Chương 55: Adventurers Guild and Amber Temple

Maelle didn't wake up until the afternoon. Amberlin had already gone out, and Boots was snuggled by her feet. She wanted to keep lying there in the soft sheets. This was the most she'd been at peace since it all began. Marina had explained everything to her. About how she'd stopped by Virdis's shop the other night at midnight only to find it unattended, which under protocol would only be the case if the safe house had been compromised.

After checking for Maelle at the temple and every other place she could think of, she'd returned to the Lorear Hills to continue her search. Maelle realized that this situation had been her fault. That was the night she'd snuck out to visit Virdis and gotten chased by those kidnappers on the way there. It was because of her that Virdis had been late returning to the safe house and missed Marina. They were able to laugh it off now, but inside she knew that she had to grow stronger and learn to fend for herself.

This was the only way to stop being a burden on her friends. It was decided that she should stick with Havlo and Amberlin for the time being. Surprisingly this suggestion had come from Marina, after listening to her talk about Havlo and Amberlin and Boots.

"You'll be safe with them, and it will free Virdis and me to do other things we need to do," Marina had said.

"You aren't going to be doing anything dangerous, are you?" she asked skeptically.

"Everything we do is about making sure you're safe."

"You didn't answer my question."

"We're going to start by planting some false leads," Marina said.

"This will hopefully throw off any future assassins they send at you. And then we're going to try to get back in touch with the other Draegorian Guard." If it was only a handful of assassins, she was sure nothing bad could happen to Marina. Virdis she wasn't sure about, but he was really smart and shouldn't get found out so easily.

"We'll probably be going to Ygg Latten Bay," she told them.

"Won't it be a problem if assassins track me there, since there's a prohibition against anyone leaving?"

"That makes it the last place the assassins will expect you to go," Virdis had pointed out.

"And if it comes down to it, you have an advantage over everyone else bound by the governor's orders—you can just sprout wings and fly away."

"Spend your time training and grow strong," Marina added.

"With me you wouldn't get that opportunity, but with them, and your new fake identity..."

"Once I'm strong, we can travel together again," she said.

"Of course." Marina smiled. She'd wanted to stay at Veridical Creations all night, to spend as much time with her friends as she could, since she didn't know how long it would be before she'd get to see them again. But Marina had insisted she leave.

"You need your rest," her friend said.

"And you need to believe that we'll meet again."

"We will meet again," she insisted. Marina ran a hand through her silver hair.

"That's a promise." She decided that she was going to study hard and train harder so that one day Marina could simply be her friend and no longer have to be her bodyguard. Which meant that right now she shouldn't be wasting time just lying there. Maelle rolled out of bed, disturbing Boots, who just repositioned himself and continued to sleep without her. Amberlin had left some lunch money for her on the bedside table.

While she was ordering lunch downstairs, the innkeeper said to her, "A message came for you from the adventurers guild. It seems the guildmaster wants to see you." Oh no. She'd completely forgotten about that quest—the one where she had to kill that monster in the grove. The one that she'd abandoned because the monster was too strong. The one where the monster had gotten killed and replaced by an even stronger monster. She'd forgotten to report back to the guildmaster to warn him about the new monster.

She was in trouble for sure. This was a terrible start to her adventuring career. She wolfed down her lunch and then hurried off to the guild. It was better to face the music now and get it over with. Today there was a young man attending the reception desk. When she walked up, he was busy sorting through a stack of quest notices.

"I'm here to see the guildmaster," she announced, trying to hide her nerves.

"Do you have an appointment?" he asked, sparing her no more than a quick glance.

"Do I need an appointment?"

"He's a busy man."

"I was told he wanted to see me," she said. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. The attendant sighed.

"What's your name?"

"Maelle." The attendant abruptly stopped what he was doing and gave her his full attention." You're Maelle?"

"Do you have a problem with that?" she said indignantly.

"Well, I was just expecting—""You were expecting?"

"You're a child!" he cried.

"What's going on out here?" Guildmaster Gide appeared at his office door. His face lit up when he saw her.

"Ah, Lady Maelle! Just the person I've been waiting to see. Don't tell me, is my employee giving you a hard time?"

"I don't know," she said, side-eyeing the attendant.

"Is he?"

"N-n-not at all," the attendant stammered.

"It's just that with all the rumors floating around, I was expecting someone different!"

"This isn't Lady Maelle's true appearance," Guildmaster Gide said casually.

"She's trying to go unnoticed." How did he know? How did he know? She'd hardly been in Ardark three days and her cover was already blown. This was a disaster! Seeing the panic on her face, Guildmaster Gide said quickly, "Not to worry, Lady Maelle. No one else in Ardark knows the details but me, and my employee here is not known to be a gossip."

"Th-th-that's right, sir," the attendant said.

"I still haven't told a single soul about the mysterious monster that's been eating the giant eels in the sewers, sir." The guildmaster patted the young man on the back.

"See? Perfectly discreet."

"R-right," she said, regretting all her life choices but slowly feeling her pulse settle down. It was one thing for people to know that she could fly, but another thing altogether if they figured out she was Princess May-Lynn of the Draegorian Empire. It would create a lot of extra work for Marina. Guildmaster Gide invited her to his office. Once they were seated, he explained, "The reason my employee is so excited is because of the incident last night.

