The sudden question had caught him off guard. Essentially suggesting that it was his turn to speak, she continued.
“About the Hero and the Maou suppression force. Do you think they can do it, Suimei-san?”
“…That’s a good question. If the current Hero is really like those in the stories you mentioned, then it should be possible. The problem is whether or not that matches the current reality.”
“Do you think they can do it?” my ass. Reiji and the others definitely can’t do those kinds of things, so there’s no way things will go as smoothly as they do in those stories.
“Oh, you don’t agree?”
“No, it’s not that. More specifically, I think it’s naive to presume that victory will come simply because the Hero exists. Whether or not they will succeed is not something anyone can know for certain…”
Suimei, as one with a precise understanding of the current situation, was rather uneasy. If one truly believed that receiving an enormous power was enough to guarantee victory, that only served to demonstrate how little one truly knew about battle.
Suimei’s eyes narrowed in worry.
“Such thoughts are best left unsaid when you’re outside. If the believers of the Church of Salvation, who hold the heroes to be the emissaries of the Goddess Arshuna, were to hear you, you’d be in for quite the sermon.”
“Haha… I’ll be careful.”
This again. Lefille had said the same thing. It seemed that to the people of this world, sermons from the Church were something to be feared to the point that they presented as a tangible threat. For the sake of what his goals, he’d have to be very careful from now on.
Dorothea’s expression changed. Her look of reprimand was replaced with a look of agreement.
“That said, what you said is certainly true, Suimei-san. Indeed, most of the adventurer’s guild isn’t nearly that optimistic. Either way, it’s a truth that the Hero’s radiant appearance has affected things greatly. It’s not just the knights or foot soldiers that have seen a rapid increase in applications to join their ranks, over the last few days, we’ve received several times more applicants than normal.”
“And so the receptionist tried to get me to leave, right?”
“Right. Suimei-san, at the very least, you should carry a magic staff with you. Even those unqualified applicants of late have brought appropriate equipment with them, let alone a card carrying member of the guild like yourself. It’s completely unheard of.”
“Sorry for that, really. I’m reflecting on my actions.”
If actions had simply not been thought through properly that was one thing, but this time, he’d also failed to take note of his surroundings, a rather serious oversight.
His head hung as he sighed inwardly. Dorothea stuck out her chest and spoke.
“It’s fine if you understand. It’s not like it was that big a deal anyway.”
Unexpectedly, this girl had quite an insensitive side to her.
“—Even if you say that, that was a pretty violent way just to get someone to leave, wasn’t it?”
This was something that Suimei had been concerned about the entire time. Even if you wanted to escort someone from the building, the way they’d gone about it had been overhasty, to say the least. Perhaps this was simply because Suimei was too accustomed to the polite service mentality of his own world, but even then, what was the deal with this world?
“You’re referring to the way the guild staff acted?”
“Yes. Doing things this way could really hurt your guys’ reputation. If others like me were to receive the same treatment, but not take it the way I did, then the guild could miss out on some promising recruits, right?”
Unexpectedly, she replied indifferently, “If someone were to back down just because of something like that, then we have no interest anyway. It’s not like we’re hurting for numbers.”
Her response had been clear cut and unhesitating. Responding to the other issue he’d raised, she added, “Also, bad rumors circulating about the adventurer’s guild is the norm.”
“Because of the successes of the Twilight Pavilion?”
“Yes.”
Her tone suggested she wasn’t bothered in the least.
“Any other questions?”