Guy hadn't had the easiest week thus far, and this whole situation wasn't helping. At least meeting the guild master - a master-level spear wielder - was a decent few hours.

The guild master was big and scarred. And he had a boisterous way about him. He was good people, in Guy's opinion. Jonathan introduced him as his old friend Kayle.

“I never got to congratulate you over becoming the youngest weapon master in decades!” the guild master spoke as he grabbed a glass from a cabinet behind his desk.

Jonathan laughed awkwardly. “Well, pretty sure my record will soon be put to shame.”

Master Kayle’s smile froze for a moment, but he shrugged like he was throwing something annoying off his shoulder.

“There are always anomalies. I mean sure, you were an anomaly yourself to some people, but that damn kid, it's like he was born with a sword in his hand.”

He poured two drinks, the two shared a drink in silence and stared off into the distance in some thought. The guild master cleared his throat and looked at Guy after a while.

“So, who is this? It's rare for you to accompany a new mercenary yourself.”

“This?” Jonathan touched Guy's shoulder. “This is Guy Wilde. Taught him some of the things he knows. He is good. Perhaps not as good as the anomaly, but he is good. What is it, kid?”

“You…gave me your name?”

“Huh? Yeah. You don't have a name, and the kids and the missus have taken to yah. It is not so a big deal.”

Guy looked away before Jonathan could see the gleaming in his eyes.

“But what happens when I remember my old name?”

“Just keep it, either as a middle or last name. You're part of the family now, kid. We won't be letting you go.”

“...family…” he whispered.

“I do respect your opinions, Jon,” the guild master brought them back to the point, “ but there are still a few protocols we'll need to follow to increase his adventure status from wood to copper rank. And then to iron, the least rank you accept into your mercenary company.”

Jonathan leaned in and tried to whisper, but Rafe still heard him.

“Psst, I believe he can also learn all four styles.”

“What?! How?!”

“Shush, not so loud!”

“You and your damn…” The guild master struggled to collect himself. “In anycase, only the boy's actions can be used to judge this part of the test. He may be a strong warrior, but that is not all adventuring is about. To join your mercenary company, the boy will—”

“Don't worry, Guy won't be part of the mercenary company for now.”

“What? Why?!”

Guy was bewildered. Hadn't Jonathan just said he was family?

“Look kid, you don't have the best reputation right now, what with yours and Celene's relationship.”

“There was no relationship,” Guy complained.

“Yes, there was none. But the company is pretty tight-knit, and you are new. If there is a fight, they will side with Celene. I'm doing this so that at the end of the day, you'll want to join the company again. If you come back now and the others irritate you too much, you might give up on the company.

“Think about this like you taking a break from the company to learn more about yourself. Besides, I did see you get into some kind of fight with Noid. So I'm guessing he can't train you in any of the other major styles like I wanted him to.”

“No, he will not,” Guy said with a sigh.

“So I figured you'd need your adventurer's reward money to purchase lessons from various swordsmen here in the capital. You have no memories, boy. Go on adventures, meet some friends, some girls even. You leave a boy but you'll return to us a man grown.”

Guy was reluctant, but Jonathan had thought of everything.

To have his status as an adventurer settled, he and a couple of others were slated to go on a monster extermination mission a few days away from the city.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Guy had to see the twins before he left because he was unsure when he'd get to see them again. Maria gave him a packed lunch. He took both Jonathan's and Noid’s differently expressed advice and walked away from the mercenary company without talking to anyone.

And now he'd met this guy, who hated him for some reason he couldn't fathom. Well, maybe he could fathom it a bit, but why did this guy even remember his face? If Guy hated someone, he'd just ignore their existence. He only remembered the swordsman because he found his dual swords interesting, although they'd been broken at the time.

“In this test, you'll be required to kill a specific number of goblins per head. You can do it as a group, or as individuals. Your choice,” the nice woman in adventurer's leathers finished.

Guy looked at the five others he'd be taking the test with. A female with pointy ears and a very slim body, a big man who carried no weapon and was acquainted with the annoying swordsman, and a fiery haired, fiery-eyed girl who was not much older than him. Her hair matching her eyes reminded him of something, but he wasn't quite sure.

“It's rude to stare,” the fiery-haired woman said, her eyes narrowed. “Is it your first time seeing nonhumans, you racist?”

Guy wasn't sure his answer was what she expected when she asked that question.

“It is the first that I can remember,” he answered. “I haven't travelled a lot.”

The two women looked at each other. And then his brain processed the question he'd been asked to completion. His eyes widened. The fiery-haired woman was not entirely human. But she looked like one, just a lot more beautiful. He needed to find out more about the world outside his little bubble, he decided.

“Me and Grunter can fill out our quarter,” the testy swordsman said, his eyes focused on Guy, the challenge in them clear.

