Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 131

Three of them had disappeared from the roster.

There were seven people in our party, including me and Sarah, so five continued to be active as adventurers, and three had either died or retired. The remaining two are still registered as adventurers, but I don’t know what they’re doing now.

Sevran the swordsman, Renaldo the spearman, and Otto the axeman.

I recall the faces of my former comrades who became the “lost ones” during our adventures. The way we parted was unpleasant, but we had shared many hardships and joys over the years.

I wonder what happened to the remaining two. I hope they’ve successfully joined another party.

When I traced the document of the last quest they accepted, it seems they attempted to subdue a forest-dwelling ogre. It was a reckless endeavor. If I had been there, I would have never allowed them to take it on.

They must have been in deep financial trouble.

As dusk approached, I was lost in thought, reading the records by the light of a beast oil lamp in the dimly lit workshop office, when Sara quietly opened the door and entered.

When I asked, “What’s up?” Sara began somewhat awkwardly.

“I think I may have said too much earlier. I knew that you were always concerned about and working hard for the novice adventurers, It was just… I didn’t mean to…”

“Well, I’m glad you said that. It’s true, I’ve been only looking up and neglecting what’s under my feet lately. I was able to threaten the noble civil servants and manipulate the guild management, so I had started viewing the novice adventurers as mere numbers in the ledger. Thank you, Sara.”

When I thanked her, Sara turned red and fell silent. To cover the awkwardness, Sara glanced at the documents I was holding and asked loudly, “What document is that?” 

For a moment, I briefly considered staying silent, but it wasn’t something I could keep hidden for long. I decided to be honest.

“After parting ways with you earlier today, I looked up the whereabouts of our former party members in the roster. Sevran, Renaldo, and Otto seem to have retired. They’ve been removed from the roster. The remaining two are missing. I assume they’re still adventurers, though.”

In this context, “retirement” is a euphemism for death or disappearance. When death cannot be directly confirmed, it is expressed this way. And many adventurers’ deaths cannot be confirmed, so “retirement” is used.

Sara, after a moment of hesitation, responded, “I knew.”

I was surprised. “You knew? Oh, you continued to take on quests together for a while after I left.”

“Yeah. But it didn’t last very long. I was really angry with them for kicking you out. Do you know? The guy who joined after you left was really annoying. He went on about his ancestral magic sword and waved around this strange sword. He was skilled, but he demanded half of the share! He kept saying it was all thanks to him that the monsters were defeated! And he never helped with camp duties, like fetching water or tending the fire! One time, when he was cutting a monster on a different quest, he hit a rock with his sword and chipped it badly. The repair costs were enormous, and we didn’t even know if it would be restored to its original state. He wanted to borrow money from the party! I thought he was crazy! Didn’t he already take all the rewards for himself? We had a huge fight over it, and in the end, I left the party.”

Listening to Sara’s explanation, I understood what had happened.

When I was in the party, I explained the allocation of roles, financial negotiations, and the allocation of materials and rewards, and created and enforced the rules. As a result, the party accumulated some wealth and became stronger.

But when I left, the one who filled my place was an outsider with no skills other than wielding a sword.

 It was infuriating that anyone thought he could replace me. If they had participated in even one of my beginner tours and learned the operational rules, things might have turned out differently.

They must have had their own awkwardness and pride about kicking me out. And, likely due to financial difficulties, they took on a quest to defeat the man-eating ogre, which was beyond their capability. It became their final quest and finally, their grave.

Their bodies were probably eaten by the ogre. There were no last words or possessions left behind.

That was the end for the comrades with whom I had shared several years of adventures with.