Chương 14: Adventurers Guild Debrief

Evelyn looked up when a team of adventurers entered the guild. It was the Silverados, who had recently arrived in Lorelark. They seemed to be in good cheer, so she asked them pleasantly, "Did your quest go well?" The party leader was a half-elf named Jenny Hi-Genie, who approached the counter with the other three in tow. From what she could remember, their names were Buck the Shot the archer, Duo-Fist the warrior, and Keel the cleric.

When the adventurers got close, the smell hit her, making her scrunch up her nose. Right, it had been a sewer job.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Jenny asked.

"Uh..." she had a sinking feeling this was going to result in paperwork.

"Let's start with the good news," Jenny said cheerfully.

"We managed to kill one of the alligators."

"I'd say the good news is that we managed to get out alive," Buck interjected. She dared to hope that the other news wouldn't be so bad. Since the scope of the problem had been largely unknown, including the strength and numbers of the alligators, the quest had been marked with a warning. From the sounds of it, the Silverados had fought the first alligator and realized that the creatures were more dangerous than a team of silvers could safely handle.

But since they'd managed to defeat it, that should put the rest of the job well within the realm of a gold team. Not great news, but not terrible either. She would have to update the quest listing, but this was an easy change to make.

"The bad news is that you've now got two giant alligators loose on the main sewer path," Jenny continued.

"Sorry?" She could already see the rest of the afternoon evaporating before her eyes.

"Yeah, I should clarify that we barely made it out alive," Buck added.

"How—" she began and then started again after finding her voice.

"How did that happen?" Buck shrugged.

"They chased us and we ran. They kept chasing and we kept running. You know how these things happen."

"We have to tell the watch," she said.

"They need to close off the sewers."

"We're already on it," Jenny said.

"There was another adventurer with us. She's having a chat with someone from the watch right now." That was good. It was one less thing she had to worry about.

"I can give you partial credit on the quest for eliminating one of the alligators," she said.

"Of course we won't be able to pay out until the quest is completed, as we need to know the full scale of the job in order to determine what your contribution was. And we also require you to share anything that will help the next quest takers.

If you'll join me over at this table right—" She hesitated, scrunched up her nose again, and said, "If you'll make use of our restroom facilities out back and get changed into something more comfortable—" and less smelly, she thought to herself, "—and then join me at this table right here, I can note down your accounts of what happened on the job, which will be used to assess your payout."

"I could use a long bath," Buck said, being the first one to make his way down the hallway toward the amenities. After getting another whiff of the sewer water as the party made their way past, Evelyn made a mental note to burn the bath tub once they were done with it. In the meantime she made preparations by getting together some note paper and taking down the listing from the quest board.

She crossed out the old stamp marking it as appropriate for silver-rank adventurers and added a gold stamp to it before putting it back up. Once she'd done all she could while waiting for the Silverados, Evelyn went back to her desk behind the counter and continued studying her textbook, The Third Tier: A Guide for Advanced Beginners. There was an exam coming up, and she was hoping to finally earn a promotion to the second circle. A long time passed and the Silverados returned from their washing-up.

They'd changed into civilian garb and it looked like they'd stowed their weapons and armor back into their inventory.

"You all had a chance to freshen up?" she asked. Jenny smiled at her.

"We're ready to debrief." She stowed her textbook away in her inventory, grabbed the note paper, map, quill, and ink pot she'd prepared earlier, and invited the Silverados to join her at a table by the front. She pointed at the map and said, "Let's begin by marking down what you know about the alligator tunnels. We'll also consider the ones active on the main sewer path as high priority, so if you can tell me where you saw them last and where you think they might roam to."

They went back and forth with questions and answers. When she got around to asking about how they took down the alligator, they described how all four of them had contributed. Keel had slowed it down with divine magic while the other three attacked it from afar, Buck with his bow, Jenny her sling, and Duo with sewer rocks. Jenny also described how ineffective her [Firebolt] had been unless it was elevated to Tier 2.

It made sense as a strategy, and it could have worked had they managed to fight each alligator in isolation. It was just bad luck that they encountered two at the same time.

"That reminds me," she said.

"Do you have any material from the alligator as proof of the kill?" From the way the Silverados looked at each other, she guessed that they hadn't. Which was quite unusual, as it was routine for adventurers to take a moment to harvest their kills before moving on, giving their stamina time to recover for the next fight.

