"...and... we've reached our destination, missy."
She blinked twice. Focus slowly returned to her mind, and she pushed herself up on her legs, giving a small nod to person transporting her. The girl carefully stepped near the edge of the carriage, peering outside the small triangular opening of the covering fabric. Sure enough, she spotted a town brimming with people and other cheerful-looking things just behind the gate that separated them from the town itself.
"...thank you..."
The carriage's rider returned the nod. "No problem. That'll be 25en."
Tilting her head, she stared at the man confusedly. En...? Then she recalled that the world's currency, Ental, was often shortened to just 'en'. Why everyone did that, she had no understanding of, but she'd rather not dwell over the smallest of things. Reaching into her dark grey cloak, she pulled out a pouch of the desired currency, which she had prepared beforehand. "...here."
"...right," the man said and looked inside. Then he looked back at the girl, then at the pouch. A grin formed. "Just about right. I'll be on my way then."
...did I give too much? The girl didn't say anything and instead got off, then looked back at the hurriedly departing vehicle, curious. How vile. It seems Father was right about people. She began walking towards the town's gate. They really are greedy. Rotten to the core. But I could've stopped that by saying something. Why didn't I? In fact...
"Uh, lady?"
In fact, I should've properly counted the 'en' instead of just handing over the entire pouch.
Suddenly, two spears were crossed together in front of her, blocking the path.
"You need to pay to enter Etria, if you're just a visitor," one guard said. "...unless you have some identification documents."
She blinked. What? I wasn't told anything about this. She searched inside her cloak with her hands. She's got nothing left now- no money, and no identification... 'documents'. "...don't have."
"Yeah, we didn't think you'd have any documents," another guard said. "What about money?"
The girl looked back at the carriage, which was- still in her sights- already smaller than her hands. "..."
"...day-light robbery, huh?" a guard commented.
It's my bad for not checking, but that's not my problem now, the girl thought. "...please?"
"Uh... yeah, no. Sorry."
She frowned. This is preposterous. The girl looked around. "...pretty please?"
The guards exchanged glances. "...yeah, sure, go on ahead, lil' cutie."
So I guess appealing to them works, she thought and nodded. She made to enter the town- but the spears crossed in front of her again. She blinked.
"Uh, no, that was sarcasm. We seriously need the money, miss- we don't do our jobs properly, we'd be dead," one of the guards explained. The other seemed to be trying to hold in laughter.
She narrowed her eyes. "...I'll... curse you."
"Curse?" the two said in unison. "...miss, are you an explorer?" one asked. She shook her head. "Well, are you looking to become an explorer?"
The girl thought for a while. She eventually nodded.
The second guard grinned. "Well, I'll be surprised, I have an idea. What say you sign up as an adventurer- which, by the way, will get you some identification documents by default- and pay us back later?" he suggested. "Everyone has to pay a toll, but if you don't have money, being an explorer will get you some money in the shortest amount of time. Fair deal?"
"..." She stared at them, who stared back with unease. "...okay."
"Yes! We're getting paid after all!" the two guards cheered. Clapping their hands together in a high-five that she didn't understand, they parted ways and let her through. "Good luck, little missy!"
She looked back and nodded, then walked through the town.
The town of Etria, or so it was known as. She briefly wondered if she should ask someone for directions, but a bigger dilemma plagued her mind- little girl? Me? In her mind, she wondered if her appearance seemed that young. After all, she felt like she looked around the age of... say, a teen. An old teen, or young adult. Maybe such kind of people are still considered young to people?
Suddenly, she knocked into someone. "Ah... sorry..." she murmured and looked up.
A brown-haired woman looked down at her, then smiled. "Oh, don't worry. I wasn't looking properly, I'm sorry... little girl?"
She began feeling a bit irritated from being called that repeatedly. "...not little..." she whispered.
The woman giggled. "I see, I see. Are you lost?"
