There was not much distance between the inn and guild as we made it over quite quickly. When we were inside, we went for the stairs right away since guild related things are on the second floor. Once we were on the second floor, I saw a counter that had a door behind it with a guy and a girl manning it. Beside it to the left was a large bulletin board with many different pieces of parchment pinned to it. On the right was a door that they most likely led to a back similar to the one in Marawa.

While walking towards the counter, I passed by several couches on both sides with groups of people that sounded like they were discussing what to do on their quests. Right as I made it to the counter, I placed the head on top of it, right in front of the guy which made both the two behind the counter look at it, a bit startled. “I finished my promotion quest.” I said as I began pulling out the piece of parchment with details about the quest from one of my string pouches.I then placed the parchment beside the head, sliding it to the man.

After the guy fixed his expression, he then said “Ahh, I see. So this is the person the young lady behind you told us about yesterday.”. He then grabs the head and inspects it “So this was the monster… I would have never guessed it would look like a gorilla with a third eye on its forehead.” he said as he was closely looking at the third opened eye. He then looked towards Ilise who was now beside me “Were you there when he fought it?”.

Ilise nodded and said “Yes, I was there. We were at the boundaries of the forest when we found it.”. She then looked towards me “I believe Crim here though would have more details about it.”.

Before I spoke, I thought carefully on what I should leave out. “It attacked once when Ilise was sleeping and after that I searched out to fight it with Ilise.” I began to say. “The monster uses some sort of illusion or something to make a different body than it’s normal one.” As I talked the man had a confused look. To help him understand better I kept talking “It’s ‘other’ body was all black and bigger than the actual body. It also had no facial features and only one large eye.”. The man seemed to start understanding what kind of monster it was. “When I killed it, the main body also died from the same way.” I then stopped talking just in case I accidentally mentioned something about the long eared girl.

The man was nodding along and finally spoke up after a moment “Did you find where it originated from?”.

I thought for a moment on how to answer “No… but I do believe it came from deeper in the forest since the time it took for us to get to it was quite large and it was still in the forest. My guess is that it would have to be from the forest for sure.”. It was hard to answer while having to leave out details and all I hoped for was the people around me not to pry any deeper.

“Hmm, I see.” The man nods with a face satisfied with my answer. “I will say though, I’m very surprised a solo adventurer is finishing a rank B promotion quest but I can’t say you didn’t since a member of the guild was with you when you killed it.” He started rambling on. “Nonetheless, hereby witnessing from several members of the guild, we acknowledge that you are a man capable of being a rank B adventurer. With the completion of your promotion quest, the guild will now consider you a rank B adventurer, congratulations.” The man said while giving me a smile.

I then heard Ilise from my side “Congratulations Crim! After seeing you fight, I fully believe that you are a capable rank B adventurer.” she said with a smile. “We should go and get something to eat to celebrate!” She then added.

I wondered for a moment if she really meant that or if it was just because she was hungry but either way I was fine with it. After nodding to her I then turned to the guy behind the counter once more “Is there anything else you need from me?” I asked.

He then shook his head “No, that should be all. If it’s alright with you though, the guild would like to take the head of this monster into our possession to study it more.”. I nodded to him since I had no reason to keep it. “Alright, other than that could you leave your guild card here as we update the rank on it.” He then added. After hearing him I then pulled my guild card out of the same string pouch and then placed it on the counter, sliding it to him. With a satisfied look on his face, he took the card and looked at it while saying “Thank you, Crim. It shouldn’t take long for this to be updated so if you’re just downstairs having food, I’ll bring it down to you when it’s done.”.

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After nodding to him, I then turned around and began walking towards the stairs with Ilise following behind. When we were downstairs, it wasn’t too hard to find an empty table for the two of us to sit at. Once we were sitting for a few minutes, a wench came over to take our orders “What can I get for the two of you?” she asked.

“I’ll get the beef stew with some bread.” Ilise said before looking towards me.

With them both looking at me, I gave them my answer “I’ll just get the same.”.

Once the wench finished taking our order, she gave us a smile before walking off. Once it was the two of us, Ilise looked at me “So Crim, what are you going to do now? Will you come back to Trennent with me or do you have anything else you need to do?” she asked me.

