47 Black Moon

"Wait up!" "Walk faster! We can't afford to be late!" "Okay, okay. I'm running." 'The Adventurer Capital's competition will begin in two days. Over five thousand adventurers and seven thousand spectators have gathered at the capital's biggest colosseum, Bellum.' "Can't we rest for a bit? We've been travelling through forests for a week!" "Fine. This town is fairly close to the capital, we can stay here for the night." "Hey! Look there's a church here." I ran closer to the church. "I thought you were tired."

I was greeted by a nun at the entrance. "Please watch out for creaking noises while walking in." "Thanks." The nun looked at me strangely. "Are you visiting this town? Would you happen to be an adventurer?" "Yes, how did you know?" "I also work for the adventurer's guild. But is it alright to be here right now? There's a competition starting tomorrow." "Huh!? Isn't the competition the day after tomorrow?" "You must have made a mistake, there's an opening ceremony for the competition today. You should hurry!" "Really?! If I leave now could I got to the capital in time?" "You could make it there by tonight, but you'll have to go by horseback." My companion walked in. "We wouldn't be able to financially afford renting horses." "But then our week worths of traveling will go to waste!"

"I could help." "No, we couldn't take a kind nun's money," I answered. "You don't visit churches often, do you?" The nun giggled. I tilted my head in confusion. "Don't worry, I'm not charitable enough to pay for your horses. A friend of my should be willing to help." The nun took us to the adventurer's guild in this town and quickly wrote something down and handed the letter to us. "Take this with you when you're renting the horses." "Alright, thanks!" I didn't really understand what was going on so I assumed she was friends with the horse dealer.

When we showed the letter to the horse dealer he had a shocked expression and let us take two of his horses without questioning. We continued our travels. "I wonder what's special about this letter." "You really don't visit churches often, do you?" "Hey why are you also saying that!" " 'cause you couldn't even tell that nun was an abbess." "What! Aren't abbesses normally nobles?" "They can be selected by the townspeople. If that's the case then it would make sense for the horse dealer to respect her." "I see.." 'I'll remember to thank her properly if we pass this town again.'

At the capitals entrance, a young boy around sixteen, asked us for the letter and let us pass the gate after reading it. 'Do abbesses usually have connections with other towns?' We found the capital's adventurer's guild and got in line to sign up. "Next!" "Hello! We're signing up for the competition!" "What are your names?" "I'm Chase! This antisocial guy in a hood is Kiyoshi." "Ok, here are your numbers. There's going to be an entrance fee is you're not one of the first thousand to show up tomorrow." "Ok." We took our number plates and went to find a place to stay.

-Who is Kiyoshi? (part 1/2) End-