The Adventurers’ Guild was rife with unintelligible whispers when Gaius and Isabelle entered. Most of said whispers revolved around Conrah’s descent, and rumours about an impending invasion by the Lifespring, Conrah, was spreading faster than wildfire.

The tide of unintelligible, under-the-breath words subsided as the people inside the Guild caught sight of Isabelle, but the Knight ignored them and followed Gaius as they walked towards the registration counter. Despite the fact that a literal earth-shaking event had taken place, the adventurers lounging around the sofas and exchanging whispers were somehow able to restrain their excitement, worry and whatever other emotions that were running high. There was something distinctly odd about their behaviour, no matter how he looked at it, and as for the cause..

Well, a mental suggestion to be quiet and respectful when out on the streets was high on the suspect list. Gaius was reminded of Tsurugi’s behaviour when he brought them to Seireiden, a fanaticism of sorts that suffused his every action, when he looked at the calm and composed adventurers.

Feeling somewhat disturbed, the boy turned his head away from the rowdy crowd. It was hard to think about these people when he didn’t know what parts of their personality was constructed for the sake of others. The rational part of his mind didn’t like the way he was thinking about them, but it could only do so much about the distaste he felt.

The queue shrank rapidly, and before Gaius knew it, Isabelle was already at the counter.

“A teenager, eh?” murmured the receptionist. Her eyes were focused on Isabelle, whose golden hair probably made her stand out way too much in the sea of black hair, to notice the little Gaius standing next to her.

“Seventeen years old, but I’m about to turn eighteen.”

“I guess that works. Age of informed consent, check.” The receptionist produced a rectangular, smartphone artefact — the same that she’d used for Gaius — and Isabelle, without any further prompting, placed her hands on it. Gaius couldn’t get over the fact that such a modern-looking device was used in calculating cultivation strength — it was just so out of place for him.

“A Knight?!” The receptionist blurted out, only to cover her mouth, but her words carried clearly throughout the rather quiet Adventurers’ Guild. The undercurrent of whispers intensified immediately, creating a low buzzing that grated on Gaius’ ears.

“Yes,” said Isabelle. “I’m the current record holder of the youngest Knight in Orb, Isabelle Lorenze.”

The girl was calm and composed. It was entirely possible that she had training in being in the spotlight of the crowd…either that, or she’d long learned to regard irrelevant people as cabbages and carrots. Gaius remembered teaching that particular trick to his students, a memory that made him smile as he pulled out from an abyss of memories lost.

After indulging himself in the memory for another moment, Gaius peered at the counter. It was just tall enough to be at eye-level for him, and on the device, he could see a solid, dark-green ‘3’. His efforts to catch a look had not gone unnoticed, however.

“It’s you again,” said the receptionist. She drummed her fingers on the counter. “Are you two together?”

“Yes,” said Isabelle. “I am sworn to him.”

Gaius didn’t know how anyone could say something as embarrassing as that with a straight face, but it would look bad on him if he were to show anything other than nonchalance, which he did with painstaking effort. Focusing his gaze on some imaginary object far behind the receptionist, Gaius tried to look as disinterested as possible.

“I see.” The receptionist glanced at Gaius again. “Well, if you’d fill in the details…”

Isabelle looked at the card, and then frowned. “Is it alright if I were to fill in only one ability?”

“Yes. But if you’re looking to form a party, you won’t be…” She paused and looked at something. Gaius and Isabelle followed her gaze to an organised, polite bunch of overly-eager adventurers who were silently competing with their eyes to add this newcomer to their ranks.

“Forget it,” said the receptionist. “Just…write whatever.”

Isabelle beamed, and then scribbled some words on the card, before passing it back to the receptionist, who ran it through the laminating artefact immediately. Gaius rolled his eyes and wandered off to the quest board, where sightings of monsters were recorded. While Isabelle was busying herself with the last parts of her registration, the little boy ambled over to the array of quest counters, a small leaflet in hand. Most of them had a small queue, but one of these counters were empty, and Gaius walked towards it.

A man was sprawled over on the desk, only stirring when Gaius approached him. The boy could see why no one wanted to approach the man — other than the fact that the others were manned by girls pleasing to the eye, which probably appealed to the men, this particular receptionist looked way too unmotivated.

“Mmm.” The man looked at the leaflet and at Gaius’ card, and then stamped on it.

There wasn’t any time limit to a quest, although if you wanted to cancel your current one, one just needed to tear the leaflet into two or return it to the quest counters. As a caveat, however, after cancelling a quest, one could not accept another for the next week. The penalty seemed rather haphazard, but the boy wasn’t about to comment on it.

Gaius left the Guild with Isabelle, leaving a whole host of disappointed people behind. Amusingly enough, the Knight had not shown any sign of needing help, which meant that the motivated bunch of adventurers hadn’t found any reason to approach her.

Less awkwardness, I guess. Gaius motioned at the skies. “Let’s go.”

After checking that no one was paying attention to him, the boy turned invisible and took to the skies, Isabelle following closely behind. Their destination was a small field around ten kilometres away from Seireiden, a testament to how cleared out the land around the capital was at this point.

Wind screamed, but the two of them were unaffected by it. Air traffic, however, was abnormally high — tens of adventurers were flying by themselves or in small groups, all headed to the eastern side of the eastern landmass.

It meant little to Gaius, however, and before long, the two were hovering above a lush field, where a small herd of what looked like antelopes were prancing about and beating each other up with their horns. Officially, they were named Great Horns, and what one had to be worried about was their titular horns, but it would seem that their kicks were also rather deadly.

“Ready?”

“Whenever you are, G-Gaius.” Isabelle took a deep breath. It was not her first time dealing with monsters — she’d killed some while they were travelling to Mi-Zu, but she’d seemed rather nervous even at that time.

Gaius whipped out his Terminus, which glinted sharply in the sun, his left hand flickering to produce sigil after sigil, and then dived towards the herd of monsters.