“Keep eyes on us and, when we need to get the fuck out, help us. Sounds simple, right?”
That was what Duman told me when he decided to leave the airship and make his way to Mount Siwen on foot. I watched the group leave me behind. This was after he blatantly told me that I was “useless” which I couldn’t retort. I was indeed useless back then. I knew I was useless, but what choices did I have? Do I give up on life just because I was “useless”? No, you fight in a way you can. What I could do at that time was fix up the Fat Lady and do exactly what he asked me to do. Keep my eyes on them from the sky and help them get out when they need to. I did exactly that. He gave me one job, and I wasn’t going to fail no matter what the cost. I watched them from afar. I watched them fight hopelessly against the Dragon of the North. It didn’t take long for me to come to a conclusion that they had no chance. The dragon was far too strong, but that was fine because it wasn’t their job to defeat the dragon. All they had to do was lure it out of its lair. And lured it out, they did albeit at the cost of three lives. I waited patiently for a moment to fly the airship. I was waiting for a gap. I recall biting my nails when I saw Ayaan being sliced into two. I will be honest. I never liked the guy. He was mean. But he never did anything wrong explicitly. When I finally made the decision to ram the airship into the dragon, I didn’t mean to ram into its eye. It just happened. I didn’t have any control over the airship at that time due to its inconceivable speed. I passed out at the moment of the impact. I’d see a flurry of snow when I woke up next with half of my body feeling completely numb.
“........ Did I fall asleep?”
Half of my vision was blurry, which made me realize that there were tears in my eyes. I closed my eyes for a moment and recalled the dream I had just now. Slowly, I moved my arm to caress the thump of my left shoulder where my arm used to be. Not a single day passed without me missing my arm, but I’d be a greedy pig to lament about that. I mean, if I had a choice between a crippled leg and loss of an arm, I would have chosen the latter. I hated, from the bottom of my heart, how people looked at me whenever I limped in public. Some of their eyes displayed sympathy. Some displayed rejection. Some displayed disdain even. I didn’t need their fucking sympathy or whatever. Besides, my crippled knee was a direct result of me being stupid. The loss of my arm was a result of a heroic deed. Of course, I’d choose the loss of my arm over my knee.
“I hated it.”
Not being able to run. Not being able to do basic exercise because I couldn’t bend my leg. Truthfully, the loss of my arm was more bothersome in daily life, but people didn’t seem to mind it unlike limping. In that sense, I was glad that I was no longer perceived as a disabled person. I know I AM disabled but I don’t need to reminded daily for fuck’s sake.
“How long was I out for? And why…? Ah.., right.”
Cvetko was the reason.
“He said his piece. I said mine. All fair and square.”
At least, I thought so. The man must have been feeling guilty enough to approach me and tell me.
“Did he speak to Duman, though?” Then I chuckled. “Probably not.”
Duman was a big guy. You don’t piss off a man of his stature. A proper punch from him would break a bone or two easily. Heck, if he punched me and meant it, I’d probably die from internal bleeding. He was the man who lost the most probably. Yeah, I lost an arm, but he lost his wife and close friends. Roseline was the one who lost the least, but I felt silly for trying to measure who lost more.
“I mean, we all lost something dear.”
I lost an arm. Yeah…, let’s just … leave it at that. Looking through the window, the sun was still high in the sky. I must have taken an hour nap at the most.
“Being lazy doesn’t solve anything. Time to get my butt up and work!”
It took me a while, but I started to get some of my memories back. I experienced a complete memory loss from when I rammed the airship into the dragon’s eye to waking up in my bed. Duman told me that I acted very brave but wouldn’t tell me details. Roseline told me that the cause of the memory loss was probably the massive blood I lost during the period. True enough, I was able to find … bits of me from the battered airship. Pieces and fragments of bones, I found. I assumed that those were from my very own ribs. I shook my head repeatedly, not wanting to recall the scary scene. I should have died. Roseline was out of commission at that time, and she was the best water mage in the nation. I was … very likely crushed into bits when I rammed into the dragon… How I survived… I didn’t want to think about too much for my own sanity. Some things are better left undug.
