Adventurers don’t adventure.
The saying sounds wrong, but it’s also right.
In work where your life is on the line, what matters is reducing the danger.
Long-shot bets are off-limits to people whose profession is betting their lives.
So my start as an adventurer was, in fact, extremely solid.
So solid I was starting to hate it.
“I-it’s done.”
A week. A week since I became an adventurer and started training under Zelphy.
I was still doing odd jobs around Darion.
Watching me work, Novem kept worrying and trying to help, so I’d asked Zelphy to find her something separate.
Work a woman could do — scrivening, that sort of thing.
Novem was from a baron family. Strict upbringing — she had no problems reading or writing.
She could do arithmetic, and she was used to paperwork.
While I was out doing manual jobs, she was at the Guild taking scrivening commissions.
By contrast — today I was on wall repair for Darion’s outer wall.
Stone blocks, carried by hand. No magic.
Magic would have made it easy, but the moment you had a Jewel, your mana use was limited.
(Also, they’ve been telling me not to do the work by magic… well, I get why.)
The ancestors had collectively banned me from using magic to speed up the work. There was a reason beyond just my conditioning.
A reason that, right now, didn’t apply to me anyway.
“Mm, not bad. This should clear B rating for sure.”
“Haa, haa… yeah.”
For a week now I’d been doing physical labor and getting put through training at the same time.
Because of the way I’d collapsed on the first gutter job, Zelphy’s evaluation of me was still low.
But over the week, I felt like I’d learned what it meant to take in-town work.
“Bit early, but let’s call tomorrow your day off. Day after, you’re going outside the wall to fight demon-beasts.”
“F-finally.”
I was wiped, but that announcement was a relief. If I kept doing this kind of work forever, who knew what the First would start saying.
The Sixth and Seventh’s frustration was also building.
“You’ve got your gear set up the way I told you?If not, use tomorrow to prep and rest. Light movement, though.”
“Got it.”
“Honest kids are easy. Your weapons — Lyle’s sabre, Novem’s a staff, right?”
I nodded.
Zelphy put her hand to her chin and thought, then nodded a few times.
“Lyle, carry a spare weapon. Another sabre’s fine, or a short sword. I’d prefer you change weapon types, but I can’t force the issue.”
A sabre — thrust and slash both. Trade-off: a thin blade, prone to bending and breaking.
A normal sword, once the edge is gone, you’ve still got a club. People used them as clubs all the time, actually.
Reach was short, too. As a weapon, a spear was straightforwardly better.
“Spear, then? I can use one, just about.”
“I’d rather you carry a shield, honestly. I’ll step in if I judge it’s getting dangerous, but the plan is for the two of you to clear the small fry around you.”
The areas right around town were fairly safe — adventurers around, soldiers around. Anything dangerous, soldiers got dispatched. Sometimes a knight order.
So the area around town had a lot of small fry and few powerful demon-beasts. Not zero, but few.
“A shield… I can use one, but I don’t own one. Want me to grab a cheap one?”
“No preferences? And buying spare gear is fine, but if it’s a different weapon, think it through. No need to spring for expensive stuff — depending on the situation, gear can be totally useless.”
A lot of adventurers carried multiple weapons and switched depending on the situation.
Not the main current, but a definite preference.
But narrowing your loadout and refining one technique was also said to be the faster road to first-rate.
Up to the individual.
”…Sabre for now, with a short sword and a buckler as spares?”
The Jewel chimed in. The Second.
“Lyle, pick gear that suits the situation.”
The Third countered.
“Spare sabre is the right call. If you wreck one, you’ve got the replacement — that’s easy.”
Finally the First—.
“For small fry around town, bare hands ought to do.”
(At least agree with each other.)
I think I was entitled to that thought.
“Gear’s your call. Around town, no need to overthink. For your first time, you might want to go with the gear you’re used to.”
After that, the site foreman came by to check, signed off, handed over the evaluation form, and Zelphy and I headed back to the Guild.
