Chapter 148

Chapter 148 \nThe General guild in the capital was the headquarters for the branches within the kingdom. As of now, I was walking to the guild in the 2nd district from the 1st district where the First Magic Academy was located. With many of the citizens beginning their daily activities, the main street that ran through the middle of the capital was bustling. \n

Many of them wore adventurer/explorer-styled combat clothing. The main street was also full of merchants and workers. I had the impression that this world had a mixture of medieval and modern styles similar to my world. It’d been half a year since I fell into this world, and while I’ve been here, I had one certainty. 

There were other people from my world here besides me. That I was sure of. 

However the number of people here couldn’t be that much, and their impact had been little on this world. What was the major influence on my old world was analog technology and a desire to improve the standard of living. This included toys, entertainment, and fashionable clothing. 

The influencing factor here was magic. Fields such as politics, the government structure, science and medical care revolved around magic. I didn’t feel the ideals behind my world here. Spread out before me, the buildings in the center were made from stone. And where the quality of life began to drop off, wooden buildings began as a cheaper alternative. Though, it was typical of larger cities to use stone.

This was the influence of magic on construction. Stone was a building material bolded by magic and then shaped into a building. Given the influences of the humans of my old world, it wouldn’t have been weird to see reinforced concrete structures. However, I had yet to see any such building. 

As I walked, I thought about such things before I saw the guild.

I entered the premises of the guild and went to the main building to confirm where I could receive my reward for subjugating Garo’s Labyrinth. The main building was a place where people registered with the guild, held promotion exams, and received and gave out requests from their bulletin board. The information desk was also there. And similar to Barga, the guild’s layout reminded me of a bank with teller-like counters. 

It was full with adventurers who came to receive their requests. I waited out the rush and then moved to an open desk where I was greeted by a receptionist. \n

“Can I ask something?”

“Ah, yes, good morning. How may I help you?”

I came to receive a special reward I’ve yet to receive. Where should I go?”

“Do you mean something other than the usual request reward? Please let me see your card first. Before I can confirm any rewards, I have to confirm your identity.” 

I handed over my mercenary card. She took it and inserted it into the pedestal of the crystal ball that’d been placed behind the counter…. 

What kind of magical tool was this? Did it work like a personal computer?

While the receptionist operated it with a connected keyboard-like object, she paused and looked over to me to see my face.. But I wore my mask. After confirming my appearance, she returned to the ball.

“Ah, umm… Are you the person himself?”\n“No doubt.”

In response to my short reply, the receptionist’s face instantly flushed.

“Please wait a minute! I’ll report to my supervisor at once!”

She jumped away from the counter and ran over to another where a woman was sitting. With the sound sensor, I heard ‘Sha-Shaft-sama is here!’, ‘Shaft-sama? You mean that Black Nobleman?. I then heard ‘Yes, that’s right! It’s real!’ as they excitedly whispered. 

The supervisor turned to me. Our gazes met…. Was she from the elven race? The elf woman stood up and walked over. You could see her long green hair, golden eyes, and long ear tips pushing out of her straightened hair. Even though the elves were grouped together with the Dwarves as fey, they had no connection between the two. In addition, fey included people such as sirens of the open ocean and Dryads of forests.

Although they were clearly different from demons and the beast race, they were not evil like monsters. Despite being grouped together as fey. 

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. I’m Valvara, Deputy Guild Master of the General Guild of Kurtmerga. We will prepare a room in the back, may we talk about the rewards there?” 

“Alright, its fine anywhere.”

“Thank you. Then, she will be your guide, so please wait.” \n\n“That Shaft has appeared in the Royal Capital.” 

The bustle fell away with each step. Apparently, news that Shaft was in the capital would spread now. If I wanted to avoid getting entangled with some bothersome people. I had the option to change back to Schwartz, or use a completely different mask. However, I didn’t want to keep the fact that Shaft and Schwartz were in the same place at the same time.

Besides, if I kept pretending I was a different person with different masks, I’d be required to remove the mask and expose my real face for identity verification. There was the zombie facade for that, but if It were also exposed that it was fake as well, I wouldn’t know what to do after. It’d become a mess later on.

“Here it is, the Deputy Guild Master will be here soon, so please wait.”

“– Thank you.”

“— ! N-o problem!”

The receptionist, who’d been calm a moment again, suddenly turned bright red and sprinted back to the lobby. The room I’d been guided to was an ordinary reception room with sofas and a table. I sat on one sofa and watched the blips on my map move around… It was strange… There were four blips that I thought would head to this room, but they all entered the adjacent room immediately, and one of them moved towards this room. 

Three of them remained unmoving while the fourth got close to the wall separating the rooms. When viewed from my spot, there was a painting on the wall. A picture of a man and woman who sat around a fire eating. How to say…. This was really old-fashioned..