Le Festin de Vampire - Volume 3 - Chapter 1

03-01 ~ The Guild within the Academy

Inside the magic academy, there’s a guild that was originally built for adventurers. In spite of being a facilities intended for adventurers to use, this branch was for some reason built inside the academy. This guild is mostly famous because of its well-known ‘Commission Service’. Students of the academy can polish their practical combat ability and skills by accepting commissions and subjugating demons. Rather, this is basically the reason why the branch was built here.

Alysia was standing in front the Academy’s Guild which is located right besides the school main building. She pushed the entrance door open with both hands, and entered the ever so bustling building.

“Hnn…….”

The inside of the room was vast and shaped like a rectangular. There were people who seemed like the receptionist inside. 
She walked forward confidently, but once she got closer, she came to realise something really important. Alysia’s line of sight was at exactly the same height as the reception desk.
Alysia tiptoed and tried so hard to make herself taller. Nevertheless, only her head was visible above the desk. The male receptionist finally saw her.

“……How do you accept a commission?”

“Eh, a commission? You sure you wanna do it?”
“Ah right….. It seems that there aren’t a lot of first year students accepting commission.”

“……Then as expected, this is your first time accepting a commission right? You’re basically allowed to accept any commissions as long as you have your academy card.”

When Alysia heard that, she panicked a bit inside and wondered what she should do. She was worried about showing him her excessive amount of magic power, a spiritual power that surpasses any other in the world, and a divine power that only Gods should have possessed which were all written on the card.

However, there was no escaping it. If she didn’t show her card to him, she wouldn’t be able to accept any commissions no matter how long she waited.

Alysia took the card from her skirt’s pocket, and showed it to the receptionist. Incidentally, she was wearing a black one-piece dress.
“……Yes.”

“Ehem, Year 1 Class S’s Alysia Melvin Latrommia-san….. Wait, aren’t you the winner of that tournament three days ago!?”
“Ah yes…… But please don’t say it so loudly. Everyone’s like, staring at me……”

“Aa, aah, my bad.”

Everyone’s gazes in the guild seemed to be stuck on Alysia. ‘Judging from the appearance, it might be……’ Everyone was wondering and all sorts of talk were being passed around in the back. However, soon that vagueness became certainty. People around pointed at her and started whispering to one another.

“Hoi.”

The card was passed again, this time back to Alysia. If seen closely now, below the ‘Name’ section of the card, ’Guild Rank : F’ was written.

“What’s written there is…. Well, as you can see yourself. Now then, you can accept commissions from now on.”

“…….. You’re not gonna ask me anything?”

“Hnn? About what?”

“….. Well, nevermind.”

Somehow, having his attention focused on the name of a champion, he failed to see any other data, including her magic power quantity. Alysia was relieved to hear that, and decided to inquire about something else.

“How do I increase my guild rank?”

“You’ll be able to increase your rank if you manage to complete sixteen commissions of the same rank. And then, for commissions one rank above yours, it’s 8 commissions. For commissions two ranks above, it’s 4 commissions. Going up again, two commissions, and up again, one commission. You’ll rank up if you do any of those.”

“Hee…….. Then, where can I find those commissions?”

“They’re up on the bulletin board over there. Just take the one you like and come back here.”

The man said that, and pointed his finger at the bulletin board hanging on the wall.

On the bulletin board there were a lot of papers with details of each commission written on it. Because there were numerous papers stacking up on top of each other, there were bound to be commission papers that got hidden under the piles.

“….Nee, won’t you get another bulletin board for this branch?”

“….Aa, I’ll think about it.”

Alysia scanned the bulletin board from the top. It was mostly filled with D-rank and C-rank commissions. There were hardly any commissions above C-rank or below F-rank.
Amongst those, one commission was very distinguishable. It was a B-rank quest written on a big paper. As expected, Alysia went to read the content while being seemingly intrigued.

“The west meadow…. Roabu?”

“Isn’t that commission a bit hard? It seems that there’s been a gigantic demon wrecking the vegetations in the area of the west meadow. Well…… Recently there hasn’t been any Roabu’s casualties though.”

Hearing that explanation, Alysia felt that something was wrong. However, she thought it probably wasn’t anything important so she started looking at other commissions. Well, she didn’t come here looking for demon subjugating commissions in the first place.

“Found it. This one…. and, this one.”

“Are you insane?! Both of them are bandit’s victim’s request, you know!?”

Actually, what Alysia was looking for were commissions related to bandits. This was of course, for the sake of tracking down Solf, the man who had attempted to kill Alysia several times already. Even if she didn’t find any clues, at the very least her actions would have helped others. She had finally decided on this after thinking for a while.

“I know. And I’m always sane.”

“Only insane people say that.”

“I-will-be-fine! Please let me do these two commissions.”

“…….Haa……… Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

It was natural for him to be worried. Because the guild won’t take any responsibility if something were to befall someone during their commissions.

This was the guild’s unspoken rule. That’s why for him, allowing a little girl like Alysia enter a bandit’s den just like that really hurt his conscience.

“Like I said, I’ll be fine!”

“Are you sure? Hmmm, anyway, we’re talking about the girl who fought so brilliantly during the tournament…. right?”

“…..Yep, that’s right. I’ll be in your care, Oniisan!”

“Aa, Aah. Got it…….. It’s better if you copy down every important informations from the paper. Like the place, or the number of targets.”

Being told that, Alysia began copying down the content of the commission onto her memo book. She was using Japanese for some reason this time, which was the language of the hometown of his soul. There was no way she could have forgotten it. Especially when she kept revising it even after a hundred years long.

What Alysia wrote on her memo was:

On the south of Tilf Mountain, there’s a cave which is used as their hideout. Their number is at least four. C-rank.

The northern side of that Tilf Mountain, around the summit. The bandits are using a tunnel which is actually the remains of an abandoned excavation project. It is estimated that the number of targets exceed twenty. B-rank.

Both commissions can be done by simply bringing down the leader.

She was somehow having fun writing down all those kanji down. Rather, not even forgetting hiragana after living in a non-japanese environment after a hundred years itself is actually amazing. Alysia was wondering if a vampire’s intelligent perhaps surpasses that of a human. Especially because she has experienced life as both that she was able to make that conclusion.

“I’ve finished writing, so everything’s good now?”

“Aa. Please be careful. It won’t be a joke if you actually get captured. You don’t know what they will do to you.”

“Like I said, I got it!”

That sentence actually had the opposite effect as the receptionist actually became more worried. ‘Does this girl actually understand?’ He wondered.
After seeing Alysia off to outside, the receptionist went back to his desk to finish sorting his files.