-Shim PoV-

"You can't take this quest..."

"Eh!?

With a blank expression the receptionist turned down my request...

"Told you so..."

"Huh?"

I don't know why but it seems Ryomi also acknowledges the receptionist's declaration...

"I'm sorry, Shim but I can't really approve you going to that place. Even if you're explorers letting two girls go there all alone you might get seen as one of the "girls" working there..."

"Huh? Where are we going then?"

"It's in the place where adults linger every night to... "Put themselves at ease""

"Then it's a good place, right?"

Ryomi puts the palm of her hand to her head and moved her head in reject.

"What? What is it? What are you not telling me?"

"Ah... Ehem... Then Ryomi please pick another one for the both of you..."

"I'll do my best to pick a more appropriate place"

They both smiled as if agreeing about something, I tilted my head in wonder as I pondered what is wrong with me going to a good place...

-Ryomi PoV-

"Here..."

"Ah! This will do, remember if you try to discontinue the request, you will have to pay the fine."

"Uuu... Y-yes..."

She smiled radiantly as she reminded us once again about the cancelling fee... I picked a quest similar to those of the light novels I've read before their first quest [Herb Picking] we are to look for a plant called [Sevun Weed] though I say weed it's more like a flower... 

It can be identified easily as they are quite different from a normal weed, having a red stem while it's leaves were colored blue and it's flower petals colored in green, this weed is used for a medicine used for fever, though bitter it's effects pack quite a punch as they can lower down the fever in just few minutes, surely not even our modern tech medicines couldn't do that.

It was posted up by the pharmacy shop owned by "Robert the Meek", he doesn't go out of his shop unless he is in need of materials for medicine. It was under three more requests, seriously even his requests don't stand out...

I accessed the [Map] and searched for it around the city luckily, I got some hits, there are quite a few of them at the spot where are hangout place was.

"Come on, Shim!"

"Wait! Ryomi you didn't get the acceptance seal!"

"Huh?"

"Please your card..."

"Okay, here..."

The receptionist holds out her hand and it glowed lightly, seeing as my guild card's color went from Brown to Red, it seems the quest had been accepted. She gave it back to me with a smile as if nothing had happened.

"You may go now..."

"That's it?"

"Yeah! What do you think? Awesome, right! It changes the color and stuff when you accept requests..."

"I see, but enough of that let's go already!"

"Un!"

×××

"Good Morning~ Trevor!"

"Ah! You and Shim going out?"

"Hehnn! We are Explorers let us through!"

Shim boasts as she takes out her card

"Heh~ so you're an explorer now huh?"

"Yeah!"

Wait you've already had that before... Oh right she had to keep it a secret from me that's why she didn't boast... But now that she didn't have to hide it anymore she can boast whenever she likes...

"So Ryomi?"

"I'm an explorer too... We are to find [Sevun Weed] about thirty of them, do you know any place we could find them?"

"Hmm? The weeds, huh? Did Robert post that up?"

"Yes! The pharmacy guy did!"

Shim answered honestly as Trevor the Guard asked a question about our quest...

"He is kind of picky with his weeds... He wants everything high quality after all.. Well, I guess there is some in the spot you guys are hanging out, I've seen some when I was a kid, but nobody comes there, so it was left alone. I wonder if it still grows there..."

"I'll take that advice then! Come on, Shim!"

"Un!"

We walked towards the giant tree where we usually hang out and now this is our meeting spot after we gather the weeds...

"Listen Shim this is what we are looking for!"

"Okay got it!"

"We need thirty but having too many doesn't hurt, so let's give it our all and take everything, but since it doesn't have a time limit, take your time and pull the weeds carefully so that it's quality doesn't drop down..."

"Aye!~"

I can see the dots glowing in the mini-map, Ahh! This is life! Plucking out weed after weed I put them in my basket as I checked their quality... Most of them are high ones and some are of normal quality, with a ratio of 7:3 with high quality weeds reigning over.

