The Recommendation Card
Truthfully, for the three days after we repelled the monster assault led by the Ice Golem, nothing else happened.
We only caught a few horned wolves that had lost their way and drifted toward the village. Once the necessary work was finished, there was nothing left to do, so my body got plenty of rest.
But there was no guarantee some strange new calamity wouldn't strike again at any moment, which made it impossible to truly relax. Mentally, the days wore on me without pause.
And so, when the moon finally shattered into fragments and the sun revealed itself, it was hardly surprising that people rejoiced as if driven mad with delight.
"The sun! It's the sun!"
"Hahaha! We're alive! We actually made it!!"
"Oh, gods above..."
"When I get home, I'm finally confessing to Josephine!"
All hail the sun! After nearly a week of darkness, people came pouring out of their homes without exception, praising the brilliant sunlight as it spilled over them. They wept openly, threw their arms around anyone within reach — to an outside observer, it must have looked like they'd just won the World Cup.
Even amid all this half-crazed celebration, Noah calmly studied the sun itself.
"Based on the data accumulated so far, I can confirm this is the genuine sun. It's in the correct position. It's also moving, albeit imperceptibly."
"You were checking that too?"
"If there is a fake moon, we cannot rule out the existence of a fake sun, can we?"
"...Fair point."
Still, if the sun had turned out to be fake, I doubt I could have brought myself to tell her. I'd have been branded a traitor on the spot.
I let that idle thought drift by as I watched Ivan get slapped across the cheek for trying to hug Sophia.
···
The total death toll was thirty-one.
Of those, twenty had been villagers.
It was the worst disaster in the village's history — and yet, considering the sheer number of monsters that had come at the walls, it was an incredibly strong showing.
That was why Alta came to our house, saying he intended to honor the reward he'd promised.
"I'll say it again... because of you, the village survived. Thank you."
"Don't mention it. We were paid for the work, so we simply did it well."
"Gratitude is gratitude, no matter the pay. So — you two are planning to leave the village, aren't you?"
"Yes. That's the plan. We've quite enjoyed living here, but..."
Honestly, it had gotten a little boring. And I was curious what the outside world was like.
There was also the matter of Noah's body to resolve, so it was time for us to step beyond the village walls.
Alta nodded at my words, affirming my choice.
"That's how it is when you're young. Just look at Ivan, raising hell about wanting to leave the village... Ah, wait, that's not what I came here to say. So — do you have a plan for once you're outside?"
"We're thinking of following the caravan to Bolston first. It's apparently quite a large city, so there should be plenty to see."
"Hmm. A good choice. There's a Guild branch there, too. Why not join the Guild while you're at it?"
"That would be the best option, but... there's a problem."
Bluntly put, it was a matter of identity.
The Guild had an excellent system that guaranteed your legal status entirely upon joining — but in exchange, it didn't just let anyone in. Skill aside, people with unclear backgrounds like ours supposedly had to jump through hell just to get accepted.
According to Lovrick, it would take years at the very least.
"So we're planning to join the Mercenary Association first. Once we build a track record there, joining the Guild later becomes much easier — or so I've heard."
A chicken in place of a pheasant, as they say.
Unlike the Guild, which carried out official duties for the public, the Association was an organization devoted purely to the interests of its members.
It was, naturally, the mercenaries traveling with the caravan who had recommended it so enthusiastically. They'd insisted that people of our caliber could easily form their own mercenary company, and made the earnest plea that if we ever found ourselves short-handed, we should call on them.
Alta, however, seemed to have a different view.
"People should swim in big waters. And once you set your foot wrong in the Association, you could get dragged into their damned faction wars for nothing."
"Still, waiting years isn't realistic for us."
"No need to worry. Every place has a back door somewhere. There's a system made precisely for people like you."
Alta pulled a small card from his breast pocket.
It was the same card he'd once produced to prove his standing as a Guild member to Lovrick.
Crack!
He snapped the card clean in half, then split one of the halves again. The sound was ominous, but the card parted smoothly and cleanly, without a single shard, as if it had been made to break this way.
Then he handed each of us one of the quarter pieces.
"Only three of these, but anyone from 5th-rank Guild member upward can issue a recommendation. With this, your identity won't be a problem at all. It means I'm taking personal responsibility for any questions about it."
"Ohh..."
"I thought long and hard about what to give you, and this seemed the best. You may not feel its value right now, but the moment you walk into a Guild branch, you'll understand exactly how much it's worth."
"No. I understand it well enough already. Thank you, truly."
With this, we wouldn't need to waste years struggling to join the Guild. This recommendation card was worth more than any ordinary Artifact.
For Alta's sake as much as our own, I resolved to tread carefully.
"Ahem! It's merely the price of our transaction, so don't thank me too much. You did contribute to the village, after all. No — honestly, I can't imagine how things would have gone without you there."
Hmm... now that he mentioned it, what would have happened without us?
For one thing, Alta wouldn't have headed for Bolston, would he?
Back then, Ivan hadn't even Awakened yet, so with no one to guard the village, Alta would have stayed put the whole time.
'And if he hadn't gone to Bolston... the caravan and the Guild members would never have come either.'
Setting aside the shortage of fighters, the palisade could never have been reinforced. With preparations already in place, maybe the village could have held the monsters back — but the sacrifices would have been immense.
"Granny Ryu detaining you two was nothing short of a godsend, I'd say. Though I suppose I can't speak for how you felt about it."
"It wasn't bad for us, either. We learned a great deal thanks to her."
