https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5562hc/37/
Separate Actions
Me, Melia, and Dahlia searched for our three noble teammates, but it didn’t take long to find them hanging out near the bulletin board. We greeted them with a half-smile as we approached.
All three of them had huge bags at their side. Even though we haven’t talked about what we’re going to do today, I guess they decided they were heading to the suburbs.
“Uh- um…. are you heading to the suburbs? We’re weaker than the other teams, so I think it’d be better for us to stay in the capital….”
One of the nobles laughed at my question before giving an answer.
“There will be a round of greetings to the guilds who operate in my Father’s territory. Even if we stay in the capital, it will be just handling chores yes? Now, if we do not decide quickly what order to visit the guilds, we will end up missing the carriage.”
All three of our teammates apparently had some connections to some guilds. I’d wager a guess that even if they were to drop out of the competition now, they would know where they are going to end up.
I have to survive this first round though to spend more time with Lily. Rather than accept a monster slaying request only to do it slower than the other teams, I would much rather sell my face in the capital and garner more votes.
“I…. I would like to stay in the capital. It will be hard to hunt monsters with this group….”
“Aren’t you the one in the worst possible position to be saying that? Well….it won’t matter if you are there or not, so feel free to stay in the capital. Although it would be a problem if there is a rule that teams must stick together.”
I know I’m the least useful member of this team, but it is an objective fact that this team is weak. Just as I was wondering how to best tackle a situation like this though, Heath walked over with a wry smile.
“You seem troubled”
“You came just in time. We were thinking about taking on different jobs. Could you explain to us how points from our requests will be broken up if we were to do so?”
Heath nodded his head, seemingly have expected this kind of question to come up, and gave us an immediate answer.
“There are no rules against splitting up the party, however, monster subjugations were designed around teams of five completing them. It would be difficult to complete one with less members, but that is why the point gain from those quests is so high. Any team looking to subjugate monsters will be accompanied by an observer and will receive assistance from local guilds. Please bear in mind though that if the help given by those guilds exceeds a certain amount, you will not receive the full amount of points from the monster subjugation quest.”
It sounds like they are working to prevent any situations where a noble might use their connections to a guild to take a large number of monster subjugation quests and leave all the work to those guild members. That means it will be almost impossible for these three to get full points on any request they take. When your main goal isn’t to slay monsters but to greet the guilds there though, I guess that isn’t much of an issue.
After checking to see if there were any additional questions, Heath moved on to another group.
“Well then, Ms. Dancer will be staying in the capital correct? What about you two?”
“I will also stay in the capital. I like being with Lily-chan.”
“Then I’ll stay too. I don’t want to end up carrying all the baggage for three young ladies by myself.”
So Melia and Dahlia are going to stay with me. I figured Melia would, but I never thought Dahlia would go with us too.
“Understood. Then please serve the people of the nation well. Until we meet again, good luck to you.”
The three nobles left like that while pulling their luggage behind them. When I looked at the two teammates I had left, they were doing a poor job of hiding their frustration.
“Grr….what’s with them!? Acting like everything’s already been decided without even talking to anyone! So annoying.”
“Indeed. But I envy them. They already have guilds they will be able to join. I wonder why they bothered participating in the audition in the first place.”
“A feather in their cap probably. That’s all something like this is to a noble.”
Dahlia and Melia were hitting it off speaking ill of the girls who just left.
But I disagreed with them. As annoyed as I was at the time, Lily was right last night. We don’t know why they joined this competition, but there has to be some reason why they would decide to carry all that heavy luggage and work hard to slay those monsters.
Maybe there’s someone their parents want them to marry who they don’t like however they weren’t able to get a lot of points in the first stage, so they decided they couldn’t take the hero route. They also might not stack up to the other contestants in strength either, so they weren’t able to pull a patron and start their own guild. Now here they are, risking their lives to fight monsters just so they can join some other guild.
“For now, how about we check out the requests? If we have time to speak ill of others, we have time to move our bodies.”
“You’re reminding me of a certain silver-haired lady talking like that. Trying to emulate a certain someone?”
Dahlia laughed. I’m always hanging out with Lily, so maybe her way of speaking is rubbing off on me. Honestly though I’m just desperate to break through the first round.
“O-Of course not! I’m just doing what I have to in order to survive.”
“Right. Well….I had my arm broken too, so how about we call it even? That fine? Let’s struggle together this time, so we can leave this thing with no regrets.”
Dahlia bent the arm that was hanging in front of her a short while ago and held out her hand. I wonder if I should actually take it. With the way Heath described the rules to us, there’s no need for me to stick around Dahlia either.
But Dahlia is the only mage between the three of us. We’ll probably be able to earn more points by cooperating with her on requests than not. She’s not asking me to forgive her either. Just to struggle with her, and that alone will increase my chances of passing.
So, there’s no reason practically or emotionally to refuse her. When I shook Dahlia’s hand, she smiled and shook it back.
“Then let’s go. Shall we start with this?”
Dahlia was already taking charge. She is the oldest though, and neither me nor Melia have a real go-getter attitude, so I decided it’d be fine to let her have it.
After a quick glance over the bulletin board, Dahlia ripped down a piece of paper and beckoned the two of us over. Melia and I moved to either side of her and read the notice from around her arms.
“Repairing a shelf? Are you a carpenter Dahlia-san?”
Dahlia shook her head.
“Not at all. But the amount of points for all the quests in the capital are about the same, so I picked out one that sounded easy. We can finish it fast and take the next quest.”
Rather than that, I saw a quest on the board that would have us distributing flyers for a newly opened bakery that seemed like a better choice. This would’ve had us directly selling our faces to a large number of people after all.
Suddenly feeling a little uneasy about leaving this to Dahlia, the three of us headed to the client’s house.
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