Though my little joke caused a dispute with his wife, Mozes didn’t give in and still taught me lots of things.

First of all, about the Kingdom and the Empire. From what I gathered from the bandits, all I know is that there’s a Kingdom in the west and an Empire in the east, but so far it seems like the two of them are in good terms. That’s because further in the east, beyond the Empire’s borders, there are three countries called the Three Eastern Kingdoms that are on extremely bad terms with the Empire. There are continuous skirmishes near the Empire’s national borders and even now there are probably some battles going on right now. And because the Empire’s in this kind of situation, they probably want to get along with the Kingdom behind them as much as possible.

As for the Kingdom’s side, while it’s true that if they attack the Empire, it’s possible for them to launch a pincer attack with the Three Eastern Kingdoms, however, the problem’s that they don’t have a pipeline to the Three Kingdoms. Since they’re fellow countries, the Kingdom does have some communication with them, but whether the Kingdom can get some benefits if they side with them is unknown. And furthermore, if the defensive wall called the Empire falls, the Kingdom will end up with a situation where it’s inevitable to face the Three Kingdoms. And when that happens, it’s basically clear that the Kingdom will be following after the Empire’s death.

For that reason, the Kingdom and the Empire are now on good terms. Right now, the current King Aureitas’ second consort is Emperor Sinelria’s relative, it seems. And similarly, the emperor’s concubine also comes from the King’s relatives too. So you can say that they have mutual hostages, I guess? But of course, officially it’s shown as the proof of their friendship, see?

Other than that, both of them are also utilizing the same system in order to stabilize their mutual relations. The prime example of that are the Adventurer and Commerce Guilds.The Adventurer’s Guild is a cross-national organization, who’s duty is 『To accept all request and commissions as long as they are not cross-national acts of war nor violate the established laws of both countries.』 It seems like the simple requests include odd jobs, gardening, and so on, while the big ones are monster suppression, or in some cases, the subjugation of criminal organizations.

Moreover, the Guild also functions as a relief system for ruffians, vagrants, orphans, and the like. Since a registration fee is needed to register in the guild, in exchange for the guild shouldering their expenses and guaranteeing their social status, they have the obligation to work for the sake of the guild.

Naturally, it’s not like they’ve turned into slaves and forced to work in harsh working conditions. They’re given requests that they’re capable of doing, making them accumulate achievements and practical experience. So by the time they can pay up the registration fee, they’ve already grown to be full-fledged adventurers. By the way, in cases that someone registered with the guild commits an act of crime, the guild has the authority to judge them. There are times that their circumstances are, to some extent, taken into account, but it seems that in most cases, they’ll be expelled from the guild and sold as crime slaves.

Of course things like disputes between adventurers are also meditated by the guild. And in cases that a dispute between an adventurer guaranteed by the guild and other adventurers, the former will be supported to some extent. Naturally, in cases that an adventurer arbitrarily harms an ordinary civilian they would be punished. However, in cases like mine, where people who aren’t affiliated with the guild steals a march on adventurers and takes their prey, they’ll be one at fault.

The Rank is the so-called indicator of an adventurer’s strength. The escort party’s rank is C, the highest rank would be S and the lowest would be G. It seems that for a first-time registrant, they would be registered as an F Rank and are made to do herb collection, horned rabbit hunting, and such.

By the way, it seems like the lowest G Rank is the relief for the ones that can’t really fight, like the orphans and such, and at the same time the demotion for F Rankers who continued to fail their requests. G Rank does guarantee their social status more or less, but they can’t take any significant requests. So maybe it’s like a provisional licence kind of thing, huh?

The other one’s the Commerce Guild. The ones registered in the guild are mostly merchants. Basically, merchants not registered with the guild can’t do business in both the Kingdom and the Empire. That’s because the Commerce Guild’s the one that issues the currency used between both countries.

The currency from lowest to highest is: copper coins, large copper coins, silver coins, large silver coins, gold coins, and large gold coins that’s basically one yen, ten yen, a hundred yen, and so on kind of thing. There’s supposed to be more of them, but isn’t that already too much?

Incidentally, about the animals, monsters, and such; it seems like you can sell it to either the Adventurer or Commerce Guild. Still, since it will reflect as your achievement, most people seem to sell it to their affiliated guild.

「Hmm~… It’s pretty well thought out, huh.」 「Isn’t it? Naturally, I’m registered at the Commerce Guild and Grimhart’s party members are registered at the Adventurer’s Guild. There are only a few people registered in both of them, but nearly everyone is registered to either one. The only ones who don’t register are the temple officials or the daughters of nobility, I suppose? Most of the time, the sons of nobility join the Adventurer’s Guild for just the prestige, you see.」

By the way, it seems like the Kingdom’s religion isn’t monotheism. That Pig God’s the highest rank as the Creator God, and below him are the God of Fire, God of Water, God of Wind, and God of Earth as the four elemental gods, the Sun God, and the God of Twilight, making them a total of seven gods that are mainly worshipped by the people.

Mainly, I say, is because the seven of them are said to have the most power and under them are even more gods, is what they believe you see. And in this world, there are even legends that if a human gains enough power, they can ascend to the throne of the gods.

「The Hero God Vytoria’s Tales are popular with the children, you know?」 「Hmm~… there’s something like that too, huh.」 「…… So you really don’t know about it. A long time ago, the maiden of war drove away an orc who proclaimed himself a god, and as a reward, she was conferred a seat in the throne of the gods and became a goddess. They say that she kicked down the orc that had the strength to destroy an entire kingdom’s army, and made him kneel down and such. Well, it’s a fairy-tale after all.」

Hmm…? Orc, self-proclaimed, God. Kicked down, made to kneel…? Hmm? Huh…? No, somehow I feel that this isn’t something I should think too much about, but somehow, I ended up doing so. So she wasn’t an angel, but a goddess, huh….