In the two weeks that followed, Keisuke underwent extensive training under the fighter profession. He worked tirelessly for five days a week, and on the days he received off, he would perform a long list of chores and could scarcely get any rest in. It was honestly brutal at times, to the point where Keisuke would collapse from exhaustion. Koto-sensei—she insisted on being called this—was a complete and utter sadist. Keisuke was sure that a demon was residing within that woman. The moment they started training, her demeanour shifted entirely. She showed no mercy, doubly so since Keisuke was her only student.
“You should consider yourself lucky.” Koto-sensei licked her lips. “I hardly ever take on students. This is like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you know?”
“...Thank you, sensei...” Keisuke wheezed. She was sitting cross-legged on top of his back at the time, and he was tasked with doing fifty push-ups. When Keisuke complained, she asked if he was calling her fat and then jumped up and down. Her butt was soft, at least.
It wasn’t that Keisuke was the only trainee there. There were other teachers, each with their own students. Keisuke was simply the only one training under Koto-sensei at the time. Apparently, she rarely ever took anyone in, and as for why she decided to train Keisuke, she wouldn't tell. But Keisuke suspected it was because she saw him as an easy target to pick on.
There were times during the training period where Keisuke had even thought of quitting. But Koto-sensei made sure he didn’t, threatening to hurt him in ways that would leave a man scarred for life. Keisuke was not keen on finding out what those ways were.
There was no denying her skills, however. Despite her cruel and intense teaching methods, Koto-sensei was a very talented fighter. She was apparently one of the highest-ranking scouts in Altear, with a platinum medallion to her name. So Keisuke learned a lot from her, even if they were merely the basics.
The training was essentially just showing Keisuke the basics of being a fighter. Keisuke was a novice, and to rank up required gold and prestige. The next step was to register himself as a scout and take on quests to earn money and build up a reputation. From there, he could grow as a class and even have Koto-sensei or another teacher train him into a specific subclass of the fighter profession. How Koto-sensei put it was that at the moment Keisuke was just the base class, but once he became an official member of the scouting legion and earned a fair amount of money, he could train under any one of the many classes that fell under the fighter profession and further enhance his skills.
It sounded straightforward enough, but these quests meant fighting hostile races. Keisuke knew the basics of his class, sure, but applying what he learned in actual combat was a different story.
Is this going to be okay...? Keisuke thought to himself as he headed to his destination.
They'd agreed to meet up at the guild hall after their training, and that was where Keisuke found them standing outside. Mahiro was dressed in chain mail armour with a longsword strapped around his waist and a shield attached to his back. Fumiko stood beside him, and she had on a long, white robe with a staff in her hands.
“Ah, Keisuke-kun! Over here!” Mahiro noticed him and gestured Keisuke over.
For some reason, a smile came over Keisuke's face when he saw Mahiro and Fumiko.
It was true that his training had been difficult, but Keisuke often wondered whether Mahiro and Fumiko were also going through the same thing. Thinking that they were all struggling for each other's sake brought him some solace, which was admittedly weird considering Keisuke barely knew them. But still, it was good to know there were people who were with him in all of this and that he wasn’t entirely alone. Keisuke wondered if that feeling was the same for them.
“It’s good to see you guys,” Keisuke said. “To be honest, I couldn’t wait to get out and see you again...”
“I-it's good to see you, too...” Fumiko was using her staff to hide herself. She still seemed pretty shy, but that was a welcoming sight to Keisuke.
“You couldn’t wait to see us again?" Mahiro laughed. “Just how harsh was your training?”
Thinking back, Keisuke shuddered. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’m convinced my instructor was a devil posing as a beautiful woman...”
“Well, at least you had a beautiful woman! My instructor was a man who enjoyed picking on me. I wasn’t the strongest among the other trainees, so...”
“I-I also made a lot of mistakes and got shouted at...a lot...”
“You guys had it rough too, huh...?” Knowing that brought Keisuke some relief.
“But we all made it out!” Mahiro playfully jabbed Keisuke on the shoulder. “So, I’m the paladin, Fumiko is the cleric, and Keisuke, you’re the...?”
