Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Existence and Status 

“Rentt? What brings you here today?” 

Sheila looked up from the reception desk and watched curiously as I approached. Her confusion must have been due to the hour of my arrival. Nobody took requests this late. You couldn’t collect rewards for finished jobs at this time either, so she couldn’t guess why I was there. 

“Well, I have some business to attend to. Can you get ahold of the guildmaster for me? I want to talk to him.” 

Sheila was surprised. “Rentt, are you all right? When you came in here, I more or less imagined that was why, but the guildmaster’s not that forgiving,” she warned, putting the pieces together. 

There were only so many reasons why I would go out of my way to see the guildmaster. The most important of them regarded my current registration status, and that was the cause for her concern. 

“I know, but it’s not like I’ve done anything wrong. I’m sure he’s willing to hear me out,” I argued. 

“I think you’ve done plenty worth criticizing,” Sheila said, her tone doubtful. 

Double registration wasn’t that severe of a crime, but I couldn’t argue it wasn’t a crime at all. She was right in that sense. Still, it wasn’t a massive sin, so I could try to rectify it. Maybe there was some need for caution, but I didn’t think it was that serious. 

“A lot of people do bad things. Anyway, let me talk to the guildmaster,” I repeated. 

Sheila looked uneasy for a moment. “If you insist, then I’m sure there won’t be a problem. This way, please,” she said and stood up. 

We stopped at a door, and Sheila knocked on it twice. 

“Guildmaster, it’s me, Sheila Ibarss. Rentt Vivie the Bronze-class adventurer would like to speak with you. He’s here with me now.” 

A deep, crude voice answered, but it was hesitant. “Rentt Vivie the Bronze-class adventurer? All right, let him in.” 

Sheila was startled by the response. “As you wish,” she replied and then opened the door. She prompted me to step inside, but she didn’t come in with me. Instead, she closed the door behind me. I heard her walk away, presumably back to her work station. 

Inside the room was a man at a desk. I knew right away that this was the guildmaster. Most guildmasters worked their way up from staff positions at the guild. It was a desk job for the most part, but the intimidating aura this man exuded didn’t belong to someone who did paperwork. His arms looked about as burly as a rough and rowdy adventurer’s, if not more so, and he had a scar that ran down the middle of his left eye. Loose clothes hid his body, but I could tell he was huge. His right eye glowered at me like that of a warrior. 

His rough appearance was to be expected; he used to be an adventurer. He retired due to injuries, but before he could go back to his hometown, Yaaran’s grand guildmaster appointed him as Maalt’s guildmaster. That was quite unusual. Retiring from adventuring to work at a guild was common enough, but becoming a guildmaster right away was one sizable promotion. Many were opposed to this, and I heard there was a lot of chaos at Maalt’s guild after it happened, but it had settled by the time I became an adventurer. Now the guild was in a far better state than those in most other cities. 

“Hm, you, eh? Oh, I ought to introduce myself first. I’m the guildmaster of the Maalt guild, Wolf Hermann. Good to meet you, Bronze-class adventurer Rentt Vivie,” he said. 

There was something strange about the way he emphasized his words. 

I was afraid of getting punched before I even said anything. The way he said, “Good to meet you,” sounded almost sarcastic. There could only be one reason why: this wasn’t our first meeting. Now the question was how much did he know? I had to guess he knew a lot. As long as I was living in this town, information would find its way to the guild one way or another. Not to mention both my history as Rentt Faina and my work as Rentt Vivie were recorded and available here. If he took the time to think about it, there was enough evidence to presume Rentt Faina and Rentt Vivie were one and the same. If anything, it was odd I hadn’t been exposed before now. 

Not that I was anyone important. There was no reason anyone beyond my old friends, to whom I had already explained almost everything, should care about my situation. That only left those distant acquaintances I couldn’t even call friends, but they knew all about the darker side of adventuring. If they didn’t see you around, then most would assume you were dead. It was too painful to speak of the dead, so they tended to go unmentioned. These sorts of incidents happened. I couldn’t imagine anyone cared to get to the bottom of what had happened to me. 

That said, usually some rumors did spread around, but I had yet to hear anything about my own death. That meant someone was keeping that information concealed. I had a guess as to who it was, but that was all an assumption. 

I decided to act like I didn’t notice anything. Maybe I could dance around it while I figured this out. 

“Right, nice to meet you, Guildmaster. I’m Rentt Vivie, a Bronze-class adventurer. I know this was sudden, so I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.” 

Guildmaster Wolf looked fed up already. “Yeah whatever, that’s enough of that. I hate when my time’s wasted, Rentt Faina. I know why you’re here. This is about your double registration? I’ll do something about that for you, just tell me all about it,” he declared, defying all expectations. 

I gulped. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.” 

“I said drop it. But I guess you’re not getting the picture. I get it, we’ve barely met each other, let alone spoken much. But I’ve had my eye on you for a long time, you know that?” 

I never knew that in the past, but I did by now. Rather, I had realized it to some extent before. He had jokingly asked a few times if I would work for the guild. I never thought he was serious, but I’d since heard from Sheila that he was. Though I didn’t know what he saw in me, it was certain he had his eye on me. Still, I wondered what that had to do with anything. 

“When I heard you disappeared, I’ll be straight with you, I was the most shocked of anyone. Why, you ask? You see, I was so sure that any time now you’d quit the adventurer life and come work for the guild. But then you up and vanished, and judging from the way it happened, I thought you were dead. That’s how it goes with adventurers. We all know it happens. But still, I was just stunned. You could’ve made my job a lot easier, really lowered the death rate for adventurers around here, but then I lost you,” Wolf explained. 

I had no intention of giving up on adventuring. I’d spent close to ten years without a serious accomplishment, so I could see where he got that idea, but I was too tenacious to give up like that. 

Wolf seemed to see what I was thinking. “Well, maybe you never would’ve given up while you were healthy, but the older you are, the slower you get. One day you would take a blow you couldn’t recover from. No way you could keep up adventuring then, so you’d need another job. I thought you’d want something as close to adventurers as possible, so if you got an offer from the guild, you’d take it. What do you think?” 

I wasn’t so sure. If I were injured so badly I couldn’t keep adventuring, then maybe that would be my only choice. I would likely want to do something close to adventuring too. That’s how much I loved my work. 

“Wondering why I think that?” Wolf asked. “Because the same thing happened to me. Just look at this eye. I can’t go out adventuring nowadays, but I can at least raise the next generation of adventurers. Never expected the guild to hire me, but life’s full of surprises. And adventurers like working for an ex-adventurer a lot more than for some snob who doesn’t know anything. Pretty sure Yaaran’s grand guildmaster is an ex-adventurer too, so I think that was the idea. Especially for this guild out here in the sticks. And, I was thinking I’d do the same thing for you.” 

What he said made sense, but I still wanted to know why me in particular. Guildmasters seldom bothered to check information on Bronze-class adventurers. There were hundreds of us, and the job of guildmaster didn’t permit that kind of time. 

“I’d been watching you for a while, and when I got a report on the Bronze-class exam, something stood out to me. Now, sometimes people do pass on their first try, that’s fine. But it was the way you passed it, Rentt. You avoided every trap. Not exactly something a newbie can do. You’d either need a lot of experience, or a lot of skill. So I checked your name, and Rentt Vivie reminded me an awful lot of this other adventurer who drew my eye, Rentt Faina. You see what I’m saying?” 

Wolf’s explanation was easy to understand. Given the circumstances, I could see how he realized who I was so early. I didn’t take much care to hide my identity, so that was the biggest reason. If I’d wanted to fully hide away, I would have picked a more distinct name and chose a different town to operate in after I got my adventurer’s license. I knew too many people in this town to conceal myself completely. I figured as much, which is why I let my friends know who I was. Even when it came to the guild, I knew I might have to talk about my double registration eventually. If I wanted to be convincing once it came to that, I needed it to be clear enough who I was. 

I didn’t have a strong idea what Guildmaster Wolf was like, but I knew Maalt’s guild engaged in less fraud and collusion than others. It had a lower death rate for adventurers too. Also, the impression I got from our few conversations told me he could be reasoned with. I felt that as long as I was honest, he would hear me out. 

