The Adventurer's guildhall. Situated at the south end of the city, it was a much larger building than Kalden had imagined it would look like. The mock-up in the tourism board building did little to show off the scale of the building.

 A large neo-Baroque style building, its pillars and walls made of marble and stone. It still had some uniquely roman touches, a fountain with two statues of two exposed ladies pouring out water from their jugs and in the middle a giant statue of what looked like a roman soldier, armed with a short sword and shield.

Kalden was sure there’s some sort of special meaning behind this design, but it was lost on him, a single, ‘nice.’ was all he could think up every time he walked past the grandiose structure to get into the building.

The interior of the building was as grand as the exterior itself. Carpeted floors, exquisite paintings hung from the wall, a few potted plants and flowers dotted the room, giving the place some colour and the all-important chandelier in the middle.

But as eye-catching as the halls were, nothing could compare with the radiance emanating from the young white-haired elven lady walking towards Kalden. Her skin was so pale; the light was practically reflecting off her figure, Kalden had to squint his eyes slightly to read the name tag clipped onto her Voluptuous breasts properly. That if not the sunlight, he would’ve been able to sneak a peek at the exposed part of her cleavage.

“Welcome to Reme’s branch of the Adventurer's guild. My name is Aspen, are you new here by any chance?” she asked, giving a curt bow in conjunction with the welcome.

“Ah, yes...” Kalden nodded, it felt unreal, talking to someone in a different world, not to mention an elf, in a new language.

“You’ve come to the right place.” Aspen beamed, adding more brightness into the already blinding scene. “Please, follow me.”

She led him towards the large counter situated right in the middle of the room, in between two massive flights of stairs that led upstairs.

“Watch out for any puddles of water; we’re doing some repairs on the dome.”

She pointed out.

“Oh.” Kalden looked up, staring, in quiet amazement at the size and scale of the dome, it was one thing to see from outside, another inside. It was decorated with stained glass, wall paintings and iconography as well as swirling patterns and some small statues at the ring of the dome.

A section of it, directly above him had been tarped off, with wooden scaffolding lining the surroundings. A figure could be seen climbing up.

“What happened to it?”

“One of the adventurers could not properly control their fireball a few days ago. Sent it flying.” Aspen explained matter of factly.

“And that is why, Usage of magic is prohibited in the guildhall.” A blond-haired female sighed, suddenly appearing from behind the counter, locking eyes with a surprised Kalden for a moment.

“Hello, you must be new here, the name’s Tina, I’m the receptionist of the guildhall. You?” She greeted with a wide smile.

“Kalden Ruth.”

“Well, Kalden, I hope you won’t be as careless as that mage. A two-hundred-year-old mural was ruined by her rash actions. It’s going to cost a hundred thousand denarius to restore.” Tina laminated.

“Right…”

“Come, ignore her, Tina’s just bored, Rush hour does not start for another hour.” Aspen said, quickly leading Kalden up the left-hand stairs before Tina said another word.

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He was led up to one of the many rooms along the corridor, a simple office, a desk at the end, a lime green sofa set and wooden coffee table in the middle.

“This is my office; make yourself comfortable,” Aspen explained, in a warm but professional tone, ushering Kalden towards the sofa as she walked towards a small table placed at the side of the room where a tray of porcelain cups and a teapot sat.

“I have Tea, or would you prefer coffee? It’s a new drink from La Plata. Silver country.”

“Do you have milk?”

“Fraid not, condensed milk is hard to come by these days, the current trade war with the Alverchest Empire is causing problems.”

“Then I’ll have some tea then.”

“Excellent choice.”

Kalden watched as she spooned two teaspoons of tea leaves into the pot.

 “Ah.”  She paused, turned back towards Kalden, looking embarrassed.

“I’m afraid we are out of sugar as well.”

Kalden nodded, “it’s okay. Trade war?”

“Trade embargo actually. The federation traitors.” she practically spat as she brought over the tray, placing on the coffee table in front of Kalden. “It’s going to take a while for the bottle to boil, so while we wait, let’s get your registration in order.”

“Alright.”

Wait, where did she get the water? And how is she supposed to boil it?

Kalden’s question was shortly answered when Aspen opened the teapot. With a few beckoning movements with her fingers, drops of water began to form, a few millimetres away from her fingertips, dripping down into the teapot, the drops turned into a steady flow, increasing with intensity every second, quickly filling up the pot.

“You look surprised. Never seen summoning magic before?”

