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Chapter 15 – The cat receives a special request
“Hello…”
There’s an elderly woman sitting behind a desk.
I’m standing in front of her desk, nervously looking at her.
Even though her face is wrinkly, she still emanates pressure with her presence.
Her braided blond hair contrasts with her black cloak.
This is…
The guild master?
“Hello there. So, you are the one I heard so much about?”
Ugh, it’s unpleasant to be scanned by her eyes.
It’s like she’s evaluating goods found in a shop.
“Yes… I’m Nina…”
“Right. The kid in odd clothes strong enough to fight a werewolf.”
That’s one way to put it, I guess…
No, actually, that’s quite rude…
“Well, I’ll cut to the chase. From what I heard, you are probably strong enough to be B or maybe even A rank.”
…
Phew…
So it’s about the rank.
Not the poison.
“But for an adventurer, strength isn’t everything.”
I know that…
The whole trust thing is important, right?
“For one, you need to be reliable.”
She squinted at me.
“If you collapse at a crucial moment, you will be more of a hindrance than anything.”
“Y-yes…”
I know exactly what’s she is referring to…
But come on!
I know I messed up in the past!
Why did this turn into a lecture?!
“Moreover, you need to be responsible. Going around crushing house roofs for fun is not good.”
“Gh…”
T-that happened just a moment ago!
H-how does she already know about that?!
Can she read my mind?!
Or does she have cameras in the city?!
…
Also, it wasn’t ‘for fun’!
I did it to avoid people!
It was 100% justified!
“And you should also know the extent of your abilities. Your weaknesses and strengths included.”
Yeah…
It’s about the time when I collapsed again, isn’t it?
Ugh…
“Well, with that said… I DO think you have a great potential… And it would be a great shame if you were stuck on these low level quests.”
O-oh…?
So, is my rank going to be increased?
“So…”
She grabbed a paper on her desk and placed in front of me.
“Here, read it.”
What is that…?
A special quest…?
Need an adventurer with these specs…
Strong despite not appearing so…
The contents…
An escort mission…
Expected ambush…
The reward is…
Huh…
I looked upwards at the guild master.
“This is a special quest from baron Heinzel. Normally, I would give this quest to someone else, but…”
She points at a certain sentence written on the paper.
“It’s this requirement. A person who is strong despite not appearing so.”
She leans back and crosses her arms.
“Unfortunately, there aren’t really any people like that available… that is, except for you.”
I see…
Well, I know I look weak.
After all, I have already caught several kidnappers thanks to that fact.
Even though they started to avoid me as of late…
“If you do well in this quest, I’ll consider raising your rank a few times…”
A few times, you say?
Not just once?
That sounds tempting…
But, this special quest…
The quest giver is a noble.
And nobles are… THOSE kind of people, right?
Arrogant, bossy and think they are superior to commoners.
I don’t think I’ll be able to endure that…
“Well? What do you say? Will you accept this quest?”
…
This is…
Urgh…
I don’t want to.
It would mean I have to cooperate with others.
I’m terrible at that.
And if that wasn’t enough, those ‘others’ wouldn’t just be some regular adventurers.
But nobles!
Nobles and their guards or whatever!
…
But if it means I can skip years of ‘proving’ myself to raise my rank, then…
Argh!
“Well, I can give you some time to decide. But it would be nice if you accepted.”
“Okay… I’ll think about it…”
“Alright then. Come here tomorrow morning and tell me how you decided.”
With that, I left her office.
On my way out of the guild, I met the familiar trio again.
Jun, Betty and Lisa.
“Oh, it’s Nina!”
“Hi.”
“Why were you in the back? Did something happen?”
Lisa seems worried.
But it’s all fine.
“Uhm… I got a special quest.”
“A special quest?! Seriously? That’s quite something.”
“Wow… I heard only famous and highly trusted adventurers get those.”
Huh…
But I got it because the guild master wanted me to prove myself, didn’t I?
Isn’t the order mixed up?
“Well anyway, we gotta unload our spoils, see you around.”
Wave my hand…
…
Wait.
I also need to do that.
