"That customer left without buying anything... Millis-san said that I must allow him to purchase medicinal herbs but he went against Serga-sama and it's not my fault that he doesn't have any knowledge about medicinal herbs, right?"

The receptionist Selica was in troubled as she watched Yamato walk out the guild door. Normally it's not good to say that you want to purchase all the products that are available. As for example, if a merchant from another country bought all the goods from all the merchants in the guild and brought them back to their own country, the economy of the city may collapse.

However, it's not a problem if an apothecary want all kinds of medicinal herbs as it is possible for a high ranking apothecary to purchase all the medicinal herbs available.

Selica's reason for refusing Yamato was because of her personal belief. She believes that a child who doesn't know the different types of medicinal herbs couldn't be a proper apothecary.

She also thought that her reputation would be harmed if word got out that she had provided medicinal herbs to such a child. Also that same child rebelled against Serga, a child of a noble family and the city's leading apothecary.

"Selica, what did he bought?"

"Eh, Millis-san..."

"What happened? did he asked for something amazing? Maybe it's an equivalent of a C rank potion? It may be difficult to provide that, but still..."

"Actually..."

"... You, need to start over from training again! Is that how a receptionist in a merchant guild supposed to respond!"

Millis was furious at Selica, when she told her everything that had happened. If it had been a normal customer, she would have been able to get away with just a little lecture as she also understand Silica's fear of being noticed by Serga.

But this time she was dealing with the wrong person.

"Why are you yelling? Millis, Selica, come here and cool your head a little."

A young but dignified woman's voice reached them from the staff door behind the counter. They hurriedly look at the owner of the voice and realize their mistakes when they noticed the gazes of those around them.

The other receptionists and even the customers around them were looking at them because Millis was reprimanding Selica with a stern expression that she did not usually show. A nearby receptionist, sensing the seriousness of the situation, called the deputy guild leader to take control of the situation.


...


"I'm sorry deputy guild leader."

"I'm sorry!"

Millis and Selica entered a room in the deputy guild leader's office and bowed deeply to apologize. No matter what the reason is raising one's voice and reprimanding someone in the guild is unacceptable. Millis understood that and she was willing to accept any punishment.

Also Selica was shaken by the fact that she had made such a blunder that Millis the always the calm and competent receptionist had lost her composure.

As an exclusive receptionist, Millis has had many conversations and meetings with Deputy Guild Leader Rebecca, so she is familiar with this office.

However, Selica was just a receptionist, and the deputy guild leader, who was running the guild on behalf of the guild leader who was often away from the guild, was most of the time the one who runs the guild. Also Selica have never been called out to her office before.

Selica knows she made a blunder and the fact that the one she admired Millis, an exclusive receptionist is now being punished. That's why Selica felt a tremendous sense of hopelessness and she felt like she's a prisoner facing execution.

"It must have been quite a reason for you Millis to commit such a blunder. What happened?"

Rebecca, who saw Millis and decided that she was calm enough, got right down to business. She had no intention of making any small talks or punishing her since the beginning. She knows that Millis understood that she doesn't have to say anything like that right now. Rebecca had no intention to give instruction to Millis, who is responsible for guiding and punishing Selica.

"Actually, this is..."

"Is this an E-rank potion? No! This potion is in the highest quality. Where did you get this?"

Millis pulled out a bottle of potion from her waist bag. Rebecca thought there was no way Millis would give her just any potion, so she took it and checked it using the quality-assessment magical tool she had kept in her desk drawer.

The result was that the potion was in the highest quality. The highest quality potion that existed since then was the potions that were found from excavating ruins that existed hundreds of years ago or older. The highest quality potion doesn't deteriorate even hundreds of years had already passed. Rebecca asserted that the potion she was holding was no doubt a potion that was excavated from an old ruin.

Currently there are no potion makers that are active who can produce the highest quality potion. According to history there's only one person that existed who has been able to make the highest quality potions and he is known as a Sage and he is even called sometimes as the god of apothecary. While it is true that there are people who can make potions, however the method for creating the highest quality potion is shrouded in mystery. That's why all apothecaries are working day and night to improve their skills in the pursuit of the highest quality.

After purchasing the potions from Yamato, Millis was curious about the quality of the potions that he had brought in and that's why she tried to appraise it's quality. When she appraised it she found out that all the 30 potions that she had bought were of the highest quality. That's why she immediately returned to the counter but unfortunately Yamato wasn't there anymore and when she asked Silica about what happened, that's when she got furious of Selica.

