Chapter 4: Chapter 3: The Guild Master

(*Author's note: Keru's alias in the guild is Miru)

The gates of Alta were in sight. Keru was on a rented horse from the guild, a privilege for silver rank adventurers, traveling at a leisurely pace and had been travelling for 5 days. He was planning to take a request right after he returned his horse.

"Hmm, maybe I should take a delivery or collection quest for once. I think my life's been too exciting lately, I kinda just want to relax for once." Keru said to himself. After he had gotten his ability, he had gain the uncanny trait of running into complicated scenarios which made him want to blame his sponsor. Then again, he had also chosen problematic answers whenever he ran into trouble so he was aware that he was also culpable for his situation.

As he was getting closer, he noticed a familiar blonde woman in a guild uniform waiting by the gate. She put on a wide smile when she spotted him and Keru knew he was about to encounter more trouble.

"Ugh, I'm not good with her." Keru internally complains.

"Miru! Over here!" A happy voice from a waiving guild receptionist calls out to him using the alias he had used to enroll in the guild. She looked to be around the same age as Keru and was Kei's junior at the guild.

"Hey Aliya, how are you?" Keru stops and gets of his horse while trying not to hide the discomfort from his face.

"I was doing great today, then Kei told me you stopped by a week ago, but you didn't stop by to say hi to your favorite receptionist." Aliya puffs up her cheeks.

"Uhuh, don't remember ever having one but sure I guess" Keru internally states.

"Ah sorry, I was really rushing so I didn't stay long." Replies Keru with a polite smile.

"You mean you we're rushing to meet a "friend" maybe?" Aliya smiles but her eyes were cold.

"Dammit Kei! How much did she pay you!?"A frustrated yell erupts in Keru's thoughts.

"Oh by the way, did you know miss Kei likes short cake, me and the others decided to buy her some since she's been such a good senior to everyone else."

"Shit she saw through me! Seriously all of you bribed her, are the lives of Silver Ranked Adventurers that interesting?" Panic, surprise, and frustration swirl in Keru's Psyche.

"Ah, that's great, I've been meaning to talk to her recently now that you mentioned it." Keru tries to side-step the question.

"Give me back my silver coins if your just gonna sell me out." Is Keru's inward thoughts towards Kei as he tries to maintain composure.

"So how was your visit to your friend?" Aliya returns to the original topic maintaining her smile.

"Damn, didn't work" Keru silently curses.

"Uhh it was good, the capital was good too." Keru answers with a smile after some hesitation.

"Ohh the capital, did you get me a souvenir?" Aliya asks immediately, not letting Keru regain his footing in the conversation.

"Kehoda, why did I mention that. It's sort of guild etiquette to get your regular receptionist souvenirs but it totally passed my mind; and I'm not even interested in the first place. Tss... I guess I have to come clean." Keru tries to plan in his mind but is forced to be honest and try to play it off.

"Ah sorry, I forgot to get you one, I'll make it up to you next time." Keru smiles trying to to quickly answer and move of the topic.

"Hmph! That won't do." Aliya however has different plans.

"... what do you want Aliya?" Keru asks, after getting over his failed deflection.

"Hmm, aside from a souvenir, I want two things, non-negotiable. " Aliya states firmly.

"Uhuh, and they are?" Keru raises his eyebrow behind his mask while asking.

"One, no more putting everyone to sleep every time you come to the guild." Aliya states her first demand.

"Fine" Keru does not want to deal with this anymore and agrees immediately despite the regret in his heart.

"Well, there goes that fun." Keru muses about losing one of his favorite activities.

"And two, you have to link arms with me now and when we go inside the guild." Aliya asks, maintaining her conviction.

"No" Keru is aware of the headache this will cause.

"Non-negotiable" Aliya is firm in her postion.

"...Fine" Keru relents after a deep breath. He does not want to be bothered anymore and Aliya would just keep pestering him if kept saying no.

"Alrighty, let's go my masked knight hehe." Aliya links her arm to Keru with a satisfied smile. Keru leads the horse with his free arm.

"This girl... well at the very least I'm glad she's not sticking close" Keru thinks exasperatedly.

The pair walk with together to the guild hall, Keru hands over the reins to the horse to the stableboy standing outside the guild hall. While doing so, Keru suddenly realizes something.

"By the way" Keru begins a question.

"Hmm?" Aliya responds with a happy go lucky smile.

"You saw that I was using an adventurer guild horse but how were you sure that I would be going inside the hall and not just dropping of the horse?" Keru finishes his question.

"Oh that's simple, Guildmaster had said that the watch towers near town spotted you and asked me to call for you so I'm bringing you to him now." Aliya smiles while happily holding onto Keru's arm.

"..." There is silence as they keep walking.

