The practical exam was over, and next was the interview exam. However, the exam wasn’t that formal. Those who had passed the written and practical exams were already recognized as having a certain level of ability, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say they had passed at this point.
That’s why they could finally breathe easy. While Will was still somewhat nervous, the hectic atmosphere from before had disappeared.
Then the interviews began, and first Will was called to an individual room.
“I’m called Will. I live in a place called Ishi Village and…”
Will sat in a chair, and in front of him were three guild staff members with documents on the desk, listening to his story. Two were ordinary staff members you could find anywhere, but the third was the world-famous Toll, who had registered the legendary Hero Dan as an adventurer.
“Why did you want to become an adventurer?”
“I want to become a Hero. So I want to get stronger.”
“…A Hero, huh. Nostalgic, the Hero Dan I once sent out… Your way of thinking probably closely resembles his.”
“Way of thinking?”
“Forget what I just said. Well, that’s all for questions… You may leave the room.”
When guild staff member Toll urged him, Will left the room, and now Tamika entered. After confirming that she could distinguish between good and evil to some extent like Will, Toll asked that question again.
“May I ask why you wanted to become an adventurer?”
“To become stronger. I’m aiming to become a Hero. For that, I need power to serve the world.”
“…A Hero, huh. Nostalgic, the Hero Dan I once sent out… Your way of thinking probably closely resembles his.”
“That’s right. I will become a Hero. There’s no other reason.”
“That’s enough, this is finished. You may leave the room.”
Tamika also left the room, and the next practical exam passer entered. It was Dia, Will’s childhood friend who lived in the same village.
And at the same time his interview began, the Hero Dan wearing an iron mask appeared before Will, who had finished his interview.
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Well, it seems Will’s interview has ended. He probably passed. From what I heard, if you make it to the interview, there are no particular problems. Will is serious and wouldn’t suddenly spit or anything. So his passing is certain, and since it can’t be helped, I thought I’d praise him, so I went home once to get the iron mask.
It’s quite a distance, but if I run, it’s immediate. There are two reasons to praise Will. One is that he really did well. Moreover, he successfully handled combat with a demon, and his face seems to have become a bit more stern.
So I’ll praise him a little. The first reason is that trivial.
In other words, honestly speaking, the first reason is like a bonus.
—The real reason is maintaining motivation.
I’m often asked this. How can you conduct yourself as a Hero like that, where does such vitality – that is, motivation – spring from?
The answer is simple: there’s no way to generate motivation.
This is my personal theory, but… motivation rarely goes up dramatically, but it going down dramatically is common.
In other words, what’s important in training isn’t raising your disciple’s motivation, but not letting it drop. Once motivation drops, it knows no limits in falling, and no matter how cool and admired from a previous life being a Hero is, you’ll want to quit. Source: me.
“It seems you passed.”
“H-Hero-sama!? Why are you here!?”
“I was busy but came here especially for you.”
“S-such a thing!? Thank you so much!!”
I was with him for two whole days though. Well, I also have an interview after this, so I’m squeezing time to come to Will, so I’m not lying.
“B-but I don’t know if I passed yet.”
“If you made it to the interview, passing is certain. You did well for yourself, though the result was already clear. Everything went according to my predictions.”
“H-Hero-sama. To think you believed in my passing!?”
Actually, I had also considered the possibility of failure. In that case, to not lower motivation, I was going to say something like [Now is the time for building up] but—
—Since I’m playing the haughty character, I’ll act like I knew everything and play the mentor from behind.
“Of course.”
“H-Hero-sama… Being able to work hard this time was also thanks to various people’s support… and thanks to the sword of beginning you gave me, Hero-sama!”
“Don’t attribute everything to others’ achievements. This is a passing you won. Be proud of that now.”
“Y-yes!”
Will’s really happy. I think I felt like this during high school entrance exams too.
“Ah, also, Hero-sama.”
“What is it?”
“Um, there might be a trend of selling used swords at high prices using Hero-sama’s name.”
“What?”
“Earlier, a kid I met during the exam said they had a sword of beginning. It was too painful and pitiful seeing them mistake a fake for the real thing… you might want to be careful.”
