Unwanted Undead Adventurer - Episode 42
“…Pffft! Y- you…” Lorraine says, spitting out her drink, after I come home from the labyrinth and tell her that I registered my name in the Adventurer’s Guild as Rentt Vivier while she’s relaxing with a cup of tea and writing.
“…Is everything alright?” I ask her as I wipe up the liquid on the ground.
“…In a way, it’s not… But why did you choose that name in the first place? Wouldn’t it look suspicious if you used my family name, since you and I were close to begin with?” Lorraine says as she holds her head, making a good point.
She’s not wrong, but the problem would have come to light sooner or later, since I’m using Rentt’s name and living in Lorraine’s house. I can’t say that I would have come to the conclusion that I should have used a different name. Well, that would get rid of the problem of being suspected of lying about my identity, but it would have meant that Lorraine had a strange man living in her house. That’s why I decided to take her surname, Vivier, and say that she’s related to me. I thought that, as long as I did that, it wouldn’t make much difference whether or not I used the common name Rentt, so I decided to use the name I’m used to. That’s generally what I tell Lorraine, and at first she looks at me like I’m an idiot, but her expression begins to gradually change to one of understanding.
“…Relatives, huh… Well, I guess that would make sense…”
“Right?”
“But, well… I wasn’t really worried about my reputation. I was seen as a strange person from the start, since I was a female scholar in such a remote area, so that wouldn’t change.”
It’s true that it’s rare for a woman to be a scholar. That’s not to say that they can’t become one. There are some who are vocal about that, but there are also those who simply find it physically demanding. There are a lot of monsters in this world, and scholars are more likely to encounter them than normal professions. In order to conduct research, you have to travel to different places on your own, and if you’re going to attend large scale conferences, you’ll have to travel a lot. For this reason, men with more basic physical strength tend to be more suitable for this job.
Of course, this generalization doesn’t apply to Lorraine, who is skilled enough to make it as a silver-class adventurer, but she is in the public eye. Even so, the percentage of female scholars in fields that don’t require a lot of fieldwork is increasing, but Lorraine’s work is in fields such as monsters and magic, where she must travel to lots of different places in order to investigate in depth. It was inevitable that she would have to do so.
However, Lorraine isn’t the type of person who cares about things like that. That’s why she’s still a scholar. If she made adventuring her main occupation, she could have avoided those kinds of discriminatory glances, but she didn’t, probably because she likes her job so much. Adventuring is completely based on merit, rather than gender. Of course, there are guys who are quick to say things like “It’s because you’re a woman,” but those guys are usually the ones who are lacking in ability. This is why, surprisingly, it’s easier for women to live in this community than as scholars. In fact, the Adventurer’s Guild trusts Lorraine quite a lot.
“I can’t let that happen. I’m in your debt, you know. I don’t want to get you into any more trouble.”
“That’s just like you, but… you don’t have to worry about it. You’re the one who’s been taking care of me all these years. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, I think you’ve done almost all of it. I owe you a little too much to say we’re even, though…” Lorraine says, smiling.
I’m very happy to hear her say that, and it makes me feel much better, but in reality, I’m probably the one who owes her the most. Normally, no matter how well you know someone who’s been doing some housework for you, if they suddenly showed up as an undead, you wouldn’t let them into your house, and you wouldn’t want to live with them. Besides, even if there was no danger, I bit Lorraine once and consumed her flesh. It would be normal for her to be afraid to keep me around. And yet, here she is, treating me as if I were a normal acquaintance, keeping me in her home when I have nowhere else to go. I’m grateful, from the bottom of my heart.
So, I say, “That’s not true… I’m still human thanks to you, Lorraine…”
“Rentt… Well, in that case, you can stay here as long as you want. After all, you’re my relative, right? There’s no need to be shy about family,” Lorraine says to me, even going as far as using the cover story that I made up without asking her first.
“Then, I’ll take you up on that,” I say.
She nods in agreement.
◇◆◇◆◇
Then, while reporting on how things went in the labyrinth, we also discuss my Thrall body’s capabilities and my thoughts on that magical tool, the Map of Acacia, now that I’ve used it in the labyrinth. As a result of our discussion, we decide that there’s nothing to worry about for now, and then we talk about my activities as an adventurer in the Adventurer’s Guild. Basically, I tell her that I accepted a request to deliver an Orc today, actually hunted it well, and what happened as a result of the hunt. To put it simply, I will now be able to take the test to raise my rank to copper class.
The reason for this is that the Orcs are not something that an iron class who has just joined the Adventurer’s Guild can hunt. When I hunted three of them almost unharmed, the Adventurer’s Guild decided that they couldn’t leave me as a mere iron class.
Of course, being an adventurer is not just a matter of strength. It is also a profession that requires a certain amount of knowledge. In other words, there’s a written test, which you can pass if you know at least the rules of the Adventurer’s Guild as well as the types of monsters and materials and how to handle them. It gets harder and harder as you move up the ranks, but I can easily pass the exam for copper class. In fact, I prepared perfectly for the exam, and I’m confident that I could even get a perfect score.
The problem is the practical skill test, which varies each time. Sometimes we’re asked to do the usual copper-class requests, and sometimes not. It’s completely up to the Guildmaster to decide. It’s not on a whim, but to prevent cheating by withholding information from the guild members until the last minute. Even so, there are a few who use their skills to investigate and gain an advantage, but that shows that they are capable, so we can’t be too critical of them. However, it takes a lot of effort to research. It would be easier to just take the exam and pass.
What kind of test will it be this time…?
I’m looking forward to finding out tomorrow.