Chapter 17
Chapter 17: Qualidia will never surrender!
As per usual, my holiday began with breakfast prepared by Dahlia-san. After finishing the meal, I helped her out with the dishes.
Following that, Dahlia-san promptly began browsing through her office documents. Her day started off with sorting out missions that arrived from the nearby areas and classifying them by the party ranks and by their completion status.
Even though yesterday was a day off for us, the other parties of the guild were still busy with their respective low-rank missions. Therefore, a lot of documents ended up being tossed towards the ‘Completed’ slot by this morning.
While doing so, Dahlia-san caught the sight of a certain piece of paper as she made a sudden exclamation.
A typical mission order form was usually margined by an unassuming thin white line while this particular order form had a border inlaid with golden foil.
Engraved on top of the order form was the crest of the Kushior Kingdom. I have never come across a mission order form quite like that so far.
“Eric-san, do you guys have any plans for today?”
Dahlia-san muttered in annoyance as she placed the special mission order form on her desk.
“I’m pretty sure there’s none. If you want, I can call the other three down here.”
“Ah… yes please. Honestly, they could’ve just given this to [Gardener]. These bad people…”
○○○
Suzette who had returned from her routine visit to the church, Louise who was busy munching on a mysterious bone that appeared from nowhere and Nasha, who had been working in the attic to help out Dahlia, were all now gathered in the main lobby of the adventurer’s guild [Qualidia].
“There’s something I need you guys to take care of— No, it’s actually something only you guys can do.”
Dahlia-san held out a sheet of paper from the guild counter.
It was the gold inlaid mission order form from earlier with the crest of the Kushior Kingdom.
“I see. So it’s a mission delegated by the Kingdom. And the difficulty level is rank C… that’s about 2 levels higher than our current rank.”
Suzette muttered while pushing up her red rimmed glasses.
“Rank C difficulty… so that’s the recommended party level huh? Is there even a high level party like that in this guild right now?”
“I think there were only D rank parties at best. All the high ranking parties were poached out by [Gardener] after all.”
Dahlia released an exasperated sigh after listening to the exchange between Suzette and Louise.
“Why do you keep rubbing salt on my wounds?”
Nasha stammered worriedly in response.
“B-but the difficulty level for our previous demon subjugation mission was C rank too. I’m sure everything will just be fine this time!”
“Well that is true. The higher-ups are well aware of this situation, they know that most of our clients have already moved to [Gardener]. But they still sent us a state designated C rank mission even while knowing all about our situation. Even for them, isn’t this going a bit too far?”
While listening to Dahlia-san’s monologue, Suzette plopped down on the desk as her short silver hair sprawled over.
“They’re trying to crush this guild, aren’t they?”
“... crush?”
Suzette continued her explanation.
“Right now, [Qualidia] is considered as a private guild while [Gardener] is treated as a state-run guild.Guilds are usually evaluated by the parties they possess and how well they perform on the delegated missions. So in a typical scenario, it’s quite an honor to receive a special assignment directly from the state itself. And if you were to successfully complete such a mission, you will receive the achievement of, ‘Clearing a mission delegated by the nation’.
… I see. So, this little piece of paper held such a great power huh?
“But as much as how you were honored for completing the given missions, you’ll be equally devalued in your overall evaluation if you were to fail that mission. And as for [Qualidia], C rank missions are a rather rare occurrence now since most of C rank missions were only given to [Gardener] before. Therefore all the C rank parties and above, eventually left this guild to join them as well. So in other words—.”
“— Delegating an unreasonably difficult task that could severely damage the reputation. Then the number of regular missions will start to go down and the number of parties will reduce along with it. Eventually the guild will struggle financially and go bankrupt… I guess this is their actual scheme.”
Dahlia-san continued with a self-deprecating smile at Suzette’s commentary.
“They probably want to build another state-run guild around this area. And to do that, they want the last remaining private guild on Odel Knights to disappear.”
“So the top brass are finally moving forward with the all-out demon army subjugation plan. And a considerable amount of sparks will fall on Odel Knights as well but—.”
While she was speaking, Suzette looked down at the mission order form in front of her.
“And that is exactly the reason. I cannot possibly ask any other party to take on such a difficult mission. But your party’s abilities are actually around A rank already. I know suppression missions aren’t exactly your forte but, can you please help us?”
Dahlia-san bowed deeply.
This was an open threat to [Quadilia].
Moreover, if another guild similar to [Gardener] were to be set up in here, the offense against the demon army would escalate even higher on the upcoming invasion.
I, for one, did not want to see that happen.
When I turned to look at the others, they all nodded slightly with a determined expression on their faces.
And our leader, Nasha, gently smiled as she glanced past everyone’s faces.
“This guild has taken care of us all these years and we will forever be indebted to you for all of those times. We will never let this guild be destroyed! And we, [Deared] will officially be accepting this mission delegated by the state with all of its responsibility!”
Nasha declares with a dignified expression.
Her straight long hair swayed lightly as if to express her animated fighting spirit.
“We heard it loud and clear! Leader!”
Louise balled her hands into fists and struck them against her chest.
“We’ll be the ones that suffer the most if [Qualidia] were to go down.”
Suzette pulled back her chair as she stood up while fixing her glasses.
“I was only able to live like a human after coming here. So I’ll do my very best for this mission as well.”
After all, I too, owed this guild a debt of gratitude that I could never repay.
Watching this group, as they made-up their minds to accept the task, Dahli-san teared up a little.
“I’m counting on you [Deared], I’ll make lots of delicious food for you, when you get back!”
Dahlia-san rolled up her sleeves as she was cheering.
— This marked the beginning of [Deared]’s first state designated mission.
My brain is malfunctioning rn so I didn't fully edit this chapter but I still didn't want to let the day end without releasing the chapter. Please bear with my tl errors for today >.<! I will re-edit this chapter tomorrow
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