Hey guys... I'm back. I am incredibly sorry for delaying this chapter for so long. Unfortunately there was this stuff this week that I just couldn't get my mind off. I tried forcing myself to write several times but nothing good came from it. I even told one of the commenters of the second announcement that I was writing it currently like a week ago and I swear I wasn't lying just... I fucking couldn't do it for some reason. So I'm sorry. I hope you guys can forgive me for delaying it for so long. Hell I couldn't even update my other fiction this week because of all this shit. *Sigh*

Anyway I finally did it. I finally finished it. It's not extra long or anything but I hope you enjoy it.

---------------------------------------------

Lily’s POV:

As End left for his “test” or “competition” I thought about what we should be doing in that case. I wasn’t worried about End in the slightest. Even if he somehow, by some extremely unlikely possibility failed to get in with the royal family he probably has tons of other ways thought out to complete his objective. But what about me? What’s MY reason for being here? I just followed him here because I knew that no matter where he went it would be a better place than… than… well… there… my country. *Sigh* My only regret was going so far away from dad’s grave but… if what End told us is true then it wouldn’t matter where we are. Dad would go back to the living just like how End did when he died for the first time. The only difference would be that he would not remember it. At first I didn’t know what to think about it. It was hard trusting End with the stories that he told us but… really if he wanted to lie he would probably make it a bit… more believable?

But… my reason huh? I don’t really have one... I know Cel just wants to live for End’s sake but I’m different. Not like I’m not grateful to him. I can never thank him enough for what he did for me. Who the hell would make a grave for someone they met a day ago and then rescue his daughter? Really… that guy… I really wanna do something for him... even though… what can I do for someone who can pretty much be called a god? Well… he wants me to find something of my own to live for… and I want to do that too… Cel is like a sister to me by now. I can’t say I don’t understand her when she says she wants to live for him but it’s just not like that for me. I have to say I was surprised yesterday… three broken down boats… I honestly didn’t even believe half of what I told him after I heard him say that. To think that even he had such worries. I … I guess I was treating him too much like the perfect person I was envisioning him to be.

Yeah… he has problems of his own too. I’m just naïve for thinking that he was a generous god that had nothing of his own to worry about so he decided to help the two of us out… While nodding my head to nobody in particular I got up from my seat. Cel looked up as I stood as if asking me if I was going somewhere. I really can’t be burdening him too much. I want to live for myself and by myself.

“Cel. I’m going to the adventurer’s guild.” (Lily)

Cel looked at me curiously for a second before getting up as well and it was my turn to wonder what she would be doing.

“Are you coming too?” (Lily)

“End told the guards we would be in the city to register in the guild. If you’re going then we might as well go together and make it out to be the truth.” (Cel)

Oh right he did say something like that to the guards. Thankfully we still have quite a bit of money left from what End gave us back at the harbor town. It should be enough to register to the adventurer’s guild in this country if it’s a similar system.

We took our cloaks and lifted our hoods as we stepped out of the inn. As always the streets in the country were bright and lively. It was a shame we’d spent so much time cooped up in that inn for no other reason than having nothing to do. And being a bit afraid of the fact that we were in an unfamiliar place. Even End ended up taking a walk or two around from what I understood. We acquired the location of the building simply enough by asking for directions. We already looked like avid adventurers just from our appearance alone so nobody had any reason to be suspicious. Cel was clenching the staff which was only a tad bit shorter than her in her hand and my sword was strapped to my waist. Both were the last presents we received from Kenos before he… *Sigh* What’s wrong with me today? I’m not usually this much of a downer. Maybe it was because of my conversation with End that it finally sunk in that Kenos was… *Sigh* While digging myself deeper in the pits of depression our feet pounded on the paved roads of the city and making our way through the crowds which impeded us only a bit. Before I knew it we had arrived at a large wooden building with a sign of a sword crossed with a staff with a shield in the background. Yup. This is as “adventurer’s guild” as it gets.

As we entered the place I did not fail to notice the similarity to the guild building I was quite familiar with. There was a bar to the side which seemed to be serving alcohol. There seemed to be humans, beastkin and elves sitting around the place. Some drinking and laughing at each other’s stories. Others discussing how to work better as a party. A party which was thinking on what mission to do next. This was so familiar… so… nostalgic... Not many spared us a second look as we walked up to the receptionist counter, which was run by a female elf, and waited for our turn. Only a few minutes passed before it came.