“Fighter. I, uh, ended up joining it through...scouting? Is that all right?”
“That’s perfect, actually. With you, we have quite a lineup. I’m not entirely sure how it all comes together yet, but apparently those roles are essential for any party.”
“Party...?” Fumiko parroted in a soft voice.
“A party is what they call a group of scouts, or in our case trainees, who work together to complete requests. It’s like a team.” Mahiro answered her. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about all this stuff already. Unlike Keisuke, who had little to no idea.
“How do you know all this?”
“Some of the other trainees in my union told me. All of them were just like us, but they happened to know a bit about what was going on.”
“I see...” That made sense. Keisuke didn’t have any other trainees with him. He was Koto-sensei's only student, after all. He could hear others undergoing training, though, and he'd even run into a couple of them when running errands, but he never had a conversation with any of them.
Mahiro was different, though. He actively searched for information to help improve their situation. Keisuke was glad he had someone like that to rely on. If Keisuke had been on his own, he would have been struggling right now.
“So, what’s the plan now?”
“Now that we’re here, we should go to the guild hall. We can get our quests there.”
“Quests, huh...?” Keisuke scratched the scruff of his neck. “Do you have any idea what to expect?”
“Honestly, not really. I know we’ll be fighting, mostly. But that’s about it.”
“Fighting...” Fumiko’s eyes lowered. “I-I don’t know how well I’ll do. They taught me things, but I might struggle in the actual moment, you know...?”
Fumiko raised a valid point. Keisuke had felt the same way. Thinking about fighting and doing it were two completely different things. Keisuke had the basic skills but zero field experience. He’d wondered if there were any quests that required no fighting, and, according to Koto-sensei, there were. But, as a scout, expecting to make a living out of those quests was unreasonable. So, fighting was basically inevitable for them.
“I understand how you guys feel. I feel the same.” Mahiro regarded them thoughtfully. “But we don’t have much of a choice right now. This is something we’re going to have to do. We can start off small. We won’t do anything we can’t handle and slowly find our feet together. Okay?”
Mahiro's words were oddly comforting. When he said, “together”, somehow it made Keisuke feel at ease.
“Sure!” Keisuke raised his fist. “We can give it a try.”
Fumiko nodded her head slightly. “O-okay... If we'll do it t-together, then I'll do my best.”
Mahiro smiled at them. “Great.”
When the party of three entered the guild hall, there were a lot more people there compared to the first day they'd come. Only now, they were all dressed in the gear of their respective classes.
“It seems like everyone went through the same things we did.” Mahiro was looking around and observing the room. “Anyway, I think we should speak with that girl first. Lucy, was it?”
There were also more receptionists other than Lucy working at the guild hall now. People were gathered around them, probably also seeking information. Keisuke and the others stood in line as they waited their turn.
“Oh, it's you,” a voice suddenly said.
Keisuke turned around to see Makoto approaching him. She was dressed in a long, blue robe and carried a staff on her back.
“Ah...yeah...” Keisuke nodded, not entirely sure how to respond.
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Makoto eyed him down curiously. “I see you managed to join a union. I must say, I’m surprised. I thought you were a lost cause for sure.”
“...Ha-ha. Yeah.” Keisuke didn’t have a reply for that, either. It was all he could do to try and casually laugh it off.
“Well, good luck out there, Arrow-Fodder,” said Makoto. “I have a feeling you’ll need it.” With that, she took her leave.
Arrow-Fodder…? Is that really how people view me…?
“What was that all about?” Mahiro asked him.
All Keisuke could do was shrug. “Nothing, probably...”
Mahiro replied with a curious “Hm” and left it at that.
Their turn finally came, and they approached Lucy at her booth. “Hi, hi. How can Lucy help you?”
“Hello, Lucy-chan.” Mahiro spoke as the group’s leader.“We joined unions, just like you said. But now we aren’t quite sure what to do next. We were hoping you had some advice for us. On what to do from here.”
Lucy nodded her head repeatedly. “Yes, yes, this happens a lot. Lucy can help, yes.” Lucy reached under her desk and pulled out what looked to be a register of sorts. “Your first priority should be buying your official scouting licences.”