“Jane!” I shouted at her as I walked downstairs. It wasn’t as busy as before. There were only a pair of short lines.
“Help me out, will you?!” She yelped. And here I was, expecting a warm welcome. Of course, you don’t piss off your girl. That never ends well. I learned that from observing my parents.
“Get your ass over here!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
As soon as I was behind the counter where a pair of young girls, one of whom was Jane, was working, she asked for a log book immediately.
“Look into the log, two days before, request …, what was that?” She asked the tall and muscular man in front of her. He looked troubled and barely got his words out.
“I don’t… remember.”
Gritting, she cursed. “Are you dumb or something?! How can you forget the request you took?! Do you at least remember what time? Was it morning, noon, afternoon?!”
It was a funny scene where a little girl was barking at a man who was almost twice size. Anyway, I realized what was happening. The big dude over there accepted a mission and probably had a drinking night. As a result, he had completely forgotten about what he was supposed to do. The other girl was busy already, and she was looking into another log book already. Since she asked for a log book that was two days old, she was probably looking into yesterday’s log book.
Scratching the back of his head, he managed to speak slowly, “I think … afternoon? Because … I think … I had a drink shortly after.”
I knew what to do. Any accepted missions would have been written down, so I looked into the afternoon portion and saw fourteen accepted missions. Two of them were already marked as complete, leaving twelve. Looking at the dude, he was a warrior type. Therefore, I excluded non-combat missions, which left four.
“I’ve got four here,” I spoke loudly. “One goblin encampment extermination. One merchant escort -”
The dude interjected with a loud voice, his eyes brimming with light. “AH, THE MERCHANT!”
Jane and I - our eyes met. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she shook her head, took a deep breath, then looked at the guy who was just happy to finally realize what he was supposed to do.
“YOU IMBECILE!” She berated and rightfully so. His job was to escort a merchant wagon, and he was probably two days late. In other words, the dude abandoned his mission inadvertently. There was a penalty for abandoning tasks. You’d get a strike on the back of your guild badge. After three strikes, you’d get kicked out of the guild.
“The merchant’s name is Thilo. He was supposed to meet him - two days ago - at the central market.” I put a heavy emphasis on “two days ago”. In other words, the merchant was long gone.
“Strike out the mission,” she told me and I duly did so with a pen. “Mister, you will receive a strike. Give me your guild badge.”
Yep, this was what a guild receptionist’s work was like. On a good day, everything would go smoothly. Adventurers would flock in and take missions. Our job was to record what they took and hand out their rewards once it was done. Occasionally, there were cases like this where a numbskull would completely forget what he was supposed to do after a drunken night. Dudes like him were fine. I mean it was a part of our job. But what we were bothered with was the line getting longer because cases like this would take a considerable amount of time and would hold up the line. Of course, there was another small issue of the merchant not getting the service, but he’d get his fee refunded. He probably found another group and went on his way already in a hurry.
“Jane, I will take over. Your shift is done,” another girl was walking downstairs. Receptionists were mostly females. Well, I was the only male receptionist in Ceres guild at least.
“Thank God! Please, take over. I am dying. Faro, I am famished.”
“Your usual?”
“Yes, please.”
“Got it. Be right back.”
Her “usual” was a loaf of bread and water. I knew that she came from a farming family and she wasn’t that wealthy. She was unable to afford anything fancier than a loaf of bread no matter how hungry. When she didn’t have enough money, she had to satisfy herself with just a bowl of veggie soup which was nothing more than boiled vegetables in slightly salted water. Another fact I knew was that she absolutely adored roasted boars and boiled shrimps, both of which weren’t cheap by ordinary folks’ standards. I giggled widely as I ran out of the guild.
“Girl, all I have is money, literally,” I said to myself. In spite of leaving the 15 gold coins to my mom, I still had sizable savings, which was about 5 silver coins. The corners of my lips reached my ears.
“Whoa…?” Her eyes went wide when I presented her with a dish of boiled shrimps. It was a large plate as well, which cost me 8 iron coins. I could see her drool almost immediately. She wanted to devour it, I could tell. The unique small of the shrimps grabbed others’ attention nearby also.
