Chapter 2: Adventurer Registration and the Sale of the Dragon

Author: 十一屋　翠 (Juuichiya Sui)

 

Right as the Sun was about to sink below the horizon, I arrived in Tougai.

“All right! With this, I’ll still be able to register as an adventurer today!”

I entered the town and walked around, searching for the adventurer’s guild.

I immediately found my target building.

Reason being, it had a signboard with wings on it.

It was the symbol of freedom, the sign-bearing-wings reflecting the adventurer’s guild’s first guild master’s belief that all adventurers were free.

“So this is the adventurer’s guild…”

I was hit by emotion.

My adventurer life starts now!

“Ah, we can’t have this! I’ve gotta register before the guild closes!”

◆ ◆

When I entered the building, I found it crowded with a huge number of people.

Uwaa, are all these people adventurers?

It’s amazing, to think there were this many.

I’m a little nervous.

No good no good, I forgot about my objective again for a second there.

Finding the reception, I joined the queue.

“That’s one long queue.”

“What, kiddo, this your first time queueing up at this time of day?”

Having heard me talking to myself, the adventurer in front of me turned around.

He looked a bit scary, but didn’t seem to be a bad person.

“Yes, today’s my first time.”

“Oho, a newbie.
So your first job went we- … you don’t have any luggage.
Don’t tell me you’re just about to register?”

Huh? Am I doing it wrong?

“Yes, I left our village as soon as my coming of age ceremony was over.”

“Ah, I see.
So that’s why you’re here at this time.”

Thank goodness, it doesn’t seem like I was doing anything wrong.

“Hahaha, we get your kind from time to time.
Youngsters longing to become an adventurer who come straight here once their coming of age ceremony is over.”

“There’s others who do what I’m doing?”

“Yeah, quite a lot too.
Well, they usually want to accept requests as soon as they’ve registered, so not many come at this time of day.
People who’ve finished their jobs come here in the evening to report their requests completed, so it’s always crowded.”

I see, so that’s why there’s so many people here.

“Where did you come from? If you left right after your coming of age ceremony was over and arrived now, you must’ve come from pretty far away?”

“Yes, I came from a village called Zenje.”

“Zenje? Never heard of it.
Where is it?”

Ah, Zenje’s a remote village with no other villages near it.

“Zenje is west from here, over the mountains.”

“The mountains!? You come from quite far away.”

Oops, I surprised him.
It seems what I did wasn’t normal.

This won’t do.
I decided I would live a plain and simple life this time.

“I grew up in the mountains, so I took a couple shortcuts.”

“Oh, because hunters know all the secret mountain trails.”

“Yes that’s right! They told me about them when I was helping out hunting to train for being an adventurer!”

“I see.”

The fact that they did tell me about the animal trails means this is not a lie, so it’s fine.

But I think I’ll keep me having flown here a secret.

“Ah, I think you can go.”

“Oh yeah.
Then, later.”

“Yeah.”

Talking to the adventurer turned out to be a good way to pass the time.

I’m glad the first adventurer I talked to was nice.

Ah, I forgot to ask his name.

I’ll ask him if we meet again.

“Next person please.”

Oh hey, it’s my turn.

“Welcome to the adventurer’s guild.
I’m Elma, a receptionist.
You’re here to register as an adventurer, yes?”

“Yes! Wait, how did you know!?”

“Fufu, I mean, you were talking rather loudly with Garland-san earlier.
I could hear it all perfectly.”

“Uwaaaaaa”

Whoops, was I really talking that loudly.

Uu, I got too excited talking to the first adventurer I ever met.

“Now then, I’ll be registering you.
Can you read and write? I can do it for you if you can’t.”

“It’s fine, I can write.”

I mean, I was the Sage in my before-previous life, so I can read and write quite a few languages.

“Then, please fill out this form.”

“Yes!”

I wrote down my name and age on the documents she held out to me.

“Done!”

Elma nodded contently as she looked at the documents I had handed back to her.

“Okay, I confirmed it.
You have really pretty handwriting.”

It’s kind of embarrassing to be told your handwriting is beautiful.

“Some people, while they are able to write, have nearly unreadable handwriting.
So, people who have good handwriting are welcome in the guild too.”

Uummm, is that an invitation to become adventurer’s guild staff?

No no, I’m gonna be an adventurer!

“No, I’d like to be an adventurer please!”

“Fufu, okay.
But please think about it when you retire.”

Huh, so you can find employment in the adventurer’s guild once you retire.

It does indeed seem like being an adventurer is a hard job, and if you get really injured, you might have to retire.

Well, I can use healing magic, so I won’t be retiring that easily.

“Next, you’ll be taking the practical examination.”

“Practical exam?”

What do you do in a practical exam?

“You’ll have to fight me to let us see if you’ll actually survive as an adventurer.”

Came a voice from behind me.

I turned around, and found a bearded man in his thirties standing there.

He had a beard, but it was neatly trimmed, so he didn’t make a bad impression.

His outfit consisted of a half-plate mail covering his chest and shoulders, metal hand and leg armour, and leather armour made of demon leather covering the rest of his body.

It was good equipment that took both ease-of-movement and protection into account.

Huh? Isn’t that mithril in parts of his bracers?

Moreover, while its blade is hidden in the scabbard, the guard and grip of the sword hanging at his waist are both really well made, and you can tell at a glance that it’s a good product.

Above all, his posture was the most centred of all the adventurers in the building.

