"I'm sorry to ask you to do this on such short notice,
Ho-ho-ho. "Don't mind me," he said. I'm busy enough with my own time that I can't be bothered with the First King. I wanted to know how Hilda was doing.

　The one who laughs when he says that is Galen Yunus Restia, the Prior King of the Knight Kingdom Restia. He's Hilda's grandfather and an adventurer of the same gold rank as me.
　He looks like a good-natured old man with a staff, but he's half as strong as I am. I'm sure he's one of the strongest of the human race, except for those who are related to God's family members, such as me and Hilda.

What?
Hohohohoho. Hmmm, pretty good.

　The guild receptionist's sister jumps up, holding her ass. If only it weren't for this. You still have the same erotic spirit, don't you?

"The same as always, Mr. Galen.
"So you are Lady Relisha. It's the secret to my youth. This is the secret of my youth. If I stopped, I'd be dead in the morning.

　........Even the strongest part of humanity might be easy to defeat.
　Not even trying to hide her dumbfounded expression, Relisha-san is talking with Galen First King in the reception room inside the guild she led.
　I thought that if she was as beautiful as Relisha-san, she would be the first to get her hands on me, but there is no sign of that. It seems like they know each other, so I wonder if they already touched each other.
　This old man has an incomprehensible policy of never touching a woman again once he has touched her. The target age is also over 20 years old, and Yumina and the others are excluded.
　I, who jumped on Restia with [Gate], told her what happened and brought King Galen the First King to Brunhild's Adventurer's Guild. Of course, I have the permission of the current king, Hilda's brother, Reinhardt's brother-in-law [Nii].
　A few Restia knights followed me as my bodyguard, but in reality, I guess I'm more of a chaperone. After all, the people being protected are much stronger than the ones being protected, so there is no point in escorting them.

''So?　Does the examiner mean that I have to fight new adventurers too?
No, I'll do that one. Mr. Galen, if you can look at it and judge.

　Basically, the rank-up exam is judged by three examiners. Two of them are us.
　The other one seems to be a silver-ranked adventurer, and I'll be judged as either a silver-ranked adventurer or a red-ranked adventurer.
　Galen-san is to be judged as the sum total of all adventurers. If it's a gold-ranked judgment, I can't complain.

I'm not sure why you hide your identity, though.　I don't think they would care if they found out.
It's a small country, unlike Restia. You may meet the test takers on the street, and I don't want them to resent me for something.
I think you are overthinking things. And I don't think it would do you any good to be pissed off.

　Well, yes. What's the king doing here, do your job!　I know I'm a selfish king.
　I know myself to be a selfish king....
　I'm still causing trouble for Mr. Galen. But instead, when there's a rank-up exam in Restia, I'm going to be sent out as a gold-ranked adventurer.

I'm going to take the exam as a gold-ranked adventurer. What do you expect the test to be about?　Do you wish you had a stronger arm?

　That's what I'm wondering about too. I'm not sure if it's right to raise their rank based on mere combat skills.
　The adventurers who are proud of their abilities are usually blue-ranked. The reason is that they cannot go up to the red rank.
　The barrier between the blue and red ranks is high. Red-ranked adventurers, who are considered to be top adventurers, have requests from the country. In other words, making a strange adventurer a red-ranked adventurer will cause trouble for the guild.
　So, in order to move up from blue rank to red rank, you need the approval of the guild master of the area. It's not that easy to move up.
　In my case, I heard that I was most valued for helping to build a friendly relationship between Belfast and Mismid, country to country.
　As for my actual strength, I had defeated the Black Dragon. That's why, at the stage of defeating the Mithril Golem, I got a red rank without any problems. So the approval had already been granted.
　Many people who fail as adventurers are also said to be blue-ranked. They become dissatisfied with the guild because they can't get red-ranked forever, and eventually stop following the instructions of the guild, resulting in their guild registration being cancelled.
　I don't think those who are corrupt because of that were not qualified for the red rank in the first place.

Basically, the examiner decides the content of the test, but as Galen-sama said, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to base the answer on simple combat skills alone. The rank of the Adventurer's Guild isn't just about fighting skills. How they are judged is also a matter of the examiner's skill.
Hmm. I suppose you want us to come up with a test to determine who is an adventurer?
Yes. Of course, we'll see if it's appropriate.

　It's true that you can't judge someone based on their combat skills alone. But we can't just irresponsibly toss in a blue rank for you and a green rank for you and get ourselves into trouble.
　The reason is that we are the ones who gave the adventurer's rank the stamp of approval.
　When you think about it like that, I can't do it justice.
　As I was thinking about this, there was a knock on the door.

I'm not going to be able to get in. The other examiner has arrived.

