WHEN I arrived in the canteen, I saw my friends sitting at our usual table and walked over to them. Albert lay slumped over it while a laughing Corinne patted him on the back. Montana was chipping away at a gemstone as always, making something.
“Sorry I’m late.”
At the sound of my voice, Corinne turned around with a smile. “No worries,” she said. “And congrats on ranking up! I already ordered for us, by the way.”
“It’s fancier than usual. Meat.” Montana puffed out his chest with pride at the sight of the huge hunk of meat set before him on the table.
In contrast to the upbeat atmosphere surrounding Montana and Corinne, Albert alone was emanating gloom. He squirmed where he lay on the table, moaning and groaning. Finally, he sluggishly sat up, raised both fists at the ceiling, and shouted.
“This isn’t at all like what I imagined!”
Then, after screaming his little heart out, he let his fists fall lifelessly to the table. He seemed to be under a lot of stress. In fact, this wasn’t the first time he’d screamed like this. His cries of despair tended to come up from deep in his soul every ten days or so.
“I wanna go on an adventure,” he complained. “Being an errand boy is boring as hell. There’s nothing adventurous or adventurer about any of it! This is just menial labor, damn it!”
“True, but laborers are also important and valuable members of society.” My serious reply only made Albert pull at his hair in agitation.
“I became! An adventurer! To go on adventures!” he shouted. “So why the heck do I have to work like a normal person?!”
He stood up, stomping his feet in frustration as he jabbed an accusing finger at me. Corinne watched him in exasperation. Albert was acting exactly like a child in full tantrum mode—but honestly, I really liked the fact that he always said whatever was on his mind. It reminded me of our age gap in a good way, like he was a little brother I could look out for.
“Don’t act like you didn’t already know all this from the start,” Corinne said.
As the daughter of a merchant, Corinne knew how to go with the flow. She also had lots of contacts and significant pull in the merchant community. Before I knew it, she had already become a Rank 7 adventurer.
“You’re such a child,” said Montana, then he folded his ears down.
It turned out that Montana was actually a year older than Albert and Corinne, a fact I had only just recently learned. It explained his older-brother attitude, which he’d had the whole time I’d known him. From my perspective, there wasn’t much difference between being fourteen and fifteen years old, but I also knew even a small age gap would have mattered to me when I was that age.
Montana focused primarily on jobs at smithies and such places. His clients rated him highly, and in seemingly no time at all, he too was on the verge of becoming a Rank 6 adventurer.
In the midst of all this, only Albert was lagging behind. Though his combat skill was high, his physical strength was really all he had to brag about. Otherwise, he worked every day like an ordinary person, received ordinary evaluations, and was now an ordinary Rank 8 adventurer. He was strong and worked hard, so he ranked up a little faster than normal, but apparently, that wasn’t good enough for him. It was no wonder he sometimes exploded with emotion.
This time, however, I had good news for Albert.
“Well,” I started, “you’re in luck, Al, because you’re going to want to hear this.”
I was admittedly giddy. In fact, I could barely contain myself. He sat down and looked at me, silently urging me on while continuing to sulk. His honesty even during times like these only made me like him more.
“When in a party with a Rank 5 adventurer, any adventurers lower in rank can also accept commissions slightly above their pay grade.”
The way he frowned and cocked his head curiously told me he didn’t understand the ramifications of my statement right away. I thought for a moment about how to rephrase it. I think I should just be direct.
“In other words, if you’re in a party with me, you can accept a Rank 7 hunting job, Albert.”
He slammed his hands down on the table in excitement and stood up, his eyes sparkling. I smiled unconsciously because this was exactly the reaction I’d been hoping for.
“Are you serious?!”
“I am. So let’s pick a good one, okay?”
“All right, all right, all right! I’ll go check out the job board!”
“Hold it right there, mister!”
But he just raced out of the canteen, not even pausing at Corinne’s attempt to stop him.
“Ugh, I told him we were celebrating your rank-up today,” she complained.
“Seeing him so happy was worth all the effort of ranking up,” I said honestly. “That’s enough for me.”
“He’s such a child,” Montana said again. Then, fidgeting, he stood up from his chair.
“Hey, Mon, what’s wrong?”
“You two, eat. I’m going to make sure the child doesn’t get into any trouble.”
With his tail swishing rhythmically, he began following after Albert. At first, his steps were only a bit fast, then he gradually sped up into a half-trot before breaking into an all-out run to chase Albert down the hallway. Montana, who also hadn’t been taking any hunting jobs—out of consideration for Albert—was probably also unable to contain his excitement when he heard that the ban would be lifted starting tomorrow. I can relate.
“Darn it! Why are boys such…boys?!”
“…Corinne, you can go look at the job board too if you want.”
“No! I’m just fine celebrating you, Haruka!” she insisted. “I’ll eat everything before they come back. They’ll see.”
She began eating furiously, so I sat down and followed suit, albeit at a much slower pace. Secretly, I had actually already been examining a Rank 7 job before coming to see them. But I thought Corinne would be shocked if I told her the truth, so I decided to keep quiet for now.