Chapter 21 - The Fresh Breath of Adventure!
With our plans fully established, I decided to check my own belongings for a while. It has been a while since I did so.
"Let's see. Food, shelter, lighter, insect repellant incense, some of the weapons that don't really have a mind of their own. So many things! Huh? What is this?" Felicia had started looking through her own storage space thanks to her magic and scrounging through her private collection she found a small card that still looked as new as the day she got it.
"Oh this is my adventurer guild card!"
From way back, she had tried to sneak in to find the hero without any level in space magic. As a new child with old memories, she wanted to try to do things on her own without relying on the help from her main body. But it turned out that she was turned away at the entrance. With no currency on her and no identification, she was barred from entering the capital for obvious reason.
Thus she was forced to first gain some strength and become an adventurer.
The Adventurer's guild is one of the most premier forces in the world. With the exception of the First Empire of Mankind as well as the Demon King Territory, they are one of the more powerful other forces.
Along side them are two other groups of prominent strength. There is the Merchant's guild that became so strong that they took over a country with their wealth and are considered to have 30% of the world's wealth.
Then there is the Sage Tower. Unlike the other two forces, this one remains neutral from worldly affairs and only focuses on the development of magic. It is also where many of the premier mages in the continent go to retreat. As the most famous land, their Sage Highlands are well known by all forces.
Among these three lesser but still strong groups, the Adventurer's guild has the lowest barrier to entry. Simply having some level in a martial art or magic would allow a person in. And even other talents like dismantling and harvesting could also get you a badge as well.
Using Space magic to get into a small town and showing some level of swordsmanship, she took on a few missions in order to consolidate her status as an adventurer and so she could obtain money. Then she could finally get into the capital and watch the hero in person.
Without any further need of the badge, especially since she finally relented and started borrowing some levels in Space magic and some of the tools in the Mirror dimension, she was able to keep a better eye on the hero. That unfortunately meant that the card had expired a while back.
"Maybe I should get it renewed?" I muttered to myself.
"What are you looking at Felicia?" Surprising me from behind, I quickly turned around and saw that it was Wendy the little witch standing behind me.
Peering over my surprised shoulder, she glanced at the card I was holding and gasped in surprise.
"You let your card get expired?! That's no good! Come on, I will help you renew it." Grasping my hand, she quickly started heading out dragging me along with her.
"Wait! I haven't decided whether I wanted to-"
My words were cut off before I could finish what I was trying to say.
"Nonsense! This kind of thing is important! you should always keep it up to date! Especially when traveling to different places. Just follow along!"
I finally decided to simply stay silent and let her drag me along the familiar streets here in the capital. After some time, we finally arrived at the guild and I looked at the massive building in front of me.
Rather than watching it in the air, seeing it on my own two feet really puts into perspective how large the building really is.
Like almost any building within the capital, it was massively high and this one in particular I could see was five stories tall. Such a massive building was a little intimidating for me to enter. Through the entrance, numerous people were walking by in all sorts of get ups. From robe covered mages to knights in armor and various muscular men showing off their bare skin with an uncovered top. All kinds of people could be seen walking by at first glance.
When we arrived, there were only a few people looking at us at first, but then it seemed like someone had recognized Wendy as they started whispering and pointing at us.
Soon, much of the loud bustle of the place had quieted down as they stared at us. With small murmurs hear and there, I heard them talking around and asking if they were seeing right.
Being a little unnerved by all of this attention, Wendy soon dragged me over to the counter and the line slowly parted to allow her through.
"Is that who I think it is?"
"How would I know?"
"Hey! Why are you pulling me out of line?"
"Shh, did you not see her?"
The crowd parted as Wendy walked straight up to the counter. Looking around nervously, it was not until she tapped me on the forehead that I came to my senses.
"Hey, are you back? Come here to the private room." She said as she followed after a female staff member who was at the counter.
Following along now, when the door to the private room was closed the outside chatter was completely muffled which let me sigh a sigh of relief. Being around al those people was a bit nerve-racking for me.
"Are you feeling better?" She asked. I thanked her for worrying and gave her a nod. I just needed a moment away from the spotlight. I did not want to cast magic in the middle of the capital after all.
Most places don't allow it for obvious reasons and I would rather not be forced to listen to some lectures for using magic in order to hide myself in plain sight in the city.
Taking a few breaths, I was finally told to take out the adventurer card that I had on hand.
"Oh. It seems that your card is not only out of date, but also quite low level for your strength." The staff who was with us said.
My strength? How does she know that?
When I was going to ask that, she then started to introduce herself to me.
"I am the Guild master of the Adventurer's guild in the capital of the empire. My name is Valerie. I have specialized in Appraisal and I could not help myself exploring a guests invited in by a member of the Hero Party." She said. Then she showed me a golden badge and I nodded at her.
