After I was called over, Nina brought us all up to the third floor to a more private space.

Nina, Lady Elise, and I are sitting separately, with Lady Elise on a couch on one side of table and me on a couch on the other side. Nina is seated on an armchair on one end of the table, and the other end is empty. Lady Elise's guards have positioned themselves with half of them behind her, half of them behind me.

I'm not too comfortable with this arrangement, but I didn't have much of a choice. It's six, possibly seven or even eight, people who are all superior to me in terms of raw power.

Just in case, though, I've created an invisible [Flashbang Bomb] and am keeping it at the ready. It won't be enough to harm them, but it should at least allow me to escape. I've generated a low-power [Air Barrier] in a thin layer around my body. Just in the last minute, I've managed to bring [Air Barrier] up two Levels by tweaking it to allow me to move freely while keeping it invisible.

The Mana drain for supporting both of these isn't negligible, but I should be fine as long as this doesn't last more than thirty minutes or so.

Guild Master enters the room and takes the other armchair, making me even more nervous. Maybe one of them would be able to neutralize the effects of the bomb before my escape chance happens… I create two more invisible ones. It takes me a few seconds to do so while keeping them from being illuminated or having a violent tint, but at least no one can see them.

"Hello, Lady Elise," Guild Master gives her a small dip of her head. "I didn't expect you to come and collect your knives, yourself."

"I would not have," Lady Elise tells him as he sets her knives on the table. "Except your letter mentioned the name of the boy, and Colton has mentioned him several times. I decided that I would come down and see if he was still here or not."

"Colton?" I ask. "You know Colt? Um. I'm sorry for talkin' outta turn. Talking out of turn. It was-sorry."

Crapcrapcrap. I just spoke out of turn and now her guards are looking unhappy. This is a princess. And I wasn't careful with my words and spoke normally rather than the better speech I practice sometimes. Why did I ever want to stop being a boy from the slums?

"Don't be so nervous," Lady Elise tells me. "You may be informal right now Max. This is an informal meeting so that I can thank you. As for Colton, I see him quite often. He lives in the castle."

Colt lives in the castle? His family must be pretty cushy nobility for him to get that sort of treatment.

"Oh," I say. "Th-thank you for your generosity."

"We cannot be formal all the time," Lady Elise tells me. "I was surprised when I received the notice from Trenton informing me that Maxwell Zanroval had located my knives and recovered them from the goblin which held possession of them. Colton has spoken of you much, mostly out of curiosity. He'd mentioned that you were a seven-affinity like himself."

Colt mentioning what I am to a member of the royal family doesn't surprise me. Well, it was probably Thomas who mentioned it. Either way, I knew the royals probably knew about me. If I remember correctly, Thomas told me that he'd already informed the king of my existence.

"Colt and Thomas have been gracious with their time with me," I say. "I appreciate their help."

"And I appreciate yours," she says. "The official story that will be out is that it had just been picked up by some random, normal goblins after I lost them. From Trenton's letters, however, I'm assuming it was one of the stronger ones that have been roaming around recently?"

"Um… yeah," I nod. "Ya said-you said I could talk informally?"

Her reaction and the reaction of the guards will tell me how okay it is to speak for me to speak a little more freely. If this goes wrong, then I'll remain silent and only answer what they ask. This question is burning in my mind, though, and I really want to know its answer.

"Yes," she nods. "You have a question?"

"If you have this many guards," I say. "How did you lose your weapons from an attack? Sorry if that's rude. It's probably really inappropriate, I'm just confused."

"They are not normally this close when I'm hunting," Lady Elise explains. "And we were attacked by a wyvern while hunting. I dropped the knives while we were attempting to flee it, and by the time a suitable force arrived to kill the creature, the knives had been picked up."

The guards don't look happy about my question. Lady Elise, on the other hand, is either acting or really is not bothered by it at all. I need to be cautious.

"A wyvern attack?" I ask. "Oh. I remember hearing you were attacked by one a few weeks ago. I heard you killed it on your own."

The only reason I heard about it despite not normally hearing about major news is because a wyvern attacking the princess was a huge deal. It was talked about even in the slums, people wondering if it meant that there might be a wyvern attack on the city at some point.

"No," she chuckles. "I'm nowhere near enough to handle that. You need at least 500 Strength or Magic to even harm a younger wyvern, and I'm well under that. I'm probably closer to you in power than I am being able to harm a wyvern. Rumor has a habit of getting away, however. I wasn't even there when it was killed."

"Oh."

"Thank you for finding my knives, Max," Lady Elise tells me. "I may be a princess, but that does not mean my funds are unlimited and that I can afford to replace them easily."

"You're welcome," I tell her.

"This is your reward," she says as one of the guards places a small pouch on the table.

We all stay here for a few moments, then Lady Elise gestures for me to pick up the pouch. Oh. I messed up and was supposed to take it.

