Chapter 8: Cleaning from Corner to Corner!

Adventurer’s Guild 『Qualidia』.

It used to be the leading quest broker in the frontline city of Odelnights.

Recently, due to the newly established large-scale guild, under immediate control of the central government, is taking most of the quests, it is an old guild that is still recognized among adventurers.

 

“Hey, this part is still dusty.”

 

In the guild were four people cleaning its floor with brooms.

Me, Nasha, Louise, and Suzette were cleaning the 3 story lodging facility in the guild.

The one that was looking at us with furrowed eyebrows was the middle-aged director Daria.

 

“I’m letting you guys stay in the rooms on the second floor because you’re broke, you know. If you can’t work properly you might as well move out right now!”

 

“Yes, ma’am”

 

The four of us replied at the same time.

‘Deared’ is a broke party.

Nasha uses her money to help others, Louise uses hers to for food, and Suzette gives hers to the church as offerings.

In addition to that, since our style is all about helping others in the neighborhood and such, not doing anything hero-like by going to the frontline and fighting demons, our income isn’t that good either.

――But, as Suzette said at my interview, there is minimum wage, and more importantly, no work overtime.

The party’s work starts when the sun rises and ends at sunset.

I have way more free time than before, so I’m quite content.

 

…Well, I didn’t expect to join a party on the heroes’ side to be doing housework.

 

Louise scratched her head after Daria pointed out the dust she missed.

 

“Even if you say that, I’m not good at this kind of detailed work…”

 

“I guess you’re still a muscle head. Look at the spots the newcomer Eric worked on. Look at his clean work.”

 

Daria then pointed at the area I cleaned.

 

“Not a speck of dust on the floor or in the closet. Plus, he repaired the desk and organized the books on the shelf. Flawless!”

 

“W…Whoa…Eric, what did you do to make it so clean!!?”

 

“I-I was pretty confident in my cleaning skills, but after seeing Eric’s, mine seem hazy…”

 

“Eric, you’re incredible! I want to learn cleaning techniques now!”

 

The other members of Deared looked at my area and were surprised.

I had to do this every day back when I was in the demon army, after all.

My office became my living quarters since I didn’t have time to go home, and compared to the large office room, cleaning a small area of the guild was easy.

 

Daria sighed and muttered.

 

“I don’t know how u came to join this party, but you sure drew the short end of the stick. There’s no use coming to a run-down guild like this when there’s a newer, larger guild that’s taking all the quests and adventurers.”

 

Daria said to me, who started cleaning the kitchen since there was nothing else for me to do, as she went towards the back and started cooking.

 

It’s true that this guild doesn’t have many quests. Well, not many quests concerning demons.

Back when I was in the army, I sneaked into a guild undercover with Garlock once before.

It was flooded with quests concerning the subjugation of demons that were commander rank and higher, like me, as well as hunting monsters that had appeared in the area.

 

It was then that we found out that the large guild from the capital was behind the increased aggression from the hero side.

 

Three years have passed since the new guild was built, the fights between the heroes and demons have increased significantly.

Therefore, the balance of life in Odelnights tipped drastically.

 

Until now, the army policy was to defend demon territory from the heroes, but extremist groups started appearing, saying that the demon army should exterminate the heroes and take over their territory.

As a result, a rift occurred within the demon army, and those who acted on their own, ignoring orders, started to appear.

A big reason was because some commanders, colonels, and higher-ranking officials became factors that disturbed peace within the army.

 

Three years since the guild, the root of the whole problem, was built.

And three years since the amount of overtime work such as reports, and night time subjugation started increasing.

I can’t remember how many times I wished some sort of curse would somehow make the whole guild disappear.

 

I didn’t know that the new guild was pressuring the business of small guilds like this, just like it did to the demon army…

 

“Well, there has been good things that happened since the quests for fighting the demons went over to the other guild.”

 

Daria muttered as she continued cooking.

 

“Even though you lost your main source of brokerage revenue?”

 

“Uh huh. There are many quests now that protect the lives and livings of the people here, that formerly didn’t make it to the quest board. Until now, the war with the demons was top priority. But since most of them are going towards the larger guild now, we’re getting quests from the people of Odelnights and the villages around it.”

 

“I see. That’s good for our party’s policy.”

 

“You’re right. That’s why I’m thankful to those girls. This guild doesn’t make much money and business is way more difficult, but Odelnights isn’t the frontline for the battle against the demons. As Qualidia, I just want to live together with the people here.”

 

Daria looked at the three girls who were still cleaning with a crumpled yet satisfied smile on her face.

 

“Okay then. Are you guys done cleaning? You haven’t eaten anything at all yet, right? Eat up! You can’t keep those appetites of yours hanging.”

 

“Lady I love you!!!! It’s food!! WHOOOOO!!”

 

“Thank you again, Director. Not only did you let us stay here, you’re giving us a meal as well…”

 

“I love the food you make! It tastes so good!”

 

Daria put five plates on the table with a smile.

Steam was rising from the delicious looking food.

 

“Here, you need to eat as well. A new quest just reached the board. You guys are going to do it, right?”

 

Daria handed Nasha a piece of paper as she set the food on the table.

Nasha read through it and a smile grew on her face.

 

“Of course we will! Everyone, muscle wolves have been spotted in Shaltz Forest. If they reach the villages around there the children will be easy targets, so let’s go hunt them before that happens!”

 

“Mmmm…Mmhmmm!”

 

“Louise, please don’t talk with your mouth full of food. It’s bad manners!”

 

“…Ms. Daria, this is really good. Can you teach me how to make this after the quest?”

 

“No problem. You seem like a fast learner, so it’ll be worth teaching you.”

 

Daria pulled up her sleeves.

I had a warm, fulfilling meal before the quest. Something that I hadn’t had in a very long time.

 

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Hey guys Kaoto here.
Sorry for the long hiatus.
I had a lot of things come up, and I needed some time to take a break and sort everything out.
To be honest, I was even thinking about quitting translations completely 😦

I was having a hard time finding motivation to translate this whole time.
I think I did, and hopefully it is enough for me to continue translating 🙂

Not sure how often the uploads are going to be, and how much of each novel I’m going to work on, because I am getting ready to work on another one.
The first chapter should be up soon, and I hope you enjoy it 🙂
It’s called The Mightiest Hero of Black by Seto Meguru.

Hope you enjoy and I’ll see you guys in the next chapter!