Now that she thought about it, she went to the Hunter’s Guild in Hydrangea all the time, so she just had to act like she belonged here.
They opened the double doors to find a space just as large as you might expect the capital’s central guild to be. There were enough receptionists to fill the large space, but so many Hunters that even still they seemed understaffed.
“Actually, the receptionists don’t look too busy.”
“That’s ’cause it’s morning. It only gets busy when everyone comes back from the dungeons.”
In front of them to the left was a large kiosk and in the back was a cafeteria. It was spacious, but guilds looked the same no matter where you were. The bulletin board was on the right, where Kuntz was pointing at the requests next to Ann.
“I’ll go look too.”
“We could have just gone with them from the start, then...”
“It’s important to make it look like we’re not together when we come in. Anyone could meet up with someone they know after that.”
The clatter of a chair came from the receptionist area, but Sara ignored it and strolled over to the bulletin board.
“‘Always accepted: healing herbs, greater healing herbs, mana herbs, etc. Sell at the Apothecary’s Guild counter.’ Oh, they buy them here. That’s neat.”
Her eyes immediately went to the part most relevant to her, but she couldn’t help that, could she?
“That’s the store, the cafeteria’s back there, and those are the reception desks.”
“Got it!”
Sara couldn’t help but grin when she heard Kuntz and Ann’s cute little exchange.
“Okay, let’s go to the reception desks and ask if they have any odd jobs available.”
“Right!”
There weren’t any jobs a kid could do up on the bulletin board.
“Hey! Is that Haruto? And that’s... Whoa, it’s Allen, the hero! This must be the shield user Kuntz, then.”
After that loud exclamation, attention in the guild focused on them.
“Did you say Haruto?”
“Haven’t heard that name in a while. Haruto the Gale’s back, huh?”
Sara listened in while she pretended to look at the bulletin board. Did someone just say “Haruto the Gale”?
“Allen the hero’s so young...”
“Wait, who’s Kuntz?”
“I said the shield user, right? It’s that magic all the younger Hunters are using these days.”
Haruto the Gale. Allen the hero. Kuntz the shield user. Sara was trying to hold it in, but her shoulders were starting to shake. That is, until Haruto clapped his hands down onto them.
“Hey, I can tell that you’re laughing.”
“H-Haruto the Gale...”
“Shut up! It was a youthful indiscretion, okay?! And you’re not getting out of this all on your own, you know. You’ll get recognized too!”
Sara had been trying to pretend to be a stranger, but Haruto spun her around to face him. When he did, the person who’d just been speaking noticed her as well.
“Sara? Oh, I’ve seen you before...”
“Ah.”
The man was younger than Ri, but older than Zachary. His peppered black hair was parted on the side, but with his bangs brushed back, he looked kind of cool. Sara had seen this man before.
“You’re the guildmaster here...”
“Konrad Casado. Haven’t seen you since the migrating dragon meeting, Plant Hunter Sara.”
“Huh?” Sara said, her brain not immediately comprehending Konrad’s words.
“Plant Hunter Sara. She can find any medicinal plant anywhere. People say she’s the only one who can gather supreme healing herbs.”
“Aaaaah! You can’t be serious!” Sara crouched down, holding her head.
Haruto patted her on the shoulder, the condescending brat.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Konrad asked, surprised by Sara’s reaction.
His surprise was only natural, she had to admit. But anyone would be shocked to hear they had a nickname they didn’t know about. It wasn’t a matter of it just being her job title and thus something she didn’t have to worry about. “Plant Hunter” was a legendary title meant for someone who could find any medicinal plant that was requested of them, no matter how dangerous the location might be. Sara didn’t consider herself capable of that, nor did she want to go into dungeons or anywhere else that was dangerous.
Still, if she remained crouching like this, she was only going to draw more attention to herself. She’d overcome all sorts of adversity until now, so this was nothing she couldn’t get over.
“I’m sorry about that.” Sara stood as if nothing had happened and smiled at Konrad, hiding her inner turmoil. “I’m Sara, the apothecary. It’s been a while.” She might have stressed “the apothecary” a bit too strongly, but she didn’t want any weird nicknames sticking.
