VOLUME 3: INTERMISSION – PALE’S LECTURE ON THE ADVENTURER’S GUILD(1/2)
After leaving the Goblin King to set off on her personal journey, the blind Pale Symphoria traveled from Germion Kingdom to the Holy Shushunu Kingdom.
“Oh~… So this is Rishu, capital of the Holy Shushunu Kingdom,” a young, aspiring adventurer said as a robed girl with a staff looked around her restlessly.
“They seem to accept all religions around here… Ah, it’s the goddess, Zenobia’s, symbol!” The little girl folded her hands in front of her modest chest and offered her prayers.
The young man wryly smiled and turned to Pale who was behind him. “Ms. Pale, do you come here often?”
“Yes, I’ve worked on many quests here.” Pale nodded with reservation.
The young man’s eyes twinkled as he nodded. “First-rate adventurers really are amazing!”
Pale could only wryly smile to those twinkling eyes as she changed the topic.
Pale met these two while she was hurrying to the Holy Shushunu Kingdom and ended up lending them a hand while they were fighting on the plains against some monsters. After that they decided to travel together.
“This city is where the first adventurer’s guild was built. Right… Why don’t we drop by that store over there and talk while we refresh ourselves.” Pale pointed to the signboard of a grandiose restaurant fitting of a capital city.
“Oh, that…”
“Umm… I don’t think we can afford to eat there.”
The man and the little girl said as they glanced at each other.
Pale smiled. “Don’t worry, it’ll be my treat. Consider it my thanks for traveling with me.”
◆◆◇
The Holy Shushunu Kingdom was situated east of the Germion Kingdom.
Unlike the western Germion Kingdom that ruled with might, the Holy Shushunu Kingdom was a religious country.
Just as its name implied, which meant either forbearance or tolerance, the Holy Shushunu Kingdom has taken it upon itself to provide protection for all religions.
It didn’t matter whether it was the greatest church of the continent, the worshipers of the ancestral god, Ativ, or the Kushain faith that worshiped a holy man, or the believers of the goddess of vengeance, Altesia, herself, or the adherents of the healing goddess, Zenobia. In the Holy Shushunu Kingdom all religions are accepted except for those that seek to harm others.
The Holy Shushunu Kingdom is also famous for its military might, which allows it to stand against other countries.
It is particularly famed for its army that focus on mobility on the plains, such as the mana guards (sorcerer cavalry), or the archer knights, who are directly under the royal family. As a country that boasts excellent mobility on the battlefield, it is undoubtedly one of the leading powers in the region.
Even the tyrannic Germion Kingdom has no choice but to acknowledge its strength and prefer a cordial relationship.
The Holy Shushunu Kingdom was also a key point when traveling, for south of it were the recently unstable free cities, north of it was the Kingdom of Orphen, wherein the Ivory Tower could be found, and east of it were the small countries that sheltered the elves: the small country, Fenis; the agricultural country, Guralio, and the iron kingdom, Elfa. Lastly, there was the Holy Kingdom Alsas and the Oceanic Kingdom Yalma.
As a kingdom connected to various kingdoms, the Holy Shushunu Kingdom naturally gained popularity among the guilds.
The adventurer’s guild was established about 100 years ago under the proposition of the leader of the then biggest mercenary corps, the hero Guine Oren, to secure useful personnel and elevate the status of those who would be known as adventurers.
The adventurer’s guild could be said to have been established mostly due to the cooperation of Guine and the heir of a great merchant by the name of Halbert Lark.
At that time, the merchant guild was founded and it monopolized technology and provided protection for its merchants. The merchants joined hands with the royal family and the nobles, and they monopolized the goods – namely, weapons, armor, foods, and processed essentials – and regulated their price.
In so doing, the merchant guild ended up pushing away all unaffiliated merchants from the city.
The nobles, the royal family, and the people in power worked with the merchant guild to hire craftsmen for cheap, and then sold the end products at a high price. They also hired mercenaries for cheap to gather ingredients from monsters to manufacture certain goods.
It was then that the 10-year war between the Holy Shushunu Kingdom and the great eastern kingdom, Ranserg, came to an end as the latter collapsed. After that the city overflowed with mercenaries, and many small countries began popping out.
It is said that the impetus for Guine’s undertaking was the death of his friend who died while doing a job for the merchant guild.
The merchant guild’s high-handed tactics deeply oppressed the people and brought chaos to society, so the hero, Guine, took it upon himself to use his connections to gather the wandering mercenaries and form the adventurer’s guild.
As for why it wasn’t called the mercenary guild, it is said that it was due to Guine’s inclination for challenging new things.
