Rean couldn't help but chuckle nervously as he beheld the miserable state his two favorite girls were in that morning. It would normally be hard to tell with just Fie, as she was never a morning person to begin with, but Altina's extra dour expression gave away the fact that they had probably been up the entire night. "I did warn you guys..."
His comment only served to earn him ire from both bracers as they exited the Albarea mansion. "You make it sound so easy." Fie scoffed.
"Dealing with Millium is impossible. Surely you know this already." Altina's own retort was more deadpan, but he could sense the bitter resentment in her tone.
"I know it is, but the two of you really should have-"
"If he says another word... Sic Claiomh Solais on him."
Altina gave the older girl a nod. "Understood."
Wow. They were really grumpy this morning. But Altina wouldn't actually attack him with her combat doll in the middle of Bareahard, right? "..." His next words died in his throat as he realized both moody girls were staring at him with looks that promised untold pain. So maybe they would unleash Claiomh Solais upon him...
How was he supposed to respond against such a unified front? He had no desire to continue this long walk in silence and he suspected that opening his mouth to say anything would be to invite disaster. Perhaps he needed to look at it from a different angle.
What would Fie do?
Immediately an answer came to mind. Preparing himself for what was to come he let out a shrug and a sigh. "Well I slept pretty good-"
"Claiomh Solais!"
But as soon as Altina began calling for her combat shell he was away at full sprint. Normally trying to run from Sylphid was a terrible idea, but he knew her well enough to know that a tired and unmotivated Fie would be more likely to stand there and glare at his back petulantly. Once away a safe distance he allowed himself to slow.
The three had been traveling to the Bareahard guild branch together, so running ahead like that meant that he would be stuck waiting for them to arrive for a few minutes. Hopefully enough time for his scanning eyes to find a suitable offering to earn their forgiveness before they arrived...
Bingo. Based on the smell alone Rean was certain that a just opening shop held the answers he was looking for. With mira in hand he entered and soon found what he was looking for. Mission accomplished he quickly resumed the final steps on his journey to work.
Just in time as he beheld the two silver-haired girls rounded the corner. It was actually kinda cute the way their eyes narrowed in unison as they spotted him. Although their faces were as impassive as always the intent to murder was plainly obvious.
A normal person would have been cowed by such a threat. Rean merely smiled before holding up the bag in his hand. "I bought some crepes~"
Fie glowered as she took a bite of her crepe while going through a mental checklist to make sure she had done everything needed before opening the guild for the day. Thanks to his dirty bribe she knew she no longer had any grounds to be angry with him and that fact only served to make her angrier. Damn him and damn this tasty treat!
At least she got some satisfaction when she managed to nick the rest of Rean's crepe when the swordsman wasn't looking. But given the way he merely smiled knowingly as she divided her loot with Altina she had a sinking suspicion that he had intentionally left it out as bait. That jerk.
Speaking of, Altina did not seem to be going through the same mental debate as Fie, as the younger girl simply accepted the tribute with the tiniest of smiles on her face before sitting at one of the tables to consume it. Although her expression gave little away, Fie had a suspicion that if she were a dog her tail would be wagging at a rapid pace in that moment.
Still, even if she no longer had an excuse to punish Rean physically, it didn't mean she couldn't punish him in other ways. "Alright. So like I said last night, I've already picked out a few requests worthy of a brand new bracer. I put them on the board for you, so make sure to write down everything in your bracer notebook."
A curious Altina and a somewhat less curious Rean made their way to the board. Fie could only bounce impatiently on her feet as she waited for the reactions to arrive. The wait was worth it, as the younger girl's already neutral face grew even flatter as she read each and every request on the board. The swordsman merely chuckled wryly before grinning in her direction. She figured if nothing else he would appreciate the nostalgia value of the requests.
"These requests are..." The young rabbit trailed off before giving the temporary receptionist an annoyed glare.
"They're actually pretty good requests." Rean admitted, earning a betrayed look from his current partner. "Despite the... simplicity of them they cover a lot of the things bracers are expected to be proficient at."