“Yeah, long time no see. Haven’t seen you in a while either, Haruto. You should have said something if you were coming back. Give me a chance to prepare myself, you know?”
The guildmaster spoke as if he and Haruto were close. But what did he mean by having to prepare himself?
Haruto looked away awkwardly, mumbling excuses. “Err. Yeah. Well, I was traveling, y’see. I was thinking I might stop by once I’d settled in a bit.”
“You staying in the capital for a while? I wanna chat, so come back to my office, you two. No, it’s three with Sara, isn’t it? Come back to my office, you three.”
Sara wanted to kick herself for thinking she could relax in the capital since no one had been paying any attention to her twenty minutes ago. Thanks to Konrad, everyone in the Hunter’s Guild had eyes on them.
Haruto was no help. He was being awkward, probably thinking about everything he’d pulled back when he was younger.
Just when Sara was thinking she had to step up and tell the man in no uncertain terms that they were too busy to chat, Allen turned him down for them.
“Sorry. We don’t have time today. Could we come back later?”
Sara felt nostalgic seeing Allen smile like that. Allen had always been so cheerful and pleasant that he was able to become friends with anyone quickly.
“Going into a dungeon today?”
“No, we’re just checking things out today.”
They’d drawn attention because of Haruto, but if Ann drew attention too, it would get in the way of her work prospects. Kuntz was skillfully avoiding the area and carrying on his conversation with Ann so that no one noticed her. But the sharp-eyed guildmaster was quick to notice Ann by the receptionists.
“Do you know that girl?” he asked them.
“Umm...” Before Haruto could say whatever he was going to say, a child’s voice, something no one expected to hear here, rang out.
“Kuntz!”
“Huh? That sounded like...”
“You didn’t notice me, so I ran after you!”
A boy with the same blond hair and blue eyes as Kuntz had appeared, looking like Kuntz himself shrunk down into a twelve-year-old. Sara knew that he had a younger brother, but she was still surprised to see him since she didn’t expect the two to be so far apart in age.
“Rod! You just shot up, didn’t you?”
From the joyful way Kuntz greeted him, he must have been the little brother after all.
“It’s been a whole year. Of course I did.”
It hadn’t actually been a whole year since the last time they were in the capital, but it was close enough. The sudden interloper strode over to Sara and the others and suddenly grabbed Ann by the hand.
“Where do you think you’re wandering to? C’mere.”
“Huh?”
Ann was quiet, so Sara hoped that Konrad hadn’t heard her. At the very least, she hoped she and Kuntz were hiding her behind their backs well enough.
“Kuntz, I’m gonna head home first. You come too after you talk to the guildmaster. He’ll be really annoying if you don’t!”
“Hey, Rod!”
Sara was surprised that Konrad knew Rod’s name, but if he did, that was convenient. She slipped her arm behind her back and gave Ann an “OK” sign, then waved goodbye to her. She was hoping Ann would interpret this to mean, It’s okay to leave.
If everyone here was about to find out that Ann was an Invited, it’d be better for Kuntz’s brother, who the guildmaster was familiar with, to handle things. She didn’t know what his plan was, but she trusted Kuntz’s family.
“See you!”
Without turning back around, Kuntz’s brother lifted his hands into the air, including the one gripping Ann’s, and left the guild.
✦ ✦ ✦
She’d sent them on their way, but Sara’s shoulders hunched with worry now. Allen gave her a pat on the back and bent down a bit so he could whisper into her ear.
“Sara, you did okay on your own at twelve, right?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Still worried?”
“I’ll try not to be.”
Allen grinned at her as if to say, Very good and Sara felt her back straightening up again.
“Uhh... Ahem.” Now, attention was squarely gathered on Allen and Sara. “Actually, we don’t know what our schedules will be like in the future, so maybe we should talk now.”
At Allen’s suggestion, the group made their way to the guildmaster’s office. And so, the day they planned to spend cheering Ann on as she made her work debut ended up going a little differently.