It might have been a gamble to be so open with my identity, but it paid off because he picked up on enough to insist I was Rentt Faina. Not that I wanted him to notice everything, but it would have been nice if he figured it out and called me in to talk on his own. He did in fact put it all together, but I still needed to be the one to come to him. 

Either way, my plan seemed to be productive. Of course, I couldn’t place too much faith in Wolf’s personality yet, but I decided I could at least talk to him a bit more. 

“That’s all the reason you need to believe I’m Rentt Faina? Because our names are similar? That’s absurd. I was named after a saint, as so many others are. And Vivie may not be a common surname in this country, but you see it everywhere in the Empire,” I insisted. 

“Obviously that’s not all there is to it. I’ve got more evidence where that came from. First, it’s the way you fight. Second is the place you live. Ultimately you could call it a hunch, but that doesn’t matter. Rentt Faina, I don’t blame you for the double registration or for hiding your identity, I just want to know why. 

“You never had much adventuring talent in the past, and I’m sure you had some vague concerns about your future, but that’s not enough reason to give up your identity. You were friendly with the other adventurers in town, and you had strong connections with the info brokers. Even the townspeople loved you enough to toss you fruit and vegetables on sight. I just don’t get it. Why wear that creepy robe and mask and go by another name? I was an adventurer myself, so I’ve met my share of people with strange circumstances. Knew a guy on the run from some nobles, and a guy with such grave secrets that he refused to show his face. I thought you might be in the same boat, but I get the sense you’re not, so now I can’t help but wonder. Tell me, if you don’t mind. In exchange, I’ll give you some special treatment. Not a bad deal, am I right?” 

By the end, it sounded like Wolf was begging. I didn’t know how sincere he was, but he did seem desperate to know. Maybe it was just part of his plan, but I wanted to believe him. Besides, Wolf had more or less hit the mark. I’d cleared up suspicions about me, but Nive was still on my tail, and I did have a secret to hide with regards to my vampirism. However, I didn’t know how much I should say or if he would even believe it. As far as I knew, the second I said I was a vampire, he might slay me. Wolf was retired, but he had been a powerful adventurer in his day. I didn’t know what rank he reached by the end, but his intimidating aura was enough to know that while he couldn’t go adventuring anymore, he was still far more powerful than me. 

To say I was a monster would be suicide, but after our discussion so far, I was feeling inclined to tell him everything. Wolf was a likable man. He had grasped everything about my circumstances except what I needed to hide the most, namely my vampirism, and he offered a deal that would be easy to accept. That was nothing less than kindness, atypical of a guildmaster. Others were busy with collusion and illegal activity. That generosity made me believe he was a good man in earnest. It made me say what I said next. 

“Can you prove you’re worth trusting? Double registration is against the rules as it is. You’re the guildmaster, should you really allow it?” I asked. 

Wolf laughed. “Starting with your second question, I think you know double registration’s nothing serious. The worst punishment I could give would be to ban you from taking requests for a few days, or maybe charge you a fine, but that’s it. Nothing to worry about there. As for the first question, I can’t tell you to trust me, but what if we signed a magic contract that says I won’t share anything you tell me. Though that might cause some issues, we can work out the finer details. In any case, it’ll keep your secrets from getting out. If you still won’t believe me after that, well...” 

“Then what?” I asked. I wasn’t going to be the one to suggest a magic contract. It was true they couldn’t be broken, so trust would no longer be an issue, but contracts could have loopholes. While I appreciated his show of trust, I wasn’t sure what to say. 

“I’ll tell you my secret right now,” Wolf said. “I used to get laughed at a lot. Back when I was still an adventurer, I had a dream. Everyone thought it was a joke, but it was serious for me. No matter who belittled me, no matter who insulted me, I was set on making it happen. I ended up here instead, but I never regretted being a dreamer. It turns out, Rentt, that I wanted to be a Mithril-class adventurer. That’s why I like you. We’re a lot alike.” 

Maybe that wouldn’t have meant much to anyone else. After all, reaching Mithril-class was an absurd goal nobody took seriously. It was the kind of bravado you heard from newbies. But the look in Wolf’s eyes told me he meant it. We held the same objective and begrudged our own powerlessness, and in that way we had a connection. I had to believe him now. This was everything to me, the dream I brought with me throughout life. Maybe I was being naive or impulsive, but that didn’t stop me. 

“All right, I trust you, Guildmaster Wolf,” I said with a nod. 

While I did want to talk, I knew better than to tell him everything without proof. That could wait until after we signed the contract. As long as we had that, I could avoid the worst-case scenario. 

We discussed the conditions of the contract in detail before we signed our names. Though I had already as good as confessed, I was going to write my name as Rentt Faina, so I couldn’t go first and give it away. Wolf recognized this before I said anything. He took out a quill and then wrote his own name. For as brutish as this man was, he had neat handwriting. I watched Wolf write until he finished and looked up at me. 

“All the paperwork forced me to get good at handwriting. If it looks too rough, the staff at the capital all laugh at my proposals. You have to show them that you got an education,” he said. 

In other words, it was one of the struggles he had to endure as a guildmaster. He spoke to me like an adventurer, but he likely approached nobles with the proper etiquette. His handwriting was so elegant that I would have believed he was a noble if I hadn’t seen his hulking arms or the scar on his eye. His was the unmistakable face of an adventurer. 

“Here, sign,” Wolf said and handed me the paper and quill. I had no more reason to hesitate, so I wrote my name. 

Wolf looked at it. “So you really are Rentt Faina,” he muttered. I thought he was already certain, but even 90% certainty isn’t absolute confirmation. He must have had more hope in me than I thought. He looked like a man reunited with a party member who had stayed behind to hold back a powerful foe. He was happy I survived. I couldn’t see him as a bad person, but maybe I was naive. Maybe that naivety didn’t matter. 

When I finished signing, the contract glowed and surrounded us in light. The magic had activated. It stipulated that nothing I said today could be repeated by Wolf in a way that would harm me. There were more specific terms, but it would take ages to list them all. It was about the same as what I had signed with Sheila. In fact, the terms she had suggested were so perfect I went ahead and copied them. That probably wasn’t an issue. 

Wolf got straight to the point. “So, Rentt, why register twice when you knew it’d be trouble? Not like you died, is it? You could’ve kept on adventuring as you had been.” 

It was hard to believe he didn’t already know more, given how he’d said exactly what had happened. He likely didn’t know, but to specifically say I hadn’t died was comical. I wanted to point out I did in fact die, but it was too soon for that. I had no idea when the right time to breach that topic would be, but I needed to approach it step by step. I decided to start by describing what happened. 

“There were a lot of reasons, but—” 

Wolf interrupted. “Might be late to mention this, but you can just talk to me like any old adventurer. No point being polite here. Now if we saw each other at a noble’s party down the line, I’d expect some formality, but you can keep it out of the guild,” he said. 

I immediately relaxed. I’d had to be polite with so many people as of late I had begun to watch my words around superiors as a matter of course. He was right, though; it didn’t fit an adventurer. 

“Honestly, it’s not a big deal anymore, but something did happen to me,” I continued. 

“What was the problem?” 

“I couldn’t show my face around people.” 

“I see, that explains the mask. More than a few adventurers have big injuries though, and the face is no exception. Don’t see why that means you had to change your name.” 

He was correct, and I didn’t know how to explain it without revealing too much. The simple answer was I became undead, but revealing that so soon seemed like a bad idea. I had no way to prove it anyway. Not even Nive could determine I was a vampire. 

As I thought about what to do, I spotted a dagger on the wall. I pointed to it. “Can you give me that for a second?” I asked. 

Wolf hesitated for a moment. I assumed he was afraid I might attack, but there would be no sense in that now. If I wanted to kill him, I would have already tried. Besides, Wolf may have had only one eye, but he was likely a mighty warrior. He was confident he could stop me if I pulled anything. 

“All right, fine. But what for?” he asked. 

I didn’t answer him. I just picked up the dagger and rolled up my sleeve. 

“Hey now, what are you doing?!” 

Wolf panicked and stood up, but it was too late. I had already sliced down the middle of my left arm. It left a long gash, and blood oozed out. 

