Teacher Wanted
The downtown streets were unusually quiet today. An ominous silence hung over everything, as if the whole city were holding its breath, waiting for something to detonate.
The supervisor, doubling as our carriage driver, glanced our way and spoke up.
"You heard my conversation with the gate captain earlier, didn't you? Anyone with decent hearing could have caught it from that distance."
"...Yes. My apologies. I was curious."
"Oh, no need. It's hardly a secret at this point. Still — disappearances, of all things..."
"Could it be like last time, when the cul— no, never mind. Forget I said anything."
I had been about to ask whether the cultists had snatched more noble children, just like with Catherine, the Count's youngest daughter — but I swallowed the words in a hurry. The fact that Catherine had been kidnapped was fairly well known among those in the know, but the truth that the cult had been behind it was all but classified.
Fortunately, the supervisor seemed too absorbed in airing his own thoughts to have registered my slip.
"Technically speaking, children of nobles don't hold formal titles yet, but even so — laying hands on a noble house? The culprits must be audacious indeed."
"Has something like this happened before?"
"Never. Not once, apart from Lady Catherine's case. The guild's bounty hunters will surely be mobilized for this. And with the city's logistics tied up in knots like this... prices are bound to climb again. Things were only just beginning to stabilize."
"I don't imagine it will last long, though?"
Whether sealing the gates was truly the Count's will, or a decision forced on him by the nobles under his command, I couldn't say — but no city could keep this up indefinitely.
Just how much did a metropolis of a million-odd people consume in a single day?
Besides, kidnappers bold enough to abduct nobility were hardly likely to be caught by a checkpoint at the city gate.
The supervisor nodded along, agreeing with my assessment.
"Fair point. Well — the affairs of our betters are best left to our betters."
"I sincerely hope so."
And I meant it.
Unlike comparatively straightforward monsters, I had no desire to fight humans, who wielded complicated tactics.
It wasn't exactly a pleasant thing, killing people, either.
And if I ever had the misfortune of being captured by cultist scum, I'd be looking at a truly gruesome end.
Creak, creak.
As I was untangling my thoughts, I noticed the knights patrolling the streets in pairs. Every so often they'd stop a passerby and question them about something. They even marched brazenly into shadowy nooks that looked like back alleys.
...
We made for the guild as fast as we could, but a carriage drew plenty of eyes in the current climate, so we had to submit to an inspection or two along the way. Thanks to the supervisor stepping in on our behalf, however, we reached the guild without further incident.
He gave us a final parting word.
"You've worked hard. This turned into a rather exhausting commission, and through no fault of your own."
"Tell me about it... Oh! What do we do about the materials and artifacts we harvested from the dungeon? Are we supposed to sell them to the guild?"
"The guild does encourage that, as a rule. It's the surest way for them to keep dungeon-sourced goods under control. That said..."
The supervisor's face darkened as he looked at the wagon piled high with our haul. He seemed reluctant to say what came next, but he pressed on, putting on as neutral an expression as he could manage.
"To be perfectly honest, what the merchant companies offer... does fall short in a number of ways."
"What do people usually do, then?"
"...Entrust it to an auction house, or sell directly to a trading company."
What to do?
I turned the supervisor's words over in my mind. Naturally, most people would do exactly as he implied and take the fatter purse without a second thought.
Which is precisely why selling to the guild might get us noticed.
I was weighing the exact opposite option. Sure, right now it would look like some green rookie who didn't know any better. But if I did it again and again?
At the very least, it would buy us the guild's goodwill.
I wouldn't go so far as the naive notion of swearing loyalty out of devotion to the guild's 'noble cause' — but I could understand that if I offered them an intangible convenience, this relationship would keep paying dividends.
Hidden information on commissions, priority access to higher-tier requests, artifact rentals, recruitment for ruins survey expeditions — the perks the guild could dispense were considerable. In truth, most parties simply left all of that in the hands of their dedicated receptionist.
It was a long deliberation, but it was one I'd already chewed over before, so the decision came quickly.
"We'll sell to the guild."
"I'm sorry?"
"'Hope for humanity, despair for monsters!' Famous slogan, isn't it? As guild members, it's only right we give the guild our support. Well... it's a rather grand sentiment for selling a few odds and ends, I'll admit."
"Grand? It's magnificent! Truly admirable!"
As if he'd heard something utterly unexpected, the supervisor seized my hand and pumped it up and down. His eyes were genuinely shining with emotion — though coming from a middle-aged man who looked like he had at least a couple of kids back home, it was a bit much for me.
After lavishing praise on me for a good long while, the supervisor drifted into outright private grievances.
"...And that's why the new recruits these days are so insolent! Back in my day, such a thing was unthinkable."
"Oh? So you're a senior member, then?"
"Eh... I was nothing special. But back then, joining the guild meant passing a whole interview on character and temperament. Now it's all gone soft! I mean, really — recruiting on raw strength alone? At this rate, how are we any different from those lawless thugs at the Mercenary Association?"
Hmm.
I had apparently flipped some switch.
The supervisor had now graduated to the venerable old-timer's lament: 'Back in my day...'
What a headache.