Finally, not treating me like a little child anymore, the girl thought, unaware that she was very much still being treated like a lost child. "...gathering of... adventurers."
"Adventurers?" The brown-haired woman frowned. "Are you here to explore the labyrinth?" The girl nodded. "Dear Gods, that's... I see." She sighed, then solemnly pointed to a nearby building. "That's the Explorer's Guild. You can form your own guild there and become an adventurer and recruit other people and all that stuff... oh, but you'd still have to do a test given by the Radha... that's at Radha Hall." Sighing, the woman sluggishly walked away. "Everyone these days... so damn dangerous..."
The girl stared in her direction, before shrugging and walking towards the Explorer's Guild. From the conversation just now, it seems she'll have to go there first and then Radha Hall later. She also figured it'd be nice to gather some comrades to help her out.
"We're going to go by Axyl!"
"No, we'll be the Crusaders!"
"I said, Plus Minus!"
Thee heads glared at each other intensely, teeth gritted with fury. Their hands slammed at a table they stood around, making some wonder what it is the table did to deserve such harsh treatment.
"H-hey, come on, Valeria!" one girl, a red-haired youth who wielded a sword and a shield, cried as she tried to pull the other girl, a bright-brown-haired girl, from the argument. "Is the guild name really a big deal?"
"Of course it is!" the girl, Valeria, exclaimed. "I don't want to go around and be known as something embarrassing like 'The Crusaders'. That's something a kid would come up with!" she said, to the dismay of the other person in the argument who came up with the name. "And like, 'Plus Minus'? The heck? Stick to one!" she said to another person.
"Like you're any better!" a bot retorted. "What the heck does Axyl even mean!?"
The other boy growled. "It's like a made-up fantasy name straight out of a kid's mind too!"
Valeria gasped. "Excuse me!? Guild names should be mysterious and cool and unknown! It's not like we call the Yggdrasil Labyrinth something like, say, 'Big Tree Dungeon'!"
"That's the labyrinth, this is a different matter!" both boys shouted back.
The red-haired girl sighed. "You guys are so immature, geez!"
"You know what?" one of the boys said. "Forget this! We can't form a guild like this, with people who can't recognize a great name!"
The other boy scoffed. "Speak for yourself, loser!" he said, and the two walked away bickering with each other.
Valeria pulled her hair in frustration. "Fine! It's not like I wanted to form a guild of four Landsknechts anyways!" she yelled and was ignored. "Right, Scar!?"
Her friend frowned. "What I want to know is why you even considered a guild of four Landsknechts at all, in the first place."
"You moron, it's not the people that matters," Valeria said. "It's the results, Scarlet. The results."
"Well, you sure got great results..." Scarlet remarked, rolling her eyes.
Valeria sighed. "Yeah, no need to te... did you just roll your eyes at me?"
"No."
"...stupid."
"Who's the stupid jerk here!?" Scarlet screamed.
"Bwahaha! Ruuuun!" Valeria feigned a shriek and skipped away from the girl, who groaned as she wondered why she was even friends with the brunette. Meanwhile, another girl walked up to her. "Huh? Oh, Rin."
"Y-you two are as energetic as always, aren't you?" the girl, Rin, one of the currently free-for-hire Medics, asked. "Just like Mr. Leabo said!"
Scarlet grimaced. "That guy? What, was he doing his stupid 'predictions' again?" she asked.
Rin nodded. "Y-yes. No clients have come so far, s-so he's a bit... bored."
Her red-haired friend sighed. "He really needs better hobbies... someone should just put him in their team already," she said. "As much as I'd hate to admit, he's a damn good Medic."
"I- I know, right?" Rin said. "Mr. Leabo's, like, the exact kind of person I've always wanted to be!" She began flailing her arms wildly in excitement. "H-he treats everyone, from explorers to citizens to even innocent, harmless monsters sometimes! I, I've seen his gentle side so often that he might as well as be, like, the doctor of... of... of everything!"
