Demon Queened Ch. 13

"And then there's your skin. You've seen enough light to have a healthy color, but you obviously haven't spent enough time in the sun to get any damage from it. Hell, I don't see a single blemish anywhere, and no offense, but you're showing quite a bit."

That might be an even bigger problem, as I had no idea how to fix it. Doing enough damage to myself to leave a permanent mark would raise far too many questions in the tower, and I wasn't entirely sure that I could be scarred to begin with.

"But the biggest give away is your hands," Denden continued, giving them a meaningful glance. "I've never seen hands that smooth. Even nobles generally have a couple of calluses, just from sword training, or gripping their horse's reins, or maybe playing an instrument. You've got to be one of the most pampered women in the world to have hands like that. Most people probably wouldn't spot that, but like I said, if you know what to look for it's the ultimate tip-off."

"So there really is no hiding it..." Of course, it wasn't impossible to disguise the tells he'd revealed to me. I could cover most of my skin, wear gloves, dirty myself up, and find some excuse for my strained speech, but doing all that would only make me stand out in a different way, not to mention the questions it would draw from Lucy.

"Not really, no." Denden shrugged, sitting back in his chair. "Now, I've answered your question - are you going to answer mine?" There was an intense look in his eyes, implying that he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Certainly, so long as you cease these attempts at intimidating me." I matched guild masters stare with one of my own. Denden had given me valuable information, and I intended to respond in turn as best I could, but that didn't mean I would let him bully me. I needed to put my foot down here and now, for the sake of our future interactions.

The guild master looked away, ending our impromptu staring competition. When he turned his head back to face me there was displeasure evident in his lowered brow, but the pressure from before was nowhere to be found.

I dipped my head in acknowledgement. "As it happens, I am joining for the sake of a friend, as I wish to join her in her adventures. I won't give you her name - I doubt you'd believe me, and you'll discover it soon enough anyway."

"I see." The terse response did nothing to hide Denden's doubt, but I made no attempt to defend myself. Technically Lucy was more of an acquaintance at this point, but since she herself seemed determined to befriend me, I was certain she'd happily corroborate my statement. She might even be excited to find out that I'd referred to her in such a way.

An image of Lucy, jumping for joy and squealing about friendship popped into my head, causing me to chuckle, and then blush when I noticed Denden's bewilderment. I lowered my head and coughed into a fist, trying to hide my face until it could return to its natural color.

"If that is all," I said, head still downturned, "then I think it's time we moved onto paperwork."

Denden scrutinized me for a moment longer, but by the time I'd recovered myself enough to look up at him, he'd already moved on. I watched as he drew a piece of paper from his desk drawer, followed by a thin booklet bound by thread. "I'll fill out everything for you. Just tell me how I should write your name, and give me your height. Usually someone would give you an overview of the guild rules, but it'll be faster if you just read them over for yourself.

I nodded, taking the booklet. The words Guild Rules were written in large black letters upon its front.

"E-E-N-A. Five foot four." I carefully opened the pamphlet to its first page, choosing not to look at Denden's expression. I was, perhaps, a little on the small side, though I hated to admit it. If he was amused by that, then I didn't want to see it on his face.

Reading the rules, I quickly discovered that the code of conduct was surprisingly lax, and could mostly be summed up as 'don't cause problems for the guild'. Doing so could get you ousted from the branch you'd troubled, though it wouldn't get you banned from the organization itself. I intended to ask Denden why that was, but as I read further the reason became quite clear. The individual guild halls didn't generally communicate with one another. Those located within this kingdom sent reports to a central branch in the capital city, which in turn passed information on to an international headquarters in another country. There was no efficient method of disseminating information, so banning someone was virtually impossible. Even if you managed to track them down and take away their guild card, they could simply apply all over again in a new location. As such, they viewed any criminal activity as the government's purview.

I skimmed through the rest, noting information about time limits on requests, fines for failure, and the process of taking a request. It was apparently uncommon for adventurers to be literate, as the system had been designed with those who couldn't read in mind. The guild used a multitude of standardized stamps to show the nature of the request. They also listed numbers, 1-6, to rank its difficulty. The adventurer could use that information, combined with the listed reward, to pick out flyers that looked interesting and then bring them to a receptionist. An adventurer could take any request they desired, regardless of its rank. If they bit off more than they could chew, then they would simply have to learn from it. Assuming they survived, of course.

Other than that, the most pertinent information was the requirements for becoming an adventurer. It wasn't as easy as I'd hoped it would be. While anyone could join the guild by filling out the paperwork and paying the five virtue fee, I would have to start out as a "rookie," rather than a full-fledged adventurer. The former could only take a request when accompanied by the latter. Rookies would first need to earn two stamps, bycompleting two successful missions with an adventurer escort. They could only take gathering requests for the first of these, but the second was unrestricted.