I was sweat-soaked from the work, but not bloody, so Zelphy said I didn’t need to hit the baths.
“Go pick up your girl already.”
“Ugh… right.”
We headed to the Guild’s second floor and handed our paperwork to Hawkins.
His counter was, as always, free — quick turnaround.
The pretty receptionist’s counter, by contrast, had a long line.
“Popular as ever, huh? Isn’t that itself a problem, sir?”
Hawkins, checking the documents, replied.
He clearly had thoughts, but there was nothing to be done.
“We did pull her off the desk once. But so many adventurers requested her by name, we had to put her back.”
So she was popular at the Darion Guild branch.
“You moved her to the front because she can’t do the work, right? I heard her parent’s a senior staffer at the Guild?”
“I can’t comment.”
While Zelphy dropped the line of questioning, I collected my reward from Hawkins.
The paperwork laid out my evaluation. The foreman had marked me ‘B’ — “good.” As Zelphy had predicted.
That said, an ‘A’ required the requester to pay extra. So ‘A’ was rare.
For odd-job work like this, ‘B’ was the ceiling.
“That makes twelve completed requests so far. All ‘C’ or ‘B’ — keep up the pace.”
Hawkins, smiling, handed over the reward.
Eight large coppers.
Slim for a day’s pay. From morning to evening, a regular townsman would clear ten large coppers or more.
“Thank you.”
I took the money and tucked it into my purse.
Zelphy was my instructor — she didn’t get paid per job. Though she’d been paid four gold up front.
If we passed, four gold; depending on how we turned out, an additional gold. The extra was effectively the Guild’s intro fee.
“Time to send him outside the wall. He’s got the odd jobs down, and even if something goes wrong he can put food on the table. Lyle and Novem both — no issues with reading, writing, math.”
Zelphy was talking to Hawkins.
Hawkins looked slightly disappointed.
“Faster than I expected.”
“I’m taking pay. If they don’t get to outside work soon, I can’t deliver to the value. Did something happen?”
“No, no. Novem-san is diligent and her work is fast and clean. We had her handle scrivening behind the scenes — and the reception was excellent.”
Novem was rated highly.
Her handwriting was clean to start with, and Hawkins had remembered — that was why he’d offered her the scrivening work.
In a partitioned room where she couldn’t be seen, she wrote letters to spec.
Even unseen, she’d built a reputation off voice and bearing.
“With your sign-off, she could work as Guild staff, not an adventurer. If she gets hurt, hire her into the Guild.”
“Hahaha. Speaking selfishly we’d love that, but I really don’t want her hurt. Lyle, be careful too.”
“A-ah, yeah.”
Hawkins finished the paperwork and went out back to call Novem. She came out the staff entrance.
“Lord Lyle.”
Smiling, she waved a little. I raised a hand back.
“Aww~, Novem-chan’s cute today too… try learning to throw out at least a compliment, Lyle.”
(Fourth, quiet.)
When Novem reached us, Zelphy passed on tomorrow’s schedule.
“Novem, rest up tomorrow. Day after, outside the wall — demon-beast subjugation practice. Got your prep done? If not, expect a lecture and another odd job.”
“Yes, Zelphy.”
Plans confirmed for the day after tomorrow, Novem and I split off from Zelphy.
Zelphy, as instructor, had to submit a daily log. Lots of behind-the-scenes work too, apparently.
“Heading back?”
“Yes. Let’s pick up some things on the way.”
“Ah, I made some money today, I’ll cover.”
“Oh? How much did you make?”
“Eight large coppers! You?”
”…Six large coppers.”
Stairwell-down-to-the-exit conversation — short.
I didn’t think anything of it. But the ancestors picked it up…
“What a good girl… reporting a lower number to let her man take the lead. And Lyle can’t even toss out a compliment.”
The Fourth’s prodding was wearing me down, so I tried to compliment Novem.
“Hawkins was praising you. Said you were fast and careful… so, good job.”