“What in the hell?” Wolf said as he looked at my arm, but his eye soon widened in shock. He witnessed the impossible. “The wound closed up? How? I didn’t see you use any medicine or magic.” Using either divinity, magic, or ointments would have had the same effect. Wolf knew from experience this was something else. 

“This is why I had to hide my identity. Staying the person I was would have led to chaos down the line,” I said. 

“Now what’s that mean?” Wolf asked. 

“I’m undead. This body is no longer that of a human but that of a vampire.” 

Or so I assumed. I had started to question that as of late, but it was a good enough explanation for the time being. 

Of course, my claims startled Wolf. He thought I was out of my mind at first. It was a hard truth to swallow, but I had displayed abnormal regenerative abilities. The only explanation was I was telling the truth, as he was quick to realize. Still, he had a load of questions. 

Wolf finally broke out of his dumbfounded stupor and moved his mouth through force of will. “Wasn’t expecting to hear that. Not sure what to ask first, but putting aside whether this is true, how’d it happen in the first place?” he asked. 

Wolf still wasn’t convinced I’d turned undead. I would have felt the same way if someone told me that, no matter how honest they were on average. He wanted to know how it happened, or maybe more so how I had gained the power to quickly recover from wounds. It seemed I would have to start at the beginning. 

I told him about everything in order, with the exception of the secret passage in the Water Moon Dungeon. I left that out because of my promise with that mystery woman. That shouldn’t have mattered anyway. The important information was I got eaten. That part had surprised the woman so much she didn’t include it among the things I couldn’t mention. I was only supposed to keep the room a secret, so I was free to discuss transformation. 

“This was a while ago now, but I was exploring the Water Moon Dungeon as usual, hunting slimes and goblins.” 

“The job everyone does when they start out. I hunted there plenty myself back in the day. The Water Moon Dungeon’s an ideal hunting ground for solo adventurers,” Wolf replied, reminiscing on his early days. He had been a solo adventurer too. 

What was nice about the Water Moon Dungeon was how seldom the monsters appeared in groups. Maalt had more solo adventurers than other cities thanks to that dungeon. Having a place to train on your own was a great blessing for those who preferred adventuring alone. If they had a party, then New Moon Dungeon would have been much more efficient. 

“I searched the dungeon for a while until I found all the materials I needed, so I headed toward the exit to leave and go home. I was fairly cautious, of course, but when I entered a large room, there was a foe I could never have imagined.” 

The truth was I had entered uncharted territory, but nothing I said was a lie. It was a large room, after all. 

“What was it? The Water Moon Dungeon doesn’t have any especially tough monsters. Could’ve been a unique type or some other abnormality, though, maybe orcs or ogres.” 

“I wish. I couldn’t have beaten those at the time, but I could have run away at least. Not against this, though.” 

Wolf urged me to continue. “Hm, so what was it, then?” 

“It was a dragon, Wolf.” 

Wolf thought over what I had said. In the end, he scratched his head. “I’d say I don’t buy it, but you’ve got no reason to lie. You must believe it, if nothing else. Problem is nobody else will,” he said, implying I might have been seeing things. 

Dragons were hard to find whether you wanted to or not. Wolf thought I had mistaken something else for a dragon, a possibility that was far more likely, admittedly. But dragons of this sort did have to exist somewhere. Enough humans throughout history had encountered them and told artists what they looked like, and their depictions of the creatures were clear and distinct. I had seen such artwork in books at Lorraine’s house many times, and one of them looked identical to the monster that ate me. 

What convinced me the most, though, it was a dragon was its overwhelming strength and unique properties. No human could stand up to that monstrosity. The instant I saw it, I knew that to be true. I had encountered lesser dragons a few times before, such as earth dragons, but that was nothing compared to the powerlessness I felt against the one in the Water Moon Dungeon. Nothing else made me feel so hopeless. 

“I know I’m telling the truth. I worried about it being an illusion, but I’ve experienced illusions before. I’d know if I were affected by one.” 

“What do you mean?” Wolf asked. 

“There was a medicine woman back in my hometown that taught me things. She was a bit of an oddball, and when I told her I wanted to be an adventurer, she said I should learn about poisons and illusions. She had me test all kinds of toxins and hallucinogens, and...” 

I paused. I didn’t want to remember much more than that. Her method taught me how they tasted as well as how they affected the body. If I couldn’t distinguish which was which, she made me do it again. She incorporated these lessons into every aspect of my life, and I never wanted to go through that again. But thanks to that, I could tell whether I was under the effects of an illusion. I also knew poisons well enough to distinguish right away the type and the cure. I knew I didn’t have to worry about poison anymore, so those lessons didn’t do me much good now, but I didn’t know if I could still hallucinate. I’d already confirmed I was immune to basic types of illusion, but there were still plenty of special ones. 

“You’ve always lived a rough life, eh?” Wolf said and furrowed his brow. He gave me a sympathetic look. 

I’d agree it was rough, but I was the one who went along with the old lady’s suggestion. Her lessons ended up coming in handy, so I couldn’t complain. 

“Anyway, you insist it wasn’t an illusion. I got it. And you’re positive this was a dragon. Still don’t see how that had this effect on your body, though. Just how’d that happen?” Wolf asked. 

My story wasn’t over yet. 

“Here comes the problem.” I hesitated for a moment. I had already decided to tell Wolf everything, but I feared no responsible person would believe it. It was too late to change my mind, though. 

“I’d think the dragon was enough of a problem. There’s more?” Wolf asked. 

I knew how he felt, but these next details were about how I ended up with this body, the most important part of the story. 

“Well, there’s no use beating around the bush,” I said. “Simply put, that dragon ate me.” 

Wolf responded right away. “What in the hell are you talking about? If you got eaten, you wouldn’t be here right now.” 

“Normally, yes. But for some reason, after the dragon ate me, I woke up as a skeleton.” 

“Now hold on a second! I can’t process all this! I need some water!” 

I wanted to reveal the rest of what happened all at once, but I didn’t get the chance. Wolf grabbed a pitcher on the edge of his desk, poured a glass of water, drank it all in one gulp, and took a deep breath. 

“All right, that calmed me down. So, you turned into a skeleton? Well, I was an adventurer myself, and I know a thing or two about monsters, but I’ve never heard of a living human becoming a skeleton. You’re friends with that Lorraine lady, yeah? You’re living with her now? Heard about anything like this from her?” 

Wolf seemed to know about Lorraine too. She was a scholar as her main profession, but she was also an adventurer with Maalt’s guild. The guild sometimes asked her to investigate and report on monsters, so Wolf must have been making use of her knowledge. 

“I asked her about it but couldn’t really follow what she said,” I answered. “I know humans can become monsters if a vampire makes them into a servant, for example, but I don’t know how you become a skeleton. The bones of the dead can be used to produce a skeleton, everyone knows that, but this is something else. I was most definitely a skeleton at the time, but I was still self-aware. I still remembered that dragon eating me. You don’t see skeletons like that lying around any old place, do you?” 

Wolf had far more adventuring experience than me, so maybe he knew of exceptions. I asked in the hope that that was true, but he shook his head. 

“Not that I’ve ever seen. The smartest skeletons I’ve encountered could say a couple words at the most. You look human now, though. Well, you said you were a vampire, but you don’t look like any vampire I’ve seen.” Wolf sounded confused, but he got to the heart of everything I said thanks to his experience. 

“I look this way because I’m not a skeleton anymore,” I explained. “You know about the Existential Evolution that monsters go through, right?” 

“Yeah, like slimes becoming poison slimes, or goblins becoming grand goblins. Every adventurer knows about that. Well, besides the ones who don’t. The newbies these days don’t study enough, especially the ones in the capital. You’ve got all these folks who get into the job without much thought. The grand guildmaster complains about it all the time.” 

For my part, I was able to read the books about monsters at Lorraine’s house. I loved to read, and there was no shortage of information for me to absorb. For a new adventurer though, without access to a similar environment, they would have to attend classes at the guild or learn the basics from older adventurers. But more and more people wanted to skip those steps. It wasn’t so bad in Maalt, but it had become a severe problem in other cities, from what I heard. Maybe the capital was even worse than that. I wanted to go and see it for myself one day. 

