I woke up to a loud knocking sound on my room’s door. Looking outside it was still dark with some light coming over the horizon. After a moment I fixed my hair a bit and opened the door to find a soldier standing nervously at the door.
“Miss Amelia the guild master Ethan and General Escafoldo wish to see you. Please follow me”
The guy was shaking slightly. On another note, I didn’t know the guild master was called Ethan. I never bothered asking his name. Well, it’s not like it matters. I simply nodded to the soldier grabbed my stuff and followed. Since there was no hostility in his actions there was no need for me to be hostile either.
“So, why do those two want to see me?”
“Ah! yes, sorry, you see yesterday a squad was sent to investigate and discovered the tunnel you mentioned. Inside there were the mangled corpses of the kidnapped people. Because of this, your innocence has been proven. That is as much as I know”
I nodded and continued following. We were currently walking towards the adventurers guild. As we continued to walk I could feel the people around us looking at me with slight fear. It seems my aura has been leaking a lot more lately. Not to mention for some reason it possesses a permanent intimidating factor. It’s really bothersome to have all these people peak at me with fear. After taking a deep breath I tried my best to retract as much of my aura as possible. Doing this is uncomfortable since the aura is caused naturally by the body containing it is something unnatural. If I have to put it in simpler terms it feels like holding your breath or trying to breathe without making noise.
Anyway, after I retracted my aura everyone around seemed to calm down. Even the soldier that was walking beside me relaxed. We continued walking for another ten minutes or so until we reached the guild. Inside I saw Isa’s group. They gave the soldier a slight nod and followed behind us towards the second floor. After knocking on the door and being granted permission to enter we did. The guild master and the general were seated on a sofa and gestured for me to take a seat at the other side.
“Miss Amelia, we have confirmed your claims however I can’t let you go so easily. After all, you have attacked and harmed and official and-”
“Cry some more will you? I did it in self-defence, you attacked me I retaliated. If you are so butt hurt about it why don’t you try and attack me again?”
I gave the general a fleeting smirk as I turned to look at the guild master. His complexion was terrible, if not for the fact he was breathing I would have thought he became undead. There were massive bags underneath his eyes and his face looked pale.
“Well, guild master, I hope this event didn’t deprive you of your sleep. As for my payment, I would like to receive it now if it’s not too much of a bother”
Yea, I know, I might be being a bit of an ass here but these two have been a bother to me since the beginning. I have no respect for them, not even a milligram of it. As I finished the general was about to start lashing out however the guild master stopped him with a gesture before sighing.
“I am sorry amelia but I fear I might not be able to pay your reward. This branch has been going over heavy economical issues and such a large amount of gold far exceeds what we have available now”
In an instant, my aura leaked out as I lost my cool. Instantly Isa’s group, as well as the guards, went into high alert mode with their hands on their weapons ready to unsheath them at a moment’s notice. I, on the other hand, was glaring at the guild master wondering if the idiot was tired of living.
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“M-miss Amelia, please calm down. I h-hope we can come to an agreement. I have already thought of a few things beforehand that might be of equal value to the promised amount so please hear me out!”
“Speak”
“Y-yes. As I have said we are low on funds. However, we have in our possession a recommendation letter to the kingdoms royal academy. With this letter, your fee for entry as well as the fee for your entire stay would be paid. The yearly fee of the academy is five gold coins. With this and the three years of enrolment, it would be equivalent to the fifteen gold coins”
I see, so this is what he had decided to sacrifice instead of the actual money. However, I can tell the value of this letter is low for someone like me. Fundamentally speaking, the value of such a thing increases the weaker one is. In other words, this is worth a lot more than fifteen gold coins to an F ranker but an A or S ranker would see it as complete trash. In my case, I can see value in it. With this, I could learn about swordsmanship, magic, history, among other things I do not know.
“I am willing to negotiate. This would indeed be worth that much to a simple low ranked adventurer however how much value would something like that hold for someone like me? Not to mention you have broken the contract, therefore, I believe it would be only natural for me to receive compensation. My proposal is as follows: First I will accept the letter; second I will have my ranked increased to C; third I will receive at least two gold coins; Finally, I want the guild to provide me with a space pouch”
As I kept talking I could see the guild masters face sour more and more. It was obvious he was having a really bad time. Now, I believe I haven’t explained what a space pouch is. As its name might imply its a magical tool that can hold more than its actual size. For example, the cheapest space pouch goes for five gold. It can hold up to a cubic meter of stuff but its actual size could only hold about five cubic centimetres. Knowing that the guild master will be giving me about twenty-two gold coins worth. After he thought for a long while a single word came out of his mouth.
“Alright”
After that, he instructed an employee to bring the stuff. As expected the pouch was one of the cheapest ones but that’s alright. With a bright smile, I thanked them for their collaboration and I took my leave. It was a bit tedious to deal with such a tense atmosphere but in the end, everything worked out.
As I planned yesterday I went around town buying stuff. Firstly I bought a ticket for tomorrow, with this I will be able to travel to the capital of Valencia without worries. Second I bought some casual clothes. I can’t continue wearing this hand made clothes forever. As much as I like them they look extremely unprofessional. However, I will continue wearing my trench coat. I have grown to love that thing with everything I have, it's just too comfy to let go.
I also bought some simple makeup, like lip gloss the base powder, among other basic stuff. After everything, I bought I have already burned through one of the gold coins. Well, this will be necessary so I don’t feel too bad about wasting, I mean using a gold coin. Finally, I had a delicious meal before going to bed.
I had a dream, in it, I was alone in a forest. The monsters that lived in this forest tried to kill me to no avail. I continued to kill them as more came my way. However, at some point they stopped attacking. Instead, the seemed to kneel in front of me in respect and fear. After that, I began seeing a city being built in real-time. As if from the ground the seeds of society had sprouted and I was in the centre of everything. Then I saw a bright flash of light and only decimated ruins remained as the sky became grey with ashes. The ground had a black scorched colour and the scent of death permeated the place.
I woke up bathed in sweat not knowing what such a weird dream meant or if it meant anything at all. Ignoring all of that I began cleaning myself and preparing for the journey. Valentia’s capital’s name is Sharuyca, however, it is commonly referred to as Sharu. It is roughly a week away on foot and three days by carriage. The climate of Sharu is slightly cold with snow from time to time. As for its size, I have heard that it is the second biggest city of the human empire only dwarfed by Otrem’s capital.
As I finished my preparations I decided to go out for a walk before leaving this town. As I kept on going down the streets and alleys I couldn’t help but think that this town isn’t so bad. It had an energetic atmosphere yet it also provided some sort of calming vibe. Not long after I had lost myself in thought the bell of the church sounded. This woke me up from my daydreaming since it announced the middle of the day.
After eating lunch I took my stuff and walked towards the guild’s transportation area where multiple carriages were waiting. Looking around I spotted the one which I was going to travel in. Besides it, there were already a few passengers waiting. Most of them, young people around my age with an energetic aura filled with hopes and dreams. I chuckled slightly at their naivety. Not long after we all boarded the carriage it began moving with the sound of the horse’s hooves as a soothing background sound.
Looking around there were ten of us in this carriage. If the other five carriages in this caravan held the same amount of passengers then there should be fifty passengers, add to that the five drivers and the two adventurer parties of five there is a total of sixty-five people in this caravan. The reason behind it being a caravan is to try and dissuade bandits from attacking which I think is a smart move. However, there will always be either stupid bandits that will attack either way or well-organised ones that will pose a threat. Whatever the case I am not worried. I can just kill them if needed, but for now let’s leave that job to the adventurers accompanying us.