I've already had a talk with Captain Ozstin and received his record of events."

"is that so?" she said. Then, worried that the captain had broken his promise about keeping her secret, she asked, "He didn't mention anything about flying, did he?"

"Flying?" Guildmaster Gide looked genuinely puzzled.

"No, I don't think he did. Was flying involved?"

"No, of course not. That's why he didn't mention it." She was relieved to learn that the captain was a trustworthy man after all.

"Well, of course, I've come to my own conclusions about what really happened. I must say, getting yourself captured was a very clever way to infiltrate the traffickers' base."

"What?"

"Of course, of course," he said, waving his hand placatingly, "we're going to stick to the official version of events. But even that is enough to qualify you for a promotion, should you want it."

"You mean I can be promoted to silver?"

"Silver? Oh, yes, of course we can do silver." This was exactly what she needed. Becoming silver-rank proved that she was capable of pulling her own weight as an adventurer. It would secure her place in the party.

"Oh! And I almost forgot," Guildmaster Gide said.

"We've confirmed the kill of the monster in the grove near the Dabaux estate. I may as well give you the reward for that now." He produced ten silver coins from his inventory and held them out to her. She stared at the coins hungrily. It was wrong to take credit for something she didn't do. But the coins were right there, calling out to her, tempting her with their precious glint. All she had to do was reach out and take them. She swallowed her saliva and sat on her hands.

"I can't. I wasn't the one who killed it." The coins disappeared back into the guildmaster's inventory and he said nonchalantly, "I understand. I'll mark down that it was slain by an unknown person." She'd expected him to be more upset about her failure, but she supposed that she'd earned some latitude by helping the other kidnapping victims escape. The guildmaster was such a reasonable person.

"But there may be another dangerous beast in the area," she added. The guildmaster frowned.

"Where was this?"

"I first saw it near the grove, but I last saw it at the Dabaux estate." Guildmaster Gide leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"They brought in so many dangerous creatures for their twisted experiments and then couldn't keep them contained. I've already issued a notice to everyone in the area to be alert and report any unnatural sightings. With any luck, the watch have already got it under control." There was nothing further to discuss, and the guildmaster invited her back to the front counter, where he personally validated her promotion in the guild's obsidian tablet.

The Maker's Shift system upgraded her guild card and produced a silver badge, which she happily replaced the bronze one on her cloak with. Leaving the adventurers guild, Maelle was happy with how everything turned out. She'd entered fearing for her future as an adventurer, and she'd left with a promotion. You truly never could tell what fortune had in store for you. Her next stop was the Temple of the Amber Goddess, which was where she'd actually wanted to go today, to check on her friend Raylin.

When she arrived, the main chamber was crowded with people assembled in several lines. Priests and priestesses at the front were handing out gifts under the gaze of the Goddess.

"Food pantry on the left, medicine on the right!" a priestess declared on her way down the middle.

"No pushing, there's plenty for everyone! We got a generous benefactor, everyone is getting fed today!" A couple of old ladies in the medicine line were talking.

"I heard they got a big delivery of arthritis medicine."

"For real? How'd it get through the merchant cartel?"

"Didn't you hear? They got busted last night. The watch sieged Dabaux's home."

"They actually made a move?"

"I hear they were spurred on by a visiting archmage who unearthed evidence of all the nasty stuff Dabaux was doing."

"But if that was last night, how'd they make the medicine so quick?"

"That's the thing. The ingredients actually came in from Lorelark a couple of days ago."

"That's a long way to deliver moonflowers."

"No, no, they came direct through the Lorear Hills."

"You're pulling my leg."

"It's true! The same archmage was behind it, I hear."

"We're lucky there's someone so powerful who still cares about folks with arthritis." Maelle had to stop listening in because she was approached by another girl and her younger brother.

"You look different," Raylin said.

"Can you tell?" she straightened up her cloak to show off her new badge. Raylin's eyes lit up.

"No way! Did you even kill anything last night?"

"Of course not. Everyone and everything was way too strong."

"Then what did they give you credit for?" She opened her mouth to answer and then realized she had nothing.

"Uh, I didn't ask."

"They're going to be expecting more from you now," Raylin pointed out.

"I hope not. Silver quests are really hard." She thought back to the monster at the grove.

"Then why'd you take the promotion?" She decided to take a page out of Amberlin's book.

"Don't worry about, don't worry about it! I can still take bronze quests."

"Well, I've got exciting news of my own," Raylin said.

"Captain Ozstin got me in touch with someone at the mages guild willing to take on an apprentice."

"I thought you wanted to be an adventurer."

"I do. But I've got many years to go before I'm allowed to register. So I'm going to study as hard as I can so I can get to be as good as you one day."

"I'm not that good," she said.

"You should set your sights higher."

"You silly billy."

"What did I do?" Without warning Raylin wrapped her in a tight hug.

"You don't have to be the strongest archmage in the world to be a hero. I think you're plenty strong as you are."

"Now who's silly?" she said.

"You almost died down there. If I were as strong as the Amber Mage, we wouldn't have cut it so close."

"But the Amber Mage wasn't there to save me, you were." She couldn't help but appreciate Raylin's words of gratitude. And she wondered if this was how Marina felt whenever she hugged and thanked her.