Abandoned Reincarnation

Chapter 27 – Rank up

It’s been a few days since the ogre subjugation.

Aria’s healing magic was quite effective, so my arm, which was broken in various places, had now been beautifully healed after only a few days. I no longer felt any pain while moving it.

There were still a few bruises here and there, but those too shall disappear soon.

That said, even if it was only for a few days, I was still very bored while lying in bed.

I think it would have been easier if it was just me and Aria the whole time, but quite a few people came to visit me and to invite me to a party as a way of showing sympathy.

They all said stuff about how it would be safer if we worked together as a group instead of by myself, and that it would be nice to have someone who could help me if I was in a pinch.

Well, I guess I was in a pinch while fighting three ogres by myself, but I think I wouldn’t have gotten hurt if it was just me and Aria there…

Those adventurers probably thought that this event would have changed my mind about the benefits of parties, but I turned all the invitations down regardless.

Some people came by just to say thank you though.

One of those people was the adventurer that I saved from being smashed by an ogre. He was incredibly grateful and even prostrated himself in front of me to say thanks… That was a bit too excessive.

But well, when nobody was visiting, I tried thinking about what other spells I could keep on activated constantly… However, I couldn’t think of anything that would be practical.

Detection magic was very convenient and easy to use, but something like Physical Reinforcement magic would consume too much magical power if used for long periods of time…

There just weren’t many options as far as spells that could be maintained throughout the whole day went…

I thought of stuff like deploying a magical barrier that functioned like a wall, or maybe illusion magic that could change my appearance, but… All of those consumed too much magical power.

I guess I’ll just have to keep on thinking on this until I arrive at a functional idea.

In any case, I was currently on the second floor of the guild’s building, for the guild master told me to enter a certain room here.

Differently from the first floor that had a tavern in it, this floor barely had any people in it.

In fact, the only people I saw all seemed to be guild employees.

Regardless of that, I moved along the hallway as instructed by the receptionist and knocked on the room at its end.

“Come in.” I heard a voice from inside.

After receiving permission, I opened the door and stepped into the room.

It was a fairly large room. It had many shelves lined up against the walls, and they were all filled with several stacks of documents.

There was also a desk at the back, and the person who called me was sitting behind it.

It was a bit funny to see such a big man sitting behind a pile of documents. It didn’t seem to suit him at all.

When Mr. Leon noticed that it was me who had entered, he put down the documents that he was holding and looked at me, “Welcome, Haku. Sorry for calling you all the way here.”

“Please don’t worry about that. I’m alright.” I replied.

I would normally get a bit nervous when receiving a direct summon from the guild master, but I can imagine what’s the topic of today’s conversation.

I haven’t received my reward from participating on the subjugation request, after all.

And coming to think of it, I wonder what happened to the ogres’ corpses. They were quite big and seemed to be quite dangerous too, so I imagine they’d be sold for a fairly good amount… It’s a shame that I couldn’t collect them.

“First things first, congratulations on your recovery. Are you alright now?” He asked me.

“Yes, thanks to your help.” I nodded.

The room that I rested in was apparently the guild’s infirmary.

It’s a place that injured people are brought to on request, and resident healers regularly check up on the patients that are resting there.

My injuries were quite severe, but as I received first aid healing magic as soon as I was hurt, I ended up not needing much help from their healers.

That said, one would normally need to pay for their stay in their infirmary once they were discharged, but… Because my injuries were caused due to the guild’s investigation of the situation not being through enough, I ended up not needing to pay for anything. I was quite grateful for that.

“Then, without further ado, here’s your reward for your participation in the subjugation request.” Mr. Leon handed me a large leather bag.

Once I picked it up, I noticed that it was bulky and heavy… Wait, I shouldn’t be receiving that much money from this request, should I?

If I recall correctly, the reward that Ms. Charlie told me about was of two small gold coins and six silver coins… But when I looked inside the bag handed to me, I saw a considerable number of normal-sized gold coins in it… What’s the meaning of this?

“Uhn… I think you might have given me a bit too much…” I commented.

“In addition to the reward you were promised for this subjugation, you will also receive the appropriate payment for the bodies of the ogres you hunted.

“And just as the rumors said, you seem to be able to make very clean beheadings.” Mr. Leon replied.

An Ogre is a C-rank monster, so it seems to be rarer and more valuable than the monsters I usually hunt, which is why it is worth more than them.

Apparently, each ogre is worth ten gold coins… This is the first time I have ever seen actual normal-sized gold coins…

But what did he mean with rumors? I guess it’s true that I always behead the monsters I hunt, as that keeps the damage to a minimum and lets me sell them for a higher price, but… Did that lead to rumors starting to circulate or something?

“Well, thank you very much, then.” I gave him a small bow.

“Ah, one more thing, can you hand me your guild certificate for a bit?” Mr. Leon asked me.

My guild certificate? For what?

Well, I did as I was told, and then Mr. Leon took a crystal-like thing from his desk’s drawer and pressed it against my guild certificate.

… I feel like I’ve seen this crystal-like thing before? It’s similar to what Ms. Charlie used the other day…

The mysterious task was completed in just a few minutes, and then my guild certificate was returned to me.

However, its color had now changed from copper to gold, and my rank had also changed.

“We have recognized your capabilities as you were able to defeat two ogres single-handedly, so we have decided to move you up to C-rank.

“With this, you can call yourself a fully-fledged adventurer.” Mr. Leon told me.

“W-wait, I’m jumping to C-rank already? Isn’t this too sudden?” I couldn’t help asking.

I was just E-rank until just a while ago, and even that was an upgrade I only got right before accepting the subjugation request… And yet, I’m now C-rank…

I guess the ogres were really deemed as incredibly dangerous threats then… Still, this doesn’t seem to make much sense to me.