Fie grinned, both at herself for coming up with the brilliant requests and for Rean being smart enough to pick up on it. "Exactly. Combat skills are important, naturally, but we already know how good you are at that. Bracers also need to be able to communicate with their clients, be willing to go into some nasty places, and gather intelligence. And no I don't mean use your Intelligence Division network."
Rean nodded in agreement. "The first request is to collect some Dryad Tears for the client. Since neither of us have any idea where they are..." Fie managed to resist a snort, but only just. "...you will have to ask around. I'm sure Bareahard has a few people who would know." Come to think of it, didn't they originally get the location from Bleublanc? Probably not something to tell Altina.
"Yup. And that second request is gonna stink, both literally and figuratively." The two needed to head into the underground waterway to look for an heirloom that some idiot dropped. "Oh, but while you're down there check to see if that gate to the guardhouse is still in pieces. My handiwork, of course."
Altina stared at her blankly for a second before shaking her head as if deciding it wasn't worth it. A shame. "...But this last request."
"Like she said, it's a good test of your ability to communicate with a client... I think?" Fie glared at Rean for his dubious support, but the swordsman could only shrug helplessly.
"...It's a request to walk Count Gorti's dogs."
The jaeger turned receptionist laughed sheepishly in a very Rean-like manner. "It's definitely not the most impressive job, but at the end of the day the Bracer Guild is an organization that needs mira to survive, so if some idiot like Count Rockeater here wants to pay us five digit mira just to walk his dogs outside of the city..." Fie let out a shrug. Altina said nothing, but did arch her eyebrow in confusion at the confusing nickname. Probably best not to talk about their first encounter with that guy considering her other task. "Trust me, a request like this is good for you. If you can handle this job without punching out the idiot that's a good sign."
"Even Fie struggles with that occasionally, so I usually end up handling missions like this." Rean 'whispered' to the younger girl. Fie seriously contemplated kicking him for that comment, but as the older and more mature senior bracer she held herself back.
...She almost reconsidered when her lover shot her a teasing smirk.
But karma was a wonderful thing, as not a second later the door opened and a pair of young bracers entered the building. They took one look at the occupants of the room and froze up. Fie had studied the dossiers of bracers currently working in the noble city during the hurried flight so she knew that these two were juniors who had only joined the guild a few months prior.
In other words these star-eyed youths were some of the ones who joined the guild after hearing that the brave and awesome Ashen Chevalier had become a bracer.
She couldn't help but grin merrily as they all but swarmed her boyfriend in excitement. Her grin did die a little as they all but shoved past Altina in their haste. They would have to receive a lesson later on about why they should not do things like that to her little sis-
Friend. Altina was her friend. She was not catching Rean's creepy behavior, damnit!
After all the trials and tribulations they had faced in the past being shoved was of no real concern to the little rabbit and while she looked annoyed, it was tempered by the fact that she was sharing in Rean's suffering just as much as Fie was. It was usually a pain when they were accosted by others while having fun together, but right now it was just funny. Especially when the hero glanced in their direction and pleadingly mouthed the words 'help me'.
Which they naturally ignored. "Any questions?" A quiet shake of the head was her answer. "Alright. Good luck on your missions. I'm sure Rean will catch up with you... eventually."
Rean eventually did manage to escape from his predicament and catch up with the stoic girl midway to their first destination. Although he had gotten used to his celebrity status in the last couple years it didn't make it any easier to deal with. Still, it was easier to live with his fame than it was to live with an evil power of unfathomable force living inside of him.
Although now that he thought about it, his status of the Ashen Chevalier would prove problematic when he was supposed to merely be working as Altina's backup...
As the duo walked past a nearby shop Rean had an epiphany. Perhaps he could do something about it? "Wait here one second, I'll be right back."
Not giving Altina a chance to respond he darted into the shop and quickly found the item he was looking for. For extra insurance he grabbed a second item that caught his attention and was fortunate enough to pay and exit before the inattentive shopkeeper realized who he was dealing with. Once back outside he donned the first item and presented himself to his partner.
"...I thought you were done with the fake glasses routine." Sadly, Altina did not look at all impressed with his idea. "I do not believe that such a weak disguise will continue to work."
