(So this is a man, right?)
Since she tended the store, she had obviously talked to men. However, she had never touched any of them. Tiera moved her legs while finding herself not really understanding her own feelings.
“Hey, that’s the Adventurers’ guild.”
“I heard it was big, and it really is!”
The largest building in the area came into view when they passed through the crowd. That was their destination, the adventurers’ guild.
While it was inevitable that adventurers would make up most of the pedestrians now, Shin was aware that an awful lot of gazes were directed toward them.
“Somehow, aren’t we being watched?”
“Yeah, probably.”
The passing adventurers were mostly men, and Shin didn’t know the reason for why their glances were mixed with hostility. He verified if there was something wrong with his state and noticed.
“Ah, we’re holding hands.”
Even under normal circumstances, Tiera was a beautiful woman. Naturally, a man who walked hand in hand with such a woman was exposed to jealous looks.
“Sorry, I thought it was likely that we would get separated since there are a lot of people.”
He separated his hand from Tiera’s in a hurry.
“Ah…”
That time, when he let go, he had a feeling that he faintly heard a sound that seemed to be disappointment coming from Tiera’s mouth. He decided to think that it was just his excessive self-consciousness and forgot about it.
“All right, let’s get you registered quickly then.”
“T-That’s right. Let’s do it.”
They entered the guild with Tiera looking a little flustered. Was it because the time was in the middle between morning and noon? There were not many people in the guild either.
The figures of Celica and Els were seen at the receptionist desk, and when Shin and Tiera were half-way there, the two people who noticed them showed dissimilar reactions.
Celica had a little of a sullen expression, but Els momentarily had a very surprised look on her face, which quickly erupted into one of joy.
“Tiera!”
Els jumped over the counter at the same time as she called out her name, ran straight to Tiera, and hugged her tightly.
“Wa, E-Els!?”
Though Tiera was surprised at the sudden embrace, she relaxed when she realized that the person was Els.
“Wait Els, it’s a bit tight.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Though I’ve heard the news, I couldn’t contain myself when I saw you in person.”
While having tears in the corner of her eyes, Els started to gently hold Tiera. The abrupt situation caused the adventurers who were there to stare in wonder.
“I really wanted to go see you immediately, but I’ve been very busy with the guild for a while now. It wasn’t possible to leave.”
“Because you’re not my mother, you really worry too much.”
“What are you saying. If you’re the daughter of Eilen, then it’s as if you’re my daughter too.”
Els embraced Tiera like a true mother.
Away from the two people, Celica talked to Shin.
“Shin-sama. What kind of acquaintance is that person?”
“Due to a little twist of fate, we will be traveling together. So she will register as an adventurer for the occasion.”
“I heard you were walking hand in hand like lovers though?”
“That’s absurd! How did you hear that!?”
Shin was surprised at the speed of which the information travelled. Perhaps, there was a guy who could use Mind Chat standing guard! Certainly a cautious lookout, but really, this was only a trivial matter. The adventurer, who knew Shin’s name and face, accidentally saw the two people, and Celica, who were receiving requests at that time, grumbled when she heard about it.
“Because she is a beautiful woman, right? Not because you are a man, right?”
“Um, you’re not using some scathing words, are you?”
“No no, not at all.”
‘I guess there’s nothing’, was what Shin wanted to say.
While they continued on with the exchange, they noticed that they had attracted some attention as well.
“Why is it that other people seem to be distancing themselves?”
“Ara, I think they don’t want to break the deeply emotional reunion, huh? Besides, it was Els who suddenly jumped out.”
“Uhh”
“Now, now, both of you. I want you to register Tiera for the time being.”
Thereupon, Celica and Els returned to their professional expressions, and bowed slightly.
“Ah, my apologies. I was acting shameful.”
“Just now was because I also wanted to meet the person in question.”
She was probably very glad. Els’ eyes were still a little red. Apparently, she seemed to have been a good friend of Tiera’s mother.
“Um, what should I do?”
“I will take care of the registration. It was my turn to take care of new registrations anyway.”
Els said that and lead Tiera to the second floor. Just like Shin did before, Tiera filled out the documents and listened to the explanation.
“Now then, I should go and look at the list of requests.”
