Shut-in Magician - Chapter 41

Chapter 041: Cleaning Up After the Festival

The guild received a ridiculous amount of work on the Fire Day after Birth Festival finished.

Emina had told him that he should rest, but since Bariado Tool Shop would be opened as usual, he thought that he should act as he usually did.

Now then, the ridiculous amount of work referred to the amount of rank 10 requests.

There were always lots of people around the bulletin boards even at noon, but today there were only several people standing there. There were only a few requests posted on the bulletin board, but that was because requests weren’t accepted during the festival period.

On the contrary, it seemed like there was a mountain of rank 10 quests.

“Ah, Shiu-kun! You’re here. That’s a relief!”

Chloe beckoned at him as he walked towards the reception desks, so he walked towards her instead. She was also working when the Birth Festival was going on, so she must have been really busy. She was doing her job properly today too.

“There aren’t much people here, are there?”

“They’re tired from the festival. They let loose too much. They do this every year.”

She smiled wryly and shrugged.

Shiu also agreed that adventurers were people with such natures.

“Anyway, what did you want me to do?”

“Ah, that’s right. You must be tired as well, but since you came that must mean you’re going to take on a request, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a bit sudden, but a lot of special requests came in after the Birth Festival finished. Most of the requests are for cleaning up. The requests are shared with the Merchant guild, but we still can’t handle them all.”

“Ah, I see……”

There were probably a lot of people lying around like corpses because of the festival. However, it was already Fire Day and people had to start working soon.

“I understand. I’ll try and finish  as fast as I can in order to complete  the large number of requests.”

“…… Ah, you’re seriously a great help. I’ll treat you to something next time!”

“No, it’s fine. This is work after all.”

“It’s fine. Children shouldn’t be too reserved. But, I am asking said child to do these  requests. I’m sorry.”

It’s fine, he shook his head and immediately got her to show him the requests.

There certainly were a lot of cleaning requests.

He divided the requests by places and content and decided to tackle them in order.

It was the same with Bariado Tool Shop, the shops didn’t just clean outside their storefronts but also around the vicinity as well. There was a lot of garbage left over from the festival this time and Shiu also got up early in the morning to clean.

The shops who hired special helpers like Shiu were probably doing alright, but those who tried to clean up with just their own staff struggled with the cleaning load. People were also exhausted regardless of whether their store participated in the Birth Festival or not. That was probably why they made special requests to the Guild.

“You’re really a great help!”

He was thanked many times and was happy and embarrassed at the same time.

All the stores thanked him.

There were requests from individuals, but they came from wealthy merchant houses. There were commoners who lived in the central district for a long time and also mid-class people, but only wealthy merchant houses faced the main street where all the rubbish piled up. The houses on those side streets that belonged to commoners probably didn’t have enough rubbish to put in a request at the guild.

Shiu finished 3 requests in the morning and 5 in the afternoon.

Chloe waved and called out to him when he got to the guild so he headed towards her counter.

“Good job. You already finished 8 today? You’re so amazing…….”

“It’s because I divided them up in content and district in the beginning.”

“You make plans and you’re rational. If other adventurers planned a tenth of what you did, then imagine how much……”

She sighed, it seemed like she remembered something.

Then she smiled at Shiu as if she’d just recovered.

“You’ll be taking cash like you always do?”

“Yes.”

“It’s you, so you probably take care of your money well, but be careful while managing it, okay?”

“I will.”

The guild encourages other adventurers to deposit as much money as they can, but that wasn’t the case with Shiu. Even now, they always told him to “be careful” probably because Shiu was a diligent person.

Conversely, Shiu understood how frivolous “normal” adventurers were.

“Will you come tomorrow too?”

“There are a lot of similar jobs this week, right? So, I’ll come early in the mornings. I think I’ll rest on the Wind and Light Days.”

“That’s great. Then I’ll sort the requests for you beforehand. I’ll leave it up to you tomorrow.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

They both bowed and lightly laughed before separating.

A lot of cleaning and tidying up requests were up at the guild the next day as well.

The cleaning of the streets were certainly finished, but the inside of stores were a complete mess because of the Birth Festival. There were a lot of stores that only cleaned their storehouses half-heartedly and there was a lot of work for him to do.

