Chapter 2: Our Honeymoon Is Screwed (2)
"Impossible."
"Can't you do something about it."
"This job is both physically and mentally impossible to do."
The one who wants to give us a job is not Arne himself. He is just a messenger for the guild master. In other words, our main customer is the guild itself. And when an organization offers a job, it's almost certain that the job is not going to be small.
"We are in an emergency."
"Even so, it's still impossible."
Before becoming a talisman smith, I'm also an adventurer for about 4 years. And in that time, I become friends with many people. One of them is the guy who currently sitting in front of me and Violet.
Werther. The master of the adventurer guild in this town.
Just like Arne, this guy also helped me a lot of times. The one who vouches for my innocence after getting false accusation is him. The one who gives me a job and place to stay after having all of my money taken is also him.
I owe him a lot, and of course, when he got into a trouble, naturally I want to help him as much as possible. But this time, his request is simply too big for me.
"Let me tell you something, creating a talisman is not an easy task."
Talisman is a aritifcial component embedded with certain magical properties, skill, or ability. Common people normally called it a magic tool, but the truth is a magic tool is just one of the product using a talisman.
To put it simply, if a magic tool is a machine than a talisman is its parts.
Unlike in some novel that I read in the previous world, magic in this world is not just about imagination, writing some letter, chanting a spell, or giving some flashy move a cool name.
You can't just shout "Hear my words and burn mine enemy" like a chuuni and hope some big fireball would appear in your hands. In fact, a chant is normally very short because it's only used as a keyword.
The only one who can do something like that in this world are people who have direct access to some higher being like a spirit or something similar and people with special skill or ability.
For spirit or any other being with higher spiritual power able to alter the world laws to a certain extent. This ability make them can ignore anything and just ask what they wanted.
You can say that the world would obey their rule for a brief time. That's why their power mostly called as a divine or evil power depends on who you ask
For people like them, they got special ability or skill when somehow some magic circuits are forming up inside their body or their spiritual body is bigger than their physical body.
While the rest of people like me usually have to create external medium to be able to manipulate a magic.
Magic in this world is like an electricity or chemical reaction. It can be used for wide range of thing just by manipulating its properties. And the one who creates tools for it is a talisman smith like me.
"We can prepare the material."
"What we lack the most is time."
As I have said, making talisman is difficult. Making a talisman is like creating a printed circuit board for electronics. And with the current 'not so advanced' technology, mass producing something is impossible to do. In other words, I have to manually draw the manipulations path calculation, inscribe the design, tune and test it one by one.
"I'm very sorry, even I work day and night at most I can only produce 1o talismans per day, and my workshop only has 2 people."
Of course, I didn't want to work without rest either. Creating a talisman is delicate work, if I make even a single mistake I have to start from scratch again.
"And you are asking me to create mental fortitude, body strengthing, and stamina boosts talisman where each of them is 100 pieces in a week."
That's 300 pieces of talisman in total. A 2 months worth of works. Something that's impossible to do in a week.
"I honestly want to help, but my help alone can't solve this problem."
"I'm really sorry, I also thought that my request is stupid."
In other words, he is rather panicked because he wanted to finish the problem as fast as possible. And if the problem is even able to make someone as experienced as him panicked, that problem is absolutely big. Just like this stupid request of his.
"So, can you start to explain what the real problem is? I mean I just being told to create so many talismans but I haven't heard its purpose yet."
Because I'm no longer an adventurer or even this guild member, I didn't have any access to their information network and my status is the same as an ordinary civilian. Maybe because that restriction no one has told me what the main problem is.
Normally I didn't really care to be treated as an outsider by them, but this time I need to know what kind of threat that they want to face. After all, their request in impossible for me to accept. So, I want to help them through another means.
The guild master stares at the other guild official to seek their consent. After that, they give him some kind of approval sign the guild master redirect his sight to me and Violet.
"The truth is, we got information that a Giant is currently moving towards this town after destroying many villages and town in its path, it would arrive in this area around 10 days."
There are so many races that live in this world that roughly can be divided into 4 main categories. The myth who didn't possess flesh and exist only as a spiritual being like angel and spirit and gods. The legend who has a strong spiritual body inside their physical body like demon, elf, and vampire. The beast who inherently have a far stronger body than any other race which usually carries animalistic trait on their body like animal ear, tails, or scales. And the last one is human which somehow didn't have any special trait except their astonishing craftiness.
Except for the beast people, the legend regarding the other 2 fantasy-like race is the same as the one in my previous world. Even their traits, specific names, and the myth surrounding them.
Based on my dumb theory, there is a chance that the origin of the people in my previous lord is someone from this world. After all, in that world, there's no actual proof that magic, gods, demon and the likes actually exist.