He had expected such a negative response, which was why he only grinned victoriously before reaching into his bag and pulling out the second item... A really stylish looking bucket hat he saw on display! Putting it on his head he gave a smug look to the younger girl. "How about now?"
Altina gave no verbal reply. Instead a surprisingly shaky hand fumbled for her ARCUS before pointing it at him and taking a picture. "...Saying anything will be pointless. I'll leave your punishment to Fie." Given that she was still tapping away at her orbment he could only assume that she was sending the picture to his love.
"It's not that bad, is it?" She said nothing, instead opting to shake her head and continue walking towards their destination silently. Clearly she was exaggerating... Or at least that's what he thought until he received a message from Fie. Hadn't it only been like ten seconds since she sent it!? Considering the entire contents of the message were just Fie laughing... He slumped down. He really thought the hat looked cool!
At least the second message she sent a minute later was a little more encouraging, as the girl agreed with his idea of keeping a low profile and offered to help find him something better to wear later on. And even if his current disguise wasn't very trendy it would at least serve its purpose for today.
A shame that a bored receptionist Fie would almost certainly be finding the time to send that picture to everyone they knew by the end of the day.
Once again he had to hurry to catch up with an Altina who steadfastly refused to look him in the eye. It was obvious to him that Altina visited Bareahard a lot as the girl knew exactly where Count Gorti's mansion was and before long the two had arrived. Giving her a nod he watched as she let out a sigh before knocking on the door.
The one who opened it, unsurprisingly, was a maid. After confirming who they were she invited them inside while she left to fetch the master of the house. If Rean recalled correctly, the Count managed to lose a large chunk of his savings due to some poor investments the past few years, but none of it seemed to diminish the sheer opulence of his manse.
"Nora, I thought you said that they are bracers. She's just a kid!" Was how the noble greeted the duo upon his arrival. Altina managed to handle the insult with only the most minute of body twitches, although her flat look somehow managed to grow even flatter. All in all that was a good sign for her career as a bracer.
Still, it wasn't as if he couldn't help her out a little bit. "I assure you that she is a full-fledged bracer, and more than capable of handling your request."
"Very well. I will take your word for it." The Count conceded, although his gaze lingered upon the disguised swordsman for a while longer. "Hmm... Have we met before?"
Stealthily he did his best to lower his hat to reduce the amount of his face the count could see. "I don't believe so. Perhaps you've seen me working around the city?"
"Hmm..." Count Gorti did not look convinced, but shook his head deeming the idea (and Rean by extension) as not worth his time. That was fine with the Chevalier. "Regardless, this mission is of the utmost importance. There is an international dog show taking place in Edith next month and my hounds need to be in perfect shape if I am to win the prize. Something which cannot be done in this city. Nora, fetch the dogs!"
"Yes, Master Gorti."
"Now listen up, you two, as this is very important and I am not repeating myself! First I shall detail exactly where you will be taking my dogs and for how long. Have you traversed the highway towards Celdic? Good, because that is-"
Fifteen minutes later and he was still going strong. "...You are to ward away any monsters you encounter before they can get close. My dogs are easily spooked and-"
A glance towards Altina showed that although she was still paying attention the pronounced frown on her face made it clear that she had stopped caring a long time ago and frankly Rean couldn't blame her. At least she seemed happy with the two small dogs who sat at her feet with a leash in each hand. They certainly seemed to be in good health and of exquisite breed.
"...At exactly noon you are to stop your walk and proceed to feed them from their own bags of kibble, each individually tailored to their dietary needs. Nora has written the exact amount to serve on each bag. These are prized dogs, not wild beasts, so do not let them eat off the ground-"
By this point Altina appeared to have nearly completely checked out of the conversation, but to someone who didn't know her it would seem that she was still listening intently. Definitely a good skill to have. Fie definitely would have come up with an excuse to hurry things along or interrupted the speech with an obnoxious yawn. Once he was certain that she had managed to fallen asleep while their client droned on about something.
And yet as unprofessional as it was, Rean couldn't help but wish for such an interruption. Absolutely nothing that the count was saying mattered one bit, in his opinion. Still, the client was the client and Rean had plenty of experience dealing with long-winded nobles. But he couldn't help but wonder what Fie was doing right now...
