Sevens

Volume 3 - 1: Arumsaas Guild

Arumsaas Guild

Having secured an inn, we decided to head off towards the guild.

In the city that spread out like a labyrinth, we frequently asked the passersby for directions while aiming for the adventurer guild.

The road were clean, and the people treading on them also had a sense of cleanliness to them.

But that didn’t change that it was a jumbled up city, and one easy to be lost in.

Using Skills, I confirmed the area, but being in quite a needlessly complicated location was perhaps the characteristic of Arumsaas’ adventurer guild.

“The fact that carriages are going down that way means the other way is too hard to get through?”

After overcoming the maze and arriving at the guild hall, a building on a smaller scale than the one in Dalien was laid out before me. Despite the size of the city, it gave off quite a diminutive impression.

I don’t know if guild first floors were the same everywhere, but it was operating like a marketplace.

Adventurers and carts went back and forth, and monster materials and magic gems were exchanging hands.

Occasionally, a merchant would make a purchase, and leave with a large amount of goods loaded on his wagon.

“It looks like guilds don’t change wherever you go.”

Aria muttered that, and Novem agreed.

However...

“Looking from outside, they may be the same. But as I thought, the atmosphere really changes depending on the guild. Weihs was the same.”

Weihs was the name given to the land the Walt House governed.

It was developed enough to have cities that could be called metropolises, and it had its own adventurers’ guild.

But I’m not too knowledgeable about that matter.

The Seventh spoke.

?We did prepare a plot of land for them, but it’s a mass of criminals, deserters, and wannabees. I left it alone in order to secure magic stones, but... it wasn’t very necessary in my time.?

A large portion of adventurers were ruffians... if a mercenary or criminal called themselves an adventurer, then that’s what they were.

The only difference lay in whatever they named themselves as.

Naturally, the guild does regulate their criminals, but if they claimed to be able to manage them all, then I would call that nothing but suspicious.

There are some sinners out there who simply change their home guild in order to flee.

Adventurers exist to hunt those sorts of adventurers as well. Those specialized in the trade known as bounty hunting.

It sounds like the Sixth was of the same opinion.

?If you send out soldiers, you can easily get your hands on monster materials and magic stones. Work is also abundant... but still, there are guys who aren’t satisfied staying on the sidelines. There’s no helping it.?

While the Sixth and Seventh thought of them as an unavoidable trouble, the Third had a different opinion.

?You guys sure are harsh. If you can use them, why not just use them? I mean, they have the rights to magic stones, and they’re pretty much a mercenary management facility. There’s no meaning in making them enemies. Remaining vigilant, and maintaining a moderate sense of distance is important.?

It seems the Third held a concept of making use of the guild.

The Second supplemented his answer.

?Come to think of it, it was in your time, right... that a guild was built up at our place.?

It seems it was around the Third’s time that a guild was built on Walt land. Even when it’s a time when they shouldn’t have been too developed, I’m surprised they were able to get one of those.

As if noticing my curiosity, the Third gave an answer.

?It’s because a lot of monsters live in the remote regions, and it was a good environment to obtain monster materials and magic stones. I didn’t interfere too much, or restrict them.?

The feudal lord has the power to levy heavy taxes on the guild.

In that case, that influences the price of stones and materials, and there are even some places where earning become impossible no matter how hard you struggle.

But in that case, the adventurers would flow away. If they become excessively depressed about their lack of profit, quite a few problems may crop up, it seems.

“Novem, what was the Weihs Guild like? I’ve never been, so I don’t know.”

As I asked about the Weihs Guild, she made a bit of a troubled face.

Not in a bad way, just that it seemed explaining would be a pain.

But to put is simply...

“Neither good nor bad, something like that, perhaps. They were quite hard with cracking down on criminals, and the tax didn’t seem too high, or too low. It didn’t seem to be a guild where problems would come up with putting food on the table, and I think it had a relatively large amount of adventurers.”

Hearing that, the Seventh was delighted.

?It’s just as it was in my time. Yep, perfect.?

The adventurer hating Seventh seems to have been troubled with mercenaries before.

And the cause was the guild or something like that...

(Perhaps the time will come to ask about the specifics someday.)

We entered Arumsaas’ guild.

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The difference between it and Dalian was that several excessively large bulletin boards were stationed around the place.

Both sides of the large boards were in use, and requests were tacked onto them in great numbers.

Gather the necessary monster materials.

Please clean my room.

Won’t you become a test subject?

Quite a number of sheets were submitted.

”What is this... it’s on another level from Dalien.”

As I was sent into confusion, Aria was as well. WE looked at each other, and grimaced.

