Shut-in Magician - Chapter 18

Chapter 018: Rank 10 Job

A month had passed since Shiu had come to the Royal Capital.

Feles often slept on his back with his stomach facing upwards, although the weather finally reflected the end of summer.

It had been four months since Feles was born and he was growing up healthily.

He didn’t go into Shiu’s breast pocket much anymore probably because it was hot or because he was just getting too big. He also wondered about a lot so Shiu couldn’t take his eyes of Feles. He now had a collar around his neck and he would sit on Shiu’s shoulders. He also occasionally sat on Shiu’s head, which was charming.

Shiu was also 11 years and 9 months old, so he would soon be 12.

Shiu had been visiting one place after the next this past month. He went to the library, looked around the market and visited the beast mount shop that Ana had introduced him to. He got to play with the horses and beast mounts in exchange for helping them at the store. His fun time doing that would soon come to an end.

He decided to finish preparing for the day after he had made breakfast and packed his rucksack; then he went to the guild. His rucksack was a camouflage, he put necessities in there so anyone could see him taking it out.

In fact, some people even asked him to show them his equipment when they found out that he was a trainee adventurer.

Half of them did probably did this out of kindness, while the other half did it because they hated the fact that children had to become adventurers. The adults nearby would mostly helped him out. The guild was crowded, so much so that he wanted to avoid being at the guild in the mornings. It was fine when he was taking a course, but he couldn’t avoid the guild when he wanted to take a request.

Anyway, time for work. Shiu moved closer to where the rank 10 requests were posted and found that there was space. I wonder why, he thought and moved to look at the requests.

“Should I take this one and that one?”

One was searching for a lost dog and the other garden cleaning.

There was another request for repairing the outer wall but Shiu couldn’t take it because he wasn’t an adult. Perhaps this request required strength and endurance.

Shiu brought the requests to the counter and was asked, “Can you handle both requests at the same time?”

“Yes, looking for lost dogs is a normal request and I can finish cleaning the garden in the morning.”

“Well Only a few people take these requests, so it would be a great help if you did.”

“Mhm, what do you mean by only a few people?” There were only a few people near the rank 10 request board.

The receptionist smiled wryly and nodded. “Everyone starts at rank 10 when they enter the guild, right? It depends on the quest, but adventurers can take quests from up to two ranks above or below their rank. Adventurers normally take quests up to two rank above their own and as a general rule they don’t take requests lower than theirs unless they were injured.” Shiu knew this and nodded.

“Did you take the beginner’s course? Okay then, the main point is that everyone wants to raise their rank as fast as they can, so they don’t take requests at their rank. They only take requests that are above their rank. Also, they didn’t like to do jobs that weren’t very adventurer-like. They’re so particular about it!” I see. Shiu nodded in understanding.

“But, you know, the guild also receives labour requests and all those requests require endurance. The Civil Guild and Architecture Guild can arrange artisans for jobs, but the kingdom took care of public work in the first place and merchants mostly hired people for professional jobs. That’s why small, general jobs are brought to the Adventurer’s Guild. But the adventurers hate it. The only ones who take such requests are those who have been injured and aren’t in their regular condition or those who want to earn extra money because they have spare time. So, there aren’t many kids who are trainee adventurers like you ,” she spoke all at once and took a breath, ” who would take the requests”.

“Really?”

“There are some trainee adventurers in the branches even at the Royal Capital, but this is the central district, right? There aren’t many children who must become trainee adventures in order to survive.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Children who became trainee adventurers were those with no parents. There were orphanages at the Royal Capital and a lot of children could attend school. In other words, it was fine even if they didn’t have to work.

“That’s why, it would be a great help if you took that request.”

“Well then, I’ll keep doing my best and do the rank 10 requests,” he saluted and left the guild. The receptionist sent him off with a smile.

The garden cleaning request was in the courtyard at the back of a large store and Shiu finished it without any problems. He had finished quickly because he had confirmed with the butler, who had guided him to the courtyard, if it was alright to use magic. The butler was surprised when Shiu first asked him if he could use magic, but he answered immediately. The butler took this opportunity to ask Shiu to cut the overgrown tree branches. He had also done this with magic. They had given up on the overgrown branches because it was impossible task for the kind of people who usually took garden cleaning requests.

