Protagonist Knows Everything

Chapter 17: Workspace



Rumors about the Hagnut guild entering a long term contract with the Siris Chamber spread quickly. I didn’t spread those rumors. It was all done by Ron.

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing he did.

“Have you heard?”

“Uh. It looks like the Wyvern Guild interfered with other guilds’ quests.”

“It was Burns.”

“I didn’t expect these things from Mr. Burns.”

“The problem is the guild leader of the Wyvern Guild.”

That summed up the conversation between adventurers for the past few days. According to the rumors, the reputation of the Wyvern Guild plummeted a lot. Ron must have spread the rumor on purpose.

‘He must’ve been furious after they tried to burn his assets.’

In addition, the Siris chamber cut off their connections with the Wyvern Guild. For the guild, it was like losing a big customer.

“This tastes good.”

Sain replied with a smile at my unexpected remark, “It should. This place is supposed to serve luxurious food only.”

As she said, we were sitting in one of the most expensive restaurants in Kelk city, not the usual adventurer’s bar.

This all started with Kasha’s remarks this morning.

“I’ll buy us dinner today!”

“Can I just deduct the meal fee from your monthly salary?”

“Wow, the grumpy Tay is trying to make a joke.”

It was a joke alright, but not all of it.

Kasha looked back at Sain and asked, “Do you have any time, as well?”

“Yeah? Am I invited too?”

“Sure. I completed several A-class quests and my pockets are quite loaded. I always save it, but I want to treat you to dinner today.”

Sain nodded her head in embarrassment. Maybe this was the first time an adventurer made such an offer.

Kasha said that she wanted to treat us to ‘expensive food’. So she told us to meet her at the ‘Moonlit Place’ tonight. And the place where I am sitting is that ‘expensive’ restaurant.

Sain said, staring at the luxurious dishes in front, “I don’t know, this might burden Kasha too much. She invited us in the heat of the moment…”

“Considering the monthly salary she receives, this is the least she can do.”

“…”

‘Huh, that sounded good inside my head.’

After waiting for a few minutes, I finally heard Kasha’s voice, “We are here.”

“We?”

“Yeah. We!”

As she said, there was someone standing behind Kasha. It was her younger sister whom I saw that day.

Before I had the chance to look up the register, she bowed her head and greeted us.

“Hi, nice to meet you. I am Elena Flame.”

After that I opened the personnel register, her information was registered.

[Name: Elena Flame]

[Gender: Female]

[Age: 15]

[Occupation: None]

[Equipment: None]

[Family Relations: Kasha Flame (Sister)]

[Potential: A-class(Development degree 0%)]

……

‘Well, the last one’s surprising.’

Then Kasha said, “I’m sorry for not introducing you before. She’s my younger sister… she….she’s nice.”

Then, Elena covered her mouth and laughed gracefully, quite unusual for her age.

“Huh.”

“Why are you laughing?”

“No. no. nothing.”

Then Kasha spoke in a worked up tone, “I wanted to introduce the friends I made in this city! So, I dragged Elena out here.”

There was an unusual shine in Elena’s eyes, maybe Sain noticed it as well. But anyway I decided to ignore it. For now.

“Anyway, nice to see you. Please take a seat.”

Then they took a seat and sat down. Kasha sat next to me, and Elena sat next to Sain.

“Maybe you planned to sit like beforehand?”

“Hmmm.” Kasha replied after coughing in an adult way.

“Did you place an order yet?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Then let’s do it quickly. You can order whatever you like today.”

As always Kasha was sitting there with her proud face while sticking out her chest. Elena smiled and gently intervened.

“My sister said she’d wanted to eat here with Mr. Tay, so she just starved herself the whole day.”

“Hey, hey. Why did you say that?”

“Sorry. Was that supposed to be a secret?”

“Of course!”

“Then she spent the evening choosing the right dress because she wanted to look good in front of Mr. Tay. Oh was that supposed to be secret as well?”

Then Kasha’s face was filled with embarrassment. She grabbed Elena’s cheeks and pinched them hard.

“Ah ah. That hurts… that hurts sis.”

“It’s called etiquette.”

‘Never thought I’d hear that word come out of Kasha’s mouth.’

Now I roughly understand the relationship between Kasha and her sister. It seems that her older sister’s grown-upness and the younger one’s carefree attitude were swapped. One would easily get confused if they didn’t know their exact ages.

Sain quickly stopped the two.

“Calm down. We have to order first.”

“Ah yes.”

“I am hungry.”

“……”

The restaurant’s atmosphere was really suited for a peaceful meal. The meal was really nice. Looking at Kasha’s pace, maybe Elena was telling the truth when she said that Kasha starved herself. Meanwhile, Elena was talking with us with a fairly noble and graceful manner.

“I know you moved from afar. Are you getting used to this place?”

“To be honest, it’s still difficult. Because I don’t know many people around here.”

“I see. Still, don’t worry. In Kelk City, the people are simple and kind, so you’ll get close to them really quickly.”

“Yeah. It certainly seems like that.”

There, Elena added in a bitter tone, “At least better than where we lived before.”

I knew exactly what she meant. She was definitely saying that before moving, Kasha was betrayed by her colleagues, and she wasn’t there to help her sister. She felt really bad about that. Her unusual gloomy demeanor proved my point.

Then Elena said, “Recently, I was looking for a job.”

“A job? At that age?”

Sain asked in surprise, and Kasha swallowed her food and replied instead.

“Please say something to her Sain, she’s so young right now. But still she’s looking for a job.”

Even when she first saw Kasha she was surprised. A world with no labour laws sure is scary.

