The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank

Chapter 23: Circumstances

Translator: “Pink Tea” Editor: ”Ryunakama”

「Then, lets us begin the conference. I, Shisanti will oversee its course.」

「Wouldn’t it be better if those that wanted to speak just raised their hands?」

「You, dear, be quiet, please. Well then, I’m looking forward to your cooperation.」

The count’s wife, Shisanti-san, bowed.

……She gives quite a scary impression.

Shisanti-san looked at Lilia with a cold look.

Lilia had a similar expression. They are a good match.

「Then, please, representative of the guild, give us a report on the situation.」

「Yes.」

Lilia took a nearby paper and stood up.

「As was reported before this. Currently, the guild is operating through the provisional tent and the partly finished building. It’s expected that fully finishing construction will take some more time. The only requests we are currently handling are those issued by the country on delivery of fieldzaurus raw materials. The reason being, no presence of monsters other than fieldzauruses was confirmed in Avancier’s labyrinth. Thus, all requests are limited to that. No new monsters appeared since the last report to the guild about the appearance of powerful monsters in the town’s vicinity, so currently, the town doesn’t appear too attractive to adventurers.」

……That’s true.

I was pretty happy that the town will get livelier with the appearance of the labyrinth, but we still have a lot of problems to solve.

A labyrinth, huh.

I wonder if it should be remade into a more attractive one.

「And, the number of guild staff is 10 people, all assigned to their posts. We believe that depending on the further development of the town, this number is up to change.」

「So the labyrinth is not that great…… Chee, unlucky.」

Count Turi leaned back on the chair.

「The one request we have to the lord is related to the maintenance of public order among adventurers. The guild issued them a number of warnings, but the effectiveness of that seems to be limited. We believe that stationing a group of knights here would be more helpful.」

The militia has no right to arrest.

But knights do.

With the number of people coming and going getting this high, this is what I also wanted to ask. To place several knights here, who can act in case of something.

「Understood. I think the same suggestion will come from the people representative, so I will reply to it all together at the end.」

「Thank you. For now, this is all I have. If something else comes up we will contact you later.」

「Got it. I appreciate your effort. Then, the next isーー」

「The church representative, please.」

Shisanti-san interjected, interrupting him.

Count Turi dejectedly dropped his shoulders.

A little child, huh…… It might sound rude, but it does sound appropriate.

「Yes. Well, we already reported beforehand and received permission. It has been decided that a church will be constructed in this town.」

「Yeah. With a church, the adventurers might be more willing to visit the town.」

「And it seems that with the appearance of a labyrinth, it is now possible to receive a divine revelation here. I already confirmed it on my side.」

Divine Revelation allows us to see our own skills and the amount of outer shell.

The reason is unknown, but according to church, in sacred lands, close to God, it is possible to receive God’s Revelation.

After offering a prayer to a specially installed divine stone, the skills and the outer shell possessed by the person show up on that stone.

Unlike appraisal, it doesn’t reveal the precise effects of the skills, but thanks to this we can show our skills to a third party.

After all, people can make all kinds of empty claims.

Skills appearing there would be reported to the country, determining the rank of those skills.

I got SSR through the rarity alone.

If before my death they will get info on my skills, the evaluation will change to a more accurate one.

I wonder what will happen to my skills.

「That is wonderful. If that is the case, is the church is going to station a number of its knights here?」

「Yes. However, they are guardians of the church. Of course, they will cooperate in case of emergency, but their main duty is protecting the church. Which does not include maintaining the public order.」

……Sparks scattered between Shisanti-san and Nin.

Shisanti-san surely wants to reduce their own expenses on knights, while Nin doesn’t want them to push extra work their way.

Meekly accepting everything is stupid, one has to secure advantageous conditions.

However, it differs a bit where it comes to the church.

Bad souls don’t go to God, and collected by Devil, get remade into monsters. Is what they preach.

Many believe their teachings, so the mere presence of the church in the town changes something in the consciousness of people.

So they would serve as a fine deterrent anyway.

「Is that all from the church?」

Shisanti-san tilted her head, appearing to be contemplating something.

Nin replied with 「Yes」and sat back.

「Well then, next we will hear people of the town. The Militia’s representative, Feel-san, go ahead.」

That moment. Shisanti-san’s expression became just a little bit softer.