The butler came to check up on him while he was working.

“Oh my, I didn’t think you would be able to clean it up this fast.” Shiu was happy that he was praised. The butler asked the maid to bring Shiu some snacks and a drink and asked him, “There’s also a lot of mud in the pond. I thought about putting a request for that too, but could you do it? If you can, then I’d like to request you for the job.”

“Ah, I can. Mm, should I do it now since I’m already here?”

“Huh? No. I was thinking of submitting another request for that.”

“Mhm, I can finish it quickly. It’d be a waste of time for you to go all the way to the guild” Shiu was incoherent but the butler understood him. The butler gazed at Shiu and then nodded happily, “Then, please do. I’ll pay the additional charges, of course.”

“Ah, yes. Then I’ll do it now. Is there anything I should be careful of?”

“Let’s see, there’s no fish in the pond right now so it should be fine.”

Shiu made sure that the mud was disposed of and then he used magic to clean the bottom of the pond. He also drained the water a few times and cleaned the filtering equipment, so it was sparkling clean at the end.

Around the time he’d finished cleaning, the maid had brought him a drink and some snacks. She also brought goat milk for Feles, who sat happily on top of Shiu’s head.

“My!”

“Thank you.”

“It’s fine, he’s very cute.” The maid wanted to touch Feles, but she said, “I have work to do”, and left.

Shiu and Feles took a small break before he told the butler that he had finished. “You work fast,” he was surprised and smiled, then he signed the request form. The butler also wrote an additional request form, so Shiu went to the guild and submitted it.

Next he had to search for a dog. If he had taming magic then he could search for animals and understand what they are saying, so it would be fine. Or he could use CALL. Both were impossible unless his level was high and Shiu didn’t have those magic skills. He still hadn’t worked out how to combine his magic to produce them.

Shiu went to the park that he had seen before while thinking about what he should do.

“It’s a bit early, but shall we have lunch?”

He picked up Feles off of his head and placed him down on the lawn. He also put his rucksack down and took his lunch out. He’d managed to buy Shayn Kingdom ingredients from Ana, so he had been making a lot of Japanese-style meals lately.

“I like food stalls, but my own home made onigiri is the best after all.” He gave Feles an omelette. He thought it was still a bit early for rice, so he tried to make an omelette. However, Feles was probably still full from the goat milk and he didn’t eat much.

“Are you sleepy?”

“Nyii.”

Feles laid down on the lawn and fell slept. Feles ate a lot, played a lot and slept a lot. Shiu watched Feles’ cute figure while smiling and ate his onigiri.

“I want to eat sea fish. I also want to make bonito flakes. It’s such a shame that I can’t make dashi”

There was a fish that resembled bonito fish in Shayn Kingdom, and according to Ana, they also had dashi. However, she didn’t have any connections in the fishing industry, so she couldn’t import them here. He did put in an order for it anyway, but he didn’t know when she could get some.

Shiu hadn’t craved Japanese food before this, but he since he had seen the rice, he’d wanted to eat it. He wanted to eat it because it existed here. It was the way of humans. He thought deeply about this and finished eating, then it got noisy.

He looked towards the noise and saw a little girl being surrounded by men. The little girl (she might not have been female) had white skin and hair. She stood out a lot. Her clothes were also white, so she was completely covered in white.

He stared at them and heard the girl say, “Cut it out,” so Shiu jumped in to help her. The adults in the vicinity pretended not to see anything and most had ran away.

He confirmed that it wasn’t something pressing, then put everything into his rucksack and put the sleeping Feles at the top of his rucksack.

He concluded that the men were nobles from the way the people rushed away. They wore gorgeous clothes with lace and frills, something that commoners couldn’t afford. Because of that Shiu understood why no one was coming to her rescue. He called out to the men who resembled profligate sons, “Hello.”

He thought that greetings were important.

Translator: Blushy