The Necromancer and the Priestess (13)

Main Mission: Wait for the opening of the bridge.

It was still the same.

The mission had been updated after that day, and had been stuck at this same mission for the last year.

Wait for the opening of the bridge. But how long would she need to wait? It had already been a year, so how much longer? Two years? Three? Five? Ten?

"U-um! Excuse me! Is this where I can register to be an adventurer?" A young boy nervously said.

The pretty girl blinked her eyes from behind the counter before smiling brightly, as if she was used to such a scene. "Yes! Are you able to write? If you can, then please fill out the form here," She took out a sheet of paper with neat and efficient movements as she continued to speak.

"A-ah, I can't read or write..." The young boy nervously rubbed at his neck, an embarrassed expression on his face as he clutched at his shirt. It had taken all of his courage to come here.

The Guild.

It had been formed almost a year ago, in the aftermath of the unsealing of the demon. While the church was unstable, an organization had formed that worked as a sort of intermediary between employers and employees. Anyone could become a member of the guild, take on jobs, and receive money from doing them.

With the church weakened, subjugation requests came in like a storm, and the Guild quickly rose up to become an extremely important organization rivaling that of the church.

Hot headed youths, like the one currently standing in front of the reception counter, quickly flooded the ranks of adventurers, wanting to make a name in the world.

"That's alright, then just tell me the information and I'll fill it in." The receptionist said, filling in the name, age, place of birth, and etc. for the records.

Afterwards, the receptionist took out a small bronze plate, placing it over a slab of black metal with a magic circle engraved on it. There was a glow of light before the receptionist handed over the plate, which was now engraved with the boy's information, along with the Guild's seal. "This is your Guild ID. It'll cost a gold to get a replacement, so please don't lose it. The bronze color is to indicate that you're a beginning adventurer, Rank F."

"Ah yes, thank you-" The boy said, but his words were interrupted by a clamoring in the guild hall, as a group entered through the door.

"Isn't that the founder? She's with that famous S-ranked party too..." Several voices said, and the boy couldn't help but curiously look over.

A beautiful girl with long black hair and a cold expression was walking between a party of skilled looking people, all beautiful and wearing expensive looking equipment. It was as if there was a bubble around them, and they were from a different world than their own.

"Are you interested?" The receptionist asked with a slightly sly grin.

"A-ah, yes! S-since, the rumors have reached pretty far after all," the boy replied nervously, bowing his head as he blushed.

The S-class party, White Bird. Although no one knew the meaning of this when the rumors first emerged, after a while, everyone understood what it meant to be S-class. Slaying an evil dragon, rescuing the princess of the Kalan Empire from a group of 20,000 brigands, clearing out the most wanted criminals one by one.

The receptionist smiled even brighter, her eyes curving into crescent moon shapes. "Right? They're that amazing after all. The guild founder as well, is a pretty amazing person." The girl looked around before leaning in a little and speaking in a whisper loud enough to be heard over the commotion of the room. "This is a secret, but she used to be a member of the church. After everything that happened, she decided that the people needed to take matters into their own hands, instead of always relying on the church. Because of that, we now have the guild here today~ Not only is she the founder, but she also the leader of the White Birds, and they say that she's pretty much at the level of a master mage."

"Wow," the boy exclaimed, looking back at the girl in admiration. Maybe it was his imagination, but he felt like her blue eyes glanced in their direction for a moment. But it was only a moment, and before he could wonder where she was looking, the group had already disappeared up the stairs.

"Ah, looks like they left. They never stay for long. To be able to see them like this on your first day, you're quite lucky, huh?" The girl said, before getting back to business. "Oh, right, do you need me to explain the ranking system and quest system?"

The boy nodded, and the receptionist smoothly explained before asking if he would like to take a request, recommending the errand quests, like gathering herbs, or cleaning houses and finding lost cats. She lectured him over how he shouldn't take subjugation quests until he was more combat experienced, and the boy, being a rather more shy and cautious type of person, gratefully went on his way with his finding a lost cat request.

The girl smiled as she waved him away, thinking that a diligent person like him, who wasn't rash in trying to immediately subjugate something like goblins or slimes, might actually end up becoming pretty good in the future.

Perhaps because of the way their guild was set up, the death rate of newly registering adventurers that were his age were quite high, due to how many rash teenagers went to immediately go and try to kill off monsters.

"He's a good kid." She commented, before her eyes wandered away, falling on the stairs that led to the guild master's office.

"Hey, it's time for the shift change," another girl called out from behind her, patting the first receptionist on the shoulder.

"Oh? It's already that time? Then I'll leave it to you~" The girl said happily, as the two changed places and she ran off to the back to get changed.

"That girl's always so carefree." The girl who just sat down commented, and the receptionist nearby leaned in.