"We didn't get a chance to," Jenny explained.

"The other two chased us all the way back to the main path."

"It's all right," she said.

"When the next party attempts the quest, they'll be able to confirm your kill." This didn't do much to reassure the adventurers, and she could understand why. It basically relied on the honor system, and not every adventurer was honorable. After all, a lot of parties out there were host to rogues and other unsavory types who wouldn't think twice about picking their way into someone else's lockbox.

"Will the corpse even be around when the next party comes?" Buck said.

"You've raised this quest to gold-rank, haven't you? Is there even a single gold-rank party in Lorelark at the moment?"

"I wish I could say there was," she replied.

"But you're right, all the high-level adventurers in the region have traveled west to Ygg Latten Bay. It may be some time before the problems over there are resolved."

"What if we have a witness?" Jenny asked.

"An impartial third party?" She shook her head.

"Unless they're someone with considerable reputation and standing, their word won't mean much. This is why we encourage adventurers to harvest as they go." Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. At that moment another person entered the guild. She looked over to see Lady Amberlin, the mysterious newcomer who'd arrived only yesterday. Seeing them all seated together at a table, Lady Amberlin waved to them.

"Sorry! I got turned around on the way here." Seeing the Silverados all wave back, something clicked inside Evelyn's head. She turned to them and said, "Wait, is she the witness you were talking about?"

"Yeah," Jenny said.

"We'd never met her before today, I swear." When Lady Amberlin scampered over, the foul smell of sewer water struck Evelyn's nostils once more. From the similar reaction of the Silverados, it seemed that cleaning themselves up had restored their own sense of smell to normal too. Evelyn had a brief moment of panic trying to figure out a way to broach the topic with Lady Amberlin in a tactful manner. Luckily the master mage noticed all their reactions and brought it up first.

"So, uh, is there a shower or something around here?" Lady Amberlin said.

"There's a bath down the hall," Buck said helpfully. Lady Amberlin looked down at her clothes.

"Uh, I left my change of clothes back at the inn. Maybe I should just head back there instead." Jenny stood up.

"It's all right, you can borrow some of mine." Lady Amberlin looked at her.

"Are you sure?" Jenny took her hand and started leading her away.

"It's no trouble at all. Come, I'll help you draw the bath." Once the two women disappeared down the hallway, Evelyn caught Buck's eye.

"She can confirm that you killed the alligator?" she asked. Buck nodded.

"Yeah. She was there when it happened." Evelyn marked that down in her notes.

"All right, I'll consider the kill confirmed." The three adventurers looked at each other. Slowly the realization dawned on them.

"Didn't you just say that the witness would require considerable reputation and standing?" Buck asked carefully.

"I did."

"She is a bronze, right?"

"She is." He seemed at a loss as to what to say next.

"Then why?"

"Would you rather I remove the confirmation?" she asked.

"No, no." His eyes wandered down the hallway and then back to her.

"Just... who is she?"

"If you want to know more about Lady Amberlin, you're just going to have to ask her yourself," she replied. Buck looked at his teammates." Lady Amberlin. Is she some sort of nobility?" When he turned back to her, she saw the expression of his face and said, "You don't look so happy, Buck."

"You don't understand," he said.

"I insulted her."

"Why did you have to go and do that?" she asked.

"Well, she was the one that lured the two alligators to us." Evelyn listened as Buck recounted the entire encounter with Lady Amberlin. She had to interrupt him a few times.

"Are you sure it was a [Fireball]?"

"Jenny confirmed it. Filled the entire room with steam. And it was a big room too."

"And the mana flux," she pressed.

"Did you sense the mana flux?" This time it was Keel the cleric who answered, shaking his head.

"I'm afraid we can't help you there. We aren't that sensitive to mana, so none of us picked up on any flux." Of course, another explanation for why they hadn't picked up on any flux was that there hadn't been any, just as when Lady Amberlin had demonstrated her free-form magic in the guild. [Fireball] was a Tier 3 spell. It was one of the harder spells in the book Evelyn was currently studying for her exams. To cast it without leaking any flux was a level of mastery every student could only dream of.

Hearing about this cemented her opinion that Lady Amberlin was a master mage. Buck continued to tell his story, and by the end of it, Evelyn had formed her own opinion about what had really been going on in the sewers. Lady Amberlin had sensed the adventurers in need of rescue. But she'd also wanted to chastise them for their hubris in taking on a quest that was dangerously beyond their level. This was why she'd lured the two additional alligators over, to make a point about the flaw in the Silverados' plan.

