Idle Talk 5: Newbie Guild Staff Member Ness

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Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

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TN: y’all are about as decisive about wanting another chapter as the cat sitting on the threshold for half an hour trying do decide whether it wants to go outside or stay in lmao

anyway, this is a chapter from Ness’ perspective; here are chapters 14, 18 and 19 for Cain’s perspective of the same happenings

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“I’ll do my best today too!”

I slapped my cheeks lightly with both hands; I was the one who sat by the counter from the early morning, dealing with adventurers who wanted to take requests. I’d become accustomed to it all in the past week, and now I could do my job without problems, from giving out requests to confirming their completion.

“Ness, you’ve gotten pretty good at the job, haven’t you.”

Said Letia, the vice-guild master, who had interviewed me for the job.

“Yes! I’m learning what to do bit by bit!”

“That’s the spirit. Do your best.”

Letia-san returned to her seat in the back in a good mood. And I returned to my work. My name is Ness, and I just turned sixteen this year. Thanks to my parents working for a company in Drintor, I learned my ABCs and simple calculation, thanks to which I could now get a job in the adventurers’ guild.

The guild master here is a very strong person, but he’s bad at office work, so the vice guild master, Letia-san, is actually in charge of everything.

Because Drintor is sometimes also called the town of adventurers, over half the people here are adventurers. Apparently there were some problems a while back, but I heard that ever since the new Lord-sama and Deputy Governor-sama came here, the town has become a very nice place.

I was also told by a senpai that ever since Letia-san came here from the royal capital and started serving as vice guild master, the adventurers’ guild here has become a very easy-to-work-at workplace.

The morning rush was now over, and as I was relaxing after the line of adventurers in front of the counter had disappeared, a child who seemed to have just become a newbie adventurer entered the guild.

After inquisitively looking around the hall, he headed straight over to me, and started speaking.

Alright, a job for newbie-kun.

“Excuse me. Is there somewhere where a lot of monsters have gathered?”

He looked like nothing but a newbie adventurer, and yet had suddenly told me he wanted to do monster subjugation. As I couldn’t let a child like him do monster subjugation, I decided to dissuade him.

“Children shouldn’t be going to such dangerous places, okay? You should do jobs in the safety of the town, alright? Nowadays, the job offices the Lord-sama set up can help find you a job. Go do that. The Lord-sama here really thinks about the commoners and adventurers, so––”

I told the boy, trying to teach him the knowledge I was privy to, but he made a troubled face.

“I’d like to defeat monsters, though, if it’s possible…”

Despite how politely I was explaining things to him, the boy said he wanted to defeat monsters.

‘He’s a child just starting out, longing to be an adventurer, after all,’ I sighed to myself. I had no choice then.

I took out a few documents about the town I had on hand and started explaining them to the boy, but he seemed to have no interest whatsoever.

“Excuse me. Is the guild master in? If you just tell him ‘Cain’s here’, he’ll understand.”

Said the boy to me, his face still slightly troubled. Even I hadn’t spoken with the guild master, and this boy said he wanted to meet with him.

“So you’re called Cain-kun. I can’t just go call the guild master that easily you know, especially if it’s just a newbie child that said so. Okay?”

I explained to the boy politely. I hope he’ll understand now.

But, the boy just sighed at my words and re-phrased his question.

“Then… maybe some other staff member…?”

At those words, even I, who had treated him kindly, grew frustrated. I might have been a newbie, but I was good enough at my job to be praised by the vice guild master. And now this child who wasn’t even a grown-up yet had told me to go call someone else.

“Awww! I might be new here, but calling for someone else is just mean!”

I accidentally raised my voice at the boy. The other receptionists also all glanced at me due to me raising my voice.

“Cain-kun, children should stay in the town like they should––”

*Slaaaaaap!*

“O-owieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Wh-what!?”

Suddenly, someone hit me on the back of the head. As I came to myself at the pain and turned around, the vice guild master, Letia-san was standing there. She had a daunting pose, and seemed quite angry.

Normally, she worked in the very back, so I had no idea when she had appeared behind me.

Even so, I was confused as to why she had suddenly hit me on the head, and voiced my complaints to Letia-san.

“Vice guild master! Hitting me out of nowhere, how mean!”

However, the vice guild master ignored me and bowed deeply to the boy.

And then she spoke in a completely different tone to what she used with us.

“It has been a long time, Cain-sama. I will go call the guild master immediately. I’ll prepare the reception room immediately, so please come this way.”

She immediately told another staff member to go call the guild master.

Not understanding why she was treating the boy like this, I asked in a small voice.

“…umm, Cain-kun is…?”

As I said that, the vice guild master hit me on the head again.

As expected after being hit on the head a couple of times, I began to tear up, at which Letia-san sighed and began speaking.

