Chapter 110

Chapter 110: The Bard

With Ria carving the outpost's guild-territory name into the plaque atop the west gate, the brief west gate completion ceremony and guild-territory introduction came to a close.

The Knight Quartet, whom I had not introduced, were treated for now as Ria's direct retainers rather than as members of the guild.

All that remained was to enjoy the party.

Today's barbecue offerings included not only standard asado but also special asado.

'Horn Rabbit Asado and Drake Hind Leg Asado.'

Each raised Agility and Strength respectively when eaten.

These two asados were provided only to the Hunters who had put in additional work beyond the three-hour daily cap.

A token of thanks for the care and effort they had invested.

The Hunters then enjoyed the barbecue party.

Among the Hunters at the party, there turned out to be one with the so-called Bard skill.

DING!

He began to sing and play classical guitar.

A system message appeared.

[Serenade of the Wind-Blown Forest]

The song's name was practically our guild's name.

[Song or performance duration effect: All stats of allies within a 60m radius are raised by 21%. Resistance to all attributes is raised by 15%. Stamina and mana recovery are raised by 230%.]

An incredible buff.

It had the drawback of lasting only while the song or performance continued, but the magnitude was still staggering.

Truly, the world was wide, and Hunters with diverse skills were many.

On top of that, his singing seemed as good as most professional singers.

'Pleasant to listen to.'

Drinking and enjoying meat while listening to his song, the drinks went down smoothly.

At the moment, the front-of-house staff were in charge of grilling the skewers and cutting cooked meat onto plates.

Ji-young and I had worked during the early rush, and when things settled down partway through, we'd passed the baton to the front-of-house staff and were now enjoying the party.

The beer after finishing work was outstanding.

'Even if what I'm drinking is non-alcoholic.'

Ria had said she wouldn't touch alcohol during her pregnancy.

So I had decided not to drink with her either.

I was just drinking non-alcoholic beer to match the mood.

Ria had had severe morning sickness until recently.

Because of that, at the Rift house we had eaten mostly foods without strong odors.

'Even after learning she was pregnant, Ria had wanted to help out at the restaurant, but her morning sickness was too severe for that.'

I couldn't have her working while enduring morning sickness.

Going forward, too, I planned to keep her from helping until her body had fully recovered from childbirth.

In any case, for a while Ria hadn't been able to touch meat.

But now that the morning sickness had gone—

"This Texas-style brisket is so tender and delicious. And the asado is delicious too, of course."

She was enjoying her meat.

"Eat plenty."

I straightened Ria's hair for her.

"Don't just watch me eat, Seon-u—eat something yourself."

"You're too pretty while eating—it's hard to take my eyes off you."

"..."

Ria blushed and covered my eyes with her hands.

We were still as sweet as newlyweds.

"All right, I'll eat too."

Several pairs of eyes looked on with envy.

"Damn it, the married couple virally being sweet."

Eriksson grumbled.

"You seem awfully jealous, Master Eriksson."

At Ruina's words, Eriksson's ears turned red.

"N-no, not really."

"There are quite a few female Hunters at the outpost, you know. Is there no one you have your eye on?"

"There's no such thing!"

"If there isn't, there isn't—why get all flustered and raise your voice? Lady Ria is pregnant, so please refrain from raising your voice."

"Sorry..."

"This is what I get for dealing with kids."

"I'm not a kid!"

That side was hopeless—hopeless.

Meanwhile, there was an unexpectedly good vibe elsewhere.

"Master, does our Chef have a talent for the spear? Compared to me, how much?"

Ji-young, her pronunciation slipping a bit—she'd had a bit to drink.

The one she was asking was Neville.

She had recently been learning the spear from Neville.

Neville spoke with the bluntness of an unvarnished rationalist.

"Master Seon-u is ten times more talented than you are, Miss Ji-young. You're only... physically healthy."

"Only healthy? That's too mean! Still, thank you for teaching me earnestly."

"Yes. More importantly, it seems you're tipsy, so I think it would be best if you stopped drinking now."

"I'm fine. I get drunk easily, but I don't get hangovers, really. I'll go grab more meat and drinks."

Ji-young swayed.

Neville steadied her.

"A handful, this young lady."

"Hehe! I am that type, aren't I?"

I hoped they weren't about to start something.

Well, Neville, Benny, and Ruina all needed to find partners eventually.

That was what Ria worried about most when it came to her fellow knights.

That out of loyalty, they'd waste their lives beside her.

That was why she had initially hesitated to accept them.

As we enjoyed the party—

The bard-Hunter's music and song, which had seemed like they would never stop, eventually ended.

'A shame. I wanted to hear more.'

That was how moody and pleasant it had been.

As I watched his retreating figure, the elder Sword Saint came over to sit beside me and said,

"A Bard Hunter with quite a powerful buff, isn't he?"

"Yes, he truly is."

"That fellow is Damon, a singer from Canada. He's been Awakened for barely four months. Even so, love calls from famous guilds around the world are pouring in. And he's only a B-Rank Hunter."

"Even at B-Rank, that's understandable. His buff is absurdly powerful."

An all-stats buff, all-attribute resistance, and mana and stamina recovery.

Truly, it had everything needed for combat.

My cooking buffs wouldn't stack on top of that performance skill.

"Yes, which is why—despite being B-Rank—he came to the Fourth Floor of the Rift not as a Porter, but as a full combat member of his party."

"First time I've heard of a case like that."

"Indeed. And because his skill is so excellent, many guilds are after him, but Damon has no intention whatsoever of joining any guild or organization. His life's goal, he says, is to wander wherever the road takes him, singing as a musician."

"A genuine bard, then."

A tempting talent, but if he didn't want to be tied down, so be it.