Her specialty did not surprise me that much. With how prevalent the skill is, it is no wonder that there are high ranking people with that skill in a high level.
Even if she was rather high ranking in the guild, I have already met the Hero and the Emperor so any sort of pressure did not exist for me. Let alone, I was given certain knowledge that made me less reverent towards figures like this.
So she was rather surprised for a moment at my composure, but soon realized what I was thinking.
Smiling and pressing a device in the room, a screen popped up that showed my information in a neat form.
"Only a few quests when you first got the badge huh. I will use my authority to raise the level of this badge to the highest I can. In exchange, can you use your strength in order to do a few missions? Don't worry I already know your itinerary so they will be on the path you will be headed." She asked. Even if I said no, it is likely that she would still do it anyways and if it really is not that much of a bother then I could try it.
"I need to see the requests first."
Responding with a smile, she pulled out a set of requests for me at the bottom of her desk. I was a little surprised at her preparedness, but I guess maybe they were for the Hero party in general?
Since I was brought along here by Wendy, I guess she knew that if I took these requests the hero party would likely help if worst comes to shove so she gave me a promotion so that I would feel inclined to do the quest in exchange. How shrewd.
Looking through the requests, like she said they were rather simple and they were on the path we would go so Wendy agreed on my behalf. Writing down our names on the request, she then walked out herself to get the paperwork ready and told us to remain here for a while.
When she was gone, I could finally turn to look at Wendy and ask her why she decided to agree to this.
"Hmm? It's because you are part of our party now right? Since that is the case, we should be in the same adventure party, but if your card is only so low level, then other people will start talking. Although I don't care, not everyone has my same level of disregard."
I guess that makes sense. Rather than quietly following after the Hero party, I was now going to be following them directly. If so, I should at least have some sort of identity.
Because I can't simply say that I am the daughter of the Demon King, or at least the clone of her, I have to at least have some other sort of identity. An adventurer that was invited and followed along might be a good position to be in.
After a few minutes of relaxing, the door was finally reopened as the Guild master came back in and offered to me a newly refurbished card.
Unlike my previous grayish card, it was now a sleek and smooth Silver card. Looking at the card, I felt that it seemed rather flamboyant compared to what I had before.
"You may have heard this before when you registered, but let me reiterate. The card levels go from Ash gray, Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Black Gold, and Platinum. Each level corresponds to a certain level of strength. Now that you have a Silver card, you can take on Silver level quests as a lone adventurer although not recommended. The missions that were given to you were Silver and below so you should be able to deal with them."
Thanking her for the refresher, soon the time came to leave the place. After saying our farewell, the guild master led us to a back entrance so that we could leave without causing a scene.
When we were finally back, we were met with the impatient gaze of Vanessa who was staying in the living room with the stuff packed up for us.
"Mind telling me what took you two so long? We have been waiting here for quite a while for you two." She said looking quite irritated.
"Now now, Vanessa you know that they most likely did not mean it." On the side, Mellie was trying to soothe her frustrations as Luke laughed happily in the background.
"What's so funny! Luke!" Yelled Vanessa.
"It's nothing... Well actually, this is reminding me of the old days when we had just met." Luke responded with a cheerful grin.
Hearing him now, she began recalling that time. It was way back when they had just met and she encountered Luke who had recently lost his family and was out working hard in order to train as an adventurer.
There was word from a seer that the hero had been born and so people were sent all over to look for anyone who would fit the bill. She was originally not among them, but she had snuck out on her own in order to find her own path forward rather than being bound by the role of princess.
Of course she was always watched along the way and when she was in trouble and found out, she begrudgingly wandered around with her guards looking all over for people with potential.
She had originally been planning to look for regular talented people to be part of her secret guard and never expected to find the chosen one on her own.
Her original goal was indeed completed and she found plenty of talented children of various backgrounds who were willing to convey their loyalty to her. It was only on a whim that she took a longer route to the town Luke was in and encountered him.
That story would be for another time though. What was important for now is that this situation was quite familiar to the two of them.
When Vanessa had found him, she had instinctively took a liking to him and asked for him to follow her. Of course, as a small farmer boy, he did not know much about nobles and things of that nature so they began arguing and fighting which eventually culminated in him challenging her and losing.
Seeing his unyielding eyes, she decided to stay in that town for a while longer and to train him up. Of course, as a poor boy there was no way for him to tell the time so in many days she had to angrily pace around in place for him to wander over for training.
At those times, the same interactions would occur with her scolding him and him laughing it off.
With a humph, Vanessa pouted in place at Luke bringing up past memories like that. It was only after some laughter that he came up and comforted her that she calmed down and that the group could finally get together and talk as one.
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