024 | Entering Yanalia

My name is Asher.

After saving Lisha and verifying her intentions and magic power personally, I don't believe she'll be of any threat to us as of right now. In fact, I think she actually has a lot of potential that is yet to be unlocked.

She told me that she has a lack of general education due to her being ostracized back at home. That's an event I'm all too familiar with in my previous world. This happens more often than you may have thought, especially among the aristocracy.

Those who have power and authority seek to keep their way of life. After experiencing the finest dish made by the best chef in the world, would you also not want to have a second serving?

Nobles tend to raise a "perfect" successor. Lisha is a child born to a maid. In their world, such an act is impure and looked down upon. Perhaps her father, and entire family, degrades her for such reason. Foolish nobles and their pride.

Rambling aside, we've finally reached Yanalia. Although a bit later than I intended as Lisha doesn't have the capability to match the speed that Rudif and I could handle effortlessly.

"Eight years of training does quite a bit on your body..."

"What was that?", Lisha turned around and asked.

I shook my head, "Nothing."

The rabbit seemed to squirm around while it was on my head. I plucked her off and gently put her back into Rudif's backpack.

"Let's take her out when we find somewhere to stay."

The mutt nodded. A while ago, this idiot took off the Transformation Spell that I PERSONALLY put on him. I get his intentions and showing Lisha what he truly is but that would have come sooner or later, however...the dumb mutt can't even wait until we got INSIDE Yanalia?

Looks like I need to control my emotions more, Rudif got a bit scared when I was staring at him.

"A-Asher? You good?"

"I'm fine. Just making sure she's safe."

The three of us joined the long line of people waiting to head into Yanalia. There was a tan-skinned chubby man with a top hat in a tight suit. He wiped his face with a thin flower-patterned cloth.

Rudif was about to explode with laughter, "Asher, look at that-"

I put my hand over Rudif's mouth. I whispered to him, carefully making sure that nothing I said could be heard by the chubby man in front.

"Mutt...Shut up, look carefully at the merchant's carriage. Do you notice there's a design on the carriage?"

The mutt looked carefully at the carriage. I could tell he saw the Yanalian flag. If he remembered something during Patricia's lessons, then now would be a good time to show it.

Rudif nodded his head and whispered back, "Sorry, Asher. I almost got us in trouble."

"As long as you understand."

Lisha came in from the side, "Hey~ I'm curious now too. What are you talking about?"

I decided to test Lisha a little. To see if she can connect the dots. "Look at the carriage. Why do you think it would have been bad if Rudif made fun of that merchant?"

Lisha stopped herself from laughing by putting both hands over her mouth.

"Pft- Why is such a chubby merchant wearing a tight suit and wiping his bald-looking forehead with a flowered handkerchief?"

Rudif started laughing uncontrollably and that was the breaking point for Lisha and me as we joined in, giggling like children. The people around us looked at us as if we had some mental problems.

There's always another chance to test Lisha.

What Rudif and I noticed was that the carriage had the Yanalian flag at the front. Rudif must have looked at the guard's shield to fully recognize it.

Their flag is a yellow banner with white horizontal lines with a lion's head in the middle.

Despite having such a ferocious flag, Yanalia is a kingdom with below-average military strength. The entire kingdom is made up of predominantly humans. In fact, you can probably say that everyone in Yanalia is a human. They've always avoided conflicts of any sort but over the years, their power has dwindled.

According to Patricia's estimates, only about a third of all knights in Yanalia can even USE Raw Energy.

"It's our turn."

Lisha and Rudif followed behind me as we approached the guard.

"Reason for visit?"

The stupid mutt just had to talk first, "We came from Naskac-"

Good thing Lisha elbowed him in the stomach to stop him from muttering another word.

I gave a thumbs-up to Lisha and she returned the notion.

I spoke to the guard myself. He and his other coworkers were all wearing identical suits of armor while wielding a spear. Similar to Naskac's armor but different in the way that they are decorated. It also seems that they use a less durable material.

It's likely that what Patricia told me about Yanalia avoiding conflicts of any kind to be true, seeing as how they don't put much funding into military resources.

"We're part of the Union."

The guard tilted his head. I felt like he raised an eyebrow behind that helmet.

He had a gravelly voice when he spoke, "The Adventurer's Union, eh? Don't you kids seem a bit too young for that?"

"Of course not. We are actually fully-fledged and certified mercenaries."