Rebecca seriously observes the potion that she has received. In all of her professional life she had never seen a potion of the highest quality before. However she knew that all of the potions that had been excavated from the ruins was different from the bottle she is holding right now. As the design from the potion bottles that was excavated in the past all have elaborate design that made the bottle themselves worth a lot of money.

She considers the possibility that the content of the potion she was holding came from an undiscovered site and was transfer to the simple potion jar as a way of forgery but there's no need for someone to go to the trouble of transferring a highest quality potion in a simple bottle just to sell them at a discounted price. She came to the conclusion that the royalty and nobility of any country would buy it at a high price.

She observed the potion again, considering several possibilities, then looked at Millis again for an explanation.

"The boy who came to register with the guild just now sold it to me, so I bought it from him."

"Well done! That boy should be treated as a D rank, no, a C rank! Don't let him get away. If another guild took him away the guild leader will get mad!"

Rebecca judges that the one who brought the highest quality potion is a superior customer based on some consideration she had been thinking about when she heard that a boy who had not yet been registered with the guild had brought that kind of potion to them.

If that boy brought in stolen goods he would have been stopped at the gate as a criminal. There are many merchants who bring in stolen goods without realizing it, but there are also a few criminals who go out of their way to make children carry expensive potions for them to sell it.

Therefore, Rebecca guessed that Yamato was an apprentice who was asked by his master, a potion maker, to sell his potions.

He is an apprentice of a potions artisan who can make the highest quality potions. That means that his existence is more valuable than the high ranking potion makers in the area. If the apprentice is good enough to be entrusted with that kind of potions then that must mean that his knowledge is already recognized by his master, and therefore there's no problem in treating him as a potion artisan, even if he is still a child. As being able to make the highest quality potions was synonymous with being able to make high ranking potions.

Some potion-makers are eccentric and doesn't want to work for the state or the nobility, so they secluded themselves in remote areas. Some of them had such a solid technique that some of the nobles made them their exclusive potion makers while giving them plenty of respect.

However, there are some who do not like such demands and flee to other countries. If a highly skilled craftsman were to flee to another country, how much of a loss would that be? That's why the handling of high-ranked potion artisans is a very delicate matter.

And Rebecca's boss, the guild master, is also a potion craftsman, he is working every day aiming for the highest quality potions and high-ranked potions. The reason why he tend to be absent from the guild most of the time is that he tends to stay in the forest because he thinks that fresh herbs are an ingredients that are needed to achieve the highest quality potion.

The reason why such a negligent guild leader can continue to be the guild leader is because of his high level of skill. He is considered one of the three most skilled guild leaders in the country, and he is the one who is called upon not by the city, but by the country.

If such a guild leader knew that a boy holding a key to the highest quality potion had come to the guild that he is in charge of, he would never let him go. He would secure the boy's custody even if it meant making enemies with the lords. He would give everything he has, and if that is not enough, he will get it even if he has to exploit the country. Rebecca thought she could picture him like that.

".... Uhmm that's where the problem lies because of the reason of the previous commotion outside earlier."

Millis explained in detail the events leading up to the matter she just discussed from the time Yamato came into the guild. Millis didn't know the part about Serga and the problem of whose the one who is going first, that's why Rebecca also called the other receptionist and the guard that was present when that happened, and a very detailed story was conveyed to Rebecca. Millis also held her head and moaned when she heard about the exchange between Serga and Yamato, which she had not been aware of.

I don't know how many times Rebecca yelled while listening to the story. Even the guard that was reporting the incident is trembling due her voice.

".... In other words that's it right? ... Are there nothing but idiots in this guild?!"

""Hii""

Currently there are five people inside the vice guild leader's office, they are Rebecca, Millis, Selica, the guard who held Yamato and the receptionist at the 2nd window. The receptionist in charge of the first counter had already gone home, saying that her work was finished with the purchase of Serga's goods.

Rebecca was already angry when she heard from Millis what had happened to her and Selica but when all the parties that are involved where gathered except the receptionist in the 1st window and when she heard what had happened she became even more angry.

The receptionist at the second window was the only one who saw the whole thing because she was there when it all happened that's why she was there as well.

"Millis! Didn't I already told you that you guys mustn't give in to the arrogance of the nobility?"

"No, it was a selfish decision on our part."

