Volume 1 Chapter 16 Competition
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Three guild members arrived.
Two of them were guild knights from the action squad.
The last one was Sophia, Kian’s receptionist.
”Ms. Sophia, is something wrong?”
Kian asked, glancing at the two guild knights.
Sophia took a moment, placing her hands on her knees, struggling to catch her breath, but eventually lifted her sweat-drenched face.
Her usually neatly parted chestnut bangs were now disheveled.
”Rank 9 adventurer, Mr. Kian.”
”Yeah?”
”All of the quests you accepted have competing rivals. This includes the bodyguard mission──everything.”
”C-Competing rivals? …What does that mean?”
From the meaning of the words, it seemed someone else had accepted the same quests.
”Before the bodyguard quest was officially accepted, the ‘Falcon Brigade’ said they would also take on the same 5 quests, so they want you to withdraw. The guild wants to handle this as a ‘competitive bid’ between parties──.”
”Wait, wait a minute! I was the first to accept those quests! It’s not right for someone to just take them away from me!”
”Ah, that’s true. It’s not right. If it were just a matter of taking them away, that would be one thing.”
The guild knight standing next to Sophia spoke up.
He continued.
”Normally, adventurers avoid interfering with other parties’ prey to prevent private fights. This applies even to quests. The adventurer guild also records the date and time of the quest acceptance in the ‘adventurer handbook’ to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. This way, we can determine which party accepted the quest first. But──.”
”Oh… My adventurer handbook…”
Kian’s eyes widened.
His adventurer handbook had been disposed of by Sophia 2 days ago.
”Ah. It seems your adventurer handbook has been replaced with a new one. Before you could record it, the ‘Falcon Brigade’ accepted the same quests.”
”Hey, Borzov. All I was told was that an adventurer named Kian was coming, right?”
At that moment, a bear-like man──Robert Pigfoot, the client──interjected.
Does Robert know the guild knight guy?
”Yeah, Mr. Robert. I just sent a heads-up while I was making the handbook. The ‘Falcon Brigade’ accepted the requests after that──right at the last minute before the guild closed… Sorry for the late notice.”
”Tch, still doing things the bureaucratic way, huh? What?”
”Haha, cut me some slack. …So, that’s the deal, got it, Kian, Rank 9 adventurer?”
”I don’t get it! This makes no sense! Ms. Sophia!”
”W-well, I was just doing what my boss told me to do! It’s just a procedural issue that turned into this mess.”
”Don’t be too hard on her. She’s new, and some things are just out of her control.”
The guild knight stepped forward to protect Sophia.
”Mr. B-Borzov.”
”It’s okay, Ms. Sophia. Our goal is to negotiate peacefully with Kian, Rank 9 adventurer. We won’t let any harm come to you. More importantly, you need to explain this properly.”
”Y-yes! …So, um, Mr. Kian.”
Sophia took a deep breath and regained her usual composure.
”I sincerely apologize for this situation. However, as a guild, we’re worried about just dumping the 5 Rank 7 quests you accepted onto you! Therefore, we’re asking you to hand over the work to the ‘Falcon Brigade,’ and for you to step back from this matter.”
”There’s no way I can agree to that!”
”If you fail, it’ll be a hassle for the clients who trust the adventurer guild and for all the guild staff, including me! Don’t you realize you’re being selfish?”
’Kian, put this me on. With your current courage, you’ll be overpowered.’
Suddenly, the words from his glasses echoed in his mind.
Kian hesitated.
He was resistant to putting on the glasses…
But then, intuitively, Kian thought this.
(No, wait. The reason I’ve been stuck at the bottom for so long is that I’ve failed at these crucial moments. I need to learn. If I just lament being a fool later, I’ll stay a fool for life.)
Kian was feeling pretty frustrated.
He wanted to see how that guy did things.
The smart way he handled stuff when he put on his glasses.
He wanted to watch and learn from it.
He had been alive for 30 years now.
Not too young, but not too old either.
He thought it was time to toss aside the young insecurities and the stubborn pride that came with age.
’Well, well, you really are a rare breed, aren’t you? You’re at a crossroads where you can learn and change. Steal the cleverness and audacity you need to survive from that other version of yourself. Your alter ego is your greatest ally!’
”──────!”
”Mr. Kian, are you even listening? Just putting on those toy glasses isn’t gonna change anything. You need to understand your own strength. It’d be better to leave it to the ‘Falcon Brigade.’ It’d be smarter to listen to what I’m saying.”
His thoughts started to clear up────.
While he tuned out the receptionist Sophia’s words, Kian was lost in the refreshing feeling that surged through him when he wore the glasses.
This was it.
With the way he felt now, he could tackle any challenge.
Bolder than anyone.
Calmer than anyone.
Smarter than anyone.
──Taking a breath, Kian pushed the bridge of his glasses up with his finger and looked down at Sophia with a cold gaze.
”Sophia.”
”W-what is it?”
Suddenly being called by her first name, the receptionist braced herself, placing a fist against her chest.
The guild knights stepped forward with serious faces, but Kian calmly threw out his words.