He suspended his study sessions with Emina and Aqela because he was extremely busy. They were also busy with cleaning.

He contacted Laetitia and her party to tell them that he would conduct their study session on Wind Day. Kiahi and Kirch had drank too much and were like corpses and Gladius was running around doing errands for Agricola. He’d heard that Emina had secured a smithy for them and all that was left was to collect materials. Laetitia was playing around at her own pace.

Shiu, who worked hard, was requested by several people.

People complimented him from the requests he’d done by saying, “He’s really polite and diligent so we’d like him to come back if the dates match up.” So, he decided to sort those requests by location and went when it was convenient.

The butler, at the merchant house where he was cleaning the courtyard, greeted him with a smile. He was asked to clean the warehouse here. He also checked the number of stocks available so that the store wouldn’t be troubled later on. He also did this at the other places he went to, and they were pretty surprised when he calculated things normally and reported the notes he’d written down.

“Can I see that for a bit?”

“Ah, yes. Sure.”

When he passed the memo over, the butler’s eyes quickly gazed up and down the memo, then he looked towards the warehouse and then back at Shiu. Since the butler was looking at him, he thought he’d miscalculated and got anxious.

“Mm…….” Shiu said puzzled and the butler quickly shook his head and smiled.

“No, nothing. Nothing’s wrong. Thanks. I didn’t think you’d do such a thorough job. I’m extremely thankful.”

Shiu was relieved and smiled.

“Well, at any rate there’s no mistake in your calculations. You also finished your work fast and tidied up carefully ―――.”

This is too good, the butler repeated many times and recommended that he take a little rest.

“Mm, but…”

“I’d heard that you’ll go to your next job if you finished early, but you also need to rest, don’t you? Him as well ―――,” the butler said and turned his gaze towards Feles. His gaze softened and he smiled.

Just then the maid appeared. She carried a silver tray with snacks on it. This was for Shiu and Feles.

Come to think of it, this house also treated Feles very well. Shiu remembered and smiled at them.

“Then, I’ll take you on your offer. Thank you very much.”

He sat down with his back towards the gazebo and passed Feles to the maid.

“Huh?”

“Go ahead. He’s used to people so it’ll be fine. I’ll clean up later.”

The maid looked extremely happy and also troubled as she turned to face the butler and the butler replied playfully, “Can I also play with him?”

Shiu and the maid faced each other and laughed.

“Of course.” He answered. He cast 《PURIFICATION》on himself before eating the snacks.

The maid gave the butler Feles and he basically melted at Feles’ appearance.

Shiu met an unexpected person on the fifth day that he was accepting work for cleaning.

It was Sofia. She was with an escort today as well.

Shiu had just finished a job and was on his way back to the guild. Sofia was also on her way home and she was wearing something that looked like a uniform. She quickly approached him when she noticed him.

Shiu had just finished talking with Darrell, who’d he met suddenly. He was reminiscing about the festival and couldn’t finish his conversation early. Well, he did make an effort to end it earlier. But he couldn’t end it in time and even though he’d used 《EVERY DIRECTION SEARCH》, it was useless.

“Wait, you! You never visited my house! What’s the meaning of this?!”

Ah, personalities weren’t something that changed easily. Shiu thought as he felt himself being pulled.

Sofia didn’t care that Shiu was troubled and talked with her usual shrill.

“You heard about me didn’t you? I also put in a request at the guild!”

“…… I’m sure I rejected those quests.”

“Huh? But that’s something the deputy butler did, it has nothing to do with me.”

It seemed that she’d replaced the memories of Zafiro warning her and completely forgot about it. Shiu was the victim and he wondered if it was strange for someone from the assailant’s side to say something like that. Even though 「forcing someone」was the cause of all this, she was still trying to「force」this.

He also couldn’t count on her guard. Shiu pondered and Feles woke up, probably noticing the commotion. He was sleeping wrapped around Shiu’s neck this whole time like a muffler.

“Myuu!”

Feles looked around him and purred many times. Something had caught his attention.

Sofia’s eyes were glued on Feles. Speaking of which, she cared a lot about beast mounts. The previous commotion was also caused because she’d thought that Shiu had Feles on exhibition. She has Ruco, so she probably likes beast mounts a lot.

It seemed that Feles recognised her as the enemy.

Translator: Blushy
Editor: HSM