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There are four main occupations that most members of the mercenary guild fall under.

The first is the warrior. As someone who serves as the shield and blade of the guild, this one is probably the most symbolic of what the mercenary guild does. With my eyes, I can see even more detailed subcategories of warriors, such as swordsmen or fighters, but usually these are decided by their individual skill sets.

Next up is the hunter. These mercenaries are the ones that place more importance on hunting monsters than human communication. Most of their commissions involve monster subjugation or herb collection.

The remaining two categories are the tamers and the adventurers. Tamers are people who make a living out of taming and using monsters under their control. Unlike summoners from the mage guild, these people form strong master-servant relationships with their monsters. Adventurers, on the other hand, are a wide range of people who prefer to wander the world rather than staying in one place. The requirements to become one are quite strict, but those who are able to become adventurers are permitted entry into almost any country by the guild—even if they aren’t in the middle of fulfilling a commission.

The more a guild member accepts commissions to subjugate and capture monsters, or guard caravans of traveling merchants, the more their rank increases. A higher rank means they can accept a greater variety of commissions, and the cycle repeats itself. If a mercenary continues to complete commissions, they are even eligible to receive a reward when they retire either due to age or injury. The amount even scales with their contributions.

So why…

“So why isn’t anyone working…?”

The guild’s branch office is at full capacity, just as always. The dining hall on the second floor is also fully seated, and a sign hangs from the door to show that. That one is probably occupied by members of the merchant guild, or people taking a break from work.

In the first place, where do these guys even get the money to eat and drink all day…? Last I checked, this world didn’t have the concept of consumer credit.

As I pondered this mystery, two women walked into the guild office from the front entrance. One human girl and a tiger-like beastman.

This isn’t a human supremacist country like the Holy Raihand Empire, so the combination wasn’t all that odd. What made them an odd pair was the fact that they were both women.

That said, both of their levels, attributes, and skills were stronger than an average man’s, so at the least, they didn’t seem to need any extra attention.

Perhaps surprised by the guild’s liveliness, the two women just stood at the entrance, eyes wide open at the dining hall’s bustle.

“Welcome to the guild.”

I call out to the pair, shaking them out of their daze before they started heading over to the counter. Our customers don’t really work, but they aren’t the kind of people to peer pressure some girls they’ve barely met. And if by some chance someone does, I’ll throw them out and ban them from the guild for two, three days.

Then, they’ll probably come crawling back, promising not to do it again if I would just let them back into the guild… You know, last I checked, we don’t put any narcotics in our cooking… odd.

Well, that, and we have plenty of female customers too. There isn’t much to worry about in the guild office of the peaceful city of Luneville.

“This place is just booming, isn’t it?” says the beastman girl, still trying to get over her surprise. Her ears twitch left to right, maybe because she’s still wary of her surroundings.
“Yes, thankfully. Are the two of you in the middle of fulfilling a commission?”

There are generally two main reasons for new faces to show up at the branch office. The first is to make some money for the road and the second is to gather information for a commission that they are in the process of completing. Originally, the reason why guilds usually have space to relax in is so that people like them can exchange information.

“No, we were actually recommended by the guild in Fort Balta to come here.”
“They said that if we’re looking for a place to stay, Luneville would be a lot better than Harville or Pineaville.”

Slightly west of here is Pineaville, a port city that stands close to the border between the Rondoville and Acradist kingdoms. The city sports a booming fishing industry and a bustling port for transporting goods. However, it’s a well-known fact that public order seems to be just as bad as the city is prosperous.

Harville is the post town built on the main road that connects Pineaville to the capital. Because it is a popular stop for people from the Acradist Kingdom or Pineaville, lodging and dining fees are usually on the higher side.

On the other hand, Luneville doesn’t have burglars or slums. The guild handles most of the food, and since we buy our ingredients in bulk, meals are just as cheap as the lodging.

“‘Tis yer first time here?”
“Welcome to Luneville, yeah?”

The pair of women tensed slightly at their words of welcome, but the pair of drunkards simply left their counter seats to join some of their friends at the tables. After the women shared an odd look, I prompted them to take a seat.

“Have the two of you already decided on where you’re going to stay for the night?”
“No, we thought we would get some food first. The soldiers from the fort said that the food here is a must-try.”

Guessing from their lowered stamina and mental attributes, the two of them probably skipped lunch in order to make it here.

“Well, I do hope our cooking can meet your expectations… Elize!”

Shortly after I call her name, a young beastman girl wearing the same clothes as I am runs up to the counter. Her ears, which sit on top of her amber hair, are tipped with tufts of white fur. A fluffy fox’s tail pokes out from the back of her outfit.

“Yes, Illya? Ah, welcome to the guild. I’ll bring the menu in just a moment, okay?” having noticed the pair of new faces, Elize immediately notices why I called her over.

The two women are each handed a menu, and start flipping through what we have to offer. As they flip further through the menu, the wider their eyes seem to open.

I guess anyone would be surprised. I used my cheat skills to translate the menu into the languages of almost every single race. What’s more, I’ve also written down the physical effects of everything on the menu. Foods that help you relax will increase your mental attributes, and foods that help digestion will reduce the amount of time your physical attributes are negatively affected. That kind of stuff.

“Alright. I am running a bit low on money. Guess it’s time to do some work.”