I nodded. “Yes, there’s that. I’m sure you’ve picked up on this, but when I became a skeleton, I thought maybe Existential Evolution was possible for me too. I was still human on the inside, but my body was pure monster, so maybe I could do some monster things.” 

“This all sounds nuts, but sure, skeletons can presumably evolve into a lot of monsters that look human. Is that the idea?” Wolf asked, making the most of his intuition. 

“Right, I was hoping I could become a ghoul. Then maybe if I kept evolving past that, I could become a vampire or something else that looked human.” 

“And that’s what brought you where you are now? But I was thinking, vampires don’t normally go out during the day. Also, do you drink blood or what? Vampires have to drink blood from a couple people each month to survive. Wait, don’t tell me our new adventurers have been going missing because of you!” Wolf had become increasingly more serious as we went on. 

I panicked and shouted, “No, I didn’t lay a finger on them!” 

“Probably not, no,” Wolf stated right away. “You’re not one who’d choose to live if you had to sacrifice someone else. If it came to that, I bet you’d rather wither and die.” 

His opinion of me was so high it was uncomfortable. But given what the alternative could have been, I was thankful. 

“But that leaves the question of how you’re getting blood,” Wolf noted. 

“Lorraine shares hers with me. She knows all about this,” I said, deciding to be honest. 

I didn’t know how much to say about my relationship with Lorraine, but Wolf already knew I lived with her, and he had always known we were friends. While I could claim she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, I doubted Wolf would buy it. As expected, though, Wolf didn’t blame us for keeping it a secret from the guild. In fact, he seemed empathetic. 

“Based on what you’ve said so far, that doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but you sure she’ll be all right? Vampires suck more blood than a single person can offer, from what I know,” Wolf said with concern. 

“That’s a problem, yeah, but I don’t need that much blood. A few drops a day has been enough to quench my thirst. I can eat like a normal person too. After some stuff I went through, however, I started to wonder if I was a vampire at all.” 

“What do you mean by that?” 

“You know Nive Maris, right? She decided I wasn’t a vampire.” 

Wolf held his head in his arms and then downed another glass of water. 

After a long period of silence, Wolf asked, “So what’s that make you, then?” 

He thought about what he’d learned, and that was the question he came up with. Indeed, it was the most important question of all, but I didn’t know the answer. 

“Who knows?” I offered. 

“Hey!” 

Wolf shouted and eyed me like I was messing with him, but I wasn’t. It was all I could say. Perhaps I could have said it in a less joking manner, but it was too late for that. Either way, I couldn’t tell him what I didn’t know. 

“I wish I knew what I was too, but Nive Maris says I’m not a vampire. Obviously that’s going to lead to questions. Before she said so, I just assumed I was a vampire,” I said with the utmost sincerity. 

I looked exactly like a human, but I had odd regenerative powers. I fed on blood, went out at night, and evolved from an undead creature. It was natural to guess I was a vampire until Nive shattered that assumption. Maybe I was a new type of vampire not even Nive knew about. If so, there would be no way to know for sure. I was something like a vampire, but that was the most I could say. 

“Nive Maris, eh? Right, she’s a vampire hunter. You’d figure she knows a vampire when she sees one, but how’d you end up meeting her?” 

“I went to the Stheno Company to sell materials, and she was there with a saint from the Church of Lobelia. For some reason, she suspected me of being a vampire.” 

“You’re lucky to still be alive. When she sets her sights on a vampire, she’s been known to chase them to the edge of the world. I heard she came to town, but I just thought she was after some vampire. It was you she was after?” 

Nive’s reputation was even well known among guildmasters, apparently. 

“No,” I said and shook my head. “She had chased a vampire here, but it wasn’t me. My activity around town made her suspicious enough to go after me, though.” 

Nive acted like a brat, but she was many times more fearsome than she seemed, so it was out of my control. 

“That’d mean there’s another vampire in this town. As the guildmaster, that’ll be a headache for me. Though if Nive Maris is here, maybe she’ll hunt it down quickly. Hard to say,” Wolf said, bothered by the information I provided. 

Vampires had fearsome strength, but what made them even more dangerous was their ability to hide among humans. Only those with special skills could see the difference between a human and a vampire, so the guild would have to invest all its energy in hunting it down, on top of calling on talented vampire hunters from other regions. I didn’t have a great impression of her, but Nive was a famous vampire hunter, and she was already in town. That was good news for the guild...except she didn’t think much of the damage she caused around her as long it helped her hunt vampires. 

That would be reason for Wolf to be anxious, but he set it aside. “So how’d you get Nive Maris to leave you alone? Couldn’t have been that easy.” 

“I didn’t do much of anything. She used a divinity-based skill called Holy Fire to determine what I was, and I failed to avoid it. I thought I was doomed, but it ended up proving me innocent. I was confused since I thought I was a vampire, but it worked out, I guess.” 

“Then, that proved you’re not a vampire, like you’ve been saying.” 

“Supposedly, but what do you think, Guildmaster Wolf? I still need blood to live, so wouldn’t I have to be a vampire?” 

I asked in the hope that he had some other explanation, but Wolf didn’t have an answer. 

“I wouldn’t know about that,” he said with a shake of his head. “But there are too many problems here for me to not take action. A dragon in Water Moon Dungeon? Nive Maris and a vampire in Maalt? And you’re connected to all of this? You’ve got some awful luck.” 

I couldn’t deny that. If nothing else, it was too great a trial for someone who had until recently been a human adventurer unable to climb past Bronze-class. But these events were outside my control. I had to live with it. 

“I’d agree I’m a bit unlucky. That’s why I feel like more chaos will happen if I stay in Maalt, specifically when it comes to Nive. I think I should leave town for a while,” I said, offering my thoughts on the situation. 

I could see how these incidents might have revolved around me. However, from a somewhat different perspective, you could also say they revolved around Maalt. I was only getting wrapped up in them, or so I hoped. A change of location at least seemed like a good choice as long as Nive was staying in Maalt for a while. 

“Where do you plan on going?” Wolf asked. 

“A village called Hathara,” I answered. 

Wolf knew enough about the surrounding area, and about my history, that he needed no more explanation. “Oh yeah, your hometown. Not a lot of folks from these backwater towns even try to become adventurers, so good on you for that.” 

I knew what he meant. The town was so isolated it received next to no outside information. When monsters attacked, the villagers took up weapons and defeated them on their own. They couldn’t fight off powerful monsters, of course, so they used incense to ward those off. In a sense, they were an independent village. 

Most of the villages around Maalt sought help from the guild when monsters showed up. Now that I thought about it, maybe my village was a bit strange. 

“Well, whatever your hometown is, maybe it’s best to get out of Maalt for a while. You’re right that something could happen again. I thought you might retire from being an adventurer, but if you did, then nothing interesting would happen anymore,” Wolf said and grinned at me. “Glad to have a man like you around. Just try not to die. If you aren’t already dead. How’s that work?” 

“I’m not entirely sure, but when I was a skeleton, I had nothing but bones. I don’t even know if I have a heart at all.” At least, I didn’t have a pulse, but I did feel something flowing through where my heart would be. Vampires were killed by driving a holy stake through their heart, so maybe that had something to do with it. Or maybe that had nothing to do with me. 

“Man, I don’t know what you are, but you sure aren’t human. You’re right that you seem like some kind of monster, so it must’ve really taken some balls to come here. How were you planning to justify your double registration to me anyway? Judging by how you reacted, you didn’t think I knew so much about your situation, did you?” 

He was right about that. I thought maybe he knew something, but I didn’t expect he was watching me so closely. Even so, I was positive Wolf would do something about my double registration, thanks to a bundle of papers I brought with me. I set them on Wolf’s desk. He gave them a curious look and began to read, but he stopped partway and sighed. 

“Nice job compiling all of this. I see why you were so confident, but why give it to me after I already said I’d do what you want? You could’ve gone without mentioning it and then kept it to use some other time,” Wolf pointed out. 

The papers listed wrongdoings committed by Maalt’s guild. It had details on other double registrations, secret missions, and more. I received the information from a number of sources, mostly by sending Edel to search for it or by using info brokers. As a final resort, I even considered asking Laura. She seemed to know quite a bit and might have been open to sharing important information. But she was a client, one to whom I was indebted, so I couldn’t bring myself to make that request. Besides, I had other methods. 

