Chapter 10: Registering at the Adventurer’s Guild

The next day, I woke up in a fluffy bed.

In my still drowsy state, a voice was heard. Then it gradually sounded more like laughter…

“Huh…!”

“Good morning, Hinami-sama.”

“Ah! Sebas-san…Um, good morning.”

When I returned the greeting, he smiled softly and served me black tea.

Or rather, I…I gave a morning greeting for the first time ever in this world! Starting yesterday, I had been experiencing a lot of firsts. Ah, this is happiness.

While drinking the warm black tea, I slowly grew more awake. Or rather, receiving such a treatment right after waking up…nobles sure are amazing!

“Breakfast is being prepared, so when you are done getting ready, please press that bell. A maid will come for you.”

“Oh, yes!”

I looked at the cute bell placed on the table next to me. Isn’t this just like the bells that appear often in dramas or mangas…!? This is the special item where a butler or a maid comes when pressed! I didn’t think such a thing existed in reality. No, actually, I think the people who could even hear these bells are more amazing.

For the time being, while drinking the tea elegantly, I checked the exchange diary.

——

Hello, Hina. Looks like you slept well! I’m glad.

This the first city you’ve ever set foot in. Congratulations! However, there might be strange people out there, so be careful, okay? Hina is cute after all.

Still, it feels like you might not play with me as much now that you’re in the city. I’m going to get lonely.

This exchange diary…you can’t forget about it, alright? There will be punishment if you do.

Also, to commemorate your arrival in the city, I’ve added more things that can be exchanged, so please check it. It’s a very important installation! I’ll give you a simple explanation.

If you buy a house in the city, you can connect it with a door to Hina’s house. Oh, and at Hina’s house, not just the entrance, but a room corresponding with the house will be added, so rest easy, okay?

So, if you buy a house in the city and purchase the installation, you can go to the city whenever you want.

Well then, have another great day!

——

[Exchange diary] = 3 points added.

[Current points: 31,190]

[Vase: small] 1
[Vase: medium] 10
[Vase: large] 20
[Vegetable seeds set] 10
[Fruit seeds set] 10
[Herb seeds set] 10
[Wheat seeds] 50
[Rice seeds] 100
[Brick: x1] 5
[Fountain] 1,500
[Bottles: x100] 3
[Room] 50
[Bathroom – Extension] 5,000
[Room – Extension] 2,000
[Rooftop – Extension] 10,000
[Basement – Extension] 30,000
[Compounding room – Extension] 15,000
New! [Door of the miniature garden] 50,000

——

Wh-what…!

There was the installation called ‘door of the miniature garden.’ It would be nice if I could connect the city to my home. But how much does a house cost…I wonder if there such a thing as renting here?

“Wait! 50,000 points…!!!”

Making a garnet potion gives me 2 points. In that case, I’d have to make 25,000 of them…? I might die before that happens.

Well, it can’t be helped, so let’s think about it slowly…

I changed into the clothes I brought and rang the bell. This was so exciting! By the way, today I’m wearing a knee-length one-piece dress and a short coat. The dress is short sleeved and the coat has ¾ length sleeves.

The moment I rang the bell, a maid asked permission to enter. Huh, I wonder…could she have waited in the hallway…maybe? If so, I finished getting ready quite slowly and I felt sorry.

***

“Good morning, Hinami-san!”

“Oh, good morning, Thia-chan.”

When I was guided to the a place like a dining room, Thia-chan was having breakfast there.

On the menu is…toast, bacon, fried eggs and salad. Hmm, looks like every world has similar things for breakfast. It seems like there’s also yogurt for dessert.

“Huh, where’s Alfred-san?”

“Oh, onii-sama went to the knights order with father.”

“I see, from this early in the morning…”

“Yes. Unlike me, onii-sama has a lot of magic…he’s number 1 in magic in this country.”

Ohh!

“That’s amazing!”

“Yes! Very much!”

It felt as though Thia-chan was belittling herself…but since she was smiling brightly now, I won’t ask too much about it. It looks like she’s very proud of her big brother and loves him very much.

“Onii-sama is in the hero’s party. So he goes to the castle often.”

“Hmm…?”

I see. Yup.

…Hmm? Hero’s party…?

