Chapter 257 – A Moment After Dinner

It was the night after all the Jack Frosts had been eliminated.

After dinner, after we’d had that huge snowball fight.

The hero’s party of Cruz, Luka, Yureena, and I were all there.

There was also my “disciples,” Collette, Millet, and the magician Steff.

The fifth of the Four Sub-Bosses Vi-Vi and her sister from Lindobal forest, Vallimie.

The heavenly wolf Femm, and the holy-magic cow, Moofy.

Little Shiggy, and her aunt Timisoara.

After seeing I had returned, Cruz said,

「I guess I can finally relax about my citizens now…but we still have to catch whoever did it.」

「Yeah, there are hardly any clues, so it’s going to be difficult.」

「Yes, all we know is that it’s a beast-human magician.」

「Even if you say ‘magician’, he was able to summon nature spirits…and that’s a rare thing.」

「Yeah…」

It wasn’t rare as a healer, but someone that could summon spirits was rare.

「Do you know anything about that, Yureena?」

She was a holy woman of the church. She also had information about everything happening where her churches extended to.

「No, I haven’t heard of anything like that. But I think if there was a beast-human summoning nature spirits, someone would know about it.」

「I see. What about you, Luka?」

Luka was a manager of the capital’s adventurer guild, in other words, a high-up.

Of course, she had info from her own sources as well.

And on top of that, she was an academic about magical beasts. She even made appearances at the academy.

「I put in a request for any info this afternoon…but I’m probably not going to get much back.」

There were a lot of magicians registered with the guild.

However, not all magicians are registered in it.

「Instead of that, why not check the magician’s guild? You should probably check it out.」

Luka was right again.

The magician guild was actually all the elites. There were specialists of many fields.

It was hard to become a royal magicians, or a magician for the nobles.

That was because you had to have a distinguished graduation from the magic academy to do so.

There was also the route of becoming a magician for one of the commercial families.

Even a medium magician could do things like select the right crops, un-poison certain products, refrigerate things, and do other things to help move products.

If you were good at magic circles, you could help in the construction of large buildings.

It also wasn’t as dangerous as being an adventurer. Also, the pay was stable.

That’s why it was actually rarer to find a magician willing to do something dangerous like being an adventurer.

So most of those that didn’t in some way would register with the magician’s guild.

「…yeah, you’re right.」

I said, and Luka looked at me a bit puzzled.

「Al? What’s the magician’s guild?」

「Wait? Does this mean Al’s not registered there as a magician?」

Cruz was surprised as well.

「There’s no way that’s true. Right?」

Yureena looked at me and asked. She really looked concerned.

「Well…I can say I am…if you were to ask…」

「What? Then there’s no problem.」

Cruz said, but Luka looked confused.

She knew I wasn’t telling the whole truth.

「I just…haven’t paid my dues for a while…」

「What?! Why not?!」

「Well…it was too much a bother.」

It wasn’t that I didn’t have the money.

I did all my work for the adventurer’s guild, so I never even went to the magician’s guild.

Because of that, I guess I just forgot about it.

「You should apologize and pay all your dues!」

「Yeah, but…」

「Ah…that’s right. You’re trying to keep your location secret. I’ll go by and pay it all off for you.」

Luka could yell at you and then be kind the next sentence.

「But still…」

Luka sighed as I still looked reluctant to go and ask.

「I know you’re not happy about paying dues just so you can send a request for information.」

「No…it’s not that, it’s just the amount that I’ve probably not paid.」

「How much did you not pay?」

「…about 15 years worth.」

「WHAT?! That’s more than half your time as an adventurer!」

「…you’re right.」

Hearing that, Yureena nodded.

「That reminds me, no one from the magician’s guild sent you any honors after you killed the Demon Lord.」

I bet they weren’t too happy about me over there.

Normally when a member does something like that, they do send many honors.

But since I hadn’t paid in forever, I was a ghost member. It would be hard to honor me before others that had paid dues.

「I know they didn’t send any because I hadn’t paid, but…」

I explained to everyone about the magician’s guild.

The highest in the magician’s guild were the royal magicians.

The top magician was always a royal magician, and the managers of the guild were usually the same.

Next came the top noble magicians, and then the mid-level noble’s magicians.

Finally, the lowest level were magicians that were adventurers.

「That’s why no one really wants to acknowledge what I did as an adventurer.」

「I see now…so why did you choose to be an adventurer instead of a “proper” one?」

「I wonder that too…with that much talent, you could have chosen any of those places.」

I thought about it, and then said the truth,

「Because I wanted to see the world.」

「Wow, that’s a cool reason.」

「Pffff.」

Cruz said with a sparkle in her eyes, and Vi-Vi pffted my answer.

It’s true it’s an answer that sounded really naive.

But I was naive back then, so it’s simply the truth.

I remembered how I was back then, and it took me back – I even felt a bit embarrassed.