Just then—

"Excuse me, Chef An."

Damon had tucked his classical guitar into its case and approached me.

"Yes, hello, Hunter Damon."

"Oh, you know my name?"

"I've seen your face many times at the restaurant, so I've recognized you for a while, but I only just heard your name a moment ago. Your playing and singing were so pleasant that I was curious about the person behind them."

"You flatter me. By any chance, could I ask for your autograph...?"

"An autograph? Of course I'll give you one. But why mine, of all people's?"

"Because you're a famous chef, and the world's most famous Hunter."

I wasn't quite that famous.

Beside me, the elder Sword Saint had closed his eyes and was nodding as if in agreement with Damon's statement.

"Haha... Anyway, I'll sign for you."

To sign, I opened Acresia and pulled out a stiff sheet of paper and a permanent marker.

"No, not on paper—here, please."

Damon unslung the guitar case from his back, opened it, and took out the classical guitar.

He then pointed to the lower part of the guitar's body.

"On the guitar itself?"

"Yes, please."

It looked like a precious guitar.

But since he was asking, I might as well.

I signed the body of the guitar.

"Thank you so much! I'll treasure it as a family heirloom!"

A family heirloom was a bit much.

But if he was responding this favorably, it was worth floating an idea.

"Hunter Damon, my restaurant runs a nighttime bar once every other week in the evenings. Would you be interested in doing a live performance then? I'll pay you well."

On a first meeting, proposing a guild membership would be heavy for both parties.

And I couldn't casually bring someone into the guild based on ability alone, when I didn't yet know what kind of person they were.

Our guild wasn't a hardcore hunt-and-clear guild.

All the more so because we were a family-and-friendship guild.

So I needed time to get to know what sort of person he was.

"A live show at the Chef's restaurant? Gladly!"

Damon readily accepted.

"When do you run the night service?"

"Four days from now."

"Then I'll practice hard until then!"

"Thank you. Would two Mid-Grade Magic Stones be acceptable as the fee?"

In Korean won, that was about ten million.

"That much...?"

"You deserve at least that."

If only to win favor.

The outpost currently had a restaurant for lunch service, but no bar or pub that ran at night.

We had plans to build one.

If I decided Damon was a good sort of person and he was interested in joining the guild, we'd also want to consider building a live bar or live pub-tent.

The wall-completion party ran late into the night.

The Hunters at the outpost ate and drank their fill of meat and drinks.

***

With the walls in place, we began stationing guild members on top of them in earnest.

On watch at any one time were one person each at the north, south, east, and west watchtowers—four people total.

They would keep watch for approaching monsters with binoculars from the watchtowers atop the walls, and when monsters appeared, they would ring small bells to signal the guild members stationed at section-specific guard posts—who were waiting to rotate in—to repel or drive off the monsters.

If monsters approached that were too strong for them to handle, they would ring the large bell to signal an emergency and receive support from the Hunters inside the outpost.

'With the walls in place, my mind feels so much lighter.'

It was the same for the Hunters at the outpost, I was sure.

Until now, the Hunters at the outpost had always been on edge.

Those pitched at the outskirts, in particular, had always had to be prepared for monster attacks.

'There were a few incidents.'

So far, human casualties from monster attacks numbered five dead and thirteen seriously injured.

Most had been while sleeping without a night watch posted on the outer edges of the outpost.

That wouldn't happen anymore.

Two days later,

Maxim came to see me after the lunch service.

"Liege Lord, my body's aching for work—I can't bear it any longer."

"It's only been three days."

"Only? It's been a whole three days."

Just three days since the wall construction had finished.

He seemed eager to jump into the next project.

"Then, how about rather than physical labor right away, you and I put our heads together and start drawing up a master plan for the outpost?"

"Oh, that would be wonderful!"

After the lunch service, I sat across from him at a restaurant table and spread out a large sheet of stiff art paper that I'd bought for mapmaking.

"The first priority is building our guild's outpost branch and the Rift Management Bureau's outpost office. Next comes the guard posts below the walls where the guild members on watch-duty will stay. For now, I've placed mobile housing there, so there shouldn't be much inconvenience in the meantime."

"I see."

Aside from those, we needed to build paid lodging for the Hunters staying at the outpost to use.

'We can't run the guild for free.'

We had to pay the members on duty a fair wage.

To generate that money, the outpost's facilities had to run well.

One of those facilities was the rental lodging.

Other than that—a bakery, a pub, a dwarven smithy.

And later, if possible, showers or a bathhouse.

'Right now, the Hunters fetch water from the lake to brush their teeth and wipe down with a damp towel.'

Also, a general store selling clothes and daily necessities.

All those paid facilities and shops would become guild operating funds.

In exchange, our outpost would not charge protection fees.

The protection fees collected at the Second Floor outpost, we wouldn't collect.

'In lieu of that, people will spend their money buying food at the restaurant or using facilities.'

So as Maxim and I talked through various business ideas, I penciled out the master plan on the white paper.

My own drawing skills weren't bad, but as you'd expect, a dwarf—whose race was defined by dexterity—drew at another level.

With every movement of his hand, the plan gained depth and dimension.

"You draw splendidly."

"It's flowing well today. Talking city plans like this with my Liege Lord, the images come to life in my head on their own! Hoho!"

He looked genuinely delighted.

Of course, I was enjoying it too.

Looking at the master plan, I could imagine the outpost town that would rise in the future.

'A town on the Fourth Floor of a Rift.'

Something difficult even on the Second Floor—we were making it happen on the Fourth Floor, no less.

As I was lost in that happy imagining—

CLANG! CLANG!

A loud bell rang outside.

That was the signal from the walls.

A signal that a monster too strong for the guild members on watch duty to handle was approaching the wall.