...Maybe once they finished up for the day he could stick around and help her close down the building? Sure he knew as well as anyone just how competent Fie could be, even when doing something as mundane as paperwork, but when she got bored she got dangerous. And a dangerous Fie was bad news for everyone involved.
Perhaps afterwords they could go out and eat together? Although Jusis was kind enough to offer them his mansion and staff for the duration of their stay it wasn't as if they were required to make use of it. Millium might complain about it, but that wasn't anything particularly-
"Were you even listening to me!?"
Rean blinked as he realized that the Count was staring at him. So was Altina. And the maid. Even the two dogs were staring. Crap. And after he spent so much time lecturing his former student on the importance of listening to their client!
"O-Of course I was, sir. You don't need to worry about us. Altina is an expert and knows what she's doing." He knew he deserved the glare he received for that comment, but he had no choice in the matter. At least it was Altina and not Fie, although he understood that there was a very high probability of this moment making it back to his fiancee.
Reluctantly Altina let out a sigh. "Rean is correct. I have memorized all the parameters that you have provided with this request. If that is all then we shall head out and commence the mission."
Although clearly less than happy with their performance, the noble did give an assenting nod and the two hastily departed with their new friends. Just as they made their exit he heard the noble make an exclamation. "Wait. Did she just call him Rean!?"
He couldn't help but glare at the younger girl as he knew that was a future headache waiting to happen. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
For her part Altina tilted her head in confusion. "...Slip of the tongue. Oops." Definitely on purpose. "But you deserved it. You clearly stopped paying attention halfway through his instructions."
"That's... not entirely true."
She didn't say anything, but the look on her face made it clear that she didn't believe him and that he needed to prove himself. "Sorry, but you're not going to trick me. You're the junior. I need to make sure that you were focused on the task and understood the mission and telling you what he said would defeat that purpose.." He couldn't quite keep the smug grin off his face as he knew he had her trapped.
"...Fie will be hearing about this later." Alright. He deserved that one. Still, seeing Altina's annoyed pout was always a worthwhile reward. With a huff she turned and began walking the dogs towards the northern city exit. He had at least been paying enough attention to know that their intended route was the North Kreuzen Highway.
Escaping the city proved to be a surprisingly simple task and soon enough the pair of bracers found themselves strolling down the scenic North Kreuzen highway. The dogs – despite their pompous owner – were very well behaved and Rean could believe that they were show dogs. Altina had little problem keeping them focused on the walk. They didn't even get startled by the occasional car passing by!
But as always, walking down a highway had one potential issue, and it was the main reason that they were hired for this job: Monsters. For example the group of White Felines that was fluttering towards them at a high speed. Normally most monsters had a good sense of when an enemy was too powerful for it, but it didn't seem like these feral flying cats cared. Perhaps their natural hatred of dogs was overriding their survival instincts?
Either way, despite the fact that the monsters were not at all threatening to the veteran warriors, there was no need to take any chances when they were escorting helpless dogs. With a hand on his tachi Rean prepared to utilize the Fifth Form and take them all out at once, but waited for Altina's command. It was her mission, after all.
Instead she shook her head. "I can handle this. Claiomh Solais!" As always, at her command appeared her favorite companion. "Brionac!" After making a noise of affirmation the combat doll followed her order and scythed through the flying formation with a single dense laser, instantly killing a majority of the group and causing the survivors to come to their senses and fly away as fast as their little wings could take them.
With the danger passed Rean couldn't help but chuckle. "Having Claiomh Solais with you makes a job like this pretty simple." She could focus on protecting the client while her combat shell dispensed of the threats. Multitasking at its finest. "Still, don't forget that I am here. This is your mission, but that doesn't mean you need to do everything on your own." It wasn't as if she had done anything wrong, per se, but at some point she would find herself working alongside other bracers and outside of him and Class VII she hadn't really worked with anyone else before, so he thought it sound for her to get used to the idea sooner rather than later.
