2—Registering as an Adventurer [2.0]

I wanted to get a maid, but there was a problem: my family sure as hell wouldn't pay for it—I knew that much from the many times old Raynold had asked only to be turned down for one reason or another—and I didn't have the money either.

My father didn’t give me a big allowance, but he had to keep up appearances, so he at least gave me about half as much as he gave each of my brothers. My sword, which was by far my most prized possession, had taken most of the money he had given me in two years and a bunch of favors to the blacksmith such as subjugating X or Y monster and bringing him the materials. Plus, I'm pretty sure I got scammed a bit, and ended up overpaying. That meant I was dead broke now, so I needed a way to earn money quickly.

So I quickly finished up the breakfast (just some cheeses with bread and juice), changed into some light clothing, since old Raynold had never even considered buying armor, and exited the Bloodhart mansion at the capital with only a leather pack containing food and other necessities, and my sword.

Naturally, not one of the knights patrolling or guarding the gates stopped me. My brothers would always be followed by about five bodyguards to protect them if they as much as went out, but of course my father would never consider doing the same for me.

Sure, old Raynold had never liked escorts and often sneaked away from then as a kid, but surely that wasn’t enough of a reason for such a large difference of treatment.

'Well, that's quite convenient for me right now,' I thought as I made my way out of the noble district, lined with sprawling mansions surrounded by gardens such as ours, though none quite as large or 'majestic'.

I thought back to the reason for my outing.

Maids and servants were usually commoners that applied for the job, and were hired after a thorough background check and screening, and given a fairly hefty salary every month.

That was way too much trouble for me though, so I decided to do it through a much simpler method, buying a slave and then freeing her. It was a bit risky, since it relied heavily on her gratitude being enough for her to work for free, but I was fairly confident in my charms.

Of course, my family would likely find issue with me keeping an unbound slave without knowing where she came from, given that she could be a spy, assassin, or any other kind of unsavory personage that should never be allowed inside a noble mansion, but I could just lie and tell them she was bound to me; most expensive slave tattoos could turn invisible if the master so desired.

I was repulsed by the idea of slavery, but that was just the way of this world, or at least this kingdom. I couldn't change it, at least not yet. I wasn't nearly powerful enough, neither martially not politically. All I could do for now was save one girl.

I knew that the average price of a slave was around 30 to 40 golds, which, for reference, seemed to be a bit under $40,000 judging by the prices of things like bread and housing. It was pitifully, insultingly cheap for the life of a human being, but still fairly expensive when talking in absolute terms. Fortunately, I already knew just what to do to get the money.

As expected of an unoriginal isekai, there was an adventurers' guild, though maybe it had been founded by someone from Earth that came here before me. It wasn't very likely, but hey, you always had to think outside of the box in strange situations.

I briskly made my way through the stone-tiled roads of the city, the sights and smells familiar to me due to Raynold’s memories, and I soon arrived at the entrance of the wooden, pub-like adventurers' guild. I pushed the doors open and walked in, and I was immediately surprised by the cleanliness of the interior despite the masses of rowdy adventurers, and the lack of a musky scent of sweat and testosterone, which I had been expecting if not looking forward to.

'Purification magic, maybe? Hmmm… water element or holy? Probably the latter, for such a large place. They must’ve hired a priest to come by regularly.'

Also, as I glanced around, surprisingly no mean-looking stares were directed at me. I had only just reached puberty so I could still be considered a kid, yet none of the grizzly-looking warriors nor the high-and-mighty-acting mages even batted an eye at my entrance, much less laughed at me or came to look for trouble. Well, I did look quite muscular and well-built for someone my age, I supposed, and my dark purple sword didn’t look like so,e low-quality weapon, either.

'I shouldn’t assume that everything will go like in the tropes, huh? lesson learned.'

I reached the counter where a ruthless-looking, fat middle-aged lady who looked like a bleached, tuskless ork asked me politely, “Hello sir, what brings you here?”

The tone surprised me, given her appearance that screamed ‘Fuck with me and I’ll fuck your up, I take no shits’, but I supposed it was normal coming from a professional.

“Good morning, I would like to register as an adventurer.”

She nodded silently and took out a form. “Are you over 14?”

“Yes.” I said so confidently, but I was not as calm as I appeared on the surface.

'Oh yeah, I forgot, this body's barely old enough to register as an adventurer despite looking much older, due to muscles and tall height. I'm kinda cutting it close.'

“Can you write?”

“Yes," I responded, glad that they had at least taught Ray old that much.

“Alright, please fill in this form with your name, age, specialty, and any other relevant information.” She pointed at a few blank boxes on the page.

“Also, please drip a drop of your blood on here.” She took out a small, magical-looking stamp with a very small, magical-looking pattern, its strokes the width of hairs, and placed it in front of me.

For my name, I simply wrote ‘Ray’, with no last name since it would attract way too much attention. After I finished filling in the few spaces I could, for the blood, I thought about doing that finger-biting thing. I wasn’t confident I'd be able to pull it off without making a mess or failing horribly though, so I just used the needle she gave me instead. ‘I hope it’s sterilized. Well, my immune system is probably buffed too, so there shouldn't be an issue.'

As I let the blood flow onto the stamp, it began flowing and in a moment it had filled out the whole pattern with unnatural speed and precision, not a single bit falling from the raised pattern.

After she finished reviewing my answers and nodded in satisfaction, the lady pressed it against the paper, and it glowed with dim, magical light briefly before settling down, the blood drying rapidly. I wondered what it did, for a moment.

After carefully cleaning up the stamp of my blood, she asked me, “Do you know the regulations of the guild?”

I dug into my memories of the half-assed classes from my childhood with my various tutors, and responded, “Well, there’s the F to S ranks, the contribution points that differ between the ranks of each mission, that you can only take missions up to one rank higher than yours... oh, the limits of simultaneous missions is three... and the party mechanics. Anything I missed?”

“No, seems like you got it covered. Here is your temporary guild card. A permanent one will be ready in about three days, but this one will allow you to do almost the same things on that period. Good riddance.”

And with that, I was off to adventure.