Chapter 20

Arriving before the guild hall, I stopped for a moment, analyzing its structure, it being a large four story building made of granite stone, most likely mined from local quarries. This city was most known for being a mining settlement, being so near to the Azerlisian Mountains, where we had gone for our earlier quest.

There were many different mines and quarries around this region especially in the mountains which bordered this city by a few kilometers.

"Well, you ready?" A hand rested on my shoulder, as Wrai asked me a question.

"For what?"

"I mean, it's quite a lot of pressure for someone so young. They will probably question your place in our team, and despite our status we are also an extremely young team that had just recently risen to this level. 

Bastien is the oldest of us three, being only thirty two. While I'm only twenty three and Verica's twenty two. Oh, I hadn't even asked how old you are?" He pondered, and realized that he hadn't asked me about that.

"I'm twelve." I stated plainly, not bothering to disguise my age, thinking that it would most likely be too much of a pain.

"Seriously! I thought you were just really short." It was our resident spellcaster who exclaimed in surprise, who evidently didn't think of me as that young. 

A hint of annoyance welled up within me, thinking that it was quite ridiculous for her to think that way.

"I guess you need glasses, you're getting up there in age." I kind of surprised myself by replying with such a snarky comment, not being the type of person that bites back, usually not caring enough.

"Goddamned brat." She snorted, looking away in irritation.

"Come on let's all get along together, we're gonna be a team from now on regardless." Bastien tried to mediate, it seemingly being his role from the little interactions I've experienced thus far.

Our leader pushed the doors open, ignoring the bit of discord that had ensued, entering and beckoning us with a wave of his hand.

We moved along, putting aside the little strife between us, it wasn't really important anyways, but for some reason I had decided to comment back. I thought it was out of character for me, but perhaps I just had never encountered such a situation.

Following after him, the sound of bustling activity came over me, hundreds of adventurers spread throughout the entire building, from an area for drinking and eating to people looking over quest boards, dozens of guild workers rushed from area to area.

They worked the counters, cashing in money, and confirmed completed missions.

Seconds after we entered, the entire hall quieted down, and hundreds of heads turned towards us, observing, then murmurs burst forth. The cacophony of sound being indistinguishable even to my sharp ears.

But it wasn't hard to guess and speculate about the reason and source. After all, Adamantite teams weren't exactly common, and seeing one in person was usually quite rare, though the only reason we weren't approached yet was due to them being based in this city.

So they were relatively more used to seeing them around here.

They were enamored with them, distracting them from my existence, but it wasn't long before they realized that their revered idols were accompanied by a young child.

And speculation exploded out in the lobby.

We just ignored them, though I could see that Verica was a bit irritated at the extra attention they were receiving due to my presence, and Wrai seemed to glisten instead.

We arrived before an open counter, a young man with a sleek three piece suit uniform manning it.

"Oh, welcome back Silver Sky, I presume you were all successful in your quest to investigate the disturbance in the Keldrum Mines." He greeted us, with a polite smile.

"Yeah, we cleared it out, there was quite the powerful vampire living there, here, I've got the signature of Marquis Faeduire, signaling the completion of our mission." Wrai pulled out a letter of confirmation he had received from the client, and handed it over to the employee.

"Thank you. I will go off and give you the reward immediately." He received it, and went out back to get the payment.

"Don't worry Fay, you'll get your fair share of the bounty. You might not have received the mission with us, but you're part of us now." He explained, I nodded, not that I was expecting much, not needing the money currently.

I could always sell a few of the less useful items I stole, they would be worth an enormous amount.

A little later, the guild employee came back with the payment, putting it on the desk. The jingle of the coin within the bag sounded out clearly, the sum total being incomprehensible to the average peasant.

Our leader took the bag and attached it to his belt, then thanked the worker.

We were turning to leave when someone walked up to us, and spoke -

"Hey, I heard that the little girl with you there was going to join up with your party." It was an older man, most likely in his forties, he probably heard that from eavesdropping on us.

How rude.

"You heard right, what's it to you?" Wrai smirked, clearly intending to provoke him, as I narrowed my eyes at him. He wants me to prove a point. I already knew what he was going to do.

I let out a sigh.

"You know you can't just let anyone into an Adamantite party, she has to be sufficiently strong, if you're looking for another member, why don't you let me join? It would be smarter than dragging a child around." The man stated, obviously unable to look past my age. It would have annoyed me if I didn't know that Wrai was about to stir up a bunch of trouble.

"If that's what you think, why don't you fight her?"

And that's how I get roped into an unnecessary fight to satiate my leader's need for chaos.