Interlude 4
The Guild Master's Grueling Work
Translator : PolterGlast
"Haaah, even
after becoming the Guild Master, I can't catch a break."
In a quiet, empty
room, the voice of an exhausted middle-aged man echoed.
The room was larger
than the others, but it felt strangely cramped due to the countless stacks of
documents piled up.
A first-class desk,
likely made with the finest wood by the best craftsman with painstaking care,
was also ruined by the massive piles of documents.
One look at this room
would be enough to understand just how demanding the job of a Guild Master was.
He was a former A-rank
adventurer who retired at the age of thirty-nine, to the great regret of those
around him.
From there, he became
a guild employee without using any connections and, with the skills honed by
his experience as a former A-rank adventurer, he quickly rose through the ranks
to become the head of the guild—the Adventurer's Guild Master, Dwayne Ackroyd.
Even Dwayne, whose
only pride was his stamina, was sick and tired of the sheer volume of work that
came with being the Guild Master.
Age was probably a
factor, but he was still only forty-nine.
I don't want to say
I'm getting old just yet—as he was thinking that and leaning back in his chair,
there was a knock on the door.
A knock on the door
was basically never a good thing, and Dwayne's expression soured before he even
heard the reason.
It was either a new
job being dropped on him or some major trouble had occurred.
He disliked both, but
if he had to choose, the former was still better.
"............You
can come in."
"Excuse me. These
are the monster parts delivered for subjugation quests. Please confirm that
there are no mistakes."
"Haaah. I've told
you many times, this isn't the Guild Master's job. Isn't there any other staff
member who's an expert on monsters? I'm seriously going to die from
overwork."
"There's no one
else who can identify a monster just by looking at a part of it. We are looking
for a former top-class adventurer who would be willing to work for the guild,
but..."
"Well, I guess
there aren't many ex-adventurers who would work diligently."
"No, sir. I don't
know if I should be saying this to you, a former adventurer yourself, but many
adventurers are strange people with rough personalities."
"I completely
agree. ...Tch. So that means I have to keep doing this job for a while
longer."
"I'm sorry, sir,
but we're counting on you."
In the first place, it
was Dwayne himself who had proposed the system, so he couldn't complain.
Before Dwayne joined
the Adventurer's Guild, they hardly did any proper checks for subjugation
quests.
Knowing that many
would falsify their reports, Dwayne was the one who proposed the idea of
bringing back the ears of the defeated monster.
As a result,
adventurers could no longer cheat, and Dwayne's reputation soared, but...
because he was the only one who could identify monsters by their ears, the job
still came to him even now that he was the Guild Master.
He had tried to teach
others directly several times, but apparently, identifying a monster just from
its ear was quite difficult.
Dwayne let out a deep
sigh in resignation and, once again today, performed the task of checking the
ears that served as proof for subjugation quests.
"My head is going
to go crazy from looking at nothing but monster ears."
Grumbling to himself,
he was checking the ears that filled the basket when he saw a large sack that
was clearly not a monster's ear.
He knew that
adventurers occasionally brought back the whole head without thinking, and he
immediately guessed that was the case this time.
"A novice can
identify a head, so I've told them countless times to filter those out before
they get to me. I'll have to call them in for a lecture later."
While feeling
reluctant about having to look at a severed head, Dwayne checked the head in
the sack.
Inside was the severed
head of an Ogre.
He had a rough idea
from the size, but for some reason, Dwayne's eyes were drawn to the Ogre's
head.
Normally, the moment
he confirmed it was real, he would put it back in the sack and follow the
disposal procedure, but this time, he was looking at the Ogre's head as if he
were scrutinizing it.
"............What
is this head?"
The first thing Dwayne
found strange was the Ogre's face in death; it looked as if it hadn't even
realized it had died.
And when he turned it
over to look at the neck, he couldn't help but gasp at the cross-section, which
was so clean it looked as if it had sliced through space-time itself.
Dwayne had been an
adventurer for many years, and even after retiring, he had worked at the
Adventurer's Guild and interacted with countless adventurers, but he had never
seen a cut surface that gave him goosebumps like this.
He'd never even
thought to look at a cross-section so closely before, but this Ogre's head was
like a work of art that he could stare at forever.
He didn't know how
long he had been looking, but by the time he snapped out of it, about an hour
had passed.
His mind a jumbled
mess, Dwayne hurriedly called for the guild employee from before.
"Get in here! I
need to talk to you!"
The guild employee,
looking terrified by Dwayne who had come to call him with the face of a demon,
was first shown the Ogre's head.
"Do you recognize
this Ogre's head?"
"A, ah... I-I'm
sorry! You said not to bring in heads, right? I must have passed it on to you
without realizing it was mixed in."
"That's part of
it, but that doesn't matter right now! More importantly, do you recognize this
Ogre's head?"
"...? No, I don't
recognize it. I think a new employee was the one who accepted it at the
counter."
"Get that rookie
here, now! I need to find the adventurer who brought in this Ogre's head!"
Dwayne cast aside all
his pending work to focus on finding the adventurer who had taken this Ogre's
head.
Even Dwayne himself
didn't know why he was looking, but if he had to say, it was because his
instincts were screaming at him to find them.
It was completely
irrational, but the guild employee, sensing Dwayne was serious, was about to go
call the rookie when—a receptionist entered the room without knocking.
"Hey, I'm busy
right now—"
"We've just
received a report that a horde of Ogres is approaching! There are nearly a
hundred of them, and there are multiple Ogres of an unknown type mixed in with
the group!"
Just as he was about
to search for the adventurer who had taken the Ogre's head, news of an
approaching Ogre horde arrived.
His head was about to
explode, but he calmly listed the things he needed to do now.
Clear the pending
work, search for the person who took the Ogre's head, and deal with the
approaching Ogre horde.
From Dwayne's personal
point of view, the top priority was searching for the person who had taken the
Ogre's head, but as the Guild Master, he had to do something about the
approaching Ogre horde.
With the most
frustrated feeling he'd ever had in his life, Dwayne decided to start
formulating a plan to counter the approaching Ogre horde.
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