Side Story Guildmaster's Recollection
This chapter is from Dajiel's Guildmaster, Velgarand's POV.
Peeking out the window, I gaze at a cloudless blue sky sprawling high above.
It's a refreshing morning yet the thought of a job I have to take soon is making me feel down in the dump.
Gets me so anxious I couldn't even taste my breakfast.
[Commander] is an extremely rare Job, most people with Commander and Conductor Job besides me are working as leaders of huge armies at a countrywide level.
Because even the mere act of a Commander staying on the battlefield alone enables better mobilization of the army they're leading, and most Commanders don't know any other way of life.
Being a rare Job, even finding one is precarious. Once you find one, the best use case of a Commander is to act as the leader of a large army.
I ain't ever forget that day those kingdom bigwigs showing up one after another and dragging me to the army on the day I came of age.
Say you're a Swordsman, you can choose to work as an Adventurer, Guards, Mercenaries, Soldiers or even doing manual labor in a farm thanks to their Strength.
It's not like I envy that, I just find not having a choice is unreasonable.
Though well, protecting this country from the danger of magic beasts, bandits or foreign countries was fulfilling in its own way too.
Once I grew old and found myself a successor, I retired from the army and dropped by the Adventurer Guild I had always been fascinated with.
As someone who never knew any freedom besides being at the army since my coming of age, I always had a longing for Adventurers.
Yeah you gotta risk your life, but you choose what you wanna do.
You got no stability compared to day laborers, yet that also means you can always take a break anytime.
And the community brings about opportunities to mingle with people from all walks of life, regardless of genders, status and positions.
...If I didn't get Commander Job, and a more popular Combat Job instead, I might have been in this line of work.
As I was lost in thought while looking around inside the guild, the town I was in came under attack by magic beasts, so I went around to help.
'The heck ya asking a retired serviceman for', would be a lie if I said that thought never crossed my mind, but I had no choice at the time cause the guild wasn't well equipped for defensive battles.
We managed to deal with the magic beasts somehow or another, then a few days later, the guild's grandmaster came up to me and said this, 'You're pretty dang good at handling people aren't you, you're this town's guildmaster from today on' just like that.
I'm telling ya I'm in my retirement! Let me take it easy at least for the latter half of my life will you! I was gonna argue back, but they already got the seal of approval from his majesty the king himself so I was half-compelled into taking up the role of Dajiel's Guildmaster.
They went and got the king's permission behind my back. Maybe I should have feigned ignorance and pushed my refusal through...
And thus, I got to work as a staff member at my long yearned Adventurer Guild in my late 40s, though not in the form I expected.
...The work was completely different from what I imagined.
Unlike my days at the army, there were no backbreaking jobs indeed, but there was nary a day I wasn't swamped in deskwork.
Turned out the management side of Adventurer Guild is way less freer than I thought. Dangitall.
And yet, the relatively peaceful and fulfilling days I was spending weren't so bad at all.
...Even if there was that incident involving the strongest adventurer couple in the world getting into a conflict with a noble which ended up with me having to make the kingdom condemn that noble and begging forgiveness to that pair.
Thought it all stemmed from that noble's attempt to violate and kidnap the Archmage. I had to run around everywhere to clean up after... Ugh, my stomach hurts just remembering that...
And then around a year ago, that world's strongest pair and their daughter dropped by this town's guild.
I was on the edge of my chair at first considering our last run-in, but they were only here to ask my help in raising their of age daughter as an adventurer before going away, causing no trouble all the while.
...I could recall it clear as day even now, their gentle yet overpowering smiles as they left, 'We will immediately run here if you lay your hands on our daughter', 'Keep other folks out too'.
Leaving with that threat after dumping their daughter on me is just too much...
I got no complaint tho', they also dumped quite the hefty sum for the trouble.
Their daughter, 'Almatina' was a straitlaced girl, her lack of expressions notwithstanding, even though she's got that absurd couple for parents.
But apparently she was spoiled rotten however, she never really had to stuff like cooking, laundry, cleaning or shopping. I had to teach her how to live first before going over the fundamental of adventurers.
A honest and diligent girl, she never complained once as she did adventurer's chores and odd jobs, she finally managed to live independently after about a year.
Or should I say she had no choice but to live independently.
I thought she was gonna be an annoying selfish kid being raised by those two and all, yet her docile and obedient behavior came as a surprise instead.
...Her servile attitude might have been partly influenced by her choosing of the faulty job, Apprentice Paladin during her coming of age.
No adventurer parties would take her despite her constant application, at some point she would only mostly talk to her guild handler, Neia in the guild.
A party that looked like they'd take good care of her eventually showed up and tried to invite her, but her self-deprecation of being a faulty job had gotten so bad by then, she declined their offer believing she'd only drag them down.
The fault lies on me and that pair can blame me for that. I would even pay back all the fund they gave me.
However, watching Almatina looking so gloom as she went about her day hunting down magic beasts, I thought to myself that there is something else more important than the fundamental of adventurers she ought to learn.
...But with how hard she had shut her heart, I didn't know how much I could help.
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
Just when I started deliberating that, Almatina came across her turning point.
Her meeting with a black haired weirdo, cough... I mean an Otherworlder, Kajikawa Hikaru.
She wasn't saved by Kajikawa Hikaru in the forest, the opposite in fact.
Saved instead of being saved is an important delineation here.
Her confidence was at the lowest level when she found herself of use to someone else, that must have been quite the boost to Almatina.
Afterward, she would work together with Kajikawa Hikaru, escaping her solitary life.
Even her expression seemed more cheerful... Hard to tell with how little changes it's got.
As for that Kajikawa, how do I say this... What even is that guy.
He's unconventional, indescribable, or more indecipherable.
In short, guy's got absolutely no Skills, his Job is unknown.
And yet he can directly control mana, use livelihood magic without the ring and even fly around in the sky.
...I don't even know what I'm spouting by this point! What the heck is that guy.
Well thanks to his undetermined ability of his, we managed to get through a Stampede with zero casualty, so I ain't complaining.
Hearing I say all that might make you believe the guy is an oddball, a suspicious individual or even a madman, but Kajikawa Hikaru himself is a decent guy.
In fact, you'd get the impression he's a gentle sensible man when you actually sit down and talk to him.
He had only taken a commission to exterminate boars besides magic beast culling, and the villagers all had rave things to say about him.
According to them, they didn't cancel the commission even after a Jet Boar, which was outside the scope, showed up, they even beat it together with the Rush Boars and gave away most of the materials to the village.
I'm fine with that cause that's gonna raise the guild's public perception, but I'm worried a client is gonna lodge a complaint someday if they're too generous. Nobody turns up to file a claim thus far however.
Then from that, he also helped to reseal a revived ancient weapon at Vinfitt, killed the demon behind the incident, exterminated some powerful Rank A magic beast breachers during the Hunting Fest at Randorainam, and even notified the guild that a bigwig of Firie Kingdom instigated the incident.
...Wasn't he only around Lv2-5 three months ago? What's with that abnormal rate of growth.
The guy himself is decent, yet his actions have been anything but. What a gap.
...Me being this deep in thought is probably my way to escape reality.
Dunno how many times do I gotta remind people, I'm already retired from active duty. Why do I gotta participate in the fight against demons dangit.
"Pardon me master, messengers of his majesty the king are here for you~"
...Good grief, they're finally here.
I walked up while holding on the anxiety over leaving Dajiel for a while and the battle I'm about to jump in.
Argh, I really don't wanna do this. Somebody switch places with me...
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