The receptionist looked around twenty years old, and I suspected I’d been feeling a bit worked up the past little while because I was feeling an attraction to her charm as an older woman. The world seemed very different without the Thief skill Calm Mind.
“Goodness, you look a bit flushed. Do you have a fever?” she asked.
“N-no, ma’am. My temperature is fine. What can I do to figure out what magic I can use?”
“Nothing beats just giving everything a try. Only very few people can say they have no experience at all using a skill. Do you remember any instance when you unintentionally made something happen?”
The first thing that came to mind was the glowing lock just now. That, and the key that had suddenly appeared in my hand. I checked the pocket where I’d put the key, but it was gone.
I’m pretty sure I put it in here, though. Did I drop it? No, that seems unlikely. Did it…? Ah, it must have disappeared.
“Does anything come to mind, Mr. Might?”
“Is there magic that creates something out of nothing? Just something small.”
“Let me see… One that I can think of is summoning magic. It’s mostly used by Summoners, but they’re so rare that there isn’t a single one in our registry.”
“What else, other than summoning magic?”
“There’s magic that teleports things, but it’s only usable by those whose magic vocation is at a high level. You’d never see it in the First Town.”
The question of why the key had appeared and disappeared remained unanswered. I knew I hadn’t imagined it, though; the key had felt so real in my hand.
“The last one I can think of is materialization magic. Like the name says, it’s magic that lets you materialize things. But that is practically just a myth from storybooks.”
She was right about how rare materialization magic was. I hadn’t met a single person who could use it even in the Last Town, the closest settlement to the Edge of the World, where people’s magic vocations were all at least level 70. So this didn’t explain what I had done, either.
I tried to reenact the phenomenon, but to no avail.
“Um… Thank you anyway. You’ve been very helpful.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance.”
“Oh, no worries. You’ve been very patient and friendly, which has been very reassuring. I want to start working right away. Are there any jobs that I can do?”
“I recommend you check out that bulletin board over there. If you find one that suits what you’re looking for, please bring it back to the counter, and we’ll help you process it.”
Based on the receptionist’s expression, however, I could tell that there weren’t all that many requests that were suitable for a level 1 at the moment.
By the way, even though I knew this was called the City of Pleasure, the uniform here accentuated the staff’s curves way too much. I tried my best to fight it, but my eyes couldn’t help straying lower than the receptionist’s face.
No, stop that. This isn’t the time to be horny… Huh?
My gaze sharpened. Near the receptionist’s chest area, I was seeing a semitransparent object that looked strangely similar to a lock.
“…Is there something else I can help you with, Mr. Might?”
“Ah! S-sorry, I wasn’t looking at anywhere strange! I mean, I see it, but—”
“See what?”
The woman blinked, and the lock disappeared.
For a moment, I wondered if I had been imagining the lock because I used to be a Thief. However, if what I had seen was due to my change in vocation, then I had to get to the bottom of what it meant.
I checked the bulletin board, but sure enough, all the magic-related requests asked for those who were level 3 or above. My most pressing problem was that I had no money, having left it all at the Last Town.
There was a horse stable at the edge of town where I could stay the night if I was really out of options. I still had to eat, though, which meant I needed to earn something before the sun went down.
Oh right, there are monsters in the nearby forest. Should I go kill a few? It’s early afternoon, so there’s enough time to make a quick trip and get back before it gets da—
“Hi. Can I have a bit of your time?”
The blue-haired girl from earlier appeared in front of me, interrupting my train of thought. She had her hands on her waist and was puffing her chest out a little, emphasizing curves that I hadn’t noticed earlier.
“…Are you talking to me?”
“Yep. We walked right in front of you earlier. There’s something I want to ask you about that time. Would you mind coming with me?”
I was being called out by one of the girls who were the talk of the guild, but I couldn’t exactly be happy about it, with the strangely unsettling atmosphere.
I can go with her, or I can just leave. What should I do?
✦ ✦ ✦
“…You’re suspicious of me, aren’t you?” the blue-haired girl said. “I swear to Lady Iris that I won’t do anything bad to you.”
If memory served, Iris was the name of one of the goddesses. The Iris Sect was at odds with the Thieves Guild, so I’d had more than a few bad run-ins with them. That said, I was now a Sage.
“I’m really just a little curious, but weren’t you holding a key before?”
Ah, so she noticed. Well, I wasn’t exactly subtle when I produced the key.
I was at a bit of a loss as to how to answer, as I didn’t really understand everything myself. Seeing the struggle on my face, the girl crossed her arms and adopted a pensive look.
“To be honest with you, I don’t really think this is the case, but is it possible that you just happened to pick up the key to our goblin treasure chest?”