"Then all the better. Let's see — the caravan departs tomorrow morning, so... time truly is running short. We're throwing a party tonight. Come by and show your faces."
"We will."
The party that evening was, in every sense of the word, a festival of meat.
Monster meat was in rotten abundance, so it was served without restraint. The merchants, for their part, spared no expense with the spices that made frontier life bearable, lending the cooking a truly elevated quality.
"Isaac's boots! Three silver. Anyone want them?"
"I'll take them."
"Sold. Next... well, look at this. The man had things, didn't he. A necklace set with a Rank 7 magic stone. I'll start this one at ten silver."
"One gold, and it's mine!"
Off in one corner of the banquet, a sort-of auction, but not quite an auction, was in full swing.
They were selling off the belongings of those who had died to the monsters.
At first, watching people set absurdly steep prices — and others pay them eagerly — I wondered what on earth was going on. But apparently, all the money gathered this way was sent to the families of the dead.
As I watched the spectacle while tearing into perfectly grilled barbecue, the Village Chief came over and greeted me. Despite his exhausted look, something about his complexion was off.
Something weighing on him?
"You leave tomorrow, yes? For Bolston?"
"That's the plan. We can't stay here forever, after all."
"I see. Then... hmm..."
The Chief began to say something, then hesitated.
Don't tell me he was going to try to stop us from leaving. From the village's perspective, even a single Awakened was worth his weight in gold...
But what the Chief carefully brought up was something else entirely.
"I say this out of an old man's foolishness, but... if you join the Guild in Bolston, be careful around the Branch Master."
"Sorry? The Branch Master?"
"Shh! Keep your voice down."
At my rather loud reaction, the Chief — fussy about something or other — swept his gaze over the caravan, the mercenaries, even the spot where Lovrick's party was gathered.
Everyone was busy with the auction or enjoying their meat and drink.
Only after confirming this did the Chief bring his mouth to my ear and whisper in a very small voice.
"The current head of the Bolston Guild branch is a man called Zeres. He's an exceptionally capable individual. No one else has clawed their way up from the very bottom to the Branch Master's seat."
"I see..."
"No stain on his private life, either, and his character is good enough to have earned a reputation as a man of principle. Thanks to that, rumors are rampant that he'll soon be called to headquarters and given a high executive post. However..."
"However?"
"...That man has a very keen interest in power. As you may know, His Imperial Majesty's health has been failing of late, and the princes' squabbles have only grown fiercer for it. The mood in the Imperial Capital is beyond description."
The Imperial Capital? The Emperor?
I knew absolutely nothing about the subject, but I nodded along anyway. Come to think of it, I felt like Granny Ryu had said something similar at some point.
"I heard this from a merchant I know... they say Zeres has been quietly courting the Second Prince. The Guild is supposed to maintain strict neutrality, mind you."
"Are you advising us to keep our distance from him?"
"I am. There's no way what even a humble village chief like me knows is unknown to others. And yet he's kept his seat as Branch Master all this time — even being earmarked for a high post at headquarters... doesn't that suggest something?"
"He has powerful backing...?"
"Backing of the enormous kind. In any case, the power struggle must be at its peak by now, which means the Branch Master will be desperate to secure whatever military strength he can use. Please, be careful not to get entangled. On the surface, he looks like a truly fine man."
"...I'll be careful."
···
Slipping away from the crowd still partying like they meant to stay up until dawn, we made it home. When I relayed my conversation with the Village Chief, Noah-wiki resolved my questions in one stroke.
"The Emperor... I did hear something about that from Granny Ryu."
"Really? How come I don't remember any of it?"
"You were dozing off at the time. In any case, this is a political matter."
According to Noah's explanation, the current Emperor had sired a great many children — more than twenty of them, apparently?
The problem was that some ten years ago, the Emperor had fallen into an unresponsive state.
And without ever naming a successor.
"Whoa. That's an absolute powder keg. I don't even need to see it to guess how that's turned out."
"They say walking through the Imperial Capital is like crossing a sheet of thin ice. That's why the Village Chief, unable to endure it any longer, left the Capital where he had spent most of his life and founded this pioneer village. It was most likely a deliberate choice to distance himself from the very source of danger."
"Ah... so that's why he went so far as to build a village way out here."
"From what I hear, the Second Prince's faction is no ordinary force... so it seems he's entangled with the Guild as well. That was valuable information."
Hearing all this just as we were about to leave the village left a sour taste in my mouth. But we couldn't exactly camp out here until the Emperor was decided upon, either... I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
With a premonition of impending trouble scratching at me, I ruffled my hair.
"Getting mixed up in a power struggle over an emperor in a medieval-style era is insanity. Hmm... should we skip Bolston and try another city?"
"If even a remote frontier city like this one is that bad, everywhere else will be much the same, won't it? It might be safer to stay somewhere far removed from the Imperial Capital."
"Tch. Fine, then. All we can do is be as careful as possible. Anyway, I should get some sle—"
BANG!
Late in the night, just as I was about to sleep for tomorrow's sake, someone kicked the door open and stormed inside.
It was Sophia.
Thoroughly, absolutely plastered.
"Noooaaaah-unnie~~! Where'd you gooOOO!! We're leaving tomorrow and... *hic*... *sob*..."
With a slurred, mangled pronunciation, Sophia wailed Noah's name at the top of her lungs. Apparently she'd noticed us slipping out of the party without a word and tracked us all the way here.
Using the calm sound of Noah soothing her as my lullaby, I drifted off to sleep.