The Guild’s Cheat Receptionist

Chapter 1.16

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Chapter 1.16
Chapter OneThe Festival(Part 16)

The game tournaments ended up being very popular.

“Rain? Is that something delicious?”

The partic.i.p.ants saying stuff like that, rain and the like didn’t matter to them at all. There were lots of people asking for another tournament to belt held so that those who won could taste the flavor of victory yet again and so that even those who lost could try and win the next time, regardless of the weather.

As blunder for it as a tournament, Hector won the Chess portion, much to everyone’s displeasure.

There was another possible point of dissatisfaction.

“… Hooot…”

“… So hot.”

“Cynthia, Katie, don’t be lazy, now.”

Since Sylph had expended so much water and wind elements, Rondéville and the surrounding countries were undergoing an out-of-season heatwave.

“Pi~…”

Even Haku felt worn out because of the blistering heat.

—This beer is delicious!

Even the guests that enjoyed their service were slumped forward over their tables.

“… Haah…”

“… See, isn’t this heat too much for Ilya, too~?”

Cynthia looked happy from seeing Ilya like that for some reason, but the girl’s mood being dampened was due to something else.

It was because of the people in front of her.

“… Ilya, to the village…”

Despite him being worn out from the heat as well, the elder hadn’t gone back.

“Elder. Please return home.”

“… I can’t a.s.sent.”

“Don’t throw a tantrum, now, please go and return to the village.”

“… Don’t wanna.”

He really was acting like a spoiled child.

Ilya’s decision of forcibly sending the elves her came with him as escorts back to the inn was the correct choice. If they saw the elder doing something like that, it wouldn’t be weird even if a revolution happened in Fountain Village.

“Stop that. You weren’t able to subdue Sylph. Am I wrong?”

“… No.”

“Then—”

“… I need you.”

Ilya wanted to move herself away from the bottom of her heart after hearing that come from a grown man’s mouth.

The only feelings gushing forth from having a man who was born more than two hundred years ago depend on her were those of disgust.

Even if she she’d prepared an excuse to get him to give up, it was no good. Giving the impression of being a woman that made use of people’s goodwill was no good.

She didn’t know what those patriarchs would do in the case that he starting being hostile and ended up dying by needing to be physically removed.

She let out a sigh at how cornered she was in this situation.

“Please, just dislike me…”

“… I’ll decide my own will.”

He said something pretty cool, but everything else was messed up.

The person who came over to Ilya thinking, “Isn’t it fine leaving well enough alone?”, was Katie, who should have been serving tables.

“Ilya… can you think of anything…?”

Katie, looking like she couldn’t so much as stand anymore due to the heat, begged Ilya.

Even though it was something easy to ask for, it wasn’t so easy to come up with a way to deal with the heat.

(Warm baths… hotpot… vegetables that lower body temperature aren&rs

quo;t in season right now…)

It was just as she started looking around trying to think of some idea that it happened.

Sitting outside of the window was a snow sculpture that was able to keep its shape even in this heat wave because of her magic.

You’d need to unravel the magic in order to cool down with the snow’s coolness.

However, the moment the magic was unfastened, they would melt.

“… In that case, let’s melt them.”

Puzzled, Katie tilted her head to the side.

When there’s someone feeling listless in front of another, it causes a vicious cycle of causing that person to feel listless as well.

So, she decided to do it now rather than later.

Lunéville sat in darkness, only the lights of streetlamps casting light.

When the man sensed the presence of someone in a back alley, he nonchalantly entered it as though disappearing from the street.

“… Who is it?”

The woman that should have been in the man’s office simply smiled at him.

But even so, after that brief moment of time, the woman returned to being her usual expressionless self and took out an envelope from within her clothes.

“A mission. Here are your orders.”

“… That so. I’d like to ask a question then.”

Looking at the subject matter contained in the letter, the man immediately adjusted his plans.

The woman listened to his request and nodded, melting back into the darkness.

They could reinforce their observations on worrisome things with this.

So he felt relieved for a brief moment.

“… It’s hot.”

Seeing the woman off, the man complained with a whisper and, together with sighing, switched gears as he walked back out from the back alley.

Although it wasn’t as dark on the street because of the lamps, it was still dark.

The man didn’t lose sight of the road even in the darkness, walking forward in silence.

Water droplets splashed. Bodies were getting wet.

Smiles and joyful shouts were abundant in a certain plot of land that was being used as a material depository until just a few days before.

However, it was no longer that vacant area. There was a huge circular tank filled to the brim with water.

“This pool… feels so nice…”

Floating at the edge of it, Katie muttered with an expression that looked like she was in a trance.

Holding onto a circular swimming ring next to her, Ria was also floating in the water with a slackened face.

What they were wearing were swimsuits of course. They were ma.s.s produced by Ilya for different sizes, types, and genders through alchemy, rented out by the guild.

Ilya’s use of the skill that could even be called reckless was simply because she wanted to see so many women in swimsuits.

However, to these people that weren’t so used to playing in water parks, the swimsuits evoked a sense of shame similar to underwear.

Even so, Ilya didn’t give up.

“Pools are such a luxury though, right~?”

“You’ll feel like you’ve turned into an Ojou-sama after renting one of these swimsuits!”

“Don’t you want to enjoy yourself in a pool and feel great too?”

Emotions overruling reason, she skillfully played at people wanting to feel like part of the upper elite.

