Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de Chapter 103

A while after Renya returned from the Miasma Forest, a letter was delivered to his home.
The name of Trident Principality's Duchess was written on it, it had sealing wax applied to it and moreover, for some reason Renya didn't understand at all, it was fully permeated with the scent of perfume. It was an extremely elegant letter.
Renya's name had been noted down as recipient, but since it was so refined, or rather because of its fine quality, or maybe because it looked expensive, albeit, since it was such an item, Renya ended up wavering whether it really would be okay for him to open it and as such, decided to call Rona to get her opinion.
Things will go south, if I make a mistake regarding who I ask for their opinion.
In that aspect Rona, is excellent as a priestess, also has experience as a knight and above all she also possesses a noble's lineage.
You could say that she is the perfect person to ask for a sensible opinion from.
Rona, who had arrived after being called, received the letter from Renya and widened her eyes slightly, but gave the letter back to Renya right away. She explained that it's not uncommon for a woman with a certain level of social status to, out of trivial consideration, sprinkle perfume onto a letter when sending it.
Given that perfume itself is already a considerably expensive good, it also tells one that the sender is from quite wealthy background.
The crest that had been pressed into the sealing wax had the same design as the one decorating the sword Shion owned.
While once more confirming that Shion is indeed someone belonging to the archduchess' lineage, Renya breaks the letter's seal.
The letter's content starts of with an apology for Shion and Mayria always causing trouble and gratitude for receiving Renya's favor in that regard. It then continues by carefully lining up words indicating that she'd like to ask Renya to take care of the two from now on as well, and at the last part it finally mentions the place and time for the sham battle with Duke Baltan.
The location is a plain on the west side of Kukrika and the soldiers of Trident Principality will prepare the place.
The time is three days later, after the first afternoon bell rings.
From Renya's intuition, he deduces that the first bell of afternoon would indicate the time called 13 o'clock (T/N: 1 pm) in his former world.
As much as he looked, Renya hadn't seen any devices in this world that could tell the time in a very detailed manner. Due to this it has become a custom for the soldiers to ring the bells located in the city when it was time to start working in the morning and in the afternoon.
According to Renya's muscle memory, that was 8 o'clock and 13 o'clock.

“I guess that part is mostly the same no matter where you are.” (Renya)

“What are you talking about?” Rona asks the muttering Renya.

“It's nothing”, after shaking his head, Renya folded the letter properly and put it back into its envelope.

“You will accept, right?” (Rona)

Renya nodded at Rona, who's apparently probing for a confirmation.

“More or less I have given my word, haven't I? I'm obliged to go if I'm told to do so.” (Renya)

“Are you scheming something?” (Rona)

“Not really? Why do you think so?” (Renya)

Rona answered Renya, who returned her question with a look full of curiosity, while glaring daggers at him.

“I just have a vague feeling.” (Rona)

“That's not a look one would use just from having a vague feeling.” (Renya)

Those were words that seemed to criticize her, but Renya says them in a tone that doesn't carry even the slightest trace of such an intention.
Rona noticed that Renya's look was faltering, as if avoiding looking her way, although it was really faintly.
He's definitely up to something.
And there's no mistake that it's something improper.
Rona thought while being almost fully convinced of it.

“… Is Shion going to appear at the sham battle as well?” (Rona)

“Please try asking her that yourself. Though I don't want to send her out.” (Renya)

Being told so honestly by Renya, Rona tilted her head to the side apparently not having expected that.
Because it's Renya, she thought that he would joyfully make Shion, who trained together with them, participate in the upcoming sham battle.

“Can I ask for the reason?” (Rona)

“Tentatively she is as she is and she's also the daughter of Her Majesty the Archduchess, yet she just barely scratches the surface of the general concept of the word Her Highness the Princess, right?” (Renya)

“Please abstain from mentioning that in front of her. Although I can't deny it.” (Rona)

Rona spits out with a sigh.
Renya's look turned slightly gloomy.

“You are quite terrible as well.” (Renya)

“Meaning that you can deny it then, Renya?” (Rona)

Renya immediately raised the white flag at Rona who urges him to answer while asking “So, how about it?”
He doesn't intend to belittle Shion pointlessly, but it's a fact that he cannot deny it. And a fact remains a fact.

“I can't. But I guess Shion is fine like that. At least  I don't really mind it.” (Renya)

Renya declared without hesitation.
I'm pretty sure Shion would be happy and go all limp, Rona considers it as slightly unfortunate that Shion isn't present.
Going by Renya's character, the probability of him saying such words in front of the person herself is extremely low.

