We made our way to the Guildhall, going through the market district. I couldn’t help but notice how many looks Elita got in her orc disguise. A couple were negative but most looked to be positive, or at least appreciative. I almost felt a little bad for Shea, but she didn’t seem to care. Lily, on the other hand, looked like she wanted to fold in on herself. People looking in our direction didn’t sit well with her. No one bothered to approach our group though but still she kept grabbing my sleeve and sticking close. Most of the glances coming my way came from Elita with smirks and the occasional raised eyebrow. I did my best to ignore them.

When we got to the Guildhall, we went around to the back to talk to Najii, who was already throwing former beasts up onto the tables for dismantling.

“Hey Najii, good morning”

“Oh hey.. It’s um.. Wolf... Guy...”

“It’s Carnivac...”, I said flatly, “anyway, this is Lily. I told you about her yesterday.”

“Ah, right”, Najii said, wiping one of her hands off and thrusting it in Lily’s direction. “Good to meetcha. So Pri-- er, Carnivac tells me you’re good with butchering?”

“I grew up in a butcher shop, my father was a butcher and owned Marimoe’s Meats. I was planning to take over the shop when he retired but it ended up going under.”

“Okay, show me what you got then Miss Marimoe”, Najii said as she stabbed a knife into the tabletop where she’d just placed an Armor Boar. Lily took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders. Her tail, which had previously been thrashing about and nervous, calmed and froze in the shape of a J. She walked over to the sink, scrubbed her hands up to the elbows, and pulled the knife out of the table and got to work. She moved efficiently and cleanly as she skinned the animal, and asked relevant questions about policy on how the meat and organs should be handled. It was clear to see her professional skill here, but she wasn’t anywhere near as fast as Najii though. Najii regarded her for a moment with all six arms folded and twitched her tail back and forth, then she broke into a wide smile and clapped Lily on the shoulder.

“Good enough, you’re hired”, Najii said, “come on into one of the Guild offices and we’ll figure out the rest.”

Lily nearly fainted with relief and slumped against me. I held her steady, she looked suddenly exhausted but happy. “Good job, you did it”, I told her.

“Thank you so much, Mister Carnivac”, she said looking up at me before following Najii into one of the offices.

“Thank you, Mister Carnivac!” Elita repeated in a sing-song voice when Lily was out of earshot.

“Oh shush up.”

We walked around the building to reception to find that most of the morning rush was just wrapping up, unfortunately there wouldn’t be too many quests available. I spotted Talios behind the counter but they were busy sorting and filing quest sheets that had been claimed. Working reception was a young harpy with dark brown skin and glittery purple and pink feathers wearing the uniform of the Guild staff. I think I may have seen her in the market at some point.

“Good morning Deb” Shea called out to the reception clerk.

“Miss Shea! Good to see you! You’re here. A little late.” Deb chirped in a way that reminded me of birds.

“A bit, yeah. We have some business with this tall, dark, and shaggy fellow here”, Shea said gesturing at me.

“Good morning! How? can I help you? sir?”

“Name’s Carnivac, here’s my tag. Has an escort request sheet from the Transport Guild been turned in for me?”

“The Transportation Guild? I’ll check.” Deb slipped away and rummaged through a tray of papers before returning with a sheet. “Yes sir! One quest sheet. Escort request. For Carnivac.” She tapped the page with my tag and it updated and showed Quest Complete, then she handed my tag back to me along with the reward payment. “Rank points! Added to tag. Level up. Rank D now!”

“Great, now I need to be officially added to the Angel party registration.”

“What??”, a surly looking adventurer yelled, “This newbie thinks he can just party up with the Battle Angel Elita?!” Shea rolled her eyes.

I turned and looked at Elita, “Battle Angel Elita?” She shrugged. “The spelling is off you know. It’s Battle Angel Alita, not Elita. You know what, never mind, I’m an idiot for bringing it up.”

“I truly have no idea what you’re talking about”, she said, looking confused.

“Come on!”, the guy yelled, “Some of us have been trying to join their party for weeks now! What’s this guy got?”

This whole scenario felt like a setup in a typical harem manga that would lead to me having to fight someone to prove something. Screw that. I ignored the guy and turned back to Deb. “Party registration update please.”

The guy didn’t like that and stood up, along with some of his mates, to intimidate me I suppose. Instead of me, they got Sparky. Sparky hopped off of Shea’s shoulder and stood in front of them, his eyes erupted in literal flames and he made a big show of taking a deep breath.

The Adventurers stepped back, “Right. Sorry. None of our business”, and went back to their tables. Apparently Sparky had gained some clout in this group. Just what all had I been missing out on? I had to fight to keep myself from laughing at the situation. Deb brought out the party registration sheet and tapped both Shea’s and Elita’s Adventurer tags on it, which unlocked it for editing. She then tapped my tag on the Add New Member box and locked the page back up. The process was a lot smoother than I assumed it would be, it was like having a web form on a computer or a tablet, but then having to keep track of individual pieces of paper instead of bringing them up in a browser. On my own status screen, it listed: Party Affiliation: Angel. With all the “paperwork” taken care of, I could go out on quests with them. Now, the question was: what quest to take?