The girls talked among themselves the rest of the way, mainly to ease Agnes’ worries while the guys and all of our fairies above us were doing the same. I overheard how Claire actually started off as a hunter at H rank when she turned 13 years old. A hunter’s rank is under the same system as our magic aptitude from H at the bottom and S at the top. Those who have no experience on the field and not under an apprenticeship of a registered hunter, whether or not they’re contracted with a fairy start off at H rank as young as 13 years old. This can be done at any hunter’s guild location, whether it be the main headquarters of a district or the outposts that branch from it. Quests of this rank would include doing odd jobs like loading supplies, gardening, cleaning, any job that can be done within a town’s or city’s boundaries with the lowest risk of being in danger.

G rank is when you start doing collection quests outside of a town’s borders, mainly medicinal herbs or some other particular vegetation. There is some risk of running into monsters, but they’re usually rather low in threat levels and the guild takes this into account when sending hunters of this rank out in the field. They do expect them to be fit enough to fend for themselves or run away at any sign of danger, though. Then, from F rank and up is when hunters are expected to, well, hunt, for particular game and monsters using their honed skills in magic or weapon of specialty.

Claire was apparently at E rank when we finally became friends. She mainly took the job as a hunter to earn enough money to buy the book for me, taking quests in town two to three times a week after school when she started out as H rank, then worked her way up as she honed her magic and watching Dad’s hunting classes from the sidelines. Her weapon of choice was a single dagger and was under training for dual-wielding two of them—the same fighting style Weiss used in his work—at the time she officially made friends with me. It was then I finally noticed how she had two daggers holstered at her lower back, ready to pull and strike from behind at a moment’s notice.

I might not have gotten a close look at her face until recently but even I was rather surprised I didn’t notice her being at Dad’s hunting classes all of those times. I wondered how she managed to hide so well for me or my Companions to not even notice her presence.

To be that stealthy while using such weapons that can be well-hidden, Claire would fit under a rogue or thief class in RPGs surprisingly well. That thought gave me a tinge of unease while recalling how Onelri mentioned Claire had stalked me for a period. Aside from that, for Claire with no field experience getting from H to E rank within a year after she turned 13 and no penalties in her record, I could tell she worked very hard and it sounded like she was actually having fun working part-time as a hunter.

To go through all of that to earn enough money and buy my gift, I felt guilty for not giving her my proper attention sooner, especially since I never had friends who got me thoughtful gifts as a kid in my previous life.

Maybe I should form a party and help her out on quests. It’s the least I could do after all of that time and effort she put into such a gift that I have now no further use for other than leisure. I made that resolution in my mind.

By the time we made it to Brightlas’ guild, Agnes was especially surprised at the building’s sight both outside and inside. I was also taking it in while the other girls were looking around them in a more subdued manner. I guessed Claire had been to the building a few times and Fila and Onelri probably came in with their parents to cash in the reward after reporting the bandits’ bodies.

The large rustic brown building in question was moderately paced with activity and many people, hunters, guild clerks, and the like from a variety of races going about their businesses. Some were checking out quest postings on boards, others were in line to either pick up those jobs or their rewards after completing them. There was even a bar that served drinks, and so there were hunters gathered around tables drinking some sort of alcohol or eating their fill of food as they talked about work. The hunters in question were mostly guys of different body frames and the number of girls in the same field were scarce, but all of them were around or above their mid to late twenties. The guild clerks were about the reverse in their male-to-female ratio and had plenty of attractive employees among the latter group in various ages while in stylish uniforms. And of course, there were countless fairies doing their own thing with or without their Chaperones. If one were to use magic-enhanced vision to try and make out which fairy belonged to who by their string-like mana bonds, they would resemble those complicated laser security systems you might see in spy movies to have them all clustered together.

We immediately caught the attention of everybody in the room when we came inside. A large group would probably turn some heads but with my magic-heightened hearing, I could already overhear some whispers among the hunters that were sitting in tables that said otherwise.

