Chapter 140.
The morning in Lotten dawned. Fortunately, there was no need to sleep cramped in the night duty room last night.
The night duty room was already filled with civil servants dispatched from each branch. Therefore, we put the desks together in the office behind the counter and slept on them. Compared to sleeping in a cramped room, it was much larger and I was able to sleep more comfortably. Some civil servants also escaped from the night duty room and crawled into the office.
I should have slept in the office earlier. If your head is lacking, your body suffers. I don’t know how I passed the civil service examination with a mind that couldn’t think so well. Perhaps my brain that had been intelligent before becoming a civil servant had degenerated due to the bureaucratic society.
"Oot-cha!"
I came down from the desk and stretched. The best thing about reincarnation was that there was no body pain even after sleeping on an uneven and hard desk. The Crow Tribe’s bodies were definitely good.
"Are you awake?"
Dane Walker handed me the coffee he had gotten from somewhere. He must have shaved after waking up this morning, as he had a much cleaner impression than yesterday.
"Thank you. By the way, Mr. Dane Walker, you slept here too. Are you okay?"
The Lotten branch was so crowded that it could not even afford a small private room, let alone a luxury suite, to a person who was a platinum plate adventurer.
"It’s okay, it’s okay. When I go out in the field, I sometimes sleep in environments worse than this. It’s heaven to even have a ceiling and walls to stop the wind and rain," he said and laughed pleasantly.
He was very easygoing despite being a platinum plate adventurer who had a high enough status for even the branch directors to offer up their own rooms when visiting the branches.
"And isn’t it natural that the adventurer that’s being commissioned to be an escort is nearby?”
Dane Walker winked playfully and also handed the coffee to Flam, who was lying on the desk next to me.
"Ugghhh, my body aches all over." Flam groaned and slowly lifted himself up. Not only his face but his body must have also been aging.
"Thank you. I should have gotten this myself instead of being indebted to you."
Flam received the coffee and bowed his head and thanked him, while Dane Walker smiled and waved his hands.
"It’s fine. I’m used to it because I used to sleep on a desk a lot during the night shift when I used to be part of the court magicians. But it’ll be pretty hard for someone without any experience of sleeping on a desk.”
Hmm, do I have to pretend to be struggling? I tapped my shoulders and said, "Aigoo, my shoulders are all knotted up."
When I was pretending to be in pain, Dano, who spent the night in the night duty room, came into the office. He had disheveled hair from not being able to wash properly and was wearing his uniform and holding a bulletin board. It looked like he had just come back from a morning roll call. Flam also asked when he saw the bulletin board in his hand.
"Don’t the civil servants associated with this place do the night duties?”
The fact that he was holding a bulletin board meant that he was on night duty. Dano answered, putting the bulletin board on the desk, "That’s the case normally. But not in cases when ruins are discovered. Civil servants who come here on business trips are temporarily transferred to the relevant branch."
It seems the reason Dano was able to meet us late last night was that he was on night duty. If so, that meant we could also be put on night duty. It would be nice if I could go back before my turn comes.
When I glanced at Dano’s bulletin board, I was shocked.
My god, is this where people live or livestock?
In the Lotten branch, adventurers were able to lodge like at the headquarters. But currently, there were two people in a single room, three in a double room, and seven in a triple room. There was even an additional space drawn at the bottom of the bulletin board, but that space was called the office of the branch director.
What that meant was that the branch director’s office had already been given out as accommodations for adventurers. The branch director’s office must be quite large as there were fifteen adventurers staying there.
"It’s a spectacle, isn’t it?"
Dane Walker also smiled bitterly at the bulletin board I was holding.
"Yes, it seems there was a reason why civil servants were sent out from each region."
Except for special situations, the number of civil servants in an Adventurers’ Guild branch was proportional to the number of active adventurers at the branch. In other words, the more adventurers there were in the branch, the more work there was.
As adventurers flocked at the discovery of the ruins, it was clear that civil servants originally affiliated with the Lotten branch would not be able to manage the adventurers alone. That’s why each branch of the Adventurers’ Guild sent human resources like me.
The headquarters in the capital which I belong to was large in size, but the fact that there were only seven civil servants, including me, proved that there were not many adventurers working in the capital.
"Even the headquarters wouldn’t be able to hold these many people, but they’ve managed to squeeze them in."
Dano sighed with tired eyes as I stuck out my tongue.
"It can’t be helped because it’s for the convenience of the adventurers, which is the reason for the Adventurers’ Guild."
As people flocked to the site of the ruins, all of Lotten’s inns became full. Then, of course, there started appearing adventurers who couldn’t find lodgings. The Adventurers’ Guild was obliged to provide accommodation to them for their safety and convenience. To be exact, it should be said that the armed adventurers were being cracked down upon to prevent them from wandering the streets at night.
