“R seven hundred fifty-five! R seven hundred fifty-five!”

Finally! I get up and rush to the glass booth with the open door.

“Close the door and take a seat” is the first thing I hear from the girl at the desk inside the booth. She didn’t even bother looking at me! Not to mention that at least “good afternoon” would be common courtesy! Oh well, can’t be helped. After all, she has no idea she’s looking at the soon-to-be greatest adventurer this world has ever seen. I sit down on another wooden chair at the desk, opposite of the girl, who goes through some papers before finally looking at me.

“State your business,” the girl says in a cold, formal voice.

“I wish to become an adventurer!” I say cheerfully with a smile.

“I see. Do you have a medallion with your name, confirming you cleared a dungeon on your own?”

“Yes, here it is,” I hand the girl my silver medallion. She looks at it, flips it over to see my name and raises an eyebrow when she reads the full text. After returning the medallion back to me she writes something down in her forms with a bright orange feather pen and says, “All applicants under the age of thirteen need parental consent. Do you have such in written form?”

“Ah, uh...”

Dang, how could I know that? I could go find Cyra—ah no, by the time I find her through all the floods I’ll be back to square one. Erm…

“M-my… My parents are… dead!” I pretend to struggle with these words and break down in tears.

“I see,” the girl is unimpressed. Or does she simply not care at all? Are these even real people working for the Guild? Do they even have souls?

“Do you have their death certificates?” she asks me. What now? Oh, of course!

“No. I came with my parents here, but they died when the water dragon attacked!”

“Is this true?”

“Yes!”

“… Very well,” the girl says that, but I get the feeling she doesn’t actually care if what I’m saying is true or not and just wanted confirmation from me. She then slides across the desk between us a tome that looks about as thick as a bible and says, “First I’ll need you to agree to these terms and conditions—”

“I agree!” I say as fast as possible. There is no way I’m reading that thing! That alone would take days! And I need to actually take care of that dragon before it does serious damage.

“Before that, I must see you read it all the way to the end to confirm that you understand what you agree to. If you happen to be proficient at speed reading flip—nearly all Guild members are—then it will be enough for me to see you flip through the pages of the book.”

Son of a—Fine!

"I just happen to hold the world record in my village for the speed of my speed reading," I say with a forced smile and begin flipping through each of the six hundred sixty-six pages as fast as I can, barely noticing the tiny letters flash before my eyes.

“Understood!” I say and flip the tome close. “A very interesting read. My compliments to the one who wrote it—the prose was excellent.”

“Good,” the girl says flatly and passes me a form and a regular, old feather pen. It was probably white once, but now it’s dirty gray. “Fill this out. Answer truthfully please.”

Luckily the registration form itself has very little information requested:

Name—Lilith.

Age—Eight.

Adventurer rank—Silver.

Place of residence—Hopefully with my new sister, but it's probably flooded.

Then I read through the paragraphs above the dotted line for my signature.

By signing this you agree that your participation in the Adventurer’s Guild is voluntary. Furthermore, you agree to assume any risk associated with participating in the Adventurer’s Guild, and release the Adventurer’s Guild from any and all claims of loss or damage that may arise during your participation. Such releases are without limitation, and include healers’ fees, personal injury, property damage, and any other losses or damages suffered by you.

You agree to indemnify and hold Adventurer’s Guild harmless against any and all claims of loss or damage of your possessions or life.

You agree that this agreement shall remain in full force and effect without modification.

I sign.

Prove that you are not a robot.

“Pardon?” I ask and look at the girl on the opposite side of the desk.

“Prick your thumb with the pen and press it below your signature,” the girl explains calmly.

What is this discrimination against robots? And I’m pretty sure I saw some golem-looking things back at the square. Were they not part of the Guild? Or they don’t count as robots? That's not very likely as I can’t imagine those metallic things bleeding.

I prick my thumb, press it against the parchment and pass it to the girl. She looks over it, signs it herself and says, “Everything seems in order. Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild!”

Finally! I let out a heavy sigh and say, “Thank you!”.

“That will be fifteen gold pieces for the registration and additional two gold pieces as a monthly fee. Do you wish to pay now or have it written out of your questing rewards?”

“… Questing rewards,” I utter barely and wonder if I’m strong enough to start a war against this Guild now.