Even the [Fireball] had been a message, a warning to Buck not to prejudge everyone he met based on the color of their badge. Shortly after Buck finished recounting his tale, Lady Amberlin returned from the restroom. She was dressed in fine clothes, the sort a merchant might wear when invited to a gathering with nobility. Her soiled gear had been stuffed into a sack that she carried by her side.

"This is a bit fancy, isn't it?" Lady Amberlin said.

"I'm sorry, it was the only spare I had left," Jenny said unapologetically.

"She looks good, don't you guys think?"

"Yeah! You look simply fabulous!" Buck chirped with great enthusiasm. Lady Amberlin gave him a weird look.

"What's up with you all of a sudden?"

"He's finally realized he has you to thank for his survival," Evelyn entered diplomatically. Lady Amberlin grinned.

"Yeah? About time."

"Yes, I'm grateful. Very grateful," Buck said. It was Jenny's turn to give him a weird look.

"Before I forget, Lady Amberlin," Evelyn said, "someone came by earlier asking for your bank details to deposit your earnings."

"My earnings?" Lady Amberlin looked confused for a moment. And then realization sparked in her eyes.

"Of course! It was a merchant, wasn't it?"

"Indeed it was."

"I suppose I'll need to open a bank account then."

"That would be a good idea," Evelyn agreed.

"We'll also need it to deposit your share of the rewards for this quest."

"What share?" Lady Amberlin looked confused.

"For killing one of the giant alligators."

"They killed it, not me."

"So you don't want to claim a share?" Lady Amberlin seemed to think about it for a moment.

"I'll leave it up to you guys to decide what's fair." The Silverados were sharing a look with each other. Evelyn understood how confusing it must be for adventurers to see one of their own turning down a share of a quest reward. Particularly someone who was only supposed to be starting out at bronze. It wasn't just about the money, but also the credit, which was divided along the same proportions as the money.

Even a small share of the credit on a quest like this added up to a lot of progress toward a silver promotion. But of course none of them knew that Lady Amberlin's goal was not to stand out.

"Where is the bank anyway?" Lady Amberlin asked. Evelyn provided directions.

"I'm going to head over there now. You don't need me for anything, right?" She replied, "I just have one question before you go. It's about Amy." From the way Lady Amberlin hesitated, she knew that the news wasn't good.

"I haven't seen her. But I'm sure that the city watch is run by very capable people, and with any luck they will find her soon." Though it might have been a bit too much to expect after only a day, a part of her had been hoping.

"Are you talking about the missing persons?" Jenny interjected.

"We were planning on tackling that one tonight."

"You have a plan?" Lady Amberlin asked.

"Yeah! We figured that if these people are being taken, one of us would offer ourselves up as bait, and the others will follow until we get to the hideout and then bust everyone out. Though after everything that's happened today, I'm wondering if we've misjudged all the ways that can go wrong."

"You've got to make sure you don't just end up as another victim," Evelyn said.

"Yeah, we may have to reconsider our plans," Jenny agreed. Lady Amberlin had nothing to add and bade them farewell. Jenny settled back into her seat at the table, looked around at everyone, and said, "So, what did I miss?"

It was evening, the Silverados had long left, and Evelyn had just finished writing up her report on the sewer gators. She locked it up in the guildmaster's office with all the other unread paperwork and was about to leave when a guard entered the guild.

"How can I help you, officer?" she greeted him.

"You can call me Bradley," he said, smiling awkwardly.

"I've been asked to bring you to the captain's office."

"What business does the watch have with me?"

"I don't want to get your hopes up, but we may have a lead on the kidnappers." Her heart skipped a beat.

"How can I be of service?"

"We have reason to believe they've been moving the victims through the sewers. The captain will explain more." Her thoughts turned back to Lady Amberlin's adventure in the sewers today. She never did explain what she was doing down there before running into the Silverados. There was no doubt in Evelyn's mind. Lady Amberlin was behind this breakthrough. Her offhand remark about the city watch had been a hint of what's to come.

Before leaving with Bradley, she glanced back at the quest board with its missing-persons posters, and her eyes were drawn to the sketch of her friend's face. Don't worry, Amy. With Lady Amberlin's help, we're going to get you back safely.