Honestly, saying we were mercenaries would be better than saying we were traders. We brought nothing, and anything of any worth was in my Inventory spell. It's every so slightly more believable that we are mercenaries.

"Mercenaries, eh? Lots of people from the Union are running into Yanalia."

"Business is booming."

"It sure is. Let's get this over with, show me some identification please?"

Haha, I don't have one. Neither does Rudif and I don't think miss noble girl Lisha has any either.

No worries, one of the many languages I mastered during missions I was sent on during my previous life was bullsh*t.

"You see...we ran into a bit of trouble on our way here."

Lisha and Rudif nodded their heads.

"We were actually near Naskac borders, a few Dark Elves found us, and well..."

I pointed at Lisha's bloodied dress. She gave a cute smile to the guard. Nice one, Lisha. Get him to sympathize with us.

"Oh no..."

"Right, we only managed to escape with one of our belongings, and there's only our pet in there."

I gestured Rudif to come up to let the guards examine it. They cleared it for entry and nodded their heads.

"Unfortunately, as we were fighting for our lives..."

I mustered a few fake tears to roll down my cheeks.

"We were robbed of most of what we had! Including the bags where we had our Adventurer's License!"

I heard sobbing behind me. I'm liking Lisha more and more.

The poor guard was obviously bamboozled by us. He cleared his throat as if he was just done crying with us as well.

"I'm so sorry that happened kids. What rotten luck you guys have. Come on through, I hope you make yourself at home. Please don't feel shy to ask for help if you need any. Have a good day."

I sniffed my nose and wiped my tears, "...Thank you."

* * *

The three of us got in and Rudif had the most shocked face I have ever seen. I reached into my inventory to pull out a handkerchief for Lisha. She gladly helped herself and fixed herself up.

"What are you looking at, mutt?"

The mutt looked at Lisha and me back and forth, "H-how did you guys do that?"

Lisha flipped her hair back confidently and put the handkerchief back into my hand, "It's called acting, stupid~"

"Asher...Don't teach Lisha weird things."

"I didn't though?"

What was this mutt talking about?

"Anyways, on the topic of our identification. Why don't we stop by the Adventurer's Hall?"

Rudif nodded, "They've GOT to have one. I've seen so many mercenaries and traders show the guards their card."

Lisha asked us a question, "The Adventurer's Hall? Is that just the name for the Union's building that provides services?"

"Yeah, you haven't heard of that before?"

"Nope. I just guessed. I only know about the Union. I don't go out very much. The very few days I do, my mother would probably send a few assassins on my way."

"Wow, she really hates you..." Rudif said.

Lisha rolled her eyes, "You have NO idea."

"Anyways, let's get a place to stay and issue our own mercenary license under the Union."

The mutt scratched his head, "Are we allowed to do that?"

"Of course we are. We'll probably have to take some sort of test or write down some qualifications before we get accepted."

Ah, that reminds me of something.

"Lisha, do you think you have the skills to become a mercenary?"

She looked at me with a grin, "Were you even WATCHING as I killed those bandits?"

Perhaps she could have said it a bit softer as many people turned their heads over and looked at Lisha, a young child with a bloody dress.

"Oops~"

While we received many stares, thanks to Lisha, we still made it to the Adventurer's Hall. A familiar-looking tavern, just like the one back in Naskac. There was a wooden hanging sign with the AU on it. A fishing rod and a dagger on top of a circular shield.

The three of us went in, all sorts of people turned their heads when we came in. Unlike the one in Naskac, the people there only consisted of humans. Besides that, everything was very similar. Circular tables surrounded by chairs with all sorts of different people drinking and eating.

We walked up to desk and I talked to the receptionist.

"Hey there."

The receptionist was a young lady. Presumably around the ages of 18 to 20. She had black hair, just like Rudif right now, which was woven into braids. She wore the same attire as Linda, the Elf receptionists back in Naskac. She had a cute face and a soft voice.

"Hello there! The Union welcomes all! How may I help you today?"

I leaned slightly outwards and introduced my friends, "We three would like to register for an Adventurer's license."

"Absolutely! Please fill in these documents accordingly-"

She gave us three different booklets of papers stapled together.

"And please ask me if you don't understand a question."

I handed out a booklet to the other two along with a writing utensil.

"Lisha, you know how to read right?"

She sighed, "Of course I do!"

She grabbed the booklet and we went to an empty table to sit down and write.

The questions were really easy to answer and nothing too private. There were some questions that you could even skip if you didn't wish to answer. At least the Union respects privacy.