Chapter 24: Cleria’s Story 2 (Part 2)
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Translator: SFBaka
“Alan! I have just thought of a goal I truly wish to accomplish in all haste!”
“W- What is it!?”
“There may be others who are still looking for my whereabouts even now, just like Elna. I wish to inform them of my whereabouts and help them to get home safely afterward.”
“That really might be the case. It would be quite pitiful for them to continue searching aimlessly for you, in any case.”
“But how exactly would we be able to find them? Elna, did you manage to hear about where the other two escort groups you encountered in the Cecilio Kingdom were heading to before you parted ways?”
“Unfortunately, no. We just heard them saying they would expand the extent of their search a bit more. But we did tell them we were going to Belta Kingdom though.”
“There’s a possibility we would miss each other if we made a move on our own.”
“Hey Elna, those guys have all disguised themselves as adventurers just like you, right? There’s a good chance of them visiting the Adventurer’s Guild as well then. How about we try posting a notice through the Guild?”
“Alan! That’s a great suggestion! Let’s go with that!”
“But it might alert our pursuers as well. I haven’t encountered them in this country yet, but I’ve managed to brush past several suspicious adventurer parties while I was in the Cecilio Kingdom. I think they were most likely part of the rebels going after us. They’ve disguised themselves as adventurers as well.”
“I see. So they thought of the same trick huh. Well, it does make sense, given that you can’t just send soldiers to a neighboring country without a clear justification. So it will be a challenge identifying real adventurers from those merely pretending to be one from now on. Both are quite possible, Elna.”
“Hm. Don’t you have some sort of code only the royal guards are familiar with, Elna?”
“That might just work. …Let’s see. We often called Cleria-sama’s room in the royal palace 『C-3-12』.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means the twelfth room on the left-wing of the third floor of building C.”
“I see… So there’s a good chance no one apart from the other royal guards would recognize this C-3-12 code and connect it with Cleria.”
“Splendid! But how should we phrase the message?”
“How about ‘The occupant of C-3-12 is waiting for you all at Gotania city’?”
“We shall go with that, then.”
The three of us didn’t have anything else we needed to do, so we immediately headed for the Adventurer’s Guild after our discussion.
We found the same guild staff who we met yesterday manning the counter, so we consulted with her again.
“Um, we’d like to place a request. Is this the right counter for that?”
“Ah! If it isn’t Alan-san! So you’re finally going to accept a guild quest! Thank you very much!” the guild staff exclaimed.
“Uh, we’re not here to accept a request. We’re here to place one.”
“Oh, is that so? Understood. So, what kind of request is it?”
“Is it possible for us to get a certain message posted here as well as in other Guild branches? We want to get in touch with other adventurer friends we lost contact with, you see.”
“Yes. We’ll need the names of the adventurers in question so receptionists in other branches can inform them once they show up.”
“Uh, we actually don’t know the names of the adventurers.”
“You’re friends with them but don’t know their names?”
“Uh, we have some special circumstances y’see…”
“If that’s the case, we won’t be able to accept that request.”
“Don’t you have something like a message board here?”
“We can’t. The only things posted in the guild board are quests.”
“Hm. How about if we request something apart from the message itself?”
“Well, that depends… How exactly would you phrase your request then?”
“Thank you for considering. We’ll think about the contents of the request and get back to you later. And is it possible not to disclose the name of the requester?”
“That would be fine.”
The three of us left the reception counter and moved near the quest board.
“Let’s check the quests posted on the board to get some ideas.”
There were a variety of quests posted on the board. There are escort, monster extermination, and material collection quests among others.
“Let’s just copy a suitable quest format.
『In urgent need of a wyvern’s magic stone. Quantity: 1 / Please deliver it to the Gotania branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. / Reward: 1 Large Silver coin / Deadline: Half a year’s time from today / Requester: The occupant of C-3-12』
How about this?”
“A wyvern’s magic stone isn’t just worth one Large Silver. It should be ten Gold at least.”
“Um… Ria-sama. I think it actually goes for twenty Gold at the minimum.”
So it’s worth that much huh! Well then, I’ll definitely have to hunt down a wyvern if we manage to encounter one. It looks like the skin and meat are also valuable too.
“Alright then. We’ll set the reward to five Gold. It’ll be troublesome if unrelated adventurers were to take the quest after all.”
We relayed the quest particulars to the guild staff.
“Eh!? A wyvern’s magic stone for five Gold!? And you even want it delivered to this branch in particular?” the guild staff exclaimed.
“Is something wrong with it?”
“Yes. The adventurers would probably just make fun of this, and the chances of it being taken up is honestly quite slim. The reward should at least be ten Gold coins.”
