Chapter 544: Choosing a Job
When Tauro and his party returned to the city of Swen, they had suddenly become celebrities.
Well, to be precise, the name of the team Black-Golden Wings and Honorary Viscount Tauro had already become well known because of the impostor group—but this time, things were different.
The story going around was that the real one had defeated the fake.
The impostor group had enjoyed an overall good reputation thanks to the fake Tauro’s Charm ability, so the first reaction was shock that they had been frauds at all.
“I once teamed up with the fake Lord Tauro’s group on a quest. They paid well and seemed like good people, too…”
“They just showed up out of nowhere and suddenly became popular with everyone, men and women alike, didn’t they?”
“So what’s the real one like? Someone who became an honorary viscount at fourteen, right?”
“He disappeared for a year, then the moment a fake shows up, he suddenly appears in the north—doesn’t that sound suspicious?”
“““Yeah, it does.”””
Because the fake had been so popular, there was a lot of skepticism about the appearance of the real one, which had made Tauro’s group famous over the past few days—
“…This is kind of awkward to deal with.”
When Tauro and his friends entered the Adventurers’ Guild Swen branch, they heard such talk among the adventurers, which made them smile wryly.
“We’re the real ones, so let’s hold our heads high. And we’ve grown stronger over the past year—strong enough to live up to our guild rank.”
Aeris puffed out her chest and encouraged Tauro.
“That’s right, Leader. Things got weird because our timing coming to the north was bad, but there’s no reason for the real Leader to be talked down like this. There’s no need to worry about it.”
Ank lightly patted Tauro on the back in support.
“Exactly! Let’s show everyone just how amazing Lord Tauro is from here on out!”
Zion clenched her fist and cheered him on.
“We’re adventurers. We prove ourselves with results from quests. Let’s go, Tauro!”
Ragune, like Ankh, gave Tauro a firm pat on the back and headed for the reception desk.
“Ah… members of Black-Golden Wings. Please come this way.”
The receptionist, still not quite used to dealing with the real group, greeted them with a complicated expression and led them to the room with the quest board for B-rank and higher adventurers.
Tauro and the others didn’t say anything in response and decided to just silently look over the bulletin board.
“…There’s quite a lot here.”
Tauro was impressed by the number of unusual quests available—likely because this was an adventurer’s guild in a large city in the north that was close to the border with the Empire.
“You’re right. This quest involves gathering rare medicinal herbs, but the deadline is six months.”
As expected of Aeris, she first checked the herb-gathering quests, which had long been Black-Golden Wings’ staple work.
“This quest is to enter the Antas Mountain range along the border and defeat B-rank monsters, but it also has a deadline of six months.”
Ragune informed Tauro, surprised at how high the difficulty of the quests at this branch seemed to be.
“There’s also a request from the lord of this territory mixed in. Looks pretty recent. Let’s see… collecting personal information on the general in charge of the royal military facility… preferably something that could be used as leverage. Man, those two really hate each other.”
Having already heard directly from the general about the bad blood between him and the city’s lord, Ank sighed in exasperation and put the quest back on the board.
“There’s one here about capturing monsters that are attacking villages near the border. It’s a capture mission, not subjugation —that’s rare, isn’t it?”
Zion reported while fluttering a quest notice in her hand.
“For now, let’s take the long-term herb-gathering quest Aeris found and the Antas Mountain Range extermination Ragune mentioned and do them both at the same time. I’ll reject Ankh’s mission, and Zion’s capture quest would be tough without hiring other adventurers, so I think I’ll reject that as well. —How about this one? ‘Subjugation of the Guardian of an Ancient Underground Ruin.’ Oh, this is a request from the A-rank team Blue Thunder Beast looking for an accompanying party. Is that okay?”
On the notice Tauro was holding, it read: ‘ We are looking for a team that is particularly good at support roles.’
“in this case, the Leader can use a bow and both light and dark magic. Aeris can handle magic and healing. Ragune specializes in defensive support, and Zion’s a Light Magic Mage, so no problem there. As for me… well, I’m pure offense, so I’m not what they’re asking for—but with four of you, they’ll be more than happy.”
Ankh added that since he primarily does physical attacks, he’d basically serve as a guard.
“Subjugation of an ancient ruin’s guardian? Isn’t that a dungeon?”
Aeris, who knew more about dungeons than anyone, leaned in to look at the quest Tauro was holding.
“When they say ‘guardian of an ancient ruin,’ it could be something like a golem, a quadrupedal humanoid-faced beast, or maybe even a dragon-type.”
Tauro voiced his guess.
“Is the ancient ruin itself even real, I wonder?”
Aeris pointed out how unlikely it sounded.
“Let’s ask at the counter for more details. But first—everyone okay with this?”
Tauro checked with the group.
““““Yeah / Sure / Sounds good / Yes.””””
All four unanimously agreed with Tauro’s choice.
After confirming, Tauro took the quests to the reception desk and asked for explanations.
“Other teams have also taken on the task of gathering these herbs, but so far there have been no reports of them being spotted. For the time being, there are old reports of them being spotted in the Antas Mountains near the border, so please use that as a reference. As for the B-rank monster extermination in the Antas Mountains—it concerns a humanoid monster believed to be a new species called Olog-Hai. They move in groups, are intelligent, and each individual is extremely strong, so the northern guilds are coordinating efforts to deal with them.”
“Oh, in that case, we’ve already fought and defeated them through another adventurers’ guild, so we should be fine. What’s the minimum required number?”
“You have!? The minimum required extermination count is five. This normally requires multiple high-rank adventurer teams working together, but for you all…?”
The receptionist asked, also wondering whether the guild should arrange cooperation with other teams.
“In our last engagement, Black-Golden Wings alone defeated fifteen of them, so it won’t be a problem. —Now then, about the ancient ruin quest—”
“Fifteen!? By yourselves!?”
The receptionist couldn’t just let that slide and stopped him in shock.
“F-fifteen!? An Olog-Hai is the kind of enemy that can take on three advanced adventurer teams at once. You really shouldn’t exaggerate something like—”
The receptionist seemed to think Tauro was exaggerating, and gently tried to warn him the way one might caution a child telling tall tales.
“We have verified records from the town of Mandek, so please check.”
Tauro submitted his tag to confirm that his team had been the ones who discovered and defeated the new species.
“!—M-my sincerest apologies! Thanks to you, information about the Olog-High has been shared, but the identity of the team that defeated them wasn’t properly circulated! And also… there’s something we need to discuss regarding compensation from the guild…”
“You mean the impostor group incident?”
The matter where a considerable sum had been spent from Tauro’s account.
“Yes… We’re currently in the middle of disputes with various parties over the procedures, so please give us a little more time! We are truly sorry!”
Regarding both the fact that they were the only team to have defeated the new monster and the impostor incident, the receptionist bowed deeply again and again to apologize to Tauro and the others.