“……WOOHOO, the table’s gone bright red!! We dyed the whole table red!!”
“Don’t start suddenly spilling your guts in a place like this. Think about the people watching us.”
Toslin whacked Carol in the back of the head to get her to quiet down.
“But still, it is a grand reward.”
“It really is amazing…..I have not seen this many gems in a long time.”
There are so many red gems scattered around that it almost feels stupid to try and count them up by hand.
“These are……rubies aren’t they?”
I timidly tried confirming things, and Carol gave an exuberant nod.
“Yep. Apparently there aren’t enough coins in the whole entire guild to pay us, so they decided to give us these gems instead.”
Carol grabbed the leather bag and gave it a good shake. There was one last hard clack with one more thing falling onto the table…….a rock? That’s what I had to think because the ruby that fell out was just way too big to be anything else.
“………”
My brain can’t keep up with the development, so I stay quiet. My eyes stay locked on the fist-sized ruby rolling around the table for a while, and eventually, I poke it. It should be obvious, but…..it’s hard.
“……our reward, is this?”
“Hmm. This certainly is a large amount of money, but Iris is right. It’s much too small considering we saved the city. Okay. I’ll go talk to Aronda right now about increasing the reward.”
“NO! Stop Saluena!! I never said that!!”
“…..Iris is just taken aback by how huge our reward is. Honestly, so am I. Where did they even get a rock this huge?”
Toslin picked up the huge ruby, looking the same way I felt.
“For now, let’s just say this big one is shared between the party and divide the smaller ones amongst ourselves.
♠
We continued divvying up the rubies and funneling them into our own respective leather bags, but as time went on, the number of rubies scattered across the table didn’t look like it was going down.
“Um…..is it really okay for me to have these?”
Toslin, Carol, and Rose-san were the ones who accepted the request. But the reward ended up being divided between all five of us without anyone saying anything about it.
“What do you mean? It’s only natural for you to get a cut too right?”
“But, all this……I, it’s just a little…..I just don’t have the confidence to be able to handle this much…….”
I don’t know how much rubies are going for these days, but I’m sure they’re ridiculously expensive. Just hearing the jangling noise of all these gems shaking in my bag as I walk is going to put me on edge.
“Ah, in that case it’s fine for you to leave them with the guild or church. If you leave them with the guild especially, you’ll be able to use your license as a check and withdraw money from any branch you visit. The church has the same system set up doesn’t it?”
“That’s right. Since Iris-san is an adventurer through the church like me, how about we go deposit these together?”
“Ah, s-sure…..I appreciate the help…..”
I guess Rose-san is more accustomed to large amounts of money since she used to be the daughter of a noble. She did say she had “not seen this many gems in a long time” instead of “this is the first time I’ve seen this many gems,” after all.
Toslin has already gotten over her initial trepidation and is greedily separating the reward into five equal parts, but since she’s originally a daughter of a knight household, she’s probably more resistant to money than I am.
“Ah, I’m going to manage your portion too.”
“What!! This Carol-san is firmly opposed to that!”
“You’re going to end up spending all your money if I leave it with you. Have you forgotten about that weirdo you got involved with the last time we had a big payday?”
“Don’t treat this Carol-san as if she were a fool!! Of course I still remember!!”
“And yet you still complain?”
“I’ll leave my portion to you!!”
In the end Carol’s head flew downwards. Her fervent protests instantly transformed into a polite plea for help. All sorts of things must have happened in the past.
“So, this is Iris’s portion then.”
A dull, heavy noise bounced off the table as one bag was set in front of me. Taking a peek, the bag really was filled to the brim with rubies……enough to the point I had to turn my eyes away.
“I have to ask…….how much would all of this be worth?”
“It really depends on where you redeem them, but if you were to exchange them in say the capitol Osnell Tari for example, you’d probably get at least a hundred million crowns.”
“A hundred million…..”
“It should be more than enough to build a house anywhere in Osnell. But if you are looking to exchange them, I’d recommend taking them south instead. You’d probably get twice that amount there.”
“I’ve decided……I am absolutely going to deposit this. I absolutely won’t be carrying this around.”
