Chapter 206:
It’s a Promise!
It was just after noon. I was standing outside the merchant guild office, waiting for Druid, when I saw somebody hurrying toward me.
“Sorry! I was running late.”
“Oh, it’s okay—wait, what happened? You look awfully tired.” It was clear from Druid’s appearance that he was more than just “tired.”
“Ha ha ha… Alumi found me.”
Oh dear. “My condolences.”
“I’m glad I promised to meet you at noon, Ivy. Otherwise, she’d probably make me stay there all night.” Druid heaved a big sigh. That would have been a real ordeal.
“Um, was the guild master doing all right?”
“Ha ha ha…” Druid laughed, giving me no answer.
I guess that means “no.”
“Should we bring him a care package later?”
“No, no, no. If you go there, you’ll never leave.”
Yeah…I guess I’d like to avoid that.
“Anyway, let’s go get us registered and set up an account.”
“Yes…let’s.”
I’m so sorry, Mr. Guild Master. Alumi is just a little too intense for me. And staying overnight is just a little too…impossible for me, so I’ll be wishing you well from afar.
I followed Druid into the building. Since the morning bustle had calmed down some, there weren’t many people inside.
“Oh! There you are,” someone greeted us.
“Huh?”
“You’re the gentleman who made an inquiry with us yesterday. This fine lady will serve you.”
“Thanks.”
Druid and I approached a lady who smiled and greeted us. “Hello, there.”
“Hello, I’m the one who asked yesterday about registering as a family. We also want to make a family bank account.”
“Understood, sir. Here are the necessary forms. If you’ll just fill them out, please.”
They had the forms ready for us right away. Apparently, they all remembered Druid. I guess that was a veteran adventurer for you?
“Thanks. Ivy, let’s fill them out over there.”
“Okay.”
We wrote our names and ages onto the forms. Then we both checked the boxes consenting to be registered as a family. Druid wrote something down in the “Parent/Guardian” section, but I couldn’t see what it was. After he finished writing, we turned in the forms with my bank card and Druid’s merchant guild card and, in less than five minutes, our family registry was complete.
“Wow, that was quick.” Almost too quick. I was quite startled.
“That’s because you already have a bank card, Ivy. Without that, it would have taken a little longer.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. I mean, you’ve got an impressive lineup of guarantors on your card.”
“Huh?”
The guarantors on my bank card? They were Captain Oght from Ratome Village, the guild master of Otolwa, and Police Captain Barxby. I knew they were all powerful people, but what did that have to do with anything?
Druid answered my questioning look. “I’m from this town and people know me, so there’s no problem on my end, but you had no ties with this town before coming here, right?”
“Right.”
“Without those three powerful men vouching for you, they might have had to investigate you first. They probably checked in with the guarantors on your card to verify your identity.”
“Really? Oh dear! You don’t think they bothered them, do you?”
“Don’t worry about that. They probably decided you were safe when they saw those names on your card.”
“Oh… Well, that’s a relief.”
“Still, they originally told me it would take at least two days, so I was surprised that the whole thing only took five minutes, start to finish. Those three names certainly are quite powerful.”
“At least two days…turned into five minutes… Yeah, they must be really powerful.”
As I sat there, stunned by what Druid had told me, our two new cards were placed in front of us on the desk. Since we’d already been able to complete the family registry, we went ahead and made a family bank account, too.
“There you go. These are your family cards. Will two be enough?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
My own bank card was plain and white, but the family one was white with a red and blue line on it. It made my heart race a little.
“Now, if I could please get blood samples from both of you right here.”
There were round, transparent things on top of each of our family cards… I recalled them from when I made my bank account. Relying on what little I remembered, I pushed my finger into the small concave circle.
I felt a slight pang of pain in my fingertip just as the plate glowed, showing my name and age along with Druid’s name.
“Your name showed up on mine, Mr. Druid.”
“And yours is on mine, Ivy.”