“We would like to register as adventurers.” (Lily)

“To register as adventurers you would have to fill out these forms as well as pay ten silver coins. Twenty for the both of you. Will that be fine?” (Receptionist)

I nodded and took out twenty silver coins to give to her.

“Is it possible to have them filled out by another person?”

The woman looked at me for a second and nodded pointing us to a door in the corner. Of course we could speak elven now thanks to End’s constant tutoring but writing was still out of reach for either of us. So we would need to have these filled out by someone else. As we opened the door what came into view was a small door with a table and three chairs in the middle. One of the chairs was already occupied by a young-looking elf with glasses who was reading a book. Something told me he and end would get along. He looked up from the book and seeing us enter he closed it and put it aside.

“Two silver. One for each.” (Elf man)

He didn’t say anything else so I handed him two silver coins. He quickly put them in his pocket and put out his hand. Guessing what he meant I handed him my own sheet and told him the information which needed to be filled out in turn. When Cel did the same I was surprised to hear her age being twenty. She’s older than me? She really doesn’t seem like it! The person themselves simply continued saying their information. The other party was not surprised at the age but when race came into question he lifted his eyes from the paper and looked questioningly at Cel for a second before starting to move his pen with his head down again. I guess even in this country vampires are rare. Vampires that walk around in the day are probably even rarer. Still unlike the human countries I guess vampires won’t be hunted around here just for their race. Maybe the people around here are too used to other races to discriminate just for something like that.

When he finished writing in all the required information he handed our sheets back and relaxed back in his chair while reopening his book. He said nothing else so we just looked at each other weirdly before leaving. I guess we both had the same impression. That was quite the weird guy. The receptionist had a few people in a line but they were less than before. It still took longer this time to get to us since there was another person looking to register and he took his time filling out his paper. I waited a bit impatiently while tapping my foot. I swear if the guy took one more minute I would have kicked him off to the side so he can fill out his paper there.

When our turn finally came we handed our own sheets to the receptionist. She looked them over and looked up at Cel with a surprised expression while she was looking over hers but just like the man earlier she quickly recovered. Just like with the guy who filled out the papers before she took them in the back and came back a minute later with two cards, one for each of us.

“You will start off as an F rank. As you complete missions you will be able to go up to higher ranks. For example if you want to become a D rank adventurer you will need to complete 15 F or D rank requests. Those are also the only levels of requests you will be able to take. Thank you for registering.” (Receptionist)

She explained everything with a smile but there was still something I was wondering about.

“Is there something like a party system in the guild?” (Lily)

“Ah no. Parties are free to form and there is no need to officially recognize them. Conflicts between party members are also handled by the party itself and not the guild. Also I seem to have forgotten to mention but fighting in the building is prohibited okay? I noticed how you were looking at that person who was filling out their papers earlier.” (Receptionist)

I smiled nervously while scratching the back of my head. Damn she saw that? And my face is hidden beneath a hood too. Maybe my irritation was visible in my actions.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” (Lily)

She never let her smile drop as she waved us off and welcomed the next customers. Now then with our registration finished we would have to go back to the inn. Unfortunately we can’t read the requests as they were written in elven or uh what was End calling it recently? Helian? There was someone waiting who was ready to read out the requests for a fee but honestly Cel probably wasn’t interested in taking one anyway so we simply left. While walking back to the inn I looked over the card. It was a simple thing and didn’t even have all the information we gave on it.

It just said my name, my specialty as a swordsman and my rank. Other than that personal information was kept at a minimum. It was made from a weird material I don’t quite remember encountering in the past. Since I was absorbed in looking at the card which would surely become the key to my future I didn’t notice the reason Cel ran off as soon as we reached the inn but as I looked up the reason became evident as End was standing and smiling his usual gentle smile at us. Cel had run up to him as well and he patted her on the head. It was cute seeing Cel being patted on the head. So cute that I decided to forget that she was actually older than me.

“Hey.” I decided to call out “Done at the palace.”

He looked at me directly with his blindfold still on and nodded. I wonder why he put that thing on. His eyes may have been weird but if I were to be honest I wasn’t quite able to take my own eyes off of them when speaking with him. They had a weird sort of power behind them… maybe that was the reason he covered them up.

“Why don’t we go inside so you can tell us what happened over some tea or something? You like that right.” (Lily)

“Indeed. Some tea would be nice.”