Guine formed a contract of monopoly with the then rising merchant, Halbert, and opposed the merchant guild. Guine gathered craftsmen, ingredients, subjugated monsters, and in the end, even dabbled with the war mercs.
As for Halbert, he gathered the unaffiliated merchants and worked with Guine to go against the merchant guild.
The war between the merchant guild and the united front of Halbert and Guine continued on for the next 10 years, when finally, the merchant guild waved its white flag.
They had no choice but to surrender, as there were many resources in unexplored lands that they could not get. Try as they might to offer large sums in exchange, the adventurer’s guild always managed to get them first.
After 10 years the merchant guild and the nobles that worked with them were all ruined.
A certain influential person once threatened Guine to have the new fields vacated.
In response to that, Guine said, “Let there be war then. In 10 years you will fall under the might of our numbers.”
The next day, 100 adventurers from that person’s fief appeared before him to give him a piece of their mind.
It is said that noble quivered in fear and apologized.
Guine could get away doing such reckless things because many of the influential people were survivors of the 10-year war.
Guine literally used his body to protect many of the influential people in the frontlines, so he was not in a position that he would lose to some half-baked noble.
Guine had many war friends that money couldn’t buy.
Another reason why the adventurer’s guild stayed strong was because crushing the adventurer’s guild would result in the mercenaries wandering the streets again.
Mercenaries always wielded their weapons, so them wandering around would cause public order to worsen. Because of that the people in power decided it was best to keep them off the streets to save on expenses.
Moreover, the adventurers under Guine were famous, for most of the famed mercs joined the adventurer’s guild.
The One-Armed Mercenary, Yeots Garth; the Magic Swordsman, Hellberme; the Archer King, Falm Gastia; the Fire Wizard, Isaac.
With names that dazzled like the stars gathered under their banner, the adventurer’s guild had a might that a mere noble’s army couldn’t compare to.
After the adventurer’s guild defeated the merchant guild, they began working in every nook and cranny of the country.
They filled in for the country to do jobs it didn’t have the manpower to spare. Of course, that meant more expenses for the people, but it was better than nothing.
Especially, the subjugation of monsters, though that in and of itself showed just how poorly the country was doing financially.
Other than that they also worked in various jobs such as developing lands that might be profitable, exploring dungeons, looking for missing children, or even the delivering of mail.
Eventually, the work of the adventurer’s guild spread from the Holy Shushunu Kingdom to the nearby countries, such as Germion Kingdom, the small countries, the free cities… etc.
The monopoly contract with Halbert was called off after the adventurer’s guild reconciliated with the merchant guild.
The adventurer’s guild then worked with the new merchant guild through profitable endeavors such as selling them the spoils of the adventurers. Like this the two guilds grew together in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Presently, the adventurer’s guild was a large organization that could be found in almost every country.
The main branch of the adventurer’s guild was located in the best part of the merchant district of the capital city, Rishu.
“I-It’s huge…” The young man said as he looked up in a daze at the building.
Pale wryly smiled. “It was originally made to oppose the merchant guild, so it was built like a fortress.”
As the boy nodded, Pale led him and the girl inside.
Pale felt the two youths look on wide-eyed as they entered.
Pale quietly watched their surroundings. Thanks to the favor of the god of wind, her hearing was much sharper than normal, and she could easily visualize the surrounding area with just the sounds.
“The counter at the front should handle the procedures. I’ll wait,” Pale said before leaving the two to take a seat and listen attentively to the people around her.
Whether it was the hushed voices of the adventurers from the next table or the sound of equipment rustling, not a single sound escaped Pale’s sharp ears.
Pale turned her attention to eavesdrop on the adventurers in the room.
“The Red King has been getting increasingly active recently. It seems the Dagger of Werbus has joined them too.”
“That’s a joke, right? An assassin clan (blood oath) is literally a blood oath.”
“Word says the Red King is a ludicrously strong leader. On top of that, they brought first rate warriors and mages. With—”
“Ms. Pale!”
While Pale was eavesdropping, her name was suddenly called out. She looked up toward that voice.
“Ah, sorry. You’re done registering?” Pale asked.
“Yes,” the girl nodded.
“We should go find ourselves an inn first then. We can look for work afterwards,” Pale said.
“Ok!”
Pale wryly smiled. It was like when she was still with the Elks taking care of the clan’s neophytes.
Pale left the guild with the two in tow and looked for an inn, when they found one, they paid for the room and left.
“Oh, right. When we were registering, they asked us what clan we were affiliated with. What’s a clan?” The young man asked.
Pale nodded. “There doesn’t seem to be any suitable jobs, so let’s talk at the guild for the meantime.”
