| Author: Natsuni Kotatsu | Original Source: Syosetu | Japanese Characters: 3529 characters |
| Translator: Shurim | English Source: Re:Library | English Words: 1934 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
I responded to Ria, who had poked her head out from the office behind the reception counter. She’s a cat beastman, but other than the ears on the top of her head and the tail poking out from her behind, she looks just like any normal pretty human girl. Her black hair is shoulder length, and comes down in cute, wavy curls. I just want to pull her into a hug and cuddle her.
“Ridi is going to be number 5, so can you help out in the kitchen?”
“Got it.”
Number 5 means they’re clocking out for the day. Number 7 means they’re using the toilet, and number 10 means we’ve got a criminal in our hands.
Ridi used to be the proprietress of one of the restaurants in Luneville. Now that she’s working in the guild, she still takes care of the same menu. Well, mostly the same. I did add some flavor using my appraisal and compounding skills.
I head towards the kitchen, leaving the reception counter to Ria.
“Illya’s going to the kitchen!?”
“Heard that, ya b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲!?”
“Damn right we did!”
A roar of joy could be heard from behind me, but I ignore it. After changing into a clean apron, I enter the kitchen to see Ridi.
“Thank you for your hard work today,” I say.
“Oh, jeez, you. I’m the one being hired, you know?” Ridi replies, with a lighthearted laugh. Some of the other people working in the kitchen also laugh, listening to the exchange.
“You don’t have to be so polite with us all the time, yeah?” Ridi added.
“We’re the ones who should be thanking you!”
“That couldn’t be any truer! We would have gone out of business with or without you!”
A roar of laughter rises throughout the kitchen. With it, a warm feeling spreads outwards from my heart.
“Illya, an order!”
“Ah, coming!”
One of the waitresses calls from the hallway, her strained voice reaching the kitchen. In a bit of a hurry, I run to my station. I’m in charge of roasting certain foods. Thanks to my appraisal skill, even the most delicate of adjustments in heat become easy. Adding the right amount of spices and flavor also becomes a walk in the park.
“Illya looks so much livelier in the kitchen than at the counter!”
“She really does like cooking.”
The ladies make idle conversation while they continue to cook. I really am no match when it comes to experience.
“Yeah, well, when you’re surrounded by men like that, I guess you can’t be bothered to keep up appearances anymore!”
“Ahahaha! You’re not wrong!”
Completely agree. What’s the point of making myself look nice to those guys? If anything, I want to flirt with Ria! Not that I can, though. It’s 4 hours playing with fire for me.
“Chocolate Banana Parfait, done!”
“Got it!”
“…it’s over!”
The dining hall’s operating hours are over, and now we shift over to serving mostly snacks and lighter foods. The ladies also need time for their own lives, so we start asking people to finish up about an hour before the last order.
Physically, most of us are okay, but the work is mentally tiring. It makes me shudder to think that everything would have been in a foreign language if I didn’t have the translation skill.
“Illya, good work.”
“Ah, thanks.”
Frank, the man who greeted me, takes care of the night shift. He has nice features—a set of blue eyes and a head of brown hair—that make him look quite approachable. The man almost always wears a gentle smile. Appearance-wise, he seems like everyone’s kind, older brother.
Everyone seems to think that Frank is the type of guy who couldn’t even hurt a fly, but I refuse to be deceived. I mean, he is the guildmaster for a reason. Plus, level-wise, he’s stronger than even the royal knights. To put the icing on the cake, I heard he was one of the main reasons why the thief guild no longer exists in Luneville.
“So, will you be clocking out now?” Frank asks.
“No, there are still some things I would like to prepare for tomorrow.”
I still have this man to owe for hiring me, so I do my best to treat him with due respect.
“I see. Thank you as always.”
“It’s nothing…”
Thank you. A pang of guilt always hits me whenever I hear those words.
Status: Charm = 9999
Even if it is a sub-attribute, it is, at the end of the day, an attribute, so the number can go up if you work hard enough. Skills like Mesmerizing Eye or Mesmerizing Mole1 generate attribute bonuses along with the effects of the skill.
But, normally, the upper limit of a sub-attribute is 99. I don’t even know what to say at that number. 9999? What is this, Final Fantasy?
That number isn’t just for show. As an effect of that attribute:
Constantly Active・Intensity: S・Ignores Resistances
Everything that the user sees, is seen by the user, hears the user’s voice or [abbreviated for brevity] will receive the level 10 effects of charm skills like the Mesmerizing Eye, Mole, and voice skills.
