Maybe I could provide some “very mild healing powers” a bit early, or distribute some of Kyoko’s convenient mothership-made products. Developing medicines from this world’s plants using her mothership could be a good idea too. That way, we could teach the apothecaries of this world how to make them on their own. At first, I’d have to limit the use of healing potions disguised as the Goddess’s blessing to avoid rumors spreading too quickly, but once we laid enough groundwork to protect ourselves, we could expand a bit. If nobles got involved, I could just tell them healing through prayer in the royal capital was handled by the Temple, and it would be presumptuous of me to compete.
“Kyoko said she’d feel bad for her clients if she closed the shop in her town, and more importantly, it’d be unfair to the orphan kids who found a path to independence,” I said. “So she’ll keep that shop running as a branch and set up the main store in the royal capital. Making the original shop the main store and the one in the capital a branch would make it easier to avoid nobles by having them they needed approval from the main store to do anything, but if a noble actually went to that town and pressured the shop there without Kyoko around, the orphans would be in big trouble. That kind of thing needs to be handled by Kyoko herself. It’ll probably take a while longer to find a rental shop and start fully operating here.”
“I figured as much...” Reiko said, nodding as if she’d expected my explanation.
We’d known each other for long enough that of course she got it...though, come to think of it, Reiko and Kyoko had known each other way longer than I had, since they’d still been together after I’d died back on Earth.
“Anyway, I’ll keep staying at different inns and working as the stray priestess. And you...”
“I’ll do the same, moving between inns while keeping up my activities as a hunter,” Reiko said. “I’ll take on tougher targets to catch the attention of important people and get special requests. The house we rented in the suburbs was leased by Kyoko as Salette, so we shouldn’t use it openly right now. We’ll have to wait until Kyoko gets here. Until Edith and Can become friends with Salette, we’ll have to visit as ‘Salette’s other friends’ in different disguises.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right... I messed up a bit there, but there wasn’t much we could have done about that. Back then, we didn’t expect that incident to be resolved so easily, and at that point, Salette was the only one out of the three who could secure a property in the capital without raising suspicion,” I said. “It’s in the suburbs, so the rent wasn’t too high, and letting it sit for a few months wouldn’t be too big of a loss. Anyway, we should have Edith and Can meet up already. We could easily become friends with Salette the merchant; maybe we’ll meet while out shopping and hit it off talking about rare goods or something. So, it’s time for the up-and-coming young hunter and the rising free priestess to meet up before Salette arrives. Of course, I could put out a request, and then you’d accept it...but come to think of it, a priestess making a request of a hunter isn’t very common. I could just buy the meat used in the charity meals at a butcher supplied by the Hunter’s Guild. There’s no guarantee that the requested prey will be hunted, and with the request fee plus the purchase price, it’d cost more than buying from a butcher, so no one would go out of their way to hire a hunter directly... We’ll have to come up with a better plan.”
And so, the two of us put our heads together...
“A bodyguard request!” we said in unison.
We’d be able to spend a lot of time together if she worked as my bodyguard, and it wouldn’t be strange for two girls of similar age to quickly become friends. Plus, it was totally natural for a young girl who looked like she had no idea how to fight to hire some protection. It would’ve been far stranger to hire a male hunter to protect me closely for all of my outdoor activities, especially ones like night camping. A female solo C-Rank hunter, aged fifteen to eighteen, confident in her combat abilities against both monsters and humans, capable of handling a few orcs or ogres or fending off a group of male hunters—there weren’t many who could meet those conditions.
“All right, time for Operation Friendship to begin!”
I arrived at the Hunter’s Guild to put up a request for a bodyguard. Even though it was past the second morning bell (around 9 a.m.), the place was filled with all sorts of people, from grubby old men to underage kids. Normally, hunters gathered at the guild first thing in the morning when the day’s request board was posted to fight over the best jobs and head out to work. So those lingering at the guild at this hour were either well-off hunters who weren’t as desperate, those who had regular work and didn’t need to fight for postings, rookies taking unpopular odd jobs, or kids earning pocket money by reading the request board or picking out jobs for illiterate hunters. Those who were good at picking out jobs tailored to a hunter’s abilities could actually earn quite a bit. They didn’t need to read every single request on the board, but rather assess the hunter’s capabilities and select a few suitable ones. This required quite a lot of skill, so it made sense that they were properly compensated. When those kids became hunters themselves, they tended to live longer, so hunters often doted on them and gave them preferential treatment.
Anyway, there were a good number of hunters around, but no one gave me trouble with the ol’ “Heh, this ain’t a place for little girls like you!” I mean, judging by my clothes, I obviously wasn’t an aspiring hunter.
Hunter parties in this world didn’t include clerics who cast healing magic or anything, so I was clearly here as a client—a customer, a potential patron. And I appeared to be a twelve- or thirteen-year-old girl in priestess attire, no less. Messing with someone like that wouldn’t fly with other hunters and guild staff around. Besides, I was slightly—somewhat—okay, very different from the kind of women the folks here were looking for.
Shut up, dammit!
“Excuse me, I’d like to put up this request...” I said at the reception counter.
“Yes, allow me to check...”
The receptionist glanced at the paper I handed her, then frowned slightly.
Yeah, I expected that.
“Pardon me...but it may be difficult to find someone who will take this. The reward and terms are fine, but not many hunters will meet these requirements and have the ability to complete the request...”
“What...?” I said, putting on a troubled expression.
“Now hold on, what did you say?!” someone said. “You mean to tell me a client is offering a fair reward, and no one in the royal capital’s Hunter’s Guild is capable of taking on the job? You might as well be calling us incompetent! I can’t let that slide, even if it’s coming from a pretty receptionist! I’m a B-Rank hunter; tell me why you think even I can’t handle this job!”
It was one of the hunters lingering around who had spoken up. Butting in on a request that hadn’t been posted, let alone submitted yet, was clearly against the rules. But the man didn’t seem to be picking a fight or anything. It was only natural he’d be annoyed at being told no one here was capable of handling a job with a proper reward, especially as someone with confidence and pride in their skills. So the receptionist didn’t scold him—a few others were nodding in agreement too. But then...
“Condition number one: The hunter will be camping with a young female client, so they must be female.”