“I see. Let’s set the reward to ten Gold then.”
“So which guild branches would you like your request to be posted?”
“Let’s see. We’d like it to be posted in all Guild branches within the Belta and Cecilio Kingdoms if possible.”
“That many!? Um… That would be twenty-one branches in all you know?”
“Please post it in all of them.”
“We’ll need to charge an additional fee for posting requests to overseas branches. Are you alright with this?”
“How much would it cost?”
“That would be one thousand Guineas per branch.”
Hm. That much, huh. Should we request for a magic stone of lower value? But it would be meaningless if our request can be easily accomplished. Oh well. We can still afford that much anyway.
“Understood. Please go ahead with it.”
“Eh!? Are you really okay with this!?” Elna gasped in surprise.
“We also need a deposit equal to the reward indicated in the request. In case the quest isn’t completed within the specified deadline, we’ll refund this deposit to you. And if the quest is completed, the Guild will take a twenty percent commission fee from the said deposit. Would these terms be fine with you?”
So they also need a deposit huh. It can’t be helped.
“That’s fine.”
“Well then, we’ll need to take a total of twenty-one thousand Guineas for the request fee.”
I’m glad I brought all the money we had with me. But with this, the amount of money we got from the bandit hideout is reduced to about seventy thousand Guineas.
“When will our request be posted?”
“We’ll have them all posted by tomorrow.”
“Huh? You mean you’ll be able to post it to all the branches we indicated?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“How would you get in touch with the other branches?”
“I cannot disclose the exact details, but we have Artifacts that allow us to get in touch with other Guild branches remotely.”
Whoah! I’ve heard about Artifacts from Cleria before. They’re supposed to be extremely rare, legendary magic tools.
“Would it be possible for me to take a look at that Artifact?”
“That won’t be allowed, I’m afraid. The place where we have them set up is also top secret.”
“I see. That’s unfortunate. Please go ahead with our request then.”
“Oh, that reminds me. There was a designated quest that came in for you earlier, Alan-san. It’s from the Tarus Company. These are the quest contents. Please confirm with the Tarus Company if you want to accept the quest.”
Oh yeah. We actually talked about that this morning. Jonas-san sure works fast. I took the quest form from the guild staff and gave it a read. Cleria peeked at the contents from over my shoulder. The reward is five Large Silvers. It’s a quest that can be accomplished in a day after all.
“Thank you for this. We’ll pay them a visit later.”
We finally left the Adventurers Guild.
“We’ve used up quite a bit of money, Alan. I’m sorry about this.”
“It’s fine. Beck and Thor said they won’t be taking a share of the money anyway, so all of this is my and Cleria’s money. We’re free to use it however we want.”
“I see. Thank you, Alan.”
“Let’s buy you some new clothes then, Alan. We’ll need to buy some for Elna as well. And I guess I’ll buy some of my own too.”
Yeah, she’s right. I only have one pair of local clothes available after all. I really need to buy some more.
“Alright then. Let’s go shopping.”
But I’m not familiar with the clothing stores in the city. We’re near Zaluke’s Equipment Shop anyway, so we’ll just ask for directions there.
We found Zaluke carrying the armor I purchased from the store when we entered.
“Sorry for barging in again, Zaluke. Are you familiar with any clothing shops nearby?”
“Clothes, huh. I’d like to recommend one of our sister stores then. You’ll find the Tara Boutique after turning left around that corner over there.”
It looks like they also sell clothes. Tarus-san’s family really sells all kinds of goods huh.
“Gotcha. Thanks.”
We found the store in question right away. It’s another shop that wasn’t too large but was rather neat and orderly. We found two female shop clerks when we entered the store.
“Welcome, dear customers. What are you looking for?”
“I’ll choose Alan’s clothes, alright.”
Cleria declared so right away and started picking clothes for me. I still don’t get this planet’s fashion trends, so I’ll just leave it to her.
“Alright. I’ll leave it to you then. Two pairs would be fine.”
“Understood. Please leave it to me.”
Afterward, it took Cleria more than one hour to choose suitable clothes for me. It was honestly draining. Mentally, that is.
Cleria and Elna picked clothes for themselves next.
We ended up spending more than two hours at the store.
I got two pairs, Cleria got one pair for herself, and Elna got two pairs as well. They also bought various other items aside from clothes. Our total expenses were about two thousand Guineas. Clothes are actually quite expensive.
Well, I guess it’s fine. Cleria and Elna seemed to have enjoyed themselves anyway.
We brought the items we bought back to Tarus-san’s manor afterward.
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