I take the pouch and examine it. There are ten ten-gold coins inside. A full platinum for finding her knives… whoa. How do I react? This is way too much, isn't it? Not sure how to react to this, I go with the simplest response I can think of.

"Thank you, Your Highness," I dip my head.

"Thank you, Max," she says. "I have heard good things about you, both from Trenton here and from Colton."

Guild Master Trenton has been talking about me to the royal family? I know he would have mentioned me to them considering my rarity, but her comment makes it seem like it's not just a one-off thing.

"I've been keeping the royal family updated regarding the goblin situation," Guild Master Trenton explains. "My guild is the one which handles the majority of incidents in the Great Northern Forest, and a potential attack by one of the goblin kingdoms is something they need to be aware of."

"Yes," Lady Elise says. "So thank you for your work in helping us locate the goblins, Max. If we can find the outposts they have near us, then we can potentially stop their attack in its tracks. That is the usual pattern, according to the records."

Outposts?

"When the goblins," Guild Master Trenton tells me. "Begin preparing for an attack on the kingdom, they set up smaller outposts, usually consisting of several powerful goblins with potent magic items like the ones you've been selling to us. The last few times this has happened, we were able to push them back by attacking their outposts and destroying them. That tells the goblins that we're too strong for them, and they hole back up in their regions."

"Oh," I say.

"Combined with the information that you have been supplying," Lady Elise says. "Along with a few other members of this guild, Trenton has been narrowing down the potential locations for their outposts."

"Yes," Guild Master Trenton says. "Before you leave for your hunting trip tomorrow, Max, could you stop by here?"

That makes me even more nervous, now.

"It's not required," Guild Master Trenton tells me. "But using the information you supplied and which a couple of our members might have when they return today, I should be able to make a couple of guesses about where a goblin outpost could be. If you want, I can give you one of the locations to investigate and if you find it, you are more than welcome to attack as long as you believe you can handle it."

"Should you do this," Lady Elise adds. "The kingdom will pay you for this. Dealing with the threat of goblins is always a petition of the kingdom, not an individual guild. The last time the goblins attacked a place, the damage was quite severe."

So they just want to hire me for a job. I'm relieved by that, at least that's upfront and forward. At least, it should be. I'll know for sure after the job is over. They may still short me on the payment, or they may even claim my accomplishments for themselves.

"Understood," I dip my head. "Then I will do my best."

"Thank you," she smiles. "And again, thank you for retrieving my knives. I wish to speak with Trenton alone now. You have a good night, Max."

"You as well, Your Highness," I say.

I stand and give her a bow, then set the pouch back down on the table and leave. As I leave the room, I slip the coins from the reward into my own pouch and exit the guild. It isn't until after I've hidden a portion of my earnings in the first spot that I release my barrier and bombs from existence and take a breath of relief.

That could have gone much worse.

The first part of my earnings from today hidden, I move on to the second location and hide the second portion there, making sure no one is looking first. Unless I want to leave the city again today, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to hide the third portion of my earnings.

One never knows when someone will steal all their earnings. Few people think to look in the crotch for the pouch, which makes it perfect for hiding. Among those of us from the street who know there are those who keep it there, fewer will try to take it from there.

However, there are still those who will. What if a thief is more powerful than me? Or what if they manage to slip through my awareness range while I'm sleeping and kill me without waking me? Or steal from me without waking me?

I must keep most of my earnings hidden, just in case. Being terrible at math as I never really learned it, I don't know how much a quarter of my earnings is. Instead of being frustrated as I try to figure it out, I just take a portion of it each time I get to a hiding spot and put that there.

With today's earnings hidden, I walk to a bakery I know and buy a sticky bun. This particular shop is open all the time, even at night, and I've finally discovered why people love sticky buns so much now that I can afford them. Sweet and tasty, and I can lick my fingers clean after. I always make sure my hands are clean before I begin eat them so that I'm not licking up anymore dirt than necessary.

As I go to take my first bite of the one I just bought after leaving the bakery, a familiar face catches my attention. Standing in an alley staring toward me is a girl my age, her dirty, straw-blond hair tied up in a ponytail with a bit of string. Her dress is worn and tattered, including with a rip on her left side.

I can identify almost every person who lives in the slums I live in and almost every member of every street crew in the districts around us. Even without that, this girl is recognizable. Most people who live around here have heard of her.

Why is she so recognizable? Only one of her blue eyes is visible. Her left eye is permanently closed due to a scar that runs from above her eyebrow and ending an inch below her eye. It's a nearly-straight line, and she considers it her biggest shame, but she doesn't try to hide it.

The reason it's a shame is because a boy with no skill with a knife gave it to her three years ago… using her own knife.

She shouldn't have taken my apple.

Right now, she's staring at me with a slightly-wide eye, and I'm pretty sure she's drooling a little. Her mouth is at least open. There are two more kids behind her, one around seven and one around ten, both boys.

We make eye contact, then I turn around and reenter the bakery, approaching the counter

"Three more, please," I put coins on the counter. "And four blueberry tarts, please."