Yes, yes, of course. A hero should exist. Because there is a demon lord. By the way, I saw that the demon lord exists through the point exchange list. If I defeat it, I can get infinite points. Amazing! However, that’s an ‘impossible game’ for me to play.

“That’s amazing…! It’s like a dream world for me.”

“Not really…and isn’t Hinami-san a great chemister?”

“Hmm…well, is that so? Thank you.”

It feels somewhat like I was being comforted, but it must be my imagination.

While having breakfast with Thia-chan, I was taught many things about the city.

It seems that the city has a residential area, a market, a main street, and another residential area to the left, with the castle at the top. The castle is located in the north with the main street running through the center and the castle gates to the east. The place I am in now, Thia-chan’s mansion, is located in the east, with nobles living in the eastern area. Then commoners live to the west of that. Further west are the slums, so Thia-chan warned to never go that way even if I got lost.

“Cynthia-sama, it’s almost time.”

“Ah, yes! Hinami-san, I’m sorry. I also have work so I have to go out of the house…I’ll be returning after tomorrow. To be honest, I didn’t really have plans, but it was suddenly decided today…”

“No no! It’s alright. Thank you for yesterday and today, Thia-chan.”

“No! That’s what I should be saying…Will you meet me again?”

“Yes, of course!”

The two of us smiled. Thia-chan said, “We’re friends now!” so I felt happy.

Thia-chan, who was almost finished eating, left the room, so I was alone. It felt a little awkward, so I hurried to finish the meal. I slowly had tea at the end to calm myself down.

As if he predicted when I would finish eating, the butler Sebas-san came in. The timing of butlers is accurate too…!

“Hinami-sama, here…this is Clef-sama’s gratitude for helping Cynthia-sama.”

“Eh!? No, I had a great meal yesterday and today, and I was allowed to stay a night, so that’s enough.”

“No. Please take it.”

“Ah…”

“Hinami-sama?”

“Um…thank you.”

The result. A butler’s insight is terrifying. I received a small bag from Sebas-san and placed it into my rucksack. The content… I heard clinking sounds so it’s probably money.

Somehow, I became very rich over just yesterday and today…! I felt glad that I had the affinity for being a chemister.

“Hinami-sama, what is your plan for today? Cynthia-sama will return tomorrow morning at the earliest. A room can be prepared…?”

“Oh no, I’m going to return home today.”

“But…”

I cut Sebas-san off and told him that I’d be going home. Staying here even though Thia-chan wasn’t here—there’s a limit to being shameless! Unthinkable!

I felt sorry for Sebas-san who was trying to keep me here, but I told him that I was going to return home and headed out to the city.

***

“Oh no…!!”

Currently, I am having lunch at a stall at the market after looking around the stores on the main street. I had just discovered the biggest problem, and that I’m now in trouble.

“I don’t know the way back home…!”

Even if I did know, I wouldn’t be able to defeat the monsters.

What should I do…I need to know the way back at the least. If I’m going to walk back, I have to be prepared to walk for at least half a day.

As I was eating the fried sweet potatoes I bought from the stall with a troubled expression, a soldier came up to me. Huh…I didn’t do anything, right? Right…?

“What’s wrong, ojou-chan? Making such a face…did something happen?”

“Ah, no…I just wanted to know the way to the forest.”

“The forest? Ah, the forest with a ‘Lost Forest’ inside?”

“Yes!”

Looks like this wasn’t the development of the ‘Hey! I haven’t seen you around…you’re not from this country, are you?!’ situation. What a relief.

“Haha, so you’re also an aspiring adventurer like the previous person! That forest can be reached by heading out of the southern gate and heading to the left at the crossroad. When you go out, you can get a copy of a map with your ID at the gate.”

“ID…?”

“Aah. It’s needed to get in and out of the city. If you don’t have one, you can register at the Adventurer’s Guild to get one.”

“I see, thank you!”

“Sure thing. The forest outside of the Lost Forest is one for beginners, but if you accidentally stumble into the Lost Forest, you can’t come back, so be careful!”

“Yes!”

I waved goodbye to the friendly soldier who left with a smile. Looks like he spoke kindly to me because I looked like a child. Well, I’m happy about that, but there was also a complicated feeling. No, it means that I looked young…let’s just say it’s good.

