“His Majesty is taking this situation very seriously,” the chairman said. “Right now the drug seems to be limited to private citizens and adventurers, but if it continues to spread, eventually we can expect the kingdom’s soldiers to get their hands on it. We’re very fortunate that the king is not the kind of man who would order us to secure the drug’s recipe in order to use it to increase his own army’s military power.” In fact, the request from the king was just the opposite—to find the creators of the drug and destroy the recipe and manufacturing facilities alike so that they could never be used again. “Ordinarily the crown would handle this sort of thing itself, but as it happens there is yet another problem at hand...”
Even more so than its use in battle, the drug was a problem for contests of skill, where it was a clear violation of the strict rules of such events.
“I’m sure you’re all aware,” the chairman continued, “but the National Fencing Tournament is nearly upon us.” This was a major event meant to showcase the greatest sword fighters in the entire kingdom. Many of the guild’s adventurers would be taking part as well.
“As it happens, several of the contestants who made it through the preliminaries have been discovered to be using the drug,” the chairman said. The assembled guildmasters looked distinctly uncomfortable at that suggestion. They must have been wondering if any of their subordinates had resorted to such means. “What makes this so difficult is the short duration of the drug’s effect. Because of that, the signs of its use only last for a moment as well.” That was to say, it was impossible to detect the substance in a person’s system before or after. “In this case, however, there were several cases of contestants’ bodies falling apart after the preliminaries. These people were questioned, and it was determined that they had taken the drug. The royal laboratories were able to detect trace amounts in their systems as well...”
“Terrible...” one of the guildmasters remarked. “How dare they sully the honor of the National Fencing Tournament like that!”
In reality, it was nearly impossible to prevent someone from bringing the drug into a tournament match. After all, contestants were permitted to take healing potions and other such items into battle with them if they so chose. It would be easy for them to conceal a small amount of an illegal drug on their person.
“As you know, His Majesty regards the people of his kingdom as the land’s greatest treasure. He has expended no small effort in gathering and cultivating talented individuals.” Really, the king’s obsession with human talent bordered on manic. He’d founded several schools in the Royal Capital, inviting the finest instructors he could find whether near or far, all for the sake of bringing up a next generation to which he could entrust the future of his kingdom. He was especially fond of Kanata, who had achieved things unheard of in all of known history.
“Appearing in the National Fencing Tournament is a tremendous honor. There’s no shortage of nobles who would hire someone solely on the basis of having fought in the tournament proper. His Majesty is concerned that some of his subjects might ruin their potential solely for that one moment of glory.” The National Fencing Tournament was a venerable event, with history going back more than a hundred years. If contestants were polluting it with forbidden substances, it would be a stain on that proud tradition. “And that is why His Majesty asked the Adventurers’ Guild to perform our investigations out of sight and behind the scenes.”
From the chairman’s words, it seemed they would need to find an adventurer capable of operating undercover. There were many types of adventurers, with as many specialties as there were types of request. Some focused exclusively on vanquishing magic beasts, while others specialized in exploring dungeons and recovering artifacts. There were adventurers whose calling was gathering, who boasted knowledge of medicinal plants that would put a doctor to shame. And, of course, there were adventurers who specialized in moving unseen, gathering information from the shadows.
At this point, Melissa’s superior, the guildmaster of the Royal Capital branch, spoke up. “The issue seems to be,” he said, “that we don’t know who is involved with this drug and who isn’t.”
The request to eradicate the drug had come first to the guild branch in the Royal Capital. It was a very large request, one that should rightly fall to an S-Rank adventurer in terms of its scope alone, but the choice of adventurers who could take the request was severely limited. Nobody had ever heard of a request quite like this before. It would require investigative prowess, of course, but it demanded a high level of combat strength as well, in case they were attacked during their investigation by opponents using the drug to send themselves into a frenzy. Moreover, they would need to be an adventurer of unimpeachable virtue who the guild could trust was not involved in the drug trade themselves. It was unlikely that the guild even had an S-Rank who fulfilled all of those qualifications.
“And I don’t know how trustworthy this information is,” the Royal Capital guildmaster continued, “but we’ve done a bit of investigation on our own already, and rumor has it that the inventor of this drug is going to be a participant in the National Fencing Tournament themself.” In other words, an adventurer assigned to this request would need at least enough martial ability to make it to the National Fencing Tournament proper.
“So,” said Melissa. “We’d need a perfect adventurer...”
“Oh, if only there were such an adventurer!” the guildmaster said, pressing his fingers to his lips in a theatrical display of thought as he glanced up at Melissa. “Perhaps someone who purified the sewers beneath the Royal Capital, and dominated a dragon, and drove off an army of demons, and exposed the rot of the Holy Church...someone the people might call the True Saint!”
Melissa suddenly became aware that all of the guildmasters in the room had their eyes on her. “Wh-What?”
“Oh, so you’ll help us out!” said the guildmaster. “Thanks a bunch, Melissa! I knew you’d come through for us!”
“I said nothing of the sort!” Melissa protested. “I-I mean, do you intend for Miss Kanata to take this request?! She certainly does have the ability for it, but you know there’s no guarantee she’ll say yes!”
“And that’s where you, the almighty receptionist, come in!” the guildmaster said. “It’s your job to force adventurers to take the damned requests by any means necessary!”
“I wish you wouldn’t make it sound like such disreputable work...” Melissa grumbled, angry at her boss’s turn of phrase. “Our job is to see to it that the right person gets the right job!”