I sealed the bag shut with trembling hands. But when I went to pick it up, it weighed as heavily in my hands as it did in my heart.
“S-Saluena, I’m sorry to ask, but I need you to carry this until we leave it behind in the church!!”
So I immediately begged Saluena for her help while tossing the bag over to her.
“You are the most adorable creature I have ever met. Very well, you can leave it to me.”
Ah, seriously…..this is bad for my heart. I will probably never receive a reward this large ever again in my life. With that being said, this is the first reward I’ve received as an adventurer. It’d be really dangerous if I started having any kind of expectations because of it.
(I am a commoner. I am a commoner. Keep your focus. Keep your focus.)
An adventurer’s job is to search ruins and unexplored areas. We do also have to subjugate the monsters that naturally come with those investigations, but encountering a legendary monster like we did this time isn’t something that happens very often.
(I ended up encountering a dragon too…..but we didn’t go on any dragon slaying quests. It came to us. Huh? Isn’t that really similar to what happened this time? Thinking about it, didn’t the carbuncle mention something about that? Somebody was pulling the strings of fate…….)
“………”
There was the message the Goddess had bestowed upon me during my baptismal rite.
{…..I pray that you may become our hope.}
……if this is the reason why the Goddess granted me this power, then that means from now on I…..I’m probably going to have to keep fighting monsters like that aren’t I?
If so…..honestly, I’m scared. Even during this past incident it wouldn’t have been strange for me to die at any moment. As a matter of fact, there were two times I really was about to die and had to be saved by Toslin and Rose-san respectively.
But it’s not like I couldn’t not do it either. Somebody had to go. If not, then this city probably wouldn’t be as lively as it is now. And the people important to me would have surely lost their lives.
(In that case……I’ll do my best. I don’t know why I was chosen, but even if there isn’t any significant reason to it, the fact remains that the Goddess has helped me out a lot. So I…..want to help her as well.)
Glancing down at the three rings adorned on my fingers, I reaffirmed one of the reasons why I decided to become an adventurer.
“Tut tut Iris. Are you still in a daze over the reward? Well snap out of it because it’s time to eat.”
“Huh? Oh, sorry.”
Looking up from my hand, it seems like our food had arrived without me realizing it. Everyone’s meals had been set out and prepared in front of each of us. Carol picked up a slab of meat from her plate and shoved it into her mouth without bothering to use a fork. She then grabbed another bundle of parchment and passed it my way.
“This is……a list? It has some names written on it…….what is this?”
“Beats me. I can’t read. Somebody told me to pass it along to Iris though.”
There were six sheets of parchment in total with one of the sheets being rolled up and held together by a ring.
“What are these…….?”
Names were neatly ordered on the other five pieces of parchment. And each sheet……had ten names listed? With five sheets in total, that means someone wanted me to have a list of fifty different people’s names.
“It appears to be a document issued by the church. Look here, they’re all marked with a tikarodeka stamp.”
Rose-san reached over and pointed to a symbol at the bottom of each piece of parchment. Sure enough, they all had the church’s symbol printed on clearly and neatly.
“Ah, you’re right. But…….why?”
“Maybe the details are printed on that sixth sealed document. Well, I already have a rough idea what’s going on though.”
“What what, hurry up and open it Iris.”
“Either talk or chew, don’t do both.”
The area around Carol’s mouth was already soiled with bits of food from how messy an eater she is, so Toslin grabbed a napkin to wipe her clean. Keeping such a scene in the corner of my eye, I pulled the ring off from around the rolled up piece of parchment and unfurled the parchment in my hands.
“……..huh?”
And then, my eyes opened wide as they read the words scrawled across.
“What is it, what is it? What does it say?”
“…..is it about something dangerous?”
I shook my head. No, it’s nothing dangerous…..it’d actually be the exact opposite of anything dangerous.
“…….it’s, a certificate…..”
“As I thought…..then these names written here are our recruits.”
A certificate…..there was a huge tikarodeka coat of arms printed at the very center of the parchment. And written just below it,
{Whosoever holds this mark is recognized as sole owner of Riviera Von Iriana’s Goddess Knights.}
“……WOOHOO, the table’s gone bright red!! We dyed the whole table red!!”