“Oh, Gullivan’s back.” “Looks like the majority of Platinum Arms is back with him, too.” “Who’s the brat with him?” “Wait, isn’t that the son he’s always boasting about?” “He looks nothing like him!” “Seems him being a Fairy’s Child is true, though.” “That other red-headed kid looks to be one, too. He a noble?” “Wait, weren’t the two girls behind them here early yesterday, too?” “Where are the attractive mothers?” “I feel like I had seen the rabbit mama once before.”

I then felt something clinging my back and shivering in place.

“Fila? What is the matter?” Agnes asked.

“Scary hunters said weird things about Mama last time we were here, too.”

“Oh, yeah, it would make sense for you to hear whispers with your ears.” I can only imagine the kind of gross stuff they might have said about her mother, too. That must’ve been unpleasant for both of them, I thought after hearing Fila’s explanation while she gripped on my leather armor from behind.

“Huh? What were you doing here last time?” Claire asked.

“It was uh … about that ‘bandit’ thing that was mentioned a few times.”

“Ahh …” Claire seemed to have got it from Onelri’s vague explanation.

Fila’s and Onelri’s families had gone to the hunter’s guild first thing in the morning to turn in the bandits’ bodies before picking up a carriage ride over to Lunargrove and see me afterward. The bandits’ drawn mug shots were apparently seen on ‘wanted criminal’ quest postings that were ranked as D for their charged crimes and danger level. Believe it or not, but this is usually expected of lower-level bandits who’ve repeatedly mugged merchant carts on the road while keeping them alive.

From what Fila’s and Onelri’s families reported to the authorities and the guild though, these bandits killed a few of the passengers from the carts they were riding from Duston, a town to the northeast of Lunargrove, before getting kidnapped and were about to be trafficked for slavery. That had raised their rank up to C as their bodies got turned in.

That was what Fila’s and Onelri’s parents reported when they told me later on and how my ‘directing them out of the forest’ story came up first to tie in with theirs. By ‘directed,’ the others probably figured I took them out with Dark Gate at however close I got them to Duston—which was lucky because I had also traveled to the borders of that town over the course of my personal training, making the story’s legitimacy even stronger—before they ran into the bandits and the ‘mysterious and powerful’ hunter who saved them. The families were then sent over to Brightlas by that hunter’s Dark Gate after that with the bandits’ bodies packed and stowed away in Daridas’ Dark Space. While there was some truth of what really happened mixed in there, it seemed they really planned out that story well. Brightlas’ hunter’s guild was tight on money at the time, so the families received part of the necessary rewards for bringing them in dead and was given a sort of receipt to show and pick up the rest at a later date.

Checking with the guild to see if the rest of the reward was ready to pick up was actually part of why Daridas came with us while I was getting registered as a hunter, but what they did with that money will be explained at a later time.

Fila had to be forcefully pried off my back and I assured her that we would be back soon before me, Agnes, and our ‘masters’ were led by Grayson to the back of the guild while the others, including our own fairies, stayed behind. Grayson spoke to one of the guild clerks along the way before she went and picked up a sort of crystal ball contraption along with a few blank cards.

Wait, that crystal ball-like device writes in the ID cards after having a person’s mana or some sort identified, right? Didn’t I see something like this from an isekai anime before? Well, considering how many there were already when I left, it was hard to come up with original ideas, anyway. Who knows whether or not it had already been done before I saw it the first time?

“All right, you brats, pay attention.” Grayson’s call snapped me out of my thoughts before I realized we were moved to what looked like his private office. “Before we get started, I just got one question to ask the two of you. Why do you want to become a hunter?”

“W-Why?” Agnes asked.

“Many people get on this job for many reasons. Whatever you say won’t affect your chances of getting registered, I just want to know where you two stand.”

Ah, so like an interview process of sorts. Guess something like this is to be expected in any civilized world. Taking his words into mind, I cleared my throat to go first. “Why I want to be a hunter isn’t really all that grand. I want to start working and make a stable income as early as possible so I could save up and live a simpler life in the future. I also want to do the best that I can do at my job and just settle for my earnings without pursuing fame like Dad and Seal have achieved. There’s all that and I just think working on the field sounds kind of fun.”