“All for you, Jane,” I said gleefully. However, she quickly wiped her drool and rejected the dish.
“I can’t,” she said and whispered, “Not while others are watching.”
Ahh, right… Fuck, stupid me…
There were eyes. She couldn’t simply eat what I offered her without repercussions or jealousy from others.
Faro, you’ve got a lot more to learn, you silly boy…, I told myself. But that wasn’t an issue. I simply offered the plate to the others and dragged her out and took her straight to the Seaside retreat restaurant. Without much ado, she devoured two large plates of boiled shrimps. That was 24 iron coins down the drain in a single day. It was a huge expanse.
“I feel ALIVE!” She exclaimed with a big smile on her face while caressing her belly. “That brutal morning was all worth it for this meal!”
Shrimps were from a remote town called Tantan. They were apparently “sea bugs” according to them. I ate boiled bugs before, but they tasted nothing like boiled shrimps. Whatever the case, boiled shrimps were a luxury dish in Ceres. But they weren’t extravagantly expensive. Saving up for a few days was enough to be able to afford to eat them. However, for Jane, who was getting by barely, could never afford it. Then how did she know what boiled shrimps tasted like? The guildmaster Brian treated all members of the guild with nearly 20 plates of boiled shrimps not long ago. Only a few knew, but the money was donated by Duman and Roseline. That was when she got a taste of them and fell in love. She was so satisfied that she had tears in her eyes.
“Thanks, Faro,” she told me, slightly sobbing. I failed to understand why she’d cry for food, but mom explained to me before. When all you eat is veggie soup and bread, anything else is a Godsend, she told me numerous times. Money and quality of food was something I had in abundance.
“Anything for my girl,” I replied, to which she blushed while looking away. We weren’t officially in a relationship, and she was two years senior. As far as I knew, only one person I knew had wives who were older, and that was the king. The king’s first wife was four years senior. His second wife was, whooping, five years senior. That was simply unheard of. At the same time, if it wasn’t for the king, having a girlfriend who was older than her boyfriend wouldn’t have flown.
Heheh, thanks, bro.
I couldn’t care less whether my girl was slightly older than me. I mean, what difference does that make? I was 15, and she was 17. So what? That was hardly any difference. I could see the problem if she was like ten years older, however.
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“I heard that it’s been busy lately. Must have been hellish, yeah?”
“It’s been busy, yes. But the guildmaster shortened our shifts, so it hasn’t been that bad. But, God…” She rubbed her temples. “When a dumbass like him shows up, it makes my job extra hard… I just can’t stand idiots.”
We chatted a bit casually until she cast a sympathetic glance at my left shoulder.
“How are you?” She eventually asked. I knew she wasn’t asking how I was doing daily. She was asking about my arm specifically.
“Could have been worse,” was my answer. I could have died. I would have died if it wasn’t for the king probably. To be honest, it did come across my mind that she might dump me because of my missing arm. She would have dumped me if I was just an ordinary dude. Those from the guild knew that I returned successfully from a royal mission given by the king. The best of the best and me were sent. Two made it back out of five, and I came back alive as well. I was a hero, sort of. I may have baggage but had a decent amount of incentives as well, the most important thing being money. A single gold coin was enough for me to purchase a decent house for a newly wedded couple. Being a down-to-earth type of girl, she probably did some finger math on me. Like, the dude has got only one arm, but he has money, so that evens out type of math. Mom told me to choose my woman carefully also. For example, she told me not to pick a physically weak woman. Looking back, both of my parents have been healthy as wild boars because I hardly ever saw them getting sick, especially my dad. I’ve never seen him catch a cold or get ill. The guy was the epitome of being healthy. My mom was equally healthy although she did catch a cold occasionally.
“Have you talked to Duman and Roseline yet?” Then she looked as if she just realized something. “Roseline is out on a mission if I am correct.”
“I haven’t talked to either of them. I will soon, though.”
