Volume 2 - CH 169

After returning to the Adventurers’ Guild, Jigul and I were waiting in line at the reception desks to report the accomplishment of our request.

There were not many people there at that time of the day, so we were able to report our accomplishment easily, but then I was stopped and made to wait.

“……The heck?”

“What did you do, Nii-san?”

“Dunno……”

I’m getting a little concerned because I had an idea why.

Everyone would have known that we had defeated the orcs and the big heal slime, and that had caused a stir.

But it all started with one of the staff members at the reception counter, who was an unbelievably stupid girl.

I would have been a normal everyday citizen if she hadn’t made such a fuss. ……

“What did you do?”

“Wh- why you ask?”

“What happened back there?”

“I was certain that’s not my problem…”

“I knew you did something!”

Err, I have done something back then, yes.

But I refused a little bit and just bumped him off a little bit – that’s not right!

Then the guild official came back with some kind of document.

I wonder what that was. …… Is it some kind of a written apology?

In that case, I can’t write anything.

I can read but I can’t write.

“Um, you’re Ouren-san, right?”

“Y- yea.”

“Since it appears that you have completed the required number of requests to move up to the D Rank, we would like to invite you to take a promotion test.”

“Eeeh!? Aren’t that a bit too fast, Nii-san!?”

“Ah geez …… it’s just that….”

Feeling wary that I might get some kind of warning, I breathed a deep sigh of relief.

But that’s strange.

I’ve been an E-ranker, and now I’m skipping the ……e+ out of the water, huh?

“Hey, I’m an E rank, why would they suddenly move me up to a D instead of an E+?”

“Uhmm……. I’m sorry. It wasn’t described in the document.”

“I have three more companions. …… what happens to them?”

“Ah, uh, …… I- I’m sorry. I’m not sure what will happen to them.”

What was this lack of explanation?

I know this is what you call skipping a rank, but I haven’t accomplished that much.

As far as I’m concerned, I have no problem with it as long as it gets me up in the ranks quickly, but I’d like to have a proper explanation.

But well, if I’m the first to take it, I can give the three who are coming after me the general gist of it, and if they want to raise their ranks, I’ll ask them to raise theirs.

“Eeeh-.That’s not fair, that’s not fair!”

“Jigul, good luck trying to catch up!”

“It took me a month and a half to get here! I’m not going to let Nii-san, who just arrived a few days ago, overtake me!”

“You know, Jigul, that’s what they call being an adult is.”

“Dang!”

I think a month and a half is fast enough. …… Well we weren’t even take a week …… it seems slow to me.

My apologies, Jigul. I’m going to go ahead.

For now, I’m going to look over the documents that the staff brought and accept them.

The exam is a practical test, and the venue is said to be the arena set up by the guild.

I’m told that I can come as soon as I’m ready, but what should I do if I’m already fully prepared?

“Can I start taking these now?”

“Eh!? You mean right away!?”

“No, if you can’t, that’s cool.”

“I’m sorry, the …… examiner is out right now, so if you wouldn’t mind ……. you could take it tomorrow.”

“Understand. I’ll come by again tomorrow. Is morning okay?”

“The examiner will be there in the morning, so no problem.”

I am very much looking forward to seeing what kind of examiner we will get, but we will have to wait until tomorrow.

Now, there is only one thing left to do here.

The sun hasn’t set yet, and I don’t know if they have returned, but …… I’m going to wait for Yurie and the others for now …….

I’ll have to ask her to be Jigul’s mentor.

Well, the other people might be a little jealous, but I’m sure …… Jigul will be fine.

“Well, I guess we’ll wait until Yurie returns.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hmm? What’s the matter, are you scared?

“I have never even talked to her properly ……. She’s a little bit intimidating.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

As for her character, she may be somewhat annoying, but there is no doubt that she is skilled adventurer.

She is an S rank adventurer and must know a lot about monsters and the terrain, so her skills are well established.

But with her personality, I’m afraid she won’t be very good at teaching.

There are only a few ways to pass the time at the Adventurers’ Guild, but …… we decided to sit in one of the chairs and wait for Yurie and the others to return.

Since we have some free time, we both decide to take care of the weapons we’ve used, and I decide to ask him to show me how to take care of the longsword.

Apparently, if you don’t have a whetstone, you can use a file to polish it.

Since I never use it, there is probably no need for me to learn it, but it would be good to broaden my knowledge.

I showed Jigul how to clean a sword, but I didn’t let him actually clean it because it was very dangerous.

Seriously, it’s dangerous.

◆

The surrounding area began to rustle.

I wondered what in the world the commotion was about and sheathed KageOrochi that I had finished cleaning.

I stood up to check, but the crowd had grown so large that I could not see the source of the commotion, so I listened carefully to the conversations going on around me.