Rebecca is involved in the overall operation of the guild, that's why she doesn't have to go to the window to work. The operation of the receptionist desk is managed by some of the exclusive receptionists, and Millis is one of them.

"How are the receptionists trained, then?　Just today alone I've already heard of two blunders. I don't want to think that those two things are related from each other."*

The receptionist at the second window and Selica were downcast and trembling. They both knew that Rebecca's anger was directed at the receptionist at the first counter, but the situation had already gone beyond that, even if they didn't want to admit it.

Rebecca forbade Millis and Selica from talking about the top-quality potion Yamato had brought in. She then called each of the receptionists and guards to ask them in detail how Yamato had been treated. They all felt Rebecca's anger and all the staff came to understand that Yamato was not just any boy.

Millis and the guard who held Yamato are the only one who knew that he was no ordinary man when he pulled out his potion from his pockets. However, the other staff members clearly considered saying that the boy, didn't care about the aristocracy if Rebecca would be asked them about the boy who rebelled against Serga but when they heard about the situation most of then became aware of their blunders.

However since they didn't know the true identity of the boy, it was impossible for them to confront an aristocrat.

"Our whole operation is all according to our manual. However, we understood that recently there were many staff members who could not respond according to the manual. We had been discussing this among the full-time receptionists, and had arranged to retrain them in the near future."

"But with this incident it's already too late. After all being a merchant is all about speed. This case was an obvious case of a bad receptionist standing in front of the receptionist table right? We may need to also retrain the other receptionist but right now our first priority is to get rid that piece of filth."

"I have no words to say. We were too late in dealing with her as she had gained the backing of the nobility. We should have reported this to the deputy guild leader instead of making the decision ourselves."

"Ah. If I had known that such filth was mixed in, I would have cleaned it up immediately..."

There's no lie in what had Rebecca has said. As she's a person that is always decisive on things like that so that things wouldn't got out of hand. However she also knew that all the exclusive receptionist including Millis were always trying to correct the discipline of the receptionist that they are handling by re-educating everyone together. From the point of view of Millis and the other exclusive receptionists, all the receptionists were their pupils and juniors. That's why they couldn't simply throw them away.

"Right I was able to confirm the situation now. Millis, do you think the boy would come again to the guild despite what had happened?

"Yes! Because he had to go through the guild in order to sell the potions. He also seemed to be from another country and did not seem to know much about this country that much. So even if he leaves this city, I think that he will sell us his potions a few more times."

Rebecca then nodded her head and said that 30 silver coins weren't much for a master and apprentice traveling together. At the same time she was deeply sorry that they had purchased the highest quality potions for just 30 silver coins. As one bottle of highest quality potion that was excavated from the ruins, would probably fetch no less than three gold coins and if it were sold at auction it will be a lot higher as there are countless apothecaries who want to use it for research, and there are many royalty and nobility who want to keep a potion that will not deteriorate by their side.

That's why Rebecca was worried about the reaction of the boy's master when he learned that the boy only brought back 30 silver coins. The mysterious elixir, the masterpiece of mankind, cost only 30 silver coins? That would be ridiculous if one would think about it. And she thought that a normal person would never set foot in their guild again because of that, and when the guild leader learned about that he would go mad and riot until he turned this city into a wilderness.

"If he comes to the guild again promote him to C rank and give him 10 gold coins to make up for the deficiency of what we gave to him. If he comes again to sell his potion I will be the one who will receive him. Also Millis, go to the city now and find the person in question. Tell him that there was an error in our assessment and bring him back to the guild. The rest of you go back and do your duties as usual. Also don't forget to share this information with your colleagues, I wouldn't want to hear them say that they didn't hear that information, understand?"

""Yes!""

The others left the office leaving only Rebecca and Millis behind. Rebecca gave Millis the 30 gold coins.

"The 10 gold coins will be the compensation for the potion that he provided us earlier. But if he decided to continue to provide us with those kind of potions give him all the 30 coins. However please explain to him that the amount of future purchases will be determined by a discussion with me. Because if he can produce the miracle potion in large quantity the price will collapse. But if it's a high-ranked potion then I'm willing to raise the price as much as possible."*



Notes: 1. Sorry I couldn't praise it better but what Rebecca was trying to say is that she doesn't want to think that the training of the receptionist is so bad that's why it leads to mistake like that.

2. The miracle potion Rebecca is talking about is the highest quality potion that can be found in the ruins. The high-ranked potion she is talking about is potions in the C, B, A, and S tier.