A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation

Guilds in this world aren’t limited to the adventurers' guild.

One of the main ones is the Commerce Guild, and most merchants are registered there.

One of the benefits, which Judge often makes use of, is the “staff lending system.” When he goes to Malcaid, for example, he submits an application and usually leaves the shop in the hands of borrowed staff.

Judge’s shop mostly deals in rare and expensive goods, but even the loaned staff are graded. Some are good at working stalls, while others are capable of serving in high-class stores.

Hiring upper-grade staff costs a lot, but staking the Commerce Guild’s reputation on it, they will almost certainly never do anything that would lower the store’s dignity.

Appraisals have to be suspended—it can’t be helped—but it’s still better than closing the store for a long period.

In this way the shop hadn’t been completely shut; it had stayed in business, and now Judge was handling the aftermath.

There are quite a few one-of-a-kind dungeon items; if one has sold, he has to trace his connections again to find a replacement.

Fortunately, the “souvenir gift” his grandfather had practically forced on him kept the sales floor from looking too sparse—that was his one consolation.

The items weren’t originally meant for Judge, but when his grandfather tried to hand them over for free, Judge had all but shoved payment into his hands.

“…Huh?”

As he was busily arranging goods, Judge slowly let his gaze travel around the items lining the store.

The dungeon item shelf, the magical tool shelf, the shelf with goods for adventurers—even the small items were neatly organized; that was just Judge’s nature.

He kept track of the layout of not a few items, but there were a few spots where the arrangement didn’t match his memory.

Thinking the borrowed staff might have neatened things up, he leaned in for a look, stared for a few seconds, then again, “Huh,” and tilted his head slightly.

He checked the list of items sold while he was away, then peered into the shelf again.

Something was missing. Four dungeon items were gone, even though they weren’t listed as sold.

Looking more closely, he saw that the arrangement had been changed to cleverly hide the gaps, and his face went a shade paler.

His first thought was theft, but that didn’t quite fit either. A thief wouldn’t bother to perfectly rearrange the goods to cover up what had been stolen. And this shop shows no mercy to uninvited guests.

If that’s the case, then there was only one answer.

“…To have to lock horns with the Commerce Guild… that’s way too scary…!”

Even so, he couldn’t just swallow it and say nothing.

Half in tears, Judge hung a sign on the door reading “Out on business” and trudged away.

“Huh, it’s closed.”

“So that guy actually goes out sometimes.”

Remembering Judge always at his counter, working away, Gill muttered this, and Lizel gave a wry smile.

It was true he gave the impression of doing nothing but work, but in practice, he had gone to the Commerce Nation (Malcaid) with them and out drinking plenty of times. Still, Judge worked so hard that it wasn’t strange such an image had taken root.

Today they had come to get dungeon items appraised, which they’d obtained in the labyrinth during the request “[Seeking the scales of the scarlet butterfly found in the labyrinth ‘Forest of Mist’!]”.

It sounded simple, but being a rank c request, it had its quirks.

The job was one that people who are rough or short-tempered simply couldn’t handle; if it had been left to Gill, he probably wouldn’t have looked twice at it.

Lizel had taken the request partly because the client was a chef, and partly because he found it amusing that they wanted to use the material in a new dish they were developing.

As thick mist rolled around them and wolves and goblins kept attacking from the other side, the only reason they’d been able to slowly collect scales without killing the butterflies was entirely thanks to Gill.