Chapter 13: [Chapter thirteen] First request

"...Brigitte?"

Once again, the voice of a certain Elemental Spirit pulls me from my idle thoughts about nothing in particular.

"Hm?"

I glance at Yahanaseara, meeting her gaze for a split second before the that awful creeping sense of Wrongness that direct eye contact always elicits in me becomes too much to bear and I reflexively turn away.

Though I do think I lasted a little longer than usual.

Weird.

"Back at the Guild place, you mentioned that you were ranked as some type of metal?" Yahanaseara asks.

"Yeah," I nod, "Silver-rank."

Pretty impressive if I do say so myself... I haven't even been at it for a year yet, and-

"Is that a good rank?"

...aaaand I completely forgot to tell her how ranks work.

"Y- yeah, pretty good," I stammer.

"I would expect nothing less from my Savior," she replies, her voice filled with the same kind of pride that you'd expect from a parent bragging about their kids.

It makes me want to run away and dig a hole to bury myself in.

But instead of doing that, I stow my embarrassment at the fact that this girl clearly thinks the world of me before it's able to show on my face.

Deep breaths.

There we go.

"So adventurers have three basic ranks- Copper, Silver and Gold," I explain. "And each of those is divided into five classes, from E to A."

...wait a minute.

"Uh, are you familiar with Draconic letters?" I ask.

I know that Elemental Spirits are able to automatically decipher any spoken language after only a few sentences of exposure, but the same ability doesn't extend to written word.

And she clearly isn't from around these parts, so-

"Yes, I am literate," Yahanaseara nods.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as-"

"It was a valid question, so there is no need to apologize," she replies. "My appearance has been pointed out as foreign for as long as I have lived together with humans."

"...huh?"

Without thinking, I give her a quick once-over.

Fluffy white hair that's like a thousand bolts of concentrated lightning, bright green eyes that glitter like emeralds, brown skin that reminds me of the deep forest...

...but the people of her village didn't have those same features? Then where-

No no no stop. Now is not the time for another tangent.

Back to the task at hand.

"Sav- Brigitte?" Yanahaseara calls out.

"Sorry, got distracted," I mumble. "So, uh... yeah. Classes."

A few seconds to regather my thoughts.

"The Guild refuses to tell anyone the exact way they're calculated, but ranks are basically a shorthand to see how far you are within a given rank."

"The woman from before stated that I am a Copper Rank A."

"Yeah, that's partially because I sponsored you," I reply. "Normally, everyone starts out as a Copper-Class, Rank E."

"Is that how it was for you?"

"Yup, no sponsorships here," I say, puffing out my chest. "I climbed my way up from the very bottom, all by my lonesome."

Yahanaseara nods emphatically.

"But yeah, every Rank has five Classes to it, and you work your way up by completing requests. E to D to C to B to A..."

"And then you move on to a higher Rank from there?"

"Exactly," I reply. "Copper, then Silver and finally Gold."

"So you are very close to reaching the highest Rank."

"Technically, I guess?" I shrug.

"It is strange that they would rank them the way they did, though..."

Yahanaseara crosses her arms and her face scrunches up all adorable-like.

"I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could possibly rate gold as higher than silver. Or even copper, for that matter."

"Well it's just taken from coin denominations," I shrug. "Copper-ranked requests are paid in copper coins, Silver-ranked ones in silver, and so on."

Adventurers of any rank can technically accept any request, but most people end up sticking to requests of their own Rank or lower since clients hold the right of refusal.

"So that nonsensical monetary system is still in place..." Yahanaseara sighs. "What is it with humans and gold? Silver is infinitely superior to it in every conceivable way."

She holds her hand out in front of her and wiggles her slender fingers as if to show them off.

...oh yeah, I'd totally forgotten that her fingernails are painted.

With silver nailpolish.

"Much prettier a color than gold, is it not?"

"Uh, I guess?"

To be honest, I'd never even considered that the word "pretty" could describe a person's hands until this exact moment.

Because her hands are indeed very pretty.

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"Not to mention that channeling lightning through it is the simplest thing in the world," Yahanaseara nods to herself. "If channeling it through silver is like walking as we are now, then doing so through gold would be akin to swimming in mud."