“Isn’t this one strange? It’s got room cleaning written on it, but the location is one of the campus’s research facilities. Do they really allow adventurers to waltz into places like that?”

Quite a few incomprehensible requests were spread out.

As we headed to the receptionist desks, we found a larger number of clerks than in Dalien seated behind partitioned counters.

While their appearances ranged from youths to seniors, they gave off a disinterested impression as they quietly proceeding with their work.

In narrow spaces, they formally addressed their business.

The Fourth looked at them, and spoke.

?This is quite a peculiar guild. Well, since there isn’t a feudal lord here, perhaps they aren’t pressured enough... how should I put this, I get the feeling that there are few requests that would make one satisfied as an adventurer to be found here.?

Collecting certain monster parts was definitely quite adventurer-esque.

But that would take place in a labyrinth managed by the city of scholars, and we would just have to strip off the parts of a designated monster, or so it was written.

For the three of us, it was a bit rough of a request.

(With labyrinths, if it’s the three of us, shallow ones aside, a managed one with multiple floors sounds difficult.)

It would probably be better for us to hunt monsters in the area to earn our living expenses.

As we submitted our home transfer requests, the receptionist gave a monotonous explanation.

“Is this your first time in Arumsaas?”

It was a male clerk with glasses, and hair parted in a 7:3 ratio. Unlike Hawkins-san, his feelings didn’t seem to be behind it at all.

Was Hawkins-san just exceptionally diligent?

Novem responded.

“It’s the first for all three of us. We are here with the intention of studying, and I believe we will not be performing too many requests.”

The receptionist put my guild card into a device to confirm it.

“... Your evaluations in regards to requests receive a passing grade. You even completed an emergency request, and received an assessment of ?A?from the guild. Dalien, is it... the quality of adventurers there isn’t the best, so I can’t really say anything, but please complete Arumsaas’ requests with that dedication as well. If you don’t believe you will be able to, it would help if you would say that clearly.”

The receptionist took up a slight condescending attitude, but getting angry at him seemed stupid, so I nodded as I accepted the guild card.

The Second Generation snorted as he spoke.

?So you can find these sorts everywhere you go. Those guys that think they’re above everything? That if you’re different from them, you must be below them??

The Third rebuked him.

?This is the city of scholars, so couldn’t it be that they have confidence in their wisdom? Be a little more tolerant. I mean, we haven’t felt any real harm yet.?

For some reason, I feel he put some strong emphasis on the ‘yet’ part of it, but anyways, I answered the receptionist.

“I’ll do the best I can.”

“... Is that so. Well then, I will be looking after the second copy of the guild card. Do you need an explanation on that? If you do, that’s extra.”

You charge for that? As I thought that, I shook my head.

I finish my greetings with the apathetic clerk, finished up the paperwork, and we all left the guild.

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Having exited the building, the complaints we had towards the receptionist started coming out.

At a snack shop close to our inn, we finished our meal before expressing our dissatisfaction.

It was mainly Aria.

“This place kinda has a bad feel to it.”

The man’s attitude was one thing, but she probably hated the fact that Dalien was being looked down upon.

To her, Dalien was Zelphy’s town.

And it was also the town that took in her family. Having been part of an imperial noble family in Centralle, through the misdeeds of a single family head, the House forfeited its peerage over the course of a single lifetime.

When they had been banished from the capital, the place to accept them was Dalien.

While Novem seemed to understand that fact, she covered for the receptionist.

“This place is different from Dalien. But if they’re going to indifferently carry out their work like that, it may be relatively easy to get by. I mean, where someone like Hawkins-san would caution against taking a life-threatening request, I doubt those people would really care.”

Rather than covering, she let out quite a dark statement.

But the fact that we aren’t worrying anyone was comforting, in a sense.

I started conversing with the two on what to do from here on.

“How about we put that aside, and decide on where to live? Unlike Dalien, I doubt they have any houses so moderately priced, so this time, it has to be an apartment, right? Will we live with the three of us, or rent three narrow rooms? We’ll have to decide that soon, and search for property promptly.”

A characteristic of the city of Arumsaas was that rather than houses, apartments were the majority.

The reason was that students came and left in large numbers, so there were few that prepared houses for themselves.

With the city where many youths gathered to learn, and be on their way, apartments were the main stream.

“If possible, the three of us together would be nice. We shouldn’t have too much of a problem with money for a while, so perhaps it would be good to see how much earnings we can expect here before deciding.”

With Novem’s proposal in mind, I thought of hunting monsters sometime tomorrow.

The Ancestors agreed, but only the Third Generation...

?Let’s go to the library. Library. We’ll be fine for a while, and if you find a profitable request to raise your name with, won’t you be fine for a while??

