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There were actually two conditions for a recommendation.

It was to have a match with the guild member who was qualified to act as an examiner, or present an achievement that would serve as your qualification.

The former was quite self-explanatory, while in the latter’s case, for example, you’d have to hunt a monster if you were applying to the Mercenary Guild, or maybe achieve something impressive in the tournament.

To add more, the recommendation doesn’t have to only be from a guild staff that had the exam results, but it would even come from B rank and above guild members belonging to the guild you were applying to.

But that was quite hard to obtain too.

Since they were already members of a guild they were well aware of the bad and harsh experiences that came with it. There weren’t many who would want to put children through such experiences.

At any rate, the two decided to choose the most-accessible exam method.

“Let’s do the exam then.”
“R-Right!”
“Yay!”

I felt some feelings of guilt when I saw their hopeful expressions.

“Give me a bit then. I’ll go call someone to take over it.”
“Huh, you’re not the one doing it, big sis?!”
“Sorry, but I still have to work at the reception so I can’t.

It wouldn’t matter even if it was someone else, but they were clearly dejected by it.

Did I appear gentle to them or something? I feel bad for saying this myself, but I’m quite the villain inside, you know?

“Mr. Claude, please hold the exam.”
“Sure, gotcha. Who’s the applicant?”

I showed the kids to Claude, who came out of the office, and he blinked his eyes.

“Err… these kids?”
“Yes. Please take care of them.”
““Please!””

He was surprised at first, but seeing their behavior he returned to his usual smiling self.

“Gotcha. Come with me, then.”

The three of them headed to the courtyard.

Normally they would choose wooden specialized weapons, but those kids didn’t seem to have trained in any specific weapon, so they would probably settle with the wooden swords.

If that’s the case, the outcome was already obvious.

“Illya. Please register this commission.”
“Understood. Then—”

Once I finished registering several commissions, the three came back from the courtyard.

The children’s eyes were congested, and the area around them and their noses were red most likely due to rubbing.

“How was it?”
“At this stage, it’s a definite no.”

As I thought.

The two’s status was honestly even below Luneville’s children’s.

If it was some girl who got attacked by the young guardian turtle of a Crystal Pillar, or maybe a boy raised by the wolves of the wild, they might even go overboard and defeat the examiner adult… but these kids were nowhere near that level.

“Ugh…”
“Sob, hic…”

Oh dear, they started crying again. Claude was shrugging with a troubled expression too.

“Why do you two want to become hunters?”

I wiped off their tears with a soft handkerchief while patting their heads. They raised their faces a bit with my question.

“…W-we wewe…”
“Frustrated… Hic!”

According to their story, they were the sons of Bonnet, a merchant that carried the supplies here this time.

The older brother with the spiky hair who talked casually was called Karel.

The politer younger brother with the smooth hair was Rino.

It appeared that they were frustrated at their powerlessness that they could do nothing but flee and be protected, and started hating their father and his work for trying to make a profit even during these times.

And then, they came up with an idea to become a hunter like the guild members that saved them several times on their way here.

“Why not warriors?”
“I mean, warriors have to battle people too, right? We wanna protect people!”
“We want the power to fight the monsters.”

As they said, warriors would have to answer the call if their guild ordered them to fight people, or they would be penalized.

That said, there was always a loophole to take a different commission to dodge that order, so there wasn’t such a big difference between warriors and hunters that needed such deliberation.

There was no real difference in the work, but there were hardly any examiners that could give recommendations for hunters.

There were many misanthropists or monster haters among hunters. Not everyone was like them as shown by our members, but making them your goal wouldn’t be really good from the education standpoint.

Either way, there was nothing the two could do now that they had failed their exam.

“Mr. Claude, thank you very much.”
“…Thank you very much…”
“Thank you very much.”
“Not at all. Come again.”

The slightly mean yet cool big brother Claude went back to the office.

The children that were left behind were a little refreshed after venting their frustration, but their expressions were still clouded.

But well, putting it nicely they were quite childish, but putting it badly, they were a little too simplistic.

“You two, why don’t we go out for a bit later?”
““Huh?””

Once I was done with the reception duties, I headed to the first building of the branch’s diner along with Haku.

In the kitchen there, the staff was working even busily compared to the main building.

“A-Amazing…”
“Yeah…”

As the two were overwhelmed, a deliveryman passed by them holding a delivery basket.

“Let’s follow him for a bit.”
““…””

The two stared back at me, perhaps having trouble understanding my intentions.

But even so, they followed me silently as I started to walk.

The place we arrived at was a block of huts that were constructed in a hurry. It was the refugee district.

The children instinctively broke into a run and peeked into the hut where the deliveryman entered.

Inside the hut, elderly men and women had risen up from their blankets and accepted the meals.

“…Did you want us to see this?”

The children turned around and asked with frowns.

I don’t know what they were expecting, but this is what I wanted to show you, yes.

“Yes. Those people are all smiling right?”
“…They are too carefree. They don’t even know when they can go back.”
“Then let me ask you, why do you think they aren’t so pessimistic?”

The children looked up at me when I posed that question.

The older one had an expression that had ‘why are you asking the obvious’ written on it, while the younger one was puzzled.

“Do you even need to ask? They are just happy-go-lucky.”
“…Because there are people who defeated the ice dragon here…?”

I shook my head to deny their answers.

“A roof that shelters them from rain and blankets that saves them from the cold even in this season. And also, because they have food that can save them from starving.”
“But—!”
“Tell me, have you ever experienced losing any one of those?”

Karel closed his mouth and hung his head.

Their father was quite a big merchant. Not only did they have their daily necessities, but they were also most definitely protected inside the carriage on their journey here. The reason why they had a lower status compared to Luneville’s kids was that they never had to help their family.

“That’s not a bad thing. Rather, realizing their powerlessness and moving into action isn’t something that anyone can do. You can be proud of that.”

The happiness of being praised seemed to clash with their shame of having a blessed environment, giving them conflicted expressions.

“A question for you two. Where do you think the ingredients for that food or those blankets come from?”
“Well… Ah!”

Rino was about to answer but stopped in his tracks, while Karel who saw that realized something a beat later.

Yes. part of the supplies was carried here by their father.

There was no need to point that out. As long as they understood it, that should be enough for these two.

Thus, I just gave them a conclusion.

“I think defeating enemies isn’t the only way you can protect people.”

Everything had a good and a bad side to it. Looking only at one side would harm you yourself in the end.

Just like me who worked in a slave-driver company a long time ago! Though I guess I shouldn’t be one to say that, seeing how I didn’t even notice it to be one.

“But…”

Karel’s voice brought me back to my senses.

“I want to join the Mercenary Guild.”

I asked why, and he hung his head. After much hesitation… he raised it and answered.

“I mean, it’s cool.”

Give me back the time I wasted on this suspense. Rino next to him was exasperated at his brother’s honest-to-a-fault answer.

“Brother… You should’ve put it differently.”
“C-Come on, Rino! Are you gonna betray me here?!”
“Now now.”

They were a little ignorant of the world compared to the kids here, but children were probably better this way; it’s not like they were reincarnators, after all.

“Shall we go back to the branch for the time being?”

Like before, they didn’t understand why I asked that. But they figured there was a meaning to it and followed after me. We ended up holding hands for some reason, but there were no problems other than Haku being a little pouty.

You see, I didn’t count children as men, after all.