I’d put what I had into it. The ancestors graded harshly.
In order, starting from the First—.
“Zero.”
“Ten.”
“Hmm. Cute and inexperienced, so… thirty.”
“Zero.”
“Eh, me too? …Fifteen.”
“Strict marking. …Thirty.”
“Sorry, Lyle… twenty.”
(Don’t grade me! Even I knew it was awkward as I said it!)
But Novem looked happy at my awkward attempt at praise.
Smiling, hand at her mouth, she thanked me.
“Thank you. Lord Lyle’s the one working outside, though — that’s so much harder.”
“Eh, um… not really.”
While I was flailing, the Jewel said get it together again.
We headed to the bathhouse next to the Guild, rinsed off, and went shopping.
…Later, when I quietly asked Hawkins what Novem had actually earned that day, the answer was nine large coppers.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
A day off, finally.
Since coming to Darion it had been all odd jobs and physical labor — barely any rest.
But we had something to do with the day off.
Real-estate hunting.
“How about this one? An apartment popular with adventurers. Three rooms, and — crucially — bath and toilet both included.”
A young clerk from the real estate office was showing us properties.
I was ready to pick something already. Novem was being careful.
“What’s the price?”
“Well — six silvers up front, then fifty large coppers a month. Quite reasonable, don’t you think?”
”…May we see the next one?”
(We’re still going?)
This was the fourth. I tagged along as Novem checked another apartment. Location was fine — close to the Guild, convenient.
Apparently regular townspeople didn’t want to live close to the Guild, so most of the properties in that area were adventurer-targeted.
The next apartment was smaller than the last. But cheap.
“This one is a real find. One silver, thirty-five large coppers a month!”
The clerk was pushing it. Honestly, the price was right, the size was reasonable. It was just the two of us — small was fine.
But Novem wasn’t sold. She was studying the room seriously.
The Jewel spoke up.
“I’d pass on this one.”
The Third. Recently the “no comment” rule had been quietly eroding. I wanted them to think of me and keep their mouths shut as much as possible, but the Fifth aside, everyone weighed in.
I asked quietly.
“Why?”
“Just a feeling. Bad vibe. The one before this was better. Also — that section of wallpaper is freshly redone. Just that one patch is suspicious.”
A gut feeling, basically.
“Um, no… I don’t think this place is for me.”
I went with the Third’s read. Novem was on the same page.
“Yes, may we see other properties?”
”…Understood.” (Haa, of course they noticed…)
The clerk muttered something under his breath, and I got curious what he was hiding — and at the same time felt I was better off not knowing.
In the end, we passed on the apartment.
What Novem picked, after weighing the ancestors’ opinions, was not an apartment but a house.
A rental — but a decent-sized house. Needed some upkeep, eight silvers down, sixty-five large coppers a month. Big, plenty of room for improvement.
Few neighbors, no sign more were coming. Quite the opposite — neighbors were leaving.
“It’s a fixed-term lease, but two years is enough — we may relocate before then anyway. Worked out well, Lord Lyle.”
“Y-yeah… but the apartment was closer to the Guild. Wasn’t that better?”
We didn’t have much luggage, so moving in took no time.
We could have hired cleaners, but Novem and I started cleaning ourselves — it was our place.
The house had been zoned for redevelopment. Slated for demolition in two years.
So few neighbors. Not none, but for Darion’s size, a lonely residential block. After redevelopment, what would go in?
“The neighbors are mostly adventurers too. Same thinking as us, apparently.”
So, neighborhood mostly adventurers.
Fixed-term, so the price was low for what you got.
Bath and toilet included, a big house. No complaints. The ancestors’ reasoning for picking the place, though, was a little terrible.
“This way, no matter how much noise you make, you won’t bother the neighbors!”
There you go.
For them, marriage to Novem was already decided. Meaning — get on with the marital relations, was why this house got picked.
(I cannot do anything with you lot watching!)