Edel proved capable, to say the least. He could hide anywhere and understood human speech, abilities that made him excel at gathering information. The results stood for themselves. Of course, Edel’s discoveries alone wouldn’t be enough to extort Wolf, so I used info brokers to obtain evidence too. I happened to know a lot of people in this town. The info brokers could be hard to even find, but I knew how to make them gather and sell information. The culmination of my efforts was a set of documents that were almost wasted on fixing my double registration, but that was what I needed them for. Now that Wolf trusted me, I no longer needed them, which was for the best. 

“Now, I’d rather not have our relationship built on threats,” I said. “Well, this still comes off as something of a threat, so maybe I shouldn’t be talking.” Now that I thought about it, this actually didn’t seem like a great idea. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up at all. I would’ve used the documents if I had to, though. 

“I don’t know if you’re a genius or a klutz,” Wolf remarked. “Well, whatever. At least you came in here with a plan. If you thought you could solve everything with an up-front approach, you’d be more useless than I expected. In that sense, this proves you caught my eye for a reason.” He forgave me right away and then stuck the papers in his desk. 

It didn’t look like he intended to burn or shred them. I wondered why, gazing at him until he noticed and spoke up again. 

“Oh, this? Well, it lists a lot of business even I wasn’t aware of. Stuff from before I was the guildmaster. I want to know how you learned all that.” 

“It’s a trade secret.” 

“Figured as much. I’ll have to confirm all this and commit it to memory. Could come in handy down the line.” 

Wolf wanted to use my research for himself, apparently. I wondered how he’d use it, but I didn’t expect him to tell me. Maybe it was time to wrap up this conversation. 

“It’s yours now, use it however you want,” I said. “And as far as the double registration, how are you going to fix it?” 

“Hm? Oh, the easiest way would be for you and Lorraine to get married. Then we can consider your old registration a mistake on our part.” 

“Hey,” I complained. I wouldn’t mind that much, but Lorraine wouldn’t be open to a sudden marriage, so I had to reject the idea. 

“I’m screwing with you, there are other ways. We can just erase the name you’re not using and say that person doesn’t exist, or we can say one of those last names was your middle name and merge the two together,” Wolf suggested. 

Both options sounded irresponsible, but double registration was evidently not that serious of a crime. Obviously this wasn’t the right thing to do, but guilds were such lenient organizations that this was to be expected in some places. If I were to try either of the solutions Wolf suggested, though, I was afraid Nive would come to my doorstep. 

“Is there another way?” I asked. 

“Man, you’re trying to solve a double registration issue. You can’t be that picky,” Wolf said and furrowed his brow. He still thought about it, though. After a quiet groan, he seemed to hit upon something. “Right, we do have this one system in place.” 

“What is it?” 

“This rule was only meant to be for guild staff, but while double registrations aren’t normally allowed, we can use them officially,” Wolf explained. 

I had never heard that before, but if the guildmaster said so, it must have been true. 

If I could have my double registration approved, that would be awfully convenient for me. My two separate identities could come in handy in a few places. Around Nive, for example, I acted as Rentt Vivie, a character with mysterious origins. That’s part of why she suspected me, but if she knew I was Rentt Faina and looked into my past, she might have reason to believe I became a vampire in a dungeon. In the event she searched the Water Moon Dungeon and found that secret passage, it could be a serious problem. That woman I met at the time was short-tempered enough that if she found out I exposed her, she might be angry. But I could worry about that when it actually happened. I couldn’t control what Nive did. 

“From what it sounds like, this system would help me out, but can you really do that for me?” I asked Wolf. 

He nodded. “Of course. But it’s not without its issues. Not sure if you want to accept that or not.” 

The way he said that sounded suspicious, but I didn’t see any other option. This was the best method, so I was willing to accept any conditions. 

“What kind of issues?” 

“Nothing too complicated. Like I said, only guild staff are supposed to know about this.” 

That could only mean one thing. “So I have to join the guild staff if I want to use this, is that what you’re saying?” 

“Well, to put it bluntly, yeah. Can’t make you do anything, though. You’re trying to reach Mithril-class. If you can pull it off, then I’m sure you’d rather focus on that. You’ve got enough problems with your body the way it is, so you wouldn’t want to take on even more work,” Wolf answered. 

He sounded generous, but I wouldn’t know if he truly was until he said more. 

“Thing is, if you don’t use this system, then your only options for dealing with double registration would have to be what I told you before. Marry Lorraine, erase one of your registrations, or merge them together. Each one sounds like it’ll create problems for you. But if you join the guild, there’ll be some bonuses in it for you. The rules would permit you to keep your double registration as is, and you’d get access to the guild’s information network. Also, the point of this system is to let staff members mingle with adventurers and learn what they have to say. You can keep adventuring as you have been, rising through the ranks. There even used to be a Mithril-class adventurer who was a guild staff member. Also, you can use the guild’s facilities in every city for a reduced price, if not for free, you can get bargains from participating stores, and you can make a little extra on the materials you sell. Nothing but advantages, really,” Wolf said, concluding his list of amazing benefits. 

He came across like an overzealous salesman, but it did sound appealing. I could continue to live life as I had been, but now I could use the guild’s offerings as much as I wanted, buy goods for less, and sell materials for more. I was ready to demand I be hired at that very instant, but I knew better than that. Everything Wolf mentioned was a plus, but there had to be minuses. I could think of one. 

“I’d have to do work for the guild, right? How much time do you think I have?” 

I had a surprising amount, actually. Enough I could train a disciple and study magic on a whim, but I didn’t need to mention that. I wasn’t going to take more work if I didn’t have to. 

“Fair enough,” Wolf said after a bit of thought. “I’ll give you as little work as possible. We can just put your name in our registry, how’s that sound? Might have to ask you for something on occasion, but we can talk it out when that happens. Always possible I’ll give you orders during an emergency, but if you have such a problem with that, then just tell me and we can give you a pass.” 

Again, it was all convenient. It didn’t seem to be a joke, either, from the way he looked at me. 

“I appreciate it, but why go that far?” 

“Like I said, I expect a lot from you. That hasn’t changed. Maybe you’re a monster now, sure, but this conversation told me you’re still the same on the inside. No issues here.” 

Was that sincere? I supposed it was, based on the look on his face. That was the expression of an adventurer with conviction. The trouble now was I had no excuse to say no. I could object for the sake of objecting, but this was such a strong offer it would be unfair of me to do so. Maybe that was the idea, but there was nothing else I could do now. 

“Fine, hire me as a member of the guild staff. I’m my own first priority, though, as long as you’re all right with that.” 

“No problem. Alright, now that that’s settled, there’s something else I want to know,” Wolf said and looked up at me. 

“What?” 

“You wore that mask because you couldn’t show your face, but that was because you were a skeleton or a ghoul before, right?” 

“Right. Nobody wants to see dry, rotten, fully exposed muscle,” I said. 

Wolf imagined it and grimaced. “Makes sense. But now you may or may not be a vampire, and look more or less like one, don’t you?” 

“True.” I nodded, knowing where he was going with this. “You’re wondering about my mask?” 

“Yeah, are you wearing it because you can’t show your face when you’re acting as Rentt Vivie? I’m curious.” 

I shook my head. Not that it wasn’t true, but my biggest reason was more simple than that. “Actually, I just can’t take it off.” 

“It’s cursed?” 

“You got it.” 

Wolf jumped to his feet. “Mind if I try pulling it off you?” he asked. 

I didn’t feel like I could refuse, so I nodded. Wolf grabbed the mask from both ends and tugged with all his might. I almost fell over, but the mask didn’t budge. 

“Come on, Rentt, you can plant your feet on the ground better than that,” Wolf complained, but I was trying hard enough as it was. My inhuman strength was still no match for him. He said he couldn’t go adventuring anymore, but it seemed to me he could have continued the job just fine. 

Wolf tried to remove the mask a few more times but to no avail, no matter how much he pulled and shook it. The mask couldn’t be taken off by ordinary means, as Wolf finally came to realize. I told him I got the mask at a vendor, but he looked confused. 