“First, I’ll go to the Adventurer’s Guild…I remember seeing something like that at the main street.”

To begin with, I can’t even go out without an ID.

Because it’s urgent now, I’ll have to go to the Adventurer’s Guild.

I turned around and started walking towards to the Adventurer’s Guild.

When I came out to the main street from the market, a slightly large building came into my sight. 

The 3-story building was quite big compared to other buildings. There was a sign with a sword and a shield, and there were burly people entering and exiting. I wonder if they were adventurers.

Following them as an example, I set foot into the slightly intimidating Adventurer’s Guild.

The place was cleaner than I expected and had 5 reception counters. There were two counters for purchasing materials and receiving requests. The reception desk for purchasing materials had a wide open space between the two reception desks, and there was a space for placing materials there. There were actually adventurers placing furs and fangs on that space.

I headed to the other counter and asked the lady at the about IDs. The receptionist lady showed me the form and politely explained it for me.

“Anyone can register as an adventurer after they turn 10. Also, once you register, the guild issues an ID. The ID is also called a guild card and the achievements at the guild and the rank are entered on it. For registering as an adventurer, a registerer status check and 5 silver coins are necessary. Will you be registering?”

“Yes, please. Also…what’s a registerer status check?”

“The status check is the process of looking into the registerer using a magic tool so that the guild can guarantee the identity of the person. With the magic tool, things like criminal records are shown.”

“I see…Thank you. I’d like to register.”

I filled out the form and handed it over to the receptionist lady.

I needed to fill out my name, age…and my occupation. I wondered if I should fill it out as ‘chemister,’ but since it wasn’t necessary to fill it in and I didn’t want to reveal too much, I left it blank. Also, I’m 15…there should be no problem even if I don’t have a job. Probably.

“Yes, there are no problems here. For the occupation…it’s possible to find out your aptitude and write that in. What would you like to do?”

“Eh! That’s possible? Then please!”

“Okay. Then, it will be done while checking your status. Please place your palm on the crystal over here.”

“Yes……”

After saying that, she took out a crystal the size of a person’s face. It was pure white like snow. From the soft light inside and the sunlight coming in through the windows, it was glittering with rainbow colors.

When I placed my hand on it, it wasn’t as cold as I expected.

After a little while later, the crystal shone green with projected letters.

<Kusunoki Hinami>

Age: 15

Lv. 1

Current state: Healthy

Criminal records: None

Job aptitude: Chemister

Oh…even though I thought it would be alright, I felt very relieved after confirming that my criminal record was nonexistent.

“Looks like the status isn’t shown.”

“Ah…that is private information, so it is not shown here. But it’s properly shown on the guild card, so please be careful.”

“Yes.”

“Here is Hinami-san’s guild card.”

Suddenly, a plate the size of a driving license was ejected out of the crystal. Gosh, that surprised me…! To calm my quickly beating heart, I breathed deeply for a bit. Seeing me like that, the lady laughed.

“Well then, allow me to explain. This ‘guild card’ can be used everywhere in Letisreel to prove your status. The owner’s information is disclosed on the front side. Normally, only the name, age and occupation are shown. However, by reciting <Status>, the status is shown. Likewise, reciting, <Skill>, or <Divine Protection>, reveals those too. I wouldn’t recommend showing them off… but sometimes a client wants to confirm so react accordingly depending on the situation.

“I see… that’s very convenient.”

“Yes. Also, on the other side, your monster subjugation record and the current status of your request is written. Also, reciting, <Map>, shows the map of the country you are currently in, so please use it to your convenience.”

It’s completely flawless…this guild card.

When I recited, <Map>, to test the guild card, a hologram map appeared on top of the guild plate. This is amazing…!! By the way, I only have the map of the kingdom of Lareel, but it seems like more can be added by asking people that have map data for other places.

“Finally, about the color of the plate.”

“Color…?”

“Yes. The color denotes the rank of the adventurer. From the bottom, there is D rank (copper), C rank (green), B rank (blue), A rank (gold) and S rank (black). As you can see, Hinami-san, yours is copper so your rank is D.”

My guild card had textual information engraved on a copper plate.

I see…so this is how rank can be discerned.

“The rank increases according to your contribution to the guild and your ability, so please work hard.”

