Erudite Kingdom (6)

"Should we meet up with her?" Prune asked.

"Let's look at the map first."

And from the map, Nine was headed in our direction.

"I don't think it's necessary. She's coming over," I raise my head to meet Prune's gaze.

If anything, I'm worried about her condition. I think we need to take a break after this. Some time will be needed for us to adjust to this new world.

Which leads me to question what in the world Nine did… protagonist correction? Did she save a princess from a wagon or something?

I looked towards the direction of the dot-- oh. There's actually a compass marker? You know, the compass you sometimes see in games that guide you to a place you set a target on without having to view the map itself? In this case, it was pointing at Nine.

Instead of the usual Nine I know, it was a guy with a black coat. I'm pretty sure that's the Nine the compass was pointing to.

"I'm back," he's no longer a she, it seems. I almost didn't recognize him.

"Where did you get that black coat?" I asked.

"Well, Bleu gave it to me last time so.. think of it as a disguise, Wait, there's chocolate here?" I just realized that Nine was.. taller? What's up with that?

"Yeah?"

"You found a place to stay?" Prune asked.

"I did but.. it's more like the place found me. Protagonist correction, it's no joke," Nine frowned. "Also, thanks to Prune, I just remembered that I should use my male self to deal with adventuring stuff."

"So? The place to stay is?"

"First, can I order a drink?"

"Sure.. fine. Do you need a menu?"

"Chocolate," Nine looked at my half-empty cup.

"Got it," It's called Coco but whatever, same thing.

I got up to the waitress nearby to order another cup of Coco for our table. When she turned around to confirm our table, she had a stunned expression for a moment. She then promptly passed the order to the barista inside the store. I returned to my seat.

"So they found out?" Prune asked.

"I think most people here already know about it. Just look around us for a second." Nine whispered the latter half of his words.

Stares...

Those around us were looking at us curiously.. or more specifically, Nine.

"Isn't that because you're wearing conspicuous clothes? What happened to not standing out?" I asked.

"Oh yeah.. crap," Nine leaned back against the splat of his seat. "But I want to register as a male though."

"I suppose it's inevitable," Liliath said, "Could you elaborate on what kind of deal you made with the girl?"

The intensity of the stares soon faded. Looks like Liliath was using concealment magic. Checking with the appraisal on my UI, her mana percentage was-- not even dropping..

Nine gave us his explanation of how he got us a place to stay. I don't know if it's because the girl with the freckles is just super intelligent or do we just stand out so much? Then again.. with the circulation of old history, the awareness of heroes and the existence of something called the 'education guild' that I've never heard about in any novel before-- could it be that commoners here have formal education? If so then the action of the girl with the freckles would be justifiable.

I guess the deal isn't all that bad. I was thinking of renting an inn somewhere. But the worry was money. With this sudden out-of-nowhere solution from Nine, I guess we wouldn't need to worry so much about that anymore. Just that… can the florist be trusted? This is not a flag right?

On top of that.. Nine's theory on how we're not the protagonist, irregular nor even side characters.. that blew my mind. What exactly are we anyways? In the context of the story, do we categorize ourselves as invaders? I created Bleu but Bleu has an authority higher than the gods of this world. And now as the creator, I'm walking around the mortal realm of this fantasy world..

"The exchange was this. I'll have to form a party with Jennifer and you'll have to help Miss Margrett with the flowers if she ever needs help. No rent charged."

"So in the end, everyone ends up using the apartment," Prune sighed in relief.

"That's the best I could think of. We need a base of operation right? I think following whatever scenario we come across is the best option for now-- thank you" Nine said. His Coco also came at just the right time.

I paid for the drink and we went down to discuss more on our future plans.

Things we discussed include additional safety measures-- Nine buffed everyone's stats, not that I felt any different. After which we went on a widget brainstorming spree.

Autoconcelament widget, Statusconcealment widget, revival widget, teleportation widget, camera widget, Shareview widget, ShareUniqueSkill widget…

As for the Statusconcealment widget, Nine just copied and pasted his [Stat Concealment (EX)] in our statuses so.. no problems with that anymore.

And an upgrade to the map where I can sort through what kind of people I can ping in our vicinity. For example, if I ping slaves, all slaves would show up on the map. Or if I ping people with ill intent towards us, it'll show up on the map. Without a doubt, this is also a function I want everyone to be able to use.

Unknown. Good luck developing these.

We discussed until it was close to 12:20. Time to go to the guild... but before that.

"The washroom.." I muttered.

