clip-clop

The sound of walking horses pulling a carriage stopped in front of a large building in the middle of Cale, a neighboring town of Steelton. The huge signboard displayed at the front of the building said a familiar name to me who read a lot of fantasy novels and mangas in my past life.

‘Adventurer Guild’

Before going on the journey, I searched for information that would be necessary for me to find a goal. I know I went on this journey to train, but I have no idea what path to take to accomplish that.

That was when I found out about the Adventurer Guild. Here, I could register as an adventurer and go on various missions for various rewards, either monetary or something else that is just as valuable depending on the mission. I don’t need money since my father is rich but it’d be great if I could make money from my own effort. I was already used to that lifestyle from my previous life after all.

I pulled Harry out of the carriage and into the building by his robe sleeve. I pulled Chris with me too. I looked like a child pulling his older brothers to play a game or something but I was too excited to care about that. Besides, I am a child so what’s the problem of being seen as one?

“Young master, do I have to do this too?”

Harry seemed reluctant to become an adventurer with me.

“You agreed to go with me on an adventure, didn’t you?”

“I did, but something as troublesome as the Adventurer Guild...”

Harry seemed to not like the Adventurer Guild very much. I turned to Chris who looked indifferent the whole time.

“Chris, help me convince him.”

“To be honest, I don’t really like the guild very much either.”

“Why?”

As I asked Chris, an arrogant voice spoke from behind me.

“Huh? What is a brat doing here?”

As the arrogant sounding voice questioned my presence in the building, Chris answered me.

“As the Adventurer Guild accepts just about anyone as long as they have the skills, this place is full of thugs like this one.”

I see. An unruly place where strength prevails as long as it doesn’t cross any boundaries. It’s natural for hooligans to pop up everywhere in such places. Harry seemed to agree with Chris’ statement.

I turned around to the arrogant-sounding man. He was surrounded by two other thug-looking guys. The man who spoke had a large stature and bulky muscles. Carrying a huge sword on his back, he seemed like a strong person at first glance. But I could tell - from his posture and the way he carried himself - he’s not strong at all. I clicked my tongue at the annoying situation.

“Did you just clicked your tongue at me? And you, you called me a thug didn’t you?” the man asked angrily.

“What else should I call you other than a thug?” Chris said indifferently.

The man grew irritated at Chris’ indifference and was about to say something back when I interrupted.

“Oi.”

“Huh?”

“What did you call me?”

“This brat?!”

A brat. Such an unpleasant name ticked me off. He seemed to care little about his surroundings and other people around him.

“How troublesome.”

“What did you say, you brat?!”

The huge thug pulled out his giant sword and swung it at me. The adventurers nearby tried to stop him from killing a child, but the situation turned out differently. I instantly disappeared from where I was standing and reappeared on top of the thug’s head.

I didn’t charge any qi as I swung my fist down on the back of the man’s head. It wasn’t necessary.

Bam! Crash!

The man’s head crashed down on the wooden floor and he fell unconscious from the shock. Everyone’s jaws dropped at the sight. Harry and Chris were indifferent though.

I landed on the floor and turned to the other two men. They stepped back slightly, scared of getting beat up like the big guy.

“You got a problem with me too?”

“Ah! No!”

The two extras shook their head violently while running away. I pulled the big man’s head out of the crashed floor and dragged him out of the guild.

I got back in and went straight to the reception counter pulling Harry and Chris with me. I turned back into looking like a cheerful kid dragging his older brothers around. I spoke to the receptionist looking like a girl in her teenage years.

“Can I register as an adventurer here?”

“Huh? Oh! Yes, you can.”

The receptionist was flustered a bit but quickly regained her calm. I smiled and asked to be registered along with Harry and Chris. She gave us a form to fill in and I wrote the required information.

By the way, I just wrote in Richard for my name as I don’t want the fact that I’m a Count’s heir to be revealed. Of course, I’m not deliberately hiding it so people could find out with a bit of investigation but it doesn’t matter. I just don’t want people to either approach or stay away from me because of the fact. It’s just one of my whims.

There were also checkboxes for me to choose the type of adventurer I want to register as. There are two categories of adventurers; hunter, and explorer. A hunter usually takes on monster subjugation missions while an explorer, as the name suggests, explores uncharted regions throughout the whole continent. I ticked in the hunter checkbox. I’m interested in exploring the continent, but I just wanted to train on this journey. I could always change my profession in the future anyway.

Under the category checkboxes, some questions ask what weapon you use and whether you could use magic. Some missions require a party and using magic gives you an advantage. Of course, most adventurers can’t use magic. Anyone that could use magic joins the Magician Guild instead. Although, some high-ranked adventurers are said to be able to use magic. I don’t know anything about them though.

I finished filling in the form and returned it to the friendly receptionist.

“Thank you,” I said politely.

The receptionist smiled at my polite gesture. Harry and Chris also finished filling in their forms and returned them.

“It’s rare seeing you being this polite to people, is it because she’s pretty?” Harry whispered to me with a teasing smile.

“What do you mean? I’m always polite to everyone.”

“You didn’t seem that polite knocking the thug unconscious before.”

“That was different.”

The receptionist girl was checking our forms when she let out a surprised voice.

“Sir Richard? You’re ten years old? And you could use magic?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

I made a small fire on my finger to prove that I’m a mage to the receptionist and quickly put it out.

“That’s incredible...” she muttered in a small voice.

“Alright then, that settles it. I will prepare your ID so please wait for a few minutes.”

I nodded and waited. After a few minutes, the receptionist returned with three cards in her hand.

“This is your adventurer ID. The ID could serve as identification to enter another city and also states your adventurer rank. Since you just registered, you are F-ranked for now but you could rank up by taking and completing missions displayed on the mission board right there.”

She pointed to a large notice board in the building surrounded by a few adventurers as she talked about the mission board.

“Adventurers may take missions that are of the same rank or one rank higher than them. Failure in completion would cause a demerit and affect the rank-up process of an adventurer. By the way, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier, my name is Rebecca. I’m one of the receptionists of the Cale branch of the Adventurer Guild. Nice to meet you.”

Rebecca explained the basics of being a registered adventurer to the three of us professionally. I nodded at her clear explanation.

“Thank you very much for the explanation, nice to meet you too.” I bowed slightly.

“Nice to meet you.”

Chris and Harry followed suit.

We excused ourselves and I pulled Harry and Chris out of the building and entered the carriage.

“Where are we going now? Aren’t you going to take on a mission right away?” Harry seemed confused by our exit.

“We need to find an inn to stay the night, and I’m hungry.”

“Oh, I thought the young master would be impatient to take on his first mission.”

“What are you talking about. I’m a patient person.”

Harry smiled at my remarks and stopped talking. I told the coachman, whose name is Frank to find us a good place to sleep at. We found a fairly priced inn and continued to eat lunch. At first, I thought I wanted to take on a mission right away but I got sleepy.

Let’s just do it tomorrow.