I guessed it made sense; in the game, goblin king swords were a fairly rare drop. At the same time, the concept of goblin kings growing didn’t exist in the game.
“So, will you let me have that sword?”
“I don’t mind.”
I didn’t need it, and more importantly, it had a lame name. If I was going to have a sword, I wanted a cool one.
“So, how much will you let me have it for?”
“How much do people usually charge?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. It’s not something you can get ahold of, even if you go looking. Name your price. If I can pay it, then I will.”
“That’s still pretty disadvantageous for me. I might under-charge without even knowing.”
Well, it wasn’t like I had money problems, so I didn’t care how much it was worth. But that wasn’t any fun.
“I’ll give it to you free of charge if you agree to owe me a favor.”
“A favor?”
“You must be doing all kinds of terrible things since you’re a lord, right? So, I want you to help me when I’m in trouble someday.”
“You sure have a bad opinion of me. I’m a decent person.”
“Well, putting aside the jokes, if I have something I need from you in the future, I’d like you to hear my request.”
“Can you give me an example of what you’d want?”
“Like forcing a Guildmaster out of a job?”
“H-hey.” The Guildmaster stood up.
“That was a joke. I don’t have anything right now. If something happens in the future, I’ll ask you for it. And if it’s impossible, you can turn me down.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah. That seems like it’d be more interesting.”
“Then I’ll graciously accept this. I’ll prepare a written agreement later.”
“I don’t need one. If you break your promise, then it’s fine if that’s that.”
I smiled at him. Practically, I didn’t need the sword. I didn’t have a problem parting with it. Him owing me a favor was pure profit.
“I vow that I’ll help you if it’s something I can help with.”
Vowing was kind of a dramatic thing to do.
“In that case, please do when the time comes.”
Chapter 39:
The Bear Goes Snake Slaying
MY CONVERSATION with Cliff and the Guildmaster held me up, but I finally made it to the quest board.
D-Rank Board
Sword teacher (women-only).
Orc slaying.
Tigerwolf full materials.
Two hundred goblin mana gems, no time restriction.
Obtain Melmel grass.
Stone monkey slaying at Hoelle mountain, unknown number.
.........
......
...
There wasn’t anything that called to me.
Sword teacher (women-only). Did bears count? All I knew about sword fighting was from the game. Teaching another person seemed like a pain anyway. Orc slaying didn’t seem like fun. I’d defeated tigerwolves earlier, and I couldn’t remove gems from goblins, so that was impossible. Not knowing how many stone monkeys there were was a problem. I didn’t want to take any quests when I didn’t know how long it would take.
If I hadn’t been taken captive for so long, there might have been others, but I couldn’t do anything about that.
I decided to check the C-rank board.
C-Rank Board
Wyvern materials.
Convoy for a certain person, strict secrecy.
Mermaid scale.
Annihilation of the Zamon thief group.
Histori flower collection.
Watersnake slaying, includes materials.
Firetiger slaying, includes materials.
.........
......
...
The C-rank slaying quests looked like fun, but they were things that didn’t have a specified location or were far away. I was surprised that mermaids existed, though. It might be nice to go see them some time. Just when I was thinking of going home since there weren’t any interesting quests I could do in a day trip, I noticed there was a commotion at the front desk.
“Why not?”
“It isn’t that you can’t do it. I’m just saying it would take time.”
“Then it won’t be done in time. My mom and dad and everyone in the village will die.”
There was a short boy crying and pleading with Helen.
“Like I said, we don’t have any adventurers that can defeat a black viper. Even if we called one out, it would take until tomorrow.”
“My mom and dad, though…”
The boy broke down into sobs.
“What’s wrong?”
“Yuna.”
I headed over to the two.
“Apparently a black viper appeared in this boy’s village.”
“Is that a snake?”
“Yes. It’s larger than a normal viper. If it’s an outsize specimen, maybe a hundred-odd meters. It seems several of the villagers have been eaten. This boy rode a horse all the way to town, but even if he were to get an adventurer who could defeat it, they’re still out and won’t be back for several days.”
A black viper, huh? I looked at the sobbing boy.
“Then how about I go?”
Not like I had anything to do anyway.
“You want to just go? It’s not like you’re taking a stroll through the neighborhood. The large specimens are B-rank monsters.”
“But if we don’t hurry, then the village will be in danger, right?”
“Yes, but…”
“If it’s dangerous, I’ll bail out; it’ll be fine. Helen, could you at least prepare the formalities for calling adventurers? I can at least buy some time.”
“You think I’m an idiot?!” the boy yelled. “There’s no way somebody dressed as weirdly as you could defeat the black viper.” That was valid. Normally, people wouldn’t think that a girl in a bear onesie could defeat a monster like that.
“Uhh, in that case, I’ll go ahead of everyone and collect information.”
“Collect information?”
“I’ll collect information and hand it over to the adventurers you call, Helen. If we can figure out how big it is and where it is, then it’ll make things go faster, right?”
The boy nodded slightly at my off-the-cuff lie.
“So, Helen, where is that village?”
“It’s a day and a half’s journey to the southeast, assuming you’ve a fast horse.”
I wondered if a day and a half was far. I didn’t know how many hours a horse could run in a day. Obviously not all twenty-four.
“Are you really going?”
“I’ve got nothing better to do.”
“Please wait a moment. I will confirm things with the Guildmaster.”
Helen left her seat and headed to the Guildmaster’s room. However,
