“Get lost.”
“With pleasure, sir.”
I stood up, brushed the dust off my back, and reached for the purse on the cobblestones.
“This is mine, by the way. I dropped it a minute ago. Honest,” I explained, feeling the judgmental eyes of the guards on me. I stuck the bag into my pocket before they could say anything, then scampered off.
Our home was in the upper-class quarters on the north side. Our neighbors were all nobles with estates and great merchants with mansions. We had no ties to any of them, of course.
The house was a two-story stone building. The walls were painted white, and though it was an older structure, it looked nice at first glance. There was no gate, just a low stone wall around the premises. It was small in comparison to those around it, but it was comfortable enough. This was all because of Her Highness’s status, fame, and wealth. Even if I had the money for it, I’d have been thrown out the door. It was probably more like a servant’s home to her, but she never once complained about it.
I unlocked the door and went inside. The candles needed to be lit first, and soon there was faint light filling the entryway.
Just past the door was a staircase leading upstairs and a hallway going past it. The doors along it led to the separate shed and outhouse. The kitchen and dining room were at the end of the hallway. But Her Highness did not cook, and when I was alone, I often ate out. There were many pubs and taverns for adventurers to the south. Arwin spent all her time in the dungeon, so she would have eaten already.
I only cooked when she was around. I made sure to prepare homemade meals for when she returned from the dungeon. The extra activity had left me peckish, but I didn’t feel like searching the pantry, so I just went upstairs.
There were three rooms on the second floor: Arwin’s bedchamber, my room, and a storage space and armory. You found rare weapons and ores and such in the dungeon, most of which got sold off, but some were kept here. She held the key to the room. Ever since she found out I was selling items on the side to a fence I knew, I was forbidden from going inside.
I went into my own room. There was a wood-shuttered window, a bed, and a chair inside. My clothes were on the floor, right where I’d dropped them this morning. A cleaner would be by to collect the laundry in the morning, so I didn’t need to pick it up. I put the candlestick on the chair and sank into the bed. I was very tired and would fall asleep in no time. And since Arwin wasn’t around, I didn’t have to attend to her needs. The moment I closed my eyes, sleep rushed up to embrace me.
It was still dark when I opened my eyes. Based on the air outside and the light coming through the cracks in the window, it was still before dawn. I’d always been a sound sleeper. As long as I didn’t have any special services to offer, I would sleep straight until morning, but this time I’d been roused by a sound down below. I closed my eyes to listen. There was someone outside the house. The people I knew wouldn’t come here, and it wasn’t the time of day for a guest.
A thief? I suddenly felt tense.
There was a knock on the door. “I’m from the Adventurers Guild. Please open up.”
I did not respond, and eventually the person knocked again and repeated the message. I sighed and, careful not to make any noise, opened the wooden shutter.
The front door was below and at an angle from my window. Squinting, I got a look at who was there: two men wearing black hoods that covered their heads. One was holding a lantern while the other knocked on the door. They were disguising their voices, but I could tell right away that they were the same pair of attackers as earlier. I considered my options, then went downstairs to speak through the door.
“What do you want?”
“There’s been an emergency. The princess knight has been injured in the dungeon. She requested that we escort you. Come with us, and we’ll take you to her.”
“Understood,” I said. “I’ll be right there. Give me a moment to get ready.”
I rushed back up the stairs and headed to her room. It wasn’t locked.
With a candle in one hand, I searched through her chamber, stuffing anything important or that shouldn’t be seen into a burlap sack. It was light enough that even I could carry it over my shoulder. Once I was sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, I slipped downstairs, then left through the back kitchen door.
I thought I was being cautious, but they were surprisingly sharp. Footsteps came rushing over from the front entrance. My legs are slower now than they used to be. If it turned into a footrace, they’d catch me in no time. But I had an ace up my sleeve. Because many rich and important people lived here, there were heavy guard patrols. After the guards had nearly spotted them earlier, these two wouldn’t be too bold in going after me. Sure enough, after rounding two or three corners, the footsteps died out.
But I couldn’t be too careful. They might still be waiting to ambush me. I decided to spend the rest of the night in a pub, just to be sure.
