Chapter 21
I woke up and shook off the sleepiness as I came down for breakfast. Two familiar faces were at the table. Arwen and Chrissy who seemed to be acquainted with Edna.
Edna: “Good morning master Roy, breakfast is served and warmed.”
Roy: “Thanks.”
I took the food and began to eat. I didn’t really have much to say to either of the girls there. Chrissy from what I remember was a bit arrogant and injured my pride when I first came to this city and Arwen though polite towards me, I just felt it was due to my mother’s status and not a genuine interest in me.
It’s a pity though, the two of them are beautiful girls. Edna was pretty as well but I just didn’t want to say much to her. I felt like they only viewed me as a meal ticket.
I ate my breakfast in silence then got ready to go out not saying a word of greeting. The silence eventually made Chrissy speak.
Chrissy: “Roy, are you feeling okay? You seem a bit quiet.”
Roy: “Sorry, there are places I want to go today so I’m not in a talkative mood.”
Chrissy: “Oh, I see. Where are we escorting you today?”
I give her a bit of a smile as I put on my coat. It gets breezy in this area as it was the end of summer and fall was coming soon. The trees outside were already turning colors which gave me the nostalgia when I would sit on my grandfather’s porch and watch them fall in to the wind.
Roy: “Some place you adventurer’s might find boring. It’s called the Library where there are a lot of books.”
The two girls looked at each other and I could see the expression of disappointment on their faces. It made me want to laugh. Since they’re supposed to show me around for a week as escorts which I deemed unnecessary, I decided I would do the most boring things.
Arwen: “We can go to the library but we were hired to show you around the city. We should do that first in order to fulfill your mother’s wishes.”
I guess I still have a week… well I also need to get some questions answered about the guilds. Sure why not.
Roy: “Alright let’s go then.”
We leave the mansion as Arwen and Chrissy show me around the city walking along the many busy streets of merchants selling their wares and other things going on.
The city itself was quite large with residential districts, a seedy red-light district although they don’t use that terminology and business and administration districts. The people were dressed elegantly and many were well-nourished.
There were many questions I wanted to ask them but I decided I would save them for when were to visit the Adventurer Guild. I figured I should go and see how Hemo and Pen are doing before going to the library. The guild was busy as usual with adventurers of all shapes and sizes going around. Most were human with a few elves sprinkled in. There were one or two dwarves but humans dominated.
Roy: “So are humans the dominant race on the continent?”
Chrissy: “Not really, but we are the most numerous. We’d still be hard pressed if the human nations went up against any of the major races since they have much more powerful beings among them. Human elites, even if they’re powerful are not as strong as Elven or Demi-humans.”
Demi-humans?
Roy: “So the beast people are called demi-humans?”
Arwen and Chrissy both laughed.
Chrissy: “You didn’t even know something that simple. Anyway you’re here to look at the adventurer board because you’re curious right? Go have a look and then we’ll move on.”
I walked up to the request board. It was a large board where each type of request was organized into sections. First there was the rank sections, there were a few jobs on S-class and as it went further down more and more missions and jobs were available.
Each ranking board was also separated by the type of job. When I looked on the lower rank boards between D and E there were many goblin extermination requests piled up. It was something that I remember watching in a certain cartoon before where adventurers refused to take goblin jobs.
Roy: “Arwen, why are there so many goblin extermination jobs?”
Arwen sighed as she looked at the board.
Arwen: “Most of those jobs pay poorly and they are put up there because small villages need help with them but can’t afford the appropriate reward fee. Usually the villages have to evacuate and wait until it becomes a larger problem and the lord of the area will either send his soldiers or up the reward.”
Roy: “So no one wants to risk their lives for money that is too little then.”
Arwen: “We’re adventurers to survive, not to help the weak. Sometimes a higher ranked adventurer will take those jobs out of charity but most of us are just getting by. Higher ranked jobs require more powerful equipment you know.”
Chrissy took out her dagger. Apparently she was some kind of rogue class or some crap like that. I don’t really care to know since I’ll never be adventuring with her anyway. My soldiers are not going to be working with anyone when they go out, but since I don’t care so much about the money or reward killing goblins seems like a good way to get impact points.
Roy: “So is that why the most powerful adventurers choose to become vassals of Kingdoms instead? I guess that might make sense. No one wants to be taking odd jobs all the time, and the more difficult the job the more risk to your life.”
Chrissy: “At least you understand, so are we done here? I don’t like being here unless I have business. Someone is always going to ask us for help so lets leave before that happens.”