"I've been had. She got me to promise her things just to do her job." Keru internally groans as they enter the guild hall.

"Also, I just realized that I never met the guild master since I always put everyone to sleep when I started ranking up fast. Wonder what their like." Keru nowadays would always go in and out of the guild quickly. Put everyone to sleep, collect or turn in a quest, talk to receptionist for a few seconds, and then leave. Consequently, he never actually got to see or interact with the guild master.

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The doors to the guild open and the pair enter arms still together.

It was already near closing time and most of the adventurers had already left. A few of the remaining adventurers look up and freeze when they see the rare sighting of Keru, whose arm Aliya began to hug. As the two approached the desk, they see it attended by a smiling Kei.

"Hi Miss Kei, look who I found arriving at the gate by himself." Aliya cheerfully greets her senior.

"Hello Aliya, I see you two have gotten really close." Kei looks at Aliya then Keru while holding in a teasing chuckle.

"Hello Miss Kei, it's good to see you aren't as busy as last time." Keru leaks out a tinge of annoyance in his voice to indicate he knows Kei's connection to his current situation.

"Hello Miru, it's good to see you entering the guild normally for a change." Kei holds her hand to her mouth while letting out a small laugh.

"Don't worry Miss Kei, Miru's promised to stop putting everyone to sleep."

"Oh is that so Miru, I'm surprised you were persuaded so easily."

"Ah it was nothing Miss Kei, I just wanted to avoid causing accidents in the future."

"That's good to hear you thinking responsibly Miru."

"Alright Miss Kei, I'll bring him up to the guild master now."

Aliya then grabs Keru's hand and leads him up the stairs behind the receptionist desks to the second floor, where the employees usually stay. As they climb the stairs they the other adventurers began to whisper amongst themselves.

"I guess even rich kid isn't a match for Aliya."

"I wonder why they're going upstairs."

"Maybe it's a date?"

"Doubt it, don't want to believe it either."

"I'm not letting that loner get ahead of me in the race for Aliya."

"Relax, the guildmaster probably just wants to ask for help investigating the incident a few days ago. Silver ranks are the adventurer elite after all."

Amidst the murmuring adventurers, the pair enter the guildmaster's office. Upon entering, Keru immediately sees the brutish man in the formal attire of guild master. He was a dwarf who was larger than usual, Keru thinking that his suit must have been custom-made to match the muscle-bound frame.

"Hey Mr. Ukko, I brought troublesome silver rank for you just like you asked." Aliya cheerfully reports to her superior with a smile.

The guildmaster, an older man with graying hair, returns Aliya's smile.

"Thank you, Aliya. You can go now, take care when going home." The guildmaster's voice is rough and deep.

"Aye aye boss, no problem. We have adventurers like Keru here after all." Aliya happily declares then leaves.

"Did he send Aliya specifically to pick me up? How much does he know about me?" Suspicion starts to stir inside Keru.

"Good afternoon, guildmaster. My name is Miru, I'm a silver rank in your guild." Keru politely introduces himself while trying to recall any information regarding his conversation partner.

"He's a retired adventurer, gold ranked if I remember right. He's married to the city's Margrave too I think." Keru tries to remember details of what he had heard.

Suddenly the guildmaster starts laughing.

"Hahaha, your surprisingly polite for a kid who tries to put everyone to sleep whenever he comes to the guild." He says with a loud laugh.

"Uhh yeah, don't worry, I'll stop doing that." Keru replies with a slight smile.

"Might as well make it sound like the promise with Aliya was my idea." Is Keru's thought process.

"Oh really? Well that's good, I'll make sure to keep any idiots from bothering you then." The guild master then replies.

"Well, at least that hassle should be taken care of a bit." Keru thinks of the bright-side that at least the guild will push for the other adventurers to stop bothering him. How effective it will be? It remains to be seen.

"Thank you guildmaster, can I ask why you called for me?" Keru tries to get to the reason he was called.

The guildmaster smiles at Keru's question.

"First, I wanted to look at the prodigy silver rank I keep hearing about. My wife's been asking me about the solo adventurer who suddenly cleaned out the bandits that her guards couldn't catch" He begins.

"Ah thank you guild master. I did my best, I just ran into them to be honest." Keru is more relaxed and answers with sincerity.

"I see, lucky for us then. Still a hundred bandits must have been a headache, looks like you aren't just a silver on paper." The guildmaster continues.

"Thank you guildmaster." Keru smiles and thanks the guildmaster for the praise.

"Second, I wanted to talk to the adventurer who killed a group of Iron adventurers a week ago."

"Ah... what?" Keru freezes at the guildmaster's statement.

"Sit down kid, this might take a while" as he says this, the guildmaster places a guild lie detector on his desk.

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