The Adventurer’s Guild was easy enough to find.

It was the largest structure in the commercial district, surrounded by many temporary shops. Numerous people dressed in unique equipment came in and out at irregular, frequent intervals. Though there wasn’t a label on the doors, a large insignia hung on a wooden board of a crossed sword and staff on the second floor of the building.

Standing in front of the plain double door to the building, Matthias couldn’t help but get cold feet. Though he had imagined himself on that fateful day repeatedly, it was completely different when he was experiencing it in real life.

“Dude, are you okay?”

Manna nudged him with her elbow. She did it with enough force to knock him slightly out of balance. After he came back to his senses, he stammered and laughed nervously.

“I’m fine. Let’s go in?”

Though Manna’s doubt was obvious, he nevertheless found some courage when he remembered that he wasn’t entering alone.

The inside of the guild was as Matthias expected. Directly ahead of the door, there was a wide receptionist counter manned by five guild employees. To the side next to the window was a large bulletin board where the quests should be posted. There was a large empty space to his right, with a few tables and chairs; it was probably the waiting area. Beyond it was an entrance to the guild’s own bar and restaurant.

There were many people inside wearing various kinds of equipment. From a glance he could see warriors, archers, mages and scouts. There were probably more professions there that Matthias couldn’t immediately specify. What he did notice was that most of the armed people there were older than they were. Thankfully, they didn’t attract anybody’s attention, as there were also young people present in the room running around the back and talking with the receptionists. But unlike Matthias and Manna, those young people were wearing what should be guild uniforms.

“Oops! Sorry, kid!”

He was suddenly bumped into from behind by a tall man with an axe on his back. The latter quickly apologized with a gentle smile and left, which gave him a positive first impression. However, he was extremely handsome, so Matthias immediately gave him negative points.

“Come on, Matt. Let’s go register!”

There was a burning excitement in Manna’s voice. She held onto his shoulders and pulled him close. As he stared at her long eyelashes and caught her scent, he couldn’t stop himself from blushing furiously. He immediately turned his head away so she wouldn’t see and pushed her away gently.

“Oh, you two are registering?” the tall guy from before approached them. “The one in charge of new recruits would be that girl on the counter with the blonde hair to the far right. She’ll take care of everything for you.”

He smiled like the dazzling sun. “Not good,” Matthias thought. The guy was almost as good-looking as he was. Though he didn’t look like a playboy, those kinds of men were typically even more popular among women than those who were.

“Matt! Come on!”

Manna was already at the reception counter, waving her hand to him. It looked like she didn’t even care about the guy who helped them. He sighed in relief.

“You should get going. Your girlfriend’s waiting.”

With those words, he finally noticed that every adventurer in the room was looking at them with warm eyes. The blush that he had finally managed to repress came back again. He hung his head, trying to hide his embarrassment, despite being aware that it was only making it more obvious.

“Guess we’ll be working in the same profession starting today. Good luck!”

As he walked to Manna, he looked back and saw the guy giving him a thumb up. Behind him was what looked to be his party; a female mage, a female cleric, a male archer and a male scout. Including them, everybody in the waiting area was giving an encouraging expression.

Matthias smiled and replied with his own thumbs-up.

Well, that guy still has negative points. He couldn’t help it. Something in his soul screamed at him to give the guy deductions simply because of his face.

“Greetings. Welcome to the Rosen Elk branch of the Adventurer’s Guild.”

The orientation by the receptionist was as he had expected it to be. The main points of her spiel could be summarized as thus:

Membership entitles them to a guild identification seal, which allows them to bypass the normal fee taken from any city gate.

Individuals are assigned ranks as they start.

There is no specific number of jobs required in order to advance a rank. Any individual can apply to take the test in order to do so, which includes a test on his fighting ability, and then his academic knowledge.

Due to guild regulations, a party should have at least three members.

The first two items were normal. As for the third item, it started as a move by the guild to require its members to be literate. In that era, the literacy rate was understandably low. However, for its members to not be able to read was disastrous. Sometimes other adventurers would make notes on the walls or the ground warning others about hazards or strong monsters, but those who couldn’t read would just ignore it and face the consequences. Furthermore, most jobs were posted in the form of bulletins, so the guild could also save money with it. On top of that, the management had noticed since long ago that educated adventurers were more likely to last longer and mature.

The main issue was the fourth item.

“If you don’t have a third member, the guild can assign one for you. Unfortunately... there’s only one that’s without a party right now, so you can’t have your pick at the moment.” She then followed by saying with a softer voice, “If you’d like, you can come back when you’ve managed to invite a third person, or when the guild gets another registrant.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He didn’t expect that rule at all. He thought that he and Manna would have been enough to start with. It wasn’t on the books that he had read, so it must have been a recently-implemented policy. Since he still had quite some money, buying potions to somewhat replicate the benefits of having a cleric would have sufficed for some time. And when they were able to make connections with other new groups, or perhaps meet more people, they could slowly expand the number of members in the party.

“I don’t know the specifics, but the three-party minimum had been enforced just a year ago.”

It looked like he wouldn’t get any answers to it either. Since it was a requirement, there was no other way around it. Though they could always just wait until there were some people to choose between, both of them were eager to start already.

“That’s okay. Can we check out who you have?”

The receptionist girl called out to a young man and told him to fetch the individual in question. He had a stupefied expression on his face when he realized who it was, which gave Matthias some uncertainty. The guy entered the restaurant area and soon came back with a female as old as he was.