“Cursed goods shouldn’t have been able to enter town in the first place. That’s interesting, I ought to look into it,” he said.

After that, I left Wolf’s office. “Rentt Vivie” was to be treated as a staff member for the guild, and I would receive my staff license later. A lot happened, but overall, negotiations went well. 

Before I left the guild, I asked Sheila if she wanted to have dinner with me. The food itself wasn’t the point so much as I wanted to tell someone who knew my situation about what had transpired today. I hadn’t planned on telling Wolf everything, but I couldn’t change the fact that I did. At least I had a guild staff member on my side in the form of Sheila. She could deliver messages between Wolf and me. Also, while I wasn’t asked to do much work, I was still supposed to be working for the guild now. That made Sheila my senior at the workplace, so I wanted to ask her about the rules. I knew something about their regulations and their expectations from adventurers thanks to the pamphlets they kept by the reception desk, but I knew nothing about the internal rules for staff members Wolf had mentioned. I assumed they had something like those pamphlets for staff members as well and I’d be told to read them later, but I wanted to know the basics before that. 

Sheila got the sense I needed to invite her for these reasons, so she agreed to come to Lorraine’s house after work. 

The food was always good. Tons of dishes were arranged on the table, every one of which was a collaborative effort between Lorraine and Sheila. Some blood was mixed in, but it tasted a bit different from normal. This was more delicious than usual, but I wondered why. 

“Did you season the food differently today?” I asked. Lorraine cooked on her own most of the time, so maybe Sheila’s involvement changed the food somewhat, but that didn’t seem to be all. I didn’t know how to explain it, though. 

“Well, today’s cooking contains both my and Sheila’s blood,” Lorraine explained. “I said she didn’t have to go that far, but she insisted.” 

That did explain the complex flavor. I didn’t know if it was because their blood tasted good combined or because both their blood was good on its own. It was nice of Sheila to offer her blood, though. 

“Sheila, you didn’t mind?” I asked her. 

“I did to some extent, but you’re a vampire and you need blood to live. I’ve known that ever since we made our contract, but you’ve been getting all your blood from Lorraine. She says it’s only about a bottle a month, but I’m afraid that’s going to make her sick one day, so I thought it might be a good idea to try mine,” she said. Wolf worried about the same thing. The last bottle of blood she gave me was almost empty too, so more contributors were appreciated. 

The food with blood was, of course, meant only for me. Lorraine and Sheila had regular meals. 

“In that case, I’m happy to have it. But on to the matter at hand,” I said and changed the topic to what Guildmaster Wolf had told me. Mainly, I informed them that I revealed my situation, that he was understanding about it, and that my double registration could be solved if I joined the guild staff. 

“I see,” Lorraine responded. “Sounds like there isn’t much of a problem, then. All those documents you collected weren’t good for anything in the end, apparently.” Lorraine had helped edit the files I assembled. Her input made it easier to understand the content of the documents, in fact. But it ended up being a waste of time. 

“I just gave them to him. Sorry I made you help out for nothing,” I said, apologizing. 

Lorraine shook her head. “If he trusted you, then threats wouldn’t have been the best idea. I would’ve recommended keeping them a secret in case something happens down the line, but you were never one to be proactive about these things. It’s fine,” she said. 

She didn’t say I couldn’t keep them a secret, however, because she knew I could. I just didn’t want to. 

“Still, a loophole that lets you keep your double registration? I vaguely remember that rule existing, but I’m surprised the guildmaster was so quick to bring it up. It hasn’t been used in Maalt in decades, as far as I know,” Sheila mentioned. 

“Really?” I cocked my head. I figured the rule wasn’t told to adventurers but was in common use by staff. 

“Yes, it’s for staff to use when they want to survey or gather information from adventurers. We don’t need to work as adventurers to get that information nowadays, though, so nobody does it. There isn’t much point,” Sheila explained. 

It sounded like this system was as good as dead, and yet Wolf thought about it immediately. 

“I’m guessing the guildmaster was thinking about swaying you with that from the start,” Lorraine said. 

“Probably, but why go that far?” I pondered. 

“He’s been interested in you for a long time. I imagine he’s been considering how to make you join the guild for just as long. That’d include looking into ways he could hire you while you’re still an adventurer. He really thinks a lot of you.” 

In other words, this was an option he’d had in mind ever since I became a Bronze-class adventurer. However, I doubted he thought I was that important. 

“That does sound like something he would do. He thinks about these things a lot. It’s easy to get the wrong idea from how he looks, but I hear he’s pretty smart. He’s a good person, though,” Sheila interjected, providing supporting evidence for Lorraine’s speculation. 

If that was true, he had me in the palm of his hand. But manipulating someone like me couldn’t have been that hard, as I tended to go with the flow. I decided not to worry about it. This wasn’t bad for me in any way, and if something did happen, I could think about it then. 

Relaxing too much could lead to pain down the line, though, as I had come to feel as of late. 

When dinner was done and everything was explained, we saw Sheila home then relaxed in Lorraine’s living room. 

“It seems like your double registration problem is solved now, so what name are you going to go by?” Lorraine asked. 

“Oh, I’ll be fine as Rentt Vivie for a while. Changing my name while Nive is still around could be dangerous,” I said. 

Lorraine nodded. “Well you have a point there. But I’m surprised that solution existed. I thought they were going to erase one of the names.” 

“Yeah, he suggested that at first. He also said I could marry you to fix it, but there’s no way I could’ve done that.” 

Lorraine spat out her wine. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she said, scowling. 

“I could have married you and taken the name Vivie, then said they forgot to erase my previously registered name. I was shocked when he said it, but in the end, there was no need to resort to that. Anyway, let’s sleep for the day. Tomorrow we’re buying what we need for the journey, right? Good night.” 

It was about time to gather everything we needed, so I had plans to go shopping with Lorraine the next day. I could stay up all night if I wanted, but Lorraine was only human. 

“Yes, right. Good night, Rentt.” 

I waved goodbye and went to my room. I hoped to see some neat magic items tomorrow, but we were only going to buy what was necessary, so that probably wasn’t happening. 

“Marriage, huh?” Lorraine muttered when she was alone. The word sounded odd to her. 

She was already well past the average age for marriage, but plenty of women married old acquaintances at her age. If he kept the name Rentt Vivie, it would also mean marrying into her family. 

“Marriage, huh?” Lorraine repeated and closed her eyes. She tried to imagine it, but it gave her an itchy sensation. 

“Oh! That looks interesting,” I said and ran up to a street vendor. 

They had a number of mysterious magic items. Most usable magic items were found at magic item-exclusive stores, where they were appraised and sold with a written analysis, but they could also be found at vendors. 

Appraising magic items was expensive. When adventurers found magic items in dungeons, they usually went to the guild or a magic item shop to get them appraised, but if they were clearly useless, or if they were appraised and turned out to be useless, they turned up here. Common examples of the former were pins that did nothing but bounce in place, singing flowers (whose songs were not good, they just sounded like noise), and torches that flared up and went out at random intervals. Examples of the latter were magic swords that hadn’t been enhanced at all or medicine that looked like healing potions but did nothing but cause a stomachache. Not all the items found in dungeons had applications. Nobody bought them unless they were curious, they knew the hidden uses for these items, or they were children who wanted toys. In the end, they found their way to these vendors. 

“Looks like nothing but children’s toys and garbage. Why do you want these things?” Lorraine muttered and furrowed her brow. 

We were at the market to buy assorted goods. There was preserved food, portable grindstones, clothes, potions, and more. Lorraine could make high-quality potions on her own, so we didn’t need to buy those necessarily, but gathering the materials to make them would be a pain, so we were purchasing those. Monsters could also attack us on the way there, so we needed containers for any useful materials they might drop. In the past, I used Maaltan magnolia leaves to wrap up orc meat and bottles to contain slime fluid. When it came to things like that, buying from bigger stores got you better quality than vendors, but the vendors sold for cheap. I went to the big stores when I needed something for a job, but this was a personal journey. Somewhat lower quality wouldn’t be an issue. I did have to watch out for goods that couldn’t be trusted, however. 

“The fact that they seem worthless makes me want them. If you only buy things that are useful, it gets boring.” 

