The Guild’s Cheat Receptionist Vol 2 Chapter 2.5

Chapter 2.5
Chapter Two Expectations (Part 5)

 

And so it began: Lunéville’s urban renovations as well as the arena’s construction.

The residents of Lunéville, accustomed to construction due to the previously built lodging, found it refres.h.i.+ng seeing the town’s walls being built anew.

“Maan, it’s so awesome! Ilya-chan, have you seen it!?”

“They’re gonna make it taller and denser than before, so won’t it be even better than the Royal Capital’s here soon!?”

A couple men were having a back and forth at the counter with beer mugs in their hands.

“But I wonder, why do they need to make it that tall…?”

“It doesn’t look like there’s been much change politically, so doesn’t it have to be because of monsters?”

Next to them were two women with worried looks picking up and drinking out of their gla.s.ses.

Rather than talking about the church or arena’s construction, most of the conversations cropping up lately were about how the wall was linked to safety. There were many people talking about the arena as well, of course. There were quite a number of guild members registering for commissions to strive and train themselves before it opened up.

Right now, other than the new wall, there was a new residential area, new commerce district, and new industry district being zoned. The wall was being built to enclose all of the new additions.

The old wall was being demolished as the new one’s construction progressed. Ca.n.a.ls and side lanes were built wherever the old wall used to be; it was scheduled for there to be stalls opened along the outside of the paths in the future.

The church and arena’s construction had also began, though as the arena was being pressed on by the a.s.sociation, it was progressing faster than the church.

With the construction going smoothly, the architects—inspired by seeing the pool Ilya made in the arena’s planned construction site—ended up becoming interested in making a new pool directly next to the arena.

It was accepted through a pet.i.tion from Lunéville’s citizens, but even if Ilya didn’t believe that they’d needed to go so far as making it a flowing pool with a water slide, she did request for it to be large enough to be used as a skating rink.

Her goal, of course, was for it to be used for amus.e.m.e.nt in the winter as well.

“Hmph, you’re two hundred years too early to defeat me!”

“Geh! F-for that bad move to actually be the best one so much later…!”

“Fuwahahaha! Don’t take a guardian’s wisdom for granted!!”

Ignoring the elder, who’d basically opened a Go cla.s.sroom in the corner—

“Ilya, there’s a commission request from Quroone.”

“Understood. Katie, guide them to the parlor on the third floor.”

“Got it. This way, please.”

As the staff had grown accustomed to the rush, they were able to keep their composure even while keeping up the quick turnover rate.

All of the residents seemed to be leading fulfilling lives in both body and mind—the staff members included.

“Au~…”

Minus a certain fairy falling prostrate on a table, that is.

Partia and Gabriel were still staying in the town.

Gabriel had been helping out with things such as transporting goods for the Industry Guild, but in the meanwhile, Partia had nothing to do.

Even excluding the commission they’d done regarding Sylph, they’d saved up a decent amount of funds from previous commissions and

had also finished their investigation of Rondéville’s outskirts that they were secretly sent to do by Ilya.

They were still waiting around here for no other reason than to come across an opportunity to get a hint from Ilya.

As for Ilya, she’d intended to tell them due to their services in the matter with Sylph, but she was stopped by them. They didn’t believe they did much.

They didn’t feel content saying that they did anything worthwhile in that matter with Sylph, it was something accomplished by a lot of people. If they’d gotten their hint from something like that, they wouldn’t feel right about it.

(Should I say they’re stoic…?)

Along with admiring their determination, she wished that they would just take her hint.

 

*

 

Lunéville was peaceful even in its boisterousness, but were there no problems in other regions and countries? This obviously wasn’t the case.

There were human rights issues, civil strife leading to revolutions, and natural disasters like famine, droughts, or floods. There were also cases of monsters running rampant due to the influence of magic source, miasma, or demons.

Although countries near Rondéville could be said to be free from the first part of those issues, natural and monster-related disasters had occured.

And right now, one of those were trying to affect Lunéville.

“Monsters are running rampant in Akradist?”

“Yeah.”

The person who asked once again was Frank.

And the person to respond to him was Hector.

The two people were talking in the branch’s parlor.

Ilya, who’d just happened to be drawing up a commission that was brought to the branch immediately before, was sitting in and listening to Hector—who they’d visited just the other day—and Frank talk.

“Seventy percent of Akradist touches the ocean. You are aware of how many port cities is has, correct? Huge monsters in the sea make it so that they can’t go out to fish. As it would lead to enormous damage to the cities if they drew too close to them, there are many refugees appearing… but Pinéaville is unable to hold all of people streaming out from Akradist. A messenger came asking us to shelter them as well.”

As they had experience in this sort of thing due to the matter with the Ice Dragon, the other cities in Rondéville were liberal in accepting refuges as well.

Of course, it was the same for Lunéville.

“There is no reason for us to oppose their acceptance.”

“That’s great. Then, for securing supplies—”

While listening in on the two boiling down the commission’s contents, Ilya was thinking about something else… about monsters and the Evil G.o.ds’ relation to this. [1]

Even if it was an Evil G.o.d that had manipulated the Ice Dragon into coming to Lunéville, the monsters this wouldn’t be able to come to Lunéville as it had no sea.

If the intention behind it was to influence them through the refugees, there were too many uncertain variables about it all. Like how they could simply head to other cities, for example. Although they received food from the waters around Akradist, it wasn’t as though Akradist was the only channel they received that from, so there was no meaning in stopping that.

The matter this time was unrelated to the recent one with that Evil G.o.d.

Of course, if she had to a.s.sume it was related, Lunéville wouldn’t be the Evil G.o.d’s intention.

(… Is that how it is?)

At practically the same time that Ilya concluded that, Hector and Frank moved.

“—So then, it’ll be like this.”

“Yeah, I’ll leave it to you.”

Starting to straighten themselves and get up, it looked as though the two of them had completed their arrangements for the commission request.

Thinking about it, they had to organize the patrol group before the arena reached its completion. The two of them hadn’t slept well recently.

Part of the reason for that was Ilya, who’d offered the suggestion in the first place.

“Would you two at least like to drink some tea? It is tough to make calm decisions if you are too hurried.”

“… Yeah, you’re right.”

“Ilya, sorry, but could you please prepare some?”

“Certainly.”

Bowing, Ilya began preparing some tea for them. She paired it with some tea-cake that Frank had brought back with him as a souvenir.

When she filled the tea-cakes with some mana to add exhaustion recovery magic as a bonus, Haku came flying in.

“Come to think of it, you still haven’t had your meal yet, have you?”

“Pi!”

As a result of feasting on Ilya’s mana, Haku’s status had already exceeded a Dragon G.o.d’s.

The child would grow up splendidly, enough so that even Jean would be proud as a parent.

Thinking about that for no particular reason, nowadays, Haku would usually eat fruits and vegetables, followed by absorbing mana afterwards.

The taste of the fruits and vegetables were, as expected, rather light compared to Ilya’s mana, so Haku would lick Ilya as though unsatisfied by it.

She was spurred on by the impulse of wanting to spoil the young dragon, but she had to endure so that it wouldn’t turn out just like its parent.

When Ilya, who’d given Haku its meal, returned to the parlor with the tea and tea-cakes, Frank and Hector were chatting with each other.

Even if their cheeks slackened from eating the tea-cakes as they talked about trifling matters related to their current situation, it was probably for the best that they had a chance to feel at ease.

While thinking about the two that way, somewhere in her mind, she felt a tinge of loneliness.

 

Footnotes: Note that, according to Chapter 1 of this volume, there are nine evil G.o.ds left running loose in the world.