“I don’t know what they went through, but the way they’ve been acting, it must have been …,” she trailed off, not finishing her sentence. To be honest, I didn’t know what they went through. I wasn’t there. Yes, I did observe from a safe distance, but that didn’t mean I went through their experience.
She continued, “Especially Duman…, he sometimes just … spaces off, looking into the distance. It feels like he was seeing ghosts or something, really eerie.”
I wasn’t sure how or what to talk to him to be honest. He was like 20 years older than me, meaning he was old enough to be my father.
“I am going to see him right now,” I told her. “See you later, yeah?”
She yawned delightfully. After a long morning, she was probably going to take a nap after getting back to the guild. She had her own room like I did although females had their own floor. No male was allowed on their floor. If a member of the guild married a fellow guild member, which was quite a common occurrence in my own experience, they were asked to get their own place outside of the guild building.
“I will see you tomorrow most likely. I am going to my parents’ house. They said they wanted to talk about something.”
“Alright then. See you later.”
I didn’t think too much about her visiting her parents’ house although it made me think that her parents were pushing her to marry. Women between 15 to 20 years old were in most demand, and she was 17 years old, basically in her prime. While walking my way back to the guild, I wondered whether I should propose to her. At the same time, I did also wonder whether I liked her enough to do that.
“Or more importantly, does she like me enough?” I said to myself.
Jane was one of the first people I met when I joined the guild when I was about ten years old. She was training to be a receptionist from getgo, and I was being trained to become an adventurer. Therefore, we didn’t really run into each other frequently. It wasn’t until about a year ago that we treated each other’s existence somewhat seriously. I wasn’t sure how to move forward with the relationship. I mean, what do I do at this point?
“Wish I could ask someone…”
Under normal circumstances, I would have asked Duman. I can’t ask dad about something like this…
“Well, let’s see how he is doing and maybe I will ask.”
I had visited the guild a few times during my recovery days. The Fat Lady, the airship we used to reach Mount Siwen, was completely dismantled when I saw her the last time. I was told that several structural damage was found, and it had to be rebuilt literally. Money wasn’t an issue since Duman and Roseline would have been rewarded handsomely with gold coins. When I made it to the guild and went to the backyard, I found the same skeleton as before. It didn’t look like it was being worked on. In front of it, there was Duman, a big-boned giant who towered over everyone. He was like four heads taller than me. It wasn’t just that he was tall. He was wide as well. The dude was just freaking huge. Let’s just leave it at that. He was sitting on a tree stump and was sanding some wooden pranks. Yeah, he was working on it, but the speed he was doing was really slow. No wonder he wasn’t getting anything done.
“Hey, Duman.”
Startling subtly, his head turned to my direction. He looked like he had heard a ghost or something, but his disturbed face soon turned into a weak smile.
“Hey, Faro. Back for now?”
“I’ve come of age. This is my home now.”
“Fifteen already? Time sure flies, huh.”
“Working on the Fat Lady?”
I approached him casually while looking around. The backyard of the guild was usually used for a place of breaks. It did have some training dummies for members to work with as well as a few tables for casual chitchats while drinking water and whatnot. Those were all gone at the moment, replaced with parts of the Fat Lady with the skeleton of the airship sitting in the back. Basically, the entire backyard was being used as Duman’s workshop. I could see him working on various parts, but none of them looked finished. As a former carpenter, I knew what I was looking at.
“You’ve got lots to do, yeah?” I was telling him in a roundabout way that he wasn’t doing anything. Instead of answering me, he continued to sand a wooden prank. I could see he was spacing out from the way his eyes were. The guy was broken, I could tell. There was nothing for me to do. Even though I was a part of the team and went through my own share of hardships of recovery, my burden wasn’t even remotely close to his. In my mind, the only person who could scold him was Roseline who had to go through very similar hardships, primarily survivor's guilt. The guildmaster knew this well probably and all he could do was just let them be. At least, I had mom, dad, and brothers. They had no one. Still, I had to do something, anything.
“Hey, wanna go on a mission together or something? When Roseline gets back, I mean. Or we could get some more people.”
