Volume 1 – Intermission
Guild’s Receptionist, Almast I
—Almast—
「………Kh.」
Two days after the appearance of the mutated hydra, behind the receptionist counter in the labyrinth city’s adventurer guild, I muttered that with a pale face.
My behavior was clearly suspicious, even the adventurers were looking at me suspiciously.
Even so, I couldn’t pretend like nothing happened.
The reason I was like this was because I was hiding the existence of the hydra to everyone else which later showed up already mutated.
Hiding the hydra’s existence was a serious crime.
The receptionist that did this would certainly be fired, and in the worst case, they could even put into the jail for several days.
…But with how the hydra that showed up was already mutated, the punishment given to me would be incomparably heavier compared to just hiding the hydra’s existence.
I would surely be enslaved or given more punishment.
「I… why did I hide the hydra’s existence…」
My body trembling from my imagination and I muttered my regret.
I couldn’t stop my body from trembling when I imagined what would happen to me in the future.
They were currently investigating the abnormalities where the hydra mutated in such a short time and hadn’t realized I was hiding its existence.
But it was just a matter of time before I got found out.
The negative future I predicted drained blood from my face.
I felt the impulse to just run away from here, but it was too late now and would only make my crime became heavier.
Because I knew that, all I could do was to work as a receptionist like usual to alleviate the suspicion on me.
With all the doors to my escape closed, my heart was slowly getting cornered.
「…I didn’t do wrong.」
……And then, having reached my limit, I ran away from reality.
「…I’m not involved with the hydra’s mutation. I’m just unlucky. Why should I get blamed for it?」
In a small voice, I repeatedly murmured words to defense myself to convince myself so.
……For the sake of my own protection, I turned my eyes away from the reality that because I hid the hydra’s existence, if we were unlucky, the labyrinth city getting obliterated was a possibility.
「That’s right, why do I have to become a slave? Isn’t it the hydra’s fault for mutating? I’m just a victim here.」
The feeling of guilt was completely gone from my heart, in turn, it was dominated by the perception that I was only a victim.
I’m just a victim of the hydra’s anomalous mutation, it’s not me that’s at fault, was what I thought.
……However, there was no way reality would change just because I was averting my eyes from it.
The unchanging sight in the adventurer guild reminded me that no matter how much I tried to running away from reality, that meant nothing.
No matter how much I convinced myself that I was a victim, there would still no hope in my future.
「Kh!」
Even when I knew there was nothing I could do, I still couldn’t accept that I would become a slave.
While being fretful from the unavoidable fate that drew near slowly but surely, biting my lips, I looked around to find something I could rely on.
「Umm, err, I’m going to pick some flowers for a bit.」
「Okay, then I will see what we can do for tomorrow’s request.」
——By chance, Raust and his martial artist companion who were talking happily entered my sight.
The moment I saw them, my face distorted.
Raust, a healer that once despised as a defect, have now become an adventurer whose name widely known not only in the labyrinth city, but even in the capital city.
It seemed they were rumored to become the next world-class party after they defeated the hydra with only two people with little to no damage.
……It was the opposite of my situation who was being afraid of being turned into a slave.
Until just a little while ago, our standing was very different.
I was the exclusive receptionist for a first-class party, Sword of Lightning, on the other hand, Raust was a subject of scorn by the people in the labyrinth city.
「…Why!」
But, now Raust position had risen dramatically.
In this situation, I couldn’t hide my resentment and hatred against him.
Even more so when I realized that if Raust stayed in the Sword of Lightning, then I wouldn’t be cornered this far.
……Not stopping the Sword of Lightning aside, I resented Raust.
「At least, if Raust is in Sword of Lightning, then the credit is……」
If Raust is a member of Sword of Lightning, then his feat would be credited to Sword of Lightning, and that also means, I, as their exclusive receptionist, would also get the credit.
Thinking so, I sighed.
「Hah-! In that case!」
At that time, I came up with a way to take some credit of Raust achievement for myself.
The moment I came up with the method, my mouth relaxed.
In this case, I might be able to avoid becoming a slave.
「I’m sorry, I will be going for a bit.」
「Eh? Ahh! Y-Yes!」
Right after I thought that, I said so to the receptionist next to me and then I walked toward Raust.
Fortunately, that troublesome martial artist was not by his side currently.
No one can get in the way of what I’m trying to do now.
As I thought so, I opened my mouth toward Raust who was eagerly looking for a quest with a beaming smile.
