There were two types of monster inspector: field and laboratory.

If a monster needed to be investigated in its breathtaking habitat, then it was the job of a field monster investigator. If a monster—usually their materials—needed to be experimented upon in a poorly lit workspace, then it was the job of a laboratory monster investigator.

Thus, when a seed (claimed to be an unlisted monster’s) needed to be checked for its validity, it was the job of a certain investigator who hadn’t gone home for the last three days. A certain investigator who hated his job.

In his own words: There’s no glory to be had in this job.

Validity check was, in his opinion, just mind-numbing work.

It required searching through encyclopedias and conducting tests, both of which could take hours.

And it was worse for unlisted monsters.

Unlisted monsters were, by description, monsters that had never been recorded before. Which meant that for this validity test, instead of searching for a specific encyclopedia entry, he had to check every encyclopedia entry to make sure that this monster was not listed.

Yes, every encyclopedia entry. The pain of validity checks for unlisted monsters…

He missed his home. His children needed to know that their father was still alive.

Page after page after page after page… after page…

From the bottom of his heart, he wished that this seed had been recorded before. That way, this wasn’t an unlisted monster. That way, he no longer needed to flip these pages. That way, he would be done with his work.

In the end, he went through all the encyclopedias and found nothing.

This was an unlisted monster.

Now, he needed to run a test to further prove that this was an unlisted monster. If the test gave a result that had never been observed and recorded, then this was for certain an unlisted monster.

His colleagues would often say that this was when a laboratory monster investigator’s skill would be tried. As he had liberty on choosing what test to conduct.

… He couldn’t care less about that.

Wanting to go home, he grabbed a pot of soil, buried the seed there, watered it, and left it in a place that would receive sunlight.

Why overcomplicate things? A seed was meant to be planted. As simple as that.

Considering his job done, he called it a day and headed back home.

Little did he know, the next morning he would return to find a tiny plant monster wreaking havoc inside the laboratory and ruining everything.

***

Latla.

Seated on a comfortable sofa at one of the café’s tables were Latla and Cirrus (Noir on his head).

With pen and papers, Latla was calculating her finances.

Her current goal remained the same: she needed to create a guild. However, that was easier said than done, as creating a guild was costly. First and foremost, to convert this café into a guild, she needed money for renovations. Then, to keep the guild running, she needed money for operation cost. And lastly, the most important, to gain Approval, she needed money for the guild examination fee.

Thus, calculating her finances was an important task.

She had missed most of Khiva’s Annual Bazaar due to circumstances, couldn’t make as many purchases as she had wanted, but she still had managed to make good profits. The reason being: the items she had bought might be little in number, but they could be sold for a lot of krestlings. Quality could beat quantity.

Not bad, Latla thought.

Cirrus was sitting beside her. He was looking at the papers—at the labels and numbers, trying to learn from her.

‘Latla, what’s a “loan”?’ he asked, pointing at the word.

‘Money that is borrowed,’ she answered.

‘Why are you borrowing money?’

‘Because I need money.’

‘But don’t you have money? From buying 10 krestling for 1 krestling!’

‘No. I haven’t sold them yet.’

‘You haven’t?’

Latla glanced at Cirrus, could see that he was confused. Understandable. ‘It’s not that easy. Remember the gloves that I bought? The one that I got for 151 when it could sell for 3000?’

‘I remember that!’

‘For it to be sold at its rightful price, I need to find the right buyer who is willing to buy at that price. And that’s—’ friction in the market, Latla was about to say but refrained; the term might be too difficult for Cirrus— ‘painful,’ she continued. ‘The right buyer could be elsewhere, could be anywhere but Khiva. Until I can find that person, I can’t sell the gloves for its rightful price.

‘Oh! I think I get it! When I was selling herbs, I couldn’t sell it for its rightful price because no one would buy it!’

They wouldn’t, Latla thought, because buying from you would count as encouraging child labor and they could be arrested by the law for that.

‘In the end, I had to sell them cheap! Which was unfair!’

Latla twitched, irritated. Buying from a child was one thing. Buying from a child for cheap was another thing entirely. Someone was exploiting you. ‘Who did you sell it to?’ she asked.

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‘I sold herbs to Kalak!’

Kalak… The name didn’t ring a bell to Latla. I’ll punch him if I ever meet him.

‘… You can’t sell the gloves for its rightful price!’ Cirrus brought the conversation back. ‘And because you need money you borrowed money?’

‘Yes.’

‘Isn’t borrowing money bad? Sis always says that borrowing money is bad!’

‘Not always. There’s bad debt and there’s good debt.’

‘Debt?’ That was a new word to him.

‘Money that needs to be paid. But let’s just say it’s borrowed money,’ Latla explained. ‘Bad debt is when you borrow money but don’t use it to make money. Good debt is the opposite, it’s when you borrow money and use it to make money.’

‘Mm…’ Cirrus hummed. He didn’t quite understand that. Perhaps that was too much for him now.

‘Nothing to worry about,’ Latla assured. ‘I’ll be able to return the money that I borrowed.

‘In a one-in-a-million chance that I’m not able to return the money, I’ll be fine because I put the items I’ve bought as a guarantee for the loan.’

‘What’s a gwa-run-tea?’

An assurance, Latla was about to say, but didn’t. She instead told him, ‘I couldn’t sell the gloves for its rightful price. Couldn’t find the right buyer. Because of that, I went to the bank. The bank, having skilled people who can tell an item’s rightful price, knew that the gloves are worth 3000—but won’t buy it for 3000. Instead, they lent me a 1000 krestling loan on the condition that I let them hold the gloves.

‘A guarantee is when, if I fail to return the borrowed money, they get to take the gloves. This way, no matter what happens, they don’t lose money.’