Lorraine reacted to my argument by holding her head in her hands. “Are you getting philosophical with me? I don’t get it.” 

I would have retorted it was about adventurous spirit, but I knew who would look like the stupid one in that exchange. I wanted those magic items anyway, I couldn’t help it. 

“Well, you can use your money however you like. I just bought a book with no practical use, so I do understand where you’re coming from to some degree,” Lorraine conceded, holding a thick, leather-bound book she bought from the last vendor we visited. It was called Monster Cooking: How to Make Low-Quality Parts Taste Good, a foreboding title. Cooking with monster parts was normal, but the “low-quality” aspect made me wonder what they meant in particular. Maybe slime, but even that could be made into something palatable. I could only pray I never had to use this book. 

“Oh, there are some more book vendors,” Lorraine pointed out. “Rentt, I’m going to check that out. Go ahead and look at magic items all you want. Let’s meet by the bench on the east side of the central square in about an hour.” 

She wandered off to an area packed with book vendors, presumably to buy more weird books. I had no idea what good they would be, but we were alike in that way. That’s what kept us together for the last decade. 

That left me to look at magic items, so I reached out toward a mysterious board that hovered about three centimeters off the ground. 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” 

The person next to me apologized. She tried to grab it at the same time and bumped my hand. It didn’t hurt me at all, so I didn’t mind, but I thought it bizarre that anyone was interested in this item. Myself aside, of course. But I hid how I felt and looked up to talk to her. 

“That’s okay, I’m—” I began, but then time stopped. 

“Is something the matter? Is there something on my face?” she asked. 

The answer was that there were eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but that wasn’t what left me speechless. I had seen this woman before. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. Her face made her look young, but with the promise of growing into a beauty in a few years. Her appearance clashed with the leather armor and sword she wore. I never expected to see her here. 

“No, nothing. Do you recognize me?” I asked. 

“Wait, have we met? A mask that covers half your face, a black robe...” She trailed off as she racked her brains. 

It seemed like she forgot, but then I remembered something. My mask looked different from the last time we met. 

“Sorry, how’s this?” I said and changed my mask into a skull shape that covered my whole face. I also put on the hood of my robe and lumbered around suspiciously. She opened her eyes wide. 

“Oh, are you Rentt?!” she screamed. I changed my mask back and took off my hood, nodding. 

“Yes, that’s right. Long time no see, Rina.” 

“Where have you been?! I’ve been looking for you all this time. I was so worried,” Rina said with as much concern as she claimed. 

“I’m staying at a friend’s place,” I admitted. “I’ve been doing adventurer work as usual, but mostly at times when nobody else is around. That’s probably why we haven’t run into each other.” 

“That explains it. I go out early in the morning most of the time. But I’m glad you’re okay.” 

Rina was still a novice, after all. Jobs for beginners were posted at the start of the day and were highly competitive, so new adventurers had to get up early. Of course, there were simple extermination requests for slimes, goblins, and other basic monsters that were available at all times, so one could get by without waking up early if they were so inclined, but monster slaying was a challenge of its own. There were safer jobs than that if you went to the guild early, and they paid better for the amount of work too. For example, there were requests to pick herbs or to carry luggage for more advanced adventurers. Some of these jobs were surprisingly risky, however, so it was best to take a close look before accepting them. But novices didn’t know that. 

As for Rina, apparently she managed to survive since we last parted ways. We were only together for a short time, but I taught her a lot of what I knew, such as the best places to hunt, the best stores, what precautions to take as an adventurer, and other general knowledge lessons. Maybe that helped her. 

“Well, I’m doing all right. As you can see, I shouldn’t have the problems I did before anymore. Anyway, how have you been? Are your adventures going well?” I asked. 

“Yes, of course. When I put your teachings into practice, everything went better than ever. Actually, I just joined a party the other day! With a boy and girl around my age, though.” 

I spent my ten years of adventuring alone, so the idea of a party stung to me, but Rina’s communication skills were far greater than mine. I was jealous. Well, not really. I had been invited to join parties myself. At least once, I swear. I just liked going solo. 

But it was good to hear her party members were one man and one woman. That shouldn’t have been too dangerous for her. If they were around the same age too, it didn’t sound like they were approaching Rina with any ill intent. A lot of adventurers in their mid-twenties took advantage of people that way. Meaning those around my age, but I would never do that. In any case, I tried to probe her about this party to see what they were like. 

“That’s nice. Are they good people? How’d you end up in a party with them?” 

Rina promptly answered all my questions. “They’re great. The boy is a swordsman named Raiz. He’s a little reckless, but fights his hardest. The girl’s name is Lola. She’s a mage who can use healing spells. I joined their party after we got in contact with each other through the guild and talked for a bit.” 

There were a lot of reasons not to trust guilds, but Maalt’s guild had Wolf in charge, so it did its job better than most. They paid special attention to safety for their adventurers, so their death rate was low. The guild also put effort into training new adventurers, and when anyone came to them about forming a party, they performed an examination to ensure they didn’t get stuck in a party with suspicious characters. Many new adventurers had mana, spirit, or other special abilities that made them common targets to kidnap and enslave. But thanks to the measures this guild went through, anyone introduced through them could be trusted to an extent. On top of that, the names Rina mentioned sounded familiar. 

“Are you talking about Raiz Dunner and Lola Satii?” I asked. They took the Bronze-class ascension exam with me. Rina’s description fit them perfectly, so they came to mind right away. 

“Yes, that’s right,” Rina confirmed, nodding. “You know them?” 

“Yeah, back when I took the Bronze-class exam, they entered the dungeon with me,” I said. 

“They told me about a nice man named Rentt Vivie. Was that you?!” she exclaimed. 

They’d already told her what happened, it seemed. If they knew me best for being nice, though, that was disappointing. I’d rather have been known for something cooler, though something too cool could be hard to live up to. Maybe if it was something like “Rentt, the Man Eaten by a Dragon,” or “Rentt the Bone Man.” Or not. Coming up with cool titles wasn’t my strong suit. 

“I don’t know how nice I was, but that was me, yes.” 

“But I thought your last name was Faina,” she whispered. Nobody was there to listen to us, except maybe the owner of the vendor. She must have been wary of that. 

“Well, some things happened with that,” I said just as quietly. “Just remember I’m calling myself Rentt Vivie for the moment.” 

“Okay, but isn’t it strange how you’ve met both me and my party members before? And we happened to run into each other today, too. Maybe there’s something to this,” Rina said with glee. 

Coincidences could bring about unexpected encounters. Like when I ran into the dragon, or when I met Nive. I hated coincidences. This chance encounter with Rina was the only one I enjoyed anytime recently. She was like Lady Luck, in a sense. Maybe this meant my visit to Hathara would go well too. 

“That reminds me, there’s another strange connection between us,” I said. 

“What?” 

“When I went to the blacksmith the other day, I ran into a man named Idoles Rogue. He said he was looking for a woman named Rina Rogue. Would that happen to be you?” 

He claimed to be in search of his younger sister, an adventurer, but her name was different from the Rina I knew. I assumed he was seeking someone else, but I didn’t know of any other adventurers named Rina who came to town lately, and I knew a lot of what transpired in Maalt. There was a high chance he meant this Rina, and as expected, the name I mentioned made her eyes open wide with shock. 

“That’s my brother, yes. I didn’t know he came to look for me.” 

“I knew it. Well, don’t worry, I didn’t tell him about you. He was the very picture of a knight, but he didn’t seem fit for finding someone in a small town like this.” 

From what I remembered, he came across like a big-city dweller, refined in his behavior and with a nice, sincere personality. He seemed like a man who took his work seriously, but that made him stand out in a chaotic town like Maalt. I still spotted him walking around on occasion thanks to how poorly he blended in. He drew the eyes of a lot of women, too. Knights were always popular with the ladies. Not that I was jealous or anything. 