His feelings were already directed towards the library.

Personally, I also wanted to go, but daily earning was serious business.

Regarding that, the money-loving Fourth shouted out.

?That’s for after you speculate your income, right!? It’s because you’re like this, that the territory was...?

Generally, the Fourth was regarded as extraordinary in financial relations and internal affairs. He had an intelligent appearance, glasses and all.

Mainly in domestic matters, the fourth was exceedingly reliable.

But as we were left without and land to manage, and the money management was left to Novem, he wasn’t able to get a turn.

The Third spoke with a slight fed up tone.

?You’re way too harsh with money. Just who did this boy grow to resemble??

As the Fourth’s father, the Third said that, the Fifth took over.

That was usually the Fourth’s role.

?Just leave it there. Even if Lyle’s Mana stock increased, the First’s Skill is storing up Mana in itself every day. At this point, there’s no point in trying to train him a little by acting up.?

In the past...

They thought I was the type that didn’t gain Mana as I experienced Growth.

From my aptitude in using two sabres, they thought I was the type that gained technique through the process.

(And wait, I have two arms here, so isn’t it natural for be able to use two sabres?)

It wasn’t the least bit of a wonder to me, but when I told the ancestors that...

???You’re the strange one here!???

Apparently.

And in order to build up my mana, they forcefully went and expended it to the bare minimum. That style of training was put on me against my will.

What’s more, I wasn’t even informed about it.

In the end, I wasn’t a technique type, but a type where all my specs receive drastic increases, but in exchange, I needed several times the amount of experience than a normal human. A late blooming type.

(My Skill, ?Experience?, is one that lets me get a larger quantity of experience, but it’s one that stays constantly active, so my Mana expenditure is just as large as before.)

I’m also skilled in magic, but as I had a limit placed on how much of it I could use, my Mana drainage was one of my larger problems.

“Let’s put hunting monsters for tomorrow, and spend today gathering some information on the area. In that case, maybe we’ll visit the library, though asking something would work as well...”

A voice called out to our table.

“Ah, could it be Aria?”

Hearing the voice, Aria turned around.

Her expression was a shocked one clearly questioning why the holder of said voice was in a place like this.

“As I thought! You’re Aria Lockward, right? It’s me. ?Miranda Circry?! We’d played together many a time in the imperial capital, so I had a hunch it was you, by some chance.”

The person addressing us was a slightly mature-looking woman.

But her age itself wasn’t all too different from ours.

If you’re asking for characteristics, they would be her emerald eyes, and pale brownish-green wavy hair that came as a set with them.Her slanted eyes that gave her a mischievous look was likely one of her charms.

While carrying a mature impression with her, she was lively, and a woman that looked to have some childish parts to her... that was Miranda Circry.

“Miranda? Why are you in a place like this? You’re the Circry’s eldest, are you not!?”

Aria spoke with an amazed tone.

It wouldn’t be strange to find a second or third child in the city of scholars, but the eldest daughter was another story.

It was a spot mainly reserved for marrying into other families, or having others marry into the family.

“We’ve got four sisters over there, so it’s fine if just two of us do as we please. More importantly, you could have told me if you were coming here...”

As Miranda made a slightly sorrowful expression, Aria spoke awkwardly.

“I arrived today. Until then, I was in Dalien.”

While she gave a simple explanation, she didn’t look at Miranda’s face there onwards.

Seeing her attitude, Miranda gave a sardonic smile.

“I’m not that concerned about it... I mean, we all played together with Shannon, didn’t we?”

Some Shannon girl popped up, but following the flow of the conversation, she was likely a friend, or Miranda’s younger sister.

Aria answered with silence.

“... Sorry. I’ve been attending this academy from three years ago. I’ll tell you my address, so stop by if you want. Shannon will be delighted.”

Saying that, she wrote her information on a sheet, and in place of Aria, who wouldn’t accept anything, she handed it to me.

“I apologize, but what is your relation to Aria?”

I should probably put it out here clearly that I’m her party member...

“She is one of Lyle-sama’s lovers.”

From the side, Novem cut in.

Miranda looked flabbergasted, but as I panicked to correct the misunderstanding, she burst into laughter.

“Ahahaha, sorry. That was a good one. That Aria has a boyfriend... what’s more, one of the man’s lovers means there are more? I thought you were the pretty boy type, but you’ve got some game, man.”

She stuck her elbow into me, and waved her right hand as she left.

Before I could correct anything, it was all over.

Hanging my head, I turned to Aria.

“She sounded like a good person, but are you unsatisfied about something?”

Aria let out a sigh.

