With two disassembled firearms neatly tucked away in the leather backpack that he had on, Ren marched his way through the streets of Floré— using the directions Amerika had written for him on a piece of paper, until finally coming up toward his location.
Having left Stone-Cold Brewery with zero expectations for what would await him, Ren had gone through the rest of the day, up until that point, imagining himself waking into a saloon-like environment; picturing Floré's branch of the Adventurers' Guild to be full of ruffians, and brutish mercenaries— similar to the fifty-one men he had a hand in sending to their early graves.
However, upon stepping off of the sidewalk and entering through the gated archway of the bricked-fenced property of the guild, Ren was greeted with a spacious courtyard that separated him from the stone-steps leading up to the entrance of the twenty-six story office building before him— the picnic tables and shaded grass area by the water fountain in the center of the courtyard occupied en mass with both adventurers and civilians alike.
'Feels like the first day of school,' Ren thought uncomfortably to himself, as he walked self-consciously through the cobblestone path leading through the center of the courtyard— doing his best not to take notice of the fact that he was significantly shorter than everyone else occupying the front of the brick-and-mortar skyscraper.
Approaching the stone-brick water fountain, Ren noticed his heartbeat intensifying as he passed by a small group of young adventurers— butterflies beginning to swarm rampantly inside of him, as the gravity of where he was began to sink into his enthralled mind.
'I… I'm here; after all this time, I'm actually here!' Ren thought to himself with a sense of astonishment— his dusty rose-colored eyes widening behind his pitch-black face shield, and his lips curing into a wide smile as he stared up at the large golden plaque that was plastered above the awning of the building's entrance.
Etched into the nearly three meter-long gold rectangular plaque were the words, "Adventurers' Guild"; read those two words side-by-side to each other only stimulate the eleven year-old boy's excitement— causing him to quicken his pace, as he eagerly climbed his way up the half-flight of steps, leading to the arched double-doors.
Illuminated by both the natural light seeping through the mosaic windows along the wood-paneled walls, and by the iron-cast chandeliers hung high above from the ceiling, the sandalwood floorboards and oceanic decor of the front lobby was more than Ren could have anticipated— his breath fleeting from his lungs, as he gasped at the all the sights and sounds of the crowded first floor.
Gingerly stepping forward, just as a group of six adventurers began making their way toward the front doors to exit, Ren could feel his hands trembling and his knees buckling as he stood amongst the crowds— feeling like a fish out of water, as everything he had read from his entire book collection felt as though it had led him to that point.
Taking deep breaths in-and-out while bouncing on his heels, Ren tried his best to quell his enthusiasm— his heart feeling ready to burst, as he finally gathered his wits enough to press on to the beginning of the line of adventurers.
'This is it! I'm finally going to get my first quest! A real quest from the guild!' Ren thought excitedly to himself, as he got behind an orc warrior who towered above him by almost two-meters. 'I never thought this day would actually come! Damn, I wish I had that handheld-thing; I could have used it to take pictures!'
When it finally came time for Ren to be called up, he was practically buzzing with euphoria as he approached the curious young teen girl that was standing on the other side of the oak-built counter. Looking back at him with light-brown eyes that looked almost as light as her hair, the guild girl adjusted her yellow ascot as he looked up through his oblique face-shield— his gloved fingers gripping the edge of the counter, as he lifted himself up by his tippy toes to see high enough over the counter to meet her bemused smile.
"G-Good morning! I, uhhhh… I-I take it you're here for a quest?" The teenage girl asked with an uncertain tone in her pleasant voice, while subtly meeting her co-worker's baffled gaze— the other teenage girl with dark-hired sitting beside her appearing stunned, after noticing just how unusually small the "adventurer" she was assisting was.
Nervously tapping his fingers rhythmically against the edge of the wooden counter, Ren bit down on his bottom lip while smile goofily from behind his face-shield— trying his best to find his voice, while the overwhelming amount of excitement and disbelief inside of him made it all the more difficult to articulate his hyper thoughts into coherent sentences.