Oh? So there are merchants doing such things. I’d like to interrogate them. But paintings of me in iron mask face are being drawn and sold without permission, so I don’t really care anymore.
There are also Hero Dan steamed buns being sold without permission, so I guess I don’t need to worry about it.
“W-what should we do? There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Leave it alone.”
“Understood.”
“…Well, I should get going too.”
“Do you have plans after this?”
“Ah, a little.”
“Thank you for coming especially for me despite being so busy.”
Lightly waving my hand with a swoosh, I disappear at high speed from in front of Will. Then I change clothes at high speed and appear in front of Will again.
“Hey, Will. How was the interview?”
“Ah, Ban-san! It went pretty well! Good luck with yours too, Ban-san!”
“Yes yes, thanks.”
Will doesn’t know that I’m Ban, but looking back at this whole sequence myself, I think my emotions are pretty messed up.
I mean, I was wearing an iron mask in front of my disciple playing an haughty character just three seconds ago, then a few seconds later I’m talking to him as some ordinary young man… Even being modest, that’s pretty messed up, right?
Ah, I should praise Tamika too… I changed clothes quickly again and went to praise Tamika this time.
Then Tamika also told me about merchants falsely using my name to sell used swords. Heh, is that kind of thing trending?
However, that doesn’t concern me right now. More importantly, I need to go to the interview soon. I changed clothes again and entered the interview room.
“Excuse me.”
“Come in.”
Entering the private room, there were three people sitting: a guild staff member named Toll and two others. I tried to sit in the chair, but remembered being told in my previous life that in interviews, you shouldn’t sit down until the interviewers say you may.
“Aren’t you going to sit?”
“Permission to sit hasn’t been granted.”
“…Oh? Then, please sit.”
Being told that, I sat down. Then various questions were thrown at me by the three staff members. The questions were diverse, but I could answer them without getting stuck. However, after about ten questions, my response would be slightly delayed by the next question.
“Ban-san, you’re 20 years old… What kind of life have you lived until now?”
Right, I had the setting of being 20 years old now, and being reminded of this again after all this time made me shake with surprise.
But it works somehow. This is probably thanks to my activity methods as a Hero and my Gift.
A Gift is a kind of trait that dwells in people. It’s a different power from magic, but like magical talent, it’s not given equally to everyone without distinction.
Gifts can be innate or acquired. I possess the latter. But my former party member Rin-Rin possessed both.
She had an innate trait called Multi-Task Magic Development, which made it easy for her to activate multiple spells simultaneously. The consumption was large, but she could do up to five at most.
As expected of the Second Princess of the fairy nation Frontier. However, in her case, she also acquired a Gift later. That was Magic Runaway. Simply put, it’s a constant magic recovery function for magic power, which is the energy for using magic, and though there’s a backlash, she could temporarily draw out dozens of times her original power.
I think now that she was really a talent monster. However, fortunately, I could also possess, or rather acquire one… I should say.
My Gift… that is the self-proclaimed Brave Spirit of the Hero. I came up with this name myself. I think it’s cringeworthy now, but I seriously thought it was cool back then.
Acquired Gifts are said to rarely be obtainable through a person’s experiences, and I conclude this hits the mark.
Because I myself am a typical example of that.
Well, this has been three seconds of thinking, but… what should I answer the interviewer…
“I was growing vegetables locally. I occasionally went hunting too.”
“I see.”
The interviewer said that and started taking notes again. Writing various things down looked difficult. At that timing, the person called Toll started talking about something.
“Long ago, I sent out Hero Dan—”
I’ll ignore this. He’s just saying the same thing as during the written exam. This person seemed to have absolutely no interest in me at the time, but now he’s acting like he created me.
He didn’t think anything of me, but the moment I produced results, he’s acting like a rear-guard guild staff member. I think that’s not very good.
Well, I was thinking about other things while half-listening, but I wonder if the talk will end soon? Just as I thought that, it ended, so I gave an appropriate bow and left the room.
After that, when I checked the results, it was an unquestionable pass. The twenty-one successful candidates would then have adventurer cards issued and participate in an orientation session as adventurers.
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