““…””

“… What? Was my reason too weird?” I asked as I noticed everyone was staring at me wide-eyed.

“… You were right, Gullivan. Your brat’s surprisingly as mature for his age as you made him out to be.”

“I admit I did not even believe it when he told me at first but hearing it right out of his mouth … I question if he is even related to you by blood.”

Grayson and Seal made their respective responses to my motivations. Agnes looked to be as shocked on that as she was after getting beaten in sword and magic during my birthday. Dad was behind me, so I couldn’t see how he was, but I got the feeling he was a bit uneasy.

Though I did have to agree with Seal though. Even though I woke up as a baby in my new mom’s arms, I couldn’t believe my new dad was like that and I was kind of worried I’d end up as bulky as he was. I personally preferred a slender, lean physique myself.

“Well, that aside, it was realistic and well-said, Soar … Agnes, you’re up.”

“O-Oh! Right!” Agnes remembered where she was after Grayson called to her before standing at attention like a soldier. “Why I want to be a hunter … I believe Mr. Galveston said it well that it would be good for my growth and expanding my horizons. What is most important to me, however … I want to be able to stand amongst the strong, to be able to fight for what I care about in a time of crisis, to become dependable for many people around me that is different from how my father does in his job as our kingdom’s knight general. To be able to fight because I am my own person and not for being the knight general’s daughter.

“I had honestly forgotten it and went overboard with my focus in strength for some time until some recent events happened. I want to prove that I am better than that, though. I want to improve further to not only set example to those that may look up to me but so they know that I too have someone that serves as a role model and that there are no limits to what one can achieve. I think being a hunter, a job that involves seeing and experiencing something new every day would be the best thing for me to do.”

“Lady Agnes …” Seal muttered while looking away. He was trying really hard not to look vulnerable. I only stood there and broke into a cold sweat from my back.

… I don’t want to sound like a stupidly-dense harem protagonist but you are talking about Seal here, right, Agnes? Otherwise, I think you need to get your eyes checked in order to properly see what makes one a good role model … something that I definitely am not. I really gotta get this ‘awkward superiority’ air cleared soon.

“I see, I see,” Grayson said. “I may not know what you brats have been taught but whatever reason you have for becoming a hunter, know that it isn’t all fun and games. The brats of my own son are younger than you two and I wouldn’t urge them into this kind of job for how dangerous it is, and it isn’t just the monsters you need to be on the lookout for. You get where I’m goin’ with this?”

Agnes and I nod in unison.

“… Right, then. We’ll start by getting you your ID cards through this magic device here. Do not lose these cards, or replacing them will cost you greatly. Once it reads your mana signature and inscribes some info in your cards, it will keep track of whatever monsters you defeat, no matter how many there are, that will be displayed if you hold your cards over that same device. This is how we can see whether or not you have defeated the number of specific monsters for the quest you submit. It will not know whatever monsters you may have defeated before you registered, but if you have their magic stones, you’re welcome to submit them at any time and we will give you the necessary money in exchange.”

That’s actually a good deal for me, I thought. This way, nobody would know how many monsters I had defeated over the last couple of years and I can just submit a couple of magic stones at a time without garnering too much attention … it will be a while to get rid of them all through that method, though.

“Once we get you two your registered cards, we’ll be putting both of you through an entrance exam of sorts,” Grayson continued. “This will give us a chance to see where your skills lie and what rank you should start off with as a hunter. We would not have you do this if your masters didn’t give their recommendations.”

“If anyone was given that kind of opportunity without a recommendation, they probably wouldn’t even make it through the first day alive if they don’t have the skill and talent to show for it, no matter if they’re kids like us or even young adults.”

“Very good, Soar, that’s the main reason we only have rookie hunters with recommendations from their masters be given this chance to prove themselves.”

I made a speculation that Grayson confirmed to be true. Though it may be expected of me to know that much with my mental age, I couldn’t help but feel a little prideful of my intelligence.

“A-And … what will you have us do for this exam?” Agnes asked with a slight shake in her voice.

“You will be going through one of the areas that helped brought the hunter job to existence on this continent: the Myron Dungeon.”