They were looking for a job that would send them to the east. A mail delivery job would be most preferable, but things weren’t always so convenient, and there was also the issue of rank.
Also, since not even Pale could read letters off paper her ears, she had to ask the young man to read the contents for her, but she couldn’t find anything that suited the level of the two neophytes with her.
In the end, they couldn’t find any work and had no choice but to go back and eat at the inn.
◆◇◆◆◆◆◆◆
The concept of clans was created about 40 years after the guild was established.
Adventurers frequently formed parties to hunt monsters, but cooperation was a difficult thing to achieve with strangers.
After 40 years only a few of the forefront founding members of the guild where left. Though perhaps it was more surprising was that there were still members from 40 years ago working in the same yakuza-like line of work.
The most important thing to when hunting monsters is the organization of the participating members and their roles.
Who will be the vanguard? What are their special weapons? What magic do they specialize in? How long can they last in battle?
At the time it was usually the most skilled of the adventurers who would lead the party.
One of the remaining founding members, Sergeid Harken, who was also known as the Supreme Spear, founded the first guild, Golden Toast.
He gathered the people who admired him and all the skilled adventurers regardless of age, then as proof of their alliance, they drank each other’s blood.
The power of that clan was proven when the recently reclaimed land in the north suffered heavy causalities.
Sergeid led his Golden Toast to push through the scattered parties and stop the maddened orcs.
That was the impetus for the clan rush.
The most renowned clans are Leonheart, which accepts both elves and demihumans, and Valkyria, which is known to undertake a lot of merc job from various countries.
They aren’t the only ones with over 1,000 members, but it isn’t easy managing such big clans, so most of the clans are mid-sized.
The Swallow Clan that travel the world and undertakes many jobs, the Red Moon that works solely in the south, the recently rising Clan Alliance of the Red King, and the Elks, who are active in the east.
There are many clans.
Being able to participate in clans like these means that one is trustworthy.
Being trustworthy means being paid more.
The rank the guild gives isn’t solely based on power. It just so happens that the guild can’t trust people without ability, but that’s true for all lines of work.
The rank given by the guild is really a measure of how trustworthy a person is.
In other words, it’s their way of saying ‘you can trust this person to get the job done’.
The ranks are normally divided into 5, ranging from A to E, but there is a special rank handed out by the guild, Rank S.
Even if someone has ability, if that person isn’t trustworthy, he will only be an E Ranker.
Of course, there are exceptions.
The exception is when a person is affiliated with a clan.
An adventurer can undertake jobs of higher ranks based on the reputation of the guild he is affiliated with. If he fails, then the reputation of the clan will be affected, so their clan naturally won’t make them do jobs that they can’t do.
Another path one could take is by getting the recommendation of a country.
The guild is closely connected to the secrets of various human countries due to undertaking various jobs for them that may or may not be profitable such as merc work, monster subjugation, labor… etc.
If one can get a strong recommendation from such a country, then one can undertake jobs of a higher rank.
People trusted by the guild or people with high contributions to the country can also be summoned directly by the king.
The country who does that the most is the Germion Kingdom which has many unexplored territories.
Because of that the holy knight, Gulland, who came from the background of a mere adventurer, has become the goal and object of admiration of many adventurers.
◆◆◇
There were 3 people walking along the road east of Rishu.
They had undertaken a job to exterminate the monsters of a nearby village.
“I’m going to become a hero!” The young man said full of zeal.
Pale was expressionless.
“Can you not say stuff a kid would?” The young girl sighed.
“Stupid, this is a man’s dream,” the young man said.
“I’m not stupid!”
Seeing the two frolicking, Pale couldn’t help but wryly smile.
“How can I become a hero!?” The young man asked.
As Pale felt the wind caress her cheeks, she opened her mouth. “Hmm… You could try leading a charge. People who can do that well are often called heroes. If not, then at the very least, no one will call you a hindrance.”
Pale recalled that time when she had just joined the clan. She remembered how Touri Nokia valiantly led them into the dungeon.
It was a dungeon that would make anyone think twice entering, but he valiantly led the party from in front.
He stood at the front precisely because it was dangerous. Pale saw that as something dazzling and noble.
“Let’s hurry. It’s just a monster extermination quest, but it’ll become difficult should nightfall come. And besides, a bigger reward is better, right?”
The guild doesn’t cover travel expenses. Everything is paid for by one’s self, so travel expenses would have to be subtracted from one’s reward. Naturally, that means the less one travels the more money one can make.
The two nodded as they followed Pale into the village.
Tl Note:There’s a map in this chapter, but it’ll be posted later because the image quality is bad and I can’t make out the text.