Chapter Fifteen: The Town And The Guild

Kenjiro walked into the queue for people and passed by the carriage that he saw before, and while he walked past it he saw the man inside was still mad about it.

The line for people was practically non-existent with a person walking into the town just as Kenjiro got there.

As he walked up to the gate he could see the guard there. He had full iron armour on, with his sword in the sheath at his side. He was holding a clipboard, presumably to take down the names of people that came into the town.

As he walked up the guard heard him and looked at Kenjiro in a weird way, probably because of the mask.

"Halt." The man said as he held his arm out once Kenjiro was close enough. "Purpose of your visit, name, and ID."

Kenjiro realising that he would have to talk just took a deep breath and decided that if the mana reaction to his voice was bad that he would try to not let it bother him. "To become an adventurer, Kenjiro Yoshihisa, and I don't have an ID."

The man looked a little disturbed at the sound of his voice, but pushed past it to maintain professionalism. "I see, that's what most people come here to be, other than the merchants of course." He said as he wrote down his name and purpose. "Lucky for you, you can get your ID when you're registering as an adventurer."

Kenjiro nodded his head and waited for the man to finish writing in case he needed anything else.

The man looked up at Kenjiro before continuing writing and speaking at the same time. "It costs three coppers to enter, there's a counter over at the gate, you put it in and the shield at the gate will stop to let you pass."

"Thank you." Kenjiro mumbled before doing what he said.

He also wouldn't have noticed that there was a shield if the man didn't say anything. It was practically invisible. Of course it wasn't a normal shield, it was magic, it was also Kenjiro's first time seeing it, even if he didn't exactly 'see' it.

He walked past the gate and into the town, it wasn't that different from what he had in mind. Mostly stone buildings all with signs, stalls set up to see things out of, the road started as dirt but changed into stone as he walked past all the people growing the area and shouting prices of things they were selling.

Kenjiro just tried to block out the noise with his thoughts, but it didn't really work. Everyone around here was really loud.

Kenjiro just pushed past people to get out of there. He didn't like crowded places or really loud places either. This was both.

Once he got past them, although he wouldn't really say that, the stalls and people were still there, just less crowded.

He let out a breath of relief at that, even if just for a second being in a crowd that big and clumped together was a bit stressful. So just being out of it was a relief.

And then once he calmed down and realised that he didn't know the way to the Adventurers Guild.

So he decided to go up to someone random and ask them for directions, just thinking about interacting with a stranger felt wrong to him, but he knew he would have to get over it.

But he also decided that if he was going to talk to someone it would be someone who looked kind.

He walked a little, but still slow, and looked around at the people there. There were all different kinds of people.

He saw a few Demi-Humans but clearly there were more humans in the town.

It was actually very interesting for Kenjiro to see a Demi-Human. He saw one of them and the ears on their head twitched a few times, but then he turned around and glared at Kenjiro. Who had realised that the Demi-Human was probably mad because it was rude to stare at their ears or extra features that much.

He tried to forget about that one, but would remember every time he looked around and saw that person glaring at him everytime he looked at him.

He then saw someone who could help him.

It was a woman that was at a stall and was selling some food. He saw her sell some food to someone before they walked away.

For some reason he got a good feeling from her, she also had a constant smile on her face and was bouncing from one foot to another subtlety.

But Kenjiro noticed because he did that all the time as well if he wasn't doing something but was standing up.

Kenjiro walked over to the front of her stall and stood there a bit awkwardly until he finally decided to speak, as she wasn't looking his way, and had her eyes closed.

"Excuse me?" The woman opened her eyes to see who was speaking to her. It wasn't one of her regulars or anyone that came by her stall before, she would've remembered them because of that voice.

It was… hard to listen to. It was rough, and a bit irritating to the ears, but she wouldn't judge people based on something like that.

If she was being honest… he kinda looked like a criminal. Cheap clothes, although almost everyone wore cheap clothes including herself, a mask that covered his lower face and a sack in his hand.

But who knows, maybe this wasn't a criminal but just someone who could become a regular in the future.

"Hello! How can I help you?" She asked energetically.

Kenjiro was a bit taken aback by her energy but didn't really mind it. "I'm looking for the Adventurers Guild." Kenjiro replied simply. He didn't want to use that many words so he could later if he needed to.

To the woman though, she was thinking differently. Someone who looked like a criminal, wanted to go to the Adventurers Guild. Maybe he was a criminal who wanted to get revenge on the person who ruined his voice?

Oooohhhh! What should she do?! She thought while deflating inside her mind.

But she decided to give the teenager a bit of respect and assume he had a rough voice normally, and wore a mask as a statement about something.

