Chapter 39: The Tavern’s Commission
Misha carefully recalled what the Hero had just said.
Didn’t he say he wasn’t short on money? So why did he turn around and accept so many quests in one breath, claiming that “anything goes if the money is right”?
Heh. Misha had this smooth-talking Hero figured out.
He was just putting up a front.
“Lord Lance, this is still too many tasks,” Misha whispered to Lance. “If these commissions aren’t completed, there might be penalties.”
Lance: “They can be completed.”
As he finished speaking, Lance glimpsed one last commission sheet left on the board that he had missed. He instinctively reached out, pinched the paper, and leaned in to examine it.
Misha sighed helplessly. “You really can’t take any more.”
Lance immediately let go.
The speed at which he dropped it made Misha pause. He widened his eyes slightly in disbelief, almost thinking he had actually managed to persuade the stubborn Hero for once.
Misha subconsciously lowered his head to look at the lonely commission sheet sitting in the corner.
It seemed to say…
Reward: 1 Copper Coin.
Misha: “…”
Great. It wasn’t that I persuaded the Hero.
It was that the price was simply unworthy.
Misha sighed deeply.
He knew it was hard to sway the Hero. If Lance were willing to listen to his advice, they wouldn’t have ended up in this situation in the first place.
There was no other way.
Misha felt that the only way for the Hero to understand the problem with taking on so many commissions at once was to let him suffer a setback.
Although failing tasks might make it difficult to face the clients later, and they might get scolded a few times, getting scolded was nothing. For someone with the Hero’s current personality, a little failure would definitely be a good thing.
Misha decided to shut up and let the Hero proceed with this outrageous endeavor.
He took a silent step back, intending to ask Lance which commission he planned to tackle first. However, he suddenly realized that the originally bustling tavern had fallen into a hush. Confused, he looked up, only to see the other adventurers in the tavern staring at them with very peculiar expressions.
Lance remained completely oblivious, but Misha began to panic. He swallowed hard, gently tugged at the hem of Lance’s clothes, and whispered, “…Lord Lance, maybe you should… put a few back.”
He finally realized what was wrong.
The tasks on this board were the source of income for these adventurers!
The number of tasks Lance had accepted far exceeded what a normal person could complete. To the other adventurers, it looked like someone had maliciously snatched away every opportunity they had to make a living, without even cherishing them properly.
If Misha put himself in their shoes, he couldn’t help but feel angry too.
Even though more tasks would appear in a few days, that didn’t mitigate the immediate anger. Misha understood those strange looks and feared that before the Hero even properly started his adventure, he was going to offend a whole batch of adventurers.
Lance didn’t understand the hint in Misha’s words.
He still thought Misha was worried he wouldn’t be able to finish so many things within the time limit. So, he simply patted Misha on the head reassuringly and said, “Don’t worry—”
Misha heard the faint muttering of two adventurers whispering nearby.
“Who is this guy?”
“He took so many tasks; there’s no way he can finish them.”
“Every now and then, some arrogant newbie shows up biting off more than he can chew.”
“Tomorrow, he’ll definitely be crying and apologizing to the clients.”
Lance: “I can do—”
Misha sucked in a breath.
“I know,” Misha said earnestly. “Lord Lance, you will definitely finish them!”
Lance: “…?”
As a Demon King, Misha’s hearing was far superior to that of humans.
He didn’t know if Lance had heard the grumbling from the corner, but he had heard it, and he was angry.
It was hard to explain exactly what this emotion was. It was like…
I can despise the Hero, that’s fine; but others despising the Hero? That is not allowed.
Not only was it not allowed, but he even wanted to plant a couple of punches right on the faces of those who looked down on him.
But Misha had spoken too loudly when calling Lance’s name. The tavern was too quiet, and the whispering adventurers had obviously heard their exchange.
“That name sounds familiar… Oh! My sister who works in the church told me. Isn’t this the ‘Hero’ chosen by the gods?”
Misha: “…”
Dammit, that guy’s tone is so flippant. He sounds like he really hates the Hero.
“So what if he’s the Savior Hero,” another person said. “Won’t it be even more embarrassing when he can’t finish the work?”
Misha: “…”
Misha felt his fist harden.
But he was a Divine Messenger now. He couldn’t actually grab those adventurers and punch them in the face one by one. He had to do his best to show restraint. First, take a deep breath to calm down, and then—
Then handle the problem according to the code of conduct a Divine Messenger should have.
That’s right!
Didn’t these people say the Hero couldn’t complete the tasks?
Then they would just have to complete them perfectly and show these bastards!
With a serious expression, Misha held out his hand toward Lance.