“I have some things I want to do in Marawa so I’ll be here for a while.” I told her.

“Oh… okay.” Ilise said while looking slightly dejected.

“Will you be safe going back by yourself?” I asked, curiously.

She began nodding “The Branch Master told me to hire adventurers to be my guards on the way back but if it’s like the trip out here, I don’t think I would need them.”.

“Well you never know, there could always be bandits setting up ambushes.” I told her.

“That's very true.” she responded. “Either way, Crim. I enjoyed the time coming out here with you and thanks to you I got to see the Great Lake of Gyuzuu and the Forest of Tranquility.” She added while having a gentle smile.

“You really like travelling don’t you.” I asked her.

“Oh yes, I love travelling around and getting to see all the different scenery that Rathia has to offer!” As she talked her smile was getting bigger. “That’s why I’m a bit jealous of you and other adventurers, you get to sight see often with the places you get to travel to.” She added on.

I kind of understood where she was coming from because of the few pieces of scenery that we passed by and she was right, they were a sight to behold. Before the two of us could say anymore, the wench brought out our bowls of stew and bread.

“Ohh foods here!” Ilise voiced out cheerfully before she quickly began digging in. After seeing Ilise starting to eat her food, I followed suit.

It was quiet at the table except for the noise of chewing and slurping. Before either one of us could finish, we were interrupted by the guy I talked to who was behind the counter earlier.

While placing a card on the table he spoke “Once again, congratulations on the promotion to rank B. I hope to see you become a great adventurer.”. Once he said his piece, he understood that we were trying to eat and excused himself.

While eating, I looked at the card on the table to not notice any difference except for the rank being displayed is now a B. After I finished looking over the card, I put it back away into my string pouch before I continued eating.

I finished eating first with Ilise claiming she finished eating a bit after me and when we called over the wench to pay up, she let us know that the meal was on the house as a congratulations. We then sat at the table and before Ilise got up, I asked her “So when will you be leaving?”.

“What? You’re trying to get rid of me right away?” Ilise asked teasingly.

“Well no, I didn’t mean it that way. I was just curious if you would try to head back as soon as possible to get back home.” I told her.

“I’m just joking with you.” Ilise said with a giggle. “I’ll probably tomorrow morning since I would have to get together one or two adventurers to guard me to Trennent.” She then explained. Ilise then raises an eyebrow to me “Are you wondering when you can do things in secret or something?” she asked teasingly.

“No no, not at all. I was just curious if I should say goodbye now if you were leaving right away or something.” I answered her, trying to avoid saying what I really wanted to do.

Ilise lets out a giggle again “I’m just joking with you again and to answer the actual question you’re wondering, I need to go up to the guild and discuss some stuff with them so lets meet up and have one last meal together tonight before we go our separate ways tomorrow.” she said with a smile.

I was satisfied with what she said since I really wanted to start investigating what happened here in Marawa at the orphanage. I then nodded my head while standing up. “Well, I’m going to go look around the place and see if anything is still here from when I was younger.” I told her.

Ilise followed suit and stood up as well “If that's the case, I hope things go well for you Crim and I hope to see you here tonight for one more dinner?”. When I nodded to her words, she then turned towards the stairs “Well then, see you tonight Crim.” she said as she began walking.

When I saw her walking towards the stairs, I did the same and began walking towards the exit. Once I was outside I wanted to find one of the places that I saw in my memory and began walking towards the gate that separated the wealthy from the poor. After arriving at the gate, I began looking around to see if I could find any building that had glass windows with books and trinkets on display.

I walked around for a while as the sun was now falling from its highest point until I finally found a similar building. Once I was in front of it, I compared it to the memory. It was a tall building that had a door in the middle with two large glass windows on both sides and behind it were a ton of different books and trinkets on display. I had a feeling in my chest that this was the place so I placed my hand on the door handle and entered the building.

Inside there was a counter to my right near the door with tall bookcases filled with books all around the building. Shortly after entering I heard a man from deep in the building call out “Is that a customer who came in?”. Several minutes after hearing the man talk, I heard footsteps approaching and from behind one of the bookshelves, a young man came into view.