"I know right? Actually, I don't think I've spoken to her outside of work." She said, and another receptionist also came closer as she spoke in agreement.

"Actually, do any of you even know her name?"

They all shook their heads, before looking at each other.

"Um, excuse me, I'd like to take this request..." The voice of an adventurer snapped them back to attention, and they all hurried back to work.

Meanwhile, the receptionist girl from before was humming as she changed out from her uniform into a casual dress, as well as redoing her bun. Her curls bounced around, framing her small face as she nodded in satisfaction at the mirror.

Mm, she was so pretty!

Humming, she left the changing room, walking up the stairs to the fourth floor. At the end of the luxurious hallway was a set of carved double doors, and entering it was the guild master's office.

Inside...

"What the f*ck! You were the one who made such a stupid mistake, so why are you blaming it on me!?"

"Did you actually just say that? Who was the person who was playing around with girls all day and came back to finish the request hungover?"

Kids. Kids were arguing.

"Ahhh! Leader!" A black haired girl cried out, her eyes filled with tears as she hugged the receptionist girl, who wasn't paying attention, her eyes like that of a dead fish. "Arthur and Lana are arguing again! Leader, only you can stop them!" If the people from downstairs were here, they would realize that this girl was the prestigious founder of the guild.

"Ack! It's the leader!" Hearing this, Arthur and Lana both immediately had on expressions of terror.

Arthur put on a flattering expression, as he spoke, "Hahaha, leader, it's really nothing for you to worry about. Lana and I were just have a little friendly argument, right Lana?" He turned a sharp glare toward the short haired girl who nodded furiously.

"Yes, just a friendly argument! Like friends do!" They laughed nervously, hands over their shoulders as they put on a show of getting along.

A short haired man sighed, rubbing his forehead. "If only they could get along like this all the time, then we wouldn't need to worry." He said, and the beautiful woman next to him dressed in a skin hugging dress laughed.

"They're so scared of leader, it's hilarious," she said, her painted red lips curling up in a mocking smile.

"Hey, you b*tch! You say that, but you're just as scared-" Arthur shouted, but he was interrupted by a cool voice.

"Enough." The receptionist girl's face was cold, as she looked down on everyone.

"Y-yes ma'am..." They immediately fell silent.

"Are you guys finally done with fooling around?" An angry voice came from the side of them, and turning around, they were met with the guild master's angry smile.

It was Leon.

"Ah, sorry guild master!"

"Don't kill us!"

The dignified White Bird party cried out, begging for mercy.

"Pfft, they all look like idiots in front of leader and the guild master~" The black haired girl said, still hugging the receptionist.

"Huh!? Did you just call us idiots? All you do is suck up to the leader all the time," Arthur sneered, looking down on the girl, who was immediately riled up. Now, the people fighting were Arthur and the black haired girl, instead of Arthur and Lana.

"Enough is enough. Rose, you should know better." Leon said, and Rose looked reluctant, but quieted down with an unhappy frown, while Arthur sneered at her.

They were about to start fighting again, when the receptionist girl let out a soft sigh, but things immediately became pin drop silent. "It's good that everyone's finally paying attention," Leon grumbled, but finally got down to business.

"I called everyone here today so that we could discuss the next mission," Leon said, picking up some papers to read over them. "We've been requested to find someone who went missing in Gloom Forest by the Fairfell Kingdom. The description is a young girl with silver hair and purple eyes..."

"Silver hair and purple eyes? Isn't that royalty? No way, are we going to rescue another princess again?" Arthur said excitedly, while the other members murmured to each other.

Lana glared, grabbing at Arthur's ear. "Can you only think about hitting on girls all the time? She's just a princess, what are you so excited for? The Empire already has twenty-seven of those!" She continued nagging a pale faced Arthur, when Leon finally interrupted with a cough.

Once the two settled down again, he continued. "Gloom Forest has been getting more and more dangerous these days, especially since the church hasn't been in a state to purify it. Because of this, the kingdom specifically paid a fortune to request for you guys, the White Birds. Although the person's life or death is uncertain, it's still a good opportunity to do some clearing up of the forest, and they're also paying handsomely. You guys don't mess this up and do a good job."

"Yes~" The group replied, looking like a group of very obedient and cute kids.

If they didn't open their mouths that is. The moment these guys opened their mouths and started fighting, all that dignified aura flew away far, far into the distance.

"Leader, are you going to come with us this time?" Rose asked, swinging the reception girl's arm back and forth.

The girl had on a polite smile as the group crowded around her, asking the same thing.

"Leader, leader, without you our group is useless!"

"You should ditch your receptionist job and come with us!"

"I hear that there are a few new promising adventurer recruits that you should take a look at, they might be able to join our group-"

"Come out with us to drink-"

They were like a nest of newborn chicks clamoring for food.

Leon: ... He pretended not to see anything.