Guy hadn't had the easiest week thus far, and this whole situation wasn't helping. At least meeting the guild master, a spear master, was a decent few hours.

The guild master was big and scarred, and he had a boisterous way about him. He was good people. It seemed him and Jonathan were old friends, although Jonathan was pretty young.

“I never got to congratulate you over becoming the youngest weapon master in decades!” the guild master spoke as he grabbed a glass from a cabinet behind his desk.

Jonathan laughed awkwardly. “Well, pretty sure my record will soon be put to shame.”

The guild master's smile froze for a moment, but he shrugged like he was throwing something annoying off his shoulder.

“There are always anomalies. I mean sure, you were an anomaly yourself to some people, but that damn kid, it's like he was born with a sword in his hand.”

He poured two drinks, the two men shared a drink in silence and stared off into the distance in some thought. Finally, the guild master cleared his throat and looked at Guy.

“So, who's this? It's rare for you to accompany a new mercenary yourself.”

“This?” Jonathan touched Guy's shoulder. “This is Guy Wilde. Taught him some of the things he knows. He is good. Perhaps not as good as the anomaly, but he is good. What is it kid?”

“You gave me your name?”

“Huh? Yeah. You don't really have a name, and the kids and the missus have really taken to yah. It's not so a big deal.”

Guy looked away before Jonathan could see the tears shining in his eyes.

“But what happens when I remember my old name?”

“Just keep it, either as a middle or last name. You're part of the family now, kid. We won't be letting you go.”

“...family…” he whispered.

“I do respect your opinions, Jon,” the guild master brought them back to the point, “ but there are still a few protocols we'll need to follow to increase his adventure status from wood to copper rank. And then to iron, the least rank you accept into your mercenary company.”

“Don't worry, Guy won't be part of the mercenary company for now.”

“What? Why?!”

Guy was bewildered. Hadn't Jonathan just said he was family.

“Look kid, you don't have the best reputation right now, what with yours and Celene's relationship.”

“There was no relationship,” Guy complained.

“Yes, there was none. But the company is pretty tight knit, and you are new. If there is a fight, they will side with Celene. I'm actually doing this so that at the end of the day, you'll want to join the company again. If you come back now and the others irritate you too much, you might give up on the company.

“Think about this like you taking a break from the company to learn more about yourself. Besides, I did see you get into some kind of fight with Noid. So I'm guessing he can't train you in any of the other major styles like I wanted him to.”

“No, he will not,” Guy said with a sigh.

“So I figured you'd need your adventurer's reward money in order to purchase lessons from various swordsmen here in the capital.”

Guy was reluctant, but Jonathan had thought of everything. To have his status as an adventurer settled, he and a couple of others were slated to go onto a monster extermination mission a few days away from the capital.

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Guy had to see the twins before he left, because he was unsure when he'd get to see them again, and Maria gave him a packed lunch. He took both Jonathan's and Noid’s differently expressed advice and walked away from the mercenary company without talking to anyone.

And now he'd met this guy, who obviously hated him for some reason he couldn't fathom. Well, maybe he could fathom it a bit, but why did this guy even remember his face. If Guy hated someone, he'd just ignore their existence. He only remembered the swordsman because he found his dual swords interesting, although they'd been broken at the time.

“On this test, you'll be required to kill a specific number of goblins per head. You can do it as a group, or as individuals. Your choice,” the nice woman in adventurer's leathers finished.

Guy looked at the five others he'd be taking the test with. A female with pointy ears and a very slim body, a big man who carried no weapon and was acquainted with the annoying swordsman, and a fiery haired, fiery eyed girl who was not much older than him. Her hair matching her eyes reminded him of something, but he wasn't quite sure.

“Don't stare too much,” the fiery haired woman snapped. “Is it your first time seeing people with nonhuman blood?”

Guy wasn't sure his answer was what she expected when she asked that question.

“It is the first that I can remember,” he answered. “I haven't travelled a lot.”

The two women looked at each other. And then his brain processed the question he'd been asked to completion. His eyes widened. The fiery haired woman was not entirely human? But she looked exactly like one. He needed to find out more about the world outside his own little bubble, he decided.

“Me and Grunter over here can fill out our quarter on our own,” the testy swordsman said, his eyes focused on Guy, the challenge in them clear.

The giant grunted in affirmation.

