After that incident, another week of reading and practicing magic came and went, and I didn’t hear a word from Valentino. I went to the Adventurer’s Guild again and managed to get in touch with his old party members and they said they hadn’t seen him since then either. I took that to be a good sign and soon forgot about him entirely.
In the meantime, although life at the book store was peaceful, life the world was anything but. The enormous conference of the elites of the Church of Order did not go unnoticed, and although no official announcements had been made, it was an open secret that the Church was gearing up to fight against the Demon Kings. The paladins and other holy knights were all training harder than ever before, and their recruitment numbers had increased exponentially.
It was about this that we most often talked with Sylvia. As a noble, she was privy to information that the public was not, and she trusted us enough to share it.
“They’ve located one already,” she said one day. “They are hoping to carry out their attack before the month ends.”
“Is this the viscount?” asked Anatoly.
“Yes. Viscount Ludberg, a noble from Johann,” she added, seeing my look of confusion. “He’s been making a great number of suspicious purchases recently. Roc meat, leviathan meat, a hydra head, argus eyes, and it’s rumored that he even paid a dragon for a vial of blood. The items aren’t necessarily strange, given his personality, but the quantities are. By all accounts, he is a man who is fond of eating, but even for him, it would be impossible to consume everything he’s purchased. The church suspects he is the Demon King of Gluttony.”
“That certainly sounds plausible,” said Anatoly. “Though it’s not guaranteed, Demon Kings of Gluttony almost always have odd and excessive diets.”
“I for one am glad he’s being investigated,” said Sylvia. “Demon King or not, he is a despicable man, and hopefully, he will finally see some punishment for his actions.”
“What has he done?” I asked.
“He’s everything a noble shouldn’t be,” said Sylvia with a scowl. “He’s greedy, hedonistic, stupid and doesn’t care at all for his people. He taxes them to poverty to afford his lavish lifestyle, and he taxes them again for trying to move away. The population of Ludberg is on a steady decline, but rather than doing anything to improve his land to make people come back, he just taxes the residents even more to maintain his income. The taxation alone makes his territory nigh unlivable for common folk, and that’s not even accounting for his cabinet members.
“His minister of finance embezzles more than most territories that size bring in, and the captain of his knights is a drunkard who’s quick to draw his blade at any slight, real or imagined. His personal aides are all boys and girls aged eight to fourteen who all disappear once they start looking like adults, likely gifted to the court mage who’s all but confirmed to be a necromancer. His last wife disappeared under similar circumstances, and when her family, a very minor barony, tried to investigate, a series of unfortunate accidents left them bankrupt and without their patriarch, and they ultimately dropped the issue.
“He’s gotten so fat he can’t even get out of bed without magical assistance, and most days he doesn’t even leave his room, choosing to just laze around and eat enormous meals and ‘play’ with his aides.
“And yet, despite all this, Johann has done nothing. Everyone knows how awful he is, but the royal family just ignores him. Then again, this is the same royal family who allowed slave trade to almost openly flourish in their kingdom. They are either too incompetent or too corrupt to care. The church, thankfully, has no such issues, and even if he is not a Demon King, they will not let him continue to live as he does now. I heard another rumor that he’s also heard about this, and has begun to panic.” Her lips curled upward in a cold smirk. “I can’t wait till the day he finally gets what’s coming to him.”
“He is a filthy man,” Anatoly agreed. “My daughter has been making similarly scathing remarks about him.”
“Archmage Natalya? Does that mean it’s true that she’ll be leading the assault then?”
“I trust you won’t go spreading it around.”
“No need to worry. I won’t say a word. And even if I did, no one would listen.”
She smiled wryly but her eyes were more sad than amused. This was not the first time she made such a remark. She was almost constantly putting herself down and complaining about her family, and whenever she did, Anatoly would try to encourage her, and she would brush it off and come back with the same attitude the next day. At first it was just pitiful, but after the third day it was just annoying. There’s nothing more grating than hearing someone constantly whine without actually doing anything about whatever it is they say they hate so much.