So, maybe they have many tales about them because they are actually from this world where every myth from my previous world is an actual entity.
"Is this town its aim or . . ."
"I don't know? but at least we know that it was pureblood! that's why I want to subjugate it as fast as possible."
Besides their own subspecies, they also can still be divided into 2 categories. A pureblood or mixed blood. Pureblood is a term for a creature who hasn't changed since ancient time. In another word, a creature that already presents since this world exists.
Mixed blood is as it sounds. A race that born from the relationship between 2 different race, and the majority of this world resident today is part of a mixed race. Of course, myth race is an exception because they didn't even have any flesh or blood to be mixed.
Violet is one sample of mixed blood between beast and human where the human parts are dominant in her body.
"I see."
So why did the pureblood are dangerous for this town?. The answer is simple. Because they haven't changed or adapted.
Pureblood that live since the dawn of the world existence is a creature that created to be able to resist the harshness of the ancient world. And in order to be able to live in the dangerous world, most of them have an astonishingly tough body, unimaginable strength, or even great magical capability.
Now imagine if that kind of monster didn't have enough intelligence to understand words or only have some basic instinct like kill the annoying thing, eat anything that can be eaten or destroy everything inside an area that it claims as a territory.
They would bring a big chaos because we can't even communicate with them. That's why pureblood like Giant is considered as dangerous.
"I think the scale of the problem is too big for this guild."
This guild only has around 150 people registered as an adventurer with half of them are a low-level one. In other words, only about 70 people can actually be considered as war potential. And that number is absolutely not nearly enough to face a Giant that can blow a house with its sneeze alone.
"An army is already sent to this place to subjugate it."
I see. If the Giant is already spreading some destruction it's not strange for the nation to take some action.
"So when they are going to arrive?."
"Around a week."
"I understand the situation."
Marching is a tough thing to do and managing army with a thousand soldiers in it is an even more difficult task to do. The chance of the army able to arrive at the promised time is rather slim. In the worst case scenario, the adventurers have to hold out until the army arrive if the Giant is moving faster or the army are simply late.
He needs that talisman in order to boost the adventurer combat ability and moral support so no ones are going to just flee from the town to save their own self.
"But let me say this. . your plan is too reckless."
"I know. . ."
"Sorry for being rude, but it's seems you got your priority wrong guild master."
"What do you mean?."
"Why did you stuck in the idea that you have to defeat that Giant?. ."
"If we leave it alone this town would be. . ."
"Hah. . ."
I sighed deeply. Talking about priority to a people who haven't faced an absolute difference in power with his enemy is rather difficult. His answer is the answer that comes from someone who always thinks that facing problem directly is the one only way to make it disappear.
"Violet do you understand what I'm trying to say to him?."
"Of course."
"Can you replace me talk to them?."
"Why?."
"Impression."
"I see."
A different person can give different impression to another people. And it seems I give the impression that I'm the same type of person like them. That's why he fails to understand what I'm trying to convey.
It's like when some musclehead asks you to use tactics to defeat your enemy while the person itself able to just your enemy with his single punch. Making you think that tactics are actually useless.
"Guild master what is our main objective."
After sipping the tea that the guild staff prepared for us, Violet begins to speak.
"Defeat the Giant."
"Wrong! our main objective is to protect this town while defeating the Giant are just one of the few way we can achieve it."
"But leaving it alone is danger. ."
"Did we still need to kill it if that Giant stays in. .hm. .like some remote island and doing nothing."
The answer is no. Why did we even bother doing anything to it if it didn't threaten us?. Leaving it alone is the best possible decision and intentionally disturbing is nothing but foolishness.
"Are you saying that we need to leave it alone Violet-san?."
Violet is already adult even though her body is that of 9 or 10 years old girl so even the guild master is trying to use polite words. But, it seems she is saying something that triggers the against the guild master's principle. I can feel a little irritation from his voice.
"Well, that's not entirely unreasonable! we can prioritize the lives of the townspeople and relocate them to somewhere else while letting the Giant to pass the city."
That's can be done, and with that, we can even save the adventurer by just focusing on relocating all the peoples in the town. But of course, in reality, that method is very difficult to execute.
"That's crazy."
Moving large number of people is difficult, finding a suitable place to stay, and creating a temporary residence for them is a very big and heavy task. In another word that method is not practical. Not to mention that the Giant can wreak havoc in the empty town or even hunting the resident like a pest.
"Yes, it's crazy."
"If you know it's a crazy idea then don't propose it."
"I just presenting some method that maybe can work for a weakling like us."
The method that Violet propose is the same as giving up on your wealth after some bandits show up while asking them not to kill you. A very normal response from some weak people who are unable to offer even some little resistance.
"Weakling you say? . . . . ."