“Oh, Shin-sama. I’m sorry, but may I have a bit of your time, please?”
“Me? Well, I don’t really mind.”
Shin, who was going to go to see about requests in the Falnido area, was called out by Celica. She seemed to have to talk to Shin individually about something or another.
Because he was asked to hand over his guild card, Shin took out the guild card from Item Box and handed it over to Celica. Celica then proceed to engrave the guild card, and placed it on top of the tray-like thing..
“What are…”
While Shin thought about asking what she was doing, the transparent guild card was dyed yellow.
“There we go, the improved rank ends with this. From now on, Shin-sama is rank E.”
“Yes?”
Shin absentmindedly replied, due to the sudden rank up. At this point, Shin actually had a zero request accomplishment rate at the present time. If just by an evaluation of the guild; let alone rank improvement, he would be defeated even by a newcomer who had the same rank G.
Nevertheless, to suddenly become a rank E, it was too much to be expected. He didn’t think about rising to E and skipping F altogether.
That reminded him of the explanation he had received from Celica before, the talk about the classification of the card by rank.
SS was gold, S was silver, A was black, B was white, C was red, D was blue, E was yellow, F was green, and the lowest rank G was semi-transparent.
“Errr, there aren’t any accomplished requests yet, so why did I rank up?”
“Certainly Shin-sama’s official request achievement rate is zero percent. However, there are the results of the subjugation of a high rank Skull Face and the suppression of the Skull Faces’ outbreak in a large quantity. Because Shin-sama’s report was proved to be authentic by an investigation handled by us, the guild, the promotion of Shin-sama was decided as a partial reward. It is rank E, but if one more request is accomplished, it will rank up to D.”
“I see, but why do it to an unfinished state?”
“If you rank up too fast, it would not look good in the other adventurers’ eyes. I think rank A is enough for an individual like you, but when I think of the strife it would cause, it only became a rank improvement like this. Of course, the bonus is paid, too. I need to return the previously borrowed jewel before that though, please wait here for a while.”
Celica gave the guild card back to Shin, and entered the inner room of the receptionist desk for a moment. She came back in less than 5 minutes. There was a bag and a dull shining jewel grasped in her hand.
“This is the jewel that was borrowed, and here is 250 J gold coins of reward inside this bag.”
For convenience sake, it seemed like she brought them in gold coins. Though white gold exists, it was not used in everyday life. One piece of white gold could make one live and enjoy life for more than ten years. The gold coins in front of him were considered a large sum of money from an adventurers’ viewpoint, and Shin suddenly voiced his thoughts.
“I’m just wondering, but is it possible for you to make the guild card as quickly as possible in exchange for the reward?”
“The guild card? Let me see. I think it can be done by today at noon if it’s rushed.”
“Then that please. Though I will be going afar for a little while, I want to leave as soon as possible.”
“I understand. Then, the reward will be 200 gold coins. Is that alright with you?”
“I don’t care about that, but is it fine to accept a reward of this magnitude?”
Though only 50 gold coins were deducted, Shin had heard that the guild cards were made with the guild’s original special technique, so he felt that there might only be a few of them.
“I will have the experts do their best for a little while, and the additional charge is satisfactory enough from the received amount of money. There will be too much when all of the bonus is returned.”
“I see, by the way, how much is the subjugation reward for the Skull Faces?”
“5 silver coins per Pawn class. For the Jack class, it is 5 gold coins. Actually you can earn a lot more because the Jack class’ armor and swords are valuable if sold.”
Celica added and smiled wryly, the degree of danger of a Jack class is in a whole other league. In fact, once or twice a year some adventurers go off to fight with a Pawn class, in a spur of the moment feeling, in spite of the warning from the guild’s staff, and then get killed by a Jack class that is avenging the Pawn class.
When thinking about the amount of money that Celica spoke of, Shin’s reward was naturally almost 500 gold coins, but because a formal request was not issued, the reward became this amount of money along with the rank improvement. To begin with, that was not the combat capability that a rookie should have shown on his own, so without Barlux, the guild master, and Els and her acquaintances, the skill successors, it was certain that the reward would not have been so easily paid like this.
“Do the Skull Faces appear that frequently?”
“There is a nearby spawn spot called the Wraith Plains, but normally there will