‘Mm…’ Cirrus hummed, thinking.

The cat, supposedly, assisted his thinking by pawing his head.

‘So… you sold the gloves for cheaper to the bank!’

No, Latla thought, annoyed that the explanation didn’t connect. Am I bad at explaining things? Though, at least, Cirrus had gotten a good enough understanding. She decided to leave it at that. ‘Kind of,’ she said, ‘yes. I “sold” the gloves to the bank for 1000. Until an agreed date, I can “buy” it back for 1000.’

‘Mm? If you sold the gloves to the bank, why do you say that you borrowed money?’

Latla blinked.

She realized her mistake.

… I’m bad at explaining things, Latla admitted.

***

Seated on a comfortable sofa at one of the café’s tables was Latla. Alone.

She had continued calculating her finances with pen and papers, was making good progress.

I have enough for renovation cost, Latla thought. That was one of three financial hurdles cleared. Onto the ne—

Latla heard footsteps approaching her table. The weight of the sound indicated that it belonged not to a child, but an adult. A woman with scarlet hair.

‘Latla,’ Scarlet said, she saw her activities, ‘can we talk?’

‘Sure.’ Latla put aside the pen and papers.

She sat down opposite her, placed a notebook on the table.

Before Scarlet began, she looked left and right, searching. Only when she was sure she couldn’t find him—prioritizing him over what she wanted to talk about—she asked:

‘Where’s Syr?’

Sent him on a quest, Latla thought. Couldn’t say that though; Scarlet, hearing the word “quest”, would think that she had sent him somewhere dangerous. Had to be careful not to provoke her killing intent. Latla said, ‘I tried explaining to him about guarantee.

‘Made a few attempts, but none connected. Since my explanations didn’t work, and I couldn’t think of any other yet, I told him to go search and ask someone else. Because maybe then he’ll get an explanation that he can understand.

‘He then left. With the cat.’

Hearing this, Scarlet smiled. ‘Good to hear that he’s eager to learn. Thank you, Latla.’

‘It wasn’t me. He has always been eager to learn.’ She wouldn’t have taught him if he wasn’t. ‘Anyway, what do you want to talk about?’

‘I want to talk about opening the café,’ Scarlet said.

She opened the notebook, flipped through the pages.

‘About the 400 krestling… I was thinking to use it for what Trisha calls… a soft opening. We open the café to… invite-only customers and offer them coffee. Trisha said that it’s like a trial, to check if the café runs smoothly.’

‘Sounds good. Whom are you inviting?’

‘I had asked the elder, and he was happy to help. He would tell the people around here that they’re invited to the soft opening. I’d like to sell the cheap coffee and… if it isn’t cheap enough for them to buy, use the 400 krestling to cover the cost. Is that… alright?’

‘That’s alright. Go for it.’

‘Alright, I’ll go for it.’

Scarlet closed her notebook. She was done with her talk, but she lingered, staring at Latla.

‘Latla?’

‘Yes?’

‘I... have told you before that I don’t always have a weak body, right?’

She did, when she had interviewed her. ‘Yes.’

‘I ended up like this—because I had pushed myself too much.

‘I know that you want to get your work done, but I’d like to remind you that you’ve only regained consciousness yesterday. Please don’t push yourself too much.

‘Don’t end up like me.’

‘… I’ll try. Thank you for your concerns, Scarlet.’ Latla could see that Scarlet wasn’t satisfied with her answer. Her expression seemed to say: “Try”? That’s not good enough. Thus, she added, ‘I hope that I can count on you to stop me if I push myself too much.’

‘I’ll do better next time,’ Scarlet said, because she had failed to stop her yesterday. ‘Alright, I’m going to the back to check the equipment needed for the soft opening.’

Thus, Scarlet left.

Latla was glad that Scarlet was dependable. She liked how she had decided on a soft opening for the café. Additionally, she was grateful that she was concerned for her health.

I didn’t want just someone who could work, Latla thought. I wanted someone who could help me grow. And, in that regard, Scarlet fitted the description. An irreplaceable member.

***

Latla had continued calculating her finances.

She had decided to ignore operation cost for now, hoping that selling coffee would give enough profit to cover that.

I have enough for guild examination fee, Latla thought. Another financial hurdle cleared.

To create a guild, she needed four requirements: Place, Quest, Members, and Approval. Gaining Approval was the most difficult as it posed four challenges: gaining achievement (the right to challenge the exam), possessing examination fee (money to process legalities), gathering guild members (people who represented the guild), and passing the examination (given trials).

Possessing examination fee is a solved problem, Latla thought. Gathering guild members is an ongoing process. Passing the exam is an afterthought. And—

Latla heard footsteps approaching her table. It had a rhythm, was loud and declarative on purpose—like a march. The sound somewhat irritated Latla.

‘I. Got. A. Letter. For you, Boss!’ Sherry approached the table, a smile on her face. She clapped her feet together and saluted.

Why she did all that, Latla had no idea. Not that Sherry would answer properly if asked. She could imagine her answering with: Because you’re my boss, Boss. So, Latla chose not to bother.

Latla accepted the letter from Sherry. ‘Thank you, Sherry.’

‘No problem, Boss.’ With that, she marched away.

… I don’t think I’ll ever get a good read on her, Latla thought.

She turned her attention toward the envelope and looked at it. The seal had a magnifying glass symbol. This was an official letter from monster inspector. Latla opened the envelope and found—a certificate inside. One stating that the monster she had killed was indeed an unlisted monster and that this was now her achievement.

Latla stood up, excited.

She had gained the right to challenge the guild examination.

Now, to participate in it…

I need to gather Members.