"Y-Yeah! Yeah, I-I am, I am!" Ren replied louder than he intended to, which caused the guild girl across the counter from him to jump slightly in her cushioned chair.
"Oh?! Well, I…! I sure do appreciate the enthusiasm; it's a nice change of pace," the guild girl mused happily— trying to make light of how bizarre the situation was for her. "You must be new to the guild, no?"
"Y-Yeah, I-?!" Ren said truthfully, before immediately cutting himself off the moment reality knocked some sense into him. 'Oh shit, that guy wasn't a porcelain-ranked member…! Damnit, what his rank again?! Was it "steel", or was it "silver"?!'
Instead of making himself look immediately conspicuous, Ren took a breath in and slowly exhaled to recompose himself the best he could. "… I've had my fair share of quests, you could say," the eleven-year old said as cooly as he could in his monotone, prepubescent voice.
Unlike what he had hoped for, the guild girl across from him immediately showed suspicion the moment he saw her smile waver slightly, along with her eyebrows lowering. "Hmmm, so I see," she replied in a less upbeat tone— pausing briefly to stare at him with an analytical eye, before asking him, "May I see some identification, please?"
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Ren did his best to muffle his trembling sigh as he took a step back from the counter to free up his hands. "I was… I was just about to show you it," he lied, as he reached into the leather pouch on his belt, where he kept his coin purse.
Taking out the booklet he had picked from the bandit leader's corpse, Ren quickly opened it up to read the aged parchment paper that was attached to the inside of it. 'Okay, so "Rank 3"— he was silver-ranked, after all… And rather up there in years, apparently,' Ren thought somewhat surprisingly to himself, and closed the booklet before setting it down on the counter.
'Now that I think about it, I don't think I even caught a glance of what that bastard looked like— hope she doesn't have something to compare it to,' Ren thought nervously to himself, as he got back up on his tippy toes— watching as the guild girl picked the booklet up, before beginning to read the identification card inside.
Feeling his stomach churning as he noticed the blatant way her once bubbly expression transitioned into a look of skepticism, Ren felt his heart racing in his chest as he watched the way she lowered his booklet to stare back down at him with visible annoyance in her eyes.
"… Am I supposed to believe that you're fifty-two years old?" The guild girl asked bluntly with an arched brow, as she raised a finger up to the opened booklet that she had facing back towards Ren. "This is a legitimate stamp of authenticity in the corner— I'm not going to question that— but what I am going to question is how you got a hold of this."
"… It was issued to me, back in the early nineties," Ren falsely insisted in a casual voice— reading the issued date in the corner of the stamped identification card. "For what it's worth, uh… I… I-I don't blame your skepticism; I wouldn't believe me either— given the obvious," Ren added—- choosing to gesture at his height, the moment he realized that the identification card had on it that he was about nine-feet tall.
'I should have read the card earlier, when I had the chance! Damn it!' Ren thought, while blaming himself for his oversight.
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, the guild girl pursued her lips together as she clamped the booklet shut between her fingers and thumb. "Ah, yes! The obvious physical discrepancy sure does raise some alarms, doesn't it?" She asked rhetorically with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, while choosing to hold onto the identification card instead of giving it back to him.
"Uh, y-yeah…! I-I'm still trying to figure out a way to reverse whatever magic-curse those FILTHY goblins did to me!" Ren lied once more, while trying to back his false narrative up by tying the quest the bandit leader took on while under his adventurer alias.
There was a long pause of silence after Ren had blamed the discrepancy on a vague curse— one that had been inflicted on by a lesser race of demi-elves, who weren't at all renowned for their magical prowess.
"… Uh huh, sure," the light-brown haired teenager said in a deadpan voice— no longer even attempting to hide her disbelief, as she scooted the chair back before rising up to her feet. "I'll be back; I'm going to get this sorted out with my boss, and then we'll go from there," the guild girl stated in a professional, yet scolding voice, before instructing Ren, "Please remain here, until I return," as she took the identification with her.
Filled with dread— as the thought of being confronted with guards came to his mind— Ren's first instinct was to subtly reach his right hand towards the snub-nosed revolver that was concealed in the leather pouch across the strap of his backpack. 'Six shots… I've got six shots; all I need to do is fire them in towards the floor— the sound itself will buy me enough time to flee while the guards are still in shock.'