"Yes! You go down the street… take the second right and then the first left of the main paths. From there you'll find the guild, you can't miss it! It has a sign that says 'Adventurers Guild' on it." She informed her with her voice still cheery despite her thoughts running wild with imagination.

Kenjiro just nodded his head in response while tilting his head to the left a little hoping she would understand his silent thanks.

And then he left following the path she had told him about. It seemed that the only really crowded place in the town was the gate and some shops that he passed had a few people in them.

Although he guessed the reason for some many people at the gate was because of the adventurers getting last minute things before leaving, or something. It was only a guess and he wasn't sure.

Kenjiro continued walking, taking note of some places that looked interesting, but knowing he probably didn't have enough money to buy anything there.

After taking the route the woman had told him he had finally gotten there, he had almost gotten lost as he forgot one of the directions but took a guess and went the right way.

He walked towards the building that was the Adventurers Guild. It was actually well made on the outside. With it mainly being built out of stone, but having wood added onto the structure to add more design to it.

It was a little loud from the outside but it didn't seem as loud as the gates, so Kenjiro knew he would be fine.

When he walked inside through the half open door he didn't attract much attention, except from a curious few who wanted to see who it was, but seeing as it wasn't someone they knew they went back to whatever they were doing.

That actually calmed Kenjiro down a lot. Seeing as no one had their attention on him he went up to one of the counters that separated the Guild employees from the adventurers themselves.

When he got there he was met by a girl probably only a few years older than himself. She looked a little excited. Unlike the woman who was all smiles, she only had a little lazy smile on her face.

She wasn't paying any attention to him, instead looking out into the adventurers already there. She had a blank look in her eyes, probably zoned out.

So seeing that he would, once again, have to start the conversation himself he just knocked on the table, so as to save his voice.

The lady zoned back into reality and turned to look at Kenjiro who was patiently waiting for her to speak first.

But after a staring contest for a few seconds he looked away blinking, and she grew a smirk on her face.

"Alright, that was fun." She mumbled to herself. She then cleared her throat, getting into professional mode. "Hello, welcome to the Adventurers Guild. I'm Saku, a receptionist at this fine establishment. How may I help you?"

Although she was trying to sound excited and cheerful, it just came out as lazy, tired with it sounding deadpan.

"I want to register as an adventurer." Kenjiro said to her. His voice surprised her a little, indicated by the small widening of her eyes but other than that she didn't have much of a reaction.

"Huuuh, that's a weird voice." She said to Kenjiro but then got back on track, reaching under the desk as she had many times before.

She pulled out a sheet of paper with all the things about being an adventurer on it.

"You need to sign this before registering. It's just the law." Saku explained briefly before pushing it towards Kenjiro. "If you don't know how to read or write I can explain it to you." She added before zoning out again as she saw Kenjiro reading it.

It wasn't all that important, the first few rules anyway, it basically just said 'more than one party can't do the same quest unless they agree to go together', 'you take the risk of dying by being an adventurer and if you die it will not be the Guilds fault', and other stuff like that if anything happened to people on a quest.

But then the rules and regulations got more complicated at the end like, 'a fight between two adventurers that involves something at stake, such as money, items or their lives, must be overseen by the master of that branch of Guild and two other overseers, neutral parties'.

And then it went on to list things that couldn't be done and things that could. It was all pretty simple except for that one rule but Kenjiro wasn't that worried about it, he doubted he would get into a fight with anyone if he could help it.

So after scanning over it quickly again, he grabbed a pen and wrote down his name at the bottom of the page.

Seeing that Kenjiro was done, Saku took the paper and put it under the desk for later.

"As with all starting adventurers, no matter how strong, you must start at F-Rank. Of course if you put your all into it, you won't be there for long, the rank really only exists to show that the job needs commitment." Saku explained while waving her hand dismissively.

Kenjiro nodded his head in understanding as Saku went away for a second to get something from the back. When she came back she had a dark brown metal that had a F in the middle of it. It was shaped in a rectangular shape and hung from a small rope. The whole thing would look like a bigger than normal necklace.

She put it down onto the table between them and pushed it towards kenjiro. "This is yours. It indicates your rank and you'll get a new one when you rank up. Now, if there's nothing else you need you can do your first quest. There over on that board there." Saku said as she pointed at a board with a bunch of papers that was stuck into it with pins.

Kenjiro nodded, taking the brown metal and putting it around his neck. It was a little irritating but he would get over it. But before he could walk away he remembered something else he had to get. "I also need an ID." Kenjiro said in a slightly embarrassed tone.

Saku just chuckled at that before waving her hand in a motion that said 'follow me'. "You really are starting to become slightly troublesome." She said while smirking lazily, her voice still in a deadpan tone the same as it was throughout the whole conversation.