episode_0009

And so, I became unemployed.

Although no requests were coming in, I hadn’t been stripped of my adventurer status by the guild legally, but… it was just a legal matter; what’s the difference between an unemployed day laborer and someone without a job?

At least for me, it was the same.

Just money going out without anything to do.

“Lately, I seem to be seeing you quite often. Have you perhaps quit being an adventurer? If you’re going to rent a room, you should have done so two days ago—”

It seemed like not only me, but others also thought that way.

As I handed over the ordered stew, I finally saw the innkeeper ask if I had become unemployed, albeit indirectly.

Well, anyone could see I looked like an idle unemployed person.

Back when I was working hard, every time I left the inn, it would take two or three days to return, but these days, I was just favoring the inn bed.

“Oh no, I’m just taking a short break.”

“All the quitters say the same thing.”

“It’s really not true. If I were quitting, I would have done so long ago. It’s from my woodcutter days when I struggled under the tax of the ironclads.”

I accepted the boiling mixed stew and turned my head sideways.

Contrary to the innkeeper’s misconception, I hadn’t quit working; I had been suspended.

…In truth, there wasn’t much of a difference.

A suspension with no set deadline for requests.

To be honest, if any other ironclad adventurer had received such a punishment, they would have packed up and left for another city.

Unlike adventurers who were more affluent than mere day laborers and wouldn’t starve even after resting for a few weeks, most ironclad or shield-bearing adventurers were destitute.

Unable to even pay for a room after just a week of not working.

Unless one was exceptionally tough, it was impossible to endure starving while waiting for the uncertain prospect of receiving new requests.

Hence, if you received a suspension, the only option was to escape to another city and re-apply to that city’s adventurer guild.

You would have to throw away all your experience and start again from being a shield-bearer… but still, being demoted was a thousand times better than starving.

The suspension of my registration was more or less like an expulsion order, although it wasn’t mandatory. Typically. Of course, I was an exception. My wallet never ran dry, even after taking a break for two or three weeks. While it might seem like living day to day, it was different from the other adventurers who squandered their surplus at the tavern every chance they got. It was all thanks to the profits I made during the two-month journey and the generous spoils given by the looters. Each individual contribution may have been meager, but as they say, “Many a little makes a mickle,” and after accumulating from about forty people, I managed to amass quite a fortune. So, I had no worries about making a living. Of course, if this situation were to continue not just for a few weeks but for several months, then even I would be in trouble… But that’s something I don’t need to worry about. The receptionist assured me. If I just quietly bide my time for a while, she will somehow manage to lift the suspension. She said it would take about two weeks at most. Therefore, in the end, the suspension turned out to be nothing more than an extended vacation. Indeed, people do rely on connections and favors. I thought I did well to save that girl, Uni or whatever her name was. However, she didn’t particularly like me. When the bandits took her as a hostage, I wonder if it was because I said I didn’t care about the girl’s life, and if they were going to kill her, they should just go ahead and do it? Well, back then, there was no other choice. If I showed concern for the hostage’s life, I would have been taken advantage of, right? Isn’t that so? Holding a knife to the throat of a woman I’d never seen before, telling me to put down my sword if I didn’t want to see her die… What kind of lunatic would put down their weapon after hearing such nonsense? Even if I did, I’d just become a freebie, and it wouldn’t even help rescue the hostage. The receptionist understood this well, so despite hearing the whole story, she expressed nothing but gratitude without any resentment. However, Uni, perhaps due to her young age, still seemed ungrateful for what I had done, despite being thankful for being rescued, she was still holding a grudge over the fact that I hadn’t cared about my own life.

No, rather than feeling grateful… What should I call it? Should I say that it makes me uncomfortable? That’s the feeling. I’m thankful, but it’s just too overwhelming, you know.

Children, anyway.

◆◆

A maximum of two weeks off.

For modern people who can’t escape the shackles of work, it would be an incredibly sweet rest, almost to the point of tears… “I’m so bored. Is there any interesting news or something?”

Perhaps I’ve completely adapted to this world already. Every day was endlessly boring.

Come to think of it, it’s natural, isn’t it? Unlike the entertainment overflowing on modern Earth, the entertainment in this world consisted at best of drinking, gambling, and spectating at the arena, or perhaps watching drake races.

The drake races were quite… well, honestly, they were extremely entertaining, but they only took place on weekends, so on a weekday like today, there was no chance to watch them.

Strolling through the bustling streets was only entertaining for a day or two; after about three days, it became tiresome.

That’s why, even though I couldn’t take on any requests, I used to go to the request office and chat with the few acquaintances there.