The two women looked at Guy with hesitation. He didn't blame them.

He shrugged. “I suppose I can go it alone.”

“Huh, but the elf girl is a healer, how's she going to fight goblins on her own?” the swordsman complained.

“Why don't you take her?” Guy asked, very reasonably, he thought.

“Take her? What? We are in a competition, and you having more comrades than me is a concession on my part, kind of like a headstart, an advantage.”

Guy sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I didn't agree to a competition. Besides, even the other girl probably wants to join your party too.”

“That's right,” the girl said, “don't make decisions for all of us. No one made you our leader or anything.”

Guy had never worried about it before, but was there a possibility he was ugly. Sure he did think he was a bit boring, but was there something about him that physically reviled women. He frowned, considering whether he should ask the two women, but then he remembered their testiness after his creepy staring. That must be why they didn't want to party with him, he decided.

“Huh, this does not mean I give up!” the swordsman advanced toward Guy with a finger raised. “I will bring twice, no thrice the required number of goblins, and I will not allow to be healed during combat.”

“How will my worth be measured then?” the healer questioned.

“You will heal me after he admits defeat. Besides, I'm not the only warrior. You will provide magic support, right Jasmine?”

“Yeah…” the fiery haired woman continued to speak, but Guy tuned her out as he started to follow the guild supervisor.

The woman must have figured the discussion was done, and now they had better move out. Guy had only travelled on two occasions he could remember, and one was a months long excursion with a swordsman who never said much. Noid only spoke when he wanted to. They had never had tents, and only ate what they killed.

This adventurer's excursion was a walk in the park in comparison. They only had to walk two days, and he could go two days without speaking to anyone. He didn't think it was something to be proud of, but those were his circumstances.

When the guild supervisor ordered them to camp, Guy watched the others set up their tents in silence. He was thinking maybe Noid didn't know everything. When he'd travelled with the Wilde company to the capital, everyone had tents. He'd thought they were soft, because Noid had been there too, and he never slept in a tent.

He frowned and thought about it for a time, but then he decided sleeping in an open sky wasn't too bad. Even the cold had barely affected him during the winter. It's like he'd been passively resisting the effects of the weather and the environment ever since. He only slept indoors rarely even when he was at the Wilde village.

With a shrug, he stepped out of the clearing they'd decided to camp in and entered the forest. He needed some privacy, to ease a few natural urges before he exhausted his muscles in another round of drills.

They were all asleep when he returned, even the supervisor had a tent. He picked a tree from which he could view the whole camp, and went to sleep.

Guy woke up three times that night, from animals trying to sneak into the camp. He frowned when he realised none of his fellow test takers had thought of leaving a watch or anything. Was it part of the test as well? The supervisor hadn't said anything since they'd chosen their teams the day before.

“Where is the other one?” he had the supervisor ask the next morning.

He was a light sleeper, he'd found, since he'd started training with Noid.

“Right here!” he shouted from his tree quite a ways from the clearing. “I didn't bring a tent so I slept over here.”

The woman tilted her head. She had acquired a pair of reading glasses since he'd seen her last. It brought out her narrowed eyes, in his opinion. In fact, she'd changed a lot after one night's sleep.

She'd ditched the adventurer's wear and was now dressed in official looking robes, like most of those receptionists at the guild. It was weird that he found the official clothes more enticing than the adventurer's clothes that had so hugged her body, leaving nothing to the imagination. Maybe he liked to imagine she was wearing nothing under that robe.

“You…slept?” she asked, adjusting her reading glasses.

Guy jumped off the tree, performing a series of acrobatic movements to land safely and very gracefully.

“Of course I did,” he answered her. “And may I just say, I love what you did with your hair.”

She looked at him expressionlessly. In the background, Guy could see the realisation shaping on the others’s faces. He hadn't done it out of spite or anything, but the looks on their faces were priceless. No, for some reason, he thought this was what Noid would have done in a situation like this. It was a teachable moment.

“You…love what I did with my hair?” the woman asked.

As a man used to the anger by now, he let most of the scathing remarks the woman had for him flow off his back. Sure, her hair was still ungroomed after a whole night's sleep, and his compliment seemed like an insult, therefore disrespect to a superior, and would go on his permanent record.

There were some positives though. He'd gotten her to speak a lot more that morning than she'd done the all the hours they'd travelled the day before.