BXBX NOVEL Volume 5 - Ch 1.12
Forgive me if what I am about to say is going to sound disrespectful, but.. you are of Human race, correct?
Huh? Oh, y-yes, I am most definitely a Human, I have no doubts about it.
Then it would seem that there really are some truly excellent Humans in the world after all.
Eh? N-No, Mr. Duke, I think there has been a misunderstanding here, or rather, that you are misunderstanding something here!
Yes, excellent indeed.
How about this then? Would you be interested in joining the ranks of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy?
Ehhh?! Uhm, while that would be a great honor for me, I am afraid that I have to respectfully decline the offer. After all, I am still an Adventurer in the process of learning and discovering my own limits, so I would not have any of my many shortcomings to be slowing anyone in the Order down or result in having a negative influence on either of your reputations.
I refused their offer without even thinking about it. All of that praise they are directing my way is under the assumption that I am an Adventurer, so if I agreed and the information that I am actually not an adventurer would have ended up reaching them or any higher-ups in the Knight Order, it would mean no end of trouble for me, and who knows that my freedom or even my life would not have been placed in danger as well? But more importantly. I thought that the Elves were supposed to be looking down on Humans, so why are these guys praising me out of the blue like that?!
Well, since they have already said all those things then I guess there is no need to be thinking about it all that much, because it is entirely possible that the Elves look down on humansmight be the stereotype about Elves in general, and as we all know, there are times where the stereotypes do not apply to every member of a given race, but rather to the majority of it, and there will always be that small percentage of the minority to are anything but the stereotype that describes the entire race, and apparently the Duke and Gozer must have been exactly those people: Elves who do not look down on Humans, or at the very least Elves who are not afraid of recognizing the accomplishments of an individual, even if that individual was a Human.
I see. Well, that is quite a shame, but if you do not want to join the Knight Order, then there is nothing I can do to force you to do so. Anyway, if you ever encounter any problems while you are in my Duchy, do not hesitate to go with it to Gozer. Since he is the leader of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy, there is nothing that he or his subordinates would not be able to do, and if it is for someone like you, who helped us in our hour of need and proved himself to be a capable Adventurer, then they would be more than glad to lend you a hand with whatever you might be needing. We are well aware that most of the other races think that we Elves look down not only on Humans, but on other races as well, which is exactly why we should be doing everything in our power to change that harmful mentality, so I hope you would not mind it if I asked you for your help with other endeavors some other time?
At the beginning I though that he might be joking around with me, but those words of his just now seemed to be genuine, and he does not look like someone who uses his words lightly only to withdraw from them moments later, but rather he looks like someone who takes his words and the promises that he makes extremely seriously.
But I sure am glad that he turned out to be this kind of person. That takes a load of potential worries off of my shoulders. Since he, Gozer and apparently even the members of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy are people who want to fight against harmful stereotypes of the Elven race, then establishing a connection with them and helping them to achieve that goal is definitely going to be something that I am not going to regret. But damn, now a part of me wishes that it could have met this Duke and his Knight Order leader earlier than I did, because if only I knew that someone like him existed, I would have kept the Copper Sword of Obstruction on me and I would have sold it to him or one of his people in order to increase my reputation with them as a Human who is willing to sell the weapons and items with Skills in them to the Elves as a sign of good will and prosperous partnership.
Well, I would not mind that, especially since I might have some business to do around here in the future, but for the time being, I think it would be high time for me to be o my way. I need to get back to work, after all.
With that said, I stood up from my seat. Talking to this man was actually more fun than I have expected, but if I stay here for too long doing nothing but chatting with him, then I am afraid that I might just lose any sense of time which would cause me to miss my appointed meeting with Sherry back at the library in Imperial City.
Ah, yes, of course. It was not my intention to be holding you back here for so long, so do forgive me for that. However, about you going back to work, I do not think that it is going to be necessary.
Huh? Why is that?
Before I came here I went to collect the report from the Knights who have been partnered with you during the distribution of supplies and they have informed me that you have done everything that was expected of you, so that means that your work for today is over and you are free to return home if you wish, Kaga Michio.
So they actually checked in with the Knights who were together with me because we finished everything so fast that they must have found it suspicious that I was resting back there even without anyone telling me that my work was officially over? I guess that is understandable, but wait, did he just addressed me with my full name? But how does he even.. oh. Ooohhh, I see. Before I was dispatched to Bode from Quratars Adventurers Guild, I had to fill in the form with my personal information, and I also had to state my name when we arrived here and the Dukes officials were explaining the specifics of the commission to us and it did not even cross my mind to come up with some sort of pseudonym because I thought that it is going to be too much of a bother, and as a result of that, they now know my full name. As for whether or not that I is going to prove to be a bad thing or not. I guess only time will tell.
Now that my talk with the Duke was over, Gozer escorted me out of his office and brought me to a large room that looked like a foyer or a lobby, where I could presumably use my Warpto leave the castle and go back home to Quartar. He then bowed to me and promptly left the room, leaving me alone in it.