　Accompanied by the receptionist's sister, it seems the last examiner has arrived. As I recall, I'm told he's a silver-ranked adventurer........
　Seeing the adventurer who entered the room, my eyes were dazzled.　Eh?

Hey, what are you doing here, Karina?
That's because I got called up. What, you didn't hear?

　The one who appeared in front of me was the hunting god, Sister Karina. She still had her emerald green hair in a ponytail and wore a simple leather armor.

''Oh, the examiner is sister Karina?　I mean, when did you get the silver rank?

　I knew that sister Karina registered as a guild member and became an adventurer, but I thought she just wanted to hunt.
　Rather than accepting a request to raise her rank, I thought the main reason was to get her to buy the materials for the prey she hunted.......

I've killed most of the prey around here. "We've killed most of the game here," he said, "so we went to the Dungeon Islands. Then a stray flying dragon appeared over there. The guild asked me to take it down. That's one of the things I did while I was upgrading my rank.
You beat him... With just a bow and arrow?

　No, I know you have top-notch archery skills without the use of divine power, but even then, how can you shoot down a flying dragon?

You can't fly if you tear the tendons on its wings with an arrow. If you fell off the ground and hit the carotid artery with a machete, you would be dead.

　No, cutting the tendons of a wing with an arrow........only you can do that to a flying dragon.
　I didn't expect to find a silver rank this close to me.... The third gold-ranked person must have appeared early.

''Let me guess, the young lady here is His Majesty's sister, right?
Oh, no. I call her sister, but she is my cousin. I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about this.
Yeah, nice to meet you.
"Hohohoho. As expected of His Majesty's cousin, His Royal Highness. Impeccable.

　Galen-san says regretfully while waving his hands around. .........You were going to touch me. He'd been rolled over by Hanakoi sister before for putting his hand on her. I also think it's almost impossible for me to touch her, since Karina-san will be superior to her in terms of physical ability.
　With Sister Karina's arrival, I'll explain the details of the rank-up test again.
　However, I feel like the person being tested by these men is also a disaster........

''So what do you want to do in the end?''
''Even if you say fighting skills alone aren't good enough, having none at all is also a problem. Up to the green rank or so, I think that's all you need.

　Indeed. The fact that you want to take the rank-up test means you're that confident in your skills. Whether it's real or just an assumption, it's easy to tell that much.
　If they all didn't even have a green-ranked skill, then the exam would be over.

''What if someone is as good as a green-ranked person?''
'Why don't we let him take the commission and judge him on his actions?　I think you know exactly what kind of things he puts a lot of emphasis on.
Well, if that's the case...

　We discussed our opinions with each other and worked out the content of the rank-up exam.




　A month later, the Adventurer's Academy was opened by the Adventurer's Guild.
　Here, students can learn the basic knowledge and skills of an adventurer.
　You'll learn the basics of weaponry, the characteristics of monsters, survival techniques, and more. It teaches things that are common sense to anyone with a certain amount of experience.
　To put it another way, this is a school that can turn a complete amateur into a reasonable amateur adventurer in a short period of time.
　On the other hand, for those who are not adventurers, but who have done similar work in the past, there is not much to learn in this school.
　Former knights and hunters with a certain level of skill, who have nothing to learn from this school, take the rank-up exam.
　Well, this academy was originally created to prevent young people with no experience from being victimized by their lack of knowledge and skills. If you have a certain amount of life experience, it is useless.
　With that background, there were few that wanted to enter the academy. It was mostly just a few boys and girls. They would automatically become black-ranked adventurers once they completed the two weeks of training.
　And as for the rank-up exam, only for the first time, black-ranked adventurers would be eligible to take the exam. This is a relief measure for those who registered as black adventurers before the white rank was established.
　Of course, there were calls from other ranks for them to be allowed to take the exam as well, but this exam was to evaluate the abilities of those who had no experience as adventurers.
　The guild's answer was that there was no need to re-evaluate those who had already worked as adventurers and had been evaluated by the guild.
　As such, there were a total of 27 applicants for the rank-up test. That was quite a lot.
　All of the applicants were gathered in the training grounds in the academy grounds, and after the greetings of the guild master, Relisha-san, the rank-up exam began.

''Then the rank-up exam will begin. Let's start with self-introductions. My name is Galen. I'm Galen, a retired gold-ranked adventurer. The young lady here is Mochizuki Karina. She's a silver-ranked adventurer. And the boy is Regin Rave. He is a red-ranked adventurer.