Her actions were shameless, but she didn’t regret them, nor would she repent.

“Kya~! Stop it~”

“Aha, being unprepared is one’s greatest enemy!”

Because what she was now able to see unfold before her was the sight of many girls giggling and playing around.

“Ilya should come in too~”

“See~, Haku thinks so too, right~?”

“Pi!”

Anyhow, adults like Ria and Katie were cooling themselves off near the edge. The farther in you went the more children there were because there was a water fountain spraying water around in the center.

The water was sucked in from the ducts on the outside edges of the pool. The water flowing into the underground water tank was cooled through the use of a water stone meant for refrigerators and then filtered by a water stone that had filtration properties, improving the water’s sanitation.

That clean water was then drawn up to the middle with water stones that could funnel water.

“Really, I never thought that you could use the water stones meant for pumping wells like this.”

The one who made that remark next to Ilya was the birdkin, Elias, who was rescued from Sylph.

He was following Nina as she swam about energetically with his eyes, but he could only watch as he was still recovering.

Ilya was told that she had to supervise it all since she was the ’cause’ of it by the vice branch manager, so she was looking at the pool from the shade with Elias. [1]

Waving back at Nina who waved towards him super fast, he turned towards Ilya and bowed his head.

“Again, thank you. It’s thanks to you that I can be here, like this.”

“Please raise your head.”

Ilya shook her head to Elias, who looked up after being told to.

“The one who saved you is Nina. Not me, Partia, nor the elders. We only helped her do it.”

“… Even so—”

“In particular, I’m not the one you should be saying that to.”

She almost hadn’t realized it was Elias at first. Even though she had no more interest in men back when she was involved with Nina and the others than she does now, even apathy has a limit.

At any rate, what Ilya did was just her doing her job.

“I’ve received my reward, after all.”

When she first proposed to have a commission put out, Nina broke down in tears because she had no money.

As for what Ilya proposed to the crying girl, she proposed changing it from a monetary reward to an item reward.

An item reward allowed them to take the items obtained as an outcome of the commission as payment or give the items to the branch, the branch paying them money for the items. However, this method isn’t applicable in the cases where countries or lords are the commission proprietor. There is also the restriction that it is limited to guild members only.

They went with the latter in this case, so the Crystal Pillar of Wind, which had been shifted out of where it belonged due to Sylph having used it however he pleased, was retrieved and transferred to the guild.

“… That so. It would be rude to impose further then, wouldn’t it.”

“Yes.”

Ilya gave Elias, who was smiling with a bitter smile, a smile with no ulterior motives behind it.

“W-why do you two have such a nice atmosphere going oooon!?”

Soaking in the water far away, Nina shouted. Seeing her like that, Sylph just laughed.

When he told Nina that Elias just denied her for Ilya, she started chasing him for teasing her. Partia somehow got involved, eventually turning into a clamor that dragged Gabriel in.

“… In truth, I was worried.”

“Worried?”

Looking at Nina, Elias nodded.

“When I kept Sylph company so that he wouldn’t hurt her… I was worried that she might end up getting taken by some other guy…”

“… Haah.”

No way.

Did he sense Ilya’s shock?

Elias turned to her with an ashamed smile.

“In the a.s.sociation, there’s a saying that goes: a woman’s heart and winter wind change oft. You felt worried because of that, right?”

The wording was probably different from the original since she’d translated it through a skill, but the j.a.panese saying went like: a woman’s heart and autumn weather. [2] Implied end to the proverb: are ever changing.

(Was ‘winter wind’ how it went in the English version?)

Either way, both proverbs said that a woman’s love for a man was something easy to change, that the ups and downs of emotion were violent.

“If that’s the case, it’s alright. Haven’t you two overcome the winds of winter?”

“… We have, haven’t we.”

His side profile showed no uneasiness or insecurity, as though to show how their bond had deepened from this recent incident.

Ilya wondered if that was really true, though.

Even though they understood that their love for each other was mutual, both man and woman of different races sought out a way to become the same.

The girl who couldn’t suppress her love and went on a perilous journey to save her lover, going so far as to pick a fight with a great spirit.

And the man, who was unable to accept her sincerity despite being shown just how far she was willing to go after she shirked her duties and traveled so far to court him, was even so unable to give up on his love for her.

As long as it’s not a calamity, good weather is something that can be enjoyed with a bit of work.

“… Love… it’s harder to predict than the weather, isn’t it.”

“Eh—”

Did Elias take that as a prediction that Nina would be taken by some other man? His face cramped up.

“Please, make sure to take care of Nina, alright?”

(I won’t forgive you if you make her sad you know?)

When she told him that with a smile on her face, he nodded with a serious look.

In the end, Elias headed to the pool to stop Nina and everyone else. The trouble was dealt with immediately after they looked in Ilya’s direction.

“You know that Ilya will get mad if you keep on going right?”

Those words were even more effective than he thought they’d be.

And so everyone resumed playing around in obedience.

Satisfied at seeing Nina and the others wave at her with smiles on their faces, Ilya devoted herself to resting in the shade, alone.

Watching over them all without any troubles, she prayed that this moment would last forever.

Footnotes:This line also notes that she’s ‘sports sitting’ (sitting like one would in gym cla.s.s, grasping their knees), but I’m not too sure on how to fit that into the sentence.

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