Then Kasha muttered, “You don’t have to work, you know. I earn enough.”

“Sister. It’s not about that.”

Elena gently smacked Kasha as if she was her mother.

“It’s not because I don’t have money. I’m just trying to get used to the town more quickly.”

“……”

“I can’t always stay at home. People have to work to live.”

I liked her words.

“Still……”

“Really. So relax and finish eating. Clean your mouth. And eat properly”

Elena then wiped Kasha’s mouth with a napkin.

‘That should be the other way around.’

It was then. The waitress suddenly put down an expensive-looking wine on our table.

“Ugh. We didn’t order this.”

“The customer over there ordered this for you.”

The waitress pointed towards a table. Two men were sitting at the table. Both of them are characters I know very well.

Dirk Pechen…

Dirk waved at us and got up from his seat. The man sitting across from him, Burns Iai, also got up and approached us.

Then Dirk said, “I didn’t expect that I’d run into you here.”

Sain’s warm expression was gone. She replied in a chilly tone, opposite to the soft tone she had spoken to Elena so far.

“What is this? We aren’t close enough to receive drinks like this.”

“Sain… Still blunt as ever.”

Elena also noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere.

Even Kasha’s expression changed. That is to be expected. She is facing the same Dirk that broke her relationship with Kate. There’s no way she wouldn’t be angry.

‘Well, I was involved in that incident. A little bit’

In addition to that, there’s also a Burns who almost killed me during our quest.

“The Hagnut Guild has grown a lot. And they sure know how to get an A-class adventurer.”

Kasha responded to that, “The Hagnut Guild sure treats its A-classes better than you treat yours.”

Even though Dirk heard it clearly, he just ignored it.

“Isn’t that Ms. Kasha, who has become famous recently? The one who completed 5 A-class quests one after another.”

“……”

“Kate is still looking for you anxiously.”

I replied before Kasha could say another weird thing.

“Why are you here? Mr. Dirk.”

Dirk’s expression, which was relaxed and tense at the same time.

“I just stopped by to say hello.”

“As the greetings are over, there’s nothing more to look at.” After that I turned to Burns and asked, “How are the kids?”

Burns was agitated.

“They’re good.”

“That’s fortunate.”

Burns looked at Kasha and said, “Kasha.”

“What?”

“If Menain sees you, he will be very happy. Please contact me.”

Kasha’s face hardened terribly at his sarcastic tone, “How do you know Menain?”

“We met a few times when I was serving as an escort during the guild general meeting. We became a bit…friendly.”

“……”

“Ah, can you say hello in my place?”

I can roughly guess the circumstances. Menain must be the name of the guy who went on the A plus quest with Kasha before she moved to Kelk city. The trash that betrayed Kasha, left her to die in the collapsing dungeon, and falsely reported her death.

Kasha is trembling.

I said with a sigh, “Hey. Mr. Burns.”

Burnt replied with a sour face, “What?”

“Kasha is our guild’s precious adventurer.”

“My dear little adventurer.”

“……”

“Trying to verbally attack our precious adventurer isn’t a good idea.”

Burns’ eyebrows wriggled, “I should have cut you down that time.”

“If so, you would’ve been killed by Kasha.”

Burns opened his mouth to try to say something, but Dirk stopped him.

“Let’s stop. Mr. Burns.”

“Mr. Dirk. But…”

“There are a lot of eyes around here.”

It seemed like they were prepared to do more if we were in a different place. I didn’t want to say anything more but I did anyway.

“It would be bad if you lowered the reputation of the Wyvern Guild anymore than this.”

Hearing that Dirk laughed and said, “That’s right.”

“We have to look out for this guy.”

After that they left the restaurant.

Kasha, this girl. Are you sticking your tongue out on their backs now? Don’t do that. You are seventeen. It’s true that you’re a kid, but not kid enough to do that.

Kasha turned her head and said, “Really lucky hairs…”

“Sister. Fine words.”

“……”

“I’m sorry. When my sister gets angry, she has a habit of saying strange words.”

“I know very well.”

Elena politely apologizes to us. Then the atmosphere returned to being peaceful.

‘Maybe this was one of her talents.’

Sain replied in a soft voice, “Thank you for handling the situation Tay. I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

“No need to thank me. I was just doing my job.”

Kasha giggled for a bit then asked, “Tay. Please repeat what you said a while ago.”

“That thing.”

“Kasha is my dear little adventurer.”

“I remember saying that you were a precious adventurer for our guild.”

Kasha begins to mutter something alone. Did she eat something wrong?

I took a sip of water and looked at Elena. She had a deep and thoughtful face, not quite suited for her age. I want to say something, but not now. Anyway, there were brief interruptions, but the meal ended in a peaceful way.

Kasha came out of the moonlight, patting her stomach with satisfaction, she said, “Alas. I ate well. Where should we go now?”

“Sister. They have to work again tomorrow. They need to rest.”

“Ah.”

Kasha, who listens to her younger sister like a child, quitely nodded.

Then Sain said, “Thank you for the dinner Kasha.”

“No need to thank me.”

“So we’ll be taking our leave now.”

Just before leaving, Elena grabbed my sleeve and pulled me.

She whispered a little, “Mr. Tay. You should look out.”

“Huh?”

“No matter how you look at it, their relationship isn’t just like any other competitive guilds.”

She noticed Sain and spoke in a smaller voice.

“There must be another reason for their behaviour, it’s not just competition…”

“……”

“You might encounter situations like today again, it’s better if you look out.”

Look at her. Even though she just met us, she assessed this much of our situation.

‘You would look good at work.’

She looks promising enough.


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