The Guild Hall
"I want to become an adventurer."
.
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAHAA!"
Raucous laughter echoed in the empty guild hall as the old man in the corner threw his head back in laughter, his face bitter, glasses and gray streaks shaking with every fake breath. The guild clerk frowned, her brows furrowing, although the tired look in her eyes suggested that this wasn't a new occurrence - that being, the man's abject mocking of a prospective adventurer.
"You're supposed to help new adventurers, not make fun of them." She chided, sighing and shaking her head. "Fenix, you have to do your job eventually..."
"This girl is no adventurer yet." The aging man scoffed. "Although she looks enough like a loser to be one."
.
The girl huffed, turning to Aisha. "Don't bother with him. What is he even talking about, he's an adventurer too..."
"..."
.
Aisha walked up to the desk, taking a look at her surroundings as she made the walk up to the counter. Long tables filled the room, dusty and old-looking. It wasn't surprising, considering how empty the hall was, right before evening, when the most people should have been there.
The state of dilapidation was shared by the walls, one in particular holding an old board with various pieces of paper tacked onto them. There was little space on the board, and many of the papers overlapped with each other. There were a few on the ground, footprints stamped onto the pages like ink.
.
The guild girl waved at Aisha and grabbed a little disc from the side of the counter, a beam of blue light shooting out. The light extended about a foot long before splitting and forming a screen, prompting the clerk to take out a stylus and tap on it a few times.
"Ok, so what's your name?"
"Aisha." The fey mumbled.
"And your last name?"
"..."
.
The guild girl's eyebrows pleated in half-concentration, half concern as Aisha just continued to stand there motionless, a painful look on her face. She considered prompting the girl again, or hell, reaching over and giving the girl a hug, but the tall counter didn't leave a lot of room for leaning, and she wanted to give the girl a bit of space.
Eventually though, she came to a solution on her own to the awkward air. "Oh… Right. Fey don't have last names. Um, they haven't updated it to support demi-humes…"
"I'll just put fey or somethi-"
.
"Izec." Aisha whispered.
"...What?"
"It's Izec."
.
The clerk frowned. Now it just seemed like the fey girl had just been acting like an asshole.
"Alright then." She hesistated. "Um, do you have any previous experience with any adventuring guilds?"
"No."
.
The guild clerk wrote a couple things on the screen with the stylus. It flashed green, and the screen closed up and withdrew into the stone. She gave a smile to Aisha, and slid the disc over the counter.
"Alright, now just put your hand on the registry, and-"
"It won't work."
"If you're worried about magical aptitude, it's not going to be a problem."
"It'll be a problem." Aisha mumbled.
.
"What? Why? It should work, it just takes a little bit of your mana. It should work, unless you literally didn't have a soul or something."
"..."
"Hey, come on." The clerk sighed. "Don't be difficult. Is it... something about your hands?"
"It's what you said."
.
"Oh, don't worry, we don't discriminate." The clerk reassured. "I mean, we get a few Khana and Ghirans, scarred or dirty hands... um... or I mean..."
"The other thing."
.
"What other thing?" The guild girl asked, frowning, before her eyes widened. "Wait, you can't mean-"
.
Fenix let out another bitter laugh in his corner. The girl's face became concerned, leaning in and speaking softly to Aisha.
.
"Hey… I don't want to admit it, but… Fenix was right. People aren't here because they don't want to die. People don't last very long in this kind of field, and with no magic... Fenix was lucky, and after becoming a gold rank, he was contacted by the magistrates to become a counselor. You look like such a strong, young woman. You could be a..."
The girl trailed off, realizing. She looked at Aisha with pity.
"Just finish the process, receptionist," Aisha growled.
(Not another one… She's cute, too...)
.
The blonde girl sighed and put her own hand on the disk. A little, brown, dirty looking oval plate appeared on the counter. She handed it to Aisha.
"Alright, the bounty board is over there. You can find the contracts over there. You're novice ranked, so you can only take jobs that are marked with a brown dot."
Aisha walked over to the board and started to look at some of the postings.
[Escort needed for passage to Richeng] - gold dot - 20 gold + provisions
[Materials needed from Kairezi Jungle] - gold dot -
[Spectre in Itchlien waterway] - silver dot - 3 gold
[Son captured by bandits] - blue dot - 30 gold
[Dragon] - red dot - 30 gold
[Drake spotted near west gate] - green dot - 100 gold
[...] - blue dot - 200 gold
.
.
.
Aisha walked up to the guild girl.
.
"There are no brown dots on that bulletin board."