“Our official licences?”
“That’s right. You see, right now you’re still trainees. You aren’t recognised scouts under the guild yet until you buy a licence. Once you do, Lucy will add your name to this here register, and you get a shiny medallion that shows your rank in the legion.”
“I see...” Mahiro glanced over the book. “And how do we get these licences?”
“You buy it. You complete quests, earn money, and buy it. It costs two-hundred silver, so you should earn that amount fairly quickly. Almost everyone does, at least.”
“What are the benefits of having a licence?” Keisuke asked. “I mean, what’s the point?”
Lucy flipped a page in her book and explained, “With a licence, you gain access to more quests and have your information added to the legion’s catalogue." She held the book up for them to see the many names written on it. "That means you can participate in guild raids and rank up. The more you rank up, the more quests you have access to, and the more gold you can earn. At the moment, you only have access to beginner quests. Eventually those will run out, and you won’t be able to take on any more quests. Any official ones, at least. You could become an independent scout, but then you’ll have to self-train as well because you can only learn more from your union the higher your rank is.”
“Buying these licences is pretty important, huh…,” Fumiko said.
“Then I think we should make that our main goal right now,” Keisuke suggested. “You said something about beginner quests?”
“Yes, you can find them in their own section in the request board at the back of the hall. Lucy recommends starting small. Wolves and kobolds are usually easy enough.”
Mahiro nodded. “I see. Thank you, Lucy-chan. This was very helpful.”
The request board was at the back of the guild hall. There were many other trainees like them who were also gathered near it. The board was split into different sections for each rank. On the far left there was a list of beginner quests, and at the very end was a section titled “S-ranked” quests.
They were only able to do beginner quests for now, so that was where they went to look. There were a bunch of papers hung on the board, each with different requests and, in some cases, heavily worded demands for people to do.
“See anything?” Keisuke asked Mahiro.
Mahiro placed a hand on his chin and went, “Hmm” as he carefully scrutinised each of the requests. “Goblins, huh?”
“Goblins?” repeated Fumiko.
“It says here that a gang of goblins have been spotted near the city. The reward for clearing them out is thirty silver.”
“W-what are they? These goblins...”
Mahiro shook his head. “I don’t know. Somehow, though, I feel like I do? I can’t quite explain it, but I feel as though they aren’t totally unfamiliar to me.”
Keisuke felt the same way. “I feel the same,” he added, putting a hand behind his neck. “Like I’ve heard the word before. Weird.”
“At any rate,” Mahiro walked past that request, “we aren’t familiar with these things, and we don’t know how strong a gang of them are. It might be too risky. We should look for something else.”
As they carried on searching for something that even they could do, the doors to the guild hall suddenly swung open. Everyone turned their attention to the source and then entered a group of people. There were five of them, and they were all dressed like scouts.
The one at the front was the one who drew the most attention. He had spiky blonde hair and piercings on both ears and his nose. He was wearing brigandine armour, and above his right shoulder was the hilt of a greatsword, a weapon that required incredible power to use.
The man was very remarkable. At a glance, you could tell that he was the leader of their group just by the way he carried himself. It wasn’t that he was ugly or particularly handsome; there was a certain something about him that was intense. Keisuke got the feeling that anyone that looked at those almond eyes would crack under pressure.
What was more, Keisuke knew who he was. It was Delinquent—or Ryoma, as he understood his name to be. He was part of the group that arrived in Altear with him. Somehow, though, he looked completely different now.
The people trailing behind Ryoma were also impressive. On his left was a girl in shorts and a jacket that was cut at the sleeves. She was very gaudy in her appearance, brazenly showing off her legs, arms, and her cleavage as well. She could very well get away with doing it since she had the figure for it.
There was a tall and rather lanky boy looming on Ryoma's right. His face was partly concealed by the hood he donned, but Keisuke could see enough to tell he was male. Based on the way he was dressed, he must've been a mage or something along those lines.