“Yes, thank you!”

I said goodbye to the lady and was going to leave behind the reception desk… but then I remembered that I couldn’t return home on my own. If there was a party heading to the forest, I would like to tag along…but would there even be one? According to Alfred-san, there weren’t any people going to that forest ever since it turned into a ‘Lost Forest’…

“Is something wrong?”

Perhaps noticing that I was worrying about something, the lady talked to me again. No…maybe it’s only natural to speak out if I just stand in one place? I felt sorry for inconveniencing her, but I needed to know.

“Frankly…I want to get to the ‘Lost Forest’ but I can’t go alone because of the monsters…so I want to tag along if there’s a party heading that way…”

“Ah…but there aren’t any parties headed to that ‘Lost Forest.’ Before it turned into one, it was a popular spot for beginners, but no one goes there now. It doesn’t mean much for experienced people either…because it’s a shallow forest.”

“I see…”

“Hmm…an escort request can be made, but mostly likely there won’t be good results.”

Employing escorts…!?

It can’t be helped if I want to return home safely.

“No, I want to put up a request please…!”

“Well…the adventurers who take escort requests are somewhat experienced. So they might not accept a request…going into such a shallow forest.”

“I-I see…”

“In that case, the choices are to gather a party on your own, or buy a curse-slave as a party member. If you have an aptitude for summoning, it’s also possible to tame a monster…”

The lady provided 2 alternatives. Nice…! So summoners exist too. That seems kind of cool, unlike a chemister for some reason…I wonder if it’s possible to summon spirits? More importantly, I have to think about what I’ll do next!

Plan 1: Gather a party of my own…Hmm, this feels fun like a game! But, it’s rejected. Because I can’t even fight…there’s no way that there’d be weird  people who would let me into their party.

Plan 2: Curse slaves…I don’t know what the ‘curse’ part means…but what’s certain is that I’d be buying a slave.

But…for a Japanese person like me, the act of ‘buying a person’ is quite the high hurdle. In addition, I don’t think I can buy someone with just 10 gold coins…

Perhaps taking pity on someone who was troubled, the lady spoke out kindly to me.

“It’s difficult, isn’t it? Indeed, even with rookie adventurers, getting a party is hard. When incomes to the curse-slaves…Hmm, let’s see. See that male adventurer over there? Ah, and also the female adventurer that just came in?”

“Hm…? Ah, yes, I can see them.”

“Their party members are all curse-slaves.”

“Eh!”

What…! I didn’t think it would be that natural to have slaves.

“Since there’s the advantage of not fighting over the distribution of treasure, there are quite a lot of people who form parties using curse-slaves. Also, the curse-slaves are freed after a 5-year contract, so there are quite a lot of people who do curse-slave liberation activities.”

“Liberation activities?”

“Yes. Curse-slaves are those who wish to dispel their ‘curse.’ The ‘curse’ is dispelled after 5 years of servitude with a contract.”

“Then, what is the ‘curse’?”

I know the meaning of ‘slave,’ but what could the ‘curse’ part mean?

The lady looked surprised, so it must be common sense. Uh, the book on common knowledge god gave me didn’t have anything on slaves…!

“The ‘curse’ is a mark engraved on the chest…a malediction.”

“A malediction…? So it can be dispelled by 5 years of servitude?”

“Yes. People who wish to dispel their ‘curse’ become ‘curse-slaves.’ People who do not wish to be dispelled are called curse-holders.”

So that’s it…? This really is a different world, there are so many strange things. I wonder what the condition for the ‘curse’ to be afflicted in the first place is.

I had been listening to the explanation for a long time, so a line ended up forming behind me…!

“I see…In that case, I’ll go see some!”

“Yes, that might be for the best.”

“Yes. Thank you very much!”

I decided to take a look at the curse-slaves first. It’s a system that didn’t exist in Japan, but it seems like in this world it’s a natural thing…? Becoming a slave to dispel a ‘curse’…that’s how it was. So slavery is bad, but maybe the system itself isn’t bad…?

Hmm, it’s difficult to decide.

In any case, I hope that I can return home safely…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

T/N: Poor Hinami. Honestly though, I feel like she should be getting some help getting back home considering she was brought to Lareel after saving Thia-chan, haha