On a certain morning, Elizabeth was sitting in her chair in the office, with her face showing a forced smile.
There was an entire mountain of paperwork stacked densely in front of her face.
She had to get through all of it within the day, and there was even more on the way.
Currently, they were right in the middle of their talks with Raulo Adventurer’s Guild. Quests were also flooding into their guild, which meant more work for her than ever before.
This amount of work was something that she would have never even dreamed of a short while ago, back when her guild was still Shining Eagle Adventurer’s Guild.
Managing a guild was her father’s idea of social studies. The more she did it, the more fun she found it, the more she felt meaning in continuing it, and she even started feeling attachment to it. She felt keenly the heaviness of responsibility, but that also became her source of pride.
Now that they had merged with Elunheine, everything had gotten much larger in scale.
However, in the moments when she relaxed during their busy times, she came to realize an empty hole had formed inside her heart.
Feeling irritated at not understanding what the feeling was, she turned her vexation toward the paperwork.
“How’s progress?” The person who appeared after a knock was Shouzou. He was holding even more paperwork in his arms.
“Come now, why the long face? I’m sure our highly capable president can take care of this amount of paperwork in no time.”
“I’m not going to be sweet talked by you, all right? I mean, I’m still going to do them though. But admin work really isn’t my thing. Making a ruckus together with everyone else on the ground floor is way more fun.”
“Ah yes, you’re the type of manager who inspires and riles up everyone else from the front lines.”
“What does that mean? Is that a compliment?”
“Of course it is. I’ll think about your request. In the meantime... how about I go find Adora and bring her over? She’s probably just hanging around somewhere doing nothing.”
With a “Thanks, that’ll be a great help,” Elizabeth slapped her own cheeks and put on a grin.
“What was that?”
“This isn’t a face that a president should show the staff, right? I only felt a little bit dispirited, so let my guard down a little. But from now on, I’m going into President Mode.”
“I see. As expected of our guildmaster.” Despite feeling newfound admiration for her, Shouzou could not help but to leave a word of advice while placing the paperwork in his hand onto her desk.
“However, there are people that you can let down your guard to. Me and Adora, for example. Listening to the staff’s complaints and encouraging and praising them may also be a part of your job, but make sure to vent all the things you bottle up, just like you did now.” Shouzou placed his large hand softly on her head.
“Feel free to dump all of your complaints on me and Adora.” He rubbed her blond hair tenderly, as if she were another of his children.
“D-Don’t treat me like a child.”
“I have no intention of doing so.”
“In the first place, I’m already pretty vocal to everybody regarding my complaints.”
“What you do with the staff, that’s what’s called ‘galvanizing.’ Others might call it ‘pep talks.’ At the very least, I myself have never seen you truly sharing your dissatisfaction with the staff.” Shouzou continued rubbing her head regardless, prompting Elizabeth to raise her hand toward her head as if to put up a resistance. However, that hand froze in midair from the next words he said.
“You are doing a wonderful job.” She got praised.
It was different from the words of praise, both sincere and mere flattery, she had been showered with due to being born as a noble, and from taking up the position of guildmaster.
This was warm, like a father’s words of appreciation and acknowledgment toward his daughter.
“Mm? Your face is red. You also feel a bit feverish, have you fallen under the weath—”
“Sh-Sh-Sh-Sh-Shut up! Enough! I want to focus on my work!” Raising her voice clamorously, Elizabeth chased Shouzou out of her room.
“Goodness...... What was that, seriously......” For a while, Elizabeth pressed down on the place where Shouzou had been patting her, and basked in the afterglow.
The hole in her heart seemed to have been filled before she knew it—
★
After stepping out from the office, Shouzou descended to the first floor. He walked into the main lobby area.
The time of the day when the reception lobby is the most busy is right after opening hours. Then there is also early afternoon, which is when new quests get posted up, and around dusk, which is when adventurers come back to collect their rewards.
Right now just happened to be just after the morning rush, so the reception lobby was quite peaceful.
The staff were taking turns manning the reception counters and consultation booths and going on break.
Among them all, Shouzou found Lalaine curled up at her desk. The girl of the Naga race was quietly muttering to herself, such that no one could bring themselves to initiate conversation with her.
“Lalaine-san, how about going on break soon?”
His attempt at talking to her caused her to start and mumble, “R-Right now th-there’s......”
Apparently, she was so shy that if there was anyone else taking a break, she couldn’t go alone to join in.
Moko came over in a run. The beastkin girl’s ears and tail were twitching busily.
“Have you taken a rest?”
“Nya? I rested tons!” She looked astonished. Feeling something slightly amiss with her answer, Shouzou noticed Lalaine shaking her head vigorously. It appeared that Moko had yet to take a break today.
“You understand that resting is also part of your job, right?”
“As I said, I’ve already rested tons!” Moko did not look like she was lying. And it was equally unlikely for Lalaine to have misunderstood.
Seeking to get to the bottom of this, Shouzou brought the two of them away for a talk.
The three of them headed toward the break room behind the staff area of the first floor.
The staff member who was resting there just happened to be leaving the room, leaving Shouzou to prepare tea for the two girls. Just when he was making cups of black tea with an unpracticed hand......
“Oni-occhan, are you thinking of doing something ecchi to us?” Lalaine gave a huge start. Her tail stood up straight and the tip froze altogether.
“Adora said it before. She said, ‘When a man brings a girl to an empty place, his aim is to do ecchi things, so be careful.’”
“......Hmm. That sounds like advice that Adora would give. And to a third party, the situation right now could perhaps be construed as such. I shall be more careful going forward.” But then he made sure to deny the question vehemently.
“I can’t seem to let this go. Moko-san, allow me to ask you again. Have you taken a break?”
“I have~” Moko’s instant reply prompted Lalaine to shake her head again, and begin murmuring.
“Moko... didn’t take... break...... Not only today, but every day......”
“Every day?” Shouzou directed his eyes toward Moko.
“I took so many breaks before, so I don’t take them anymore,” said Moko matter-of-factly.
The reason why the two accounts contradicted each other then became clear with the next question.
“Moko-san, when did you take your last break?”
“Before Oni-occhan came to us at Elunheine. Back then, I always had nothing to do, so that was pretty much taking a break all day every day, right? Nowadays I’m super busy, but it’s also super fun~ So it’d be such a waste to go on breaks!”
There are people whose work is their hobby. Shouzou himself was also one such person.
However, it is especially when you enjoy doing something that you lose your head in it, not realizing your own tiredness and the strain you are putting on your body.