“Ness, this person is Count Cain von Silford Drintor, the lord of this town. I told you the other day, didn’t I? That the territory’s lord was promoted to a count from being a viscount…”

My mouth dropped open at Letia-san’s words. What, this Cain-kun is the lord!? There was no way he was this young boy wearing an adventurer’s outfit!? I knew what the Lord-sama looked like because I remembered him dropping by the guild the other day. That handsome man in his twenties. He had looked so cool I had fallen for him, so there was no way I’d mistake him for someone else.

“Didn’t the Lord-sama come to the guild the other day? That handsome man…”

The vice guild master hit me on the head again.

“That’s Baron Alec, Cain-sama’s older brother. He’s this town’s deputy governor… honestly…”

Even while being amazed at what I had said, Letia-san bowed again to Cain-kun.

“Cain-sama, I’m terribly sorry. The education of our receptionists seems not to be perfect… I hope you can pardon her for her rudeness… Hey, Ness! You lower your head too!”

Letia-san put her hand on my head and we bowed in unison.

The Lord-sama simply smiled and waved it away.

“It has been a long time, Letia-san. It’s fine. For people who don’t know me, I do look like just a simple child. And Ness-san over there was also just looking out for me.”

I had expected nobles to be more intimidating, but the Lord-sama spoke with a truly gentle smile.

“Thank you very much. Then, I’ll show you in, so come this way, please.”

Letia-san guided Cain-kun, no, Cain-sama into the back.

I just hadn’t organized everything in my head yet. I hadn’t known that that child had been the Lord-sama, which made me slightly depressed, but with my natural cheerfulness, I made sure to work on not making the same mistake again.

Just as I was about to finish work, the deputy governor, Alec-sama appeared in the guild. Asked by the vice guild master to call the guild master, I finished my work at the reception and went over to the material storage space.

There was a big monster lying on the ground, surrounded by guild staff members and adventurers.

Next to it, the guild master and an adventurer were whispering to each other.

As I called out to the guild master from behind him, the adventurer with him also turned around.

“Guild master, you have a guest. Wha– …aah, Lord-sama!! Please excuse me!”

As I said that, all the adventurers who had been gazing at the monster also turned around. Of course, they must have reacted to the words ‘Lord-sama’.

““““Lord-sama!?””””

Voices of surprise rose from the adventurers, but I continued speaking so as not to make the same mistake as I had earlier.

“Lord-sama, deputy governor Baron Alec has come to visit, but would you also like to meet with him?”

When I said that, both the guild master and the Lord-sama heaved deep sighs.

I had spoken proudly so as not to repeat the same mistake as I had done earlier in the day, but their reactions were not what I had been expecting.

“Guild master! Baron Alec is waiting fo––”

Slaaaaaaaaaaaap!!

The guild master hit me on the head. It didn’t hurt more than Letia-san’s had, but it really made an amazing impact.

Then, the guild master sighed again deeply.

“Seriously, you. …sorry, Cain-dono. Your identity was revealed due to her.”

“Well, it can’t be helped…”

The adventurers and staff members all stared at the Lord-sama with surprised faces.

The Lord-sama looked around at everyone and sighed deeply, while the guild master stepped forward.

“Just as you heard, Cain-sama here is the Lord-sama. However, he is also an adventurer at the same time. Cain-sama doesn’t really go out in public, so I’d like you to continue to treat him as an adventurer. ––It might be difficult, but… naturally, you can’t tell anyone else about this.”

As the guild master spoke, the adventurers and staff members nervously glanced at the Lord-sama.

Then, the Lord-sama stepped forward and began speaking.

“Just as you heard, I’m Count Cain von Silford Drintor. I may be the lord here, but I’m also an adventurer, and am still a student in the royal capital. I often move in secret, so when I’m an adventurer, please feel free to treat me casually.”

The Lord-sama said that, but nobody nodded. But I think that is only natural. I wouldn’t be able to speak to him light-heartedly either if I were told such things.

A female adventurer in the surroundings kept repeatedly muttering ‘Count-sama… Cain-kun’s a Count-sama…’ to herself, as if she could hardly believe it.

Looking around at all the nervous people in the surroundings, the Lord-sama bowed, and then entered the building with the guild master.

I followed after them, glancing sideways at the frozen adventurers.

As the Lord-sama and the guild master had already gone to the reception room, I returned to my counter and continued work.

Then, just as the time to finish work had nearly arrived, I felt some killing intent and suddenly turned around, only to find Letia-san standing there with a daunting pose and the vein in her temple about to burst.

“Ness… could I borrow you for a moment…”

While Letia-san was trying to smile, her expression didn’t resemble one at all.

“No, I’m about to start going home… Maybe next time…”

Feeling uneasy, I stood up, trying to escape, but Letia-san grabbed both my shoulders.

“Come now, don’t say that… here, this way…”

I was dragged to a private room with nobody else in it.

Then two hours of earnestly… no I don’t even want to remember what it was like, being given a sermon later, I went home, sapped of all my strength.

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TN: “Voices of surprise rose from the adventurers, but I continued speaking so as not to make the same mistake as I had earlier.” oh I feel so sorry for her

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