“Sure, why not. Not right now though. Maybe some days later,” he replied.
Uh…, that was easy. I figured he’d refuse which may have given me an opportunity to talk some sense into him. With him accepting my suggestion so easily, I was shut down.
“Oh, Yeah, Duman, can you teach me swordsmanship?”
He stopped sanding the wooden prank and looked at me with a very stoic face. “Swordsmanship? You do realize that you don’t have both arms anymore, don’t you?”
“I am aware, but my body feels different after surviving the journey.”
“Different? How?” From the way he looked, he didn’t believe me one bit.
“Um…, lighter, faster, stronger? Well, it’s just easier to show you.” And I ran in a circle, cartwheeling. He had educated me in swordsmanship before. If anyone could see how different I was, it was him, and he caught on swiftly. I never cartwheeled in my life until six months ago.
“Faro, get a pair of wooden swords.”
I nodded, knowing what his intention was. As soon as I got them and threw one to Duman, we began spurring immediately. Exchanging several practice blows, he looked mildly surprised, and there was light back in his eyes.
“Interesting,” he said while still spurring. “You are considerably faster and stronger. The only reason I can think of is … the king.”
He told me that the king, a duke at that time, healed me after demanding water elementals.
“He demanded elementals to heal you. Mages always ask politely to borrow the powers of elementals. And he demanded.” Then he let out a chuckle. “He demanded as if they were his pawns. Well, I suppose there is a reason why he is called the elemental king now.”
Darn…, he is good. I was doing my best to win this practice match, but he was clearly better in skills and expertise. As far as raw strength was concerned, however, I believed that I could be on par. Yes, that was how much I have gotten stronger. But physical advantage can get you only so far if you are outmatched in other areas. We spurred a while longer. For the first time in my life, I was not getting beaten by him. Eventually, he put a stop to the spurring.
“That’s enough. You now have the raw talents to be able to properly train. Congrats,” he said with a grin. He looked like his old self.
“Will you teach me then?”
“Nope.”
“... What?”
“Kiddo, have you forgotten? I am a crossbowman. I taught you basic swordsmanship because you sucked. Now that you don’t suck, learn it from a proper swordsman.”
Did our guild have good swordsmanship? Being good with swords and being able to teach others were two entirely different things. Duman here may not be a swordsman but him being a mechanic made him be able to explain things in a way I could understand easily. Basically, he was a good teacher.
“I need a magic teacher also. My earth elemental affinity is two. It was one before the king blessed me.”
“Roseline is the best magic teacher. Ask her. Anyway, magic is not my area of expertise. I will refer you to a swordsman I know. He doesn’t live in Ceres, though.”
I figured as much. If there was someone that good, I would have known about him, and he would have been invited to the meeting Brian called to lure out the dragon.
“What’s his name?”
“I won’t tell you. I want to make sure that he’s alive first. If he’s dead, I will find you another. Besides, with your speed and strength, your swordsmanship skill is probably above average at this point. You will get by fine.”
I wasn’t quite convinced because I wanted to learn fast and become stronger. As if he could read my face, he added.
“Look. Most, if not all, swordsmanship is built on a condition that you have both arms. No matter what teacher, you will probably need to master your own style.”
Swordsmanship had three main styles. The first one was just a single blade wielding. The second was a sword and a shield. The final style was wielding a two-handed sword. A sword and a shield was the most common style because it’d give the wielder both offense and defense. Those wielding just a sword without a shield meant they were agile fighters. Instead of using a shield to block incoming attacks, they’d evade. The two-handed sword style was the least people used because wielding a two-handed sword was not practical in real world fights. Additionally, it required exceptional raw strength. The major downside of this style was the slow swing unless its wielder’s strength was overwhelming. Duman could probably pull off being a two-handed swordsman. As for me, it was obvious that an agile fighter was the only path available to me.
“In that case, wouldn’t you be able to work with me?”
“Mayhaps. But I’ve got my hands full. A good mentor will work with you to finalize your own style. He won’t be able to teach you his own style due to the fact that you have only one arm.”
