Chapter 8

-Cold Heart-

They laughed up a storm. What was with these people? It was awkward. I ignored them and headed for the ‘Registration’ counter. But then one of the drunkards got up and blocked my path.

“What is it?”

I attempted to handle it with my ‘customer service smile’, but had my collar pulled in return.

“Rather impudent to ignore us just now. Just who are you, Black Rabbit?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m just an applicant here?”

My customer service face does not crumble. I was becoming increasingly annoyed at this exchange, but it seemed too foolish to become angry at these kinds of people.

The adventurer continued to glare at me. I looked back with a pleasant expression. Then two thick arms cleaved their way between us.

“Now-now-now, what’re you doing? You can’t start a fight inside the guild house.”

“Mr. Gardo…this runt was acting insolent, in spite of being new here and…”

“I don’t care if he was insulting you or blowing you. This is the guild. Just keep it civil.”

Gardo’s thick, hard arms grabbed the arm that had me by the collar. The man’s expression contorted with pain. His face looked quite ugly as he finally released me. And with a silent glare, he returned back to his seat at the bar.

“Sorry ’bout that. The man seemed to be quite drunk.”

“It’s because you two started talking about this Black Rabbit. Give me a break…”

“You can blame Ness for that one. He does get carried away sometimes… Anything amusing happens, and he’ll let everyone know as soon as he can.”

“Well, it’s not too amusing to me.”

I sighed as I saw Gardo awkwardly scratching his head. Were adventurers perhaps starved of good entertainment here? I’d appreciate people not making such rumors about me as a joke…

“Well, um…right. I’ll give Ness a good scolding about this. I hope you forgive him.”

“If you can make sure the other adventurers know too…I think they’re about to terrorize me.”

“I’ll ensure that don’t happen.”

So saying, Gardo went back to the bar counter. From the way he talked, it seemed that he must be quite high in rank. Wasn’t he a wandering adventurer…he was probably able to keep the peace due to his physical abilities. But I wonder how management here was. I felt like I shouldn’t get my hopes up too high.

After seeing his huge back move away, I turned and finally reached the ‘Registration’ counter.

There was a quiet-looking girl sitting on the other side. She looked like the type of person who always had their nose in a book.

“Excuse me, I would like to get registered as an adventurer.”

“Ye-yes! Please fill out this Adventurer’s Registration form.”

And she handed over the sheet of paper. What’s this? Was she scared after seeing what had just happened…?

I grabbed a pen and filled out my name, age, weapon of choice, magic abilities and whether I preferred the advance guard or the vanguard. So this world had magic after all. It made me a little excited. But what about weapons? My unique ‘Jack of all Trades’ skill seemed like it would allow me to use anything, but… Hmm… I should probably just put down what I had experience with. Spear and billhook…a shortsword. And for the record, I am 22.

“Alright, I’ve filled it out.”

“Th-thank you… Hmm, Asagi huh. Um, you’ve chosen the advance guard, but have you any real experience in combat?”

“Just goblins and wolves from the plains. Both were more of an ambush, actually.”

“Understood. Combat experience…goblins and wolves… Why is the magic column empty?”

“Yes, I can’t use magic. Or, I’m not quite sure whether or not I can.”

“I see. Very well, we shall use this status card to confirm. If there is indeed any spells you can use, you can fill them out here afterward.”

So they do have status cards! Great!

“Alright.”

“This status card hasn’t been registered to an individual yet, so you need only say, ‘status open’ and your status should be displayed. In a moment we will need to drop a sample of your blood on this card to finalize the registration. And then everything will be complete. The status display won’t change regardless if your registered or not. However, it will not display anything once you leave the village, so please refrain from running off with it like a filthy thief. In fact, registration can only occur within this room.”

So in other words, there should be no problems as long as I register here.

“Right…well, status open.”

I chant and a hologram-like display was projected from the card. My first look at my status. Well, what would it be…