Chapter 34: Chapter 31 – Scarlet’s Sweet Home

"Oh, did you make more than you expected?"

Lucy asked me as I returned to her counter. Despite my best efforts, I hadn't been able to suppress the smile that crept on to my face.

Combining the earnings from the request as well as the corpses I sold, I made over seven silver plates. It seemed like the condition for the hornbulls I brought were considered especially good, and they liked the fact that I drained the blood beforehand.

Well, the latter bit was especially convenient for me.

"I did. I'm surprised how much you can make at D rank"

Glancing back at the request wall, there was an obvious wall in pay between D rank and the ranks below it. Even most E rank requests gave little more than two or three silver coins for the standard reward, yet the D rank request I took gave more than five times that at base. The lower ranks were even worse, but C rank wasn't that much higher than D rank, with most requests being about five silver plates at base.

Maybe the materials were worth relatively more at the higher ranks?

"For me, I was surprised you finished the job so quickly. Usually that request takes the better part of a day to finish"

"Huh? Really?"

It wasn't hard to find the monsters, since it was the plains, and they weren't the type that would take a long time to beat. Weak people would simply lose rather than take a long time to fight a monster like that.

"That's right. Since you have to go so far out to find hornbulls, most people take a while to make the trip. Though the fact that you have a magic bag would speed things up, I didn't expect it to be that fast"

"Really? I just ran the way though"

"*sigh* I suppose that just shows how strong you are. Most people would walk. Only a fool would rush and reach a fight while tired"

Lucy looked away while giving off that sigh, like she was thinking of a particular example.

(Erk!)

I couldn't help but feel that she was talking about me in particular despite the lack of an accusatory tone.

"Ummm, anyways, the library..."

"Ah yes, please come with me"

Without looking like she noticed the forced change in topics, the receptionist got up and waved me to follow her.

We took the door we used earlier for the examination, but instead of going down, we went up to the second floor, down a simple hallway to the end, then entered a door to the side.

"Here's the library. You can read anything you want from the shelves"

"But make sure you put it back when you're done"

A voice called out from beside the door.

There was an old man with a long, grey beard sitting at a simple desk working on some documents.

"This is Honorius, one of Branch Guild Master Strongear's assistants and the one in charge of the library"

"Just don't make a mess or damage anything"

He didn't even look up when he talked and instead concentrated on the wooden slate in his hands.

"Don't mind him, he's always like that"

I carefully nodded before taking a look at the room.

In front of me was a simple table with two chairs against the wall. The opposing wall was covered in bookshelves, but the shelves themselves was mostly filled with things other than books.

What predominantly filled the shelves were wooden slates, many of which were bound together with cords.

Maybe those were supposed to be cheaper alternatives to books?

"If there's anything you need, you can ask Honorius or find myself downstairs"

"Preferably go find the lass"

"Erm, well, enjoy yourself"

With a nod, Lucy closed the door and left me with the grumpy old man, who proceeded to just ignore me.

Doing my best to avoid worrying about him, I made my way to the bookshelves and poked through what was available.

 

"Miss Scarlet?"

I jerked my head up. Lucy was standing at the door.

When I turned my head around, the old man was still hunched over at his desk.

(Did he move even once since I got here?)

"What's up?"

I turned back to the receptionist.

"The guild facilities will be closing soon. I thought you would like to know"

"Huh? Already?"

I looked through the window, but the way the shadows fell on the buildings outside suggested it was still a little while before dusk. Even then, this place was illuminated with magical lamps, so the sun's position hardly made much of a difference.

"That's right. The secondary facilities will be closing soon with only the guild hall being open from here on"

"Ah, alright"

She sounded apologetic, but I just nodded. If that was how they operated, then who was I to argue?

"Have you already found a place to stay the night, or do you need a recommendation?"

"Ah no, I'll be fine"

Renting a room would rouse suspicion for a person who couldn't sleep like me.

"I understand"

"Thanks for the help today. I'll be back tomorrow"

"Thank you as well, and I hope to see you again tomorrow"

As Lucy left, I got up and put away the wooden slate I was reading, then headed out to the streets, the little spirits following silently the entire time. Despite the periodic mana treats I was giving them, they were completely bored while I we were in the library.

 

As I wandered around aimlessly, I thought about the library.

When I first picked up a book, admiring the material and craftsmanship on it alone ended up taking a lot of time.

The book's cover was made from a thick leather with a fancy design on both sides, and the pages were thick and stiff, completely unlike paper. I suspected it was made from parchment, but that was a type of leather right? No wonder books were expensive if the hundred or so pages of a single book were made from sheets of leather.

If you couldn't get leather en mass like I could in the dungeon, then a single page would be worth a decent handful of coins. Even that presumed that any ordinary leather could be used to make parchment, which I had a feeling wasn't true.

Not only that, but the writing and drawings on it was all done by hand. The amount of labour just to make one book was staggering. No wonder the typical D rank would only be able to buy a single book a year with their savings.

The book itself though was filled with information about all sorts of monsters.

Being able to put names to things I had fought was nice, though two thirds of the entries were things I had never seen before, I did my best to store the names and descriptions in my head for future reference.

After the big book, the wooden slates I picked up had all sorts of random pieces of information written on them. One was a broad overview of forms of physical combat, and another some basic chants for newbie mages.

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The first described common weapons and the standard way to use them, and the latter covered the four primary elemental magic. To my luck, I found a chant for a basic healing spell under [Water Magic]. The description sounded similar to the one that Lucy had used this morning, and was only good for closing wounds.

