Chapter 62: Test Flight

Though I was slowly enjoying my ale, Chief Holtz arrived with a strange old man. From experience, nothing good ever happens at times like this.

“Leon, I’ve appraised your catch at a high value, so keep it up from now on.”

Holtz handed me the appraisal sheet, and when I checked the total, it was 4,586,000 Dara. I nodded and accepted it—but my guild card was missing.

The man standing next to Holtz held a card, but it was a different color.

“You’re Leon, right? A C-rank, first class. You’ve got plenty of direct requests coming in, but don’t go sucking up to the wrong people.”

“Does that mean they want to make me a ‘linked’ adventurer?”

“Yes. The things you bring in are popular, and your beast-hunting skills are good, so it’s going to get noisy from now on.”

“It’s okay if I refuse them, right?”

“If you check the request board, you’ll see that your catch is specified, not direct requests. If you get approached directly and it’s troublesome, come to me. I’m Hyde, the sub-master.”

“How considerate of you.”

“You’ve been to the backlands with Yegan and the others. The guild profits from the things you bring in. If someone else swoops in and takes them, it cuts into the guild’s profits. Promising newcomers are important—make sure you earn well.”

The guild card he tossed me was silver with a single stripe. I couldn’t say I would have preferred bronze—it didn’t feel like the right time.

Once he said what he needed to, the sub-master left quickly, and Holtz followed, saying, “So, count on us from now on.”

“Did you hear that? Directly from the sub-master!”

“To come out just for a silver-rank adventurer…”

“They say the small, gentle guy is a promising talent.”

“I’ve seen him dealing with Holtz in the back areas, but mostly it’s birds.”

“Earlier, he brought out more than ten high orcs and orcs, though there were lots of birds too.”

“And with wolves and dog-types, he had thirty or forty lined up.”

“He’s apparently known as ‘Breeze’.”

Ah, so even here they call me Breeze. Holtz knew, too—the guild’s communication is impressive.

Only two days until I can pick up the boots, and I still have to check the fitting, so I’m thinking of staying in the hotel. 

I decided to deposit everything in the guild and check the request board, but it was crowded and difficult for someone my small size.

I understand specifying prey, but do they post direct requests on the board? Or are they specifying prey for the requests?

“Hey, look at this.”

“What the heck—there are way too many requests for Chikki chikki Birds and Runner Birds! How many are they planning to buy?”

“They say the requests increased after young adventurers brought in a large number of them.”

“Chikki chikki Birds cost 100,000 Dara each?”

My purchase price was 77,000 Dara, so 100,000 Dara is a little over a 20% markup… I guess that’s a reasonable guild commission.

If the guild earns 20,000 Dara per bird, they’d want me to keep catching more. I decided to quietly check again when it’s less crowded.

I paid four days’ room fees at Martins Hotel, changed clothes, and had a carriage called.

I rode to the Corantine Hotel, told them I’d be staying four days, and took a short break.

After dinner, the receptionist showed me where I could buy high-quality tea leaves and alcohol. I told her I’d go there tomorrow and asked her to arrange a carriage.

I chuckled at the thought of enjoying good tea and fine alcohol—but the next day, I would learn my plan was too naive.

The carriage driver took me to the shop recommended by the madam, but I realized I had no tea ware.

No teapot, no teacups. The sturdy metal cups I use for camping wouldn’t do. I changed my route to pick up tea ware and glasses before buying alcohol.

The tea I liked cost 100,000 Dara per pot (one gold coin). The teapot was eight silver coins, and I bought two cups I liked for one gold coin and four silver coins.

Expensive… but in a world without industrial products, labor costs are high. As a commoner, this would have been beyond my reach. But now, earning more, I can afford such luxuries.

Since there weren’t any glasses I liked, I bought narrow straight cups resembling teacups, then headed to the liquor shop.

I could only drink ale, so I didn’t know the rank of the liquor. I bought one bottle each of drinks five times and ten times the price of tea leaves.

The total was 182,000 Dara. I had about 7,000,000 Dara in my pocket, so I didn’t hesitate to spend—but decided to earn a bit more to keep my pocket comfortable.

After dinner, I stayed in my room and opened some alcohol to taste. The strong scent of liquor made me relax—it had been a while.