Suddenly appearing in front of Ryoma, pushing her way through everyone to get to the front, was a short girl with her hair tied into pigtails. She had her hands placed behind her head and carried a carefree attitude about her. She immediately struck Keisuke as some brat just by how casual she appeared.
The last person to enter was a boy with a long ponytail atop a clean-shaved head. He was dressed in a leather outfit and had no visible weapons on his person. A large, noticeable scar ran across his face. He looked like the type of company you would expect Ryoma to keep.
Birds of a feather, Keisuke mused. It was best he kept that comment to himself. Those two honestly looked like they would beat him to a pulp if they heard him joking about them.
This particular group stood out in the guild hall and caught everyone’s attention. Everyone found themselves staring in wonder.
“Oh, if it isn’t Keisuke, Mahiro, and Fumiko,” said someone suddenly.
When Keisuke looked beside himself, he saw Noburu approaching, waving his hand and smiling at them. “Yo.”
“Oh, Noburu-kun. It’s been a while.” Mahiro was the first to greet him.
Fumiko gave him a soft “hello” as well, but not before slightly hiding herself behind Keisuke first.
“You remember our names?” Keisuke asked, honestly surprised. He didn’t think anyone from their group that arrived here would.
Noburu tilted his head to the side. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I see you also managed to join a union,” Mahiro noted as he examined Noburu's equipment.
“Oh, yeah. I joined the fighter’s union, and I’m working to be a samurai. Pretty cool, huh?” He was wearing a grey robe and had a katana strapped to his waist.
“Samurai, huh…?” Keisuke placed a finger on his chin thoughtfully. “Yeah, somehow I feel like that doesn't suit you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
There were low whispers growing around Ryoma's group. It seemed that everyone in the guild hall was admiring them.
“That guy is a bit too amazing, isn’t he?” Noburu nodded his head at that group as well.
“How so?” Keisuke asked.
“Haven’t you heard? He joined a union around the same time we did, and yet he was released a week earlier. Apparently, he was too good, and there was no reason to keep him for the entire training period.”
“Really…? That’s kind of crazy…”
When Keisuke thought back to his training, all he remembered was pain. He found it difficult to imagine someone being “too” good for it and being released earlier. When he considered his own experiences, it was almost impossible. Just how far ahead of him was Ryoma…?
“Yep,” continued Noburu, “he formed a party recently and they’ve already been seen taking on strong monsters. They’ve all even bought their official badges.”
“That is impressive,” said Mahiro, looking at the group.
Ryoma walked up to the counter carrying something in his hand. He stopped before Lucy and placed a round cloth on the table.
Lucy gave Ryoma a quizzical look. “What's thiiis?”
With a grunt, Ryoma unveiled the contents within the cloth, and everyone’s immediate reaction was shock and disgust.
It was a head. Ryoma had placed the head of some beast on the table for all to see. Keisuke didn’t know of what creature, but it was clearly the severed head of some beast.
“Eeek!” Lucy squealed and jumped from her chair. “Why?! Why?! Whyyy?!”
“It's an ogre!” proclaimed a voice, and everyone gathered around Ryoma with bubbling curiosity.
“Wow, an ogre? Already?”
“Didn’t this guy just start with the rest of us?”
“That's crazy…”
“I want to join his party. They must be super strong.”
Everyone was making a bunch of comments directed at Ryoma's group. Keisuke didn’t really understand, but apparently an ogre was a tough creature. It did look like it. The head was almost three times the size of a regular human's, and it had large teeth protruding out of its mouth.
“Well, seems like we have a lot of catching up to do…” Noburu sighed deeply. “I’ll see you guys around. Good luck out there, okay?”
“See you around, Noburu.” Keisuke waved him off.
Mahiro turned back to the board and pulled off a piece of paper. “Says here there’s a lone wolf lingering in a nearby forest. That seems like a good start for us.”
Keisuke turned to him and nodded. Fumiko also nodded, though she seemed unsure.
“It’s settled, then.” Mahiro folded the paper and put it inside his pocket. “We’ll start with this.”
Their first quest was decided. Keisuke found he couldn’t help but glance back at Ryoma's group.
Will we be fine out there? he wondered.