But in spite of that—
(How long has it been since I’ve had an opponent who’s put up such a fight?) Shouzou’s heart jumped with excitement at this showdown with Kuntz, the man who—though not present currently—very likely masterminded this plot.
The staff member who could not bear to just watch on anymore finally opened his mouth. It seemed that he actually did not fully understand what was going on, and thus honestly just wanted to help resolve the situation.
“We cannot make that call on our own, so we will discuss it with the division head first. Then we will contact you again at a later date......”
The section chief signaled him with his eyes. It was a gaze that ordered him to “not say anything unnecessary.”
“No, no, we cannot waste everyone’s time like that. Elunheine-san, please hold on a moment, we’ll call the division head over at once.” The section chief slowly got up.
Their acting was very well done, but it seemed like they wanted to talk Shouzou down as soon as possible.
Shouzou lowered his head with a “Yes please.”
However, even if the division head showed up, the end result would stay the same. In that case, then there was no point in purposely calling him in.
“By the way—”
And thus, Shouzou decided to end this right then and there.
“Does the division head already know of this reward amount issue?”
The section chief’s face froze just the tiniest bit.
“I... wonder? Reward amounts are usually decided by our Section of Quest Administration, unless if the quest is a really big one. But he might have heard it mentioned in passing, maybe......?”
“Hmm. If he did not already know, then he would be pressed to make a very difficult decision, wouldn’t he. But in that case, the longer he takes to make the decision, the harder and harder it will become to complete these quests. I mean, if the division head ends up affirming the original decision, then I’m afraid it would remain very difficult to complete these quests......” Shouzou groaned, pretending to be deep in thought for a while.
Then he abruptly slapped his knee, and smiled.
“All right, how about I go directly to the Central Public Office and explain the situation to them and ask them to retract their quests? Then you can direct the freed up funds toward the local quests.”
“HAH?!” The Section Chief looked so astonished that his hips almost gave out, while the staff’s eyes also turned as wide as saucers.
“Oh, excuse me. I see that I’ve surprised the two of you with how lenient this measure is. I hear you loud and clear. As someone who also works in this city, I will make sure to give Central a good dressing down on your behalf as well, for swamping us with unreasonable requests without caring about the circumstances of rural public offices such as ours.”
“EHHHHH?!”
“Don’t worry, if Central only complains back at us, then I simply have to go even higher... Hey, how about I seek an audience with the king himself?” Shouzou laughed heartily as the two of them gazed at him with ashen faces.
This was especially so for the section chief, who was beside himself with fright. In the first place, he had gotten involved only because the division head had pushed Jirahal’s one-sided demand on to him. He was getting nothing out of this. It’s just that the division head had threatened to demote him with the marquis’ family’s power, so he was cooperating begrudgingly. It was the same for the division head.
However, things would be even worse if Central Public Office ever caught wind of this.
Although reward amounts are indeed up to the local office’s discretion, reports of them setting inappropriate amounts would lead to no end of questioning. Such news could very well reach the ears of the king or nobles near him without Shouzou having to seek them out himself.
Once things escalate to that level, then Jirahal himself would be on very shaky ground.
Most likely... no, almost certainly, Marquis Goldas himself was not related to the incident this time.
(Come to think of it. Hasn’t this just given me the just cause of “protecting” that idiot Jirahal?) Whether Shouzou meant what he said or not, it didn’t matter at this point.
“Elunheine was going to go on a rampage, and I was trying to stop them” could make for a very legit excuse to give to Jirahal. (Incidentally, for those curious, Shouzou actually did intend to go to the king in person, in the worst case scenario.)
(In the first place, setting up quests so that they don’t get completed is wrong......) Quests have meaning only when they are completed.
This was true both for adventurers and for quest givers.
The section chief actually had been considering limiting their dealings with Goldas, who had a very low completion rate. On the other hand, if they left things to Elunheine Adventurer’s Guild, then their sales ability would definitely ensure that every quest would be completed.
If that happened, then there was no doubt that his own reputation would also rise.
(Oh come on, why am I even still hesitating. I’m sure even the division head will agree with me on this!) The section chief firmed his resolve.
“Very well, Elunheine-san.” The look on his face was clear, and he looked like he had been freed from a great burden.
“By my authority, I will revert all of these quests’ reward amounts to their appropriate amounts.”
“Ohh! But then your budget......”
“Don’t worry, we are used to lowering our heads to all the relevant departments. We’ll rewrite all of the posters immediately, so please wait a short while.”
The section chief and staff clutched the quest posters to their chests and flew out of the room—
On the way back from the public office.
“You’ve really pulled it off, Onigawara-san. We now have so many quests—with the appropriate reward amounts!—from the public office!” It was a crisis that threatened to undermine Elunheine Adventurer’s Guild regardless of whether they accepted or declined.
But he managed to turn that around, and ended up with such a large number of government quests that they normally got only once in a blue moon.
Sofie’s excitement showed no signs of waning.
“It’s not over yet though.”
“Eh?”
“These are a lot of quests. Now we have to go around finding the right adventurers to complete each and every one of these.”
“Oh, right. Yes, I’ll do my very best!” The sight of the girl pumping herself up with motivation caused Shouzou’s face to crumble into a smile.
On the other hand, he also recalled the figure of Kuntz inside his head.
(So it seems they haven’t spread their influence all the way to Central. However, I mustn’t let my guard down.) Shouzou pulled himself together once more.
However, unbeknownst to him at that time, that would end up as needless anxiety—
★
“Fuck, another failure!” After receiving the report from the public office, Jirahal pounded his desk again and again within his office at Goldas Adventurer’s Guild. But that did nothing to quell his anger.
For the scheme that was supposed to bring down his enemy to instead contribute to their profits, of all things.
“I sincerely apologize for my insufficient ability.” Kuntz apologized regretfully while standing in front of Jirahal.
“Insufficient... don’t tell me, you did something unnecessary again?!”
“...Actually—” Kuntz honestly explained that he had also approached the division head, then once again apologized that he had still failed.