We found ourselves situated at an inn. Two rooms were rented, one for the ladies, one for the guys.
“Why didn’t we exchange all our money?” I ask Patir. The dress for Yasia, the rooms for the inn, complete with food had almost already depleted our entire stash of pekos.
“Well, seems like that place had hard guidelines surrounding its prices.” Patir answers. “Meaning we can gain something if we find a better deal, while the most we lose is taking another trip there, which is hardly a great price to pay.” It’s the first time I see him undress, as he prepares for bed. I feel like there is a portion of the story he told of himself missing, judging by his body.
It is absolutely covered in scars from top to bottom. Judging by his story, he should have been something like an office worker for the most of his life, and I don’t think his body tells quite the same story.
“Whatcha staring at?” He asks somewhat menacingly. I just shrug and lean back in my own bed. The inn had options for 8, 4 and 2 bed rooms, and we went with 2 beds for both of our groups. It was a bit more expensive, but I think a group like ours can appreciate the privacy.
I try to fall asleep for the first time in a long period. I don’t know any place I could go in a city like this to study with Dixy, and I don’t want to risk getting in trouble by jumping the wall, so I decided to stay in. Since I couldn’t sleep, maybe I am unable to now, I end up thinking about my disappointing observations. We haven’t seen a single Silvester since we came to this city, and while I may have spotted a Tarrun, it seemed he was almost anxious about people figuring it out. It’s definitely not the situation I had hoped to find ourselves in.
The next day, we started off by convincing Yasia to stay at the inn. We were planning to go and (re)register at the guild, then maybe knock out a few requests. Yasia’s physique was clearly not suited for it. She couldn’t even help transporting stuff. She was dejected to be left alone like that but eventually agreed.
The next thing was learning where the guild was, but the answer from the owner of the inn was shocking.
“The guild doesn’t exist no more.” He said solemnly, as he was in the middle of cleaning the dining area that made out the first floor.
“Huh? What? Why?” Patir is confused. Maybe he had expected to hear something about this. Maybe he is terrified at the prospect of losing my easy riches.
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“From what I heard, they had a system in place for transferring information to the capital. Kept doing that during the war, you see, and then it was deemed a traitorous organization and shut down.” He stops sweeping a little and rests on his broom.
“Doesn’t make a lot of the difference to the average person, since they set up a replace. The local office for requisition, they call it. Doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, so most people just take to calling it the loffreq.”
It grated on me, that name.
“You’ll find it just down the north road from the main square.” He said, and reluctantly started sweeping again after he received a thanks from Patir. I sighed. I was planning to throw away the hunter tag engraved with Yos and thus starting over, but I was not looking forward to learning yet another system for categorizing hunters.
As Patir, Kassa and I made it down there, however, we got a pleasant surprise. As the queue we lined up in gradually got resolved and we reached the front desk, Patir asked to sign up three new hunters.
“It is not hunters, but requisition officers.” Whatever, same thing. “Then, we will sign you up for the interview and examination.” He stated.
“No fee?” I asked.
“No. When the office was erected to take the place of the guild, many of the guild’s policies was reworked to better fit the ideas of the republic. Among them, was eliminating the barrier to entry, so poorer people could participate, as well as reworking the ranking system.” Oh boy, here we go again.
“Instead of being focused needlessly on seniority, our ranking system prioritizes the ability of the officer. And instead of the silly system, where the same job paid differently according to your rank, your rank will now be merely a suggestion as to what requests you should limit yourself to.” He looks up at the large wall of requests. “Though they are only suggestions, I would prefer if you heeded to them. We have enough of a shortage of men as it is, after the war. It will take a decade or two to normalize itself, and we don’t need people needlessly throwing away their lives.”
“So there’s no point in getting a high rank then?” I ask the clerk. He looks up from the book he was scrounging through, presumably to find us a time slot.
“Ah, no, that isn’t true. Being high rank means a suite of perks. First off, the upper two ranks pay no membership fees. In addition, the higher the rank, the likelier it is we will choose your group for specially issued requests, that pay extra well.” He turns his nose into the book again.
“The government has declared a first rank office badge to be equivalent to a free permission to travel anywhere in the country, goods notwithstanding of course, they often get lucrative job offers, and plenty of businesses offer discounts to the higher ranked, as a symbol of respect. Ah here we are. I can find three slots over the course of the next 5 hours, if you can wait that long.”
Patir looks a bit skeptical, but eventually agrees and we start to idle in the guild hall, around a suitable table. I mean, office hall?