Chapter 244

Side Story 1

1. I am an employee of the Hunter's Association.

When you're taking a stroll on a street, ask this question to any student you run into. Ask them what kind of job they would like to have in the future.

A hundred times out of a hundred, you'd get one of these three answers.

One, a famous Hunter; two, a staff member of a major Guild; and three, an employee of the Hunter's Association.

If a kid you talked to was a bit slow in the head, he or she would end up wasting each day wishing to become a famous Hunter.

A kid smarter than the above example would want to get a job in a major Guild that paid you according to one's abilities.

The smartest cookies of the lot would choose to become an employee of the Hunter's Association, where one would still get paid as much as the large Guilds while being treated as a quasi-government official which lessened the danger of getting unceremoniously fired from the job.

Me? I was a smart cookie.

A very smart one, to boot.