“All these people are making me feel a little nervous.” Yulia was like a fish out of water. Her eyes kept darting from one sight to the next. The small village where she’d grown up could never have held this many people at once.
“Look at all the demonkin and beastkin,” Mil said. “You don’t see so many different races in the royal capital.”
“Are the streets of the royal capital just like this?”
“Yep! But not so dusty since the roads are paved with stones. All the dirt gets into the air here.”
“You’re right... But Mil, we need to move quickly before Kuro disappears somewhere.”
Kuro had wandered over to the opposite side of the road, drawn in by the restaurants and taverns there.
“Oh, good. She’s finding us a place to eat lunch.” Mil jumped to her feet. “Hey, Kuro, wait up.”
“Ahh. Mil, wait for me.”
Kuro was standing in front of a building with her tail swishing to and fro as Yulia and Mil ran to catch up.
“Oh, Mil. This place has some good looking meat dishes!”
It was a wooden building by the roadside with a stylish exterior. The sign in front of it said “Adventurer’s Guild.” Indeed, when Mil looked in through the window, she saw lots of adventurers sitting inside—fighters in light armor, priests in robes, and a few mages too. Also outside was a display case full of replicas of the dishes sold there.
“It’s an adventurer’s guild,” Mil said. “And it looks like they serve food too.”
She’d heard that most guilds doubled as places for the adventurers to eat, and this one was no exception.
“What’s an adventurer’s guild?” Kuro asked.
“It’s a place to sign up for quests or form a party. Every adventurer goes there at least once. There’s no better place to gather information...or so I’ve heard.”
Since Mil and her friends were adventurers, she figured there was no reason not to go in.
“Well, now we can grab something to eat and maybe find a nice quest while we’re at it.”
“Meat! Meat!”
“I’ve n-never been anywhere like this.”
Their hearts raced as Mil opened the entrance door.
The moment they stepped inside, their ears were assaulted by the clamor of rowdy adventurers. The main street was bustling, but inside the guild was a whole new level of loud, and Mil nearly staggered back. A party of adventurers at a nearby table were clanking their glasses together and laughing loudly. Deeper inside, two adventurers had grabbed each other by the lapels in some sort of dispute over the quests on the noticeboard. A few fearsome warriors had gathered around the fighting men to cheer them on and place bets.
“Ooh! I smell the meat!”
“I’ve never actually been in a guild before...but I guess we just go to the counter and— Yulia?” Mil realized that Yulia was clinging tightly to her sleeve with tears in her eyes.
“I’m a little s-scared...”
“There’s a free table!” Kuro declared. “Come on, let’s hurry. You too, Yulia.”
Kuro couldn’t bear to wait around, but Yulia was a nervous wreck. The atmosphere of the guild was proving far too much for her.
“Come on, let’s go sit at that empty table,” Mil said to her.
“O-Okay...”
The trio walked to a table by the window where they all sat down.
A woman in an apron soon came over to their table with a notepad in her hand. “Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild. What’ll it be?”
“Give me your best meat!” Kuro’s impatience was visible in her eyes.
“Ah ha ha,” Mil laughed. “Meat could be nice, but I think I want something lighter. What other dishes do you recommend?”
The server hesitated for a moment then said, “Well, my recommendation would be an egg-based dish, but...”
Kuro’s ears twitched with excitement. “We’ll have that! The dish with eggs!”
“But first you’d have to bring a garuda egg to the guild,” the server explained. “I don’t suppose you brought any eggs with you?”
“Nope,” Mil replied. “Don’t tell me adventurers have to bring their own ingredients before they can eat anything?”
“That’s not quite the case,” the server replied with a smile. “We only ask that adventurers supply rare ingredients when they’re in short supply. If you bring in more than required, we can also pay out rewards for the surplus.”
In essence, adventurers didn’t usually visit the guild to buy things. They came to get rewarded in some way for the quests they’d completed.
“Kuro, we’ll have to go fetch the eggs later.”
“Indeed! I heard about garudas back in my village. They’re ferocious birds that eat people, aren’t they?”
