Chapter 39: A Disturbance 3

This time, I paid for my own food.

Reina nearly paid again, but I somehow defended the bill and covered my portion.

I truly wanted to pay for hers too.

However, if I pushed that far, I thought she might end up paying mine instead, so I abandoned the idea.

“All right, time to continue.”

I returned to the warehouse and resumed cleaning.

I began where I’d left off with the shelves.

Many still needed organizing, and I worked through them one by one.

“Reina, I’m finished.”

A little while after the first evening bell rang, I finally completed the area assigned to me.

Then I went to report to Reina.

“You’d already completed so much by lunch, yet it took until now?”

“The farther I went, the more materials I found on shelves where they didn’t belong. Organizing all of those took time.”

“…Things were truly that scattered?”

“I found herbs in boxes meant for ores and different kinds of herbs mixed into one herb box. Everything was all over the place.”

I told her honestly.

“Everyone was instructed to sort things properly before taking them to the warehouse, but it seems many people didn’t. I’m sorry, Erik. We submitted it as though it were such a simple request.”

“It’s all right. I’ve wanted to repay you for everything you’ve done, so I’m glad I could help.”

After telling her that, we went to the warehouse so she could inspect it.

On the way, Ryan, who’d finished working, descended the stairs.

“What are you and the boy doing, Reina? Where are you going?”

“I gave Erik a request to clean the warehouse this morning. You know how badly disorganized the Adventurers’ Guild’s warehouse had become.”

“Ah, yes. Materials were scattered everywhere. You could retrieve valuable ones quickly, but searching for anything else took an hour… All right, as Master, I’ll accompany you for the inspection.”

Ryan joined us, and the three of us entered the underground warehouse.

“…What is this?”

“What? Is this really that warehouse? Materials used to overflow all the way in front of the shelves, but now there’s even empty space!”

The moment we entered, the transformed shelves astonished them.

I guided them through the area I’d cleaned and explained everything.

“You prepared boxes for each material and even separated them by type… This will be easy to understand later, and the warehouse shouldn’t become dirty again.”

“The boxes for standing-request materials are larger than the others, and you’ve attached wheels beneath them. Even when they’re full, one person should be able to move them. Erik, did you make this modification yourself?”

“It was simple. I merely removed the wheels from a dolly and attached them. I don’t think they’re especially durable, so having a professional construct proper ones would be better.”

I told them mine were only temporary.

If a professional carpenter or blacksmith made something similar, the warehouse would become much easier to use.

“Still, this is incredible… Was this place always so large?”

“You’re right. It always felt cramped because there were so many things, but it’s surprisingly spacious.”

“Now the section containing valuable materials, which we thought was clean, looks dirty by comparison… Hmm? What are those boxes stacked there?”

“They contain materials I found beneath and behind the shelves. Many were scratched, so I separated them instead of returning them to the same boxes.”

I opened one of the stacked boxes and showed them.

“…T-This many materials had fallen?”

“They were scattered everywhere. Once I gathered them, there were enough to fill all these boxes. I attempted to separate any valuable ones by sight, but some may be in the wrong place, so please have the employees inspect them.”

“Y-Yes. I’ll make the guild staff do that. Reina, was the boy always this skilled at cleaning?”

“Most of his requests inside the city have involved cleaning, and he’s received the highest evaluation on every one. Even I didn’t realize how capable he was until I saw it myself today.”

That was Reina’s answer.

“Boy, do you possess [Cleaning], the skill useful for this work?”

“…What? There’s a cleaning-related skill?”

That was my response to Ryan’s question.

“Master, Erik only recently came here from a rural village. Naturally, there are skills he doesn’t know.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true…”

Ryan accepted Reina’s point.

Then he explained [Cleaning] to me.

As the name implied, [Cleaning] improved the user’s cleaning ability.

“I see. I didn’t know a skill like that existed.”

“In that case, it’s incredible that you cleaned this well without a skill. Wouldn’t even someone with the skill struggle to accomplish this?”

“Yes. Some guild employees possess [Cleaning], but Erik is better than they are.”

While they discussed it, realization suddenly crossed Reina’s face.

“Erik, what about [Cooking]? You helped at a restaurant before, didn’t you?”

“Ah, I don’t have even one EXP toward [Cooking]. I didn’t understand my special skill well when I handled those requests.”

I did intend to work with the skill in mind the next time I had an opportunity.

However, today’s requests hadn’t included any work at Harold’s shop or a restaurant, so I hadn’t gained any.

When I explained that to Reina, both she and Ryan looked exhausted.