小嫂子的味道

Stepping inside the building I was hit with the smell of fantasy. Everything inside was made out of wood, whether it be the furniture, railings, or pillars, everything was brown wood.

Looking on the top I saw 3 chandeliers hanging from the ceiling which iron chains and big candles attached to them which illuminated the whole interior with cozy golden light.

With several tables and chairs inside the building, people were sitting on them and drinking jugs of beers while chatting amongst their groups—or saying parties will be more accurate here. This confirmed one thing, this building worked both as a guild and as a tavern also.

Though I was not here to drink, hence I moved forward. I was getting occasional stares again because of the chains I was holding in by hand—and the same chains went back and were attached to the hand and leg cuffs of Challes.

However, while they were whispering and passing comments to each other, no one tried to come and ask something from me. I was covered from head to knees in the cloak and my face was barely visible under the hood—only the portion below my nose was in sight. Challes was in a similar condition so there was no need to worry about our identities getting revealed.

I stopped before a long wooden counter and put my hands on it—Challes stopped behind me.

"Welcome to the Vanguardians guild," said the lady in front of me; she was wearing a specific uniform and had her brown hair tied in a bun, and she was also wearing glasses.

"I'd like to register a quest," I stated.

"I see. I will be able to help you with that. Can you tell me what type of quest you want to register?" she asked and at the same time, picked up a clipboard and a pencil and pen in her hands.

"If you're asking about the category, then it'll be labyrinth exploration. And I'd prefer a party who is above average in combat if possible."

"Okay, where is the location of this labyrinth, or tell me its name if it has one."

"That I can't tell you, it's confidential," as soon as I said that, the lady looked up and stared at me for a while.

"What's the purpose of this exploration?" she fired another question.

"I and my party will be going there to mine mana crystals and I want the adventures to protect us while we are mining," I proposed.

"I see, that's why you can't say the location," she nodded.

"I'm glad you can understand."

Mana crystals are very rare in this world. They are basically used for equipment like magic lights which work on magic but require a constant amount of mana supply. A person can't always be there to provide hence mana crystals are used; they are batteries in short.

They are usually found deep in the labyrinths and are formed when the dense mana is present there because of the monsters, over time it gathers in a place and gets materialized.

If I'm mining them and making a profit, then I won't want to reveal the location of the labyrinth since I don't want other people to come there too. Same as it was when the gold and diamond mines were found back in my former world.

"And how much will be the reward money?" she queried.

"50,000 C."

"Huh?!" she almost jumped in surprise. "Isn't that a bit too much for a quest like this?"

"Well, I want the best protection. My life is very dear to me."

"But, keeping the reward this high will only cause problems for you," she said.

I knew what she was trying to say. If the adventures will see a normal grade quest of labyrinth exploration where the location of the labyrinth isn't specified but the cost is way too high; then it is ought to raise suspicion. Most people won't take on quests like this.

"I don't really care about that. If they don't have the courage to take this quest then I won't want someone like that to protect me," this was a shitty reason but it confirmed the counter lady to register my quest.

"Pay the money here," she implied as she pointed toward the machine which read the transaction cards and took money from it.

"Your total will be 52,000 C. 50,000 for the quest reward and 2000 is our service fee."

"Okay, I'll do it," I put my card on the machine, and in a few seconds the payment. I looked at my card and the numbers that indicated my account balance had changed once again.

"Thank you, please come check tomorrow morning and we'll inform you if someone accepts the quest or not," she asserted.

"I see. I will come next morning then."

With that, I left the counter and then the adventures guild building. The sun had almost set and now I had to book an inn to stay the night.

I begin walking toward the direction where I had seen the inns when I entered the town.

"What did you do that for?" someone asked, it was Challes who'd been quiet till now.

"It doesn't matter to you. And you'll get to know tomorrow anyway."

"How are you so sure that someone will accept your quest by tomorrow."

"Sigh! There's no lack of greedy people in the world. Even if my quest looks suspicious someone will eventually accept it for the money. The probability is 8 out of 10."

"And what about the mana crystals? Are you really here for them?"

"What if I was?"

"I'd be disappointed. You don't really look like the type who'll do all this just for making money from the crystals, and considering we don't have a team mining them is impossible."

"I see. But as I said, you don't really need to know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. Just follow me around like a good dog and you'll be fine."

"Treating a teacher like a dog, I never thought I'll see a day like this in my life...the more time I spend with you the more convinced I become that you're not a normal student."