Travel Preparation

𝗛𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝘁ō

We both entered the guild and found half of the adventurers still passed out drunk.

Alcor, Cy, and Kinn were looking at the quest board though they still looked like they only woke up recently then noticing Alice and K, they called out to us. "Yo, morning phoenix slayer and Miss Alice."

"Oi," I responded still in an expressionless tone. 'I'm already taking enough shit with the backline swordsman title, don't add another one.' I retorted inside my mind.

The rest of the adventurers turned their gazes upon us as the trio headed our way. "Oh come one, it's more of an honor than a teasing title. I mean you killed a phoenix, a 7-star monster!"

"I w.as just luc.ky, be.sides I only had 2 mo.nths wo.rth of trai.ning and I'm also cop.per." I said brokenly.

'Without that voice's help, I would have definitely died. It's only thanks to my broken death perception which was already harder to notice the difference between the one that won't kill me and the one that will.' I thought to myself deprecatingly.

"Don't be humble Himura, you deserve every reward that will be given to you for killing it...buuut it seems your already getting your rewar--Ack!" He said as he looks at Alice. Cy hits him with her staff and in response, Kinn puts his hand on his forehead.

I remained expressionless silently denying it and Alice also remained expressionless not knowing what he was talking about.

Seeing us being expressionless, Alcor finally cleared his misunderstanding himself.

"Guess not huh?" He said and soon left the guild.

As Alcor and his party members were leaving, I could still feel those gazes from all of those adventurers.

Many looked at me with admiration and respect for killing such a strong monster but I misunderstood their gazes as disbelief and jealousy which made me uncomfortable. I made sure not to make it known as I made my way to the sleeping Astoria and Freya who were eating her breakfast.

*DING* *DONG* *DING* *DONG* *DING* *DONG* *DING* *DONG*

The bell tower rang eight times meaning it was already 8:00 AM. Astoria woke up she immediately ran to the quest board without minding anybody.

Then a growl on her stomach made her stop and checked her coin pouch and was quite surprised that she only had one gold coin left.

"Eh?! Did I get robbed?"

"Of course, she doesn't remember," Freya said to herself silently before taking out 15 gold coins.

"Don't you remember, that I took your gold for safe keeping?"

"Huh? oh yeaaaaah but still why though?"

"Because I know that you'll splurge it all in one night so I took it."

'Well...also because the guild ask me to stop you from buying more alcohol since they were running out.' She thought to herself looking at Astoria specifically her liver with admiration for being able to handle so much alcohol.

'She could maybe even match up against the god of entertainment, Megu when it comes to alcohol.' She thought, looking at her with a tiny bit of respect.

"Well, you don't have to do that since I could definitely limit my spending."

""Uh huh"" Both Freya and surprisingly me responded with clear doubt in our eyes which Astoria chose to ignore, after all, I had my own fair share of situations dealing with a drunk Astoria.

Finally, both of the women noticed Alice. Alice herself was just waiting for them to finish. "So Himura, what is she doin here?"

"Right, this is..." I introduced her as a mage who wishes to travel with us. I left out the part about being suspected as the culprit and about her true objective which of course, I also don't know.

"I see, well whatever, welcome to the party, Alice!"

"Thank you, I hope that you will take care of me in the future as well." She said in a business-like manner

"Oh! speaking of traveling, can we finalize our plan?" Freya said after Alice's introduction.

We discussed it mostly being Alice, Astoria, and Freya talking while I stayed silent waiting for their directions.

For today both Alice and I will get our compensation rewards, get Alice registered to the guild, finish my promotion to bronze, and also prepare our equipment and leave it in my and Astoria's room.

Astoria will try to get good quality horses and carriage and Freya gets the essentials.

For the second day, we would plan to leave the city in the afternoon after confirming that everything is ready.

After confirming our plans, Astoria and Freya left the guild, Alice and I met with the guild receptionist, Lin, and asked about our rewards.

"Of course, you two are the remaining people who haven't gotten their reward yet." Alice was rewarded 20 gold while I got 25. The reward was increased due to having the most contribution to the battle.

The second most was that mage who used the biꪀᦔ spell, the third was the commander, the fourth was Alice and the sixth and seventh place were Freya and Astoria.

The next was registering with the guild which took no time at all and lastly was my guild promotion. Getting a promotion doesn't really do anything other than saying how strong you are on a rough estimate and being forced to take on harder quests. Apparently, it used to only be increased by the amount of "Experience" you had.

