Chapter 26: The folly of making bad jokes.

Chapter 26: The folly of making bad jokes.

The appraiser had had to contact the office head, who was a tier 4 appraiser, to find out what the status of the sword was. He had rushed out of his office when he had found out what he was dealing with, which meant I wouldn't have to wait long to finally get answers. The head appraiser was a round-bellied man with a thin moustache. He marched into his subordinate's office to come to inspect the sword, not even introducing himself in the process. I didn't think he had done it out of a feeling of superiority, though. He just looked excited to inspect the weapon. I guessed that curiosity was necessary to become an appraiser in the first place.

He took a large looking-glass out of his pocket and brought his face within an inch of the sword.

A moment later he squealed in glee like a pig. The tier three appraiser made an apologetic gesture in my direction with an embarrassed look on his face. I supposed the office head's excitability was nothing new, because he looked like he had had to deal with this exact situation before.

After a few seconds, the excitable appraiser turned to me, this time with a grim look on his face. The sudden change caught me a little by surprise.

"Where did you get this sword, customer?"

I almost didn't want to reply to his sudden interrogation, but I supposed I should have expected this item to give me more trouble than it's worth.

"I got it off of a corpse I found on my latest quest. I can't tell you more. Ask the guild master."

He turned pensive at that. "I see. Very well. Here is its status. Due to the circumstances, I recommend that you don't sell it, despite the fact that you would be legally in your right to do so."

Now my curiosity was really piqued. The blue screen appeared for me to read.

[Sword of loyalty]

Tier 4 sword.

This sword was made by a master smith and gifted to a loyal Knight by his liege, Duke Rass, as a reward for saving his life in battle.

"Oh, wow."

The office leader twirled his moustache and looked at me intently.

"Do you understand the amount of trouble this sword can bring you now? A knight's sword without its knight can only mean that one of the Duke's loyal followers died. I recommend you let the guild return this to him."

My first instinct was to agree, but then a sneaky plan hatched in my head.

"No. I'll bring this to Duke Rass myself. I was the one to bury his knight and the one to avenge him, I shall return this weapon as well."

I said it in a self-righteous tone, but really I just wanted the Duke's favour. Normally I wasn't one to scheme like this, but with my class I needed to curry all of the favour with the kingdom's powerhouses I could. If I got enough support I would eventually be able to reveal my class to the world and walk around without fear! That was a future prospect that I just didn't want to miss out on.

The tier 3 appraiser gave me a knowing smile, while his boss started pacing back and forth, before replying.

"Very well. You can escort this to him, but I will be notifying the guild leader of this situation! He will most likely send a guard contingent with you. The guild losing this sword could have immense repercussions. We just can't entrust it to a lone tier 2 or tier 3, whatever the case may be."

I nodded in response. I would have preferred to go alone, but I didn't think there was any way to do so safely. This opportunity was too valuable to me and the guild. I could technically also just keep the sword, but with my low stats I wouldn't get good use out of it, not to mention it wasn't dark-aligned, which was a deal-breaker for me. Returning it to the Duke would, bar any unwelcome surprises, be the safest and most beneficial option.

"Let's test whether three on one is enough to even the odds, shall we?"

The thugs wasted no time and rushed at me.

Turns out, three on one wasn't enough to even the odds. I had defeated the first with a thrust, which he couldn't block because of his low stats. The second had been knocked out due to a pommel strike and the third had simply run away when he realised the battle had been lost. They were probably all tier 1, considering how weak they were. Against helpless villagers and city folk they might have had more success, but a witch hunter? Morons.

I had called the guards to pick up the two knocked out bandits and told them about the third that had run away. They didn't hesitate to arrest the two, though a part of me couldn't help but wonder why the guards didn't have a more active presence in the poorer districts, which would prevent accidents like this from happening in the first place.

Michael had recovered from his fright on the way back to the guild and even started laughing about the whole thing. I expected even that was just a way to cope with his recent shocks, but I couldn't help him further. I could only hope that he would be able to give this event, and the one that had happened in the forest a few days ago a place in his mind. His fire affinity made him brash and passionate. I was sure he would recover eventually.

I dropped Michael off at my room and recovered my spatial pouch which was thankfully still there. I gave the kid some of his magic books to keep him busy and left for the guild's common room.

I hadn't made use of this room before because of my strict training schedule, but now that I had undergone the worst of it, I had some time to socialise with the other guild members. When I entered the tavern-like room, I noticed the guards that I had met when I first entered the guild. They waved me over, so I happily sat down next to them. I called out to the barkeep for a beer, which was brought to me by a waitress. The middle-aged family man spoke up when I had settled down.

"And so the star-child joins us mortal men! We heard you completed your first mission and became an official member! Congratulations."

The table chuckled at his description of me. I couldn't help but join in.

"Well yeah, the mission went great, thanks. What's with the title though? I can't be the only kid to have joined the guild, right?"

He laughed for a moment. "Well, when you've got a tier 4 as your instructor and make daily visits to the guild master, people start talking, you know. Word around is that you have a rare class that the leader wants to use to put our guild back on the map in Reito. Any truth to that?"

I smiled nervously. Had people really been paying attention to me? Maybe I was in slightly over my head...

"Well, I can't say if there is. I'd certainly like to think I got a lucky awakening, but hey, doesn't everybody?"

One of the older men leaned over the table and whispered.

"Not everybody. My neighbour's daughter got a prostitute class when she awakened!"

One of the other guys roared with laughter.

"That just means the system gave her what she was doing already, fool!"

The table laughed even harder, though I kept silent. I didn't really think it was a fair thing to say, when you couldn't choose your circumstances, or your class. Apparently, the waitress wasn't happy with their crass comments either, because the large woman took a wooden plate filled with slop and slammed it into his face.

"Keep your dirty talk outside of my tavern! It's not your place to talk about others behind their back! Poor girl..."

The tavern laughed at the man's plight, especially because he had deserved it. I stood up and headed back to my room. Their talk had left me feeling a little awkward. Garrett and his party were certainly easier to get along with.

At least I had something fun to look forward to tomorrow, since I would be checking out the tier 2 form of Revan.