## Chapter 2 – Kobold Hunt
“Pardon?”
Hoping it might be an invitation to join a party, I turned around, brightening up, only to see a small nun with red hair standing there.
Judging by the nun’s habit, she was definitely from the [Order of the Radiant Cross]. There were so many churches in the city, each worshipping a different god, that it was easy to get confused, but looking at the overall blue tint of her clothes and the shape of the cross necklace, I was pretty sure I was right.
“Are you perhaps looking for a party?”
“Yes… I am.”
The nun’s face looked stern, serious, and solemn, a bit out of place with her small stature. Anyway, she asked me with that expression. Her tone was very polite, so I raised my voice in response.
And quietly scanned her.
Who the hell was this? She was a complete stranger. When you hang around the guild, you tend to remember faces, even if you don’t know names, but the nun in front of me was a complete newbie.
If there was a small nun with such distinctive red hair, I would definitely remember her, but I had no recollection of ever seeing her before, so she was definitely a stranger.
Was this her first time at the Adventurer’s Guild?
She looked young, probably a minor. By my standards, she was just a kid, but in this crazy world, you’re an adult as soon as you enter middle school. An unbelievably harsh world. It seemed she had become a nun at that age, doing her part. Like most clerics in this world.
“Nice to meet you. I am Elise, a lower-ranking nun affiliated with the Order of the Radiant Cross.”
The nun introduced herself abruptly.
So, it was the Order of the Radiant Cross.
I introduced myself as well.
“Ah, I’m Katt, an E-rank adventurer. Are you perhaps interested in forming a party with me, Sister?”
Living as an adventurer, you often end up working with nuns and priests, but like most religious people in this era, most of them were hopeless psychos.
Among them, the people of the Order of the Radiant Cross were rumored to be the most insane of the bunch. I hadn’t met them personally, but that’s what the rumors said. Of course, the rumors could be exaggerated, or even understated.
Was she really asking me to join her party?
“…Hmm. If I may be so bold, I’ve been watching you for a while now, and you haven’t been able to find a job. Is that correct?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. There wasn’t anything left.”
Hearing that, I scratched the back of my head, feeling a little embarrassed. My face was flushed. What was this nun doing, watching me? Well, my appearance is a bit eye-catching by this world’s standards. Mostly because of my hair color.
“Then, would you like to join my party? I have a decent job.”
She said it so boldly that I almost jumped up and shook her hand.
A helping hand like this to someone like me, who was dying from lack of work…?
My stomach was more important than anything, so I wasn’t in a position to be picky, but I was a little suspicious of such a tempting offer. Was this some kind of new organ trafficking scheme or something? My organs aren’t worth anything.
“Oh, I’d be delighted, but… what kind of job is it?”
“Actually, I don’t know if you can call it a quest… I received an order from the church, are you interested?”
“An order from the church?”
That was fucking interesting.
I’m so easily swayed.
“I’m not in a position to be picky about jobs. I’d love to work with you, Sister.”
“Oh… Then let me explain.”
Elise’s straightforward explanation followed.
“According to our investigations at the Order of the Radiant Cross, kobolds have emerged from their dungeon for some unknown reason and are constructing some kind of heretical idol. The church has observed a significant number of them, and has ordered me, a lower-ranking nun, to test my abilities. They want me to destroy the heretical idol and retrieve the symbol.”
Kobolds came out of their cave?
That was a bit interesting.
Kobolds are bipedal monsters that look like rats with an ant-like ecology, living only in the underground dungeons they create. They don’t usually come out of their caves, so it was quite unusual for them to crawl out onto the surface and build something. And those guys are blind to begin with. I heard their eyesight is almost completely atrophied from living in caves.
Something I’d never seen or heard of before.
I was a little intrigued.
“So, I received an advance payment from the church, and if we succeed in the request, I will give you 1 silver as a reward.”
“…!”
1 silver!
I wanted to jump up and shout 1 silver on the spot, but I exercised superhuman patience and swallowed my scream.
1 silver!
Was that even a reasonable amount? An amount you could only earn by completing two or three decent E-rank quests at once!
Losing my reason, I grabbed Elise’s hands.
“Huh?”
“I’ll do it no matter what. I absolutely have to do it. I will burn myself for the prosperity of the Order of the Radiant Cross!”
When I shouted that, Elise’s expression, which had seemed like a wooden statue, immediately brightened.
“Well, you’ve made the right choice! Let’s destroy the heretical idol together!”
Her face, genuinely happy, seemed no different from that of any ordinary teenage girl.
The members of the Order of the Radiant Cross are all crazy, my ass. There was no such lie. Adventurers’ rumors can’t be trusted. Their reliability was close to zero.
“But don’t you have any other party members besides me? Seeing as you’re gathering people yourself, you must have gathered some decent guys.”
At those words, Elise froze.
“Of course, I’ve tried to invite several people since receiving the order.”
She hesitated a little.
“But it hasn’t been easy to find people. I don’t know why, but everyone turned me down. So, you’re Katt, right? I saw you being rejected at the counter and approached you with that in mind… You’re the only one so far.”
“Is that so?”
Hmm, everyone turned her down.
I guess so.
Who would suddenly want to join a party with a lower-ranking nun they’ve never met before? Adventurers prefer people they’ve seen around, not complete strangers. It’s a bit much to do something with someone you don’t know.