The giant grunted in affirmation.

The two women looked at Guy, hesitated, looked back to the other two pointedly.

He shrugged. “I suppose I can go it alone.”

“Huh, but the elf girl is a healer, how is she going to fight goblins on her own?” the swordsman complained, ignoring the obvious.

“Why don't you take her?” Guy asked, very reasonably, he thought.

“Take her? What? We are in a competition, and you having more comrades than me is a concession on my part, kind of like a headstart, an advantage.”

Guy sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I don't remember agreeing to a competition. Besides, the other girl looks like she wants to join your party, and they look like a package deal.”

“That's right,” the girl said, “don't make decisions for all of us. No one made you our leader or anything.”

Guy had never worried about it before, but was there a possibility he was repulsive to women? Sure he did think he was a bit boring (what with having no past to speak of), but was there something about him that physically reviled women? He frowned, considering whether he should ask the two women, but then he remembered their testiness after his creepy staring. That must be why they didn't want to party with him, he decided. It had to be.

“Huh, this does not mean I give up!” the swordsman advanced toward Guy with a finger raised. “I will bring twice, no, thrice the required number of goblins, and I will not allow to be healed during combat.”

“How will my worth be measured then?” the healer questioned.

“You will heal me after he admits defeat. Besides, I'm not the only warrior. You will provide magic support, right Jasmine?”

“Yeah…” the orange-haired woman, Jasmine apparently, answered.

Guy tuned her out as he started to follow the guild supervisor.

The woman must have figured the discussion was done, and now they were moving out. Guy could only remember two times he'd travelled before. The first was with Noid. They travelled together for months after the war. They did not have tents. They only ate meat they hunted. As a soldier without memories, Guy had been no stranger to sleeping under the sky especially on those first days when he couldn't remember where his tent was or how to access it. Maybe that was why he'd taken to it like a fish in water. Noid was the quiet sort, only ever speaking if it was necessary. On the second occasion he travelled, he was escorting a caravan along with everyone else in the Wilde mercenary company, with all the awkwardness that ensued.

This adventurer's excursion was a walk in the park in comparison. They only had to walk two days, and he could go two days without speaking to anyone. He didn't think it was something to be proud of, but those were his circumstances.

When the guild supervisor ordered them to camp, Guy watched the others set up their tents in silence. He was thinking maybe Noid didn't know everything. When he'd travelled with the Wilde company to the capital, everyone had tents. He'd thought they were soft, because Noid had been there too, and he never slept in a tent.

He frowned and thought about it for a time, but then he decided sleeping in an open sky wasn't too bad. Even the cold had barely affected him during the winter. It was like he had been passively resisting the effects of the weather and the environment ever since. He only slept indoors rarely even when he was at the Wilde village.

With a shrug, he stepped out of the clearing they'd decided to camp in and entered the forest. He needed some privacy, to ease a few natural urges before he exhausted his muscles in another round of drills.

They were all asleep when he returned. Even the supervisor had a tent. He picked a tree from which he could view the whole camp and went to sleep.

Guy woke three times that night, spooked by animals trying to sneak into the camp. He frowned when he realised none of his fellow test takers had thought to leave a watch or anything. Was it part of the test as well? The supervisor hadn't said anything since they'd chosen their teams the day before.

“Where is the other one?” he had the supervisor ask the next morning.

He slept lighter, he found, since he started training with Noid.

“Right here!” he shouted from his tree quite a ways from the clearing. “I didn't bring a tent so I slept over here.”

The woman tilted her head. She had acquired a pair of reading glasses since he had seen her last. It brought out her narrowed eyes, in his opinion. She had changed a bit in only one night of sleep.

She had ditched the adventurer's wear and was now dressed in official-looking robes like most of those receptionists at the guild. It was weird that he found the official clothes more enticing than the adventurer's clothes that had so hugged her body, leaving nothing to the imagination. Maybe he liked to imagine she was wearing nothing under that robe.

“You…slept?” she asked, adjusting her reading glasses.

Guy jumped off the tree, performing a series of acrobatic movements to land with grace, safe.

“Of course I did,” he answered her. “And may I just say, I love what you did with your hair.”

She gave him a blank look. In the background, Guy could see the realisation shaping on the other’s faces. He hadn't done it out of spite or anything, but the looks on their faces were priceless. No, for some reason, he thought this was what Noid would have done in a situation like this. It was a teachable moment.

“You…love what I did with my hair?” the woman asked, her tone low, slow.

As a man used to the anger by now, he let most of the scathing remarks the woman had for him flow off his back. Her hair was still ungroomed after a whole night's sleep, and his compliment seemed more like an insult - therefore disrespect to a superior - and would go on his permanent record.

There were some positives though. He got her to speak a lot more that morning than she had all the hours they'd travelled the day before.