While the pair worry over what to order, a couple of people sitting around a table begin to leave their seats after paying their bill. Among them, a man and a woman were holding swords, another man had a bow, and the last woman held a spear. …All of them were members of the mercenary guild.

“Illya, we’d like to take this one.” said one of them, as they handed me a commission paper. It’s one for monster subjugation.

“Understood.”

I take both the commission paper and their guild registration cards and begin to process the documents.

“Pabel, why don’t we go for something easier?”
“Whoa there, you know the Rondoboar we took care of last time? This one’s weaker than that guy. Yeah, sure, there’ll be a lot of them but it’ll be easy. Right, Illya?”

Taking a closer look at the commission paper, the subjugation target seems to be a Lauloa Boar. The Lauloa Boar is a huge boar that lives all over the continent. Much like the swordsman named Pabel pointed out, it is the weaker cousin of the Rondoville Boar in terms of both strength and skills.

The commission only wants around ten of them defeated, which means rather than the monsters causing anyone harm, it is probably in preparation for the coming harvest season. By shaving down their numbers a bit, it might reduce the chance of any of them leaving the mountains.

Ten, huh?

“I’m sure you’ll be fine. As long as you take them on one by one, and make sure not to get surrounded, your friend here should be right.”
“See?”
“However, it is just the end of their second breeding season, so do avoid chasing them too far. In order to protect their offspring, even the ones you aren’t attacking might get enraged and retaliate.”
“Ah, seriously…? Gotcha…”

Once they’re enraged, those guys will chase you forever. I finish processing the commission while we talk. The archer… Javier, apparently has a detection skill. The guy is not as weak as he is a coward.

“As long as Javier here makes sure to be aware of your surroundings, I’m sure there will be no problem at all. Alright, here’s your registration cards.”
“Ah, alright! Understood!”
“Subjugating any monsters outside of the designated region will not count towards the completion of the commission, so please be careful… I wish you all the best of luck.”
“Yeah, okay! Then seeya Illya. I’ll be back to eat after we’re done with the job!”
“I will be looking forward to it, Orietta.”

I take a slight bow, and send off the party of four. Then, I face the two women who were staring at me the entire time.

“Have the two of you decided on your order?”

“Ah, no…” the human girl says, slightly embarrassed. The beastman girl next to her also makes a bashful smile.

“It’s just, it’s our first time seeing an elf, and I guess you guys really are just as beautiful as the rumors say.”

It is true that most elves have high values for the Charm sub-attribute, regardless of how they look. A lot of us also have charm-related skills, like “Alluring Smile” which the Sage of the Lone Island uses.

“And you handle everyone so politely… Erivilla, want to stay here for a while?”
“You know I do, but…” the beastman named Erivilla says, looking over at the display board for commissions.

It’s easy to guess what she’s thinking. The land surrounding Luneville is pretty peaceful, so if they were to make this their base of operations, they would have to travel pretty far to complete commissions.

“Yeah, okay, but if that’s what you’re worried about, we can just take commissions with higher rewards like the party that just left.”
“Ah… yeah…” Erivilla muttered in response.

We’re probably thinking the exact same thing, but neither of us put it into words. That’s probably the exact reason why most of the people here don’t look like they work at all. Well… I guess everyone has different motivations for working. As long as you’re not leeching off of your wife’s salary, whatever.

Erivilla opens her mouth to speak again, this time, facing me.

“Ah, um… Illya, right? Anyways, I guess that means we’ll be in your care for a while.”
“My name is Katia, and this is Erivilla.”
“Katia and Erivilla, yes? I hope I can be of use to you.”

After that, I heard all sorts of things from the girls. They talked about the rumored ice dragon sighting in the northeastern regions of Acradist kingdom, or about the arena in the Orbwight kingdom that was closed because people were being paid to lose. Stuff like that.

Because it was partially the guild’s fault, I read about the arena scandal in reports, but I had never heard about the general public’s opinion about it. Hearing what they had to say about it was pretty interesting.

As for the ice dragon, it is a monster on a completely different scale compared to the Tyrant Spider that visited Luneville. The Tyrant Spider is a disaster class monster, but ice dragons are considered calamity class as well as divine beasts. After all, they even manipulate the weather to cause heavy snow to fall. Depending on the time of the year, just their effect on the weather can ruin the harvest season, possibly taking hundreds of lives. Which is why I’m a bit hesitant about just leaving it be.

Clairvoyance, Mind-Reading, Ears of the Abyss¹, Precognitive Dream, and Memories of the Stars. With these five skills, I’m able to know everything from the past, present, and future, but using them is difficult.

If I slip up and say something I should have no way of knowing, people will start to doubt me, and my job will only get harder—which kind of defeats the point of knowing it in the first place.

That’s why, until I get any more information, I’m putting the case on hold.

Also, if people from the surrounding cities keep coming to Luneville, we might need to make even more additions to the guild office. And with that thought, I fell right to sleep.

1. TL Note: TL note: Ears of the Abyss just comes from a direct translation of 地獄耳, which in Japanese means to listen into other’s secrets, or never forgetting what one has heard. I chose to do this because I felt like there was no good way to really translate the phrase.
   Robinxen: As Editor I propose the alternative Walls Have Ears but I’ll let the readers decide which they like more.