“I think this is the last of them,” I said, stooping down to pick up the loose paper from the floor that had drifted under the row of chairs. I added it to the pile I already had in my other arm and turned around. The brown-haired girl was just in the middle of putting a pile of organized papers of her own down on the counter; she also seemed to have finished up.

As it turns out, this girl who’d crash-landed at my feet a few minutes ago is the guild master of this branch by the name of Laerell la Puenta. I was right in that she’s actually younger than I am, too, at only 17 years old. It just goes to prove that age doesn’t matter much when you’re mature and dependable, otherwise. Though, if I’m honest with myself, it kind of stings a little that such a young person is already so accomplished while I…well, I’m just not.

“Great!” She clapped her hands together at me with a smile, “You really didn’t have to help, you know. If anything, this one,” she jabbed a finger behind her where Teak was roosting, fluffed up in a grumpy ball on the far end of the counter, “should have been the one to clean up the mess…but I don’t trust him not to make it worse. So thank you!”

“Hey! I can hear you, ya know,” came the indignant squawk of a reply, which Laerell ignored completely. Teak fluffed up indignantly at being given the cold shoulder, but didn’t say anything further.

“With that out of the way, you wanted to ask about the job, yes?”

“Oh, yes! I saw the note that was posted on the door. You’re looking for a receptionist, right?”

Laerell threw a glare over her shoulder towards the angry poofball behind her that positively screamed you better keep quiet or I will skin you before answering. “Yes; we’re nearly ready to open and begin registering adventurers, but Teak and I are the only staff so far. I can’t run this whole building and work the counter too, so we still need one more person.”

I was about to ask her why Teak couldn’t run the counter but I stopped myself. With a receptionist like that, they’d be more likely to scare adventurers away. “So you were sent from the new guild headquarters in the Royal Capital then. And he,” I indicated with my chin towards Teak, who’d fallen asleep and was snoring rather loudly, “must be the temporary registration device, then.”

Laerell paused and seemed surprised. “You know all of that?” Her forehead scrunched up as she regarded me with a wary eye.

That look of hers confused me a little, until I remembered what Maude had told me.

Right…none of this is technically common knowledge, yet. And I’m definitely going to have to be careful how much I let out about my gaming experience. I don’t know how I’d explain any of it, and I don’t want them to think I’m evil. Or worse, a weirdo.

Suddenly self-conscious, I tried not to fidget in front of her, “Oh, yeah. But only because Maude explained it all to me.” I pointed behind myself awkwardly, hoping that I was pointing in vaguely the correct direction. “I’m staying at her Inn.”

She relaxed instantly as soon as I said Maude’s name, just as I’d hoped. “Ah! That explains it.” She must have noticed the worried look on my face because she blurted out, “Sorry, I don’t mean to be quite so on-edge. It’s just that the monster attacks have ramped up a lot over the last few days and there’s a lot of pressure on me - us! - to get this branch opened and running and…”

I waved my hand, trying to appear nonplussed, though I probably still looked a little worried. “No need to apologize! Everyone is on edge. It’s only natural that they would be. Err…as for the job, is there an application I should fill out, or…?”

Laerell laughed and pushed her glasses higher up on her nose. “No, no, there’s no need for that. No experience is required, after all. We’ll train you on the job!”

“On the job, okay. W…wait, I’m hired?! But…what about…” Isn’t this a little too fast even considering the circumstances?

“Nope! No time for any of that.” She reached out and grasped my shirt sleeve in her fingers, pulling me firmly toward the ‘staff’ door. “Besides, Maude wouldn’t put up with you if you weren’t at least a little competent, so I know I can trust you to at least be able to handle a few simple tasks.”

“Okay, in that case, you have a poi… Wait, hey…!” I started to protest the implication that I might be an idiot but I didn’t get the chance.

“Come on now, follow me. Let’s get you cleaned up and in uniform.”

“What do you mean cleaned up? I’m perfectly cle- ”

“Once you’re presentable, I’ll send a messenger over to Maude for dinner and Teak can scan you. You’ll need to be registered in our system just like everyone else, after all…and with this, we’ll will teach you the ropes, as it were.”

Ugh, she just isn’t listening…

“…And the best part is if we work very hard all night, we could have everything ready to open up tomorrow morning! Wouldn’t that be great?”

“All night?? Open tomorrow morning…?! Wait…but Maude is expecting me t-”

“Yup, all night! It’ll be fun!” She was positively beaming as she pulled me up to the door, while I could feel my heart sinking further into the pit of my stomach.

“But you haven’t even told me what the pay is, or how many hours I’ll be working, or on what days, or…”

“Oh, that.” Her tone of voice told me that she found topics like work schedules and money to be of lesser importance than running the guild. “You’ll get [one silver writ] per week to start, with pay increases for merit and seniority. Ah, and until we get more hired help, you’ll have to work every day.”

“W-whu… Wait! EVERY DAY?!”

“Well, of course, the same as Teak and I do. Don’t worry, we should get the budget to hire more people soon. Maybe as soon as in a few weeks! Until then, we’ll be relying on you to do your best.”

Maybe…in a few weeks…? I was exhausted already just thinking about it.

With her free hand, she traced a series of circles and shapes on the wood of the door that left behind a pale, reddish light where her finger had touched. After she finished, the whole design flashed into life at once, blazing fiercely…it was a circle with a rune in the middle that I didn’t recognize. After an instant, it faded back into the wood without a trace and the door swung open on its own.

“Teak! Wake up and shake a tail feather - we have work to do!”

Grumbling, the penguin-bear-thing harrumphed and jumped down off the counter, waddling over to follow us. I had thought he’d been asleep, but now I realized he’d just been pretending in order to stave off Laerell’s anger at him. “Yeah, yeah, I heard. I’m coming. Keep your shorts on.”

What a rude little bugger. And I’m going to have to work with him every day for weeks, huh? Maybe I can use him for soccer practice if he gets to be too annoying.

I let out a long, hard sigh. What the hell have I gotten myself into?