"Understood." Fortunately it seemed like she understood that it was simply advice and not an actual chastisement, as she didn't look displeased by his response. "Shall we take a break now? This should be close to the twenty selge distance between breaks, as detailed by Count Gorti."
Had he said that? "Uh, sure. That's a good idea."
Instead she leveled a flat stare at Rean. "...That was a lie. The count clearly stated that the only break we should give them was when we stopped at the midway point of our trip to feed them lunch."
"O-Oh..." Getting called out on his earlier inattentiveness by the girl he was supposed to be mentoring was a painful blow. Time to change the subject! "Still, I think we have this task well in hand."
"Agreed. This is pointless busywork at best. I do not foresee any difficulties ahead of-"
"Tilly!" Rean watched in muted shock as a blue and white missile slammed into his partner, unbalancing both and sending them to the ground. He had tried to warn her, but Millium was just too quick, especially as she had been riding Airgetlam most of the way. "Wowee. I wasn't expecting to find thew two of you out here while coming back home! That tracker I put on you is something else!" ...Tracker? "So what are you guys doing?!" Greeted the older of the sisters as she happily got back onto her feet.
Given that Altina was trying to burn a hole in Millium's head with her glare, it fell to Rean to answer that. "Altina is handling a request to walk Count Gorti's dogs."
"Huh. Neat. But what dogs?"
Why would Millium ask that when it was obvious the dogs were... Both he and Altina paused as they realized that during the confusion a certain something had slipped out of her hand. And even though those dogs hadn't batted an eye when cars or monsters appeared, it seemed that Millium was too much for them to handle and they were long gone.
His eyes met those of his partner and the same word spilled forth from both of their mouths at the same time. "...Crap."
Fie did her best to stave off a headache as she listened to the man in front of her try over and over to convince her to accept the request he was trying to submit to the guild. She had done her best to be polite about their refusal and yet he still didn't seem to be getting the hint. It was starting to become irksome.
On the surface the request seemed fine. This man, a merchant by trade, had a couple packages that needed to leave Bareahard to Roer tomorrow, but were supposedly too delicate for standard shipping methods. Such requests were not entirely uncommon for bracers.
The only problem was that the entire situation stunk of something illegal.
While Fie would readily admit she knew next to nothing about being a trader, she had plenty of experience in dealing with illegal contraband. Everything about this guy, from his mannerisms, to his fancy clothes, down to the details of the request itself screamed that there was something illegal in those packages.
Now admittedly it was a bit hypocritical of her as she still regularly utilized illegal weapons in her arsenal and was a regular of many shady merchants, but right now she was a representative of the guild as a whole. And having some confused junior caught smuggling illegal good across the country was a good way of hurting the guild's reputation. Sure she could just have Rean handle it since he was Erebonia's beloved darling who could do no wrong, but he was far more useful here in Bareahard with her, not running across the country for some sleazebag.
So now she was at a quandary. Pulling out her gunblades and threatening the man probably wouldn't go over well with others and she wasn't exactly sure what else to do to get rid of him. What would her friends do in a situation like this?
Rean? He wouldn't need to do anything as his fame was enough to get everyone to drop what they were doing to bask in his presence. It was annoying as hell and Fie was glad that she rarely suffered from that attention when she wasn't with him. Sure if she let slip her name the guy would probably give up in a hurry, but no.
Sara? She had seen it personally. Sara would just ignore the guy until he got mad and left. A possible solution, but the older woman usually had enough booze on hand to make the time pass quickly. Fie was a cool and responsible bracer and thus wouldn't stoop to Sara's low by drinking on the job like that.
...And she totally wasn't saying that because she struggled to handle her alcohol. Those were just lies spread by her many enemies.
Laura? She would probably whip out that stupidly big sword of hers and challenge the moron to a duel. Even if nobody was stupid enough to actually accept the request the sheer act alone was usually enough to send most people fleeing in terror.
...Her best friend did not realize just how scary she actually was.
She couldn't help but let out a sigh, further aggravating the smuggler. Why were all of the people she cared about so useless? She doubted that anyone else in her extended Class VII family would provide any inspiration either.
