Volume 20 Sidestory 2, The Spiritualist and the Servant (Part 2)

When Cecil and Arisa visited the adventurers’ quarters at Crown headquarters, the place buzzed for a moment.

Of course, that was to be expected.

The two had never brought any followers with them before, but now they had brought four.

The two C-ranked ones had become well-known in their own right.

Of course, there were others who were C-rank or higher, but the two women who were working alone as two slaves were the focus of attention.

The fact that they were both spirit users, which was rare among humans, added to the attention.

There had been moves to add them to their party even before they moved up to the C rank, but this accelerated further.

Rumors were circulating that they were not currently working with any party, but that was why there were so many people trying to move to acquire them.

As they approached the counter, Cecil chuckled at the receptionist, who was wide-eyed to see them.

“If you keep on being dumbfounded, you will make the boss mad at you.”

The receptionist gasped at these words and quietly looked behind her, but fortunately, their boss had not yet noticed.

“…I beg your pardon. Thank you.”

The “thank you” was a whisper in the back.

“So, how can I help you?”

Neither of them had a request form in their hands by the looks of it.

The receptionist assumed that they were not accepting a request, but were on another errand.

“Yes. Today, I thought I would register these children as followers.”

“Okay, of course. Do you also need collars?”

“Yes. Can you bring some for these children and an extra one?”

The other one was for Nana, as requested by Kousuke.

Kousuke asked them to prepare a collar for Nana, and they were going to give it to him after returning to give him a report.

“Please wait a moment while I prepare the collars.”

The receptionist said and headed behind the counter.

While waiting, they filled out a form to register their servants.

The receptionist soon returned.

In her hand she held five collars.

Of course, there was an official seal of approval for being a familiar.

Monsters wearing these collars were officially recognized as familiars and could roam freely in town.

However, they still need to be accompanied by their owners, of course.

At the same time, they were also excluded from being hunted for materials.

Familiars were treated as the property of their owners, meaning that if they were taken away from their owners, it would be considered as theft.

Anyone who hunted another person Familiar without the owner’s permission would also be charged with the same crime as burglary.

“You have filled out the form… you are done. Now, if you put on the collar, they will be officially recognized as a familiar.”

The collar itself was embedded with a recognition plate as a registration certificate, so if the owners registered their magical power, they would be recognized as official familiars of the owners.

Registration on the plate and registration with the Crown (Guild) were two different things.

Registration with the Crown was necessary to be allowed to work in the town, but it was not necessary as long as the owner was outside the town.

However, without a collar, they would not be distinguishable from other wild monsters, so a collar would be necessary to distinguish them from other wild monsters.

Incidentally, Kousuke once took Nana and Wanri to Nansen, but they were not wearing collars at that time.

That was not a problem, since familiar registration and wearing a collar were not particularly mandatory.

But of course, if one was attacked because of this, one could not complain about it.

Kousuke was not aware of this at the time and broke out in a cold sweat when he heard about it later.

However, both Nana and Wanri told Kousuke to run away quickly if he was attacked when they were not around, so it would not have been a serious problem.

They had successfully completed the familiar registration, but that was not the only thing they had to do.

“Now, could you please purchase some materials for us?”

Before coming here, they had conducted some light subjugation to check their cooperation.

They had accumulated materials from that time, and they wanted to sell them off.

Even if they were not commissioned, as long as the material was a commodity, the guild would be willing to buy it any time.

Crown, in particular, also had a merchant department, so they could make purchases at the same counter.

However, the purchase process required specialized knowledge, so it would be done by a different person.

“Yes. I will go get the person in charge.”

There is of course a dedicated counter for purchases, not a reception counter like this one.

However, since it would take a lot of time and effort to go all the way to a different counter, so the same counter could also be used for the purchase.

This feature of Crown could be utilized.

The person in charge of the purchase came right away.

“Sorry to keep you waiting?”

“No problem. We’re asking for it to be purchased over here, so waiting this long was expected.”

They didn’t make the two felt like they were waiting too long, so they just took it as a safe bet and said so.

In fact, in the worst cases, they would have to move to the dedicated purchase window.

“Well then, let me take a look.”

With this statement, the two of them brought out the materials one after another.

The bag they were carrying and the capacity of the materials they were taking out did not seem to match.

The bag they were carrying was a storage bag given to them by Kousuke.

Thanks to Kouhi and Mitsuki, the magic of the item box was used to create it.

Unfortunately, the capacity required was reduced compared to using magic directly, but it would still be a highly sought-after item for adventurers.

In fact, the receptionist, who was watching them, was wide-eyed at the amount of material they were putting out.

The person in charge of assessment was not surprised by this and nonchalantly appraised the materials that came out.

However, every time he picked up a piece of material, he made an admiring sound of “Houh” or “hmmm”.