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A certain man approached one of Elunheine Adventurer’s Guild’s many counters. The adventurer clothes he was wearing appeared newly bought, and gave off a strong impression of him just wearing them. As for the person himself, he had a very roly-poly build that made all onlookers wonder “wouldn’t he be faster rolling instead of walking?” inside their hearts.
The receptionist who greeted him at the counter gave him a slightly stiff smile. It was her second day at the counters, and her name was Yuna.
“Welcome to Elunheine Adventurer’s Guild. Are you here to register as a new adventurer?”
“Mm,” grunted the man curtly. Everything about him was giving off the impression that he did not want to be here.
“I-In that case, then please fill in all the relevant fields on this application......” As Yuna proffered sheet and pen, the man accepted them with another annoyed expression. He looked very impatient as his pen flew over the paper.
While looking on, Yuna could not help but to murmur, “Such beautiful handwriting......”
The man shot a glare at Yuna. Then he tsked once, after which he changed to writing as roughly as he could.
“Here. This good enough?”
“Eh, ah, yes sir...... Umm, so you are ‘Sharlo Aashu,’ is that correct?”
“Can’t you tell by reading?”
“I-I apologize. Let me see, your previous profession was ‘None’......? Age...... you’re 16 years old?!” Yuna could not help but to take another look at the man.
His unkempt blond hair was streaked with white, and his skin was in terrible condition. No matter from which angle she looked, Yuna could only see him as a man in his 30s hoping to get back on his feet by trying to be an adventurer......
“Well sorry for my old-looking face. Seriously, this was why I didn’t want to get involved with other people. Why do I have to be an adventurer......” This man muttering complaints to himself nonstop was, needless to say, the first prince of the Kingdom of Alsbeit, Sharlo Alsbeit in the flesh. But of course, his identity was being kept a secret. His father had threatened him that there would be a terrible punishment in store if he ever revealed himself of his own accord.
A large shadow abruptly loomed up from behind him. It was Shouzou.
“Sharlo-kun, I remember teaching you that ‘smiling’ is one of the very basics of social interactions.”
“Y-You......” Sharlo glared at Shouzou hatefully.
“Regardless of who you’re dealing with, maintaining a respectful and open attitude is important. Just by keeping that in mind and applying it, you can already avoid 90% of the troublesome situations that crop up in human interactions.”
“If I don’t talk to anyone, then the chance for trouble would be 0%, wouldn’t it?”
Shouzou handled even Sharlo’s sarcastic remark with a genial smile. “That might be true. However, then you’d also get 0% of the benefits from interacting with other people.”
“Benefits from interacting with other people? I don’t really—”
“Need them? Well, you’ll understand eventually. For now, just take my words as they are, since you won’t be able to go home for at least a whole month anyways.”
When Sharlo had been handed over to Shouzou’s care, he had been strictly told “You are not allowed to set foot in the royal palace for a month” by his father, King Alsbeit. Just recalling that scene caused Sharlo to grind and gnash his teeth.
(Maybe it would be better to back off a bit for now.) In recent years, Sharlo had absolutely no opportunity to interact with other people. Therefore, his wariness toward complete strangers was strong, so it might be a bit much to ask him to approach someone else on an emotional level.
(He doesn’t seem like he’s at the point where he can unconditionally be kind to other people yet. In that case—)
When it comes to interpersonal relationships, a benefit-loss paradigm was a perfectly viable place to start from. “Sharlo-kun, think about it this way. For an adventurer, the adventurer’s guild is a business partner. There is no superiority or inferiority in that relationship. By building a mutually beneficial relationship, both sides get what they want. How about just keeping that in mind and suppressing your emotions for now?”
But that said, being too dry means becoming someone only capable of thinking in loss and benefit, which would cause other people to distance themselves. What Shouzou was hoping to help Sharlo realize was that mutually beneficial relationships, the so-called win-win scenario, was a viable thing to achieve.
“All right, all right, I get it already. I was ordered by Papa to do whatever you say. Geez, how happy I was back when I was left alone......” Sharlo’s inability to hold back from grumbling even while expressing acquiescence caused Shouzou to smile wryly.
(He really isn’t going to make this easy for me, is he.) But that was what made this worth doing.
And as their exchange drew to an end, Sharlo’s adventurer application process also just happened to be done.
Yuna held out a sheet of paper. “Here is your adventurer registration paper. Your rank is Iron. You will need it when accepting and turning in quests, so please make sure to bring it whenever you visit any guild. Please also make sure to not lose it.”
“Hmph, Iron, huh......”
“U-Um, if you were previously a mercenary, or if you have some special advantage, such as being really proficient with magic, then we could consider allowing you to start from Copper......”
“............” Sharlo looked like he was about to voice some complaint or another, but then swallowed it down just in time.
“Um, then, h-here is your Iron adventurer’s plate.” Looking decidedly uncomfortable, Yuna took out an iron plate the size of a business card. There was a fine chain attached to one of its corners.
Adventurers couldn’t very well hang something so valuable as their registration paper around their neck. Therefore, for the sake of telling adventurer ranks apart, they were also given this adventurer’s plate, which is supposed to be worn at a visible location on their body. However, reality did not quite work out that way.
“Huh? What’s this? Looks so shabby.” Sharlo roughly shoved his plate into a pocket.
Like Sharlo, there weren’t many adventurers who actually wore their adventurer’s plate in a visible location. Their reasons for not doing so were varied, but because this was not an enforced rule, they couldn’t be rebuked for not doing so.
“Would you like to accept a quest right off the bat?” asked Yuna.
However, the person who answered was not Sharlo, but Shouzou. “Before that, there’s something that Sharlo-kun needs to do.”
“Wh-What is it? Are you going to make me do something else again? I’m good on the quests today—”
“Most adventurers complete quests in groups. This is especially true for beginners, who shouldn’t be doing anything on their own. So it’s important to first join a party,” said Shouzou plainly, clearly not paying any attention to Sharlo’s complaint.