……I thought her to be a scary person but looks like there is more to her.

「Y-Yes!」

Oddly enough when it comes to Feel, she didn’t fumble with her words.

After taking several deep breaths, she lifted her paper.

「The report from the militia. ……Ehm, currently. The militia has a total of ten members. Ehm, and all of them work every day. When that is not enough anyway, we ask for assistance from people like Rude and Luna here, adventurers and people in retirement, to somehow do our job. For now, there are no huge issues like monsters attacking from the outside, so it is not that much of a problem, but we don’t have enough numbers or strength left to handle an emergency.」

……No surprise there.

Even I assist them basically every day.

「Thus, we would like you to increase the number of personnel and operational expenses coming with that. That is all……」

「Is that so? I would like to hear details later.」

With those words from Shisanti-san, Feel breathed a short sigh and returned to her seat.

I’m next, huh.

Shisanti-san’s gaze turned to me.

The tenderness that was there moments ago completely disappeared.

「Then, people representative Rude, please.」

「Yes.」

Getting up from my seat I overlook everyone.

……I often talk with them, but looking at them now, they appear quite different.

I understand why Feel would be nervous.

「I will now announce the opinions of the citizens of this town.」

Picking up the paper where they were listed I take a breath.

「First, there are not enough inns. Currently, the adventurers, who were unable to get lodging there, created a tent camp in a certain part of the town. There are complaints about them being noisy during night time. Then, quarrels among those adventurers though they became less numerous compared to the beginning, but they are still very common. People of the townーー Especially children, are scared of that.」

That is the same as ever.

The reason being, this town is after all a bit too comfortable, in a bad way.

If we had knights here the situation could change.

「We would like to ask for the additional warning from the guild, and for knights to be stationed in this town.」

「I will reply to that at the end.」

Shisanti declared. After all, she is scary.

Her glare-like stare does not excite me. Looks like I react only to Manicia’s look. So I’m completely normal it seems.

「Next, this is the issue mostly related to the guild. The local blacksmiths and apothecaries have a request.」

「What?」

Lilia raised her eyebrows.

「Since this town previously had no guild, they traded for materials directly. However, if the guild is going to oversee such dealing from now on, the interpersonal deals will pretty much disappear.」

「Yes, probably.」

「Thus, they want to get information on the prices and availability of ingredients as soon as possible. The apothecaries are already facing a severe shortage of ingredients.」

「Roger. I will contact higher-ups, but I think that the situation with the deficit of the healing herbs will continue for a while. And they also can’t be procured at the labyrinth.」

……That’s true. We can’t do anything about that.

「That is all I have.」

「Please, excuse me, there is something I would like to report additionally.」

As I finished, Lilia stood up.

Shisanti’s look became sharper.

「What is it?」

「One of the reasons why the public order of the town is so bad is that there is no clan. If there was a clan wishing to make this town their base, adventurers should calm down a bit. Well, though it requires the said clan to have some degree of power.」

「I see. But this matter has to be considered carefully. It has to be a clan suitable for this town.」

……Indeed.

Clan, to put it simply, an aggregation of parties.

There is a large number of adventurers, and since the guild can’t possibly look out for all of them, there is a system of clans.

The difference from parties is that if the clan becomes recognized by the guild, they will receive monetary aid.

It seems that the sum is pretty considerable, so there appears to be a large number of adventurers wishing to become clan leaders to lead a comfortable life in leisure.

Clan, huh.

A clan can also change what kind of adventurers will settle in this town.

In the past…… When I only started out as an adventurer, I looked up to the clans.

Even wished to have my own clan someday.

Taking care of new adventurers, deepening friendship with other clans…… Such stuff sounded really fun.

「Is that all?」

Lilia nodded and returned to her seat under Shisanti’s gaze.

Shisanti breathed a short sigh and glanced at a paper in front of her.

I saw how she made a lot of notes during the talk.

……I wonder what she is going to say. I’m a bit anxious.

「Let’s see. We were already aware of many of those problems from the initial reports, but we appreciate you coming to tell us about them like this.」

Shisanti lowered her head, then turned to look at me.

「Since it was just mentioned, there is something I’d like to confirm…… Rude-sam, do you have intentions of becoming a clan leader?」

「Eh?」

Receiving an unexpected question, I involuntarily made such a reply.