I follow them out and go to the library. What I was most interested in was an atlas or a map of the continent. I also wanted to get more knowledge that wasn’t available to me while I was in the village in that small little world. The library was large as befitting for a city at the center of the continent and I was able to learn a lot.
First there were the elven forests and the demi-human plains. They were relatively small in population compared to humans but they were said to possess might that could rival the Empire of Roses. As for the human Kingdoms, almost all of them had submitted to the Empire in this region close to the center. The rest of humanity was small and in remote areas but almost all of the lands of humanity belonged to the empire.
The leader of the Empire, an Empress named Eliza Rose took the throne twenty two years ago. That was around the time I was going through rebirthing. She brought order into the human nations of the south. Before there were many different smaller countries smashing against each other and going to war. You could say it was kind of like how the heroes of the warring states periods in China believed that the only way to bring peace was to unite everyone through war.
It worked to a certain extent but the person in charge had to be someone completely fine with telling people how to live their life and what to do. Either way, throughout most of human history the majority of people were fine with being told what to do as long as they felt they could get ahead in life.
Despite the magic, monsters, and very powerful individuals, this world and its humans were similar to my own.
I felt like I gained a lot of information and I stopped by the bookshop on the way back to order as many books as I could on the monsters that adventurer’s hunt. I was going to read through each of them slowly because if my army was going to help the villages then I would need to know about the monsters and tactics of this world.
Also my escorts had one requests.
Chrissy: “We have to go to the tavern before we return home.”
Roy: “The Tavern? Why?”
Chrissy: “Well you need to meet everyone and maybe have a round of drink or two.”
Roy: “Why would I need to drink? I don’t like drinking.”
Most of the alcohol in this world was room temperature since they don’t have refrigeration. Paying a mage to chill the beer or drink wasn’t something they would do normally. I guess they could add ice, but most taverns don’t have that and I wasn’t looking forward to eating or drinking there when I had perfectly good food from a maid at home.
Chrissy: “You don’t like drinking? Come on! Live a little. Weren’t you interested in the life of an adventurer? We should go.”
Chrissy put her arm around me and I could immediately feel the difference in strength between us. She meant no physical harm but she was a very strong woman. I don’t even think the musclemen of the modern age could match her in strength.
It intimidated me.
Roy: “Okay, maybe one drink won’t be so bad.”
I went with them to the tavern of their choosing which had many other adventurers there. It seemed to be a place where many would meet when they were done with missions.
Arwen: “Come on Roy, let us introduce you to everyone we know.”
There were many adventurers, rough looking buff characters, magicians and several of the more magical races. For those who had always wanted to come to a fantasy world, the tavern was the most diverse group than anywhere else.
I got to know most of the people there and to be honest, I could do without knowing them. Reason being that they all seemed to feign interest in me due to my status as the son of the Guild Master. Everyone always wants to be involved with someone who has connections.
Chrissy: “You don’t seem that interested in meeting others. Are the adventurers not to your liking?”
Roy: “It’s not that… it’s more that I feel they have an interest in me that I don’t want. They’re not interest in me but my connection to the Guild Master.”
Chrissy an Arwen both stayed quiet for a short moment as though a bit surprised at my words. Perhaps they just couldn’t respond right away and had to think an appropriate way to talk to me.
Arwen: “That’s true.”
Chrissy: “Sorry, I didn’t think you’d feel this way. The reason we come here is because it makes us feel happy to be around those who are like us, our comrades in adventuring. Every one of us who lives here eventually teams up with others and so it becomes a small community.”
Roy: “I see, then such a community probably shouldn’t involve me since I have no actual qualifications to be an adventurer. There was no point in me coming here and I’m going to go home now.”
Arwen sighed but had a sorrowful expression.
Arwen: “We’re sorry for bringing you here. We’ll take you home.”
As we left it was mostly female adventurers that greeted us. I was a bit curious.
Roy: “Why are there mostly female adventurers here?”
Arwen: “I don’t know, but here in the capital it’s mostly female adventurers. Most of the visitors that come by are male though.”
That was peculiar, but I really wasn’t all that interested in meeting more women.
It wasn’t that I wanted to be mean to them but what else was I going to say? I obviously didn’t fit in with women who saw me for my mom. Those I would fit in with more were the commoners and merchants who wouldn’t know who I am. The normal person, even though the normal person was clearly stronger than I would be. Makes me wonder why I was born with this physique… but it doesn’t matter. I’m going to raise an army.
We reach home and it’s evening time. Edna is there who orders the others to begin preparing the evening meal. Arwen and Chrissy make light chat as we eat but I stay silent not showing any interest. I feel the same vibes from them as I did from the people at the tavern.
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