“An S-rank adventurer? These guys?”

“She’s a woman, and yet she wields that thing. …… Damn.”

“Can you even swing it?”

“Heck no. Without skill, you can’t swing a battle axe like that. I’d prefer the magician in the back.”

Hmmm, from the conversation it sounds like Yurie and Rose are back.

It must be a hassle to draw attention to this kind of thing every time they come here …….

The fact that they are back means that they are probably going to the reception counter at the higher ranks.

I’ll take Jigul and walk to that location for now.

When I went to the reception desk for the A-S rank zone, as I expected, Yurie and Rose were standing there and were in the middle of reporting the accomplishment of the request.

“Yo. You two.”

“Ugh.”

“Ah, Ouren-san, thank you for your hard work.”

“What the hell, with that [Ugh] Yurie?”

“Nothing good happens to me these days when I deal with you!”

“You betcha!”

“Don’t admit it!”

Apparently, we have been seen to be annoying …… in various ways, or rather, out of the norm, so I’ll just agree with her.

I don’t intend to be that extreme, but from the point of view of the inhabitants of this world, it seems that we are out of the norm.

There are still a lot of things we don’t understand.

“Where have you been all day?”

“I had to clean up after the Shadow Wolves because you were dragging me in the request! Shadow wolves have a strong sense of comradeship, so when they sense that one of their own has been killed, they gather there!”

“I didn’t know they had that kind of behavior.”

Shadow wolves are said to be able to smell the blood of their friends.

Therefore, when their friends bleed, they gather to help it.

So when it comes to defeating shadow wolves, it is a big job that can last several days.

I was told that as long as you don’t make them bleed. It is difficult because these two do not have such skills.

After she finished explaining, Rose now asked me a question.

“So, what’s Ouren-san doing here? And …… that child is?”

“Ah. Yurie. I have a favor to ask you.”

“Nope.”

“I haven’t even told you what it is yet…….”

Sure, it might be a hassle for Yurie, but she could at least listen to what I have to say.

Well, maybe these two have a general understanding of what I’m trying to say.

“You’re going to ask me to do something weird again anyway!”

“I’m not asking you to do anything strange. I’m just trying to get you an apprentice.”

“…… apprentice?”

I pushed Jigul, who was backing up a bit, to stand in front of Yurie.

Jigul was stiff, but he managed to move his mouth to introduce himself.

“Ha, nice to meet you, Yurie-san! My name is Jigul!”

“Eh, ah, yeah. Nice to meet you. ……”

For some reason, Yurie fumbles, but I ignore it and explain.

“I want you to train him as an apprentice. I think he has talent, but perhaps because he has no instructor, he has a habit of trying to do things on his own. Would you teach him how to use a weapon?”

“…………”

Yurie glanced at Jigul and looked troubled, as if she was thinking about something incredibly hard.

Rose was smiling with amusement at Yurie, but at the same time, she seemed to be anticipating something.

Jigul was probably the most nervous at this moment, but he still stood up straight and waited for Yurie’s response.

“…I don’t want to.”

“Ara?”

Rose let the words slip, as if to say that the answer was unexpected.

I don’t know what she was thinking, because I have only known Yurie for a very short time.

But Rose must have known her for a very long time.

There must be some reason for Rose to let her words slip out like that.

“May I ask why?”

“Say ……, how many times do you think I’ve accepted such an offer? Not once or twice. I’ve turned them all down, so of course I’m going to turn them down this time too.”

I see. …….

It is true that if you can get an S-rank adventurer to be your instructor, you will become famous at once and your ability will increase if you can bring him up to the next level.

Well, most of them might make the offer with that kind of intention. ……

“Yurie, are you sure?”

“…… Yeah.”

Yurie turned away and finally let go of her eyes from Jigul.

“Then let’s do this”

I clap my hands and make Yurie look at me.

“Yurie, have a match with me. If I win, you take Jigul as your apprentice. If you win, you can do whatever you want.”

“…… Eh?”

This is obviously something that does not make sense to Yurie.

If she really didn’t want to take on an apprentice, she would normally abandon this offer, or she could even ignore it.

From what Yurie and Rose had said earlier, I thought that some kind of pride might be getting in Yurie’s way.

I don’t know exactly what it was, but I understood that they didn’t seem to want to take on an apprentice, so I decided to make this offer to them.

“You are too strong to fight.”

“Of course, you can set the terms of the fight. No skills, or no weapons.”

“If you want to fight without skills….. and just use a sword, I’ll be happy to do it.”

“Deal.”

She didn’t say no, did she?

Well, I’ll ask Rose about the reason for this later.

Rose was smiling, covering her mouth to see what was so funny, but only Jigul was looking at me with a frightened look on his face.