This person is definitely strong.

“Say, Elma-chan.
Could I conduct the practical exam of this kid?”

“““Ehhh!?”””

Not only Elma, but all the other adventurers in the vicinity let out voices of surprise.

“Aug-san, what are you saying!? You’re an A-Rank adventurer!?”

He’s A-Rank!? No wonder he looks so strong.

“What, he’s a young man with a promising future who came to become an adventurer at this time of day.
As his senior, I’d be happy to coach him.”

Saying that, the person named Aug went over to Elma and whispered something into her ear.

Sadly, he covered his mouth with his hand, so I couldn’t read his lips.

And using sound collection magic would be rude in this situation.

“All right.
If that’s how it is, it can’t be helped.”

It seems it’s been decided.

“Rex-san, I’m sorry about it being so sudden, but Aug-san here will be in charge of your test, not guild personnel.”

“All right.”

“He’s a little bit problematic, but he’s a real A-Ranked adventurer, so fighting him might even be a better experience than fighting retired guild staff.”

I see, if an active adventurer is my opponent, I’ll be able to learn a bunch of things!

“Thank you for the opportunity, Aug-san!”

“Okay okay, full of energy eh.
I like those kinds of people.”

And, at that moment.

A staff member rang a bell, raising their voice.

“The reception for purchasing materials is about to close! If you want to sell something, please hurry!”

As I heard that, I remembered something really important.

“Oh no, I have to sell something.”

“Hm? What, you wanted to sell something?”

“Yes, I want to sell the materials of a monster I hunted today while coming here for today’s accommodation fee and food expenses! ‘Cause I’m kinda broke.”

“Hahaha, I see.
Fine then, go sell that first then.
They’ll probably finish assessing it while the test’s going on.”

“Thank you very much! Excuuuuse meeee, I’d like to sell materials!”

Thank goodness Aug-san’s a nice person.

“You want to sell materials.
Please put them on this table then.”

“Yes!”

I took out the Green Dragon’s head from my magic bag and put it on the table.

The table creaked.

“Wh-?”

The staff member looked at it dumbfoundedly.

“It’s body is bigger so I’ll put that on the floor.”

I took out the Green Dragon’s body from my magic bag and gently laid it down on the guild’s floor.

“Please buy this Green Dragon!”

I asked the staff member, then turned around and went back to Mr.
Aug.

“Sorry to have made you wait! Can we please do the test now!”

“Hang on a second.”

Huh? What’s up, Aug-san?

“Did you hunt that?”

“Yes! I hunted it on my way here!”

“Did you hunt it with someone else?”

“No! I killed it with a surprise attack from a blind spot!”

“And how?”

“I cut its head off with my sword!”

“Really”

“That’s right!”

“By the way though, that looks like a Dragon.
It has wings too and everything.”

“Yes! It’s a Green Dragon!”

“I thought it was a Dragon.
It’s not a Wyvern or so though?”

No, that’s a Dragon.
I mean, Wyverns’ forelegs and wings are the same thing, and they’re way weaker than Green Dragons, and also bring way less money.

What happened? Mr.
Aug seems to have broken out in a sweat.

It’s getting dark outside, so it shouldn’t be so hot anymore.

“So, the exam…”

“Pass!!”

“Eh?”

Aug suddenly said something strange.

“But we haven’t even fought yet!?”

“No, it’s fine! The test is to see if you can properly hold your own against monsters or thieves!”

What’s that supposed to mean?

“So, there’s no need to test you, who can defeat monsters on his own! You passed! You super-passed! Congratulations newbie adventurer! Starting today, you’re one of us! So, there’s no need to fight at all, okay!”

Somehow, Aug-san seems strangely desperate? Or am I just imagining it?

“Ummmm, Elma-san, he said I passed, but is that okay?”

“…Eh? Me!?”

No, since she was in charge of registering me, only she can say I really passed, right?

“T-That’s right.
Your examiner said you passed, that should be good enough, right?”

“So then!?”

“Yes, congratulations on passing the test, Rex-san.”

“…I did iiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttt!!”

I’ve finally become an adventurer!

Some things didn’t quite add up at the end there, but since Elma-san, who’s a guild staff member said so, it’s fine!

Now I can live as an adventurer!

All right! I’ll do my best to live a plain life!!

◆ ◆

Having become an adventurer for sure, I finished what remained of the adventurer registration while the Green Dragon was being appraised.

My gaze was nailed to the card held out to me.

“This is your adventurer’s guild registration card.
Please show this card in the window when taking a request and when you have completed one.
Adventurers start at F-Rank, but by piling up achievements, your rank will rise.
You’ll be able to take on more types of requests when your rank rises, so please do your best.”

“Yes! I’ll do my best and raise my rank!”

I inspected the card up close, unable to suppress the grin on my face.

Uwaa, this is my adventurer card.

“Well, it seems like in your case, your rank will rise even if you don’t do your best…”

“Eh? Did you say something?”

“No, it was nothing.
By the way, about the appraisal of that Dragon…”

“Yes!”

While it wasn’t a very strong Dragon, a Dragon was still a Dragon.

So, I was expecting a reasonable amount of money.

But for some reason, Elma was looking at me apologetically.

“Well, actually, it will be really difficult for us to buy this Dragon.”

“…Eh?”

What’s that supposed to mean?

“That means, I’m afraid we can’t buy it!!”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeh?”

Whyyyyyyyyyy!?