Intermission: A Once-in-a-Century Talent

This is from the perspective of Leon, the Guild Master of the adventurer’s guild in the town of Karaba.

I continue to review documents, stamping them with the guild’s official seal or signing them as needed—it’s a lot of meticulous work.

This is a room in the Adventurers’ Guild in Karaba. As the Guild Master in a position to oversee adventurers, my life has changed drastically from when I was actively working as an adventurer; I’m often bogged down in administrative tasks like this.

Honestly, this is a real pain. I’d much rather be working out than doing this.

Although I no longer go on quests now that I hold the position of Guild Master, I have never neglected my training.

It’s fun to watch the stream of new adventurers joining one after another, but the reality is that many of them fall halfway through their journey, which is quite a complicated feeling for someone in a senior position.

We’ve tried various things to reduce such accidents, such as opening a reference room and providing basic combat instruction, but the results haven’t been very good.

The bell chimes, announcing noon. It’s time for a break.

“Excuse me.”

I put down my pen and started to relieve the stiffness in my body from staying in the same position for so long when one of the staff members entered the room.

Oh, that’s right, I haven’t received yesterday’s documents yet.

All events concerning the guild must be reported to the Guild Master.

Since she’s the receptionist, she’s probably reporting on the status of the adventurer’s requests from yesterday.

I lowered my body, which had started to stand up, back into the chair and urged her forward.

“This is the completion status of requests from the previous day, and a list of those who registered as adventurers.”

“Thank you.”

I took the documents from her and quickly skimmed through them.

I intend to reread them carefully later, but at first glance, it seems fine.

Only one person has become a new adventurer…

Her name is Haku. She’s an 11-year-old girl. Her address… it’s not written down. I wonder if there’s a reason for that.

Most people who register with the Adventurer’s Guild have some kind of personal issue, so as long as you adhere to the age limit and your name is known, that’s usually enough. Of course, filling out the form thoroughly increases your credibility.

“Um, Leon?”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

The receptionist who handed me the documents was mumbling, as if she wanted to say something.

That’s strange. She’s always been a reliable contributor to the guild, so I wonder if something went wrong.

Could it be a dispute between adventurers?

Since there’s a bar on the first floor, fights are commonplace, but if it gets too out of hand, we have to intervene. Most things are overlooked because it’s often due to being drunk, but in the worst-case scenario, we might have to expel them from the guild, which is a bit of a hassle.

“Well, this new girl we registered, she just doesn’t look 11 years old…”

“What?”

“She said she was 11 years old, but she looks about 7.”

“So, did you register her?”

“She said so herself, and I couldn’t really pry any further.”

Within the guild, there is an unwritten rule that one should not pry into other people’s pasts. This applies to the staff as well; even if someone is not registered as an adventurer, one should not easily pry into their past.

If the person claims to be that age, then even if they have misrepresented their age, there is technically no problem. This is because, once you register, you assume a certain degree of risk as your own responsibility.

But would such a young child really lie about their age to register as an adventurer? They haven’t even written down an address, so are they an orphan or something?

“Okay, I’ll keep a close eye on it.”

“Yes, please. For today, she has taken on the regular request to collect medicinal herbs.”

If they’re gathering medicinal herbs, that would be where Lars and the others are at this time of day. I hope they don’t get into a fight.

I dismissed the receptionist and thought about the adventurer girl.

I don’t want to pry into her affairs, but it would be unsettling if she took unnecessary risks and died prematurely.

I would like to help if possible, but it’s tough when we’re short-handed at a time like this.

Let’s take a break for now.

I stood up from my chair, tidied up the documents, and left the room.

For the past few days, I’ve been subtly observing that adventurer girl.

She had shoulder-length silver hair and was wearing tattered, rag-like clothes. The receptionist said she was about seven years old, but she might even be younger.

She had a very delicate body, and I felt like she would easily break if I accidentally bumped into her.

She appears calm for her age, always maintains a composed expression, and seems like a serious adventurer who quietly and diligently carries out the requests she receives.

She only accepted regular assignments and wasn’t the type to take on dangerous assignments just to show off.

However, she seems to be different from the norm in many ways.

The first thing that surprised me was that she has Storage.

The [Storage] skill is an incredibly useful skill that any adventurer would envy. Having this skill alone more than doubles the rate at which materials are returned to their original form.

Because it makes you quite efficient at carrying luggage, it’s highly valued by merchants and others.

And even more surprisingly, with each request, she would take out a monster’s corpse from her storage and sell it for money.

Although all the monsters were of low rank, they were in such pristine condition that almost all of their materials could be used as-is.

Normally, when you hunt a monster, it gets unnecessarily injured, which lowers its value, but the prey she brought back always had its head neatly severed.

It seems she’s ventured deep into the forest. While there are certainly many monsters there, I couldn’t have imagined such a young child hunting them so skillfully.

Moreover, despite bringing monsters back every time, the only requests she accepts are for gathering medicinal herbs. In other words, monster hunting is just a side activity, and she’s not going deep into the forest with the intention of hunting.

Moreover, she wasn’t injured at all. The way she calmly brought the items to the exchange counter, always maintaining the same expression, was almost frightening.

Before I knew it, she was secretly known as the “Head-Hunting Princess” among the adventurers.

She was named that because she always keeps the necks neatly trimmed. I think it’s a fitting name, but I wonder what she would think if she heard it.

Her amazing qualities don’t stop there.

One day, while drinking at the bar, the bartender told me that a little girl had come in selling medicine.

I couldn’t believe it, so I checked the description, and sure enough, it was her.

It seems she probably made it by imitating the low-level potions she bought here.

These days, there aren’t many artisans who can make potions by hand. If she really did make them, the Master, who rarely praises anyone, said she could make a living as an alchemist.

I thought I wouldn’t be surprised anymore, but the Ogre incident that happened the other day was the final straw.

An incident where a low-ranking party sent to hunt a horde of low-level monsters was attacked by Ogres.

An Ogre was a name I hadn’t heard around here once in the last few years. Moreover, there were five of them. I was certain that the party would, at the very least, take a massive blow.

However, looking at the results, the damage was only minor injuries. There was no damage to the town.

This was largely due to the contributions of the C-rank adventurers in the party, Roland and Lily, but the biggest contributor was Haku.

According to reports, she took on three Ogres and defeated two of them. Furthermore, there were stories of her putting her own life on the line to protect adventurers about to be attacked; the more I heard, the less it sounded like something a child would do.

I visited her once after she sustained deep wounds from an Ogre’s blow. Although she was somewhat weakened, she was perfectly composed and didn’t seem to have any trauma regarding the Ogres.

She might be faking her age. However, instead of being older, perhaps she is actually younger?

Undoubtedly, she is a genius at a level seen once in a hundred years. At that young age, she is well-versed in considerable magic, possesses mental strength that puts adults to shame, and can even make potions.

While I find it terrifying, I also felt joy that such a talented individual had come along.

Should I ask for a sparring match sometime? No, given her appearance, that’s probably a bad idea.

What kind of feats will the girl named Haku accomplish from now on? Just imagining it made the troublesome paperwork feel a little more enjoyable.

The hot days are continuing and my motivation to write is dropping. I might have to resort to using the air conditioner.

End of 31