Uwah. . he is so pissed right now. I'm sorry, she just wants to slightly twist your way of thinking and absolutely didn't just want to insult you guild master.
"Well. . . you can claim to be strong after you can defeat master in a fight."
You sound like typical arrogant antagonist right now. I like it. Especially that cold eyes that look like going to freeze someone's heart. But please don't use my name to threaten someone. Because in an honest one on one fight I'm absolutely weaker than the person in front of you my beloved wife.
"If you are too scared, I can even replace master. ."
Nononono. . . that's simply no. I'm never going to let you play around with another man.
"Tha. . . ."
"Let's back to the main topic, relocating the townspeople maybe a rather difficult but relocating the Giant is a different matter."
"Relocating the Giant?."
"Yes."
Our priority is not defeating the Giant but saving the town. And in order to do that, we can just need to alter his path to not collide with the town.
"With that, we can keep away the Giant from the town and by not directly fighting it we can lower the casualty on our side."
Giant boasting absolute strength that incomparable to that ordinary human. Fighting it directly is pretty much just a suicide. Even if they are able to miraculously win, I'm very sure that the sacrifice is not going to be small.
"Giant is not that smart, with some provocation we can lead it to some isolated place and wear down its stamina while waiting for the reinforcement to arrive."
"Aren't it just going to make it goes frenzy and attack the town faster?."
"That's why master asked if the town is its true aim or not?."
"Sorry."
"I didn't think that the Giant already knows the position of this town, but just to be safe let's focus on gathering more information about it first."
"I understand."
With her task to make the guild master understand what I want to say, Violet sit back beside me like before.
What we desperately need to know first is about its purpose in making its journey. Is it hunger? is it some kind of retaliation? is it just some simple stroll, or is it having something to do with some deeper circumstances?.
Depend on its main motivation, we need to prepare a different kind of bait to lure it out outside the town.
"Um. am I allowed to speak?."
"Of course."
One of the female officials of this guild raise her hands and ask for permission to speak to us. Based on her getup she is not the type of person like the muscle head guild master. She radiates some kind of intelligent aura.
By the way, I didn't know who is she. Is she a new member?.
"Even we didn't have any detailed info about the Giant yet, there have been some related reports after it crossed the national border."
"Is that so? it really helped a lot if you can share it with us."
The female worker once again asks the guild master for permission and he nodded lightly. After that, she brings a map and spread it on the table in front of us.
"Based on the report, it first sighted about a month ago, after that, it moved from village to village until its current position."
The map she shows looks familiar to my eyes. After all, I already explained that the geographical feature of this world is pretty much the same as my old world. Thought the name of cities or country and their border has some a slight changes.
"Can you mark the place that it passed on this map? I want to see the pattern in its movements."
If we know its movement pattern we can guess what kind of thought it has.
The female worker begins to mark some area on the map while also giving some brief explanation on what's happening in the said place and also the how much casualty it produces.
But of course, the information is not that much, after all, its just information we got from the national border and one neighboring country.
"Is it hunger after all?."
"I don't think so."
It attacked the many villages in its path so I assume that it just want to eat. But it seems Violet has a different opinion.
"From its random movement, we can discard the possibility that it has some clear destination in mind."
If something has some clear objective in mind, usually even the dumbest animal still going to use the shortest route available. But the movement of this Giant is not even consistent with any particular direction. There's even a record of it going back and forth in the same place over and over again.
"If it just looking for food it also didn't need to destroy every building in its sight."
It can just grab some tiny panicked human to eat without even first destroying everything in the village. It also didn't need to visit the village that already destroyed.
There are many cases of some pure blood destroying humans property. But it usually triggered by something like they got attacked first, or they feel that their territory has been invaded by humans. When it happened, they would run wild, but the scale usually only in the local area. In another word, they usually only destroy the thing in their own area.
They shouldn't have actively looked for a new place to destroy.
"Also, she said that there's hardly any casualty among the villager! for disaster in this scale, it's too odd."
It's Indeed strange, also when I see the pattern again I spot some village that didn't get attacked by it even though it should have been easier to deal because the location is rather isolated.
"Thank you very much. . . ?"
"Lena."
"Thank you very much Lena-san, that information is very precious for all of us."
With that information, we know that going to the less densely populated area is safer, that it didn't have a real goal in mind, and it didn't particularly fond of eating humans.
"We still need to know what kind of trigger that made it attack some places or how it able to track humans settlement, but for now that much information is enough for us to made some decision."
"I'll look for more information."
After they got more information, we can get more material that we can use it to provoke that Giant.
"Yes, please do! we need to ascertain its main objective to prevent the same thing to happen in the future after all."
The female worker goes back to her place after bowing to us.
"Somehow you sound more like guild master than me."
"Sorry. I got carried away."
