Chapter 20

"Then, I'll put on this set of adventurer's clothes that Tim made right away—"

Lady Gilne stopped mid-sentence, as if frozen.

"Ti, Tim... I have an important question..."

"Yes! What is it?"

"Tim, you made all the adventurers' clothes, right? That means there were female adventurers, of course—"

Lady Gilne turned her gaze to me with a look of apprehension.

"Did you make undergarments for the female adventurers...?"

"That—"

I lowered my eyes as I answered Lady Gilne's question.

"I'm sorry, I can only make clothes similar to those I've seen or touched before... I've never seen women's undergarments... I asked the adventurers to purchase them on their own."

I bowed my head in shame at my own inadequacy.

I had never had the experience of seeing women's undergarments.

When I was stepped on, I would look down to avoid seeing anything...

"So... I'm sorry, but I can't make undergarments."

"R, really! No, that's good! No, Tim, you don't need to apologize! I've never seen men's undergarments either! Yeah, it's understandable!"

"I've cleaned them with 'Purification,' but I understand you might want new ones... Of course, I think it's necessary, so please don't hesitate to buy them at the store!"

"It's fine for now! Thanks to Tim, I'll stay clean! By the way, completely unrelated, but... what color do you like, Tim?"

"Color!? Um... purple, I guess?"

I answered without thinking, mentioning the color of Lady Gilne's hair.

I was internally panicking, but Lady Gilne didn't seem to notice.

"Purple, hmm, I'll remember that... Now, I'll change."

"Yes! Please call me when you're done!"

I left the room and waited by the door for Lady Gilne to finish changing.

"......"

I felt disgusted with myself for unintentionally eavesdropping and covered my ears.

On the other side of this door, Lady Gilne was...

(Sheep one, sheep two, sheep three...)

I counted sheep to clear my mind.

Lady Gilne was helping me become an adventurer.

She was very kind, noble, and pure.

Yet, I was thinking strange thoughts... I was the worst.

I sighed at my own helplessness.

~~~ Adventurer's Guild, 'Gilnerize' ~~~

Niera was looking at documents in the guild master's office.

In front of her stood the senior member, Natalia.

"Yeah, there's no problem with increasing the number of odd jobs. Fortunately, that little girl has earned a lot of money from high-difficulty quests. Those fools are probably struggling to even buy food, which is quite amusing."

"But, Niera-sama, it's fine to get rid of that Tim, but was it really okay to kick out Lady Gilne? Lady Gilne's magic formula is unique—"

"Natalia, are you still loyal to that little girl? Also, learn to use polite language."

Niera spread the documents on the table with a look of exasperation.

"Look at this data. Our guild's adventurers are very excellent. Even those who seem like mere thugs or drunkards... oh, I should stop badmouthing Ganache."

"Really! The quest completion rate is almost 90%! I've heard good things, but our guild has such excellent adventurers!?"

Niera nodded in satisfaction at Natalia's reaction.

"The more people there are, the worse the quality of adventurers, that's the general rule. But our guild has overturned that. Not only that, look at this data. It shows the number of casualties over the past two years."

"The number of injured is—only 13!? No way! And no deaths!?"

"Exactly. All of our guild's adventurers, even the low-level ones, are exceptionally skilled. I wasn't interested in low-rank adventurers, but after seeing these data last month, my opinion changed. This guild functions perfectly well without that little girl."

Natalia finally smiled at Niera's words.

"The adventurers went out on quests this morning with high spirits. Even a C-rank quest to slay a fire-breathing dragon is completed without a scratch by our Silver-rank adventurers."

"Amazing. Still, our guild really has such excellent adventurers."

"The person in charge of the recruitment must have a good eye. Let's see, who is in charge of the recruitment...?"

"Adventurer's Guild 'Gilnerize'

Recruitment Officer

Ganache Boardwin"

"......"

"......"

They rubbed their eyes and looked again.

There was no mistake; the name of the drunkard Ganache was there.

"... People are not what they seem, huh."

"Well, Tim was also excellent as an odd job worker. He must have a good eye for talent, being called a 'Sword Saint.'"

~~~ Meanwhile, at the inn ~~~

"Lady Gilne, it suits you very well!"

"Amazing, amazing! My body feels as light as a feather!"

Lady Gilne, dressed in the adventurer's clothes, was running around the room excitedly.

Good, even though the clothes are simple, she seems satisfied.

"Shall we go on an adventure?"

"Yes, let's start with a gathering quest! A hunting quest is still too dangerous!"

"To be honest... I still don't have any combat skills..."

Swords, spears, axes, staves, shields—my skill ratings in everything are the lowest.

I train every day between odd jobs and before bed, but they don't improve at all.

"That's fine, we'll get stronger together, little by little. Hmm, by the way..."

Lady Gilne tilted her head and asked me.

"Our guild's entrance exam included a practical test, right? Did Tim do well in it? You did pass and join the guild, after all..."

"Um, well... actually..."

I decided to tell her the "inside story" of how I joined the guild.

"The examiner was Ganache-sama. He was suffering from a terrible hangover and was vomiting into a bucket while I was taking the sword test..."

"......"

Lady Gilne looked at me with a blank, emotionless gaze.

"He didn't watch my practical test at all. In the end, Ganache-sama flipped a coin and said, 'If it's heads, you pass'—"

"......"

Lady Gilne listened to my story with lifeless eyes, as if her heart had been broken.

She probably never imagined that the guild's adventurer recruitment was so haphazard.

"I was nervous and praying for heads. In a dazed state, Ganache-sama caught the coin and asked, 'My vision is blurry, which side is up?' I looked at the coin in his hand and said, 'It's tails...'"

"Wh-What!?"

Lady Gilne was surprised by the unexpected ending.

Yes, unfortunately, I couldn't make the coin land on heads.

"Then, Ganache-sama muttered, 'Since you don't have a tail, you're heads. You pass,' and I was allowed to join the guild. I still don't understand it, but I was so happy to finally pass..."

"Unbelievable, that man is..."

Lady Gilne was trembling with anger at Ganache-sama.

"Well, thanks to that haphazard recruitment, I met Tim. I'm grateful to Ganache, despite his poor work attitude."

"That's good. Thanks to that, I was able to join the guild... I would never have been able to join otherwise..."

"Hmm, the other adventurers were probably recruited haphazardly too. Ganache probably volunteered to be the examiner because it was an easy way to slack off... That means our guild's adventurers are a random collection of people, not based on their skills..."

Lady Gilne listened to the "inside story" of the guild's recruitment, looking troubled.

But then she raised her head and smiled brightly.

"But, I'm the same as Ganache. Even if the whole world, and even you yourself, think you're tails, I always believe that Tim is heads."