"I... see?"

Okay... I thought that her silver preference might have been because of her hair color or something similar, but now it makes sense.

Elemental Sprits have different priorities from us puny humans.

"Anyways, thank you for explaining this ranking system to me, as frustratingly nonsensical as it may be."

"Eheh..."

After another nod of thanks, Yahanaseara calms back down and returns to her previous "quietly walking alongside me" state.

I have to admit, it was kind of cute to see her all worked up... not that it means all that much considering that she's never not cute.

Unfortunately, she remains quiet for the rest of our walk to the client's location so it's not like I get to enjoy any more displays of adorable eccentricity.

Said rendezvous point is fairly close to the town's borders, a wide clearing that's presently filled with about ten separate carriages of varying levels of craftsmanship. The more expensive-looking ones are pulled by what looks like the same breed of draft llamas as we have back home, with the rest being your typical Behemoth-drawn freight carriages.

There are people milling about here and there, so I'm going to assume that one of them is the client...

"Hey there."

I call out to the best-dressed person within my field of view, a middle-aged man who's leaning against one of the fancier carriages while anxiously looking up at the sky.

"Eh?"

He glances my way.

"...can I help you?"

Well that's a pleasant surprise, I was expecting a much ruder reception.

"I'm from the Adventurer's Guild," I say, holding up a sheet of paper I got from the receptionist before we left. "Is this the caravan that was headed to Hovora?"

"Ugh, thank God," the man heaves a long sigh. "I was getting worried that nobody'd accept the escort request and we'd be stuck here for yet another day."

He then pushes himself from the carriage he was leaning against and extends a hand to me.

"The name's Nils Ortmann," he says.

"Brigitte," I reply, swapping my staff over to my left hand in order to exchange a firm handshake.

"...Bri-"

He stares at me for a couple of seconds.

"Wait, you're a chick?"

A reaction that's as common as it is fucking annoying.

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

I do my best not to glare at him, but the way he's shrinking back implies that my efforts were fruitless.

Not that I care.

"N- no offense," the man stammers as he tries to reclaim some of his composure. "But you are aware that this is an escort mission, right? You'll be expected to not only watch out for dangerous animals, but also bandits..."

"I'm no stranger to escort missions," I reply, tapping the end of my staff against the ground. "I know what they entail."

"Then you're also aware that hiring adventurers as escorts is more about deterrence than actual battle?"

He gestures towards the two of us.

"Two girls aren't exactly going to scare off any roving bandits who happen to spot us," the man says. "Hell, they might actually be enticed to attack if they notice how pretty your partner here is."

My analytical mind knows that his words aren't intended to provoke, but for some reason I'm finding it really hard not to blow up at this guy.

Far be it from me to give in to such base urges, though.

"I'm also no stranger to fighting," I say, stuffing the Bad Thoughts into the back of my mind to deal with later. "And I've accompanied my mother on plenty of bandit extermination raids."

"Eh?"

His eyes widen.

"That's part of how I managed to reach Class B of the Silver rank as quickly as I did," I say, staring him right in the eyes. "Plenty of prior battle experience."

"Class B? Really?"

"Lying about adventurer rankings is grounds for expulsion from the Guild."

One of the Adventurer Guild's most basic rules, so much so that even people who've had no dealings with them are aware of it.

"Th- that is true..."

He finally averts his eyes, officially losing this little game of Chicken.

Just as the feeling of disgust was starting to overcome my anger.

Thank God.

"But since you're clearly not satisfied with the idea of hiring us," I say, turning away, "we'll be taking our leav-"

"Wait!!"

Stopping midstep, I glance back at the would-be client.

"I really really really didn't mean to offend you, miss! Please understand!"

Despite his deep bow, I'm still too annoyed to gain any satisfaction from this gesture of submission.

"We REALLY need to ship out as soon as possible, so please accept our escort request!"

"........."

Wordlessly, I turn to Yahanaseara and feign being deep in thought. She's quick to play along, replying to my gesture with a nod.

"Fine," I say. "But you'll be paying us double."