When I arrived, I got taken to the guild master’s room right away.
There was no chance to empty my item bag.
Yep, let’s follow them.
I ended up going to the dismantling room along with the trio.
There, I pulled out the wolves out of my item bag.
The trio was surprised I already had enough money to buy an item bag even though I was broke a few days ago.
But then came to the conclusion the reward from the werewolf must have been used to buy it.
Well, it was actually from baiting kidnappers, but I won’t correct them.
Anyway, after an employee inspected the wolves I brought, I got my money.
All of the gray wolves netted me almost three big silver coins.
As for the black one, they gave me seven silver coins for just the one.
That’s way more than the normal ones even after deducting the dismantling costs.
Apparently, it’s because it’s a beast usually hunted by rank D adventurers.
Well, for me, it was no different from the normal gray ones.
But I won’t complain.
Extra money is good.
Now…
What do I do?
Should I accept that quest?
I don’t know…
What if they come up with some unreasonable demands?
I mean, just seeing the contents of that quest…
It says I have to act as a powerless girl to lure out the criminals…
And when they show themselves, I need to defeat them.
That’s just…
…
Huh?
Wait a second…
Now that I think about it…
Isn’t that EXACTLY what I was trying to do last night?
…
C-could this quest be the perfect replacement for baiting kidnappers?
It’s almost like some has arranged this…
It’s a little too perfect…
…
But still, the nobles…
…
No, actually, now that I think about it…
Sooner or later, I’ll probably have to deal with nobles anyway.
These clothes are basically pieces of powerful equipment.
People will want to get their hands on it.
And I can’t just assume everyone will be as nice as Vincent.
Some might even send assassins after me just to get it…
Having friendly relations with other nobles will come in handy at that time.
And the first step to good relations is to do a quest for them.
Right…
I’ve decided.
I’ll accept this quest!
Bring it on!
For the rest of the day, I took it easy.
Walked around the town.
Avoided people trying to talk to me.
And had dinner before going to sleep at the inn.
The next day, I went straight to the guild and had an employee bring me to the guild master’s room again.
“I accept the quest.”
Said with confidence!
None of that yesterday’s fidgeting!
Your aura won’t scare my anymore!
“I see. I’m glad.”
She smiled at me.
“To be honest, this quest was probably aimed at you anyway.”
Huh?
Is that so?
“After all, it came in right after the word spread about your participation in the werewolf subjugation.”
She let out a sigh.
“Well, anyway. I’ll inform them that we found a fitting adventurer. Someone will probably come pick you up tomorrow morning, so be here.”
T-tomorrow?
Hey!
I’m all hyped up NOW!
Why tomorrow?!
…
Well, I know that passing information and preparation takes time…
But still!
Ugh…
What should I do the entire day?
Kill wolves?
Kill wolves.
Sounds good.
Let’s kill some wolves.
“Now wait just a minute!”
You don’t need to yell, Mrs. receptionist.
“Don’t tell me your bag is full of wolves again!”
“It is.”
Is that a problem?
“This is already the third time today! And it’s not even noon yet!”
I know.
I can count.
“Are you trying to make these animals go extinct?!”
…
“Sorry…”
Well…
I guess that would happen if I kept killing them, wouldn’t it?
They are just regular animals, so they don’t respawn like dungeon monsters…
But, actually…
Who cares!
They are ugly, stinky and loud!
Making them go extinct is doing a favor to the world!
Don’t sigh like that, Mrs. receptionist.
“This is the last one, you understand? If you bring in anymore today, the guild won’t buy them.”
“Wh-!”
What is this oppression?!
“Listen… your rank is E already, right? You can take on different quests and leave wolves for the beginners.”
Oh, the beginners…
Right…
If I kill all of the low level foes around here, novice adventurers won’t have anything to fight…
“Fine…”
As annoying as it is…
I guess I’ll comply.
So what now…
How should I spend the rest of my day?
“Oh, by the way.”
The receptionist called out to me again.
“The man with the werewolf curse has finally spoken. I thought you should know about that.”
…
I guess my next action has been decided.
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