　Mr. Galen is a legendary hero who was the only gold rank holder in the world until I became a gold rank holder and the king (son-in-law) of the Restia Knight Kingdom. Naturally, his name is known, and the eyes of the candidates are almost always drawn to Galen-san.
　Sister Karina is also a beauty in appearance, so she's attracted a fair amount of attention.
　Speaking of me, I've used illusion magic [Mirage] to change my hair to dull brown hair and changed my face a bit to turn into as plain and unimpressive a boy as possible.
　Some of the examiners were clearly looking suspiciously at Sister Karina and me. The thought of why women and children are silver-ranked and red-ranked seemed to show through.

''First, let me briefly test your abilities. It's a one-minute match with Regin. We can use our favorite weapon.

　As Mr. Galen announced this, some of the candidates raised their hands to speak.

''Excuse me, but aren't you going to use your training weapons? There are some of us who have objects that can't be severely injured if they were to hit you.''

　The brown-haired Longye's brother, who raised his hand, glanced at the man next to him. There was a large skinheaded man standing there with his arms folded and a fearless smile on his face.
　A tiger-striped vest was worn over his sallow skin, and a large battle axe hung from the waist of the man who looked like some kind of bandit.
　It's true that if that thing hits you, you won't get away with it. Perhaps because he knows this, the big man's smile did not disappear.
　Mr. Galen turns his gaze toward me. I took a step forward in response to that.

You can use any weapon you want. You can also use magic. I'm sure you'll be able to find a great deal more to say about this. I'll use this one for my weapon.

　With that, I held in my hand a wooden stick that was no more than seventy centimeters long. The material is cypress. It was a so-called "Hinoki no Bou".
　Seeing this, the examinee's face was split in half. Some were relieved, or relaxed, and others were angry, or hardened.
　The former because they thought they were unlikely to be badly injured and the latter because they thought they were being made to look like fools.
　The man who looked like a bandit with a battle-axe was staring at us with a grim expression on his face.

''Well, who would you like to start with?''
It's funny. I'll do it first.

　The one who came forward was the bandit man who was staring at me, as expected. It didn't really matter who you started with, so I decided to take on the bandit man first.
　When confronted with me, the bandit man holds the battle axe in both hands and opens his mouth with a grin on his face.

''In other words, if I beat you, it proves that Ole-sama has red-ranked strength, right?
''Well, that's not all, but you'll have to admit that it's as good as a red rank in terms of combat skills. More importantly, is that what you're getting?　You can still trade for it now, okay?
What the hell are you talking about? You're scared now?　Hey, Examiner.

　Huh, you can't, you know? He doesn't understand anything.
　Sister Karina seemed to understand that as well, and with a small sigh, she announced the start of the match with a voice that sounded unmotivated.

''Oraaah!''

　As soon as the match begins, the bandit man swings his prized battle axe down at me. The fact that he doesn't hesitate at all is conversely scary.
　As I ducked to the side, the battle-axe gouged the ground deeply. It seems that he has more than enough power to do so.

"Bastard!

　The bandit man is buzzing and swinging his battleaxe around, but it's too big to hit at all. It's easy to see where the attack will come from. On top of that, he just swings it around a bit, and he's already breathing heavily. He was a typical weapon-wielding type.

Thirty seconds elapsed.

　I can hear sister Karina's voice with no emotion in it. Even her gaze is directed at the mass-produced smartphone at hand, and she's not looking at me. Well, she's probably looking at the stopwatch app screen.

"Hey, you're running around like a little kid...!
'You didn't see this coming?　I'm a light figure, and my weapons are light. Didn't you think it was going to be hard to hit me?　Some of these monsters are fast. You'll die if you don't use the right weapon for the situation.

　It's not that the battleaxe is bad. It's just that I should have brought a hatchet or machete as a sub-weapon.
　I made the suggestion casually from me, but she pecked at me without even noticing it. It's an attack that is just wielded without any thought of force, and it's an attack of "if it hits somehow" luck. You don't think about how to hit them.

"You've got to be kidding me, you........
Five seconds left.
Well, you're done for the day.

　At the same time as sister Karina's voice, she thrusts a cypress rod into the bandit man's pigeonhole.

''Guhahah?

　The bandit man, who looks more than twice my weight, is blown backwards.
　The man who fell from his back struggled to roll over and eventually stopped with his eyes white.
　I didn't mean to put that much effort into it. Apparently, he hadn't been working out much. Is it completely apparent?

'Maybe it's purple.'
Purple.
Purple Paddy.

　The three of them agreed. It's not a black rank because he has some power in his own right. But he's not good enough to be raised to green. With this, if you're not good enough, you'll be easily killed if you're attacked by three or more unicorn wolves. So, it's purple over black.
　That man doesn't need to be tested any further.
　The guild staff carries the fallen man to the first aid room.

''Then the next one.''

　I changed my mind and approached the candidates again.