The Experience system or "EXP" was a system where every quest had additional rewards called experience points which are calculated via how much EXP each monster you are expected to kill, the overall quest, and how many stars it is.

This system, however, proved obsolete when many strong people who just joined the guild had strengths of a silver or gold rank but were forced to be a copper since the only way to be promoted was doing enough quests which caused the guild to lose some great talents in the field.

Today's system uses a far simpler method called an interview. I dreaded the idea of an interview but thankfully luck was upon me.

"But considering I witnessed how you killed that phoenix plus the stories about your party where every quest you've taken somehow goes wrong so I think I can say that you easily passed the interview." She said smiling after being reminded of our shenanigans and just like that, I was now the second to lowest rank, bronze.

Currently, the guild has 9 ranks which roughly tells how strong an individual is.

The following are the ranks from lowest to highest:

Copper represents Lopier, the strong yet dumb.

Bronze represents Clin, the one with the kindness of a mother and with the bravery of a hero.

Iron represents Intre, the old devoted swordsmith.

Silver represents Mili, the bane of all evil.

Gold represents Cri, the warrior with skills as beautiful and refined as gold.

Platinum represents Kinli, the strange and all-knowing strategist.

Emerald represents Bez, the all-seeing knight.

Diamond represents Lio, the god of all weapons with the wisdom of a goddess.

And lastly was a title simply known as the "Guild Hero".

In the old days, these titles were from the group known as "The eight members of the ranking jury" and the ranking they used was the same as the guild's excluding the Guild Hero rank.

Lopier was the copper rank because of his lack of leadership, direction, and wits, and his only strong point being his strength, while Lio was considered the diamond rank due to her mastery of all weapons whilst having god-like wisdom.

I silently celebrated for not being interviewed by Lin. The reason for my interest in art was not because of passion but because I didn't like being in a public space, that's how stubborn I was.

I hated getting interviewed so much to the point that he was willing to learn an entirely new skill just to not do it. And before my reincarnation, I was a freelancer and a concept artist who offered my skill online.

Of course, being a freelancer doesn't mean I could completely be anonymous but at those, I just tolerated it.

The last objective for them was preparing their stuff. I expected Alice to leave and get her items but it seems she already had everything with her.

When we arrived at their room, there were two full bags, Freya's steel staff, and Astoria's steel bow and arrow. I assumed that their clothes were in that bag so I didn't dare check what was inside of it and instead I asked Alice to confirm their items as I packed my thing.

He once again attached a secure and waterproof pack to my waist while also putting my drawing tools such as pencils, erasers, ink, and pen inside.

As I was getting my sketchbook, I saw Alice looking at a particular sketch. The sketch had a similar face to Alice and the art itself was about a girl wielding a fantasy-like spear in an epic pose.

"Are you a noble of some kind, Himura?" She asked me.

"I'm n.ot, why d.oes ever.yone th.ink th.at anyw.ay?"

"Well, it's not really common for people with lower social standing to be interested in art since no noble wants to buy an art piece to a commoner and because art became a skill that was known for only nobles to learn"

"I see," I said briefly. 'I forgot that I'm in an era where nobility exists.' I thought to myself.

After we finished everything we were assigned to do, I felt a strong urge to sleep, both because of my healing body but also because I wanted to be in that "state" again.

"*yawn* I'm tired so I'll be going to bed, do you have anything you need me with?"

"No,"

"I see, well do what you want until they return, and please close the door."

"Okay," I assumed that Alice left the room and went downstairs so I carelessly took off my jacket and loosened my polo shirt.

Alice however did not leave the room, although she did close the door like I asked which made me assume that she left.

I immediately fell asleep, so I didn't notice Alice's presence watching me.

"...why did he do that? what does he truly want?" She thought to herself questioning my intentions but as she was watching me sleep, she found a new look on my face.

Unlike the expressionless one from before, this one was a peaceful one with a barely visible smile on my face.

It was the first time, she saw me smile before finally realizing how creepy she must have been watching me sleep.

She silently leaves the room and waits for Astoria and Freya to head back.

'Hopefully, I could find the answer out there, after all, that's the only thing I want and I WILL sacrifice everything to get it.' She thought as she was walking downstairs with a resolute face.