The Archive Room


    After paying that hefty amount of money I left the Merchant Guild and headed to the Adventurer’s Guild. Knowing that I have Ferris around in the mansion does make me feel a lot better about it.


    「If I complete a request, I’m sure I can get by…. I’ll take up a request similar to last time 」


    I went through the door with my head down after checking the decreased currency that is displayed in my Dimensional Storage.


    Last time I was here I was assigned a full-time receptionist, who is Milia. I looked for her and found her sitting at the counter at the end of the room. There is no line today, so I walked up to her counter.


    「Hello, Milia. I’m here to pick up yesterday’s portion……. 」


    Milia, who had been looking down at her work, looked up and smiled when she saw my face.


    「Hello, Touya-san. You’re here …… I will show you to the private room 」


    Milia then guided me to the private room. She tells me to sit on the couch and wait, and she leaves.


    When she came back in a few minutes Milia was not alone, she had the sub-guildmaster, Efland, with her.


    「Oh, Touya, here. This is for yesterday. And it’s a lot 」


    The bag made a jingling sound as the coins scraped against the table.


    I stretched the bag open and looked inside and saw that it contained only gold coins.


    「There is 3.5 million gil in total in there. That’s a lot of money all at once…….. Just hold off on making any additional submissions for a little while. As you can imagine, the dismantling team is complaining about not being able to process it quickly enough」


    I nodded as I put the bag of gold coins away in Dimensional Storage and watched as the amount of currency displayed increased naturally.


    When I was about to get up to say my business here was done. Efland gestured at me with his hand to stop.


    「Well, wait a minute. You’re not going to do another request right now, are you?　I have a request I need you to do for me 」


    「What do you want me to do for you? 」


    I sit back in my seat and listen to Efland’s story.


    「I would like to hire you as an escort— 」


    「No」


    「Aren’t you too quick to say no? 」


    Efland was taken aback by my immediate refusal.


    The thing is, I don’t want to be away from the mansion for a lot of days after seeing the sad look on Ferris when I returned after a few days last time.


    「I have planned on not taking any requests for a while. There are some things I want to check out….. 」


    There are many things I want to find out about the geography of this world. I was summoned out of the blue then sent here, I want to know more about it.


    「—Well ………Depending on what you want to find out, I would like to help. Let me know if you need anything 」


    「I’m looking for where I can find a map of this country and other countries, history and all that 」


    At my words, Milia, who had been listening in quietly, spoke up.


    「That sounds like the guild archive.　There are no specific maps of other countries, but I think you could at least find out where they’re located 」


    「That’s what I am looking for! 」


    I smile.


    And Efland grins.


    「There is a charge to use the archive room, since there are rare papers and many valuable items kept in there for safeguarding. I could get you a free pass for the whole year if you were to take one escorting job …… what do you think? 」


    It would certainly be costly to pay for every time I went to the archives, and I don’t know how many times I would need to use it.


    An escort request is something I was bound to take up at some point. Right?


    I weigh the options in my head and reach a conclusion.


    「I’ll take the escorting job. But give me a week or so. I need to go through the material first 」


    Efland smiled further and nodded.


    「Okay, that’s fine.Once I’ve ironed out the details, I’ll have Milia call you. You can use the archives from today 」


    Efland was satisfied and left the private room, saying he had some work to do.


    「Thank you, Touya-san. I’ll inform the other staff that you can use the archive room for free. Also in case you didn’t know ……. The entrance fee is one copper coin……… 」


    「…One copper…? 」


    「Yes……..There aren’t many adventurers who study the materials, you know. It’s true that there are valuable books, but they’re only copies…. 」


    「…Did I just get tricked then…? 」


    Milia smiled comfortingly.


    「No, you weren’t . We’re counting on you, Touya-san 」


    ◇ ◇ ◇


    I followed Milia to the archive room, which is the first room upstairs.


    「This is the archive room. It is also a place to read, so feel free to do so. However, you aren’t allowed to take anything out 」


    Milia left for her work, leaving me at the full use of the archive room.


    「The first thing I need to look into is geography……… Here it is 」


    I found a roll of parchements with the word 『Map 』 inscribed on it. I took it out and placed it on the table, unfolded the map and read out the names of the countries.


    「—Oh, no…..」


    I doubled checked what I just read and I sighed heavily.


    On the map, there is a country: 『Generate Kingdom 』. The name of the country that summoned me.