”I’m just having a peaceful conversation here. Your time to step in is only when I start resorting to violence, right? Until then, just stay back.”
”…Well, that’s true. I’m sorry.”
”So, Sophia. Did you properly report that you accidentally disposed of my handbook?”
”…I-I did! I did!”
”Even though it was the guild’s mistake, are you really gonna take away the fact that I accepted the quest? That’s just unreasonable!”
”It’s not unreasonable! The guild decided to consider this matter practically and individually, and concluded that you don’t have the ability to complete the quest.”
”But the rules say I can take on requests up to Rank 2, right? If you think I’m not strong enough, how about we have a little adventure test with the ‘Falcon Brigade’ right here?”
Kian said that, and Robert let out an exasperated sigh from the side.
”Hey, hey, I wanna get back to town before it gets dark. My daughter’s cooking for me, but you know how it is. I gotta be back at the shop before the rush hits.”
”Mr. Robert’s got a point. It’s all about the adventurer rank system and quest ranking to save us the trouble of proving our skills in front of clients. The guild wouldn’t bend the rules and make excuses about skill levels. Sophia, you didn’t write anything special in the adventurer handbook about me being injured or anything, did you? If you, the officer in charge, wrote something negative, it’d make sense for the guild to make that kind of ruling. There’s a clause in the guild rules that says they can make practical judgments in special circumstances, you know.”
”────Huh!? …What are you talking about? That doesn’t make any sense.”
With the guild knight’s gaze on her, Sophia fidgeted a bit, looking suspicious.
”By the way, how did the ‘Falcon Brigade’ know about the 5 quests I accepted? They all seem to be competing with me on purpose, right?”
”W-well, maybe they saw Mr. Kian taking the quest notices off the board?”
”I showed you 9 quests in total: the 5 I accepted, one backup, and 3 more just in case those didn’t work out. How could they all overlap with the 5 I took?”
”It’s just a coincidence, right?”
”Yeah, unless someone leaked which quests I accepted, it’s just a coincidence.”
”……!?”
Sophia gasped quietly.
A heavy silence suddenly fell among the people gathered at the west gate.
”You’re not leaking any information, are you?”
Kian’s eyes widened as he locked his intense gaze onto Sophia.
The atmosphere felt like an interrogation, and Sophia trembled slightly.
”I-I’m not! If I did that, I’d get fired!”
Her words came out so hesitantly.
Even without the ability to detect lies, it was clear to any amateur interviewer that she was lying.
Kian deliberately fell silent, letting out a dramatic sigh.
”Hey, maybe you should just quit this job, huh?”
”…!”
He waited again.
He savored the silence, letting it stretch until Sophia’s mind cracked under the weight of embarrassment.
”U-uh, sniff… hic…”
After a while, tears began to well up in Sophia’s eyes.
No matter how elite she was, she was just a teenager who graduated from the academy with good manners.
If you’re going to do bureaucratic work, sometimes you need the power to assert, ‘This is legal,’ even if it’s technically illegal.
Calmness and guts──.
Sophia was completely unaccustomed to conversations on the edge of a knife.
That’s why she couldn’t even handle the most basic exchanges properly.
Kian shrugged.
”I don’t mind stepping back from the 5 quests, but first, I want to see my adventurer handbook. The new one I just got. I want to check if there’s really anything special written in it.”
”No way!”
Sophia shouted, her voice sounding like a scream.
”Why not? I’m just stating my rightful claim. And while we’re at it, let me talk to your boss too. This isn’t something we can just leave as is. I won’t back down until I get a thorough explanation.”
”No! No… no…!”
The end of her words was crushed and messy with tears.
It was a scene like kicking a corpse, but even the guild knights could only look down at Sophia helplessly.
Kian opened his mouth to push Sophia further, but before he could say anything, a furry hand landed on his shoulder.
”…That’s enough.”
It was Robert who stopped him.
”I get the gist of the situation. As for my quest, Kian, I’ll let both you and the Falcon Brigade participate, promising fair rewards for both. No first-come, first-served nonsense. If you gather the rare ingredients properly, I’ll guarantee a rating of B or higher. With a rating, you should also get contribution points. You’re solo, but you’ll still get the special points for the temporary party. Not a bad deal, right?”
”Your quest might be fine, but I can’t just nod along for the other 4.”
”Of course. And about that, she’s gotta take responsibility for her actions. But let’s stop picking on her here. She’s crying, isn’t she? …Honestly, I’ve got a daughter around the same age, so it’s tough to watch.”
”……”
Kian looked down at Sophia, who was staring at the ground, tears streaming down her face.
”Ugh…, w-wah, hic, ugh…”
”Alright. Either way, this isn’t going anywhere. She’ll need to calm down and handle this properly later.”
With that, he turned his back.
As he tried to shift his thoughts and looked ahead, he accidentally caught sight of a group of 4 walking toward him from the western forest.
(Is that…)
At the front was a handsome swordsman with cat-like hair.
Kian narrowed his eyes.
Funnelwing──.
They were the ‘Falcon Brigade’.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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