Three months had passed by quickly and Mark and Fiora had swiftly captured all the bandits that had lurked in the area. It was classified as a rank-D mission, which no mercenary would dare accept thanks to the fact that the reward money was abysmally small. This was because the villagers who had posted the request on the guild’s bulletins were all struck with poverty, primarily because the bandits kept taking 70% of their produce’s income as ‘payment for extending their protection over the village’.

The village chief bowed over and over before the two of them, earnestly showing his gratitude for their help, thereafter extending 200 Leaf (Branch’s currency). Considering the prices of today’s goods, 200 Leaf was barely able to pass as ‘good payment’; nonetheless, both Mark and Fiora accepted it gleefully—they didn’t do the job solely for the money after all, they did it for the people.

Their next move would obviously be to register Arthur as an honorary mercenary and member of their group. Honorary members were individuals who had yet reached the age required for official membership, hence, they could only operate under the guidance of guardians in a guild group; thus, honorary members weren’t allowed to take on rank-E missions and above. Arthur’s registration was necessary so he could travel through borders together with Mark and Fiora without problem, since guild members had authorization to freely and legally pass through borders provided that the countries involved were allies.

Mark and Fiora were constantly travelling from Branch to Cloud and vice versa as part of their missions, so Arthur’s honorary membership would definitely ease their movement since it would mean they wouldn’t have to purchase a passport for him (a task which was extraordinarily tedious, requiring a lot of paperwork and the like). Wherefore, they proceeded to the mercenary guild’s Main House, located at the outskirt-town of Bona. Usually, a guild’s headquarter was situated near borders in order to give more freedom to their members (the city’s atmosphere was too loud and hectic that members might not be able to focus on their work).

The trio came down the motor-car they rode to reach the place, afterwards, paying the cab-driver a price of 200 Leaf. The moment the cab driver saw the payment—

“Curses! Curses you all are,” vented he on his passengers; “have you no shame? I drove you all the way here and you pay me this price?”

Mark scratched his head meekly.

“I read the fare prices at the terminal. I’m sure I remember reading 200 Leaf per 100 km ride.”

“Nonsense!” the cab-driver fumed in fury. “It is customary ‘round these parts to give extra. It’s thanks for driving you through dangerous woods.”

Fiora couldn’t take it, hence she briskly made her way between Mark and the cab-driver. “Here’s 50 Fluff; that’s equivalent to a hundred leaf right? Take it, before I change my mind.”

The driver’s greedy eyes lit up in shameless surprise. “My,” he muttered murkily; “then consider yourselves paid.”

The driver took the money and zoomed his car back to the woods.

“Why did you do that, Fiora?” asked the befuddled Mark.

“I’ve just had enough of this,” she responded, crossing her arms to her chest. “In every situation like this, you always act tough even though you just don’t want trouble. Then you always say to me, ‘It’s for the sake of teaching other people the way of fairness so they may benefit from the happiness it brings.’ But every time, you always fail, and people always take the greedy path.”

“I thought,” voiced Mark, comically fidgeting his fingers. “You fully support me.”

“And I am supporting you. The only thing is, today’s the day Arthur’s going to become an honorary member of the guild, so speed is a must.”

Realizing she had a point, Mark could do nothing but follow her suit as she strode towards the town’s gate. That was where Arthur first got a peek of the magnificence of the mercenary guild. He was surprised to know that the whole town itself was the guild’s base, teeming with flying cars and ships, inexplicably designed motor-bikes and motor-cars, and various individuals in the most ‘unique’ get-up.

Many buildings were so high up that they could easily tower over the skyscrapers found in the cities. He walked behind his two guardians whilst continually moving his head around to every spot that seemed interestingly new to him.

“Amazed?” inquired Fiora, looking at him over her shoulders. “About 99% of the population here are all mercenaries, and the remaining 1% are the staff, basically no one here’s a civilian.”

Fiora bent down to Arthur’s ears, “Tell you a secret,” she whispered, “The sky-base of the adventurer’s guild is even more awesome. It’s practically suspended up in the air by magic.”

Hearing those words made Arthur want to see it too, but right now, he had to first become an honorary mercenary; thus, he followed Mark and Fiora in earnest. The moment they got to the guild’s Main House, Arthur first got the glimpse of the dirt the town hid under its dazzling appearance.

A group of men laughed at the distance, gathering around a small round table at the side of a café (stores and other establishments that sold goods in Bona were managed by mercenary guild’s staff).

“Pfft—” one guy let out, “isn’t that the Great Coward?”

It was a byname people had dubbed Mark to satirically point out the ‘contrast’ between his ‘high-ideals’ and his ‘missions’.

The people continued to laugh.

“Oy!” cried an oaf; “Young lady over there. Why not, instead of joining that guy, join me? I’m a level 8 you know.”

“Shut up,” she growled at him, quickly wrapping her arms around Mark. “I’m happily married to this guy.”

“What!?” everyone broke in a laughter.

“You’re the daughter of that famous mage right?” one of the guys informed. “What was his name again?”

“Oaken Trancid,” replied his companions.

“Yeah, yeah, that guy. He’s supposed to be an amazing dude, so why’re you wasting your time marrying a guy with no strength? Come here and be my babe, you might even—”

Out of sudden, the man’s mouth shut closed while Fiora’s eyes glowed with magic. Seeing her cast that muting spell, the whole group turned silent as drops of sweat ran down their skin.

