Melissa had inspected the sewers under the Royal Capital herself, with the help of some of her colleagues. She found the water to be even cleaner than the sewers of Hightown, which the Church took great pains to purify regularly. The purification spell Kanata had cast was so powerful that the wastewater had remained clean and safe to drink even months after the fact. Just as miraculous was the transformation that had overtaken Undertown, which had been victim to the Church’s neglect. The people living there had begun growing vegetables in the former slums, using the water and fertile earth given to them by Kanata, creating produce that tasted so good it qualified as astonishing. Chefs from Midtown had begun trading with Undertown for their vegetables. Where the people of Undertown had once been too impoverished to even pay taxes, now they were successful farmers.
“Then,” the chairman asked, “the account of large-scale purification magic is true?”
“Yes,” Melissa confirmed. “In fact, the effect of her spell seems to be still ongoing with no sign of attenuation. Send an inspector from the main branch if you have doubts.”
The chairman hemmed and hawed. “Hrmm...but wouldn’t that mean that this adventurer used purification magic on the level of a Saint?”
If anything, Saint was too low of an estimation. Even if everyone in the Holy Church capable of using purification magic combined their power, it was hard to imagine that they could pull off a feat comparable to Kanata’s spell. Melissa, however, had spent day after day of overtime completing her report, and was confident that everything she had written was correct.
“And...you say this adventurer’s Profession is Beast Tamer?” the chairman asked.
“It is,” Melissa answered.
“Beast Tamer is a Profession that lowers every one of a person’s abilities. Almost nobody would choose to become a Beast Tamer voluntarily. You understand that the idea that someone would be capable of something like this after selecting Beast Tamer as their Profession is even more impossible?”
“Yes, but it is the truth.”
“Absolutely unbelievable...” the chairman said. “Or so I would like to say, but the truth is, we performed our own background check on this adventurer. It seems she is a woman of many talents who had a history of extraordinary achievements even during her time in school. And it seems her parents are none other than the Divine Sword Boldow and the Archsage Aleksia.”
At the mention of the Divine Sword and the Sage’s names, the conference hall erupted with voices.
“The Divine Sword and the Sage?!”
“I see! So it’s their child!”
“Then their child is as inhuman as they are...”
The legend of Boldow and Aleksia, who had gone from novice adventurers to S-Rank faster than anyone in the history of the guild, was well known by everyone in attendance. After all, it wasn’t just once or twice that the kingdom had been saved by that dynamic duo. One day, quite abruptly, they announced that they were quitting the adventuring life and getting married, leaving the third member of their party, Prince Leon, to ascend the throne. Now king, Leon granted Boldow and Aleksia noble titles and the position of margrave and margravine, and the two vanished to a secluded life in the country.
The loss of Boldow and Aleksia was a heavy one for the Adventurers’ Guild. Just before quitting, they had completed a very difficult request, saving the kingdom itself from disaster. It was when Boldow and Aleksia left that the guild’s fortunes began to decline. Everyone working for the guild shared a sense of regret at losing such valuable talent. And to think that their daughter had become an adventurer with the guild! It was a shock, but also an unexpected joy.
“We should raise her rank immediately and start giving her more difficult requests!” someone opined.
“This isn’t someone we should be passing off low-level requests to!” another agreed.
“I have told her as much myself,” interrupted Melissa, cutting the guildmasters off before they got too far into counting their unhatched chickens. “But we must allow her to act according to her own desires.” Melissa earned a few glares for that remark. She was a mere receptionist, after all. But Melissa’s nerves had been honed by her long days working the reception desk. She wasn’t about to back down, even if the people here were as strong as A-Rank adventurers. “It would not make her happy for us to ignore the guild’s rules and raise her rank just to force her to take high-level requests,” she said.
“Even though she’d earn a greater reward and the respect of the people?”
“If that were what she wanted, do you think she would be going around clearing undervalued requests?” Melissa asked rhetorically. “They’re difficult work for low pay—the sorts of requests almost nobody would want to accept.”
“W-Well, I...”
“Kanata does not place great importance on the quest reward,” Melissa said. “She’s a selfless, virtuous girl—so much so that she used most of the reward money for purifying the sewers on renovations for Undertown. I don’t believe she’s someone you can lure with the promise of a high payout.”
Kanata, it was true, did not care much for material rewards—unless, of course, the reward on offer was fluff. From the outside, her conduct appeared to be of the highest virtue.
“That makes her sound like more of a Saint than the Saint herself...” the chairman mused. She was certainly far more saintly than the Saint of the Holy Church, who would never purify a graveyard or sewer unless there were generous alms involved.
“As things are now, Kanata is contributing more than we could have ever asked of her,” Melissa said. “I believe that what we should do is support her activities however we can, and respect her wishes. If we try to force requests on her we risk incurring her displeasure. If she were to quit, it would be a profound loss for the guild.”
In other words, it would be like the Divine Sword and the Sage quitting all over again. The conference seemed convinced by Melissa’s line of argument.
“Melissa Straud, thank you for your report,” the chairman said. “Regarding the topic at hand, let us continue to watch over her and provide whatever support we can.”
Melissa hastily bowed her head, realizing as the chairman thanked her that she had perhaps gotten a little too worked up for her own good. All around her, guildmasters were praising her.
“She’s young, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders!”
“I wish we had someone like her at our branch...”
“Ha ha ha!” The Royal Capital branch guildmaster laughed. “That’s my handpicked successor you’re talking about! You’ll take her from my cold, dead hands!”
Most women Melissa’s age would have withered immediately in front of the assembled guildmasters, but Melissa had handled herself with aplomb. It seemed she had earned their favor.
“Now, on to our next topic,” the chairman said. “The dragon captured by the Royal Capital.”
“Well!” a guildmaster exclaimed. “How long has it been since we had a live dragon?!”