The Adventurers Guild was more crowded with humans than expected. I’d thought if we came first thing in the morning, it would be empty, but I was dead wrong.
We ended up standing at the back of the line for the reception desk with four people ahead of us. I had no idea how long it would take, so I left Kara in charge of holding our place and stepped away. I walked over to the corner where magical devices were on display.
There were all sorts of things that could be useful for our journey, each one with a price tag propped up in front of it. I made sure to memorize all the prices, then returned to the line.
The prices of those magical devices fluctuated a lot due to supply issues, so the merchants never set fixed prices. Everything was sold at market value.
Still, there were so many sorcerers in residence at the Adventurers Guild that they could pretty consistently secure the devices, which was why they could post the prices openly like that. I heard it was also a courtesy to prevent adventurers from wasting time haggling when they’d come in for quests instead.
On the other hand, they still made sure to consider the merchants in each region and adjusted the prices monthly to reflect the local economy.
That was why wanderers like us—mercenaries without a permanent base—could rely on the guild’s pricing to avoid being swindled.
Still, some found that to be too much trouble, so they’d register as adventurers and take side jobs.
“Thanks for that,” I said to Kara.
“No worries,” she replied.
Just then, the adventurer in front of us finished talking to the woman at reception, and we moved up in front of the desk.
“I’m Rayna. How can I help you today?” she asked glancing at our hands to confirm we weren’t adventurers, then gave us a polite smile.
“We wanted to see if you were holding any messages for us. Is that okay?” Since there were a few people waiting behind us, I wanted to check on that first. I didn’t want to cause any trouble.
“If you just want to check on any letters or packages here, it shouldn’t take long. But it may take a bit longer if you want us to look into whether something’s being held for you at another guild. And if you don’t know which guild it was left with, you should expect to wait several days.”
“Hmm, that’s not what I was expecting. We don’t have that kind of time, so I guess we’ll just come back another day.”
“Oh? At least give me your name, just in case I do have something here for you,” Rayna said.
“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt. The name’s Rudol. If you have anything from an adventurer named Setsuna about someone called Alto, I’d like to know.”
Suddenly her eyes widened. “Oh, you know Setsuna? Looks like you’re in luck!”
I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but she told me to wait a moment and disappeared into the back before I could ask.
I could practically feel the people behind us glaring as she finally came out holding an envelope.
“Setsuna said, ‘I don’t know where they’ll be coming to pick this up, so please keep it here at Kutt.’ You’re lucky you came here, or maybe Setsuna just has good instincts!” She spoke so forcefully it made me want to cover my ears. I took the letter and signed for it, then we left the Adventurers Guild. I let out a deep sigh of relief.
Two hours later, we made it outside the town and watched carefully to make sure we weren’t being followed.
“We should be fine this far out,” I said.
Kara paused, scanning our surroundings before she stopped walking. “Okay. Let’s see what it says.”
I went ahead and opened the letter.
Dear Kara and Rudol,
Up until now, we’ve been in Lypaed. I didn’t find any new leads, but Alto and I enjoyed our time there. I hope our next destination will be just as enjoyable. Please don’t push yourselves too hard on your journey.
Setsuna
After I read it out loud, Kara let out a grumpy sigh. “What is wrong with him? He hardly wrote a word about Alto!”
“You’re looking at the wrong part.” I gave a dry chuckle and pointed at the line about not finding any new leads.
Kara glared at me and said, “I know that,” but I continued anyway.
“Looks like he tried to look into things while they were in Lypaed, but he didn’t find anything. We did some searching ourselves on the other continent a long time ago, remember?”
That said, we’d gone because there was more mercenary work…
The people on the northern continent were much kinder to beastfolk than those here. It wasn’t the kind of place someone obsessed with persecuting our kind would bother to stay for long. That’s why searching for clues about his whereabouts there felt like it was in vain.
“Well, we’ve spent years looking for him. There was no way he’d come across something in just a matter of months,” she said.
I agreed with Kara. Still, I had to admit that I’d been hoping Setsuna might’ve stumbled onto something, no matter how small.
At this point, we only had one option left.
“Shall we stick to the plan?”
“I don’t know what other choice we have.”
I glanced at the end of his letter, where he told us not to push ourselves too hard, then I pulled out two bracelet-shaped magical devices. I handed one to Kara and slipped the other one onto my left wrist.
Kara’s appearance began to shift into that of a human before my eyes. I must’ve looked the same.
“This plan’s about twenty years in the making, isn’t it?”
“Sorry,” Kara said. “It took a long time for me to hone my swordsmanship.”
“You did what you had to. Now no one will suspect you of being beastfolk.”
Typically, beastfolk fought barehanded; only those who lived among humans carried weapons. On the other hand, humans almost always relied on weapons, which was why Kara had needed to learn how to use a sword.
“Just to be clear, this bracelet only changes your appearance. Your form itself doesn’t change, so be careful. Especially with your ears.”
“I know.”
Kara took a blue bandana from her pocket and tied it around her head. “That should do it.”
Seeing her look so proud wearing a human face was a very strange feeling.
“Now there’s just the sword left.”
I took the sword bearing the crest of Eln from her hands. I’d packed it into a steel box with anti-corrosive magic and buried it underground.
“It’s hard to leave the only thing we still have from our homeland in a place like this.”
“I know, but we have no other choice. Just the crest alone could make someone realize who we are.”
“Yeah, there’s no telling when some scholar-slash-mercenary will come along,” Kara said bitterly, but I knew the truth. She never would’ve agreed to leave that sword behind if she hadn’t met Setsuna the scholar, no matter how dangerous it was.
“All right, let’s start with Toria, the place they say he was born.”
The only regions left we hadn’t combed were Gardir, Ineses, Toria, and Ellana—the regions where discrimination against beastfolk was most severe.
We’d always avoided them, but if those were the only places where we still had any chance of finding a clue about Sledea, we had no choice.
“You’re getting ahead of yourself. First, we need to go back to Kutt and buy new swords.”
I silently promised the buried blade that I’d come back for it someday, then we walked away.