinary goblins—hop goblins had deliberately entered the ranch to hunt livestock. That usually meant either a sudden population explosion or a new predator in their territory. Fortunately, after watching them for a while it seemed to be just a population surge, so I was able to finish the job without too much trouble.
Even so, quite a few goblins remained, so I ended up staying at the ranch for five days. I wiped out every last one, then helped repair the damaged fences and buildings.
“You’ve been handling everything alone, Grandma. The least I could do was help.”
“Hohoho. Thank you, dear.”
“I’ll be on my way now.”
I bowed politely and left the ranch.
The mission had taken far longer than expected. I thought it would be wrapped up in a couple of days, but the number of leftover goblins was ridiculous. Still, I’d cleaned them out thoroughly, so I doubted the ranch would need another request for the next few years. With that comforting thought, I headed back to the city.
The moment I entered the gates, an absurd shout reached my ears.
The rumored popular beer!
Now exclusively available only at Domino Brewery!
What the hell is this nonsense?
*****
“Wait, what did you just say?”
“Exactly what I said…”
Completely stunned, I pulled my scattered thoughts back together and headed straight for the adventurers’ guild to figure out what was going on. There I ran into Coriander, who was pondering over a mission, and heard the full story of what had happened during the five days I was gone. It was worse than I could have imagined.
After I rejected the request, that Domino bastard had used my absence to claim he’d bought the recipe and was now exclusively selling it at an outrageous price. If the copy had at least tasted decent I might have let it slide, but as a Heavy Drinker I couldn’t forgive turning an ale into some half-hearted barley-flavored mess and calling it lager. Technically it wasn’t even lager—it was classified as Kölsch. And the taste was catastrophic. The natural fruit notes of the ale and the forced barley flavor fought each other instead of harmonizing, and they’d dumped a ton of weird extra ingredients in a pathetic attempt to hide it. The result was disgusting.
Furious, I marched straight to Domino Brewery, but…
“You are not permitted to enter.”
They must have seen this coming; guards were posted everywhere. I couldn’t even catch a glimpse of that bastard’s face.
“Goddamn son of a bitch.”
“Sigh… So Domino has finally done it.”
Copying someone else’s recipe or releasing a beer while ignoring the original creator is one of the greatest taboos in the brewing world. It’s condemned both in the modern world and in this one, yet he’d done it openly. He probably figured he could get away with it because I was just an adventurer. Bastard.
“So what are you going to do? You can’t exactly storm the place by yourself.”
“Sigh… I know.”
Right now I was sitting at a table with my party members Oakfoot and Coriander, trying to come up with a plan.
“He really has no sense of business ethics.”
“Whoa! You scared me!”
The sudden voice from behind me made me jump. I spun around to find the receptionist I was friendly with standing there.
“Whew… You really startled me.”
“Stop getting surprised every single time. Do you realize how embarrassing it is when you shout and draw everyone’s attention?”
I have no idea why she always approaches so quietly. My heart can’t take much more of it.
“Anyway… it looked like you were worrying about the Domino Brewery situation, so I came over to check on you.”
“I’m right in the middle of worrying… I have no idea what to do.”
“Why not just burn the whole place down?”
“Isn’t that a little too demonic for a suggestion?”
Even as a joke, there are lines you shouldn’t cross. …Wait, is she joking? Her face is completely deadpan.
Her expression was so blank I genuinely couldn’t tell whether she was serious.
“…It was a joke.”
Oh, it was a joke after all.
“Sigh… They’ve got guards crawling everywhere… Taking on a major company won’t be easy either… What the hell should I do…”
This world doesn’t have a concept of lawsuits. Adventurers are seen as people who handle problems when asked and nothing more. But the opponent is the largest brewery in the city. A normal adventurer can’t compete with that kind of power.
“Why don’t you just sell your own beer?”
“Hmm… That might… Wait, what?”
“Sell it. Your beer.”
The receptionist’s suggestion instantly swept away all my worries. Domino Brewery’s copy was obviously inferior to the original. If I—the real creator—started selling my beer, their popularity would naturally drop. After that, word of mouth would finish them off.
There was only one problem.
“Combined, it’s only ten liters…”
The stout and Belgian white I was currently brewing. Even putting both kegs together, I only had ten liters total. Once I brewed a batch, I’d have to wait another ten days for the next one. Meanwhile my opponent was a brewery with massive capital. While I sold my small amount and waited, they could just churn out more copies and flood the market.
“Hmm…”
Coriander, Oakfoot, and the receptionist all fell into deep thought after hearing me out.
The silence was finally broken by the receptionist’s single sentence.
“Why don’t we just assassinate him?”
“““As if that would work?!”””
We all shouted at once.