ch41-ch60 · 043-ch43

Chapter 43: The Branch Manager of the Depopulated Branch is a Competent Flag【Marutasuke】

SIDE: Marutasuke

My name is Marutasuke.

I'm what you'd call the branch manager in charge of the Adventurer's Association Chiba Branch.

Huh? You want to know my age? Why's that?

Well, I'll just say I'm in my forties.

I'm a former Self-Defense Force member, and if you were to fit me into the adventurer rank system, I'd be Triple-Rank.

Why did I quit the Self-Defense Force to become the branch manager of the Chiba Branch?

To put it in one word, it's because 'my rank got too high.'

That was about 10 years ago now.

It was when dungeons first appeared on Earth.

There were fatalities in the first unit that went in to investigate.

For this reason, back then, your rank would increase by one level just for volunteering to investigate dungeons.

And now, what they call Triple... when you cleared the 30th floor, you'd get another one.

I might have been off the promotion track, but even a spoiled apple is still a Defense Academy graduate officer.

When you get two rank increases like that, the higher-ups start glaring at you.

That's why almost all the veteran officers on the front lines were sent to the newly established Adventurer's Association.

Except for the special forces unit that cleared the 40th floor and the real elites, that is.

I barely managed to slide into the branch manager position thanks to my usual good behavior.

The Chiba Branch being depopulated isn't my fault.

In each prefecture, only one dungeon is open to civilians, but there are also dungeons that aren't open.

The idiot who chose this dungeon out of all of them to open was the governor at the time.

First, the location of the headquarters to be newly established in Tokyo—that is, which dungeon it would be—was decided, and that information was made public.

The headquarters dungeon was chosen from the monster composition considered easiest to conquer.

The strategy was apparently to produce many high-ranking adventurers at headquarters and aim for civilians to conquer the 50th floor.

And so, that idiot chose a dungeon with the exact same composition.

Dungeons have capacity.

It's the upper limit on the number of monsters that appear per floor.

If too many people gather, leveling up won't even go smoothly, right?

I guess he thought that with the same composition, he could target those who overflowed from headquarters.

It only worked out for about the first three months, though.

The people who flooded in during the first dungeon boom left the dungeon along with a large number of fatalities.

This dungeon has weak enemies, but there's no benefit other than magic stones.

Those aiming to conquer it with their lives on the line moved to the headquarters where there was available capacity, and those who chose adventurer as a profession moved to dungeons where they could earn better.

And so, the Chiba Branch came to be called Japan's most depopulated dungeon.

About a year after the dungeon was opened, when the media who had been making such a fuss had also withdrawn and the dungeon boom was coming to an end,

one female staff member was transferred from headquarters.

Watanabe Kasumi.

She's the one standing before me now.

At headquarters, she constantly quarreled with adventurers and was frequently absent from work.

She was sent to Chiba as a problem child like that.

I was wary of her too, but when I actually met her, she was nothing if not serious.

She doesn't quarrel with adventurers, and not only is she never absent without permission, she's never even late.

On the contrary, she's enthusiastic about educating juniors, so you could say she's a good senior.

She's Double-Rank too, and now she's the one who manages the Association facilities on the dungeon side.

"So what do you want to do with this adventurer? You want me to give them special treatment? I'd like to help them out if I can, you know. But there are no requests, and there aren't any adventurers who can take requests either. We've got plenty of land, though."

They're saying that a rookie party they're keeping an eye on is using this dungeon on weekdays.

We're talking about what's wrong with that.

"No, it's just a preliminary report. The party leader possesses a movement-type special skill. They can go beyond the 15th floor on day trips, so the number of magic stones they submit will probably increase from now on. But they want to keep the special skill a secret."

Keep the skill secret? Is this to prevent them from being poached? They don't want them to be poached from the party they're keeping an eye on?

"How exactly are you planning to keep it secret?"

"They won't conduct magic stone transactions at the counter. I will handle all business related to this party and conduct it secretly."

Another dungeon, then.

If she's keeping an eye on them, it must be headquarters.

I don't know what's making her go this far.

"...There's no benefit in it for us."

"Someday, they might become active in this dungeon. They've already brought back magic stones from the 18th floor. If you're talking about benefits, that should be sufficient."

He's starting to sound like Hayashi.

Did someone put ideas in her head?

Come to think of it, she kept submitting requests for Triple-Rank promotion at headquarters.

Now, every company is focused on those requests, there are no available adventurers, and the prices have risen astronomically.

Is she planning to properly train a capable rookie and have them take requests?

"...You want to lure them to this dungeon, don't you? You can do the utmost. Not just for yourself, but for the sake of this dungeon too, sell them as much favor as you can now. You can even use my name or whatever you need."

"Yes. Thank you. First, if I could just get the staff inside the dungeon to keep quiet..."

As I said before, there are no special favors we can provide here.

At best, we can be kind to them or give advice.

There's no problem with just keeping the skill a secret.

There's no loss if it fails.

Let them do as they please.

"Everyone, listen up. Watanabe has something to say."

We decided to gather the dungeon staff during the daytime handover to have them keep quiet, but something seems off.

"It's about that high school student."

High school student?

What's with "that"?

No, if it's a promising rookie, it wouldn't be strange for them to be a high school student...

"All business concerning him will be handled by me from now on."

"Kyaah!"

Hm? Screams from the female staff members.

What's going on?

No, Shiraishi, you're off today, right.

Huh? Lunch? Right, with the staff discount, even though it's already cheap...

"I don't want any interference from any of you from now on. I don't intend to talk about him at all either."

"Eehh?"

"That's tyrannical."

"Yeah, yeah."

Hmmm? What's this about?

What do they mean by "interference"? What happened to keeping it quiet?

Don't tell me "he" means her boyfriend?

Giving special treatment to her boyfriend would be wrong, right?

"I've already received permission from the branch manager too."

Now she's bringing me into this?

"Everyone, calm down. But Watanabe, a high school student is a bad idea, right?"

You'll get in trouble.

"Because he's a high school student."

Whoa.

That's some intense pressure.

That's a dangerous one.

"We adults have to protect him, don't we?"

Hm? Is that what this is?

They're not in a relationship, are they?

"I don't want any scandals."

No touching him, okay.

"These are measures to prevent that from happening."

I see, there are people who might stir things up.

"Everyone, you heard her. Let's just quietly watch over him for now."

It's not like we can provide any special favors anyway.

Let them do as they please...