After a few more conversations, Diz left with Akane, citing work. Though it was sad to see Akane go, it was better to send her home early from a tavern filled with drunkards.
“Hey, Ur! You survived!”
one of the drunks approached, slurring his words.
“Nana, you’re as bad with alcohol as ever,”
Her face was flushed red, and she was dressed lightly, revealing patches of skin. She held a bottle in each hand, looking quite a mess. It was really a good thing Akane had gone home. The scene was too chaotic.
“What? I’m fine! You’re the ones who look like wrecks!”
“I honestly wonder how you haven’t been stripped of your ring yet. Your drinking habits need to improve,”
“Don’t worry! Look, there’s plenty of joy around!”
“You’re about to spill your guts. Wait, wait, wait!”
In the end, Nana’s overflowing “joy” ended up in a bucket. Ur sighed in relief, unaware of his own frustration, while Nana mumbled incoherently and smiled at him.
“Hehe, I’m glad you’re okay,”
“…Yeah, thanks for worrying,”
Ur replied, thanking Nana for her concern despite her drunken state. Seeing their exchange, Jack, sitting at a nearby table, shouted out drunkenly.
“I wouldn’t have minded if you’d died! The bounty would’ve been mine!” he slurred.
“Shut up! You couldn’t take down anyone, you lowlife!”
Nana retorted, starting a fight.
Quickly, nearby tables were cleared, forming a ring around the combatants. Bets were being placed, and the tavern owner sighed as he began cleaning up broken bottles.
Somehow, the familiar chaos of the scene made Ur feel at ease.
“They’re lively idiots, aren’t they?”
“As far as parties go, this seems about right… Wait, what are you doing here, Glenn?”
In the midst of all this mayhem, Glen is chomping down on drinks and snacks by himself, not taking part in any of their antics. What he’s doing is like a bachelor having a luxurious dinner.
“Huh? I’m enjoying the free drinks and food,”
“scam artist,”
“What do you think I taught you the ropes of partying for?”
“I knew it!”
Ur replied, despite wanting to thank him.
But it was true that Glenn had helped Ur the most during their recent battle. Ur poured ale into Glenn’s empty cup and bowed his head.
“Thanks, master. I survived,”
“That’s good,”
“Is that all?”
“That’s more than enough. Now, get out of here. You’ve got somewhere to be, right?”
As instructed, Ur left. There was only one place he could think of to go.
“Shizuku,”
“Yes?”
Shizuku, who had been chatting with other adventurers at the first table, looked up. They hadn’t had a proper conversation since he’d woken up amidst all the chaos.
As Ur was once again trying to figure out what to say to her, she quietly turned her head to the side.
“Shizuku? “
Wondering what to say, Ur noticed Shizuku’s unusual, heated gaze. She walked up to him and clumsily hugged him tightly.
“We did it,”
She said and laughed.
Suddenly, Ur felt her emotions surge through him like an eruption: joy, accomplishment, relief, gratitude for the girl in front of him. Emotions he hadn’t fully realized until now flooded his body.
He realized Shizuku felt the same.
“…Yeah, we did,” Ur replied.
“Yes,” Shizuku agreed.
“We did it. We really did it,”
Ur repeated the words. But they weren’t enough to contain his overflowing emotions. Following his impulse, Ur lifted Shizuku by the waist and shouted with all his might.
“We won!!!”
“Yes!”
In response to Ur’s roar, the adventurers raised their cups once more, celebrating them.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
Central Islaria Continent, Sin City-State Proudia
Adventurers’ Guild Headquarters, Main Conference Room
《───That concludes the report from the Gradol Branch.》
“Good work,”
the woman nodded in response to the branch manager’s report, transmitted through a magic device. Sitting at the head of the main conference room in Proudia, the leader of the Adventurers’ Guild headquarters, she was the undisputed pinnacle of adventurers in Islaria.
With chestnut hair neatly tied back, she appeared to be in her thirties, a human woman.
The renowned Golden-ranked adventurer, known as the “God-Thunder Empress,” Ikaza-Gran-Sparkle, listened to the reports from across the lands, transmitted via the communication crystals, and sighed in frustration.