I immediately went to memorize the chant. Healing magic was the one big thing I currently lacked. Even though it was easy for me to heal myself, healing others was a big problem.

After that, I was reading a slate about some hero from a few ages ago. It seemed like he was working for the church as he went around slaying demons all over the place. The way the wooden slates described his adventures made him sound less like some epic hero of lore, and more like the church's handyman. Or maybe even their hit man. It always started with the church giving some sort of oracle or command, then the hero went off to wherever the trouble was, and slew the creature that was rampaging around.

It was a bit of a slog to read, so I was a bit glad that Lucy interrupted me and gave me an excuse to drop the entire thing.

There were still plenty of books and wooden slates to read, so I was looking forward to spending another day being able to do something I hadn't been able to do for the last three years.

"No! We won't go!"

"Hey now, just do what your elders say"

"No! We need to go home!"

"And I'm telling you we'll take you home"

"We can go home on our own!"

Suddenly the sound of yelling reached my ears.

Before I knew it, I was in a narrow alley and there weren't anyone around.

My level was high, but being in such a place was still a bit hard on my nerves.

"Just do what I say!"

"Hey now, just be good kids and you'll get a nice treat"

But the yelling was getting louder. It didn't quite sound like a fight, but it didn't sound good. The fluffballs were getting really agitated, and were urging me to do something. Not like I needed them to prompt me.

I quickly followed the voices around a corner and saw three men in thick clothes surrounding two dirty looking kids. One of the men grabbed one of the kid's arm and pulled her towards him.

"No! Stop it!"

The other kid tried to grab the man's arm, but another man raised a fist.

Without any time to lose, I spread out my mana and filled the alley with it. Then with a single thought, the mana turned into a thick mist that obscured everything.

"Wha?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Is it magic?!"

While I was blind, [Sense Presence] was more than enough for me to keep track of everyone's position as I rushed in between the group.

"Ghah!"

With a quick swing, I chopped the first man's arm, forcing him to let go of the girl's arm.

"Hold on"

I whispered into the kids' ears as I picked them up.

Maybe it was instinct or they were just that street savvy, but they wrapped their arms around my neck as tightly as they could when I grabbed their torsos.

With a quick kick, and use of [Float], I jumped up above the men's' heads, then I kicked off the wall and sailed over the group. Disengaging [Float], I landed a decent ways away, then took off in a sprint, relying on the little spirits to help me find a way away from those men.

 

A few minutes later, we made it back to the main street, filled with evening businesses calling out to the crowd as they passed.

"Hey, are you two alright?"

I asked the kids as I lowered them.

"I'm fine"

"Thank you miss"

The girl thanked me honestly while bowing her head, but the boy looked away while scratching his head. Frankly, putting aside how dirty they were, the two of them were both pretty cute. The boy was probably about five, and the girl four? Or maybe my guesses were wildly off.

The boy had floppy ears sticking out of his dark brown hair and a thick furred tail poking out from behind. The girl had triangular ears pulled back on top of her reddish orange hair and a bushy tail with a white tip was fiercely wagging behind her.

Now that I was looking at them properly, I saw that their clothes were hardly more than rags. It looked like little scraps of cloth sewn together to roughly make out the shape of outfits. Not only were they made from many different colours, but even the material and weave were different from one patch to the next.

"Do you need help getting home?"

"We're fine. We can get home by ourselves"

The boy looked directly at me, but the smaller girl looked down. I felt a light tug on my arm, and from the corner of my eye, the little girl's arm was stuck on my sleeve.

"How about we go to your home together?"

"We don't need your help!"

The boy stomped his foot, but I was sure the girl had a small smile on for a split second.

"Well, maybe you don't, but I've been wandering around by myself lately, so I've been feeling lonely. So do you mind if you two gave me company until we reach your home at the very least?"

The little spirits protested to my lie, but I ignored them for the time being, leaving a mental note to make it up to them later.

I extended a hand.

"In, in that case, fine. We'll accompany you so you won't be lonely"

With those words, the boy grabbed my hand, but he refused to look at me. On the other hand, I could see the tips of his ears grow red.

"Yay! We're going together!"

The girl on the other hand hugged my other arm wholeheartedly.

"It's this way"

The boy pulled on my hand and we took off through the main street, weaving in between the crowds as we headed west.

All sorts of people were yelling out their last calls before their stores closed up for the night, while other stores emitted scents of cooked foods of endless variety. The little girl stared at one store after another, occasionally swallowing her saliva before turning back to look forward again.

For me on the other hand, in my head I could tell that they smelled good, but my body only treated it like it was the scent of grass or something. I've long since gotten used to that dichotomy, but it didn't stop it from being annoying.

We continued to pass one store after the next, and as I thought we might end up at the western gates, the boy suddenly turned into a narrow street.

Less than a block down, he stopped in front of a large building. It was only three stories tall and didn't overhang over the street like the other buildings, but it was wider than the surrounding buildings.

The walls were worn down and had many cracks in them, but were well polished. There were many small windows, especially on the upper floors, and their open shutters were clean, many of them were slanted, and some were entirely missing. The front entrance had large, double doors made of wood, but they too were cracked.

Unlike the rest of the building though, the damage to them looked a bit unnatural, like they were recent, unlike the natural wear and tear the rest of the building suffered from.

But what made me really stop from taking another step towards the front doors was a large wooden plaque stuck above the entrance. It was made from a single large plank of wood, and words were lovingly carved into it.

But the plaque itself wasn't the problem, it was what was written on it.

[Scarlet's Sweet Home]

I could swear that my face was as red as my name implied it to be.

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