(Chpt. 14) Town of Mirl.

We were close to the city gate, the armored guards still seemed to be in good mood. They did not even react to Fenri. The closer we got to the gate the bigger the walls seemed, they were certainly imposing. However Aizen just looked at them with no reaction. Ari did not react to them either for some reason. I guess I am the only one that has seen such big walls. When we arrived to the gate an old guard greeted us.

“Hi, welcome to [Mirl]. Could I please have everyone’s  ID or adventurer tag?”

I paused for a second, why is he being so friendly? I decided to answer honestly.

“We don’t have one.”

“That’s fine.” The guard instantly answered with a calm voice. 

“eh.”

I let out a stupid sound. What do you mean it’s fine? I am just a random person showing up. He seemed to understand I was confused. He proceeded to speak in a happy and relieved tone.

“You see, those adventurers have been bothering all the merchants that want to enter the town to employ them because they have a gold rank adventurer, it has been going on for a week, as a thank you for “dealing” with them. We welcome you.”

“Ah, so that’s how it was.”

I answered in all honesty, Ari and Aizen just nodded. However I was still concerned about one thing.

“What about my tamed beast?”

“Well certainly the wolf is scary, but he is so well behaved.”

He glanced at Fenri, he was wagging his tail. The old guard seemed to agree that it would cause trouble, another stationed guard went into the gates and came back with what looked like a white scarf. I just looked at it with curiosity. The old guard received the scarf from the other guard, and turned towards us and began explaining.

“Wrap this around your wolf’s neck. People will recognize it as a tamed beast. I don't quite understand it but it’s the standard for tamed beasts to wear something like this.”

He said with a troubled expression while scratching the back of his head. I began placing it around Fenri’s neck, he seemed to like the feel of the scarf. ‘I might make a better grade one, I have never crafted a scarf though.’ I muttered while I was finishing on putting the scarf on him. As I finished the old guard spoke again in a friendly tone.

“Welcome to the town of [Mirl]. You can register at any of the three guilds to acquire a valid ID or tag.”

We thanked him, as we were about to pass through the gate, Aizen remembered something and turned towards the old guard.

“Is this a tag?”

She asked in a curious tone while holding a black dog-tag, it looked rusted however I could still tell it was made out of incredibly high quality material. The old guard froze when he saw the tag, he began speaking in a somewhat nervous tone.

“G-Girl, I do not know where you found that tag, but it’s a tag from an [Obsidian] rank adventurer. However it seems to be incredibly old just by looking at the design, I would say 30 years or so.”

Aizen had a wry smile when the guard said 30 years.

“[Obsidian] was the highest rank at that time, now there’s a higher rank, however [Obsidian] adventurers are still considered to be elites among elites.”

“What is the new rank?”

Aizen asked in a curious tone, however the guard just answered sincerely and in a somewhat apologetic tone.

“I do not know it. That is the first time I see an [Obsidian] tag. It would be better to ask Mirl’s adventurer branch guildmaster.”

Aizen looked unsatisfied but came back to us after the exchange, as soon as she got back I questioned her in a low voice.

“Where did you get that?”

“The hero tried to subjugate me…”

She answered with a somewhat depressed tone and a bitter smile. ‘Sigh’ let us hope you don’t get “subjugated” again. I bet you destroyed the kingdom that day because of the same reason and got [Kingdom destroyer] title. As I finished my internal monologue. We passed through the gate, the ground switched from dirt to cobblestone. The buildings were made with mostly wood. I found them oddly charming even if they looked of questionable quality. The air was, not refreshing at all. It did not smell bad, but it certainly wasn’t refreshing.

We received curious stares as well as ones of fear most of them were on Fenri, however the ones filled with fear changed after seeing the bright white scarf on Fenri’s neck. The scarf was surprisingly easy to see because of it being a different shade of white. We arrived at the central plaza by walking on a straight line, there was a fountain made out of stone and places to sit next to it. The plaza was incredibly wide for a small town I was kind of surprised. Aizen had an uninterested expression and Ari looked disappointed after seeing the plaza, for some reason.

“What should we do now?”

Aizen just shrugged her shoulders at my question.

“We should go get IDs!”

Ari suggested in a cheerful tone and a bright smile while raising both of her arms, however the smile also looked like it had another meaning.

Aizen and I just agreed without thinking much about it. Ari started moving her head looking for something, and then her eyes sparkled. She was looking at a two floored building that was extremely big, using stone as a base to support the wood. It had a wooden board with a shield and a sword emblem on it, some adventurers entered and some came out. There were another two buildings in the central plaza that looked practically the same but they had different emblems on their boards.

Ari turned to us with a bright smile on her face, I felt oddly uncomfortable, Aizen seemed to not mind. Ari grabbed both our hands and started to walk with us towards the building she looked at previously. Some of the people walking around seemed amused by this, some of them stopped to look at us, some waved. A lot of them had warm smiles as if seeing something cute.

We were in front of the building, the adventurers coming and out looked at us like if we were a joke and continued their way. The building had no doors so I could see into the inside. ‘Is this an adventurer guild?’ is the first thought that came to my mind. There were some tables close to the door, a long reception desk with three ladies, multiple boards that were packed with adventurers. There were also stairs that led up to a kind of balcony above the reception table, they seemed like private rooms of some sort, the wood floor looked pretty old.

Ari did not seem to mind it and continued walking still holding our hands to the counter, some adventurers seemed curious about us, others did not mind. However when Fenri entered the building, it grew noisy. The adventurers did not attack him because of the scarf. However no one knew who its owner was. We arrived at the counter, a brunette lady with brown eyes greeted us in a friendly tone while smiling.

“Hello, welcome to the adventurer’s guild, what can we do for you?”

“We want to register.”

Ari said without giving me a chance to speak, the receptionist froze for a second and her smile became stiff. The receptionist began speaking as if nothing happened.

“Sorry but we cannot let people under the age of 12 register.”

“Oh, not me. I mean them.” Ari answered with an uninterested tone then pointed at us.

“”eh.”” Aizen and I let out confused dumb voices, the receptionist glanced at us and narrowed her eyes. She just nodded and said.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” She then muttered: 'I think.' Well. I guess we are adventurers now?

Ari just what are you planning? I could see a hint of evilness on her smile when she looked at us, Aizen and I realized it was too late. All of the guild was looking at us, some with mocking smiles, some with amused smiles, some weren’t smiling at all. As I was thinking, I heard the wood floor creak, a grumbling adventurer stood up from his seat at the back of the guild, as if he could not stand this anymore. 

Alice.