「Can you spare me a little bit of your time?」
「………Huh?」
The next moment, when Raust noticed the one that talking to him was me, he let out stupid sounding voice, however, without caring about that, I continued.
「Can you come with me?」
So I might be missing the context a little bit because there is no way the punishment of something that’s regarded as a serious crime is only, at worst, getting jailed for a couple of days, maybe it’s more like tortured inside the jail for a couple of days? I’m pretty sure I translated it right, just not sure the thought behind this punishment system
Also, have I mentioned I don’t like translating Almast chapter? Because I do, so I’m sorry that this is slower than usual
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Thanks for the chapter!!
So looks like she’s as stupid as those two shitheads, huh? Guess she’s trying to lead him to bed and make take responsibility or something?
I think it’s only jail for a several days because she used to be a First-Class Party receptionist, so they only give her this much punishment looking at the achievements she had?
Also, yes, you said that you hate translating Almast’s chapters before, and I actually hate reading them, but I read them because it has something to do with the story
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Thinking about it some more, while it’s considered a serious crime, ONLY hiding the existence of a super-high difficulty monster might not be as severe as I imagined, considering world-class adventurers exist, it’s probably on the ground of “as long as it doesn’t claim victim and get resolved before it does, it’s not a big deal, but because of the potential disaster, we’re categorizing it into serious crime”
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There’s that, too, but we won’t know until they explain it to us, tho…
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The problem isn’t just hiding the existence of the hydra, which isn’t super serious. She is also at fault indirectly for its mutation. If she hadn’t hid its existence, it wouldn’t have had the possibility of mutating in the first place.
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No, it should still be a big deal even when there’s little damage done…
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Man, this novel has so many a**holes that are practically begging to be hated.
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those three deserves to be places in the mines… who knows, maybe something ‘wonderful’ would happen to Almast…being just a receptionist without Strenghtening Magic…
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she wouldn’t be a mine slave then, but a slave mine, if you know what I mean
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Guild receptionists are normally attractive people. brothel or nobles/merchants “concubine” are her most likely outcomes. My guess is the former as she is likely to be considered used/inferior goods
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Thanks for the chapter, they’re a stupid morons
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wtf…theres stupid then theres STUPID…this story is losing me each chapter
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Thanks for the treat.
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That sounds right.
Hiding the fact: prison for a few days.
Hiding the fact and thus producing a (near) catastrophy: slavery.
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I guess Raust was never taught not to talk to strangers … especially strangers that had treated him very badly in the past … and yes a counter person you see daily (or once a week or so) would count as a stranger or at the very least a very distant acquaintance if dealt with a lot, which is still basically a stranger since it’s dealing with a professional mask and not the friend mask
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He has not gone with her yet, only reacted to being called out with surprise.
Hopefully he lets her have it in public, especially since he KNOWS she was aware of the hydra.
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I could see a light sentence if she was hiding it for a couple days, for someone who would be able to handle it, and not hiding it after they fail. But after the idiot couple’s 2nd failure and locking themselves away for a couple days to I assume drink away their sorrows she has 0 excuses for not realizing that those idiots could not handle it.
After they lost their status and were heavily fined (but not enough to compensate for all their wrongdoings) she REALLY should have stopped hiding it…
“Raust was a subject of scorn by the people in the labyrinth city”
Wasn’t he kind of liked and respected by the people, and it just the criminal scum (adventurers and guild staff) treating him like crap, or does she only think of the adventurers as people?
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It’s more like the city is segregated between adventurers and citizen, it could be she doesn’t know that people actually respect Raust, and just assume all citizen consider adventurers as bad
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Thanks for the chapter.
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It would never occur to her to simply confess and ask for leniency or at least try to say she was threatened by the Sword of Lightning to keep quiet huh? Just go straight to antagonizing the one person she should be asking forgiveness from? Ok then…
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just hope, he doesn’t go with her.
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Thanks for the intermission.
Man… that receptionist is an idiot. You can’t seduce Raust, he only has eyes for his lady. Besides, she’s already in hot water for making up a contract that forced that one healer chick who replaced Raust to stay with the party. Her crimes keep piling up due to the ego she had from being the exclusive receptionist for a first class party. But unlike the two other idiots, at least she knows that she’s trying to escape reality. It makes her slightly less of a scumbag, but still a scumbag nonetheless.
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Let me guess, this idiot is gonna try seducing him
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haaa, she still assume he’s very naïve.
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You are the one who sounds stupid.
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