Leen and I weren’t together every hour of the day. Because my contract said she’d pay for my food and lodging, we often were together during these times, but when we had downtime before the next quest was picked, we’d naturally have alone time where we’d fix up our equipment or do whatever else we wanted. That was why it wasn’t all too odd for us to do something on our own once a day or two. However, yesterday had been really tough to get through. In the end, I went the whole day without even speaking to her. I’d eaten my cold meat pie for dinner, thinking that I’d need to do something tomorrow or the awkwardness would suffocate me to death.
Now that it had been two days since I’d pissed Leen off, I needed to get my head into gear and apologize to her through physical means. Fortunately, Sharney had given me a great hint to go off of, so all I needed to do was make use of it. That was why I was here at the guild. It was common knowledge that the guild and the tavern at night were the two best places to find things out. It made logical sense to go to a specialized store when buying something, so I needed to find out where the store I was looking for actually was.
“Hey, Erifell,” I said.
I had sought out Erifell today because not only did she seem like she’d know, she was the best person for me to ask a favor from.
“You came at the perfect time. There’s a quest I would like you to take on,” she said.
However, she was playing the role of the ideal guild receptionist. Before I could even mention anything, she had beat me to the punch and started talking.
“Wait a sec, I’ve got something I need to ask you,” I said.
“Is it important?”
“Utmost importance.”
“Fine... What is it?”
I told her the situation as well as what I was looking for. As I spoke, Erifell’s face went white as a sheet. What’s with that face? I thought I was the one who’d saved your life...
Erifell gave an exasperated sigh and retreated behind the counter. She came back bearing a rolled piece of paper, which she unfurled to reveal a local map of the area with the guild at its center.
“Head south from here, then take the first left with the Zynee equipment store in front of you. On the third block of Lewon Street, you’ll find a store called Celiera. What you’re looking for should be there.”
“Thanks for the quick explanation.”
“This request is solely in Leen’s field of expertise, so I’d appreciate it if you could patch things up quickly for my sake.”
“Ah, right, that makes sense...”
Quests for me were few, such as the one we’d done just recently.
“Will you be able to take it on?” Erifell asked.
“I’ll have to check with Leen first, but...what kind of quest is it?”
“You’ll have to ask the client for details, I’m afraid. It would save time if you could head to the designated meeting spot once you’ve made amends with her. You can find out more information about the quest and the reward there. If you decide to turn it down, it won’t affect your ranking, but please come by the guild to let me know.”
“This seems pretty roundabout,” I said.
The reason proper, aboveboard quests were important was because all of the management, from the details of the quest, the reward, and communication, was undertaken by the guild. All the adventurer needed to do was agree to do the quest and get it done. This simplicity was a great boon for us. However, in this case, although she’d issue the quest to us, we needed to go to the client in order to find out the details and the reward. Not only that, but our rank also wouldn’t be affected if we failed. That meant...
“This is quite the tricky quest, then?” I said.
“Yes... I don’t believe it to be possible for a regular adventurer to complete,” Erifell replied.
That must have been why she’d claimed this was something that only Leen could do.
“All right, I’ll try and sort things out as quickly as possible then head to the client,” I said.
“Thank you so much.”
I said goodbye to Erifell, then headed to Celiera.
I reached the store in around half an hour of walking, but I saw a number of young women inside browsing the goods, making it awkward for me.
“I hope this will do...”
Luckily for me, I found what I was looking for immediately. I bought it and prepared to head back to the inn. Unfortunately, things hadn’t gone to plan. I’d hoped I could talk to Leen and give her this gift as an apology and then use this new quest as a way to patch things up with her, but she wasn’t in her room.
I asked the owner and she told me that Leen had headed out early this morning. With an utterly disappointed face that ticked me off to no end. Anyway, I didn’t know where Leen was and the meeting time was approaching. Not that I trusted what this whole thing might be about.
“Oh well,” I muttered to myself. I didn’t feel good imagining the client hearing that I’d flaked on them after telling Erifell I was going, so I decided to head to the agreed meeting spot. If this was worth our time, then Leen wouldn’t be too mad.
I’d been walking around a lot this morning and realized, belatedly perhaps, that having someone to talk to made a big difference. I could shoot the breeze with the slime and when Leen was around things got noisy, but they were never boring. I wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing to get used to being with other people.
I thought of Aglora, Ramond—my old party members—and realized that we never spoke about anything mundane. We spoke about what was necessary for the required amount of time. We never wasted time; we didn’t do anything that wasn’t pragmatic. While it wasn’t nicer, it was easier in the sense that I never needed to think about anything irrelevant. I couldn’t even remember what I used to think about when I was on my own back then.
“Is that it...?”
The meeting spot with the client was a little house outside the residential area, a two-story building that didn’t look all too big. It was a bit old but was well taken care of.
“Enough jokes! This conversation’s going nowhere!”
“Hm?”
Just as I was walking up to the building, I heard shouting before a slightly chubby man came storming out. He had an unfashionable fur coat and gaudy rings... It was the merchant who’d called out to me in the market yesterday.
“How much does he think I’ve invested into this?! That stupid brat takes me for a fool!”
Today his shoulders were shaking with rage and his face was scrunched up; he looked like he was ready to kill someone.
It was no surprise that the two of us—going in two directions to and from the same place—would bump into each other.
“The hell are you?! Get out of my way!”
Before we hit, he waved his hand as if to shoo me out of the way. It seemed like he didn’t remember he’d been trying to sell me a gemstone just yesterday. I silently moved out of his way and he huffed before stomping away.
As the man left, I didn’t think much more of him—apart from the wry joke that Esma was home to not only kobolds but orcs as well—and then knocked on the door. After a short moment, it opened with a creak and a young man stepped outside.
“Hallabey, how many times do I—”
As he looked at me, his eyes went wide, and I was sure mine did too. The client, Tiesel Kreyon, gave an awkward smile and welcomed me inside.