“Even though it would be great if you lifted her spirits by telling her in person.” (Rona)

“Impossible.” (Renya)

Renya shot her down with a short and immediate reply.
Rona stares at Renya's face while thinking it would have been charming, if his cheeks had blushed here, but there's absolutely no sign of his facial color changing.
In Rona's eyes, the impression that Renya does too many things that are unsuitable for his age is strong.
Even when I used my seductive techniques to get what I wanted, he didn't fall for them.
And although he looks to be weak when teased in that area, it doesn't show on his face.
At least until before she met Renya, Rona possessed a high confidence in her own charm, but after easily failing in creeping into his bedroom at night, she has started to partially lose that confidence.
Incidentally, since she has heard that Shion likewise failed after going for a night crawl into Renya's bedroom, there were also times where she wondered whether Renya has no interest in women.
However, since there are some reactions from him, she interprets it as him (probably) not having an inclination towards men.

“It must be Croire-san's skirt line's iron defence…” (Rona)

That one's definitely weird as well, Rona ponders.
The only one within Renya's party whose skirt length ends above her knees is Croire. Even though she performs quite extreme movements without hesitation with the characterical agility of elves, one can't see inside her skirt at all.
With the skirt's shortness, there should be countless opportunities, such as the instant when she dodges or when the wind blows, but Rona has never ever seen within Croire's skirt.
Rona wouldn't be surprised even if there was some strange power that's not known to humans at work or if the skirt was sewn while using mithril yarn. But as it's a characteristic that cannot be seen with the skirts bought in shops around here, it's not unreasonably for her to end up thinking that Croire's skirt uses some kind of trick either.

“Huh?” (Renya)

“It's something private. So, what are you planning to do until the designated date, Renya?” (Rona)

Having been asked, Renya showed a slightly displeased expression.
He apparently suspected that Rona would monitor him so that he doesn't come up with something strange in the end, but managed to answer somehow,

“Don't worry. I will limit it to going around as an adventurer. I will merely try asking for consultations.”

“What kind of consultations would you need… well, never mind. But as your void storage is groaning with the magic stones and raw materials you obtained in the Miasma Forest, you have to change those into money and distribute it to Keith and the others.” (Rona)

“In that case it would be best to sell them at the adventurer's guild. If it's that place, they will take the majority of items in one batch.” (Renya)

“I see. Then I will go with you.” (Rona)

Renya holds out the letter of the archduchess towards Rona with a “Here you go”.
When Rona, who ended up accepting it somehow due to the flow of events, tried to return it to Renya in a hurry while wondering whether he possibly intends to stand her up with the excuse of not having the letter, Renya had already left with a dash.
Renya succeeded in running away from Rona, but next he was caught by Fritz in the adventurer's guild, when he visited in order to sell the raw materials.
Renya didn't know from where Fritz had heard about his movements, but just as Renya was about to start negotiating the price of the materials at the guild's counter, his shoulder was grabbed from behind.
In front of Renya, who turned around to complain about such an impolite behaviour, stood Fritz with a smile on his face.

“Oh… is there something you need?” (Renya)

“It looks like you have been quite active. Please update your guild rank soon.” (Fritz)

“I'm not particularly troubled even if my rank doesn't go up…” (Renya)

“We are the ones troubled.” (Fritz)

While putting strength into his hand as if telling Renya “I will never let you run away”, Fritz' smile doesn't budge at all.
You know, even if a man is pointing a smile at me… Thinking that, Renya looked for an escape route while trying to ask,

“What's so troublesome about it? I don't think that it causes you any problems, does it?” (Renya)

The hand grabbing Renya's shoulder was filled with power.
Renya believed that this man called Fritz was simply a creepy guy who's in charge of office work, but he decided to slightly alter that way of thinking after having his shoulder grabbed by him.
It wasn't to the degree that he could feel pain, but Fritz' hand tightly grasped Renya's shoulder so that he couldn't shake it off so easily.

“Capable adventurers like your group being at the lowest rank is fraud, isn't it?” (Fritz)

“No one is bothered by that, right?” (Renya)

“In fact there are people bothered by it. It's mostly adventurers ranging from B to E rank though.” (Fritz)

According to Fritz, that's because Renya's name has quickly spread.
He says that it was the kind of gossip that was a mixture of lies and truths, but in the topics about him there's always one remark.
Namely, that the man called Renya is an adventurer at the lowest rank, F rank.
If the name of an F-ranked adventurer is that famous, the adventurers above that rank lose credibility.
That's because they end up being told things such as “Even though you are B-rank, you are weaker than that F-ranked adventurer called Renya?” or such.
In reality there were already several cases where adventurers who were unsuccessful, even though it didn't go as far as them failing a request, or had made mistakes at their job for various reasons, were told such things by their clients.
Of course it's not like Renya has done anything wrong, but demands to promptly raise the man called Renya to a higher rank have started to flow into the guild.