They might have been ransacking our house at that very moment. The thought of those two cretins with faces like orc scrotums pawing through Her Highness’s room, sniffing at her bedsheets and touching themselves, made me sick to my stomach. They could be tearing through the other rooms, but I wasn’t as worried about those. Amateurs wouldn’t find the door to the basement, and there wasn’t much worth anything in the storage room anymore. The majority had already been switched out for worthless junk. Events like this were why it was a good thing I had secretly made a spare key and continued pilfering valuables. Yes, the gains had gone into booze, prostitutes, and other things, but at least they weren’t going into the pockets of filthy burglars.
The night passed.
People were walking the streets again. Once I was sure no one was trailing me, I returned to the house.
I thought they would have trashed the place, since they’d had the opportunity, but there were no signs of them barging up to the second floor. The only thing I found was a couple marks on the front door. Cowards. If they had at least broken down the door to the shed, I could have blamed them for all the things I’d switched out myself.
I stifled a yawn, unable to shake off the sleepiness that still clouded my mind, and went over my options.
They were after my life; they’d made two attempts on me in one night. There would be a third. But I was not going to run. I had a duty to watch the house. I wasn’t going to beg anyone for help, but sitting around and waiting for something to happen was a good way to destroy one’s nerves. The princess knight was supposed to return in the evening two days from now. I wanted this all wrapped up before then.
Fortunately, I had an idea in mind.
I headed for the center of the city, where the entrance to the Millennium of Midnight Sun and the Adventurers Guild were found.
The Adventurers Guild was a body that managed and conducted transactions with adventurers.
It existed in many cities around the world, and based on their strength and feats, adventurers affiliated with the guild received stars, up to a maximum of seven. The more stars you had, the more influence you wielded over other adventurers.
It was like putting collars on stray dogs and making them brag to each other about how fancy the collars were. I didn’t know who thought up that system, but it was very clever indeed. They must’ve been about as clever as me.
I walked through the gate of the Gray Neighbor branch of the Adventurers Guild and came face-to-face with a sturdy three-story building that almost looked like a castle. As a matter of fact, it was designed to act as a fortress if needed. Next to it were other buildings: a station for staffers, a storehouse, and a general store. Sometimes, you found bizarre things in the dungeon, and the guild would buy any rare and valuable objects that weren’t available on the surface. It would then sell the items to rich collectors and eccentrics, increasing the guild’s profit margins.
I went into the building directly ahead of me. Once inside, there was a long counter to the right of the entrance. There were stern-looking men, craggy and scarred, who sat behind the counter and stared daggers at those who came in.
Owing to the dangers involved, the majority of adventurers were men. To appeal to them, the guild tended to place women with softer demeanors in the reception areas of their branches. But some men got the wrong idea about the nice women trying to do their jobs and assumed they could make propositions to them, or they mistook them for professionals of a different sort, or even followed them after work in an attempt to nab them. In areas where this sort of nonsense happened, the branch tended to put intimidating men at the reception desk instead and had the women perform office or financial duties in the back. Such decisions were up to the guildmaster, who managed the guild. Sadly, the receptionists at this branch were all ugly men. The counter was open, but they were likely to hit me for talking to them, so I wanted to avoid that. However, I was in luck this time.
“Hey, squirt.”
A silver-haired girl behind the counter spun around. She wore a leather belt around her black dress that cinched at the waist. She was thirteen…or was it fourteen? Her features were refined, and she’d be a very beautiful woman in the future. She was cute enough now, but I’m not into that sort of thing. I only approached because she was the closest person there and the easiest to talk to.
The squirt glanced at me. Her cheeks briefly puffed up in a pout before she resumed looking at the letter in her hands.
“C’mon, don’t just ignore me.”
I picked up a rock the size of a fingernail and threw it at her back.
“Stop that,” she said angrily, and she stomped up to the counter. “Can’t you tell? I’m very busy right now. Don’t bother me.”
All she was doing was sitting in a chair, reading a letter.
“Who’s it from?”
“None of your business, Matthew.”
She’s no fun. Not that I needed to ask to know who it was from. The sappy look on her face said it all.
“Also, I’m not a squirt.”
“I know, April. I apologize.”