I gestured to Noah and Lena, who were smiling awkwardly beside us, and sent them on ahead to the inn. Noah, ever thorough, made sure to take a portion of the Desert Honey with her.
"Kids these days only care about money... I honestly can't fathom why they even join the guild!"
"Mm... I suppose so."
"The guild itself seems to be slipping, too. There's talk the branch master is meddling in the capital's power struggle, and then there are anomalies like the Blood Moon... who knows where this world is headed!"
And so I was obligated to sit through the supervisor's rant for a very long time, to atone for the mess I had (apparently) created myself.
...
After nearly an hour of chatter, the supervisor declared he'd take care of everything himself and had his men haul the wagonload of materials away.
While we were at it, I handed the seed-shaped artifact obtained from the Core over to the guild's appraiser as well. The man kept flipping through a thick reference book, his eyes flickering with uncertainty — by Noah's prediction, it was clearly an unregistered artifact.
And finally...
"...Miss Amy. It's been a while."
"My, someone looks like the dungeon worked him over. Your color is terrible."
"You could say that..."
Amy, her ever-gleaming blonde hair pulled back in its usual tight knot, greeted me with a bright smile. My fatigue from the old man's endless chatter seemed to melt away on the spot.
I handed her the paperwork the supervisor had stamped. It detailed the dungeon's interior layout and the monsters we'd encountered.
"Ooh... you took down a Grade 6 Monster? A Tree of Longing growing that large is extremely rare... I suppose that's something only possible in a dungeon. But what about the magic stone?"
"Ah, I'm keeping that one myself. For decoration. It's really quite pretty."
I was forced to cobble together a flimsy excuse about the magic stone I had absorbed. Still, since we'd turned over everything else from the dungeon to the guild, no one was likely to suspect us of passing off a mere magic stone elsewhere.
We'd harvested a frankly absurd quantity of Desert Honey, too, so even without the Grade 6 stone, our testimony would carry plenty of weight.
Amy nodded.
"Understood. Your payment will be transferred straight to your card account. Hmm... and I'm sorry I couldn't warn you about the supervisor in advance. The first [Trial] is supposed to be strictly confidential..."
"It's fine. Honestly, anyone who hands a dungeon over to strangers is the crazy one."
I waved off Amy's careful apology. True, they could have dropped a hint even under confidentiality, but us making a show of minding the supervisor would have looked strange in its own way. It was, after all, a trial that any competent guild member could pass without trouble.
"On that note — do you have any other decent commissions?"
"You're taking on another request without resting first?"
"No, no. I plan to take a few days off, but I'd like to get a feel for how things stand right now. You know, with those disappearances in the Inner Castle and the city under lockdown — that has to be affecting the commission board, doesn't it?"
"Ah..."
Amy nodded knowingly and laid it all out for me.
"Merchant escort commissions have been practically wiped out. Moving cargo in a climate like this just looks suspicious in every possible way, so it can't be helped. Most trading companies have postponed their shipments north for now."
"I see."
Noble influence really is no joke. A Rank 6 guild adventurer holds a station even minor nobles can't push around carelessly... Henry, Catherine, and Harrington were all so un-aristocratic from the start that I'd briefly forgotten.
Every time I heard talk like this, it struck me anew that I was living in a rigid class society. To be fair, unlike Earth's history, the established noble houses of this era had mastered their own methods of cultivation and acquired genuine power — the social force they wielded was beyond anything I'd imagined.
No, if anything — thanks to Awakened occurring naturally and the guild holding its ground as a supranational organization — perhaps this was the nobles' power contained.
Without the guild, this world might have become a paradise for the aristocracy and no one else.
"Miscellaneous commissions have dried up a lot as well. Every organization is holding its breath right now."
"What about dungeons?"
"There's a Rank 7 dungeon request still pending, but... that might be a bit much?"
"...Let's put that one off for now."
This dungeon expedition had taught me one thing for certain: I needed to always prepare for the worst-case scenario.
No matter how small the odds, once something actually happens, that probability might as well be one hundred percent. Given our party's luck... if we picked a Rank 7 dungeon, a Rank 5 monster was bound to pop out.
And with our luck, possibly something even worse.
"Ruins commissions, naturally—"
"None. Speaking of which — would you consider taking on a request related to the disappearances? It's been designated an emergency commission, and plenty of people have signed up."
"No, I'll pass. We made good money this time, so we'll rest for a while. Anyway, I should be going—"
I had no intention of wading into a mess like that. One wrong step, and I'd be walking straight into cultist territory of my own free will.
Just as I rose with a brief farewell, Amy hurriedly caught my sleeve.
"Wait! I have news about that [teacher-wanted] request you filed a while back."
"Oh? Did a spot open up? I thought I'd be waiting a year."
"Ah, it's not that person — someone new has come to Bolston. It's just... um..."
"What is it, then?"
Amy fidgeted for a long moment as if something were weighing on her, but under my prodding she finally spoke.
"The reviews from everyone who's studied under him are awful. Verbal abuse, physical violence, drunk lessons(?), extortion, sexual harassment... apparently fewer than a handful of students have lasted more than a week."
"...We are talking about the request to find me a teacher, right?"
"Yes..."