“If no one is listening to you, then you are not talking to the right people,” he said.
“Right, I’ll just stop talking to my family then,” she said.
“Why don’t you try to make friends outside of your family?”
“Ha!” she barked. “As if I could. They won’t let me have friends. They won’t even let me have acquaintances. Whenever they throw a party, I get locked in my room so I don’t sour the mood. When I was younger, Ophelia would insist that I get to go too, but that was even worse. She didn’t actually care about me. She just wanted to look better. She wanted everyone to think, ‘Aw, look how sweet young Ophelia is, helping out her ugly older sister.’ I hated it, so I stopped going and returned to my exile.”
“You are not ugly,” said Anatoly.
“Compared to her I am,” she countered. “And compared to all the other nobles with their clown makeup and fancy illusions I am.”
“Constantly comparing yourself to others is never a healthy mindset,” he said. “Especially when it comes to things as superficial as appearance. How you look does not matter for anything but first impressions.”
“In high society, first impressions are the only things that matter. One bad introduction and you're doomed to social oblivion, and I don’t even get a chance at that.”
“Then stop worrying about this so-called ‘high society,’” said Anatoly. “Superficial sub-cultures like that have always been the lowest points of humanity. Their opinions are worth less than nothing.”
“Then how am I supposed to make any friends?” she demanded. “That’s the only way I’m allowed to meet people. As the daughter of a duke, my status is ‘too high to mingle with commoners.’ I barely managed to get out of the palace to come here, and even that’s only because Ophelia pitied me and helped convince father to let me go. And now she’s come here too, probably saying she’s worried about me, but really she just wants to swoop in and take the credit for convincing Anatoly.”
“Why don’t you just leave, then?” I asked, finally fed up enough to rejoin the conversation.
“If I could, I would.”
“Why can’t you?”
“I'm the daughter of a duke. I’m not allowed to ‘just leave.’ I can’t abandon my title. I have duties to uphold.”
“What duties? You just said all you ever do is hide in your room and get ignored.”
“I only stay in my room when there are guests,” she said coldly. “When there aren’t, I help manage the servants and the palace budget, I run inspections on imported goods, and when I’m not doing official Lyon work, I also volunteer at local charities on behalf of the Lyon family.”
“So you’re just an unpaid worker? Why do you need to stay for that? Why not go somewhere that they’ll actually pay you?”
“I am compensated. Obviously, all my meals and my room are paid for, and I also receive wages.”
“So you’re literally just an employee? If that’s all you do, why not leave and go be an employee somewhere else where your boss might actually care about you. And you can keep doing charity work after you leave too if you want.”
“The charity work is the most important part of my duties,” she said. “As the daughter of a duke, I must serve my people and set an example for them.”
“Didn’t you say when we met that you didn’t care about titles or status? Why do you suddenly care now?”
“That’s not the same thing,” she argued. “I don’t care about titles when it comes to interpersonal relationships, but when it comes to my duties, it’s different. I can do much more good as a Lyon than I could as a commoner. If the people see that even I, a princess, am lowering myself to serve the people I am supposed to govern, that is much more impactful than seeing a random commoner woman doing the same thing.”
“I guess so,” I conceded. “But wouldn’t it be even more impactful if a princess gave up her position to serve her people instead?”
Sylvia was stumped by that question, so Anatoly chimed in.
“You don’t have to decide anything right now,” he said. “But Lucy brings up some good points. You are not bound to your family, and your family name does not define who you are. You are free to do whatever you’d like. If you want to leave, you can leave, and if you think you are better off staying, you can stay. Just make sure you make your choices based on yourself, and not any misplaced sense of duty.”
“Plus,” I added. “Constantly complaining about something you’re not doing anything to remedy is really… Well, no offense intended, but it’s kind of annoying. If you’ve decided to accept your fate, why complain, and if you haven’t why are you complaining instead of doing something about it?”
Just as I finished talking, the bell above the door rang and a trio of middle-aged women entered the shop.
“Oh, are we interrupting something?” asked one, sensing the mood.