But well, I guess it’s good, since I can probably get requests that pay more money now that I’m C-rank.

“As you’re now a C-rank adventurer, I would like to ask you to refrain from accepting the permanent requests that the guild puts up, as this might take jobs away from new adventurers.” Mr. Leon told me next, ignoring my question.

Eh? That’s kind of a problem…

I mean, I guess that’s understandable now that my rank is high, but it’s still an issue… Like, I don’t mind taking on other requests, but… I can’t read.

I think Ms. Charlie will give me a suitable request if I ask her, but I can’t ask for her help every single time I need to take a new request…

Maybe it’s time for me to start studying the letters in earnest…

“I have high hopes for you. I am confident that you will do activities that are worthy of your rank.” Mr. Leon told me.

It seemed like he had finished saying everything he wanted to, because he went back to doing some paperwork.

The guild seems to have high expectations of me right now…

I didn’t really care about being promoted for as long as I could earn the money that I needed to make a living, but… Well, I guess I want to live up to their expectations.

Being needed by someone is nothing short of a blessing, after all.

So, I bowed down to Mr. Leon, and after he sent me off, I left his room.

For now, I guess I’ll accept a random request.

I would normally take the request to gather herbs and use the time in the forest to make potions, but I can’t do that anymore.

But at the same time, I didn’t use even a single potion during the subjugation request, so I still have some stock on me.

So, right now, what I want to do isn’t making new potions, but actually do research instead.

And on the matter of researching, I would also like to do some more research on spells that I can keep activated constantly… Surprisingly, there are a lot of things that I want to do.

But well, I just recovered from being bedridden, so I think I’ll just take a light request, then do some research while at the inn. It will be safer to do it there than to do it outside.

“Oh, little one! You’re back!” I heard a man exclaim.

I had just gone down the stairs to the first floor, and was planning on talking to Ms. Charlie, but… This man suddenly called me from the tavern.

When I looked his way, I saw that it was Mr. Roland, and he was drinking together with some other men.

“You look good. Did you recover from your injuries?” Mr. Roland asked me.

“Yes. Thank you for your concern.” I replied.

Mr. Roland seemed to be in a good mood… Probably because he was drinking.

As for the other men, they seemed to be alternating their gaze between me and Mr. Roland, and they seemed to be quite surprised about something.

“Roland, could this child be…?” One of them asked.

“Yep. She’s the one who stood up to ogres without crying or running away.” Mr. Roland nodded.

“Such a small child faced ogres…” One of the men commented.

“Unbelievable…” Another man commented.

Were they talking about me? It seemed like they were on the topic of the subjugation request.

Well, I guess most people wouldn’t believe me if I told them that I had killed ogres… And now that I think about it, I guess guild master Leon also had a hard time believing it at first.

But just as I thought that, Mr. Roland patted me in the shoulder, ignoring the people who raised their doubts.

… His shoulder pats hurt. He was putting too much strength into this.

“I like people who look forward without letting fear overtake them. Why don’t you party up with me?” Mr. Roland started laughing out loud and then started pulling me by the shoulder.

“No, I…” I started trying to reply.

“Hey! What are you doing to Haku, you drunkard!” I suddenly heard a shout ring out from the guild’s entrance.

I was just trying to figure out what I should do about Mr. Roland who was pulling me without paying any attention to my words, but…

When I turned towards the guild’s entrance, I saw that woman with fiery red hair, a slender physique, a thin sword, and a dignified voice that was worthy of somebody who could defeat an ogre.

Ms. Lily was there, and I could also see Sonia a bit behind her.

All eyes turned to her, and she quickly approached us, then rescued me from Mr. Roland’s grasp.

“Haku is still recovering from her wounds, so don’t be too rough with her!” Ms. Lily exclaimed.

“Come on, I was just talking to her a bit.” Mr. Roland gulped down a drink, then glared at Ms. Lily.

He felt a bit childish right now. It was quite different from the imposing presence that he had during the subjugation request.

I was honestly impressed that he could look like that.

And while I was staring at him, Ms. Lily gently patted my shoulder and kept on asking if I was alright.

I wasn’t attacked nor injured though… So, to try easing her worries, I smiled at her.

However… It felt like my facial muscles didn’t move like I wanted them to, so my smile was a bit strained… Still, it probably got my point across.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t smiled much since I realized I had reincarnated, have I?

I also don’t think I was scared or ecstatic when I first defeated a monster… Or rather, even when I subjugated an ogre, my expression remained fairly neutral, hasn’t it?

Is this just how ‘Haku’ was originally like? I don’t think this is particularly troublesome, so I guess it’s fine if I remain as is.

Maybe it’s actually a good thing that I don’t show my feelings on my face much.

“You can hardly control your strength. What if you hurt her with those stupid muscles of yours?” Ms. Lily asked Mr. Roland.

“You’re so annoying. Anyone that gets hurt from this little cannot be called an adventurer.” Mr. Roland replied.

“People are different, alright? Haku is way too small, so you have to be careful!” Ms. Lily exclaimed.

“Alright, alright, I get it, I get it. I won’t do that again.” Mr. Roland grumbled.

Then, he got up from his seat, with a drink in one hand, and stroke my head with the other.

It was a rough, hard hand, as expected of an adventurer, but… I felt a bit happy from having my head stroked like that. I couldn’t help squinting my eyes at that, even.

“Well, I hope we can party up again at some point.” Mr. Roland told me.

“Yes. Let’s.” I replied.

It’s a pity that I couldn’t enjoy the stroking for long, because Ms. Lily quickly pushed his hand away.

So, I bowed my head in gratitude to him as I watched him leave while waving to me.