I should remember that I'm no longer some important person in this place and act like one. Having some outsider to give a command to an organization is not good in every way.
"No, you didn't have to worry about it."
No, you should worry guild master.
"Anyway, scarping the plan of fighting it directly is better for both adventurer and me."
If the adventurers are not forced to face the Giant directly, we didn't have to supply all of them with the same set of talisman. If we just want to provoke it and lure the Giant from the town, we can just create a small team to do the task. If not all adventurer facing the Giant at the same time, we didn't have to create mental fortitude talisman for everyone because they can just use it in turns.
"How about the other talismans?."
"I'll draw the manipulation calculation and you can ask some other talisman smith to inscribe it."
"Aren't it trades secret?."
"Well yes, but this is emergency! I can't be stingy, right? not to mention having it spreading didn't really affect my business anyway."
It's impossible for me alone to meet its deadline. The best way to solve this problem is just not to be greedy and outsource the manpower from outside my workshop. Also, my main business is creating household appliance so there's no real damage done to me.
In a way, it even benefits me. I mean, if another smith can take my place in creating that talisman for the adventurer. I'm not going to be bothered by them anymore.
Money is not a real problem for me and Violet. She didn't demand luxurious lifestyle and I didn't particularly want to get rich either.
"Are you sure?."
Well, I want to renovate our current house after we have some kids though. But it's not going to happen tomorrow or next month, so we didn't have to hurry.
I mean, we are pretty much just still going playing a sticky-sticky game most the time without actually doing the main event. She still rather afraid of men after all. So I didn't rush her.
"Yes, just make sure to give us a lot of gifts when we have kids."
"You already thinking about having kids?."
"Eh? isn't it normal?."
I mean, after marriage the next things is about having kids and raising them right?. Well, before I fell in love with Violet. I used to think that suddenly marrying and having a child to take care of would be troublesome, but when I mentally placed Violet as my partner, I suddenly couldn't care less about all of that trouble. Instead, I'm really looking forward to it.
"Now that mention it, it's indeed normal."
"That's right, anyway since our talk is pretty much finished I want to go home! you can tell the number of talismans you need to me tomorrow after you guys organize the fishing team."
I hold Violet's hand and bow before standing up and ready to go home.
"Wait a minute."
Before we are able to reach the door, Arne holds my other hand and stop us.
"Having another man holding my hand is rather unpleasant."
Usually, he would snap and give some rhetoric answer. But this time he stays silent and just stares at the guild master.
"What? is there any more thing we need to discuss?."
"No, not really, I just want to ask something."
Why everyone looks so serious?.
"How about come back being adventurer?."
"Ha? why?"
Many children have a dream of being an adventurer. In their eyes adventurer are a strong person who risks their life for the goodness of mankind, a hero basked in glory and wealth. And of course, I once thought the same.
But the reality is not so kind. This is not game.
Adventurers are pretty much just a glorified mercenary.
"I have to refuse, I'm cowards, after all, I didn't want to risk my lives anymore! "
Unlike official soldier in the national army, most adventurers didn't have stable income, insurance, and always have to carry the risk of their task alone. Sometimes, a low-level adventurer is even poorer than an ordinary farmer.
"In the past, I didn't really care about my own lives, that's why I can recklessly bet my lives on the line for that dangerous job."
At that time I'm alone in this world. If even I disappeared no one would miss me, no one would care, and no one would cry for me. If I can stay alive, no one would welcome me either. In the past, I struggle to stay alive just because I'm afraid the pain of dying.
I didn't really have any dream to realize and in this world, and I didn't really have anyone that I think important. In other words, I didn't have any attachment to this world.
"But it's different now."
I grasp Violet hand a little stronger.
"I have someone that I want to protect and made to be happy, that's why I didn't want to work in a place where I can die anytime."
After all, I didn't want to leave her alone and just become her source of sadness. I want to stay with her as long as possible.
"Then, will you come back to become an adventurer when that person is no longer exist?."
Ha?.
"What do you mean by that?."
"Eh?. . ."
Don't eh me! what did you mean by that?. I really want to know. Can you give me more detail about it?.
"Guild master!!!!."
Arne called the guild master with a panicked voice. After that, the guild master somehow gets pale in the face when looking at me while the other members of this guild office looks petrified in their place.
"I'm sorry. That's not what I mean."
"Then what do you mean?."
"You are strong enough to brush off most danger even in this line of works."
"Strong huh. . ."
What a nostalgic word. I also think the same some years ago. But I'm not that naive anymore.
"Let me tell you something guild master."
I open the door in front of me and said.
"Humans are weak! And there are so many foes that we can't hope to match!."
And we leave the guild office.
After going home, both of us immediately begin to work on drawing the design for the talisman requested from us. And in the evening, someone from the guild takes our base template to be used by another talisman smith.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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