另类小说亚洲古典校园

Bob, Luke and Ryu said one after the other in a monotone.

“What did you expect mister Ryu?”

“Well, from what Luke told me it was supposed to be a bar with a billboard, filled with people having fun and going on adventures... but this is...”

“It looks like a government building”

.....

Bob sighs, he too was excited to go into the adventurer’s guild but in front of them there was a spacious building that looked empty with scarse people going around with folders on their hands.

“Hello! Are you guys new to the guild?”

We looked at each other and nodded at the same time.

“That’s great! we’re really underhanded! come follow me. This is the archives, you will be filing a lot of folders in here, don’t worry if you guys get lost it’s usual for the newcomers to get lost all the time”

She spoke as she gave us a tour through a huge storage room filled with drawers.

“Over here there’s the dining room, management always call it a recreation room but there’s not much to do in here besides eating. It doesn’t matter though, you would be working all day long and won’t even get the chance to grab a bite most days”

She says so, but there’s not that many people around, where’s all the hard working people?

“Anyways, now follow me, yeah, over here! this is the materials room, don’t go inside the disasembling room next door in your first month or you’ll be puking your guts out. But at least this room is clean and organized, of course you will be assigned to the cleaning duty and put up in the weekly schedule”

The room is filled with materials some of them have tags on them and others are set apart in lockers. There’s a huge pile of items on a table and someone seems to be appraising their value or something, I bet he has the identifying skill.

“Overe here is the treasury room, you’re not allowed to get inside unless you’re given a key but you need to properly deposit the coins. Don’t try to fill your pockets, every coin is accounted for. Yeah, this is a ruthless business, by the way if adventurers knew how much we earn from the materials they sell to us dirt cheap, they would go insane. Teeehee”

She winks at Bob, it seems she thought he’s our party leader... or maybe...

“Excuse me miss”

“Oh, please don’t call me miss! I’m Ebisu but everyone calls me Ebi!”

“Uhm... ok, miss Ebi, I think there’s a misunderstanding, you see, we wanted to become adventurers”

“You’re saying that you donn’t want to work in here, but you want to work in here?”

She’s not making any sense but her face was pretty clear on what she meant so I didn’t comment on that.

“Yeah, so...”

“This is terrible! adventurers are not supposed to be let inside. If my boss finds out about this she’s going to skin me alive! please go now, please don’t let them notice. My boss is a terrible, horrible person, she overwork us, punishes us by lowering our salary, doesn’t let us take breaks, she’s the worst, she’s so mean and... she... she’s behind me right?”

She realized it because it showed in our face, it was so awkward I wanted to vanish into thin air. The towering figure of the woman stood tall behind Ebi with a somber expression, she was a mature woman with a beautiful appearance, but on this situation she was more fearsome than any beast I’ve faced so far.

“Ebi, just what in the world is going on in here?”

“Please, let me explain. This people wanted to become adventurers and...”

“And you let them just like that!? nevermind, we’ll speak later about it”

She grins at Ebi with evil intent and then smiles at us with a smile that looks sincere.

“Excuse me, but adventurers are not supposed to be in here, would you please accompany me to the exit?”

Every one of us gulped at her words and followed her in silence.

“Peter! Ryota! what exactly have you been doing?”

“What do you mean boss? we’ve been guarding the entrance as always”

“Then, how do you explain this? they got inside as if nothing and no one stopped them? Do you have any idea how many secrets and valuable items we store inside? what would you do if some of them got robbed? how were you planning on compensating the guild if something got destroyed? with your measly salary? don’t make me laugh”

She points at us and starts scolding the poor guards, the one named Peter shrinks and lowers his head but Ryota seems unfazed.

“No offense boss, but if our salaries are so low you could do something about it”

“You again? why can’t you be more level headed like Peter? I’m this close to firing you”

Ryota picks his nose while speaking with the woman, he must be pretty strong if he has the guts to do something so disrespectful towards someone with her presence.

“I thought they were the new hires, everyone complains about how understaffed they are and when they got inside they were instantly greeted by Ebi. Also, they are so weak there was no chance they could cause trouble”

“I see. Well mister adventurers, please excuse us. Next time you come in here try the front entrance, this is the staff only entrance. If you’re thinking on becoming adventurers, bear in mind that breaking the guild rules like this is reason enough to lower your score or even demote you instantly, ok?”

“Yes boss! I mean, yess miss”

When she spoke directly to me my body stiffened and without even thinking I replied in a loud voice as I was an employee and the woman let out a giggle.

“There’s no need to be so formal, anyways, I’m really busy today so, I’ll excuse myself”

After she went back inside we felt as if a heavy weight was removed from our backs and we could finally breathe in relief.

“Wow, that was intense! When she came from behind Ebi I was shitting bricks”

Luke exclaimed making us laugh.

“Let’s pretend none of this happened and just go inside... from the right entrance”

We walk around the corner, it’s still the same huge building but the entrance is on a completely different level. There’s a wide stone staircase, it’s only a few steps high but it looks amazing, there’s a huge wooden double door with studded metal and there’s two guards standing on each side. Everything seems to be designed to make people feel small in front of this building.

Going inside the first thing we notice is the amount of people laughing in loud voices and singing merry tunes, some of them are drinking and others are eating to their hearts content.

There’s adventurers in full plate, others in scale mail, leather armor, some are wearing only clothes but they look high quality and they are all armed to the teeth, maces, swords, knives, bows. Since today we only came to register we didn’t bring any armor, though we always go out with our weapons, Bob commented that he was surprised by this fact since back at his world weapons were regulated and it was strictly forbidden to go around with them.

“This is incredible! it’s just like I imagined it!”

Bob squeals, people would think its really out of character from someone his size and appearance, but actually Bob is meek and gentle.

“Geez, we need to look tough”

Luke nags at Bob

“uhm, sorry”

“Don’t say you’re sorry, remember when we entered Rina’s bar for the first time? You need to act tough or we’ll be the laughiing stock forever!”

“I’m sorry, I mean, I’m not”

Bob and Luke’s exchange warmed my heart, it was filled with nostalgia and good memories. At that time I was terrified of the unknown, even Rina’s bar looked like an extremely hostile place. People looked rough and everything was dirty, even Rina was scary.

I remember thinking she was really cute and she was always nice, which made her look even more fearsome whenever she got mad. It would be one thing to say that it was only her looks, but everyone who ever saw her fight would agree that they’d rather pick a fight with Bob than with Rina.

“Mister Ryu, there’s a counter over there, I think we should head that way”

“Thanks Sera, let’s go”

The counter was almost empty, only a few inkwells separated at a simetric distance.

“Good evening, what can I do for you?”

Ebi smiles squinting her eyes and greets us, but when she realized it was us her face shifted as if she was cared.

“You!? what are you doing here? please don’t cause me any more troubles”

“I apologize for our previous misunderstanding, but we really do want to become adventurers. You see, we come from a far place and don’t know the first thing about the big city. It was an honest mistake”

I lower my head in front of her and she relaxes inmediately.

“Hehe, big city? this? This is not even a medium sized city, you should see the capital... That’s where I used to live, but then I was demoted and sent here.”

Ebi’s eyes got watery.

“Nevermind my sob story, since this is technically your first time coming here I’ll tell you the basics but first you need to get your soulbound cards”