"Oh. There are? Usually there's at least one or two…"
"What's the rank after novice?" Aisha said, getting close to the guild girl.
"U-um, it's silver, but-"
"Let me take a silver contract." Aisha put her hands on the counter, leaning towards the girl, who shrunk back.
"I-I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that."
"Why not?"
Aisha's nose was practically touching the guild girl's. Her face turned red, stepping back. She shrunk.
"My hands are tied. I-i'm sorry, but I can't go against the guildmaster…"
"Who is the guildmaster?"
"He lives in Chizen, the capital... "
Aisha sighed. She sat down at a table, and set her sights on Fenix, the "counselor." She walked over, light bootfalls echoing in the empty hall.
.
Fenix did not look up from his mug. Aisha sat down across from him.
"I'm not going to help you, girl. I've no interest in a dying man."
"Let's play a game."
Aisha pointed to a little black and white checkered board, leaning against one of the legs of the long table next to Fenix. He raised his eyebrow.
"Do you even know what the game is called?" Fenix asked.
"No."
"Well then I doubt you know the rules, either."
"I do not."
"..."
"..."
"I'm not going to teach you how to play."
"You don't need to."
"I have no interest in playing against someone who doesn't even know the ru-"
"Then let's make it interesting. Let's bet on a game. Should be easy to win, if I don't know the rules."
.
That got his attention.
.
"Very well, girl. Let's play. But don't cry to Miiha over there if you lose all your coin."
.
He took out the board and began to place down the pieces on the board. Two horses, two castles towers… a row of rounded pieces…
He put a gold coin on the table, soon followed by a coin from Aisha.
.
"This game is called chess. It's been passed down in hume tradition for thousands of years."
.
He picked up a white pawn and moved it two spaces forwards. Aisha picked up one of her's, opposite to Fenix's, and moved it two spaces forwards as well.
Fenix moved his knight. Aisha did as well.
The old man raised his eyebrow. Well, it was a clever way to figure out how to play the game. But he would end the game soon and take the girl's money.
He moved his bishop, which Aisha mirrored.
He moved his queen. The girl would move her queen, and Fenix would checkmate her.
.
.
Aisha moved her fifth pawn one square, to block the checkmate.
.
Fenix raised an eyebrow.
.
He moved his queen back, threatening another checkmate.
(Surely it was a fluke? Has she seen people play before?)
Aisha moved her knight, blocking the checkmate again.
Fenix angrily moved his queen back into the ranks of his pieces.
.
.
.
They had played out the chess match. Aisha played well, winning a bishop up, but Fenix quickly used his superior game knowledge, and early advantage to win two of her bishops back. Eventually they played the endgame, where Fenix's better position should have given him a win… But it wasn't. It was a stalemate. He was up a knight, but…
.
"It's a stalemate, girl. I cannot checkmate you with just king and knight."
.
He moved his hand to take his coin, but Aisha grabbed his hand, stopping him.
"Let's play again."
"I have no interest in taking more coin from a-"
Aisha interrupted the old man by placing another coin on the table, doubling the bet.
Well, he would be a fool to not accept.
.
Aisha moved first now. She moved her knight. Fenix took advantage of the passive move and moved his pawn to the center.
She moved one of her pawns. Fenix took it with his, threatening to take the knight with his pawn. She moved the knight out of the way.
Fenix defended his pawn with his knight.
Aisha moved one of her pawns forward, directly in the taking range of his pawn. He took it. Aisha took back with her bishop.
(What is she doing? She was playing so well. Now she's down a pawn.) He thought to himself idly, moving his pawn to threaten her over-extended knight.
Aisha moved her knight directly next to his king, threatening to take his queen or rook. He took the knight with his king.
Aisha then also moved her bishop next to the king, putting it in check and forcing Fenix to take it.
(Down a bishop and a knight now. What is she doing? Wait...)
.
Fenix's eyes widened as he realized what had just happened.
.
Aisha's queen flew across the board, taking Fenix's. Dammit! He had lost his queen! He would be a bishop down, too, if he didn't do anything about the queen! How did she trick him into such an unfavorable position!?
.
.
.
"Checkmate." Aisha said, taking the four gold on the table.
"Dammit!"
Fenix seethed. Aisha had won, using her queen advantage to win the game.
"Play me again, girl!"
.
.
.
"Checkmate."
"Again!"
.
.
.
"Checkmate."
.
.
.
"Checkmate."
.
.
.
Aisha took the 8 gold on the table, counting 48 in her pouch now, from her initial 2. She had no doubt that she could wring the old man out of more money, but...