"Hm?"

"Anyone need to use the washroom before we go?" I asked again.

"Oh yeah.. that's a probl.. time to see how this world's bathroom is like,"Nine said, dubiously.

"Yeah, yeah.."

"I would be lying if I said I could hold for another hour," Liliath smiled wryly.

"Same here," Prune had the same concern expression as Liliath.

"Then Nine and Prune will go first? Then we'll take turns."

"How about you go first? Go ask the waitress for directions.. or should we just go to an alley out of view to secretly.."

"Not a chance.."

".. use Prune's unique skill and use the washroom there?"

Not cute Nine. Not cute. You're a guy, it totally doesn't suit your temperament to try to fool us like this.

"Okay, okay. Prune, let's go."

Liliath and Prune didn't seem to mind so let's just go with this setup.

I asked the waitress for directions and was told the male and female washroom was in the interior of the cafe.

Let's just say.. the entire experience was rather normal. It's like your normal toilet except that the flushing system is done by hand, having to manually scoop water from the bucket at the side and then pouring it down the abyss.

It was smelly, without a doubt. But all in all, it was at least alright. I'm surprised that they created a basic sewage system at least. Bleu wasn't lying when she said it was 'passable'.

Prune cheated and went into the apartment and used the washroom there. No fair.. which prompted me to query where the wastewater goes after being flushed in the apartment? Maybe it's better not to ask.

After each of our turns, we headed for the guild building. I'm not going to elaborate much on the outer exterior but if I were to sum up the guild in a sentence, it would be: fancy.

The entrance to it was rather large, donning a gate that was opened outwards. It was much quieter, two knights could be seen guarding the entrance.

We walked in. The first thing to note was how it had three floors. Yes-- it somehow looked like those weird olden-day, industrial high classy hotels with the wooden handrails and red rugs-- but the red rug here didn't cover the whole floor. Some parts are reflected with something like granite or marble floor.

A bunch of tables and chairs arranged to create aisles. An entrance counter obstructing the straight path forward to the other inner counters. Winter decorations here and there, paper snowflake and blue lighting sparkles and whatnot here and there.

"Greetings," the male guild staff with the glasses in the front counter, raised his head and greeted us.

"Um, excuse me sir, can I ask for the procedure if we want to register as an adventurer."

"Registration? The four of you?"

"Yes," Nine said.

"Okay," shuffling some papers, he took out four applications, "Please fill up your names, special abilities, if applicable, past experiences and additional info. Just leave it blank if you don't have anything to write."

"Thank you."

There were only two fountain pens we could use so we had to take turns. Worse was.. we had no idea how it worked since it was the kind that we needed to dip into the ink every now and then. I made a mess--

Well. We had Liliath to teach us the proper way of using the fountain pen so the process of writing was made slightly less nightmarish. She was pretty skilled at it.

While we were at that, another person came in to register as an adventurer. Moreover, this was a kid around the age of 12. Huh, children in this world aren't illiterate it seems. He didn't need help filling the form.

"Thank you very much, we hope to work with the four of you from here on," The staff said and stamped our forms one by one. The documents didn't really contain any private information besides skills. "Now if you don't mind, could you head on over to the front to apply for a guild card? Counter 14."

"Will do, thank you."

"Much appreciated.

So it seems the front counter is for the sake of enrolling new adventurers. The moment we left the counter, another pair of teens came to register themselves.

The seats in the hall weren't filled with brawny people of sorts, though there were suspicious people wearing hoods drinking some alcohol. Levels ranging from 30 to 50. There were 20 counters here, but not all were currently active.

Besides the one male staff in the front, the rest of the staff here were female ones, demi-humans also part of the working force. The office clothing they wore kind of felt like something from steampunk-- with the laced corset minus the gears and pipes.

"Excuse me, we came to apply for a guild card."

"Yes, esteemed customer. So you came to register yourself as an adventurer, congratulations," the staff replied with a stiff smile. It's kinda awkward because you can kind of tell she didn't really mean what she said. Adventuring isn't really a noble job.

"There are guild rules we should follow when taking up quests correct? Is there a manual?" Nine asked.

"Yes, but if you prefer that I give you a short lecture on the important points, I could also do so."

"Then the manual please."

The staff looked at Nine a little silly. It's a flag alright. Looks to me like a scene of a protagonist talking to a guild staff.

"If you insist. Same for the three of you, correct?" Her smile grew even stiffer. In a light novel sense, it looks like her pride as a guild staff was crushed.