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15 - Meanwhile, in A Empire (2)

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“Haa~, finally, it’s done!”

“Good work―”

A C-rank adventurer party belonging to the A empire was finally returning after completing a dungeon patrol quest.
Swordsman, Shielder, Healer, Mage.
In addition to these four people, there were supporters before.
Their supporters have been dismissed due to the cost reduction policy, but they have been saying.

"Cost cutting is the best! It's so refreshing to have that annoying supporter fired!!”

“So true, we don’t need supporters.”

“Even things like disposing of monster corpses, we didn’t really have to do that. They were making a fuss about toxins but, everyone else said it was fine even after they left the corpses alone, you know?”

Despite being adventurers, they do not understand the importance of disposing of monster corpses.
Even when the supporters explained it to them, they wouldn't listen, and the people around them also left the corpse's disposal to the supporters.

Only the shielder was left chasing after them slowly while letting out hissy screams.

“Wa... wait a bit! Help me carry these golem shards~!!”

“You said you could easily do this, didn't you?”

“We’re also carrying magic stones and subjugation parts, so we can't help you.”

“You're just too slow. We’ll go on ahead and make a report first, okay?.”

Due to the lack of supporters, the burden of carrying luggage is shared by everyone in the party.
It's a fact that the number of magic stones and subjugation parts will increase the weight.
And then――a tendency to push heavy things onto one person was spreading.

It’s not like they can refuse to collect them.

Golem-type shards are currently essential materials for building A Empire's [Wall].
Hence, for a limited time, [Delivery of golem-type shards] was added to the weekly quota.
If you want to continue being an adventurer, you have to collect golem shards even if you don't want to.

‘We really shouldn’t have dismissed supporters who have item boxes’ wouldn’t everyone think that?

However, supporters are still not useful as a fighting force.
[Delivery of golem-type shards] is also a limited time quota until the construction of the [Wall] is completed.
They just need some patience, if they’re adventurers, they can endure it.
That was what the government was thinking.

Discontent began to grow among the adventurers.
Toxin flows out from the corpses of monsters left by adventurers, and the effects gradually spread from within the dungeon to the vicinity of the empire.
Ultimately, the country will not move until the toxin spreads to animals, plants, and water sources, affecting the wealthy class of A Empire.

No, the country was working on its other issues.

☆

In a corner of the castle that sits in the center of A Empire, an emergency countermeasures headquarters was set up.
It is the Magic Tool Emergency Countermeasure Headquarters.

“This is bad! A fire broke out in the post office!! The origin of the fire was a magic tool!”

“Again…!”

Malfunction and dissatisfaction with the magic tools introduced for the purpose of reducing personnel.

When it comes to malfunctions, the majority of them are from the overuse of the magic tools.
As a result of continuously activating the magic tool for 24 hours since it was introduced, the mechanical part broke down.
When magical overheating occurs, depending on the element of the magic, fires would break out, water would leak, wind gusts would occur and sands would spring forth.

When it comes to dissatisfaction, most of them are about property damage caused by magic tools.
the washing machine would tear clothes. The vacuum cleaner would scratch the floor. Preparing the ingredients would get metal mixed in.
A handful of wealthy people who acquired magical tools sued for property damage.

And the jewel in the crown is――

“The post office employee said, ‘Until the magic tools are safe, I'm going to ask Josiah for help, so, bring him here!’”

“How many times have we seen this pattern?”

“Even though he has already left the country…”

After the magic tools were introduced and complaints were expressed, there were many times when they eventually said “Bring Josiah here.”
Besides the fact that Josiah has already left the country, there are other reasons for their reluctance to do it.

One employee reported this.

“We investigated what remains of the background of the magician named Josiah in the guild. We also investigated other workplaces he was involved in. As a result, we concluded that he was not an excellent magician.”

“Meaning?”

“First of all, he was involved in constructing the wall, cleaning sewers, washing clothes, sorting at the post office, repairing goods, cutting ingredients at a restaurant, etc. it was mainly miscellaneous tasks that anyone can do. The number of tasks he was involved in was impossible as well but... the estimated amount of MP used for them is about 20 times the MP of Josiah at the time.”

“Even if we assume he was using magic pills to recover MP, it's impossible for him.”

“Even if it isn’t, if he keeps expending magic power to the limit for about two years, I don’t think he can avoid death from overwork.”

“However, we have received reports from the guild that he was in excellent health.”

To begin with…

“Is there any proof that Josiah was working? If he was being paid, why hasn't his work history and payslips come up?”

“They said they lost it.”

“They gave me forged documents with clearly different handwriting, you know.”

“Maybe he was working without pay?”

“It would be fine if he was involved in the hospital without being paid since it's a charity activity, but there’s no way he would do that at other workplaces! What's more, he's a C-rank adventurer, isn't he? Their salary is small. There is no way he’ll work without pay!?”

“Then. Why would they bring up the name of a magician branded as incompetent?”

“Aren’t they aiming to cause chaos in the country?”

“For the time being, we have inspected people who brought up Josiah's name, but we have not received any kind of curse.”

“What does the top say?”

“There is a problem with the performance of the magic tool itself. Work on improving it, they say.”

“I guess that’s the most important.”

Josiah's evaluation is neither good nor bad.
His achievements were overshadowed by a combination of uncertainties about his reputation and evaluation in the guild.

Above all, the fundamental problem is not with Josiah's absence, but with the magic tools.

They reported a new problem to the magic tool production facility.

――――

(T/N: by the way, if anyone is curious about bolded and italic words, bold is m.a.g.i.c. a.t.t.a.c.k. These are words that have each kanji separated with dots. Italic is words that have dot ruby annotation, you know, words that have dots as furigana, those signifies emphasis, I think.)

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