After they'd accomplished that, you could become a full adventurer by paying the membership fee, which consisted of one saint. That was quite a large sum from my understanding, mind you, and a further stipulation stated that they had to earn it all via adventuring work. Since individual guild branches didn't share information, you had to stay with a singular branch from start to finish.

The entire thing sounded like a massive headache. I would have considered abandoning the idea altogether in favor of simply asking Lucy to let me accompany her, if it wasn't for a single paragraph at the booklet's end, which mentioned guild cards being a valid form of identification when traveling.

I would have prayed, hoping that Lucy would be willing to help me with some of the more lucrative requests, if only there was someone in heaven worth praying to.

"Rookie card's finished," Denden informed me, once I'd closed the booklet. "Fee's five virtues." He placed a small card upon the edge of the desk closest to me. While the full-membership cards supposedly utilized a special type of paper, this one was made of the same flimsy stuff as the booklet. It was, to my surprise, done in the same handwriting as the pamphlet I'd just read.

The word 'rookie' was written at the top, and Denden had signed it at the bottom. In the center, it listed my fake name, the color of my eyes and hair, and finally my height. Seeing a written record of how short I was made me wish I'd thought to lie. It wasn't as if Denden had a way to measure me.

Cursing my own honesty, I placed the required virtues on the desk, and was about to pick up the card when Denden placed an identical card beside it, along with a small inkpot. "Dip your thumb in that, then use your magic to remove most of it - you just want enough to barely coat your skin. Then press your thumb against the right hand corner. Do the same for the other one, too; we'll keep that copy at the guild. We check that whenever you complete a request. Helps cut down on card thefts.

I stared at the guildmaster, surprised at seeing a concept I knew from Jacob's memories being put to use like this in Solla, but did as asked after regaining my composure.

"Alright, then," Denden said, picking up one of the cards, and handing me the other. "Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild, rookie. Let me show you out."

"Thank you, Denden. Or should that be Guild Master, now?" My tone was light, but Denden's lips didn't so much as twitch in the face of my teasing.

"I'd prefer Guild Master when you're talking about me around others. Use whatever you'd like in private." Stating such, he walked past me and out the door. I followed close behind him, down the stairs and out to the front, where I once again I had eyes on me. I didn't bother listening to the words they whispered amongst themselves as I headed for the exit. The overlapping conversations were little more than white noise to me, so long as I didn't hone in on any one of them.

I was reaching for the door when it suddenly swung outward, revealing a young woman. Her upper body was covered in metal armor, colored gold and black. Whoever made it for her must have done so with her measurements in mind, as it was shaped to accentuate her curves. Gold painted pauldrons topped her shoulders, while similarly decorated bracers and greaves protected her arms and legs. She wore a leather skirt made up of black strips and golden studs. Her left hand was protected by a gauntlet, and a large sword was buckled to that same side. She had red hair, and orange eyes, which were opened wide.

"Eena?" Her voice was barely a whisper, a far cry from what I'd normally expect from her. I was sure she'd make up for it, though, just as soon as she recovered from her shock.

"Hello, Lucy. It's good to see you." I felt my lips pulling into a smile as I spoke. I had come early specifically so that I could settle in before our scheduled rendezvous, but I didn't mind. I was happy to see her, if only because I'd spent the day amongst people who wanted me gone.

From the smile on Lucy's face, it seemed that the feeling was mutual.

***Author's Commentary***

Hey there! I know I don't usually do much of an "author's commentary" on my chapters, but I think this one warrants it, seeing as it represents a bit of a landmark (at least from my perspective).

On top of Lucy being back in the mix -- yay! - there's the fact that we're finally at the adventurer's guild! Which I guess basically translated to, "Kay gets to do an exposition dump!" I hope you can forgive me for it, though -- believe it or not, I did my best to leave a fair bit out, in favor of bringing it up when the info becomes relevant. I actually planned out the basics of the guild's system and rules quite a while back, and have tweaked it several times since. I wanted to make something both functional and unique, so quite a bit of planning went into it!

We also got a peek at what Devilla's childhood was like, here. Her past is another thing I've spent a lot of time on, but I honestly didn't expect it to come up here -- it's just where the story ended up going. I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that we'll be expounding upon this, and several other key events, over the course of the story. Just the occasional glimpse, here and there, for the time being, but long term... Well, you'll see. :D

Anyway, the next chapter will actually be an interlude. It'll be labeled chapter 13.5, and it will be written from Abigail's perspective, as she continues her quest for peppermint oil! Please look forward to it~

I'd like to thank to my editor paradoxicalWitchling and my proofreader FallingLeaf, for all their hard work, and I'd like to thank my readers! Your views, favorites, and comments bring me so much joy!