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It said that these herbs grow in places where mana is quite dense... seeing as there are so many here and high quality ones at that, that means that this area's concentration of mana is quite high. Though they say that when you are in quite an area you will feel nauseous since the human body isn't the same as the other race... 

But I don't feel nauseous and so does Shim, does that mean the concentrated mana came from another source? It can be hypothesized that we are the source since we've been using our mana till exhaustion when we are practicing magic, but such claims are weak, I needed proper evidence.

"Last one... Phew... Shim! I'm finished!"

"O-Ooh! W-Wait! I-I'm about to finish as well..."

I sat down near the tree and let myself rest as I waited for Shim... 5 minutes... 10 minutes... 15 minutes... She's still not back... I wonder what's taking her so long... The things practically all over the place... I stood up and went over to Shim's area, where I told her pick out half of the herbs...

"What the?"

There I saw Shim still looking for something... In her basket there was none... Nothing was inside it...

"Shim?"

"Fe... Ehh? R-ryomi! I'm still looking for it..."

That's weird she's not looking at me...

"Is something wrong? Shim!"

"Huh? Mmm..."

She's tilting her head as if to say "there is nothing wrong" but clearly there was... She is looking towards a blank space...

"Hey, don't joke around like that... You're eyesight's a bit off, I'm right here!"

She shuddered slightly as she tries to hide it... I knew it... Why didn't I see... She was tightly holding on my hand as we were walking across town earlier... She also didn't talk to the guard too much and answered only on cue... Though she did boast about our cards...

"Shim... Is something wrong with your eyes?"

She was taken aback by my sudden remark.. The smile on her face broke and she held her head down, then holds it up once again and covered it with a smile...

"Hahaha! I got found out! As I thought I can't fool Ryomi..."

She's trembling like she wanted to cry but still didn't want to... She kept it hidden because she didn't want me to worry... What an idiot...

"Shim..."

"Sorry, Ryomi... I thought if I said this to you, you might get worried and work on something real dangerous... I've always felt it that if something happens to me or to others you would surely put us first before yourself... But don't worry I've already talked to Ms. Emily about this and she already consulted an acquaintance and said that he will be arriving soon, and will heal my eyes... So--"

"Don't do that... Stop hiding things from me..."

Though I too am hiding things from you... But I couldn't help it... I'm really scared... I never knew anyone with this condition before and I don't know how to fix it... It was a good thing magic existed in this place... 

So she told Emily and already had plans for her eyes' restoration. What a sneaky girl you are...

I hugged her close as if not wanting to let her go and muttered a few words...

"Once your eye is fixed indefinitely, I promise to show you what's underneath my hat..."

"Eeh? Can't you show me already? It's back to normal now!"

"Eh?"

She made a really unexpected remark. My face must've had a "what the? are you just playing with me?" Kind of expression... As she sees this... She hurriedly gave an explanation to clear misunderstanding...

"Ah! You see, there are times when my vision becomes cloudy and I can't see anything, sometimes much worse it just gets dark but after some time it comes back to normal! Ehehehe... Buu--"

Hitting her head lightly I cried out saying "Give me back my sympathy!"

"So? When did your eyes grey blurry today?"

"From the moment we went out of the Explorers Guild, then it went back to normal by the time we got to the guard house, then suddenly got blurry again, then here my eyes were fixed..."

"... You should've said it in the beginning..."

"Ehehe... For Ryomi to be this worried for me, I'm actually quite happy..."

"S-shut up you!"

"Ehehe..."

"Pick up the herbs already! I'm leaving if you're not finished after five minutes!"

"Eh!? Eh!? But I don't know what it looks like!"

"Here!"

"Ah! Thanks!"

With a radiant smile she said her thanks... As I saw that, my face suddenly felt hot and I looked away immediately afterwards. Can't help it can I? I'm still a guy inside even though I'm female outside...

After five minutes she went back with a handful of [Sevun Weed] and so we went back to town and headed for the Explorers Guild.