The free arm for those who wielded only a sword wasn’t there to look pretty. It was there for balance as well as sneak attacks. In some rare cases, they wielded a dagger in their left hand as well. I wouldn’t have any of those choices. Duman was probably right that I was better off inventing my own style rather than being taught by others.
“Now, leave me be. I’ve got things to do,” he said, turning his attention away from me and sitting down to sand the pranks. It looked like he was encasing himself in his bubble once more. And, surely enough, he had a distant look in his eyes. When I turned around and went back into the guild, there were four young girls who were grouped together. They looked ten-ish. I knew what they were doing since Brian was with them. They were receptionist trainees.
“Faro, these four are to be trained as receptionists,” he told me. The girls looked right at me with googly eyes. I had to grin because their eyes brought me old memories. Everything was so new when I entered the guild for the first time. They were feeling the same most likely.
“Got it, boss,” I told him. “Say no more.”
While being literate was rare, it wasn’t that uncommon anymore because Marat from the public library taught young children how to read and write if they wanted for free of charge. Brian once told me that usually fallen noble daughters would end up being receptionists. That wasn’t the case in Ceres anymore at least. All receptionists I knew were from farming families, Jane included.
“You all know how to read and write, yeah?”
They nodded in unison. They were so cute. I led them to the behind the counters where only one reception was working at the moment. She paid no mind to our presence. I brought out an empty notebook and sat down on the floor. Their eyes were tracking my movements. Opening the book revealed blank pages.
“This is a blank notebook. You write down accepted mission details here. You must categorize them into morning, noon, and afternoon.”
“Where is your other arm?” One of the girls asked innocently. They had probably never seen someone with one arm before.
“A monster ate it,” I said jokingly, to which the girls shrieked in fear and cuddled together.
“Quiet!” The receptionist turned back briefly to warn us and went back to talking to someone in front of the counter.
“Really? A monster ate it? Really, really?” The girl asked me with a half-crying voice. She sounded really scared. They might end up having a nightmare about this.
“Yeah, sort of.” I didn’t feel that it was a lie. Well, it was a lie but it wasn’t entirely wrong, either.
“Did it hurt?” Another girl asked with tears in her eyes.
“I am not sure…” This time, I spoke truthfully. I barely remembered any of it anyway. Perhaps, it’s good that I don’t remember. “Come on, girls. Focus on the task at hand.”
Being a guild receptionist wasn’t a hard job on paper. Indeed, it was a simple job of talking and taking notes when needed. However, it was a job that required experience to be able to perform at an acceptable level. I knew, for a fact, that not all four of them would make it to the end. One or two will make it. That was how it worked when I was under training as well. There were seven of us, and only three made it to the end. Essentially, this “training” was an aptitude test. It was my job to pick who’d be able to endure the hardships that came with this job.
“Let me show ya.” I stood up and approached the empty counter. It was left unmanned on purpose. I raised my voice. “Next person, please!” A dude dashed toward me, sidelining a female adventurer who was about to face me. The woman glared at the guy but didn’t raise a fuss and stood behind him.
“My group is taking that mission over there, a merchant escort request.”
I reached down below the counter where a piece of paper had all current missions written down. This was done very early in the morning. The mission board was updated twice a day, and a paper listing all current missions would be placed under the counter.
“A merchant escort? Details please.” I had to ask him to specify since there were more than a few.”
“I took the paper here.”
I reached out for today’s log book and wrote down details of the mission.
“Your guild badge please.”
The guy handed over an iron badge. There were five different badges, and it went like this: Wood 🠮 Copper 🠮 Iron 🠮 Silver 🠮 Gold. I had a copper badge. So, he was probably stronger than me. Well, against the old me, of course. I inspected the back of the badge just in case the guy had three strikes. It was all good. There were counterfeit guild badges around, but they were rare and were easily identified as long as enough attention was paid.
“All good, sir. Please meet up with the merchant at the central market early tomorrow morning.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he replied apathetically as he turned around to leave. The woman behind him glared at him leaving as she moved forward. Glancing backwards, I saw the four girls watching me attentively.