“That’s not it. She really is a good person. She’s just a year older, but she’s good at looking after others, and whenever a bad rumor came up about our place, she always stuck up for me... but she’s too good at looking after others to a fault, you know. She’s good natured, and she’ll never talk bad about anyone.”

Good natured to a fault, was how Aria assessed Miranda.

On her fifty cents, Novem coincided.

“Perhaps she’s one whose two faces overlap. No, perhaps one just good at dealing with things? Even so, I heard that a large number of students came in from Centralle, but I never thought we would be meeting one of Aria-san’s acquaintances like this.”

I thought the same, but Aria seemed to be at her wit’s end.

“Miranda’s on the better side. But if I were to meet the others...”

She seemed depressed.

I tried asking.

“Come to think of it, why did you go about ignoring her? If she’s a good person, it would be fine to talk with her, wouldn’t it?”

As I said that, Aria gave a straightforward answer.

“It’s because she’s a good person. Because of that, even she started to get slander going on around her. That’s why I took the initiative to distance myself. Although it was soon after that I was driven out of Centralle anyways.”

It seems she has a lot going on here.

But here and now, wouldn’t it be fine to get along? That was my opinion.

(You should treasure your friends... especially those that don’t go away when you’re going through hard times.)

As Aria had friends of the same gender like I never did, I felt just a little envious.

To me, Novem was a target of affection, and not my best friend.

(If you look at recent times, I guess it’s Rondo-san’s group? I wonder what they’re doing now...)

I looked down at Miranda’s memo, as I worried about how Rondo-san was faring.

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In the inn, before retiring to bed.

I came to the space round table known as the conference room.

In the very center of the room, the center of the table, a large blue jewel shined.

Around the room, six doors were installed, and those were what acted as the ancestors’ personal quarters.

There were seven chairs in total.

In a room like that, today, it was just the Sixth for a change.

“Huh? Are you alone today? Where’s the Fifth?”

I moved my gaze to search for the Fifth Generation, but the Sixth gave a bitter smile.

?It’s not like I’m always with my pops, you know.?

The Sixth’s Skill was one that was born with the Fifth’s Skill as its premise. It determined the enemies and allies within a perimeter, and even conveyed the locations of traps. He was the possessor of the Skill, ?Search?.

When the two Skills were used together, it generated an extraordinary effect.

In one’s head, a map would appear, and the locations of everything were known on it. For an enemy, it was quite a frightening Skill.

“Then are you the one that called me?”

?Yeah.?

He often agreed with the Fifth, and he was a rare find in the Walt Family History, where the father-son relationship was actually good.

I’ve rarely seen signs of him bickering with my grandfather, the Seventh, either.

With his unkempt hair pushed back, the Sixth Generation, who gave off a wild impression, was quite docile before the Fifth.

Normally, he came as a set with the Fifth, so I began to think of it as the usual.

?The truth is... I know of the Circry Family, so I thought I would inform you.?

“Miranda-san’s House?”

The Sixth was one with a lot of bad rumors circulating around him.

Taking bribes, using his connections to the imperial nobles at the capital, and making them move to his advantage, and other such things.

For that reason, he was known as the greatest fiend to the Walt House... but I really didn’t get that feeling from him.

Of all else, the Third was much more scheming.

?We’ve been associated with them in the past. It’s because my younger sister married into their house.?

That was the first I heard of something like that.

No, perhaps I just never knew it, and my family actually was on good terms with them.

It’s just that my father... to the Eigth Generation, it was just a link from two generations ago.

From the point of view of Bahnseim Nobles, They were pretty much irrelevant.

“So you’re saying there’s a possibility they still have ties to our House?”

?The chances are slim, but keep it in mind. I don’t really want to doubt them too much, but... it’s that. I didn’t have too many sisters I got along with.?

Having heard that, I remembered a single fact.

The Sixth had an exceedingly large number of younger siblings.

I mean, the Fifth had five woman waiting on him, legal wife included. He had five ladies by his side.

What’s more, all five of them cleared all of the Walt Family Precepts.

It’s a surprise that he went after so many woman, but the more surprising thing was that...

“... I believe it was around thirty brothers and sisters younger than you, was it?”

?... Yeah.?

We both made a questionable face.

While the Fifth was definitely famous as the greatest luster of Walt History, the individual himself held quite a dry impression.

I can’t think of him as one twisted by carnal lust.

“Somehow, the gap between the ancestors we hear about, and the real ones is quite large at our place...”

?That’s right... it was quite a shock to me when I first heard I was the fiend of the Walt House, you know.?

As I exchanged some idle banter with the Sixth, I considered the possibility of Miranda-san’s ties to my family.