More than a decade had passed since I’d last visited the Adventurers Guild. Though the interior was more or less the same, it no longer felt as spacious as when I was a child, and the place itself seemed more worn than I remembered.
“Do you have business with us today, sir?”
As I absentmindedly looked around, a petite young woman—no, make that a girl in her late teens—called out to me from where she was seated behind the receptionist’s counter. She looked to be the only one there; the man who’d welcomed me so long ago was nowhere to be seen.
“Yes, I’d like to register as an adventurer,” I replied.
The girl immediately produced a sheet of paper. “Then please fill this in with your name and the skills you possess. If you can’t write, then please don’t hesitate to say so. We’d be more than happy to do it on your behalf.”
Luckily, my parents had ensured that I was more or less literate. I accepted the sheet and saw that my name and skills really were the only things I needed to write down, so I got straight to work.
<Adventurer Registration Form>
Name: Noor
<Declared Skills>
Swordsman Branch: [Parry]
Warrior Branch: [Physical Enhancement]
Hunter Branch: [Stone Throw]
Thief Branch: [Featherstep]
Magician Branch: [Tiny Flame]
Cleric Branch: [Low Heal]
One by one, I noted down my rudimentary skills for each branch, finishing with six in total. They were all that I had.
“Is this okay?” I asked the girl.
“Yes, thank you. Please bear with me for a moment while I go over— Huh?”
Seemingly confused as she continued to look over my form, the girl reached for a bulky manual sitting atop the receptionist’s counter titled The Dictionary of Skills. Then, after a short while of examining its contents, she turned to me hesitantly.
“Um, are you sure you filled this in correctly?” she asked. “If there was anything that you forgot to add—”
“That’s everything.”
She paused for a moment and then said, “What?” My honest answer had turned the look on her face from confused to flustered as she grabbed a small booklet from nearby and hurriedly began to flip through it. From the look of things, she was studying a receptionist’s training manual.
“P-Pardon my rudeness!” she said. “Then, um...are you, um, aware of the training schools we have here in the royal capital? Anybody is welcome to attend. You can receive training in the six basic class branches from first-rate instructors and develop new skills for—”
“Yes, I know about them. I’ve trained at every single one, and those are the skills I have.”
“Huh...?!” she softly exclaimed, but her surprise only lingered for a brief moment. “Pardon me. Please hold on for a moment.”
She was back to flipping through her booklet. After going through it several times over in search of whatever she was looking for, she looked up at me apologetically.
“U-Um, then, I’m sorry to tell you this, but...”
“I can’t register as an adventurer?” I asked. I’d expected as much.
“I’m...afraid not. You don’t meet the minimum requirements set by the Guild. I’m really sorry...”
“No, it’s okay. You don’t need to apologize.”
I’d already known that my skills weren’t enough to register as an adventurer. The girl looked relieved, but that quickly changed when she heard my next words.
“I’d still like to register as an adventurer, though. Is there anything you can do to help me?”
The girl glanced frantically between me and the training manual, her hands beginning to quiver. She had already been on the verge of tears, but now her face was flushed red. Had my request really been that bad?
“I guess not, huh?” I said.
“Um, um, but, um... P-Please wait here for a moment!”
Just as I was starting to feel even worse for her, she leaped up from her seat and dashed toward the back of the Guild.
“Muh-Masterrr!”
“What’s wrong, Aria?” came a voice from out of sight. “Hm? What’s got your face all red?”
“Um, you see, there’s a man who—”
From the sound of things, she was explaining my circumstances to this “Master” person.
After a short while, a large, grim-faced man lumbered out from the back. Though his expression was mild, his cheek and arms were marred by a number of sizable scars.
I blinked. I knew this man. Though there was more gray mixed into his hair now, his face sent a ripple of nostalgia through me.
“Hey now,” he said, “I can’t say I appreciate you making sport of our greenhor— Hmm? Who’re you? Haven’t seen your face ’round these parts before.”
He didn’t seem to recognize me. In fact, he probably thought I was some kind of shady character if the sharp glare he was giving me was anything to go by. However, seeing a familiar face had put me in high spirits.
“Hey,” I cheerily blurted out. “Long time no see.”
“Hrrm? Long time no what-now? I don’t know who you think you are, but—” He paused, placed a hand on his beard, then tilted his head at me. “Wait. Give me a moment...”