“Ah… No,” Kalden shook his head, “An acquaintance of mine knows how to. I just didn’t know you do too.”

“Water summoning is a rather basic spell.” Aspen explained, chuckling, “It’s a surprise you have never seen it.”

“Living in the forests has it’s downsides.”

Aspen crocked her eyebrow slightly, with a curious smile. “I see, then let me show you how people in the city boil their water.” She held a bright crimson red rock, “this is firaium. Watch.” she held it over the teapot a moment, dropping it in the moment it began to glow slightly. A few moments later, the water around the rock began to bubble.

“Won’t the firaium boil away all the water?”

“No, it shouldn’t, firaium of this size only have about five minutes of charge, before I have to run mana through it again. Just enough to bring the water in a pot this size to a boil.”

“Fascinating.” Kalden mumbled,

“that it is.” Aspen nodded, “but we have to get back to the matter at hand.” She said, sliding over a piece of paper, “Fill this in for me, then I will need your Identity card and .”

This!

Kalden’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, not enough to attract the attention of Aspen however. There wasn’t much on the form to fill in, only requiring a name, the date, which a quick glance from his watch, showed it was 30th Junius 11929, RE, and some checklists to fill in, asking if he’s over fifteen. Which he promptly did so with the fountain pen provided.

It was not what was written on the paper that surprised him, but the language. There were two languages, the local language, which was a mix of Italian and Latin, and more importantly, Japanese.

“This… this is Japanese, isn’t it?” Kalden asked, sliding the paperback.

“Yes, yes, it is,” Aspen replied excitedly as she poured out two cups of tea. “Here you go. Fresh leaves from the far eastern legation cities.”

“Thank you,” Kalden replied as he took a sip, white tea, its distinct light and slight taste spreading itself out in his tongue, there was an aftertaste to it, slightly bitter, and flat as well as some other strange tastes, Kalden could not precisely put his finger on.

Kalden was not sure where that strange aftertaste came from, from his years of experience

from casual tea brewing at home and abroad, bitterness indicated the tea had

been steeped for too long, it’s flat taste due to lack of oxygen in the water.  But it might be some sort of new tea.

“How’s the tea? Is it to your liking?” Aspen asked.

“I’m not sure. This is my first time drinking it,” Kalden calmly lied, “Is this how it

normally tastes?”

“Yep. The one made by the tea shop in del Corsa tastes a lot better than mine, though.

Must be the leaves, hers does not have a flat taste to it.” Aspen replied, her voice suddenly softer than usual, her cheeks growing a slight shade of red.

“I see.”  Kalden nodded, taking another sip, “I must try it sometime.”

“After we’re done with this. We could um… you know, go? Together?” she stammered,

tucking her hair behind her ears, showing off its pointed ends.

Kalden raised an eyebrow at this.

Is she trying to hit on me? She was so professional earlier. What the hell happened?  She is rather beautiful though… can’t deny that…

“I’ll…think about it.” Kalden calmly answered as he fished out his ID card from his wallet, hand it over to Aspen.

“Huh.” Aspen hummed curiously, flipping the thin piece of cardboard in her hands as she inspected it. “Where did you get this?”

“From the interior ministry of course.” Kalden lied, “Is there a with it?”

“Oh, no, no problem.” Aspen thinly smiled. “I just pegged you for an otherworlder, that’s all.”

“Ah… I see, What made you think that?” Kalden asked.

Damn… I how did she guess, though? Rightly as well?

“Your demeanour, confident, yet wore an expression like a fish out of water and when I showed off my magic to you, though it was only a simple water conjuring spell, you looked surprised by it, you hid it pretty well but I’ve seen many otherworlders before, their reaction to magic always surprises, though most of the time it’s always in a rather dramatic fashion.

“I see…” there was a part of Kalden which wanted to tell Aspen that he indeed came from another world, but at the same time, he could imagine the publicity that would stem from a revelation like this, and right now, Kalden could do without attention.

“Are you sure you’re not one Kalden? I can understand why you don’t want to reveal such information, but its for your own good.” Her eyes narrowed, as if in warning that he should not lie.

“No, I’m not, It’s just my first time in the city that’s all.”

“Well.” Aspen breathed out, “Then I see no reason to hold you back any longer.” She said, standing up, as she handed the ID card back to Kalden, “Now all we need is to go back downstairs to get your tags. Unless of course, you have any further questions.”

Kalden shook his head, eager to get this over with. “No, I don’t.”