The server immediately tried to talk them out of it. “I’m sorry if I raised your hopes with talk of rewards, but that’s a high-difficulty assignment. Even veteran adventurers rarely manage to obtain a garuda egg.”
But it was too late now. The talk of eggs and difficult challenges had captured their imaginations. So far they’d completed a difficult journey to the town, but hadn’t encountered any of the tough foes or hurdles that featured in stories about heroes.
“This is what adventuring’s all about!” Mil said. “You don’t mind, do you, Yulia?”
“Sounds scary... But if you’re going, Mil...” Yulia agreed, albeit nervously.
“Okay, can we sign up to collect eggs later?” Mil asked.
“That’s no problem,” the server replied, “but you certainly made that decision quickly.”
“It sounds really fun.” It would be Mil’s first guild quest, and she couldn’t wait.
“All the other adventurers are too scared to do it... Well, let’s consider that settled. Would you like something else in the meantime? Of the dishes we have readily available, I’d recommend the tansel fish meunière.”
They’d gotten distracted talking about garuda eggs, but they’d have to order something else in the meantime.
Yulia began to fidget, then mumbled, “I’d like the fish dish...if that’s all right.”
After eating nothing but wild plants in the forest, Mil liked the sound of it too.
Kuro, likewise, was drooling from the corner of her mouth.
“Okay, could we have three of those?” Mil asked.
“Of course. It’ll be right with you.” The server returned to the area behind the counter.
“I can hardly wait to try this fish,” Kuro said. “It’s been a week since we ate anything other than mushrooms.”
Yulia nodded in agreement.
“Yeah,” Mil said. “I can’t wai—huh?”
Around them, other adventurers were discussing various rumors, and a particular conversation had caught Mil’s attention.
On the table behind Mil, one man said to another, “So, according to the information I bought from a demonkin, the princess trapped in the Demon King’s Castle escaped.”
“I heard about that. They say she punched the castle gate down then defeated a hundred orcs with her bare fists on the way out.”
“Not just that. I heard from a merchant that she stopped a dragon from attacking a village then laughed while tormenting it half to death.”
“What kind of princess does a thing like that?”
“Then when she was done, she made it into her pet.”
“Are you serious? She can’t be human.”
That has to be me they’re talking about...
“They’re exaggerating, aren’t they?” Yulia said. She must have been listening too.
Mil started to regret telling anyone she was a princess.
The conversation between the men continued. “Didn’t you learn anything more?”
“Yeah, listen to this. They said the Demon King’s daughter disappeared from the Demon King’s Castle around the same time. I’m not sure I believe it though. Maybe someone got her mixed up with the human princess.”
“Does the Demon King even have a daughter? I don’t know much about his castle. The monsters around there are so bad that only platinum-ranked adventurers can even get close.”
“True. Especially since there’s no caverns or ruins. It’s all risk, no reward. No hunting quests around there either.”
“Yep.”
The Demon King’s daughter...? Mil had met her briefly—a great scythe wielding demon by the name of Mary Garland. What makes anyone think she’d leave the castle? I wish I could ask them about it, though it doesn’t sound like they know much.
The server reappeared with plates balanced on both hands. “Sorry to keep you waiting! Tansel fish meunière for three!”
As the dishes were placed on the table, the fragrance rose from the plates and stole the girls’ attention.
“Ooh! Time to try it!” With no hesitation, Kuro grabbed her chopsticks and carried a piece to her mouth. “This is delicious! I’ve never tasted anything like it!”
While Kuro enjoyed her meal, the server said, “By the way, our guild is also offering rewards for the ingredients of this dish. It’s a relatively easy job for anyone good at fishing, making it a reliable source of income for local adventurers.”
“Wow.” Mil put another piece of white fish in her mouth as she listened to the server.
“The minimum rank is just... Oh, I forgot to ask, what rank are you all?”
“Huh? What rank?”
“Oh? You haven’t heard of that? Forgive me for asking, but how long have you all been adventurers?”
The men behind them had mentioned something about a platinum rank too.
Adventurers are supposed to have ranks...? Mil began to grow worried.
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