Is It Odd That I Became an Adventurer Even If I Graduated From the Witchcraft Institute? - Vol. 1 Ch. 3

[Pokari]

@Kirin-kun:

I'm not really interested in the broader argument you're embroiled in, but if I may poke at a few crumbly bits in what you're saying:

The party here turned from Adventurers (a perfectly respectable occupation in this setting) into Mercenaries

To my understanding, the entire root premise of this manga is that, to polite society, Adventurers are not respectable.

I have, for want of additional information, assumed 'till now that they are in fact mercenaries, just in a setting where mercenaries are more often tasked with small gigs of monster extermination, rather than waging war in battalions.

I haven't been dissuaded from this idea as time goes on; rather this has been reinforced. Remember how they were surprised that Wil was okay with respecting the samurai-ish morals of not wanting to cut down monsters after putting them to sleep? The implication to me, at least, was that "Adventurer" is normally a very down and dirty occupation with not much room for sentiment.

[...] to kill other people. That these other people are scummy bandits is irrelevant. The morality and legality of such behavior should be dubious, *even in the context of this fantasy world*, because even such a world needs laws and justice to be functional.

Interesting fact: The very word outlaw comes from the (now thankfully at least partially outdated) idea that once you've committed certain crimes, you are placed outside the protection of the law (and so, for instance, killing an outlaw isn't a crime). There's no "right to a trial" or "innocent till proven guilty" concepts in most of history either, and so as long as no one disputes the person was an outlaw, I doubt you'd run into any trouble. This is medieval law and justice, and suffices to hold together a functioning society. The nuanced stuff we have today is only possible because our methods of enforcement have evolved.

 

[Kirin-kun]

@Pokari In this context Adventurer is a respectable occupation, a kind of craft, because they are controlled by a guild. The Kingdom grants the guild a charter to manage adventurers and issue quests, the guild pays taxes, everything is under control.

But I doubt any power would tolerate long a group of thugs who kill "bandits" because some random farmer paid them for it. Once it becomes an habit to work outside the guild, nobody controls them anymore.

Especially because they don't pay taxes.

I don't say that the bandits should have a fair trial. Just that, outside of any officially issued mission, killing them for reasons is clearly dodgy morally and legally.

But I doubt the author thought that far anyway. Bandits = bad = kill = no consequences. End of the arc.

 

[Pokari]

@Kirin-kun:

But I doubt any power would tolerate long a group of thugs who kill "bandits" because some random farmer paid them for it. Once it becomes an habit to work outside the guild, nobody controls them anymore.

Given the circumstances at hand (i.e. the bandits having wholesale-slaughtered a large town first, apparently with basically no survivors—it's not clear if this is cardboard-cutout-evil villainy or whether it's a semi-rational, no-witnesses sort of deal, but either way) I in fact think that even a modern jury trial would possibly be pretty lenient about any vigilante justice of the sort portrayed here.

But your more specific point about the guild not ceding control of contracts so easily does seem relevant—you would expect such organized middlemen to have legal means to ensure they stay the middlemen in these contracts, kind of like a union will find ways to do so.

That's probably just not-thought-out on the author's part, but there's various plausible excuses—maybe the guilds don't have a firm grip on power right now, or maybe there's a legal loophole because their client is deceased, or hell maybe everyone involved knows this is an under-the-table deal but there's no way the guild will ever know about the transaction itself because dead ladies don't talk (er, once they've finally passed on, anyway)—to the point where, despite that being a good point, it doesn't bother my suspension of disbelief that much.

But I doubt the author thought that far anyway. Bandits = bad = kill = no consequences. End of the arc.

I beg to differ on this point. The author definitely at least thought about it, whether or not they addressed it at length; did you miss the bit where the protagonist goes, "The bandits may have their own circumstances that pushed them to this," right after throwing water on one of his compatriot's righteous anger? Like, this was less than a page's worth of content devoted to it, but you can't tell me the author didn't even think about the bandits being human too.

 

[Serenata]

IT's okay if no one finds out

 

[Azapuela]

shouting out loud asking to get raped again lol

 

[mangasaviour]

This artist tries really hard not to draw surroundings and environments.

 

[AncientWatcher]

Bandits getting brutally murdered in their sleep, balance is being restored. I hope Mii and the priest have more cleaning supplies to get rid of bloodstains.

 

[JustCallMeDaBoss]

Damn so its not just fun adventures and goofy stuff .... cool

 

[Nova_Aren]

Everyone: Quietly sneaks in and takes out the guards unnoticed

Filia: Peace STEALTH WAS NEVER AN OPTION

 

[Sumgui]

Yall still consider bandits people ?

 

[kyself]

The sense of perspective required to play devil's advocates for those bandits, unfathomably and moral relativistically BASED. I am impressed by the author.

 

[asspussy]

brruhhrhhhhhh

 

[FoeJusty]

Bandit slaying with filia involves warcries ;D