“No, you’re fine,” I said, walking toward them. “Welcome to Ivanov Books, can I help you find anything?”
Sylvia left with a troubled look on her face while Anatoly and I were helping the three women. While calling her annoying to her face was impolite, it’s not something I regret either. It’s something she needed to hear, even if she didn’t like hearing it. If I were in her shoes, I would want someone to let me know too.
Once the women were gone and the shop was empty again, I decided to bring up a topic with Anatoly that I had been mulling over for a few days.
“I think I want to be an Adventurer,” I said.
He froze in the middle of straightening the books on one of the shelves. “What brought about such a desire?”
“I want to learn to defend myself. I was pretty adept at it in my old world, but I feel helpless here.”
“I could teach you,” he said. “Combat isn’t my specialty, but-”
“No, I want real, practical experience,” I interrupted. “And maybe a second source of income.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I can raise your wages.”
“And a chance to make some connections with other people.”
“...You might not be ready yet,” he said. “What if you slip up in front of your party members? You haven’t mastered fake eating yet.”
“I’ll go solo.”
“That’s a good way to get yourself killed.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“You are from another world. You don’t even know what you need to be careful of.”
“Then I’ll learn.”
He sighed and turned to face me. “You can go if you’d like. I won’t stop you. However, as you are right now, you will not be able to blend in perfectly. As soon as it is time to eat, unless they are exceedingly oblivious, they will notice something.”
“Fine, then I’ll master that first, then I’ll go become an Adventurer.”
“There are other ways for you to get combat experience without risking your life in Dungeons,” he said.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Sparring. I could find you some suitable training partners. You would get the experience you need without the risk of death.”
“The risk of death is what makes it good experience,” I said. “And this is practice for blending in too, not just for fighting.”
“With a good training partner, whether or not death is a risk is not an issue. And you don’t need to become an Adventurer to practice-”
“Being stuck with you all the time is stifling,” I blurted. “Sorry, I know you mean well, but honestly, it feels suffocating, and I don’t even breathe. I want to be independent and not keep relying on you all the time. I want to figure some things out on my own, instead of just having you provide me with all the answers.”
He stared without speaking for a few moments, then sighed again. “If that is what you wish. I hope you’ll still accept my advice though. You should at least wait until you’ve mastered pretending to eat.”
“I will. I wasn’t planning on going immediately anyway.”
Sylvia did not come back the next day, or the day after. I guess she was processing what we had talked about or maybe contacting her family or something. I never bothered to ask. On the third day, she was back, and back to her usual self, almost as if our conversation had never happened. Things were almost exactly as they had been, with the exception that she was much colder to me than she had been before.
Over the next week, I spent a lot of time perfecting the technique that Anatoly had recommended I use, that being putting human food in my mouth, and sending it into [Inventory] once my mouth was closed while pretending to chew. It still tasted bad for a split second, but it was much better than forcing it down while trying to act normal or coming up with increasingly suspicious excuses at every meal time.
It took another week after earning Anatoly’s approval before I saved up enough money to equip myself. I needed new clothes, and though Anatoly recommended mage robes, I think mage robes look stupid, and while I couldn’t use aura yet, I didn’t intend to remain only a mage forever, so I opted for an outfit more typical of a scout instead: black, form-fitting shirt and shorts with a supple leather breastplate, and leather pads on my knees and elbows. The employee also tried selling me some sashes and bags to strap onto the armor, but with [Inventory], I didn’t need them.
It was almost exactly a month after arriving in Astraeus that I finally set out toward the Adventurer’s guild to apply for my license. I left before the sun rose, hoping to miss Anatoly, but he noticed anyway, and was awake to nag before I left. The streets near the book store were almost completely empty and silent, but the nearer I drew to the Adventurer’s Guild, the less so that was.
In the blocks immediately surrounding the ugly building, the shops and restaurants were just as busy as I had seen them during the day, with armored adventurers walking in and out, talking loudly as if they didn’t care about waking anyone else up. Although I would have looked out of place anywhere else in the city, there, I blended in perfectly, attracting no unwanted attention, other than the occasional lustful eye.
