A small yellow bell chimed as a door swung open, and the small metal bird announcing the newcomers' arrival barely rose over the chatter ruling inside for a single short moment. With them the smell of fish and charcoal entered inside mixing with the scent of alcohol, blood and spiced food.
The elf was only slightly wrong about where the Adventurer Guild was. The guild house was built near the second set of walls on a main street from the port to the southern gate of the second ring, near the main industrial district. The L-shaped building with a garden looked apart from the buildings near it while fitting strangely perfectly in the Oriripol's mismatched architecture, from simple houses to needle thin towers to grand mansions overlooking the city. It lacked a traditional roof which was replaced by terraces with tables under cloth canopies and the building itself made out of what looked like a mixture of clay and bricks was far wider than the surrounding buildings, taking up the width which would fit three separate shops.
The bell's chime barely pierced the ambient sound rumbling throughout the building. Just like the guild in Marinya the guild house's ground floor was divided in two with the left side being where the reception and other job-related desks were and the right side acting as an inn.
The elf with the mage in tow approached the reception. Behind a large ash desk, a middle-aged man sat with a smoke pipe in his mouth. He seemed to be the only person who had noticed the pair's arrival but rather than standing up the man with a fierce face kicked something under the desk.
"Ouch!" The heavy ash desk jerked as the sound of something hitting it filled the reception shortly followed by a human woman massaging her foreheard appearing from under the desk. She looked at the unshaven man with wide-open eyes but the man simply shook his chin toward Iris's direction, the smoke from his pipe lagging behind him. "Huh? Oh, I'm sorry... ehhhh... how can I help you?" The woman with a funny accent reminded the tall undead monster masquerading as an elf of the warm touch of the summer sun on her skin.
"We would like a room." Iris responded when she got closer to the desk, the woman seemed to have found something amusing but before she could ask the receptionist, her tanned face turned cold.
"R-room?" The receptionist paused with uncertainty before glancing at a small blackboard facing towards her. "That will be 22 silver." The human woman with black hair which finished at cheek height eventually said shrinking further for some mysterious reason.
"Could I ask why is the price so high?" The elf asked. The guild house looked good but she wanted to know if there was a good reason for asking for almost three months' worth of income.
"Food is included in the price and our patrons can be reassured that there is no safer place in Oriripol bar than the Academy itself." A receipted line left the young receptionist's mouth.
"Patrons?" Although not wrong calling a member of the guild a patron in the guild house felt off to the elf, maybe she had entered the wrong building.
"Alright Liz, I will take over from here," The man with a freshly shaved beard stood up the grey smoke from his pipe trailing behind it. As the man walked toward the desk the elf noticed that the man had a severe limp and the left sleeve of his jacket hung loose, empty. "Go sort out the books in the back."
The sight of a man without a limb was slightly strange to the tall undead, generally healing magic is so common, especially in the large cities where the temples are usually found, that seeing a blemish on a person's skin was rare as divine mercy was extended to even the poorest and lowliest of beggars. Of course healing magic had its limits but those limits rarely applied to people spending their all life in a city where there was always another experienced healer to take over after the first one had run out of mana.
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People who fought often possessed scars in visible places either as a badge of honour but more often than not their scars were caused by being wounded near a sensitive area like an eye where a single badly cast Minor Cure Wounds by a novice could remove the scar for the cost of permanently damaging the eye. But, people with missing limbs were prioritised by the experienced healers and their chopped-off limbs were quickly reunited with their owners. This meant that the man in front of the elf had his limb completely destroyed while managing to survive afterwards.
"Sorted already." The woman called Liz responded energetically.
"Then sit and learn," The man sighed his words before muttering under his nose. "Kids these days... My name is Samuel, how can I help?" The man's harsh voice shifted into a smooth trustworthy voice that only existed to satisfy the listener's every need. In spite of the man's surprising transformation, his injuries and time had worn on his silver tongue as he gave Iris a nod and without waiting put his smoking pipe back into his mouth.
"We would like a room," Iris played into the man's lesson causing the corner of his mouth to rise into a smirk. "For now one day is enough."
"For fellow adventurers, a standard rate of ten silver and eight copper is charged I have to mention that my pupil hadn't noticed your badge hung under your necks since new faces who choose to stay in the guild house are rare these days. I also do have to profusely apologise but due to the current political situation, we do have to see your status sheets and verify if who you say you are matches," The man showed a sign that he didn't wish to see their status sheets. "I will also need the badges, checking everything will take roughly a bell so you should relax."
The elf produced her status sheet which manifested as a translucent white tablet, and took off her necklace on which the copper badge hung. The little copycat next to her echoed the elf, producing her status sheet with an unnerving degree of resemblance to the man. Kia's status sheet's unusual appearance made the man raise an eyebrow as he compared the tablet made out of swirling black ash with gilded letters on top and the humble copper badge.
The awkward moment where nobody moved was broken by the man who regained his composure and began to write on a sheet of low-quality paper. His professionalism was in stark contrast with the woman nearby who stared at Kia's fabricated status sheet like a magpie who had seen something shine.
"What do you mean by this being caused by political reasons?" Iris asked wanting to use the man for information while they had nothing better to do."
"You see that war between Anglas and Catalina made a lot of adventurers go there to fight meaning that those dumbasses are getting killed leading to their corpses being looted," Samuel began to explain." This means that a good amount of badges are being captured by both sides. Our branches in those two are asking for them back but everyone knows not all badges will be accounted for, lost because of bandits, wilderness, being hit by a fireball you know all seven stars. We now have to check everyone because if someone who is not an adventurer but has the badge does something stupid or is a spy we will get blamed so the guild masters arranged for these extra security measures."
"Heard about that war. What's the casus belli to justify it?" Iris asked accidently using a word which belonged to a certain undead kitten.
"Casus what, you mean what's the reason for it? What do you think it is, power off course." Samuel answered.
"And who is winning?"
"I don't know. I hear many stories in the bar but from what I piece together the Lion had swooped east around the Blanche River wanting to surround Catalina after getting the Swan King's forces stopped them from crossing it closer to the coast."
"Who do you think will win."
"Honestly?" Samuel asked having remained at the desk chatting even as the tablets had disintegrated into dust and the yellowish page had been filled with their details. "I think Anglas will win this one but I do hope that they get put back into their place after this war although I do not have a horse in those wars. Also just as a personal note, I do wish that Dietrich would die lying in his royal incestuous bed.
"He is married to..."
"His sister."
"Oh." The tall undead felt her eyes open wider than she thought possible as the simple insult turned into a disgusting reality.
"Exactly." Samuel tapped his finger on the table before walking away leaving the undead with Liz.
The woman didn't spare them too much of her time as she let out a squeak as Iris turned her head toward her and quickly left causing the elf to question her manners.
"Delishiousness?" Kia said, rubbing her head against the elf's forearm while staring at her with the big pleading eyes of a puppy.
"I don't see a problem with that." The risen ran her fingers through Kia's hair before turning around and heading toward the restaurant.