The Adventurers’ Guild was actually an organization to control adventurers, so it had to prevent adventurers from causing anxiety to society.
"Well, these many gathering here just shows how much they dream of striking it rich. Since there are those who don’t have good income like the adventurers in the capital."
Dane Walker shook his head as if it were a bitter reality.
"But in fact, the capital isn’t a very attractive place for adventurers to be active," I remarked.
Flam looked at me curiously. "What do you mean? Accounting books show a good income. Isn’t that attractive?" he asked.
Dano answered in my stead. "What Den is saying is that a certain kind of request is most prevalent there."
I affirmed Dano. "That’s right. The main jobs for an adventurer can be divided into five types."
"Vigilante activities, monster hunting and by-product trading, VIP escorts, other requests, search and exploration of dangerous areas. These five things?" Flam asked.
"Yes, but if you look at the requests, excluding the ones coming from local provincial branches, most of them are VIP escorts."
Flam clapped his hands with an enlightened face. "Oh, I see. So that’s it.”
The security of the capital and hunting monsters were being taken care of by the imperial army stationed there. And although obvious, being the capital of a country there could not be a dangerous area nearby.
However, the proportion of the VIP escort jobs being large did not really matter. Just the fact of being involved with the nobles was not attractive for adventurers. Because the capital was the emperor’s territory, the number of soldiers that nobles could bring with them was significantly limited. So they were hired to fill the vacancy of the soldiers. The noble families, who were caught up with empty formalities and vanity, were very picky and selected those with experience like retired knights.
In addition, unlike regular soldiers, adventurers and mercenaries tended to be a one-time employment relationship, so the idea of using them once and throwing them away was strongly prevalent. The commission fee was high, so weak adventurers weren’t able to last in the capital.
"By the way, if there are this many adventurers, they’ll be super busy,” Dano said with a bitter smile when he saw me sticking my tongue out.
"There’s got to be something else for you guys to do."
"What is that?” asked Flam.
Dano glanced at Dane Walker and said, "City patrol."
-o-
In the inn opposite the Lotten branch of the mercenary alliance, Malecia led his men into a secret door hidden in the basement. Unlike the shabby and dust-filled passageway, the area they entered was decorated with quite neat and colorful decorations.
In the fairly large secret area, about 20 magicians sat at a long conference table in front of them. Among them, a pale, powerless-looking man at the top seat looked at Malecia and said arrogantly, "So you’re here."
The sickly-looking man, in command of the magicians gathered here, was Jiren. Despite his arrogant tone, his hoarse voice did not impose any sense of danger.
Malecia practically threw some of the documents on the table that he had received from Aries just before being teleported to the empire. "It’s his command. Make sure you read it."
The seated magicians clenched their fists and vented their anger at Malecia’s attitude.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
"How dare you handle his commands so roughly!”
When he saw the magicians staring at him, Malecia released his martial aura and spoke softly, "You’re loud. You bastards have never even seen him.”
Malecia’s words angered the magicians, but they were overwhelmed by his martial aura and could not speak. Only Jiren barely resisted his martial aura and managed to open his mouth.
"Body using...trivial mercenary piece of trash.”
Malecia was about to increase his martial aura further but slowly calmed it down, recalling that the Mercenary Alliance was nearby. Although most of the mercenaries that flocked to Lotten were just rabble seeking to hit the jackpot, there were bound to be some actually skilled mercenaries here on formal requests.
Thinking that he had achieved the desired result of not being looked down on by using brute force, Malecia looked at Jiren with cold and arrogant eyes and said, "That’s enough. Just read it quickly."
Jiren trembled with feelings of shame. As a magician, his pride was already through the roof, so he couldn’t stand the fact that he was suppressed without being able to properly resist the martial aura of a mere mercenary.
"I’ll kill you!"
When Jiren tried to grab his magic wand with a shriek, Malecia kicked the table hard. The table quickly hit Jiren in the abdomen, leaving him unable to leave his chair and groaning.
"Keuuu—”
Malecia bent at the waist and coldly smiled at Jiren who was glaring at him.
"I don’t care if you try to kill me or attack me. But you’re not worth dealing with at the cost of ruining even one of his plans. Feel free to come at me when you’re done with the work. I’ll deal with you anytime."
When Malecia told him to distinguish between work and personal affairs, Jiren bit his lips to the point of bleeding.
"You’re not going to have an easy death!"
Malecia snorted at Jiren’s yell with a curse mixed in.
"That’s obvious. Isn’t it the same for you?"
He had never thought that he would die gracefully after taking other people’s money and killing.
Malecia glanced indifferently at Jiren’s face and turned around.
"That’s it for business. Read the instructions and move accordingly."
Leaving the secret space, Malecia’s subordinates followed him without saying anything.
Despite seeing such a sight, Jiren could not do anything but grit his teeth.
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