“Don’t start suddenly spilling your guts in a place like this. Think about the people watching us.”
Toslin whacked Carol in the back of the head to get her to quiet down.
“But still, it is a grand reward.”
“It really is amazing…..I have not seen this many gems in a long time.”
There are so many red gems scattered around that it almost feels stupid to try and count them up by hand.
“These are……rubies aren’t they?”
I timidly tried confirming things, and Carol gave an exuberant nod.
“Yep. Apparently there aren’t enough coins in the whole entire guild to pay us, so they decided to give us these gems instead.”
Carol grabbed the leather bag and gave it a good shake. There was one last hard clack with one more thing falling onto the table…….a rock? That’s what I had to think because the ruby that fell out was just way too big to be anything else.
“………”
My brain can’t keep up with the development, so I stay quiet. My eyes stay locked on the fist-sized ruby rolling around the table for a while, and eventually, I poke it. It should be obvious, but…..it’s hard.
“……our reward, is this?”
“Hmm. This certainly is a large amount of money, but Iris is right. It’s much too small considering we saved the city. Okay. I’ll go talk to Aronda right now about increasing the reward.”
“NO! Stop Saluena!! I never said that!!”
“…..Iris is just taken aback by how huge our reward is. Honestly, so am I. Where did they even get a rock this huge?”
Toslin picked up the huge ruby, looking the same way I felt.
“For now, let’s just say this big one is shared between the party and divide the smaller ones amongst ourselves.
♠
We continued divvying up the rubies and funneling them into our own respective leather bags, but as time went on, the number of rubies scattered across the table didn’t look like it was going down.
“Um…..is it really okay for me to have these?”
Toslin, Carol, and Rose-san were the ones who accepted the request. But the reward ended up being divided between all five of us without anyone saying anything about it.
“What do you mean? It’s only natural for you to get a cut too right?”
“But, all this……I, it’s just a little…..I just don’t have the confidence to be able to handle this much…….”
I don’t know how much rubies are going for these days, but I’m sure they’re ridiculously expensive. Just hearing the jangling noise of all these gems shaking in my bag as I walk is going to put me on edge.
“Ah, in that case it’s fine for you to leave them with the guild or church. If you leave them with the guild especially, you’ll be able to use your license as a check and withdraw money from any branch you visit. The church has the same system set up doesn’t it?”
“That’s right. Since Iris-san is an adventurer through the church like me, how about we go deposit these together?”
“Ah, s-sure…..I appreciate the help…..”
I guess Rose-san is more accustomed to large amounts of money since she used to be the daughter of a noble. She did say she had “not seen this many gems in a long time” instead of “this is the first time I’ve seen this many gems,” after all.
Toslin has already gotten over her initial trepidation and is greedily separating the reward into five equal parts, but since she’s originally a daughter of a knight household, she’s probably more resistant to money than I am.
“Ah, I’m going to manage your portion too.”
“What!! This Carol-san is firmly opposed to that!”
“You’re going to end up spending all your money if I leave it with you. Have you forgotten about that weirdo you got involved with the last time we had a big payday?”
“Don’t treat this Carol-san as if she were a fool!! Of course I still remember!!”
“And yet you still complain?”
“I’ll leave my portion to you!!”
In the end Carol’s head flew downwards. Her fervent protests instantly transformed into a polite plea for help. All sorts of things must have happened in the past.
“So, this is Iris’s portion then.”
A dull, heavy noise bounced off the table as one bag was set in front of me. Taking a peek, the bag really was filled to the brim with rubies……enough to the point I had to turn my eyes away.
“I have to ask…….how much would all of this be worth?”
“It really depends on where you redeem them, but if you were to exchange them in say the capitol Osnell Tari for example, you’d probably get at least a hundred million crowns.”
“A hundred million…..”
“It should be more than enough to build a house anywhere in Osnell. But if you are looking to exchange them, I’d recommend taking them south instead. You’d probably get twice that amount there.”
“I’ve decided……I am absolutely going to deposit this. I absolutely won’t be carrying this around.”