And if it’s the Order of the Radiant Cross, which has a bad reputation, there’s no need to mention it.
And the request isn’t through the guild, but an order from the church, so it looks dangerous, doesn’t it?
In other words, it’s not a quest that the church requested from the Adventurer’s Guild, but Elise, who received an order from the church, gathered people and made the request herself, so you can’t get credit for it at the guild. So, it’s understandable that other guys are avoiding it.
“Well, that can happen. People can be found if you look for them. Let’s look together.”
But there shouldn’t be any problems.
In my smart opinion, the church wouldn’t give such a dangerous job to a lower-ranking nun who looks so young.
The number of nuns and priests is the church’s strength, so would they try to kill them by making them do crazy things? It’s common sense to cherish them. I think this is some kind of training.
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. Then, would about four people be enough?”
“Huh? Four people…?”
Was there a problem? Elise was shocked at the mention of four people.
Generally, when doing quests, it’s best to gather four people. The more people, the better, but if you go beyond that, there’s nothing left to divide the request fee, and there’s always one piece of trash. But if you go with too few people, it’s dangerous.
So, four was the perfect number.
But looking at Elise’s attitude, it seemed like four wasn’t enough.
Did we need more people? Such a large-scale quest?
I don’t know what the kobolds are doing, but since they’re working on the surface, not going into their cave, it didn’t seem like we needed that many people.
“Actually, the advance payment I received from the church is 2 silver… Including me and Katt… It would be difficult if we exceeded three people.”
“Huh?”
What the hell was she talking about?
“If we set the request fee at 1 silver per person, the maximum we can hire is two people.”
I felt a little confused here. The conversation didn’t make sense.
Did this woman not know the weight of 1 silver? Or was this request that difficult? The opponent was just kobolds. The guys who live their whole lives in underground dungeons have almost completely atrophied eyesight and can’t see.
There’s nothing they can do even if they come out on the surface. Unless they suddenly gained sight. It was a bit strange that those guys were coming out and making heretical idols, but what could I do? I didn’t have any other jobs.
Still, I decided to ask.
“But wouldn’t it be better to find four people for 50 coppers each?”
“Huh? 50 coppers? No one would want to do it for such a cheap price, would they?”
Oh my god.
Well, no wonder I’d never seen her before, she just didn’t know the market price. If you only live in the church, you might not know. She was probably a real rookie who had just come out of the church. The hard-headed church guys clearly hadn’t taught her proper economic sense.
Well, even if you ignore that, she was ignored even when she tried to offer 1 silver, so it’s not strange that she misunderstood its value a little.
“Uh… most people wouldn’t think so. Well, let’s just try to find one more person. I think a melee fighter or a mage would be good.”
Still, 1 silver was better than 50 coppers, so I decided to shut up.
Risk-taking? Tell the kobolds to fuck off. If you don’t have money, you have no choice but to gamble.
Above all, kobolds outside the dungeon can’t be my opponents. It’s a problem if you ignore my E-rank adventurer experience. Kobolds are dangerous because they swarm in the pitch-black dungeons where not a single ray of light enters, but the guys who give up that advantage and crawl out of the cave are not even worth a fistful.
“I guess so.”
So, Elise and I were busy trying to find the last person. But of course, it didn’t work out. Glancing at Elise, I felt a little sorry for her as everyone left before she could even finish explaining.
“Fuck.”
But I felt more sorry for myself. No one paid attention to what I was saying. They even blatantly ignored me.
“Hey, wanna party with…”
“Ah, I have a prior engagement.”
I mustered up the courage to talk to someone I knew, but I was dumped in less than three seconds. These shitty bastards… I have so few friends… Am I a complete loser in this world?
I even had to listen to gossip as I went around talking to this guy and that guy.
“That black-haired guy… isn’t that the guy named Katt?”
“Ah, that slant-eyed barbarian. I heard he’s terrible.”
“But is it okay for a barbarian to be in the city? I wonder about that.”
I wasn’t even surprised to be treated like a barbarian anymore.
It was discrimination I had been experiencing since I first came to this world. Black hair. This racist trait was unmistakably a characteristic of barbarian nomadic tribes.
I thought I had adapted somewhat after reaching E-rank, but it was still unforgiving.
Come to think of it, I had been beaten up because of this when I was living as a beggar.
Still, on the bright side, I was grateful that I wasn’t being treated like an orc just because I was Asian. If Asians were treated like orcs, I would have been stabbed to death a long time ago. But I’ve never seen a real orc, so I don’t know. Anyway, you bastards.
“You fucking cunts.”
After that, I tried talking to a few more people, but they all turned me down.
At this rate, I’d have to grab a complete F-rank newbie and use them, but as an old-timer, I suddenly felt like I was going to die of stomach pain when I thought about an F-rank riding my bus for a job with 1 silver on the line, so I decided to quit.
How did I get from F-rank to E-rank?
I’m originally a narrow-minded and greedy person.
“Katt. I couldn’t find anyone.”
“Me neither, damn it.”
The dejected Elise returned. I was also dejected.
Spending time like this without end didn’t suit my personality. The time has come to make a decision, Admiral…!
“Alright, Sister Elise! Let’s just do it ourselves!”