‘This lady,’ thought the muted guy, ‘casted a spell in her thoughts! Better not get on her bad side.’

Thus the muted guy stood up and walked away with his lackeys following suit.

Arthur crept his hands to hold Mark’s; he had finally seen first-hand the weight of the ridicule his pops had to bear (since last month, he had started calling Mark, pops and Fiora, mom). Mark gazed down on Arthur who held him with wavering and sweaty hands.

“It’s okay,” Mark assured. “Arthur, always remember this: where there is the desire to serve, a man must not waver even in the face of ridicule.”

Arthur nodded his head in obedient assent; Mark did not notice it, but Arthur’s eyes were starting to wet. They entered through the Main House’s door and quickly made their way towards the front desk.

“One honorary membership please,” uttered Mark to the female staff. “Name’s Arthur Crane, age: 12, level: 2, abilities: bodily enhancement.”

The staff looked him in the eye.

“But sir,” she said, “We only accept level 5 and up.”

“Ah! That’s right, almost forgot.” Mark showed her his membership license. To her surprise it had ‘special member’ and ‘level 3’ written on it.

“Oh, so you’re him?” asked the staff. “The one the hierarchy accepted by virtue of merits?”

“Yes,” admitted Mark, “If you show this to the old man at the top, then maybe—”

“No need,” said an old man from the side; the old man personally came down from his office after he had seen Mark’s face on his Visual Imaging Mirror Vision (something used for monitoring the whole Main House). The staff member took a good look at him.

“Headmaster Fright!” she exclaimed in surprise. “What made you come here?”

“Give the boy a membership,” he ordered.

On seeing the headmaster, Mark’s face beamed with joy.

“Oh, Dad!” cried Mark to the old man, “Long time no see.”

The moment the staff heard the word ‘dad’ mentioned, she immediately realized what was happening; the man who was requesting the membership was actually, Mark Wiseborne.

‘So the rumours were true,’ she thought, not eking a word lest she get on the headmaster’s bad side. ‘The ‘Great Coward’ is indeed the son of the current headmaster!’

“Shut up boy,” Mark’s excessively conservative father commanded. “You’re a disgrace to our family. First, you defied my orders; then, even with weak abilities, you forced your way through the guild. For now, I’ll let you have your way until you learn from your mistakes.”

In truth, Fright Wiseborne (current head of the guild), only cared for his son’s safety. He was never discriminatory towards him at all, he just wanted him to be safe, but being a tough old cookie he just couldn’t show his affections properly, and thus ended up saying harsh words opposite his real feelings. However—

“I am learning Dad,” proudly announced Mark with a smile. “Every day in fact. However, what I’ll never give up on is my desire to help people.”

Mark gave his dad a thumbs up, “So don’t worry,” he said, “I’ll be fine.”

—Mark knew his father cared.

Arthur was indeed surprised that his pops was actually the son of the mercenary guild’s headmaster, his admiration for him skyrocketed even more.

“Alright then,” said the female staff; “Please bring the boy to the booth over there, he’s photo will be taken momentarily.”

Mark took Arthur by the hand and went for the booth. Fiora was about to follow the two of them when the old man called out to her.

“Fiora dear,” he meekly said, “Please take care of my son.”

Fiora turned around to the old man, “Of course, Dad!” she exclaimed, “I basically married him so I can protect him 24 hours a day.”

Fright smiled.

“Thank you,” he said. “Anyhow, who’s that boy?”

“Our son,” Fiora relayed happily. “To be more exact, our adopted son; though it’s not yet official. We found him wounded at a river and decided to take him in. We’re planning on bringing him to Cloud so he can meet our little Guam, and once there we’ll also process the pertinent documents so he can officially enter into the Trancid family.”

In Cloud, there was a custom requiring a man, who married into an aristocratic family, to adopt that family’s surname in order to ensure the continuation of the family’s progeny—and yes, Fiora was a noble’s daughter. Hence, Arthur getting adopted by Mark and Fiora meant he’d be joining the Trancid family.

“Speaking of whom how is my precious grandchild, and your boorish Father?”

“They’re doing very well, Dad, thanks for asking. Although father told me he misses sparring with you.”

“Old fool’s still the same, huh? Give him my regards.”

“Absolutely!” responded Fiora, waving the old man goodbye as he went back to his office.

***

After Arthur had gotten his honorary membership license, Mark brought him to the bulletin board; it was customary for first time members to take on a request on the day they got in. Arthur scanned the board for something worthwhile and found something that took his interest. He reached for a document pinned on the wall. Mark perused the paper Arthur was holding and saw that the mission was rank-F in difficulty and should be just right for Arthur. The reward however—

“50 Leaf,” mumbled Arthur. “To find and rescue a girl named Lily. It says here that she’s a servant of a rich company owner and that the owner wants her back because he needs her for something; but—”

“Are you hesitating?” asked Mark, confirming Arthur’s resolve.

“No,” Arthur replied, looking at Mark with determined eyes; “I’m just irked by the fact that they would only pay 50 Leaf to save a human life.”

“Well,” began Mark; “She’s a slave after all, it’s something very common around here. However, after the bill preventing slavery becomes a full-fledge law, we can hope that this kind of culture would finally cease.”

Arthur looked at Mark bewilderedly, “What’s a bill?” he asked.

“You will know when you grow up,” said Mark, ruffling Arthur’s hair.