I sealed the bag shut with trembling hands. But when I went to pick it up, it weighed as heavily in my hands as it did in my heart.
“S-Saluena, I’m sorry to ask, but I need you to carry this until we leave it behind in the church!!”
So I immediately begged Saluena for her help while tossing the bag over to her.
“You are the most adorable creature I have ever met. Very well, you can leave it to me.”
Ah, seriously…..this is bad for my heart. I will probably never receive a reward this large ever again in my life. With that being said, this is the first reward I’ve received as an adventurer. It’d be really dangerous if I started having any kind of expectations because of it.
(I am a commoner. I am a commoner. Keep your focus. Keep your focus.)
An adventurer’s job is to search ruins and unexplored areas. We do also have to subjugate the monsters that naturally come with those investigations, but encountering a legendary monster like we did this time isn’t something that happens very often.
(I ended up encountering a dragon too…..but we didn’t go on any dragon slaying quests. It came to us. Huh? Isn’t that really similar to what happened this time? Thinking about it, didn’t the carbuncle mention something about that? Somebody was pulling the strings of fate…….)
“………”
There was the message the Goddess had bestowed upon me during my baptismal rite.
{…..I pray that you may become our hope.}
……if this is the reason why the Goddess granted me this power, then that means from now on I…..I’m probably going to have to keep fighting monsters like that aren’t I?
If so…..honestly, I’m scared. Even during this past incident it wouldn’t have been strange for me to die at any moment. As a matter of fact, there were two times I really was about to die and had to be saved by Toslin and Rose-san respectively.
But it’s not like I couldn’t not do it either. Somebody had to go. If not, then this city probably wouldn’t be as lively as it is now. And the people important to me would have surely lost their lives.
(In that case……I’ll do my best. I don’t know why I was chosen, but even if there isn’t any significant reason to it, the fact remains that the Goddess has helped me out a lot. So I…..want to help her as well.)
Glancing down at the three rings adorned on my fingers, I reaffirmed one of the reasons why I decided to become an adventurer.
“Tut tut Iris. Are you still in a daze over the reward? Well snap out of it because it’s time to eat.”
“Huh? Oh, sorry.”
Looking up from my hand, it seems like our food had arrived without me realizing it. Everyone’s meals had been set out and prepared in front of each of us. Carol picked up a slab of meat from her plate and shoved it into her mouth without bothering to use a fork. She then grabbed another bundle of parchment and passed it my way.
“This is……a list? It has some names written on it…….what is this?”
“Beats me. I can’t read. Somebody told me to pass it along to Iris though.”
There were six sheets of parchment in total with one of the sheets being rolled up and held together by a ring.
“What are these…….?”
Names were neatly ordered on the other five pieces of parchment. And each sheet……had ten names listed? With five sheets in total, that means someone wanted me to have a list of fifty different people’s names.
“It appears to be a document issued by the church. Look here, they’re all marked with a tikarodeka stamp.”
Rose-san reached over and pointed to a symbol at the bottom of each piece of parchment. Sure enough, they all had the church’s symbol printed on clearly and neatly.
“Ah, you’re right. But…….why?”
“Maybe the details are printed on that sixth sealed document. Well, I already have a rough idea what’s going on though.”
“What what, hurry up and open it Iris.”
“Either talk or chew, don’t do both.”
The area around Carol’s mouth was already soiled with bits of food from how messy an eater she is, so Toslin grabbed a napkin to wipe her clean. Keeping such a scene in the corner of my eye, I pulled the ring off from around the rolled up piece of parchment and unfurled the parchment in my hands.
“……..huh?”
And then, my eyes opened wide as they read the words scrawled across.
“What is it, what is it? What does it say?”
“…..is it about something dangerous?”
I shook my head. No, it’s nothing dangerous…..it’d actually be the exact opposite of anything dangerous.
“…….it’s, a certificate…..”
“As I thought…..then these names written here are our recruits.”
A certificate…..there was a huge tikarodeka coat of arms printed at the very center of the parchment. And written just below it,
{Whosoever holds this mark is recognized as sole owner of Riviera Von Iriana’s Goddess Knights.}