“A rank-up is troublesome. I don't want to take something like an examination. There's no merit for me even if I rank up.” (Renya)

“Originally you will be able to receive various kinds of assistance from the guild if you rank up, but…” (Fritz)

“You know, if the guild's assistance is above the abilities of me and my friends, I will consider it.” (Renya)

“Attractive assistance for you, who has connections to His Majesty the Elven Emperor and Her Majesty the Archduchess, is difficult.” (Fritz)

“Even so I will have you raise your rank, okay?” Fritz doesn't show any indication of pulling back.
Reluctantly Renya raises the index finger of his right hand.

“Exemption from the rank-up examination.” (Renya)

“Very well. I will approve of it as a special exception.” (Fritz)

Next the middle finger.

“From now on I'd like you to add an extra amount of money for the raw materials I sell.” (Renya)

“You still need money? An amount of money that's disconnected from common sense is impossible, but if it's within the bounds of common sense…” (Fritz)

Moreover the ring finger.

“The right to utilize the guild's distribution network.” (Renya)

“That comes with rank.” (Fritz)

“Then… umm…” (Renya)

If the other party doesn't pull back no matter what, I will add as many conditions as I can, Renya judges.
If the other side answers that it's impossible at some point, I will probably be able to refuse Fritz' request with that as reasoning or so he planned, but an answer stating that it's not possible hasn't appeared.
Renya, who was searching for another condition that would allow him to raise his pinky, was interrupted by Fritz putting even more strength into the hand grasping his shoulder.

“Hey, hey! I don't have have any preferences allowing me to enjoy being grabbed this strongly by a man.” (Renya)

“Do you get it? If you discuss most of the conditions with me, I will handle them carefully. I will promise you that here. Therefore, please accept the rank-up obediently.” (Fritz)

“… Roger. So, what rank will it be then?” (Renya)

“If we were to believe all the rumors, it would be fine to go with S rank, but as expected, it's impossible for me to offer you an exemption from the examination for such a rank. Accordingly, I will have you accept A rank, Renysan. Are we clear?” (Fritz)

Renya nodded with a somewhat fed-up expression due to Fritz' obvious enthusiasm to continue talking as long as he doesn't agree.
In Renya's eyes it's not something that exceeds his emotional standard of I don't give a damn about what rank I get.

“In connection with that, we will raise Shion-san's and Ronsan's rank up to B. Please explain this to them.” (Fritz)

“Why me?” (Renya)

“It's because they are ranking up alongside you.” (Fritz)

The reasoning behind this was that there's likely no way for F-rank adventurers to always act together with an rank adventurer so, it was apparently decided to raise Shion's and Rona's ranks as a consequence of Renya's rank-up.
For Renya something like the adventurer rank didn't matter at all, but Shion and Rona might unexpectedly be happy about their ranks going up.
If that is the case, it's possibly not a bad choice to concede here obediently, Renya begins to feel.

“Understood. I will explain it to them.” (Renya)

“Can I ask that of you? As a guild staff member will bring your new cards on another day, please exchange them for your old cards.” (Fritz)

After reminding Renya, Fritz called out to the staff member at the counter, pointed at Renya, and then, after sending them a sign similar to him pinching and releasing something between his thumb and index finger, he vanished inside the building.
It was apparently an instruction to add a little bit extra to the payout.
It's welcome as it serves as proof of my social standing, but an organization has too many various and troublesome matters after all, while thinking that, Renya started to take out the raw materials he had stored in his inventory.
The sales sum of the raw materials and magic stones hit a total amount that made the guild's staff member's face go a little pale.
The items themselves weren't overly rare, but it was the accumulation of continuous hunting throughout 10 days.
Meaning, that the amount was nothing to sneer at.
Nevertheless, for them to buy up everything and to pay in full probably deserves a high evaluation.
Whatever one might say, I guess the guild is amazing, Renya renews his assessment.
Renya, who headed straight to the military facilities with those funds, informed Keith and the soldiers below him of the date of the sham battle against the noble's private army, and after chatting for a bit, suddenly handed them the full amount.
Keith and the others demanded that Renya, who cared about the treatment of the injured and the preparation of the food without sparing time for sleep, is also given a share of the money, but this was flatly declined by Renya.
That's because he didn't feel inclined to receive any more money for himself, who received the reward from Mayria in advance.
A large part of his hesitation to accept any more money is owed to Renya being unable to wipe away the doubts that make him wonder whether he hasn't actually received too much.
Renya showed timidity at an unexpected place, but it seems the soldiers favorably interpreted it as their instructor-dono being a bigwig who isn't fixated on money.
While raising the soldiers' loyalty to a point he hadn't intended at all, Renya gave the soldiers the detailed instruction of resting their bodies comfortably until the sham battle in three days.

Chapter end