Underage Adventurer

After arriving in Elsvaert, we ditch Vale. That is to say, we leave him at a hospice to be healed, and head towards the guild headquarters. According to Elizabeth, the guild is an organization of intelligent beings, like humans and elves, which aims to keep other intelligent beings safe. It's basically your standard adventurer's guild.

Entering the guild, I'm surprised by its cleanliness and apparent structure. There are people milling around, but it all seems very organized. Most adventurer's guilds I've seen are dingy and filled with what you might call "ruffians." We approach the desk and a woman about Elizabeth's age looks up at us.

"Good morning, miss. Sir. How can I help the two of you today?"

She's very deferential and reminds me of a personal secretary, though I'm not sure how I know that. Have I ever even met one? Elizabeth replies to the woman.

"He wants to register."

"Ah, I see."

The woman looks down at me, curiously.

"And might I ask how old you are, sir?"

"Fifteen."

That's a lie, of course. This body is 14, but Elizabeth mentioned that the minimum age to register is 15. I'm lucky that this world doesn't have the infrastructure to verify that. I'm just hoping that my manners are good enough to convince her.

"Very good. And what is your name, sir?"

"Sebastian"

"Your surname, too, if you please, sir?"

"Malt"

"Sebastian Malt. Thank you, mister Malt."

She's marking down my answers on a piece of paper, as I give them. She asks a few more questions, and I am weighed and measured. She copies all the answers down on a second piece of paper, marks both of them with a stamp, and hands one to me.

"Thank you for registering. Please choose your first assignment on the board to your left, mister Malt. Please note that you may only choose F- to H-level assignments, as an unranked adventurer."

"Thank you."

Looking at the paper, I notice that she's written down a detailed description of my appearance. I suppose it's to prevent impersonation. Clever. It is potentially problematic, but I don't think anybody is going to figure out that I'm Stencil just from this. We pick out a quest - sorry, assignment - from the board. Slime hunting.

Slimes are cute, if quite literally brainless. However, they're rather unpopular, since they travel in large groups and tend to get armor all sticky.

Neither Elizabeth nor I care, so we go to the location where they were spotted.

On the way there, however, Elizabeth suddenly stops in her tracks. For a second, I think she's spotted more monsters, but I don't feel any around, so that can't be it.

"Sebastian," she says.

"Hm?"

"I have a question for you."

I pause and look back at her. Odd, she doesn't usually build up her conversations like this. Is she trying to be cautious?

"Who are you?"

What?

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I saw you."

Saw me where? Doing what?

"I don't understand. Are you trying to be funny again?"

"No."

Alright, this is making me kind of concerned.

"That spell."

What? The barrier spell I used against the greater monster? She saw it, so what? It shouldn't have been anything special. Not to mention, it broke just a few seconds after I cast it.

"The barrier spell? What about it?"

"No."

What the hell does she mean, "No." This is starting to get annoying.

"I haven't cast any other spells. I'm 15 years old. I don't have a large enough mana store for it."

"..."

She just stands still, gazing at me, with that blank expression on her face.

"Nevermind," she says, and keeps going.

What in the world is happening?

"Hold on, where are you going?"

"To kill slimes."

"No, we were in the middle of a conversation. You can't just walk away after being so strange."

"..."

I wait, holding onto her arm to prevent her from leaving. We stand there for a bit, and just as I'm starting to feel like a pleading child, she finally speaks up.

"You made it run away."

Huh?

"No, you cut off its fang and it ran away. You told me yourself, remember?"

"No. I cut off its fang. It also ran away. Both things happened, but they were not related. You made it run away."

Is she losing her mind?

"Earlier today, you used magic, too."

"What in the world are you going on about? I haven't used any magic. I told you, I don't have a big enough mana store."

It seems I let a bit of my annoyance slip into my voice. I force it back.

"I've never seen goblins act like that before," she says.

Now it's my turn to be silent.

"And to appear out of nowhere? That should be impossible."

Sure, but that doesn't mean it has any connection with me. He was probably just lying because he got caught off guard or...

"In fact, I've only seen it twice."

Huh? Twice?

"Earlier today was the second. The first was 5 days ago. At your mansion."

That isn't possible. That simply. Isn't. Possible. The greater monster didn't appear out of thin air. I felt the its mana approaching us, right? Right? Didn't I?

Either way, the appearance of the greater monster wasn't because of anything I did. I know what casting magic feels like, and I've only done it once in this world, which was the barrier spell *after* the beast appeared. I manage to calm myself a bit, and form a retort.

"I can understand why you might think that, but they're just coincidences. I really haven't cast any magic besides the barrier spell. I assure you."

I might be reassuring myself a little bit here, too.

"..."

Elizabeth continues her blank silence, but her gaze feels somehow different now. I'm not sure what kind of feeling it's expressing, but it is, at the very least, less suspicious than before.

"I see. Maybe you're right. Sorry about that. We can go kill those slimes now."

Somehow, I get the feeling that she doesn't actually believe me.