Having a non-lethal contingency plan at the ready, Ren kept his dominant hand near his strap— using his left hand to keep himself balanced, as he waited on tippy toes while watching as the guild girl made her way towards the back offices.
After about half-an hour of excruciatingly waiting to make his next move, it was then that the guild girl came walking back towards the counter— a well-dressed woman with black slacks and a blacker leading her, whom Ren immediately became wary of.
Appearing no nonsense and not even bothering to smile at him, the woman with gray eyes and short dark-blue hair that covered half her face stared down at him with calculating eyes— appearing to be doing her best to gauge his body language, while doing her best in vein to the use the light of the hanging chandelier to see past his helmet's horizontal slits.
"Remove your helmet," the woman ordered in an authoritative, deep-voice— remaining sharp and composure, while the guild girl stood beside her appearing somewhat intimidated by her domineering presence alone.
Under the immediate impression that he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of it, Ren reluctantly moved his right hand away from his concealed firearm— using it to instead grab a hold of his helmet's ivory release valve, and turning it to loosen its vacuum seal.
'Worse comes to worse, I still can throw this at her,' Ren nervously joked to himself, as he hesitantly reached up with both his gloved hands to pull up on his helmet— his gray hair falling down over his forehead, as he forced himself to look back up to meet the woman's cold stare.
"Okay… Now what?" Ren asked challengingly— trying to mask his anxiety with bravado, as he feigned a look of mild annoyance to indicate that they were wasting not only their time, but his.
Though it was difficult to see past her hardened demeanor, Ren knew right then and there that she didn't believe him from the way her eyelids narrowed ever so slightly at him. However, there was also a hint of frustration on her ivory face— as though she had no way to disprove his claim of being "Goblin Slayer", just like how the bandit leader had reassured him before his grizzly death.
"… What will happen now is that Ms. Caparelli here will be updating your profile, Goblin Slayer— seeing how the record we have on file is… Insufficient," the woman stated with palettable disdain in her voice, and took a step back before reaching up with one hand to pat the guild girl on the shoulder.
"If there's any more issues that need my attention, I'll be nearby," the woman spoke into the teenager's ear, while not trying to conceal her voice— her gray eyes fixated on Ren, as she watched him quickly put his helmet back on. "If he dies out there, it's on him."
Still visibly nervous around her boss, the teenager nodded in response to what she had been told— feigning a smile as a drop of sweat trickled down her cheek, while replying to her, "O-Of course, Ms. Cadieux— thank you!"
Without another word spoken, the woman patted her underling once on the shoulder— side-starring Ren, as she turned around slowly before walking back to where her office was.
Activating the vacuum-seal of his helmet, Ren took in a deep breath of filtered air before letting out a silent and elongated sigh. 'Thank God,' he thought exasperatingly to himself, before once again getting back on his tippy toes with his hands gripping the edge of the counter.
"Ready for those questions when you are, Ms. Caparelli," Ren said with a smile growing across his pale-lip— his enthusiasm returning, as he couldn't help but to once again bounce up-and-down on the balls of his feet.
Without her boss there to make herself feel the need to be submissive, the guild girl's demeanor became more visibly contemplative— her light-brown eyes occasionally glancing over to exchange silent thoughts to her co-worker, during the entire time she had Ren assist her with updating "Goblin Slayer's" record.
By the end of the twenty minute session, she had drafted him up an updated identification card— one that contained more personal information about Ren, which he of course falsified whenever he felt it necessary to.
Feeling guilt seeping into her— the same way that the end of her stamp was soaking up the golden wax she prepared on her counter space— the guild girl couldn't help but feel as though she were signing Ren's death certificate as she pressed the stamp down on the corner of his identification card— the choice words of her boss still lingering in her mind, as she looked up to stare apologetically at his unseen expression of naïveté.
Author's Note: The next however-many chapters will follow Goblin Slayer's first ever quest; including who his first party will be, and where they'll be going.