It’s basically a curse at this point! Which is why…
Unique skill: God-King’s Barrier, Skill Level: 10
Effect: Renders all physical attacks, magic, spiritual magic, primordial magic, holy magic, curses, and effects of skills ineffective for both the user and others within the barrier. All forms of abnormal statuses, state changes, and mental interference are rendered ineffective. MP expenditure = 999/sec
999 MP per second, you know!? A level-capped monster would only be able to keep this barrier up for ten seconds! And I have to keep it up at all times? What kind of cruel joke is this?
I never would have thought there was a point to having an ability that renders both yourself and your enemies useless. In my past life, they were completely useless in RPGs! And now I’ve used it so much that I can make one the shape of my own body!
Of course, the issue now is my MP. Well, a non-issue. My MP is displayed as a number over 99,999,999, the rest of it unable to be measured by the system. That, and this—
Skill: Magical Recovery, Skill Level 99
Effect: 99% of the user’s MP is recovered every second. The skill is constantly active, regardless of status. Cannot be deactivated.
—makes everything run as smooth as butter! Well, it does work, but I don’t actually know the upper limit of my own MP, so I was a little bit uneasy in the beginning. Eyes of God doesn’t display recovery rates either, so it’s not like I can calculate the number. Is it really too much to ask to put a number down?
Back to the present.
Even if I use a skill in order to suppress the effects of my own attributes, I can’t help but worry that a little bit of charm leaks out every time I talk or look at someone. It’s almost like I’m cheating or something. Well, worst-case scenario, there’s no way I’m getting fired.
“Illya?”
“Hm?”
Before I could notice, Frank was looking at me, a worried expression on his face.
“Are you alright?”
“Ah, excuse me. I was just thinking about something.”
Preparations, preparations! The thought of miso and soy sauce… makes me pretty nostalgic. I can’t do this in front of other people, but Frank knows that I can use the Alchemy and Compounding skills, so I can replenish our stock as I like.
To be completely honest, I’m also using space-time magic, a type of primordial magic, to speed up the fermentation, but it was more convenient for Frank to think it’s just part of the alchemy. Primordial magic remains unexplained by modern mages, and apparently there are only two people in the world known to use it. Plus, space-time magic is apparently strictly forbidden.
I’d like to make as little trouble as I can, but although I did actually request miso, soy sauce, vinegar and sake from the agricultural guild, they have yet to come out with results.
“And it’s… done.”
I also restocked the guild with pudding, tiramisu, creme d’Angers, and some other desserts. All I have to do now is keep them cool, and we can serve them tomorrow. The meats, vegetables, cakes, and tarts are prepared in the mornings, so those should be fine.
“Guildmaster, I’ll be going, then.”
“Alright, take care.”
I’m glad he isn’t the kind of boss that expects his employees to work just as long as he does. The words “What, you think you can just leave while I work my butt off?” have never come out of his mouth.
The room on the third floor is my private quarters. Before renovations were made to the building, I used one of the rooms reserved for people on night shifts as my sleeping quarters. The guildmaster eventually decided he couldn’t let me use such a shabby living space, and almost forced me to use the splendid third-floor room. It even has a private restroom and bathtub attached.
By the way, the only other rooms on the third floor are the guildmaster’s own quarters, his office, drawing room, and a small library. Three-fourths of the second floor make up a dining hall, and the rest are individual rooms. The first floor holds the guild’s office, dressing room, kitchen, and a waiting room that also serves as another dining hall.
Among guild headquarters, the building is on the larger side, and among branch offices, it is one of the biggest. The saddest part of it is that our size is compensated mostly by the scale of our dining halls, not the guild offices.
The mercenary guild is, in contrast, much quieter. Our trading guild doesn’t have anything special to sell, and there aren’t any major waterways, ocean ports, or highways that pass through the city. The mage guild might be a bit more active if they had something to research or more magical resources. Our industrial guild doesn’t really have any mines or natural resources they can work with. The agricultural guild is, well, what you would expect of one. There isn’t much in the ways of unique produce, but they are currently working with the selective breeding of rice. The thief guild has been disbanded. And that’s totally fine the way it is.
Thieves, huh…
”I guess having the Eyes of God isn’t just all sunshine and rainbows either…”
I sink my body into the soft mattress, rubbing my eyes as I lie down. The jobs, or classes, that the Eyes of God display are really just sort of titles given to someone based on their skills, so it doesn’t always match the actual person’s occupation.
Someone who obtains the Pain Resistance and the Fatigue Neutralization skills at level 7 are given the title of Berserker. The person I met with this title was a gentle older brother who sacrificed even his sleep in order to work to raise his younger sister. His physical strength was boosted by the title’s attribute bonus, and he was carrying his sister on his shoulders. It was a charming sight to see. It was also the moment I realized that these eyes aren’t always to be trusted. I even made the little sister cry.
I really do feel like I’ve been punished for cheating the system.
As someone who once hated how ordinary I was, I now have to pretend to be ordinary just to get by. How ironic.
