Chapter 22

My name is Flannel . I work as a receptionist for the Adventurer's Guild in the town of Aressa .

Today, I was quite astonished .

I'll start at the beginning, when a young girl whose appearance wasn't clean by any means came to the reception desk at the Guild .

Unintentionally, I had asked a question .

「Ah, yes . Are you alone?

「Alone . 」

「Erm... This is the Adventurer's Guild, so...」

「I know . 」

It seemed as though she really intended to become an Adventurer . She even seemed to carry a sword on her back......

If one thinks of making money, Adventurers are one of the things that naturally come to mind . And so, I thought that this girl was aiming to get rich, much like many others . But a lot of such people die . Especially for children, it can be said that most people who become Adventurers don't survive .

And so, I informed the Guild Master of the young girl . Sure enough, Donna Dorondo was to take charge of the exam .

The Adventurer's Guild doesn't have any particular conditions for recruiting, as to attain a wider range of talented people . However, the Guild Master of Aressa secretly imposes a limit . That limit is to protect those younger than 15 years old by inhibiting their registration . Of course, it's not explicitly stated .

When a child comes to register, Donna Dorondo is put in charge of the exam, thus forcing the participant to fail . At first, he'd give verbal threats as a show of force, and then makes them submit by force if they don't give up at that point .

Without exception, children could not win against Donna Dorondo . So, it could be said that the chances of success for Donna Dorondo's exam was "0%" .

Even though it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, it's for the sake of the child . Children have usually no training to be qualified as an Adventurer, and so they're bound to die almost immediately . If one did survive, then they would be lucky just to scrape by financially . There's no way that they'd be able to make a lot of money, after all .

They aren't just sent away afterwards, however . When the child fails, I can enroll them in the Beginner Training conducted by the Guild without a participation fee . If they accept and complete the training, they can take the exam once again .

That day, however... There was an exception . I didn't watch over the test, so when I rushed to the training grounds in response to a large noise, finding the girl standing unhurt, and the figure of Donna Dorondo sunk into the wall vomiting blood... I was surprised to say the least .

But the surprises happened one after another afterwards .

First would be the number of possible Jobs . Where there was usually only 2, maybe 3 to choose from, the girl had 15 . Furthermore, they included intermediate Jobs like the Magic Swordsman, Flame Magician, and Blink Swordsman . At the time, I couldn't even let out my voice......

After making the Guild Card, the girl- Fran was her name — wanted to sell some materials . Because they didn't seem to be carrying anything, I had thought that they stored the materials in an Inn......

But instead, they took the materials out of nowhere .

Talking about storage, Item Box comes to mind, but that wasn't the case in that situation . The materials were taken out of the hole which appeared out of thin air . It was a Technique from a super rare attribute: the Spatial-Temporal attribute . I've worked at the Guild for a long time, and among the people I've seen capable of using Spatial-Temporal attributes this girl was the 3rd .

The next surprise was when the fur of a Twin-Headed Bear was taken out . Its threat level was only F, so it wasn't a very strong Demonic Beast — but I had never seen one in a state like that one .

The fur didn't have a single cut, and had absolutely no blood stains . The dismantling was perfect, and the two heads remained close to one another . Moreover, it was a large individual, so its fur weighed in at about 1 . 3 times the normal amount .

Aristocrats would want this material without a doubt . It could be made into a coat, or even a carpet... Otherwise, it could be used as a material for a piece of high-quality equipment .

The cleanly dismantled Poison Fang Rat pelts could also be used for a wide range of applications . Its materials can be used to make poison-resistant gear, so despite being a lower ranked Demonic Beast, its value is high .

To that 12-year-old girl who brought out perfectly dismantled materials, the surrounding Adventurers could only raise voices of surprise . Some looked back at their own dismantled furs and give a dry laugh .

But that wasn't all . What she did next stole their voices entirely, rendering the Guild quiet .

She took out materials from the Giant Bat, then the Crashing Boar, then the Rock Bison, the Stone Spider . the Burrowing Mole, and finally she stopped at the Paralysis Nailed Cat . F and E threat level Demonic Beasts came out one after another .

A Demonic Beast of threat level E is said to be capable of leveling a village . It's equivalent to an average Adventurer at rank D if it's one-on-one . In other words, those who hunt them would have to be people who have ascended the ranks of beginner adventurers, or a party of said "beginners" .

And this girl hunted them alone? Moreover, she dismantled them perfectly? For dismantling of that caliper, a Dismantling Skill level 5 or 6 would be necessary at least... But having a Skill of such a high level at only 12 years old was abnormal .

By any chance... Did she have a form of blessing? But even with that, I thought that she was a little too strong...... The results of the mock battle with Donna Dorondo weren't a lie, it seemed .

But what was the true identity of the Adventurer who asked that her personal information remained a secret? There're many people who have done the same, but...

I strongly endured it, and assessed the materials properly . It was the most materials brought in by any copper ranked Adventurer recently . (¹) Naturally, it was a record high for the amount of materials brought in by a G rank .

If it had ended there, I would have finished while thinking 「A Promising Rookie has arrived . 」

Instead, a certain situation developed . It was one that I expected, but it happened earlier than I thought it would .

Who would have thought that fools would cause a fuss within the Guild's walls? Doing so would allow me to take away their Guild Cards . At worst, they could have even been turned into crime slaves .

Thinking back, they were a rookie party that regularly caused turmoil at the time . The leader was a Mercenary who crossed over and became an Adventurer because he didn't make enough to eat .

But seriously, a useless Mercenary has no place picking a fight with an Adventurer! Unlike Adventurers who require a great deal of talent, Mercenaries abilities only include battling and decreasing the size of their brains .

There's no end to these guys who convert to Adventurers thinking that it'll be easy simply because they have some war experience . Such people have high pride, and low ability . I wouldn't mind if they were more skillful, but...

Well, anyways . This group of idiots was of that category . They were primitive people who carried in a Demonic Beast that they hunted because they lacked the Dismantling Skill .

They also misunderstood the Guild's rule not to get involved in fights between fellow Adventurers . The rule means that we'll overlook mere squabbles . If we overlooked criminals, however, the Guild would be dissolved by the country . I'm really tired of idiots like them who can't understand that much .

And so, while the group of idiots continued to add groundless arguments to their foolish reasoning, Fran snapped . Because she was the expressionless type, I didn't recognize her at all .

Nevertheless, a quiet child becoming angry is amazing . I'll make sure to avoid angering Fran . I vowed so in my heart . At the end, I was called out to . Inevitably, it gave me a bit of a start .

The Adventurers who had spectated the event were also stunned . Without a doubt, they came to the understanding that she was stronger than them .

Even though she had stained the ground with the blood of fools, I didn't particularly mind . Rather, I thought that she did well .

Screaming to be healed, were they idiots? Ah, right, they were .

They likely carried other crimes, so the death penalty was almost certain . At minimum, they would become Mining Slaves . They had threatened with illegal trafficking and attempted extortion, after all . In this Kingdom, such things are categorized as capital offenses .

While watching Fran leave the Guild, I had a simple thought .

「Before they're delivered, could you extort the consolation money?」

(¹) Remember: Copper = G & F Rank . The Author wrote "Copper Rank" (銅ランク) explicitly, so Flannel is talking about both .