If there was any interesting news, I’d ask them not to keep it to themselves.

“…Miss Hilde. You do know that my responsibilities aren’t limited to just you, right?”

“So what? It looks like you’re not particularly busy today.”

I shrugged my shoulders as I looked around the unusually quiet request office.

Deserted tables and neatly arranged chairs. It had only been a few days since I killed some bandit or something, so what could have possibly happened in the meantime?

The interior of the request office, which used to buzz with adventurers, was as empty as a gambler’s wallet.

“What happened here?”

I asked, pointing to the back of my thumb.

“Ah… well, it’s nothing much. I guess I can tell you.”

The receptionist put down her pen and let out a light sigh, stretched, and then explained the details I had been waiting for.

It wasn’t a long story. It wasn’t particularly remarkable information.

It was simply the tale that somewhere in a valley not far from here, a dungeon entrance had suddenly appeared.

The middle-tier dungeon seemed to surpass at least ten floors underground.

“Both Eastern and Western factions have mostly headed there. A new dungeon, and one of the middle tiers at that, is worth aiming for a windfall,” they said.

It wasn’t an inaccurate statement.

Unlike the lower dungeons, which barely reached 1 to 4 floors, the middle-tier dungeon was quite dangerous, but the rewards were equally certain.

Moreover, if it was a newly discovered dungeon, it was even more so.

So, adventurers couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

Not only adventurers, but also wealthy nobles who entrusted dungeon exploration requests to them.

“A middle-tier dungeon… Do you know exactly how many floors it has?”

“We’ll have to finish exploring to find out. Given the information that we encountered orcs from the beginning, it’s definitely above the middle tier.”

Orcs… I might be able to win in a one-on-one fight, but with several, I’m not sure. Brunhilde’s instinctive swordsmanship isn’t omnipotent either.

Anyway, the fact that a new dungeon had appeared was quite interesting.

Although I’ve been prohibited from taking on missions and am still just a bronze rank, I won’t be able to gain access, but someday, when I advance to the silver rank, I’ll be able to go and see it.

Unlike the deep dungeons where one must live cautiously, the middle-tier dungeon was like a lifelong companion for an adventurer.

The lower dungeons were nothing more than a meager income no matter how many times you turned around, and the deep dungeons were connected to the domain of demons, making them extremely perilous.

Those who set foot in the deep dungeons without valuing their lives were usually strong individuals with compelling reasons.

Kingdom knights obligated to intercept demons emerging from the dungeons, or parties of heroes who had to descend into the demon’s domain to slay their king.

Rarely did those who entered the deep dungeons lack such reasons.

On the other hand, the middle-tier dungeon itself was moderately risky, yet the quality of the loot was certain.

Ultimately, the middle-tier dungeon was essentially the same as the deep dungeons that had been abandoned and cut off for ages.

The main force of the demons was deeply entrenched in the lower dungeon, but those attacking the middle levels were nothing more than stragglers who had managed to survive by sheer luck. Orcs and trolls, that sort of thing. Groups of low-tier adventurers could easily take them down, and even a couple of mid-tier adventurers would have little trouble defeating them. So, it’s no wonder the adventurers were going crazy. The danger posed by these creatures wasn’t very high, but if you managed to catch one, there was a rare chance of obtaining equipment from the old demon army.

…Of course, for me at the time, it was nothing but wishful thinking.

◆◆

After that, I spent time chatting with the receptionist lady about this and that. Stories about how the supervisors, frustrated and angry due to the lack of manpower caused by both mid-tier and low-tier adventurers all heading out on dungeon exploration missions, were directing their irritation and anger not at me, but at them. Or stories about how Yuni, who used to stubbornly insist on being an adventurer, now seemed to be showing some interest in the receptionist job, which was somewhat of a relief. Well, she chattered on about such things for a couple of hours.

I wondered if it was okay to say in front of adventurers that it was fortunate my family didn’t choose the path of adventurers… Well, I could understand that much. It was a profession with a high mortality rate, to be honest, with countless cases that didn’t end in just death.

The receptionist lady probably knew that better than anyone, so she couldn’t help but feel relieved that her younger sibling had given up on the dream of becoming an adventurer. That’s just how family love works.

◆◆

They say you can never predict what will happen in this world. The middle dungeon discovery incident, which I thought had nothing to do with me, turned out to be an unexpected stroke of luck for me as well.

It was only two days after the day I had whiled away chatting with the receptionist lady when I got another job offer.

“Miss Hilde, we’ve received a request. Are you interested?”

I had a job again.