Because her body was hidden underneath a tattered cloak, he wasn’t able to judge what she was using her equipment. There was no way to properly assess her face either, as it was dirty with dust and mud. What did leave an impression on him was her long, dull gray hair and golden slit eyes.

Then it hit him.

“Huh? Wait, you’re—“

Before Manna could finish, a giant man barged into the guild. Matthias immediately recognized who it was; it was the angry guy from earlier who had been shaking the old cleric to the next world.

Granted, he no longer looked angry, just annoyed.

He looked around the place while ignoring all of the attention he had attracted to himself. And soon, he locked eyes with his target.

“Ah, right. Gray hair and slit eyes. She was the one who took the holy water for free earlier.”

As the man marched up to the girl just over half his size, Matthias subconsciously got between them. But because of the difference in their size and build, he was easily shoved away. Manna managed to catch him before he fell to the floor.

“You begged for some holy water from the Church earlier, didn't you?”

He questioned the beastkin in front of him. Because of their height, the way he looked down on her made it seem like he was also doing so figuratively. The other adventurers from behind didn’t move, as if they were already expecting the events. The receptionists, in contrast, were in a state of panic. One of them ran to the second floor, perhaps to get someone with higher authority to manage to situation.

The beastkin girl met his eyes with an indignant look on her face.

“I needed it,” she said, stressing every word.

An extremely tense moment of silence followed. Matthias, who wanted to do something, struggled to get up despite the heavy air pushing him down. But before he could run between them again, the large man had already moved.

He shoved a large bag in front of her face.

“… What is this?” the beastkin asked. The man snorted.

“Holy water. You need it, right?”

“How did you know it was me?”

“I asked. You’re the only beastkin with gray hair here.”

Matthias was shocked stiff. What the hell was happening? He thought a fight would break out between them, and he was prepared to take a punch or two.

“Are you stupid? Begging?”

“...”

“Adventurers don’t beg.”

He pulled her right arm forcefully and placed the heavy bag on it. He then turned to the receptionist and shouted.

“This girl doesn’t have a party until now?!”

His loud voice made the girl flinch.

“T-there’s two new members over there. They can... I mean, they’ve asked to see her,” she answered meekly, pointing towards both Matthias and Manna. The man grunted in acknowledgment.

“Go get registered with them. I don’t want to hear you begging for things again.”

Despite his kind words, his face and attitude was anything but. It was easy to misunderstand him given the way he acted. As he turned to leave, he gave one “advise” to her.

“And take a bath. You’re stinking up the place.”

----------------------------------------

“Let me confirm. You’re registering as a party of three, correct?”

The receptionist lady gave them an awkward smile. Matthias, Manna and their new companion were lined up in front of her with uneasy expressions. There were three tags in front of them that were half the size of their palms. The insignia of the guild was etched into it.

“Yes, we are.”

At the back of Matthias’ mind, he asked “is this okay?”

They hadn’t gotten to know their third member yet. There was doubt in his mind about whether or not they would be able to work well together. Of course, Matthias still appreciated her presence. It wasn’t a problem if they could sit down and talk later on.

But was the guild fine with such arrangements?

It seemed counterintuitive that they emphasized safety repeatedly, yet tolerated such a haphazard arrangement.

“Well then, please place your right hand on the tag and recite your name and profession. The plate will record your data and make it accessible for identification. You can make up a profession, but it would make things easier if you state something easily determinable.”

The tag itself was made of bronze, which corresponded to their rank. Though the formal names used letters, from E to beginner to A for seasoned veterans, the material the tags were made of also changed correspondingly, from bronze for E ranks to platinum for A. There was also a special rank for adventurers that were on the realm of heroes, aptly termed the “H” rank with the magical metal mithril as the tag material. That rank was his target.

“Matthias Fel. Swordsman.”

The receptionist’s eyes, as well as the others who had listened into them, widened as he announced his name. It was extremely rare for nobles, who were entitled to live their lives in luxury and abandon, to choose to live as an adventurer. Their lives were difficult and they could lose it at any time. Typically, those who desired to fight would apply themselves to become noble knights, and those who wanted to explore the world simply brought their personal guards with them. On top of that, an average adventurer’s wage wasn’t anything close to being notable. Sure, higher-ranked parties could earn a small fortune, but the ones at the bottom were bound to live each day budgeting for scraps.

But Matthias simply ignored the reactions of those around him. They could call him names for all he cared. With his brand new outlook in life, he had the confidence in himself to put up with all of it.

A ghostly light was released from the engraving on the tag. After a short while it dimmed, signalling that the process was over.

“Manna. Archer.”

His partner finished quickly and without issue as well. But then...

“... Do I have to do this? I already registered.”

The receptionist had a look of anxiety on her face. Behind her stood the boy from earlier, who also looked uncomfortable.

Their expressions made Matthias more suspicious. Had there been a problem with her registration? Why did she need to go through the procedure again?

“Uhh, yes, we do have your documents but... This is just for the new tag. Your previous tag couldn’t be fixed because of what happened, so...” she murmured, her voice trailing into silence.

“Alright. That’s fine.”

“Huh? What happened?” Manna whispered. Of course, Matthias couldn’t answer. He was just as baffled as she was.

The beastkin girl with long gray hair and golden eyes reached out with her right hand and touched the surface of the tag. Her voice, confident and steady, announced her name and profession.

“Soleil. Demon Lord”