Aha, so it shows your family’s names on your plate. That’s pretty neat.
“Thank you both. Now that we’ve registered the two of you as a family and made you a family bank account, is there anything else I can help you with today?”
“No, that’s all, thank you.”
“Thank you very much, ma’am,” I said, following Druid’s example.
“What a cute daughter you have. Looks like your father is going to have a lot more to worry about now.”
Huh?! A lot more to worry about?
“Ivy’s got a good head on her shoulders, so I don’t think she’ll give me any trouble…but do you think we’ll start getting a hard time from people we meet?”
“Probably, yes. I mean, she’s such a lovely little lady.”
“Ha ha ha, thanks. Well, I’ll try to keep the creeps away.”
What? Keep the creeps away? Does he think I’m going to creep away or something? Or did he say creeks? Wait, maybe the place going is full of a bunch of dirty creeks? I’m fine with creeks, but not if they’ve got gross bugs around.
We parted ways with the nice lady and headed over to the cluster of tiny rooms in the corner of the guild lodge, where we would check our account balances and transfer money into our family account.
“Mr. Druid…what’s wrong with creeks?”
“Huh? Creeks? Um…what are you talking about?”
Huh? Wait, did I mishear him?
“Um, when you were talking with the lady earlier, what did you mean when you said you’d keep me away from the creeks? Does the next town we’re going to have some scary water bugs in it or something?”
“Aha… Now I get it.” For some reason, Druid pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. Then he smiled and said firmly, “You have absolutely nothing to worry about, Ivy. Just forget about it.”
I got the feeling that I shouldn’t press him any further about this. I was really curious…but I figured he wasn’t going to explain it to me. I guess I’ll have to find the right moment to ask him later.
“All right, let’s check your account balance first, Ivy. Then we’ll transfer your money into the family account.”
“Sure.”
“Make sure you leave plenty of money in your personal account. Promise me, okay?”
“Oh…okay.”
I was fine with transferring all the money out of my personal account, but Druid made me promise to leave at least half of it. He said he’d agreed to let me contribute to the family fund, so now I had to accept his terms and only give up half my money. I felt like I was being cajoled a little, but I knew that if we both kept being stubborn, we wouldn’t make any progress, so I surrendered.
“Okay, I’m just going to go check my balance,” I told Druid.
“Okay.”
A part of me was terrified to see a huge amount of money in my account, but now that I was only allowed to put half of my money in the travel fund, another part of me was hoping to see a lot of it. And now I wasn’t sure how to feel.
We went into one of the little rooms, and I set my bank card on top of the white plate in front of a tiny window. A bunch of numbers immediately popped up…until they finally displayed my balance.
“Whoa!” I gasped in surprise.
“What?! I should have made it one fourth…” Druid muttered behind me.
I spun around to look at him. There was a deep crease in his brow.
“Mr. Druid?”
“So, about our agreement…”
“I’m still giving one half!”
Druid sighed softly in reply.
Sorry, Mr. Druid, but I’m dying on this hill.
My balance was over one hundred and ninety radal. That was nineteen gold plates. I’d completely forgotten that they gave me one hundred radal for helping take down the human trafficking organization. I must have pushed that memory into a corner of my brain since I’d had so much to deal with at the time.
Come to think of it, I got some gratuity that time, too. Then, with the money I got from Sora’s potion and Flame’s magic stones, I’d managed to raise one hundred and ninety radal in all. That meant my contribution to the travel fund would be ninety-five radal. So, in gold that would be…nine and a half gold plates.
“Yahoo! I get to transfer ninety-five radal to the travel fund!”
Druid groaned a little in reply, but a promise was a promise.
“I really dropped the ball, Ivy… I had no idea you’d earned that much money.”
He’s grumbling something… Eh, I’ll just ignore him. It looks like I won’t have to put all the burden of this journey on him after all. I owe it all to Sora and Flame. And Ciel, for helping clear out the gurbars. My friends really have helped me out so much.
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