Somehow, we're still continuing our journey. I sensed Sophie wasn't 100% confident in that decision, she's only following along because I guilt tripped her.

'Do you not trust in me, Sophie?'

'No! I do! I was just feeling down...'

Doubting herself when she feels sad, I've seen this numerous times already. That's why I'm sure once she's regained some confidence, she'll want to travel again. My acting talent will be required again. I'll construct some scenarios which utilize her skills without letting her know.

But even then, I'm not considering taking this small child with us. He'll only cause more harm than good.

The pickpocket we saved followed us as if it were normal. He was inspired by the way we fought apparently. When Sophie heard him praising our teamwork and his backstory, her heart melted as expected.

"It'll be dangerous, Paige... Claud and I are going to embark on a dangerous journey. We won't be able to-"

"Sir Branford, Ms. Sophie please! I'll work hard! I promise!"

Taking someone else into our party is iffy, I have no idea how his skills and stats are.

"There are going to be monsters where we're headed. Do you understand that? You could lose your life..."

Sophie doesn't want Paige as a companion because she's scared. If Paige dies, Sophie will be immensely scarred. Not that I'd let that happen. Better to not let him join in the first place. I can think of multiple situations where Sophie could get her confidence back. But with a rogue element like Paige in the mix, that becomes a lot riskier.

"My life would already have been forfeit if you didn't come to help me! I won't give up! Please let me help!"

"Claud... What do we do? I don't think we could protect a small child while travelling but... we can't just leave him here."

'Decide later.'

For now, we'll let him walk with us to the guild. Appeasing him in this way will only make him want to join our group more, I understand that's how young kids are. But turning him away this quickly would be kind of mean.

First order of business today, we need to get food, water and camping supplies. Thankfully, our coins are accepted here. Unfortunately, we don't have enough to buy everything we want. We need to stock up to reach the next town with a little surplus, as well as new weapons and armor.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Looking outside our inn window, a few people walked around armed to the teeth. Literally, one had false iron teeth with elongated, sharp metal canines. Weird person...

"Psst. Ms. Sophie. Is Sir Branford angry at me? He hasn't said a word."

"Claud's just a naturally quiet person, he doesn't say anything if there's no need to."

"Oh, a stoic hero. Cool..."

"Mmm... I wouldn't say stoic. He's a very cautious person."

I can hear every word you guys are saying, you're two feet behind me...

----------------------------------------

I made sure that Sophie didn't wear her academy armaments. Our uniforms were quite striking, no other clothes on the street had a red and black color combination. Don't want to draw any unwanted attention.

It doesn't seem to have worked. Everybody's eyeballing us anyways. Is it because they know we're from the East? From what I know, children frequenting the guild for small chores and requests is a common occurrence though...

"Children, are you all here to register in the guild?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Please read these forms and fill in the information with the status orb here. Feel free to ask for help if you don't understand anything."

Forms... There doesn't seem to be anything fishy about it. Only requires a picture, class, age and name. Other things are optional.

Hmm, Paige has the Thief class and the corresponding Pickpocket skill.

"You've all finished filling the forms? Great. I shall recommend an easy job for you children. Take a look at the requests on the wall. I recommend this one, the sanitation crew has sent a request for an extra pair of hands-"

Paige and Sophie's faces wrinkled upon hearing the word sanitation. Mine soured upon seeing the amount of reward money. All the gathering quests are so cheap. Only hunting quests are worth anything. Oh, that drawing... It's a spider.

"Umm, miss. Isn't there other work? Sir Branford and Ms. Sophie are really strong!"

"Mmm... Is that so~?"

She didn't seem convinced at all.

"But it wouldn't be appropriate to send you on a hunting quest for your first-"

Luckily, I kept some monster parts because I thought they could come in handy. I carefully pulled out a bandaged spider fang.

"Th-that's... Where did you get that?"

Why, of course, I picked up this spider's fang from the ground on a warm, sunny day... Is what I felt inclined to say. But I don't want to give a bad first impression.

I poke Sophie's arm to get her to talk for me.

"We killed spiders while trying to get into town. Subjugated monsters have been recorded in our status, please take a look."

"You've subjugated 200 monsters of varying species... Incredible... You've killed goblins from the East..."

The way she's phrasing that is odd.

"Yes, we came here from Eindall."

I don't like the atmosphere the room just took on. Everyone dropped whatever conversation they were having to eavesdrop on ours.

"Ah, you're from the East... I see..."

The receptionist looks uncomfortable. I estimate she's a little over 20 years old. She must have been pretty young when the two countries were still at war. Perhaps right about now, the gears are turning in their minds about how two children could be so strong.

"Umm, Ms. Receptionist? Can we please have a hunting quest?"

The young child broke the silence.

Maybe due to that, the tension in the air dissipated.

"Ah, of course. There is a great stag that has recently invaded the green spotted Mushrooms' habitat where herbs are found. Please eliminate the stag with as little damage to the surroundings as possible. And refrain from killing any Mushrooms, if possible. They're vital to the ecosystem."