By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 30

Chapter 4 Episode 30: Search Request

When I entered the adventurer’s guild, the receptionist suddenly called my name. “Ryoma! Perfect timing,” she said.

“Hello, Maylene. Did something happen?”

“We were contacted by a guild near Lake Latoin. It was about mad salamanders.” Mad salamanders happened to be one of the monsters I wanted to fight. “They said that mad salamanders come to Lake Latoin every year to get food before they hibernate in the winter. They cause trouble for fishermen in the area. For the small fishing villages in particular, dealing with them can be a matter of life or death.”

Lake Latoin was near the home of the people who gave me the bloody slime, if I recalled correctly. “Does that include a village called Sikum?”

“Mad salamanders show up all around Lake Latoin, so Sikum is no exception. A lot of these places need protection, so they’re looking for adventurers who can help exterminate those monsters. They’ll put out all sorts of postings, from hunting down mad salamanders to just odd jobs, so why not give the place a visit?”

“I’d love to, but what’s the time frame for these jobs?”

“The most damage is supposed to happen around two months from now, so I think you can go around then. Is there something else you need to do?”

“Two months should be fine. I just have some business to take care of next month, so I’d be happy to go to Lake Latoin after that.”

“Good to hear. Did you want to take a job today?”

“The guildmaster of the merchant’s guild told me that some suspicious characters, presumed to be survivors from a vanquished band of bandits, might be coming to Gimul. Do you have any information or requests related to that?”

“Oh yeah, you got permission to take those jobs, didn’t you? One second.” Maylene took a bundle of parchment out from under the counter. “We have two new pieces of information related to bandits. The guildmaster already told you one, but the other concerns a pack of bandits suspected to be related to what he said. But those bandits were exterminated near Gaunago, so there are no further jobs to take regarding them. It’s not like those suspicious characters are confirmed to be bandits either, and their location is unclear.”

It sounded like there were still some unanswered questions. With that in mind, I figured it might be wiser to make more medicine instead for today.

“Excuse me?” someone said meekly. It was Paena, the talented new hire at the guild.

“I’m sorry, Ryoma, can you give us a moment?” Maylene asked.

“Sorry to interrupt!”

“Oh, it’s fine,” I said.

“Look, he says it’s fine,” said Maylene. “What is it?”

“Someone’s here to put out a request,” said Paena.

They started whispering to each other, so I turned away and looked around the mostly empty guild. Most of the people there seemed to be on their break. They were either staring at the bulletin board or chatting with nearby adventurers. Suddenly, a bearded man near the edge of the counter walked up to me. Judging from his height, I guessed he was a dwarf.

“Sorry, boy, but could you get out of the way? Hey, lady!” he shouted at Paena from across the counter.

“Yes?! Wait, stop! We’ll get to you, so go back and wait your turn.”

“Sorry, but I’ve got no time to waste. I need someone to find Pedro as soon as possible.”

It sounded like someone had gotten lost. Maylene looked at the bowing man with a conflicted look on her face, then stepped forward. “Mr. Guts, I believe? I’m sorry, but this isn’t enough money to make a request here.”

“I know I’m making an unreasonable request, but this is all I can pay right now. If Pedro is found, though, then he should have goods on his person. We can sell that off for some extra money. And either way, I’m able to get enough money for you. I just need time.” The dwarf was pretty panicked. He even drew the attention of the few other people in the guild. “He shouldn’t be that far away. Aren’t there any adventurers who can go look for him?”

“Paena,” I said.

“Yes? What is it?”

“Could you tell me about him?”

Now I was kind of curious, and both Paena and I were now left out of the conversation, so I turned to her for answers. She thought about it for a moment, looked at the two of them, then looked at me. “Well, we haven’t decided to take his request yet, so this is more of a personal than a business issue. But you might be the right person to help.”

I felt kind of bad for bothering them about it but listened in until I got some answers.

“I’m sorry, but can you go over everything from the beginning again?” Maylene asked the dwarf.

“Yeah, so I’m Guts. I run a small smithing business in the western district. I sent some weapons I made to Keleban the other day, but this morning I received a letter saying that they didn’t get my delivery. It was supposed to be delivered by a man named Pedro, and I’d like you to find him.”

“Can you be more specific about the date?”

“Three days ago. He was already supposed to have gotten to Keleban by then, and he should’ve been on his way home yesterday.”

“But the goods were never delivered?”

“Right. The guy who ordered the weapons got in contact with me right away.”

“Do you think there’s any particular reason the delivery is running late?”

“I’ve asked Pedro to do this job several times. He knows the route, and the weather’s been fine. He should’ve gotten there on time unless something terrible happened.”

“That’s fair.” It seemed like Maylene had some idea as to what had happened.

“Takebayashi, come over here,” Paena said, no longer as hesitant as she was before. I followed her to the other end of the counter, where she laid out a map and ran her slender finger over it. “So Gimul is here, and Keleban is here. And the road that the missing person was using is here.”

“Looks like it heads in the same direction as the road I took for the training meetup.”

“It’s close, yes. This road turns left near the foot of the mountain, though.”

I knew the route well enough; it was a mountain road that ran from the southern gate. The road I took stayed at a low elevation the whole time, but this road seemed to go through the mountain range.