I couldn’t get drunk here, so I took a small sip, rolling it on my tongue and letting the aroma reach my nose.

It was similar to a 2–3,000 yen whiskey from Japanese supermarkets—not bad.

I tried the other bottle too, but it was disappointing—it was the cheaper bottle, five gold coins. Still, even the cheaper whiskey had a decent taste and felt more like real alcohol than ale.

I needed snacks to go with it, so I decided to pick some up at the market.

After confirming the fitting at the Commercial Guild, I went to pick up the boots ten days later, a little disappointed.

I wandered the forest toward Ladyon along the Orvenne Highway from the east gate, dreaming of buying alcohol and snacks for ten days.

By day, I hunted birds and wild beasts I encountered; by night, I processed Chikki chkiki Birds and Runner Birds, making skewered meat.

Even if my cutting skills were poor, chopping into small pieces and skewering made fine yakitori. The irregular size of the meat didn’t matter—I was the only one eating it.

I stopped at the Ladyon Adventurers’ Guild and sold some prey, receiving about 3,700,000 Dara. I now had just over 10,000,000 Dara.

Counting money in the forest dome made me feel miserly, but I kept going, dreaming of good alcohol.

Even with 10,000,000 Dara, that’s only 100 gold coins—enough for just ten bottles of fine liquor. Someone like the men who parted from Steve might prefer cheap alcohol in bulk over a few bottles of good stuff.

I wondered if Steve and the others were doing well. Nearly four months had passed—maybe Gail had started practicing magic seriously.

Once I train for serious flight, I’ll save a bit more money and secretly return to Linus.

Back in the royal capital, I stayed at Martins Hotel as usual and had a carriage take me to the Commercial Guild.

Before I could announce myself at the reception, I was led to the negotiation room. The grumpy old man had the finished clothes ready, so I immediately tried them on to check the fit.

I had requested a slightly loose fit for future growth—it wasn’t tight, but comfortable and easy to move in.

Fully satisfied, I handed the grumpy man a gold coin as a tip. His expression was surprised, but unusually, he softened and accepted it.

After leaving the Commercial Guild, I stopped by the Adventurers’ Guild and sold off the remaining prey as if it were a clearance sale, then left the guild.

Since the clothes were brand new, Holtz had teased me for not dirtying them, so I regretted it and decided to go out immediately to test the performance of the outfit.

The appraisal sheet I received listed 2,354,000 Dara, but since it could be converted anywhere, I tossed it into my magic pouch.

Exiting the east gate, I headed straight south into the forest and set up a small dome in a dense thicket for a short nap.

It was a simple camping bed, but with the temperature-regulating magic imbued in my clothes, I didn’t even need a robe and slept very well.

Although it was the first week of March and still cold at night, I didn’t feel any chill at all.

With this, even if I went to the mountains where I planned to hunt armored buffalo, I wouldn’t have to worry about freezing—making it perfect for a performance test.

As the eastern sky began to brighten, I created a “[Holed Balloon!]” and slowly started ascending with “[Updraft!]”.

Rapid ascent could hurt my ears due to pressure changes, and if I went too high, I might experience oxygen deficiency, which could impair judgment, even if it didn’t lead to full-blown altitude sickness.

When the trees below started to shrink and the animals looked like specks of sesame, I stopped rising to check the royal capital.

Looking east, I could see the city of Ladyon, and beyond it, what seemed to be Cassandra.

What a view, what a view ♪

On the Orvenne Highway, even though the city gates weren’t open yet, I could see wagons heading toward the capital.

Even with eyesight enhanced by magic, they still looked tiny—so my altitude was probably around 400–500 meters.

At this height, anyone on the ground wouldn’t think there’s a person floating in the sky.

I set my course east, creating V-shaped notches in the updraft and began heading toward Ladyon.

Sometimes I shifted the V’s position left and right to slalom through the air, checking flight stability while enjoying the exhilaration of flying.

Even high in the early morning sky, the cold was manageable—my face was chilly, but my body remained comfortably warm.

In four days, I combined flying with hunting. By foot, it would take three days to get from the capital to Berna and ten days to cross the plains and mountains, but flying, I reached about halfway up the mountains in just four days.

After passing Berna, most of my time was spent hunting, but the speed of flight really hit home.