Free Web NovelChapter 23: Side Story 1: The Guild Master’s Melancholy – Part 1
My name is Zoria. In my active days, I was known as Zoria the Twin Blades, an A-rank adventurer.
Now, I have the honor of serving as Guild Master of the Adventurer Guild in the town of Sorenarini.
This town is currently in the midst of rapid development. Although it’s located on the frontier, there’s a dungeon to the north, and it serves as a key transportation hub among frontier towns. Being entrusted with the management of this town’s adventurer guild is a great honor.
One day, Lam, the guild’s popular receptionist, burst into the Guild Master’s office.
"Guild Master! This is terrible! We received word from the guard station that three members of harassed an F-rank female adventurer, only to get beaten up and dragged off to the guard post!"
Those idiots! Ever since they reached D-rank, they’ve been acting arrogant, picking fights with others, and causing nothing but trouble. I had already been considering disciplinary action as Guild Master. Still, since it was a dispute between adventurers, the guild normally wouldn’t intervene publicly.
"On top of that, the leader of , Donga, flew into a rage and stormed out of the guild, declaring he would challenge that adventurer to a duel..."
"You fool!"
I immediately stood up and left the guild. I had to stop this ridiculous duel at once. Especially since the opponent was a single F-rank female adventurer.
...Wait, an F-rank female adventurer? Could it be... that seemingly useless female knight-like girl who registered just the other day!?
I ran down the main street and found Donga already collapsed on the ground. Nearby was a female adventurer talking with the guards.
The guard tried to speak to me, but I barely heard half of it.
No way... that frail-looking female knight-type actually defeated Donga?
"Understood. That’s fine."
For now, I needed to get her back to the guild and hear the full story. Even after we entered the guild, the female adventurer kept looking around nervously, giving off a clearly suspicious vibe. I had her sit at the counter so we could talk.
"Hmm... Irina. F-rank adventurer, huh..." freёwebnovel.com
Sure enough, it was the girl who had just registered recently.
No matter how I looked at it, she didn’t seem strong enough to defeat the guys.
After hearing the details of the incident, it was clear that was entirely at fault. The commotion itself wasn’t a problem, but... fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
"I see... Those guys need some strict punishment. Still, I’m surprised you managed to repel all five of them by yourself. Especially the part where you fought three at once. Their leader, the axe-wielder, had combat strength that could almost reach C-rank."
"Well... it somehow worked out."
Irina replied while her eyes darted around. This girl is definitely weird.
"How exactly did it ’somehow work out’?"
When I pressed her, she started talking about selling the monster materials she had hunted. I didn’t know how much she had in that backpack of hers, but I figured I’d take a look...
What came out was an absolute mountain of monster parts from her storage magic. Even C-rank monsters, which are among the strongest in this frontier region. And the sheer quantity was insane. Just what kind of magical power does this woman have!?
Storage magic users are already extremely rare. The capacity of storage magic should be proportional to one’s magical power. Which means...
"Wait... Did you defeat all of these by yourself!?"
"Eh, ah... I guess... I did?"
"Why do you sound unsure!?"
This girl is definitely strange. She even started claiming she was just her "Master’s" subordinate. Even if this so-called Master had defeated the monsters, it should have been her who repelled the group.
Time to use my trump card.
I have a prized skill from my adventurer days.
It’s called and .
My allows me to sense magical power. The strength of the magic appears as brightness. It helped me detect magic-based traps in dungeons and sense powerful magical beasts. It’s truly my secret weapon that supported my achievements as an adventurer.
When I used on the clearly suspicious girl carrying the backpack, her own magical power was extremely weak. But the moment I shifted my focus to the backpack—
"Gwaaaah! My eyes! My eyeeees!!"
The brightness was so overwhelming I thought my eyes would be destroyed, not just blinded.
Just how much magical power would it take to shine like that!?
Even when I scanned the royal court magician of this kingdom before, it only felt like "Oh, that’s pretty bright."
"A-are you okay?"
The female adventurer named Irina called out to me worriedly. What the hell is going on!? Your backpack is the problem!
"Ugh... This is seriously messed up..."
At this point, I activated . This skill lets me quantify magical power into numbers. It’s less flashy than , but being able to measure magic numerically is surprisingly useful. It allows me to clearly determine the danger level of traps or estimate the power of magic tools, for example.
But when I activated it—
"Bffoo!!"
I spurted a nosebleed!
"F-f-f-fifty-three... hundred thousand...?"
A warm stream ran down my leg. I lost control of my lower body. Damn it!
According to my , normal people usually have 1 to 5, trained adventurers around 5 to 15.
Irina herself only had a value of 5.
Mages who constantly use large amounts of magic tend to have higher values, sometimes 30 to 50. Anything above that is rare.
In the past, I had only seen two people exceed 100. The highest was 134 — the royal court magician of this kingdom.
And yet, the magical power coming from Irina’s backpack was 530,000.
My body wouldn’t stop shaking, I kept bleeding from my nose, and I had wet myself.
530,000... when the strongest court magician I’ve ever seen was only 134...
How many times more is that!? 530,000!? It’s so ridiculous I can’t even comprehend it! This is beyond abnormal!!
Just what the hell is she hiding in that backpack!? What is this girl planning?
"You mentioned a ’Master’... Does this Master actually exist? Or is it a lie so you can hide your own power?"
Irina herself felt like she had almost no power. Yet the monstrous magical energy coming from her backpack... Just what is she hiding?
I felt like I was about to collapse from exhaustion, but I couldn’t allow myself to fall.
"That’s not true at all! My Master, Yabe-dono, really exists! He has his reasons for rarely coming into town, but he’s truly an amazing person!"
What the hell is this "Master" setting? Is the Master actually inside that backpack? Should I just demand to see inside the backpack...? No, that feels way too dangerous. My instincts as a Guild Master who has survived for many years are screaming at me: The contents of that backpack are bad news.
"...Then bring him here! Right now! If you bring this Master of yours, I’ll believe you. If you can’t, I’ll make you tell me all your secrets!"
She’s probably promoting this fictional Master precisely because she can’t reveal the truth.
As I watched Irina hurriedly leave the guild, I took deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart.
