abcnovels
Volume 5 - Ch 1.03
Volume 5 - Ch 1.03
And like I was saying, since this is an official quest commissioned from the Adventurers Guild, then it would not be strange if at one point or another there were Guild officials, or perhaps the representatives of the lord of that Hartz region, checking the Intelligence Cards of those who would come with the relief supplies to verify if they have the right to take part in this quest in the first place, so should I do anything that I possibly can to avoid running into this kind of danger? Because that is what my survival instinct is advising me to do right now. Just decline it and be done with it and then just be on your way as if nothing happened at all. Yes, that sounds like a magnificent plan.
We are going to be fine.
Uhm..
When I glanced backwards, I noticed that Roxanne was pushing her hand against my back.
Damn Roxanne, if you perform such a cute gesture and say something so considerate to me, then I will want to find an excuse to decline the request of this lady even more, but apparently that part of my intentions did not transmit properly, because if I did that in a manner that Roxanne would be able to clearly understand, then there would be no need for her to be saying that that she and Sherry were going to be fine at all! So in the end, it is my loss for not being able to convey my intentions properly!
And as for Sherry I saw that one corner of her lips was raised in something that kinda looked like a bitter smile, but when I tried to make eye contact with her, she simply escaped with her eyes to the side. Just like Roxanne, she is perfectly aware that I am not an Adventurer and that it would be pretty dangerous if anyone found out about this, because that would mean a whole lot of unpleasantness and needless trouble not only for me, but for Roxanne and Sherry as well since they are my slaves, or in other words, a property that belongs to me.
It is perfectly understandable that sir would be unsure whether to accept this quest or not, so allow me to add that every Adventurer who is not affiliated with the Adventurers Guild, a daily allowance of one thousand Nars to cover all of the possible daily expenses is going to be prepared the day after tomorrow.
Thank you for the information, but I cannot say that this interests me in any particular way, but anyway, since we are already talking about it, then could you tell me what exactly would that commission entail? As in, what do you want me to do, exactly?
Of course, allow me to offer you an explanation, sir. Your primary task would be to travel around the lands of the Hartz region, where you would be distributing emergency supplies to towns and villages that have been cut off from the rest of the realm by the water that has flooded the roads, essentially isolating part of the settlements and forcing the people who live in them to fend for themselves, so as long as you have experience as an Adventurer, this task should not prove to be too difficult or particularly demanding. Also, as part of the contract you would be signing with Adventurers Guild, you would not have to worry about anything else than carrying out the task that has been assigned to you, because the people responsible for providing you with protection from the eventual monster attacks are going to be the Knights of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy, who serve under the direct service of the Duke of Hartz himself. So as you can see, the commission shall be conducted with the absolute safety of the ones delivering the supplies in mind, you do not have to worry about keeping your own person and the members of your Party safe.
Since this world seems to be largely based on the concepts and technology from the times of medieval Europe, then I guess that would have to entails that villages and smaller towns that are located far from the larger cities that act as hubs of commerce, culture and anything in between must have the means of staying relatively self-sufficient for the prolonged periods of time, but then again, when faced with a natural disaster like a flood, fire or earthquake or a landslide I guess there is only so much that self-sufficiency can do, not to mention that any methods of self-sufficiency that these villages might be employing are bound to run out sooner or later, and once that happens, there will be literally nothing that their inhabitants are going to be able to do on their own, and that is why the reliance on those relief supplies has to be absolutely critical for them. To give you an example of such a dependency, the first place that I have walked up in after being transported to this world, Somara Village, had its own merchant, but in order to stay consistently in business and not run out of any of his stock too much, it was essentially a necessity for him to be making trips by wagon to the city of Vale every few days. Now imagine a situation in which a village or a town would be in dire need of something what could not be harvested from their own fields or obtained from anywhere near their location. Yeah, that would make them completely dependent on obtaining that something from the outside, and with roads blocked and flooded to the point of being completely untraversable, you have yourself a simple recipe for a true disaster, but that is just how it is when the transportation networks and roads are vastly inferior to what we have in our modern world. Then again, drawing such a comparison also seems to be kind of pointless because of the technological gap between modern day Japan where I am coming from and this medieval-looking world. In my times, the response to the occurrence of the disaster would have been as fast as possible and any damages the infrastructure has sustained would have been swiftly dealt with, but here in this world, I guess it should not come to me as a surprise that whenever there is a disaster occurring, roads are going to be the very first thing that is going to end up in a complete and utter mess.
I guess this is exactly where the Adventurers come into play. It might not be as effective as our planes or helicopters that can deliver the supplies anywhere where there is need to, but since they have access to the Field WalkerSkill, then at least they can deliver the supplies to the villages and towns that would be in need of them even if the roads are blocked and untraversable, just as long as they have been to that particular town or village before, so I guess you can say that this particular fast travel system might be the best thing in terms of speedy deliveries that this world can currently have.
Uh-huh, I understand. Is there anything else that you can tell me about this quest, or would that be all?
Certainly, sir. While normally Elves tend to look down on humans, but when it comes to the help in times of disaster, the race and identity of those who deliver the supplies does not matter just as long as the good are going to be safely delivered to their destination.
Ooooh Elves, huh? I guess that means that the territory of the Duchy of Hartz is the one where the members of the elven race live, then? And also, hearing that my race and identity will not matter just as long as I get the job done is an unexpectedly good thing to hear. Well, I guess that is just how it is during the times when disaster strikes. If you and your subjects are in dire need of help, then in situations like that there is definitely no place for such things as pride or racial prejudice. When you are in need of help, the right thing to do is always to swallow up your pride and your own views of the world and simply accept any help that others would be willing to send your way without as much as a word of complaint. As for the matter of why do Elves tend to look down on humans, I do not think it would be wise to delve too deep into these kinds of issues, since this is more or less one of the staple example of tropes used in every fantasy book or a game that has different races such as Elves, Humans and the like in it.