Chapter 52: Crisis 4

“I knew you were good at cleaning, Erik, but is this truly the same room as before?”

Once Amanda agreed to let Henry stay in the common room, I cleaned it immediately.

I had Henry wait in the dining hall and made the room spotless in about fifteen minutes.

When no events were being held, the common room was generally used for storage.

I first moved some of the luggage aside to make a place where Henry could sleep.

That alone left the room dirty, so I swept and wiped down the floor and walls.

“Hee hee. Since coming to the capital, I worked hard and acquired a cleaning-related skill called [Cleaning]. It improved my cleaning ability even further.”

Henry had known me since I was a child.

I spoke to him a little more freely than I did with the people of the capital.

When Henry learned how hard I’d been working in the capital, he gently patted my head.

“I felt lonely after you left, but you’ve truly been working hard. Well, I suppose that’s obvious. Otherwise, you couldn’t have paid a gold coin.”

“A great many things happened where that was concerned.”

Now that I’d finished cleaning, I told Henry about what had happened since I came to the capital.

We spoke happily, but Henry finally reached the limit of his exhaustion and began looking sleepy.

I brought the conversation to an end and laid out the bedding. The instant Henry lay down, he fell asleep.

“You looked as though you were enjoying that conversation tremendously. Was he one of the people who treated you kindly?”

“Yes. Henry and the village chief taught me to read, write, and speak properly. They said I wouldn’t be able to find work if I couldn’t read when I eventually moved to a city.”

“There are many children in the capital who can’t read or write, but you seem to use both without trouble. A village chief has to correspond with the noble who governs the surrounding area, so naturally, he learns to read and write.”

My home village was under the kingdom’s direct administration, and an envoy from the government came every few months.

The village chief dealt with that envoy, so literacy was essential for him.

Many of the other villagers couldn’t read.

However, I’d already decided that I would eventually leave for a city, so I’d asked Henry and his father to teach me.

That knowledge now allowed me to examine requests as an adventurer, so it had truly helped me.

“Also, here’s the payment for Henry’s stay.”

I paid Amanda one silver coin.

The common room also cost one silver coin with dinner and breakfast included.

That was normally the price charged during events, so it was expensive, but because she’d allowed us to use it on such short notice, I was grateful instead.

After paying for his stay, I left the inn again and headed to the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Erik, did you leave that man at the inn?”

“Yes. He probably came all the way to the capital with almost no sleep. The moment I prepared a place for him, he fell asleep.”

“He did look extremely tired. Are you going to accept more requests now?”

“That’s the plan. I’m worried about the village, but many people in the capital are struggling too.”

As I’d promised that morning, I decided to accept some low-paying requests.

Each offered only a few copper coins, but I could sense the clients’ desperate feelings from their descriptions.

I selected one and went to the client’s home.

My first request was for household assistance.

The client had recently given birth and had fallen so far behind on her chores that dishes and laundry had piled up.

“Y-You truly came? Even though I offered so little…”

The client was a young woman.

She was deeply grateful that I’d accepted, and I entered the house and began working.

The request didn’t involve moving any large objects, so I finished in about an hour.

“What? Y-You finished that much in so little time!?”

While I worked, I’d told the client to sleep with her child.

When I went to call her afterward, she looked around the freshly cleaned house in astonishment.

“Thank you. Thank you so very much.”

After the woman thanked me and signed the report, I left the building.

With the first job finished, I returned to the Adventurers’ Guild and submitted my report.

Then I accepted another request and left the building once more.

The second came from an elderly couple who wanted their garden cleaned up.

I asked which things they wanted to keep and immediately got to work.

“My goodness, how remarkable. You made it this clean so quickly.”

“…Extraordinary. Even in my younger days, I couldn’t have cleaned it this well.”

This job took less than an hour. When I reported that I was finished, the elderly couple came outside and spoke happily.

After they filled out the report, I returned to the Adventurers’ Guild and completed the procedure.

I continued accepting requests and finished five of them that day.

“Erik, aren’t you tired?”

“I’m fine. I made sure to stop and eat today too.”

To avoid making Reina angry, I’d taken a meal break along the way.

“That’s all for today. By the way, what happened with my request…?”

I didn’t know whether anyone would accept it in a single day.

Despite thinking that, I asked, and Reina smiled.

“Someone has already accepted your request.”

“…What? R-Really?”

“Yes. Cain arrived immediately after you left for your final request. He saw that you’d submitted it and accepted it. Because it was urgent, he left the capital as soon as he took the request.”

“C-Cain did!?”

Cain was a Gold-rank adventurer.

If someone like him had accepted my request, the village would be safe now.

However, I didn’t understand why an adventurer of Cain’s caliber would accept it.

“Why would such a high-ranking adventurer as Cain accept that request? The reward must be low from his perspective, right?”

Although it paid one gold coin and fifty silver coins, he’d have to travel far from the capital.

For a Gold-rank adventurer, the amount was low for such a troublesome request.

“Because it was your request. Cain seems extremely fond of you, Erik. The moment he found it, he came straight to my counter and accepted it.”

“…I’ll have to thank him when he returns.”

I said that and felt heartfelt gratitude toward Cain, who was already on his way to the village.