“Lord Lance,” Misha said seriously. “Give them to me.”
Lance: “Ah…”
It was the first time he had seen Misha with such a serious expression. Although Misha usually encouraged him to work hard and improve, he had never looked like he did today—teeth clenched, eyes seemingly burning with fire.
Misha spoke again: “Give me those commissions.”
Lance: “…”
Misha didn’t look angry; rather, it seemed like something inexplicable had ignited his fighting spirit, and he couldn’t wait to get things done. Hesitantly, Lance reached out and handed the stack of commission sheets to Misha, but he couldn’t help asking quietly, “What’s wrong with you?”
Misha was already flipping through the task details at high speed.
Heh.
He, the top student of the Demon King Training Class, Alisa’s most outstanding disciple, the rising star among young Demon Kings.
Now, he was going to make these annoying, loose-lipped adventurers understand what true capability looked like!
Misha took the task sheets from Lance and quickly sorted them.
In a normal Hero’s adventure progression, after leaving the novice village, the Blessed Land, they should have bypassed the road blocked by the giant boulder and gone to several small towns nearby before arriving at Skyreach City.
In other words, the danger level of the environment around Skyreach City, and the strength of the bandits, should be somewhere between novice and veteran difficulty. For the current Hero, that meant zero difficulty.
Apart from the “Subjugation” type missions that required fighting outside the city, these tasks could be categorized into a few types:
Running errands for people, fighting in the lower district, and finding lost items.
And among these tasks, there was one particularly complex and troublesome item that could link all the other tasks together.
Frowning, Misha pulled that commission out from the middle and placed it at the very front of the stack.
[One-Day Messenger]
This was a request from the Skyreach City Post Station.
Due to the giant attacks some time ago, two messengers had sprained their ankles. This made the situation worse for the already understaffed station. They had a backlog of letters that hadn’t been sent in time and urgently needed capable adventurers to help deliver them.
The date on the request was from several days ago, and the reward looked generous. Yet, for some reason, no one had taken it; it had remained stuck on the board. Even stranger was that delivering mail should have been a bottom-tier errand task, but the difficulty rating in the top right corner was marked as SSS.
Misha recalled the contents of Teacher Alisa’s lectures, automatically converting the Adventurer’s Guild difficulty rating into a combat capability scale.
This difficulty level… it’s about the same as dueling the Corrupted Shadow Knight at my front gate. But this is just delivering mail. How could the difficulty rating be so high?
Could it be that because Skyreach City is an early stop in the Hero’s journey, the Adventurer’s Guild here scales their ratings differently from later cities?
But regardless, this wasn’t a task a beginner who had just arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild, like Lance, should take.
Misha considered himself a very conservative person. He was worried there might be unexpected factors in this task. Even though the reward was rich, he hesitated for a while before turning to look at Lance and whispering, “Lord Lance, this task looks very strange.”
Lance nodded.
It’s so good to have a capable Divine Messenger.
He helps filter and organize tasks, and he’s good-looking. Who wouldn’t like a Divine Messenger like this?
Misha: “…I’d better go ask about it.”
Lance continued to nod.
He hadn’t actually heard what Misha said, but he stared at Misha with enthusiasm, earnestly agreeing with every suggestion his cute Divine Messenger made.
Misha stood up and walked toward the tavern counter.
In most Adventurer’s Guilds, the tavern owner was the one who organized the commissions and hung them on the board. So, if there was a problem with a task, the first person to ask was naturally the tavern owner.
The tavern owner was very welcoming. He proactively explained the details of the task to Misha, saying, “The guy from the post station loves to drink. When he submitted this request, he was so drunk he couldn’t speak clearly. So, he probably made a mistake.”
Misha was a bit surprised. “But isn’t the difficulty rating determined by you?”
“That is true,” the tavern owner nodded. “But how we calculate the specific difficulty still relies on the client’s description.”
Misha began to understand.
If a client came to the tavern and described the task as a simple matter like catching a chicken or finding a cow, the owner would rate it as the lowest difficulty, C-. If it involved defeating bandits outside the city, the difficulty would naturally increase accordingly.
Then a new question arose.
Misha couldn’t help but ask, “How exactly did he describe this task?”
The tavern owner rubbed his chin, recalling the scene from that day.
“Don’t underestimate delivering mail,” he repeated the courier’s words without emotion. “This is dangerous work that requires climbing mountains of blades and crossing seas of fire.”
Misha: “…”
That’s it? Just that???
So that’s where the SSS difficulty rating came from?!
Author’s Note:
Misha (Protective Parent Mode): Is the child I raised through pain, blood, and tears someone you people can badmouth?!!
Lance: He loves me so much!
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