"Getting a little bit excited there, huh, Rin?" Valeria snickered as she walked back to them. "And why didn't you chase me, Scarlet? Killjoy."
"I'll hit you," Scarlet muttered.
Suddenly, they heard the ringing of bells from afar. The door to their building must have been opened- someone must've came here to look for adventurers to hire. "S-someone's here!" the three chimed in unison. Along with them, everyone nearby quickly tiptoed to the huge space near the entrance of the Explorer's Guild, where the Guildmaster sat in his chair, reading a book, bored out of his mind. The man looked towards the door, where someone had quietly walked in.
"Oh? That's a new face," he remarked.
Everyone tensed. A new adventurer in town! This collective thought quelled the fires within everyone's spirits, as their instincts all told them one thing-
I need to make a great first impression.
Their mysterious traveler, the unknown girl wearing a dark grey hood with crimson red insides, looked around. "...hello..."
"Welcome, little missy, to the Explorer's Guild!" the Guildmaster suddenly exclaimed cheerfully. Everyone blinked. "This is the place where people come to form their own guilds, meet new people, prepare for their adventures, whatever pointless things you can think of!" He motioned to everyone standing behind him, grinning. "Currently, you've got plenty of options to choose from, but if you're ever interested in waiting, more people might come. Now..." He turned to the girl. "What might your name be?"
"...hm." The girl looked down, as if in deep thought, to the others' confusion. Then she looked up at the Guildmaster again. "...Remi...lia."
You didn't need to think that hard about your own name, was the number one thought people had.
"...well, uh, that's fine and dandy. Now that I've told you the basics," the Guildmaster said before plopping down on his chair. He then brought his legs up on the table, crossing them together, displaying the exact opposite mannerisms of his prior cheerfulness- the aura of a lazy bum. "Guess I don't need to keep that cheerful facade up. Go look around, Remrem, do whatever. Get laid too, maybe."
...? Remilia tilted her head confusedly, but the Guildmaster had already lost interest. Not really understanding his deal, nor caring that much in the first place, she took a few steps forward to look around the place.
Eyes, everywhere, staring at her. Both sides couldn't stop their curiosities about each other.
Furthermore...
I still can't think of my first impression debut plan! ...was the dilemma many were now facing.
Scarlet bit her lips. "Damn, she seems like a hard to deal with person..." she whispered under her breath. "What're we going to do, Val?"
...she looked besides her. The brunette Landsknecht was gone.
"V-Val? Valeria?" Scarlet looked around. Then she turned back to their latest guest Remilia, and spotted Valeria and Rin in front of her. "...what are those two doing!?"
Valeria grinned, her sword held to Rin's neck. "Mwahahaha! Your free choice ends here, dear guest!" she said.
"A-aaah, oh no! H-help me, brave adventurer!" Rin wailed.
"No, no, say you've been caught first," Valeria whispered.
Rin blinked. "O-oh, um, okay. A-aah, oh no! I- I've been caught..."
Valeria then grinned at Remilia again. "Now, if you want this cute girl, a total stranger, to live... you shall do as I say and add me to your team!" she said.
"That's just dirty!" Scarlet hissed.
"What do you say, dear guest!?" Valeria asked, her grin stretching wider.
Remilia stared.
"...you shall add me to your team!" the brunette repeated.
Remilia stared.
Her grin half-crumbled. "...u-uh, you shall... add me to your... team...?"
Still, Remilia stared.
Valeria gulped. "Tough one... o-okay, Rin, now scream for help."
"Huh? O-oh, right. A-aahh, please help me... d-dear guest..." Rin said.
Remilia finally reacted- and that was by raising her finger. "...the sword. ...it's unsheathed."
Everyone blinked. Then Valeria frowned. "I... uh... I mean, this is still dangerous...?"
Rin looked up. "W-what do we do now, Valeria...?"