“The number of wanted criminals isn’t decreasing,”
Several crystals in the room glowed as they transmitted responses.
《We’ve been assigning capable adventurers, but the risks are too high…》
《It’s easier to make money in the labyrinth. Thanks to that, we’re not running out of magic stones.》
“At this rate, they might as well call themselves labyrinth miners rather than adventurers,”
《This isn’t a new issue.》
《It’s not really our concern, is it? City defense is the job of each city’s knight order, not our responsibility to hunt down wanted criminals.》
《Try telling that to the city leaders and see their reaction.》
Ikaza snorted at the endless debate. She knew this problem wasn’t easy to solve and didn’t want to spend too much time on it.
“Enough. Next,” s
he said, silencing the discussion.
“Regarding adventurer promotions. Most cases were fine… except for the Greed branch,”
“Yes,”
a man’s voice echoed from the crystal, accompanied by a slight tremor of age. Jiro, the long-serving branch manager of Greed, had risen through the ranks of adventurers, giving him a deep understanding of the field. He was indeed the right man to entrust with a land that had a high labyrinth appearance rate, balancing the expected value of magic stone production with the risk of “labyrinth Overflow.”
However, because of this, one question remained about the documents he had sent this time.
“There are candidates for promotion to Bronze Ring who are too young. It’s only been a month.”
“After registration, defeating a bounty within a month, regardless of pass or fail, needs to be considered for evaluation,”
“The way you say that, it’s not your recommendation?”
“It’s the recommendation of Glen, an instructor at our training facility.”
At the name Glen, a slight murmur leaked from various crystals. Known as the “Crimson Fist King,” a Gold-rank adventurer, he was well-recognized within the Adventurers’ Guild.
“…That ill-natured Glen?”
“The man who skipped even the Gold-rank promotion ceremony just because it was troublesome…?”
“Is a dragon about to fall from the sky?”
However, their recognition was not in a good way.
Nevertheless, his abilities themselves were beyond doubt. Given a Gold-rank’s recommendation, Jiro couldn’t help but put that adventurer up for promotion consideration. The fact that they defeated a bounty in just a month was indeed a remarkable achievement. But…
“Shizuku, this girl seems to have high potential as a magician, but what about the boy?”
The documents sent by Jiro detailed the abilities of the Ring promotion candidates. Accurate records of the monsters they had defeated. There was no favoritism there. The boy’s abilities, except for defeating the Jewel Doll, were terribly mediocre.
“Defeating a bounty in a month is certainly an outstanding achievement, but shouldn’t we observe a bit longer?”
“Is Glen’s recommendation letter not enough?”
“I’m asking about its contents. That man only wrote ‘I recommend’ and nothing else.”
A sense of someone holding their head in their hands transmitted through the crystal.
“I apologize. I should have checked before sending it.”
“Didn’t you hear any reason for Glen’s recommendation?”
“It’s rather abstract as far as reasons go, but…”
“And that is?”
“He said, ‘Because that guy is an adventurer.'”
The reactions to this statement ranged from confusion to laughter. It was too lacking in specificity, and there were countless adventurers these days. Most responded as if he had stated the obvious.
“I see…”
But Ikaza quietly narrowed her eyes at those words.
She reexamined the documents on “Ur” spread before her. Average, ordinary, no special abilities. No particular talent. He was a commoner. A very typical adventurer, a dime a dozen in this world.
Yet, this very person challenged a bounty after just a month.
The result wasn’t important. His female partner likely contributed greatly. More than that, there must have been an element of luck. The result couldn’t be used to measure him.
What’s important is that he took on the challenge. The fact that he chose to risk his life.
“…”
Ikaza thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Very well.”
“Lady Ikaza!?”
Voices of surprise echoed from multiple crystals. But Ikaza paid no mind. Lightly pinching “Ur’s” documents with her fingertips, she smiled a little playfully.
“Cautious stability, calm judgment, and then discarding them to seize results. Indeed, he truly is ‘one who adventures.’ Let’s see how far he can go.”
With the seal at hand, she stamped the approval mark on “Ur” and “Shizuku’s” documents.
“I look forward to their activities as adventurers.”
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