“This road passes through two towns,” Paena continued. “This one here is a lodging town. The road was made wide to make it easy for travelers and carriages to traverse, so you can travel by foot, horse, or anything else. A lot of people use this road, and not many monsters show up there either, so it’s relatively safe. There’s little chance of danger on this road, unless something is out of the ordinary.”

“But the possibility of danger is there, right?”

“Yes, it’s a non-zero possibility. But like I said, a lot of people use this road, so if something did happen, I think somebody would have seen it. If there was an accident or some sudden monster appearances, there should at least have been the remains of a carriage for people to find.”

“I see.” All the same, though Pedro was missing, and he’d last been seen three days ago. When it came to jobs like these, it was important to act fast. “Paena, is there any issue with this request?”

“Well, it’s not cheap to request a search for a missing person. There’s no telling how long it’ll take for them to be found, if they even can be found at all. So to make them easier to find, the efficient thing to do is hire a whole group to participate in the search.”

“And paying all those people drives up the cost, I’m guessing.”

“Yes. Plus, this search would take place in the mountains, so we would need around twenty people minimum, or ideally, double that. Those people would have to be paid every day for the duration of the search, so it’s an enormous expense for the client.”

If someone got into an accident while mountain climbing in Japan, hiring a private rescue team to find them would cost at least one million yen per day. On Earth, it was so costly that mountain climbing insurance to cover those expenses was a thing. This world seemed to be much the same in that regard.

“Let’s say we hire the number of people needed with the money he’s offering,” Paena said. “Regardless of whether they find anything or not, we’d have to pay them all ninety-seven sute per day. If they can find the carriage or coachman, or safely secure the lost delivery, they’ll be paid a reward of three thousand sute. I don’t think we’d be able to pay them for more than two days of work. Search missions in the mountains can also be significantly more dangerous depending on the weather, and I just don’t think we can pay as much as the work warrants. The guild staff is supposed to ensure the income of our adventurers as part of our job, so when we can’t pay the appropriate amount, we can’t accept requests. If it were just up to me, I’d like to find some way to help him, though.” That was one of the pitfalls of being a hired worker.

“It was just so sudden that I don’t have the money on hand right now,” Guts said to Maylene. “But I can still save up enough if you give me some time.”

“If you want to pay later, you’ll either need to guarantee that you will somehow, or pass an inspection,” Maylene replied. Their conversation wasn’t getting anywhere.

“Paena, I don’t know about anyone else, but I think I’d be fine with what he can pay.”

Thankfully, I’d finished up all the important business I had yesterday, so I had nothing urgent to attend to. The destination would be easy enough for me to get to with space magic. I also had limour birds, so I could search for Pedro from the sky. Assuming something did happen to him, it would be best to act now. And personally, I was curious to know what happened as well.

“I’ll talk to Maylene about it again,” Paena said. “Maylene!” She walked over to Maylene, then came back less than a minute later, bringing Guts and Maylene with her.

“Lad, will you really go looking for me?” Guts asked.

“My name is Ryoma Takebayashi. I know I’m young, but I actually happen to be a D Rank adventurer, so if you let me, I may be able to help. I’ll do everything I can, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“I know. Your offer to help is appreciated all the same.”

“Ryoma,” Maylene said and beckoned me over. When I got close, she whispered into my ear. “I just want to be sure of something. You probably won’t want to hear this, but when it comes to requests like these, your efforts most likely aren’t going to be rewarded. Some people who take search missions end up regretting it. We still don’t actually know what happened. Do you understand?”

I saw her point, but it didn’t change my mind. “Thank you for your concern, but I’ll be fine. Besides, in the event that nothing happened, it’ll give me a funny story to tell.”

“Well, if you say so. I’ll accept the request and appoint you as the sole adventurer on it. Let’s say that your job is to travel down that route to Keleban and see if you can find this person. What you typically want to do is search near the roads, then act on whatever you happen to find. How you do that is up to you.”

“Thank you.” If I could take the job on my own, then all the decisions could be up to me.

“Make sure to prepare as much as you can. And don’t do anything crazy, okay? Now show me your guild card, please,” Maylene said. She had already started to make the documents. In the meantime, I asked Guts to describe the missing person. “Done. Mr. Guts, just review the request and sign here, please.”

“Looks good to me! Thanks, I’m counting on you.”

“Understood, I’ll do my best,” I said. Thus, I agreed to search for the missing person.

■ ■ ■

Two hours later, after I got my card back and left the guild, I got ready at the laundromat and then left town. Thanks to how far I could travel with space magic, I made it to the border between the plains and the mountain road while it was still bright out. Ahead of me was a road surrounded by trees and thickets. It was wide enough for three carriages and well-paved. I walked along and searched for Pedro.

I opened my Dimension Home and released my limour birds. The road was bright under the sunlight, but there were places to the left and right that I couldn’t see due to the foliage. Thankfully my birds could search from above. I asked them to fly in a figure-eight formation, and call out to me if they saw anything in the forest. The six limour birds spread their blue wings and took flight. The glow from the sunlight gave them a more beautiful color than usual. Under different circumstances, I would have liked to just sit back and watch them. Too often I got to see beautiful sights at the worst times.