Guilds and Accepting Quests

A fat woman looked at the people who entered the Adventurer's Association branch. "What brings you here?"

Yveta answered curtly, "We're here to accept a quest."

The fat woman asked, "Have any of you joined a guild in Kali Town?"

"The Furrier Guild, the Weavers Guild?"

"If you've joined any guild in Kali Town, the processing fee for accepting quests here is only nine-tenths of the usual amount."

"If you joined this branch of the Adventurer's Association in Kali Town, you only have to pay half the processing fee, but there's an annual membership fee of eleven shillings."

"But if you don't pay your membership fee on time, your guild membership will be revoked."

Yveta replied curtly, "We haven't joined any guild in this town."

"And we have no intention of joining your town's Adventurer's Branch guild."

They didn't live here, after all. Joining a local guild and paying membership fees would be a complete waste of money.

The fat woman nodded. Adventurers were always traveling far and wide, so Yveta and the others' choice wasn't unusual. "Then the processing fee is two pence per person for each quest."

"All the quests in this town are posted on these boards. You can look through them yourselves."

Her eyes darted around as she began counting. "One, two... six..."

"Right, that'll be twelve pence in processing fees, assuming you only plan to accept one quest today."

Yveta glanced at their group. Damn, this fat woman was counting the maid and her not-quite-four-year-old child as people too.

Was this town so wealthy because all the townspeople were this greedy?

"Black Wolf," Yveta said.

Black Wolf plunged his greatsword into the wooden table. With a sharp crack, it split in two.

Black Wolf glared at her. "Are you going to charge us for the table too?"

The fat woman's expression changed several times before she realized she'd picked a fight with the wrong people. "N-no... that won't be necessary."

"Actually, there are only four of you..."

She wanted to make a scene, but her strong survival instinct held her back and stopped her from doing something so foolish.

That was more reasonable.

Yveta nodded.

There were only four of them: the Demon Hunter, Black Wolf, himself, Leili, and the Old Witch.

If you counted the maid and her child, who wasn't even four yet, you'd have to be downright heartless.

Yveta suspected the fat woman had cheated plenty of people who came here, but that wasn't his problem.

He looked over the boards inside the wooden hut. There were six of them, each covered with quest notices pinned up with nails.

The first four boards clearly held quests from Kali Town or the nearby villages, such as hunting wild boars that were damaging farmland.

There were fewer notices on the last two boards, and the quests were more scarce. Their destinations were scattered far and wide, suggesting they could be anywhere in the entire Ambrose Independent Viscount Country.

"Hearthstone Witch, paper seems to be widely available in this world," Yveta remarked.

The Old Witch said, "Your Grace, paper used to be very expensive. Only nobles could afford it. But things changed when universities sprang up everywhere. The scholars at those universities invented and improved papermaking techniques."

Yveta nodded.

So that was how it was.

He looked at the quests on the fifth board.

The first notice was a call for soldiers.

The second was also a call for soldiers.

The first had been issued by the Ambrose City Council, while the second had come from a viscount named Francesco.

Yveta read the benefits listed in the first notice. "Six shillings and two liters of wheat per month."

He looked at the benefits offered in the second notice. "Two shillings and four liters of wheat per month."

He remembered that Leili had paid Alicia only 1.2 liters of wheat every eight weeks, and just five shillings for the entire year.

These enlistment benefits were pretty generous.

Though that wasn't surprising. Who would enlist if the benefits weren't good?

After all, adventurers were a bunch of people who cared only about profit.

"Looks like there's going to be a war. Both sides are recruiting adventurers," Yveta said. "I just don't know why the city is offering more money, while the viscount's territory is offering more grain."

"Master, that's because the city has plenty of money, but food is expensive there," Leili explained.

"But there isn't much money circulating in the viscount's territory. They don't have enough resources to pay soldiers in currency, but they do have plenty of grain, much of it locally produced and costing them next to nothing."

"So the viscount is more willing to pay recruits in grain."

"Still, the terms are so generous that they're better than the wages for many local jobs. I think once adventurers actually join the army, those terms will be cut back."

Leili frowned and pointed to a quest on the fifth board. "Master, there's also a recruitment notice from Pisa City."

"There are lots of recruitment notices from barons here, too."

"What happened?"

Looking at the boards full of recruitment notices, Yveta suddenly felt that a storm was brewing.

The fat woman chimed in, "The messengers deliver these notices at the start of each month. They're always at least two months out of date."

"Kali Town is on the edge of the viscount country. Whatever conflicts break out, they have nothing to do with us."

Yveta blinked. Maybe they had nothing to do with her, but they certainly had something to do with them.

Their plan had been to travel deep into the heart of the viscount country. Still, there was no point worrying too much. They'd find a way when they got there.

Yveta walked over to the sixth board. According to the druid's divination, the last quest on the sixth board would give him what he wanted.

However, the quests on that board weren't supposed to be from anywhere near Kali Town.

He found the last quest on the sixth board. It was from a baron who ruled a territory called Kong, seeking a blacksmith to forge weapons for him.

Was this the quest?

What did a blacksmith have to do with what he wanted?

Yveta was about to reach for it when his pupils suddenly shrank. Beneath the sixth board, on the ground, lay a piece of paper.

He picked it up and saw that it was a quest, too.

The divination said I should take the last quest, but the notice that fell beneath the sixth board is clearly the real last quest.

So even when a prophecy is highly accurate, interpreting it still takes experience and wisdom.

Yveta picked up the paper and read—

"My younger sister has gone missing. I need adventurers to find her. She may already have been killed by ogres, or she may not have been, but she's in a very dangerous situation.

"I'd like to discuss the price in person, because there are some special circumstances. Besides, I can't accurately estimate how difficult this quest will be.

"Quest issued by:

"Moro Baron Territory, eldest son, Branton."