After few more seconds of an intense stare-down between Valeria and Remilia, the brunette dropped her sword and wheezed. She landed on her knees, looking down, before weakly looking up at the mysterious girl. "U... um... p-please... add me..."
"You're already groveling on your knees!?" Scarlet screamed. She quickly ran out from hiding to her brown-haired friend and grabbed her by the collar. "What the hell kind of skit were you even doing? Are you stupid!?"
"G-geez, Scarlet, we tried our best, you know?" Valeria said. "Gimme a break here, my acting skills were perfect! Rin here just wasn't serious enough..."
"W-whaaaat?" Rin voiced. "B-but I... I tried what I could do..."
"Uh, no, you did good, Rin," Scarlet quickly said before turning back to her friend. "But the whole skit was stupid in the first place! Now nobody knows how to impress this girl!"
"...excuse... me..." Remilia whispered.
The three turned their heads to her. Oh, right, she's still here... of course she's here, what the heck. Scarlet sighed. "I, uh... look, sorry. That jerk probably didn't explain things enough to you, so let me explain a bit more," she said. "As you know, this is the Explorer's Guild. People come here to form their guilds. All these people don't exactly live here, waiting to be hired, of course- we have our own lives too. We just come here in our damn lots of free time to find someone looking for new members." She scratched her head. "I'm going to assume you know about classes, so keep this in mind- many of the people here are most likely of the same classes as many others. For example, me and Valeria here are Landsknechts."
"Nice to meet ya!" Valeria chirped.
"And Rin here's a Medic."
"H-hello..."
Scarlet smiled. "There's plenty of other Landsknechts and Medics you can find in this town, who are also looking for people to recruit them. People who gather here just have nothing better to do, really." She paused to let the mysterious girl absorb all the information she just said- information that wasn't particularly important nor too hard to guess.
That's when Remilia raised an eyebrow at her, specifically her.
"...w-what?" Scarlet asked. "Is something wrong? Something on my face?" she asked. When she got no response, the girl frowned. "Wait, did you just think that I'm also one of those people with nothing better to do?"
"..." Remilia didn't respond to that, but the Landsknecht felt like she knew what the girl was thinking.
"D-don't be stupid, I have reasons to be here, okay!?" Scarlet exclaimed. "I just... it's really... it's really important, yeah!" she said.
"It is?" Valeria asked.
"Shut up, you goof!"
The two began bickering again, which didn't seem to bother Remilia too much. Rin stepped up to her. "U-um... Remi... right?"
"...Remilia," the girl corrected.
Rin smiled. "U-um, again... I'm Rin. N-nice to meet you, Remilia." She bowed her head to the girl in front of her. "I- I know this might not tell much about me, n-nor is it impressive at all, but... I-I'm a Medic in training, and I'd like to be added to your team! Please!" she exclaimed.
Valeria and Scarlet stopped fighting and quickly whipped their heads towards the orange-haired girl. What!?
That pure-faced bitch! Valeria thought. And I thought she was a goody-two-shoe... no, it was all part of her plan to deceive everyone! "Objection!" she screamed.
"Gah! Loud!" Scarlet hissed. Valeria took this chance to push the girl off her. "H-hey!"
"Dear guest, hold on! Don't add her yet!" the brunette exclaimed. "Wouldn't you want someone who can fight instead? Like me! Or, or, uh, or Scarlet! But I'm better anyways."
"Are not!" Scarlet yelled.
"Are too!"
"Are not!"
The two began pushing each other again. Still, Remilia didn't seem too bothered by it- rather, she didn't even seem slightly fazed at all.
Rin chuckled, nervous. "W-well... sorry about those two, t-they usually get along better than this... Remilia?"
Remilia turned to the Guildmaster. "...hm."
The Guildmaster looked up from his book. "Hm?"
She pointed to Rin and the two bickering Landsknechts. "...I'll take them."
Everyone froze up soon after. "W-wait, what!?" Scarlet exclaimed.
Remilia turned around to nod at her. "I'll take... you three."