Chapter 135: Accepting a Request at the Adventurer’s Guild
In the end, I couldn’t find any seaweed at the morning market. I wanted wakame and kombu, but I think I’ll go look for them another time. There were some seaweed-like plants swaying in the water near the harbor, so diving to collect them might be a good idea. But that can wait for now.
“Well then, shall we head to the Guild?”
After finishing breakfast, I set off with Nil and Rio toward the Adventurer’s Guild. We walked along the Main Street from the inn by the sea, heading toward the center of town. Perhaps because it was located in a large port city, the Guild was quite sizable. The sign depicting a sword and shield over a Magic Circle was the same as in other countries.
Upon entering, we attracted a fair amount of attention, and as Nil appeared from behind us, some people’s faces turned to expressions of shock, just as usual.
“Um, let’s see… requests…”
In front of us was a reasonably sized counter, with a request board to the left and a snack area for resting on the right. Between the counter and the snack area, I could see stairs leading to the second floor. I headed straight for the request board, but it was crowded, making it difficult to get close.
“…Huh?”
The requests were divided into rows according to rank, but as I scanned the board from one end to the other, I only found requests ranging from G to D.
“Oh, it says C rank and above are on the second floor.”
Rio pointed it out, and I noticed the small print in the corner.
“Then let’s go to the second floor.”
Perhaps having heard our conversation, an adventurer nearby looked at us in surprise, but I ignored it. We climbed the stairs to the second floor. There was another staircase leading to the third floor, which seemed to be a materials room.
As I stepped onto the second floor, I felt a different kind of pressure in the air, as if the atmosphere was charged with intensity. It was no doubt the domain of C rank and above adventurers.
“Children…?”
I heard a voice of suspicion, but no one approached us directly. I glanced around, and the layout was not much different from the first floor. As I made my way toward the request board on the left, I felt a prickling sensation at the nape of my neck.
“Oh?”
After a moment, Rio seemed to feel it too and spoke up. It was the result of her newly acquired Appraisal Sense, which she had been honing diligently. Turning my head in the direction of the sensation, I noticed one man’s eyebrow twitch slightly. There were other adventurers around, so I couldn’t be certain, but he might have been the one who used Appraisal on us.
“I don’t know how much he saw, but what should we do?”
“Hmm… I don’t want this to spread too much.”
“Then let’s put a stop to it right away.”
If we wanted to prevent any rumors from spreading, it was better to act quickly. I turned my back to the request board and walked toward the snack area where I sensed the Appraisal. I approached a table where four men were sitting. The man who had raised his eyebrow was still staring at us, while the other three were whispering to each other.
“What did you see?”
“You used Appraisal again, didn’t you?”
“Hey, hey…”
Enhancing my hearing, I caught snippets of their conversation, confirming my suspicions. When I reached the table, I crossed my arms and fixed my gaze on the man who had used Appraisal.
“Huh?”
The red-haired man seemed to notice us and spoke with a hint of suspicion. The Appraisal Holder Man remained silent, but I could see beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead.
“What did you see?”
“…Huh?”
As I confidently addressed him, the other two men gasped, and the atmosphere around us shifted.
“You used Appraisal on us, right? So what did you see… Oh, never mind. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Realizing how absurd my own words sounded, Rio burst into laughter.
“Ahaha, Iād appreciate it if you could keep it to yourselves.”
“Grurrr…”
Uncharacteristically, Nil let out a low growl. There was no way to erase the fact that they had discovered something, so all we could do was ask them not to spread it.
“Hey, hey…”
The red-haired man stood up, looking as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but he was stopped by the Appraisal Holder Man, who grabbed his arm.
“…What the hell?”
When he turned around, the Appraisal Holder Man was shaking his head frantically, and the red-haired man looked back at us, startled.
“…Is it really that serious?”
In the end, he said nothing to us and turned back to the Appraisal Holder Man, whispering again, but all I got in response was a desperate nod.
With such a reaction, I couldn’t help but wonder what he had seen… I exchanged glances with Rio and shrugged.
“Well, that’s that.”
Maybe I’ll ask them about it when we meet in a more private setting next time. Having accomplished what we came for, I turned back toward the request board.
“Tch.”
I heard a tongue click from one of the other men as we approached the request board, but a few people cleared the way for us. It seemed we had drawn a bit of attention, but there was nothing to be done about it. I wondered what the correct response was when someone used Appraisal on you. Perhaps I would find out in time.
“Which one looks good?”
As I scanned the board, it was no surprise that, being a port city, there were many requests related to the sea, ships, and seafood.
“Oh, look over there! There’s a request for capturing a Sea Devil!”
“Whoa, seriously? But capturing it means we have to bring it back alive, right?”
I had some items from the morning market stored in the Dimensional Box, but they were not alive. The fact that this was a C rank request made me wonder if capturing it was particularly difficult or if the Sea Devil was stronger than it appeared. Given that it was being sold at the morning market, I suspected it was the former.
“Hmm, should we go with this one?”
“Sounds good to me.”
With that, I peeled off the C rank request and headed to the counter.