Serena, who was sitting at the adventurer's guild reception counter, was thinking about Setsu, who had left the guild a little while ago.
She had interacted with various adventurers, but it was rare to find someone as quiet and cool as Setsu.
Even though he only does sewer cleaning, his nonchalant demeanor is somehow impressive.
"Hey, Serena, look at this! Isn't it cool how I can defeat such a strong monster in seconds?"
A young adventurer in flashy armor approached the guild counter, saying that. He was tall, but his behavior was strangely childish.
Serena, with a smile on her face from inside the counter, looked through the guild card and report that the adventurer was holding up. There, the name of the monster to be defeated was written.
"Um... this monster is classified as a mid-sized monster, but... the danger level shouldn't be that high, right?"
Serena said in a calm tone after a quick confirmation.
According to the documents, the opponent was not that difficult for a typical adventurer to challenge.
However, the adventurer snorted audibly.
"No, no, I'm the only one who can instantly kill something like this! Right? Serena, you think so too, right?"
He looked around and raised his voice.
The other adventurers in the guild looked like they were saying, "Here he goes again..." In other words, he was a regular who would defeat a manageable monster and come to brag.
Serena smiled wryly and responded calmly. Although she felt a little irritated inside, she didn't show it as a receptionist.
"Thank you for your hard work. Here is your reward. Oh, is there anything else?"
"Ah, well... if you're free after this, Serena and I could..."
The adventurer looked at Serena's face while hesitating, but she kept a smooth smile and lightly shook her head.
"I'm sorry. The reception desk has shifts, so I don't have time to accompany you outside. If you have any requests or consultations, please submit them in writing..."
"Oh, I see..."
Ignoring the adventurer who was obviously dejected, Serena began to pretend to look through the documents of the next customer. She was subtly giving off an aura of "please leave" because she would be troubled if he lingered any longer.
Then, Mirei, a senior receptionist who was waiting right next to her, interjected with a somewhat exasperated tone.
"If you're done with your work, don't loiter in front of the counter too much. You're getting in the way of other adventurers."
"Okay, I got it..."
He pouted a little unhappily, but when he received Mirei's gaze, he didn't say anything more and retreated to the corner of the guild hall.
However, that's not the end of this adventurer and his cronies. After a while, a group of people who seemed to be his companions gathered and began to talk in whispers. Serena could hear fragments of their conversation.
"...Hey, did you know? There's a story about a pathetic adventurer who's always cleaning sewers..."
"I've heard of him. He's a rank F guy who doesn't fight much and only does dirty work, right?"
"And even though he's old enough, he comes leisurely in the afternoon and only cleans sewers."
Serena couldn't help but frown. Oh, they must be talking about Setsu. They thought they were whispering, but their tone was so unbearable that she could hear them clearly.
The adventurers from earlier seemed to be even more excited, perhaps because they were frustrated that Serena hadn't paid attention to them.
"...Um, excuse me?"
Serena summoned her courage and called out to them. Then, the group of cronies looked at each other with panicked expressions.
"The guild is a good place for meetings, but I'd like you to refrain from long conversations that bother other people. If you're just loitering, would you mind leaving?"
At those words, the ringleader of the group clicked his tongue with an embarrassed look, and the cronies stood up one by one.
The man who had first approached Serena also looked at her with a regretful glance, but he seemed to give up when he saw that she didn't even return a smile.
"...Let's go."
He spat out those words, and the group of adventurers opened the guild door and left. The guild hall instantly regained its quietness.
Eventually, only Serena and Mirei were left at the reception counter. Thanks to the absence of other adventurers, it returned to a relatively calm time.
Serena took a light breath and muttered.
"Sigh... those people are always like that. Do they need to say they're better than someone else to feel at ease?"
Mirei shrugged her shoulders and checked the documents Serena had organized.
"Well, you can't change their personalities, right? It's more helpful to have someone like Setsu who quietly and silently does his work. It's better for you too, Serena, right?"
The moment that name was mentioned, Serena smiled slightly.
"Setsu... he's a really strange person. He only cleans sewers, but he's never made a mistake. Of course, he doesn't brag, and he quietly reports and goes home... I thought he was a gloomy person at first, but somehow I feel relieved when I see him."
Mirei nodded in agreement.
"That's right. From the guild's point of view, those kinds of adventurers are very welcome. The reward is low, but they reliably clean up the dirty work, and they don't cause any trouble..."
"Honestly, it would be helpful if everyone was as quiet and cooperative as Setsu."
"Really. In other guilds, they're screaming because no one wants to do the sewer cleaning jobs. In that respect, we're greatly helped by Setsu."
Serena had certainly heard such stories.
According to the receptionist, she had to somehow persuade the adventurers to do the sewer cleaning requests, and it was a lot of work.
Suddenly, when she looked around at the reception counter, which had calmed down as if the previous commotion had been a lie, the figure of Setsu, who gave her a casual sense of security that was completely different from those guys from earlier, came to her mind.
"I wish everyone was an adventurer like Setsu..."
Mirei nodded in agreement to Serena's muttering.
Just then, the guild door opened.
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