But anyway, if he was walking around so much and still hadn’t found Rina, he couldn’t have been that good at gathering information. Maalt might not have been that large, but it was still a proper city. There were so many people that searching around at random was akin to looking for gold dust in a desert. Knights weren’t familiar with the information sources outside the big city, so they had to resort to asking around at pubs. Rina didn’t seem like she frequented those places, and none of the tough guys who did were likely to know her. Her name wouldn’t ring any bells either. But if he went around to shops like when I met him at the blacksmith, they wouldn’t share information on their customers with him. Shopkeepers were especially wary of knights from the big city, so they shared as little as possible and tried to get them to leave sooner than later. Idoles had a lot of hurdles to overcome. 

If you’re wondering how I knew all this, it was thanks to Edel’s information network. Edel had gained control of about half of the puchi suri in Maalt, so I had ears all over the city. If I wanted to investigate anything, I only had to tell Edel and I’d have an answer within an hour. They couldn’t get near the Latuule house, however. A lot of mysteries surrounded that house. They had numerous magic items, so those must have kept them out. Tiny monsters couldn’t have been that hard to repel. Either way, they were more than a little useful. 

“My brother is the prime example of a knight,” Rina said with a little smile. “But that doesn’t mean he’s inflexible. Back when I lived at home, he took me to all kinds of places.” 

That was something of a surprise. From what she told me, Rina came from a family of nobles. Most knights came from that background. That meant Rina was a wealthy heiress, so I questioned why she was adventuring in a small town to begin with. But putting that aside, bringing a rich heiress with you to any old place was a strange thing to do. 

“Was he a good brother?” 

“Yes, I’d say so. I wouldn’t be the same without him.” 

“Did you become an adventurer because of him?” 

“Yes, I did at his suggestion. I basically ran from home to become an adventurer. He taught me some swordsmanship, so I did okay, but I’m not great at the social aspect of the job. I used to work in the capital, but that didn’t work out, so I came here.” 

The adventurers in the capital were much more vicious than those in Maalt. It was a dog-eat-dog world, as I understood it. That was a bad environment for a newcomer. The guild in the capital sometimes recommended working in other cities first, sending new adventurers to Maalt on occasion. Maalt was easy on newbies thanks in large part to the guildmaster. I heard he was friends with the grand guildmaster in the capital as well. 

“In that case, should I have told him about you? I acted like I didn’t know anything, but I felt kind of bad about it,” I said. 

“Probably,” Rina replied. “My parents are one thing, but I don’t think my brother would be here just to drag me back home. Maybe I should look for him.” 

“Then what’d be a good time for you? I can tell him. You’d rather not go to the trouble of searching, right?” 

It wouldn’t be much trouble for me, thanks to Edel. I could just pretend I ran into him by coincidence and ask if the Rina he was looking for was the one I knew. That would have to make him happy. Maybe my appearance would make him suspicious, but as long as I didn’t ask to meet in any strange places, that wouldn’t be a problem. If I suggested we meet up in a decrepit shack outside the city, that might put him on guard, but maybe it’d be worth a try. No, probably not. 

“Really?” Rina asked of my offer. “Okay, if it’s not too much trouble.” Then she told me when she was free. 

I promised I would tell him, and after a bit more chatting, we exchanged contact information and parted ways. It was about time to meet up with Lorraine. 

“Made some big purchases today,” Lorraine said upon returning home and gazing contentedly upon the stack of books on the floor. 

I carried the books from the vendor in my magic bag on the way back, but she demanded they all be taken out as soon as we arrived. She wanted to get straight to reading them. I understood the feeling. When I bought books, I couldn’t wait to read them. She was already reading one of them as we walked home, though. I wanted to tell her to stop in case she ran into anyone, but Lorraine had the skill of a Silver-class adventurer. If any passers-by approached, she could avoid them without even seeing them, so I had no real reason to warn her. However, it set a bad example for any children out there. I wanted to tell the orphans that she was a bad lady. 

“So, like I said before, I’m going out for a little bit,” I told Lorraine. 

“Great, be careful out there.” She waved her hand with disinterest. The book had her captivated already. She was hopeless, but at least she was listening. 

After that, I left the house. 

What I had told Lorraine was I met Rina at the market and promised to deliver a message to her brother, so I needed to head out to meet him. I’d previously explained to Lorraine about how I met Rina in a dungeon, so she was interested in meeting her, but that could wait for another time. Rina seemed busy with her adventuring work, so I didn’t know about inviting her to come mess around. 

Edel’s subordinates were tracking Idoles. Edel led the way ahead of me, so I followed after him. My mask covered my whole face last time I met him, so I adjusted it into that form again. Any on-lookers would see a suspicious man in a skull mask and robe following a rare black puchi suri. I probably looked like a diseased grim reaper. In fact, I heard the occasional gasp from those who saw Edel and me. At least I looked human, but it was still an ominous sign. Nobody paid attention to me when my hood was off and I reshaped my mask, but seeing me like this during waking hours would be frightening. Oh well, Idoles, wouldn’t recognize me any other way. 

Eventually I came across a familiar man, rugged and clad in knight armor. I hurried toward him. 

“Sir Idoles,” I called out to him. He turned around and looked at me, saw my sketchy clothes, and cocked his head. 

“Ah, I met you outside the blacksmith the other day,” he said. 

“Yes, right. You remember me?” 

“I could not forget that outfit if I tried. Your voice sounds different, though. It used to be a bit more...” 

Idoles didn’t finish his sentence, but I suspected he meant to say how hoarse I sounded. My vocal chords were barely functional at the time, so my voice was just awful. At least now I could talk like a normal person. But I couldn’t tell him I had moved up the undead ranks, so I came up with an excuse. 

“My throat was injured, but it’s better now. Sorry about that.” That was a common enough occurrence. Idoles didn’t question it. 

“Is that right? I am glad to hear it. You appear to be an adventurer, but I am knight myself, so I understand what manner of damage monsters can do. You are lucky it was not permanent,” he said, offering his sympathy. 

The highest class of saint could heal injuries that normal recovery spells and divinity could not, but they seldom offered their assistance to any given knight or adventurer. When he counted me as lucky, that’s what he meant. 

“Yes, I suppose so.” I nodded. 

He nodded back then seemed to recall something. “Now, what in the world brings you to me? I presume you sought me out for something.” 

“I did. Last time we met, you mentioned you were looking for your sister. I believe you said her name was Rina Rogue.” 

“Ah, yes. Did you find her?” 

Idoles drew closer to me. It almost looked like he was about to grab me by the collar and shake me, but he kept calm. His face, however, could not have been closer. His handsome mug approached with such force it made me jump. 

“Yes, probably.” 

“Probably? What does that mean?” 

“The Rina I know told me her last name is Rupaage.” 

“I see, that is a different name. Did you not find her, then? What compelled you to investigate her in the first place?” 

Her name was different because she had every intention to hide her identity, so she wouldn’t want to reveal that when asked under normal circumstances. The fact I knew who she was must have seemed unnatural. Idoles squinted at me but didn’t seem that distrustful. I decided to be honest. 

“I didn’t investigate anything. She told me when I asked her. I’m an adventurer from this city, and she’s the only Rina I know. I mentioned you when I was chatting with her recently, and she said you were her brother.” 

“Is that right?” Idoles asked, relieved. “My apologies for thinking you suspicious.” 

“That’s fine, everyone worries about their family. Don’t feel bad,” I said. 

“This may be rude, but you are much more amiable than you look,” Idoles replied, confused. 

Maybe that was true. I didn’t think so, but I came to him purely out of goodwill on this occasion, so I knew why it looked that way. 

“I’m just normal. So, I have a message for you from Rina.” I told him her desired meeting time. 

“That would be a bad time. I must soon return to the capital for a while, but perhaps another time. May you deliver a message to Rina for me? I can pay you,” he offered. 

“I’m happy to do it for free. I owe Rina one anyway,” I said. Without her, I wouldn’t still be around. I could leave his message on the message board or whatever else he wanted. 

“You owe her? Hm, I would like to hear the story behind that, but I can wait to ask her. Please see to it you tell her, then,” Idoles instructed. He told me the next time he would be in Maalt and the place he would be waiting and then left. 

The appointed time was about a month from now. I didn’t think knights got so many breaks, but maybe they had more free time than I expected. I didn’t know, but I headed off to the guild to leave the message for Rina. I knew where her inn was, but when we met at the market, she said she would be exploring a dungeon later. This was the surest way for her to receive it.