Chapter 87: A Request to Sell

Toward the end of the first day’s work organising the reference room, a strangely sultry low voice rang out from the doorway.

“Time we called it a day. How has it turned out, I wonder?”

When Ren turned around, a massive shadow was standing there.

Broad shoulders.

Thick arms.

A deep chest.

It was Mikaila, the deputy guild master. Jade, the guild employee in charge of the reference room, had looked in on them again and again. He would watch them embedding feathers into the boards, or stand gazing at the boards that had been classified and set out, but he never helped and never put in a word.

At the end of the first day’s work, the reference materials being sorted were still piled up on the ground cloths spread over the floor, and there were shelves nobody had touched yet.

While Mikaila walked slowly around the reference room, her footsteps clacking, and looked hard at the half-finished state of it all, Ren felt a little tense.

(…I’d rather she looked after it was finished, though…)

What Ren wanted was to say “It’s done!” once everything was neatly and cleanly classified. Having the somewhat chaotic middle of the job stared at made him uncomfortable.

Mikaila gazed at a board with a red feather pushed into it, then turned around.

“…What do these red feathers and green feathers stand for?”

“Red is classified as magical beasts, and green as medicinal herbs.”

Ren held out to her the board on which he had gathered the classification scheme. Mikaila raised one eyebrow and let out a “Ho.”

“…Did Ren-kun think all this up on his own?”

“Yeah. But… I took everyone’s opinions into account too.”

“I see. That’s quite something. …Oh?”

Mikaila stared at the classification board, then brought her face closer still.

“What are these letters written with? They look a little different from ink.”

“A char quill pen. This…”

Ren showed Mikaila the char quill pen he had already partly used up.

“A char quill pen?”

“Yeah.”

“…Might I have a look?”

Taking from Ren the char quill pen made with a three-eyed eagle feather, Mikaila moved over to the bright spot near the window and examined it thoroughly, turning it over and back, then touched a finger to the shaft and drew a single quick line in the corner of the board she was holding.

It wasn’t as dark as ink.

But it was perfectly readable. She touched the written place with a finger and checked whether it came off on the skin.

Unlike ink, there was no waiting for it to dry.

Mikaila’s eyes changed. She lifted her face and said to Ren:

“This is good! To be able to write without ink! Where’s it sold?”

“Eh…. Um…, I made it, but…”

“What? Home-made? Ren-kun did?”

“Yeah. Ink is expensive…”

“Well, ink is, isn’t it. But this… you made it…. That’s amazing. You can use it out in the field!”

“Yeah…”

Mikaila spoke with mounting excitement, but Ren braced himself somehow and nodded a little warily.

“How many adventurers do you suppose have knocked over an ink pot in the middle of a request?”

“Ink is hard to use outdoors, isn’t it.”

Ren too had felt for himself the advantage of the char quill pen needing no ink. Mikaila came bearing down on him.

“This will sell.”

“…Eh?”

“Won’t you sell them to the guild? I want to try them out and see whether they really do work. I’m open to talking about the price.”

“Sell…?”

Ren was taken aback. It had never occurred to him that something he had made could be sold. It had taken effort to make, but it had cost him almost nothing.

“Eh…. But…, I’ve used them up, and that’s all that’s left…. And that one will stop writing after a little more use as well…”

Between writing out the classification scheme for organising the guild’s reference room and making notes on the contents and classification numbers of any material that caught his interest, he had used up nearly all the char quill pens he had on him.

(Should I not have made so many notes, and kept them back? …But I never thought anyone would say “sell them”…)

While Ren fidgeted, a little at a loss, Mikaila narrowed her eyes and smiled.

“Would it be possible to make more?”

“That’s… yeah. That’s fine.”

“Then whenever they’re finished will do. If you’re willing to sell them, I’d like you to bring them to me.”

“…All right.”

Ren nodded quietly, but his head was still in confusion.

(If they sell, does that mean I get money? In that case would prettier feathers be better? Rainbow-coloured feathers?! But I still haven’t found the Rainbow-Tail Feather Bird…. Should I go into the forest? But there’s the reference room to organise as well…)

“…There’s no hurry. If you do finish something you’re willing to sell, will you let me know?”

“Yeah…”

(The rainbow-tail…, that rainbow-tail one…, where is it, I wonder…. The reference materials only said it was in the forest, didn’t they?)

“Ren-kun? You’re in the middle of the request to organise the reference room, so there’s no need to push yourself.”

“Yeah…”

Ren’s eyes had begun to wander restlessly, so Mikaila spoke to him with a touch of concern.

Ren gave a small nod, but inside his head he had begun working out a route through the forest.