...But that wasn't her only family, was it? And last she heard, those two idiots were actually fairly close. Perfect. Adopting a rather friendly smile which would cause anyone close to her to run for cover, the receptionist made a show of humming thoughtfully. "Well, while the Bracer Guild cannot accept a request like this, I do know a pair of... independent contractors? I am sure they would be more than willing to handle your task."
"Truly? That's wonderful! How I would I go about getting in contact with these contractors?"
After providing the soon to be dead man with Xeno's contact number the girl cheerily waved his departure. She wasn't actually sure if her Zephyr friends would actually accept the request if the pay was decent enough, or merely put the fear of Aidios into him for wasting their time. Honestly? She could see both happening at once.
The morality of a bracer forwarding illegal work to jaegers was probably a topic of future discussion, but it got the idiot out of her hair and she considered that to be a win. Outside of this one annoyance the rest of the day had gone by with mundane simplicity. Accepting requests, putting them out for bracers to accept, and file away their completed missions. A very simple day sorely lacking in excitement.
Glancing at a nearby clock Fie couldn't help but wonder where her number one favorite person in the world was. Not to mention Altina, who might very well make it into her top five if she bothered to actually make such a list. The requests she had given them might have been tedious, but they should have been completed by now-
Once again the door opened and this time Fie grinned widely. Speak of the devil and he shall arrive. But she couldn't help but notice just how haggard the pair looked. Altina – who oddly enough was wearing different clothes than what she had that morning - was doing her best to glare at anything that caught her eye, but the intimidation factor was low considering her face seemed to be locked in a perpetual pout. Rean was faring better, but the stained smile on his face reminded her of those days when she witnessed the poor sap getting stuck with unexpected work courtesy of Sara or Towa.
"So... I take it everything went well?" Altina shifted her glare onto her, but Fie was naturally unaffected.
Rean just let out a tired laugh. "You know how it is. Just one of those days."
"Ahhh..." She understood immediately. Sometimes you can have all the skill and experience in the world and yet things can still go wrong. And oftentimes karma would just hit you with bad luck over and over. Still, as the receptionist she needed to know more. "Were you able to finish the requests?"
Both seniors turned towards the junior, but given how foul Altina looked Rean decided to take pity and answer, even though it should have been her job. "We did." He confirmed with a nod. "The first job we did was the dog walk. Everything went fine until near the end, but..."
"But...?" What force of nature could cause something as simple as walking a dog to go wrong?
This time Altina managed to rouse herself from her anger. "Millium happened."
That would explain it. Millium was a force of nature even at the best of times. Rean let out a tired laugh. "Those dogs definitely got a good work out today. Luckily we managed to catch them before they got themselves hurt and Count Gorti was none the wiser."
"...Hurray."
"After that..." Rean continued, ignoring Altina's deadpan celebration. "...we went back out in search of Dryad's Tears. We actually managed to find a grove of trees that hadn't been explored in quite some time where plenty of the gems were... Did you know that the sap that hardens into Dryad's Tears is also very attractive to monsters?"
An area untouched by humans in quite some time and a sap that monsters find tasty? She could just imagine the horde they ended up fighting. "That's one scrap I'm glad I missed out on. And how about your trip into the waterway?"
"...I hate sewers."
"We actually found the item fairly quickly, but it was on the far side of the waterway." Rean elaborated. "Instead of taking the path around Altina decided to use Claiomh Solais to cross the water and fetch it."
"Did she fall in or something?" Would explain the change of clothes.
Rean shook his head. "Nothing that bad, but in her haste she forgot that her shell isn't the most dexterous of tools. She ended up getting nasty water splashed all over her."
One of those days indeed. "Well, it sounds like things could have gone a bit easier, but at least you managed to complete everything. So how was your first day as a bracer?" Probably not the best idea poking at the girl while she was in a mood, but that had never stopped Fie before. "Aw, don't be like that. How about this? While we wait for the day to end I'll tell you all about the crap Sara had me do when I first started."
And she had many stories to share indeed. As miserable as Altina's first day had gone she at least had the luxury of having Rean as her partner and not a useless drunk. That alone was a huge improvement over her earliest days.