.
"Play me again, girl…" Fenix demanded, weakly.
"No." She said softly, rising from her chair and beginning to walk away.
.
Fenix looked up at her with a shocked expression. He had assumed the girl was coming over to get information from him. That is why he had accepted her game!
.
"Wait, girl! I thought you wanted advice!"
.
Aisha looked at him with that cold, disdainful expression that she had come in with.
.
"You were right." She whispered condescendingly. "You are a loser. adventurer. You quit because you got scared of the work, and now you're just pushing your own bitterness onto other people. I don't think you have anything to offer me."
.
It was something that Aisha herself had gone through, but at the moment, she couldn't care less about anything she had learned, the pain in her heart burning a hole in her chest.
.
She gripped the pouch of coins in her hands, getting up and walking over to the girl at the counter. No, she decided she had already wrung the old man out of all the information she needed. The expressions on his face, the way he held himself...
.
Completely average in every way. Sure, perhaps he had a bit of experience, but not nearly enough to constitute the wisdom that came from knowing why that experience was valuable. Although she couldn't help but feel like she was missing something. She just didn't really care what.
.
Miiha looked at the fey girl with a curious expression as she made her way back over to the counter, that same dull expression on her face. Nobody who had ever entered the guild had beat Fenix with such ease before, and although she didn't know if Aisha had lied about not playing before, the ease at which she beat Fenix was amazing. More amazing was the way that she manipulated the old man into giving her his coins - every single game was frustratingly close, just enough to give Fenix the illusion of almost winning.
.
She was smart, and well, it was kind of cathartic to watch someone put the old man in his place, even though he was her coworker. It was impressive just how intelligent she was, but more impressive was her ability to learn. She would be lying if she said she didn't like what she saw. Although, manipulating a man out of his wallet seemed... exploitative, at the very least. And those cold words...
.
Eh, whatever. Fenix was the asshole first.
.
"Miho." Aisha demanded, her head barely even rising above the desk. "I require information."
.
"U-um, it's Miiha, and um, why didn't you ask Fenix for advice?"
"I would have taken advice from him if I wanted to never exceed his ambition." Aisha said softly.
.
"W-well, I don't know if I can help you then…"
"Tell me about the guild system."
"Uh, could you be a little more specific?"
"How does the ranking system work?"
.
"Well... adventurer ranks are separated into a few different divisions. There's copper, silver, gold, platinum, sapphire, emerald, ruby, then diamond.
.
Copper adventurers are novices, and their jobs are usually limited to things like gathering ingredients, or delivering things. They usually don't involve fighting anything, unless it's a small rat infestation or something.
.
Silver adventurers are considered semi-novice, and fight weak enemies like slimes or wolves.
.
Gold adventurers are rated for things like fighting large monsters, or being in caravan protection squads.
.
Platinum adventures have proven… that they can "deal with" other humes and demi-humes…
.
Sapphire adventurers can take jobs for larger monsters like wyverns, ents, cyclops...
.
Emerald adventurers can take jobs for drakes, adult wyverns…
.
Ruby adventurers can take the dragon jobs…
.
Everything has a little bit of leeway though. A weak dragon could be an emerald class contract. Additionally, all ranks have 5 divisions. You are copper I currently."
.
"What about diamond?" Aisha asked.
.
"It's just a rank for prestige. I've never actually seen one. People don't make it that high. People usually don't make it to gold…" Miiha looked wistfully at one of the tables, and then at Fenix.
.
"When am I going to be able to take a contract?"
.
"I usually post them up in the mornings… but…" Miiha trailed off, looking bashful.
"But what?"
.
"People usually take them all really quickly." she said.
.
Aisha was silent, an intense, processing look behind those dark eyes. From afar, it had been entertaining to see that mind at work, but now, with it trained on herself, the clerk felt a little uncomfortable.
.
Trying to start a conversation and disperse the silence, Miiha wrung her hands.
"So um, where are you from?"
"..."
Aisha was silent for the rest of the evening. She just sat at the long table, waiting, with her hands in her lap, staring at Miiha. It was quite unsettling, but before long, Miiha grew comfortable with the gaze. It was strange - but coming from such a cute girl, eventually the stare became more endearing, like she was being protected.
.
Eventually night fell, and Miiha told Aisha to leave for the night. Fenix had long gone, mourning the loss of his coins.
.
She locked up and went upstairs, walking the empty halls of the guild living quarters, going into her room. She undressed and went to bed, dreaming of the strange fey girl.