Unfortunately, I didn’t blend in quite well enough to avoid the attention of everyone.
“Lucy!” called a familiar voice from behind me.
I turned to see Ophelia and her guard who’s name I had since learned was Ruben, both in their masks, weaving between busy adventurers to reach me. It was too late to pretend I hadn’t seen them, so, reluctantly, I waved back at them and moved to greet them.
“I missed you at the shop yesterday, Lucy,” she said, hugging me far too enthusiastically. “Anatoly said you were out shopping. Is this what you were buying?” she gestured to my outfit.
“Yes,” I said.
“So you’re going to be an adventurer, then,” she said, nodding. “And based on your clothes, a Scout?”
“Mage, actually,” I said. “I just didn’t like the mage robes much.”
“Oh, I know exactly what you mean!” she exclaimed. “My teacher used to make me wear them whenever I was practicing my magic. They’re so ugly and they’re not very comfortable either. And they’re so pretentious too. It’s like anyone who wears them is saying ‘Hey everyone, look at me! I’m a mage! See?’ Though I guess I don’t have much room to talk, walking around with a mask and a bodyguard.” She giggled. “So what element do you use? I’m mainly a water mage myself, but I can use a bit of wind and earth magic too.”
“All of them, though I’m best with Earth, Water, and Light.”
“All of them?” she said, putting a hand to her mask above where her mouth would be. “Wow, that’s incredible! You’re halfway to being an archmage already! Now all you need to do is reach level 75! How old are you again?”
“22.”
“Well you can’t break the record for youngest, but I bet if you worked hard, you could be the only living archmage in the world under thirty!”
“Maybe,” I said. “Well, I have to get going. I want to register early enough to go to the Dungeon later.”
“Oh, sorry,” she said, dipping her head. “I didn’t mean to keep you for so long. But… I don’t know if you’ll be able to go into the Dungeon after registering.”
“Why not?” I asked. “I already checked, there’s no time restriction.”
“Yeah, but…” she paused, then looked up at her bodyguard. “Ruben, you tell her, I don’t know how to say it.”
“The branch leader is notoriously tough on new Adventurers,” he said immediately. “She never gives them any lasting physical damage, but most newbies are too mentally drained to want to do anything after she’s done with them.”
“I see,” I said. “I’d still like to get it done as soon as possible though.”
“Of course, no problem,” said Ophelia. “Well, it was nice running into you. See you tonight, maybe?”
“Maybe. Bye.”
The timing of that encounter didn’t register as strange until she was already gone. I wish I had been quicker on the uptake, but I was in such a hurry to get out of the conversation that asking her what she was doing out and about at that hour never even crossed my mind. I’m sure she would have had the perfect excuse prepared, and it wouldn’t have mattered, but it was still clumsy on my part.
After we parted ways, I went to register as an Adventurer, but before I get to that part, I’m sure you all are curious about what my status window looked like around this time, so I’ll include a table below, and save the guild story for the next chapter:
Name
Lucille Montague
Age
22
Sex
F
Race
Vampire
Class
[Sole Survivor] lvl 11
Level
16
Max HP
3560
Max MP
4260
Max AP
3910
Skills
Passive
[Darkvision] lvl MAX
[Enhanced Senses] lvl MAX
[Perseverance] lvl MAX
[Pride] lvl MAX
[Vampiric Superiority] lvl MAX
[Vampiric Weakness (curse)] lvl MAX
[Detection] lvl 8
[Rapid Regeneration] lvl 4
Active
[Enthrall] lvl 9
[Sprint] lvl 3
[Spells]
Stats
Available Free Points
0
Base
System Base
System Bonus
System Total
Agility
17
113
113
226
Dexterity
15
113
113
226
Strength
10
113
113
226
Vitality
13
113
113
226
Charisma
17
113
113
226
Intelligence
19
113
113
226
Perception
32
113
226
339
Willpower
20
113
113
226