"That was amazing. I have never seen or heard someone cast healing magic without a chant before. Are you a saint?" Andri asked excitedly observing her healed hand. The newly appeared flesh and skin almost merged with the existing making it look like the wound never existed before.
"Nothing of that sort. A passing merchant from a foreign country." Airi with force refused all assumptions Andri made about her. She couldn't let rumors roam about her and what if Andri learned that she is partially a vampire. Airi was still not sure how people of this world would react to such kind of revelation.
It was better to make it sound like this was common feet achievable from where Yui and Airi came from. Andri had no reason to refuse but accept it having no knowledge of that place.
"Eat to your heart's content tonight. Today's dinner is on me." Andri says triumphally. She seemed truly happy after hearing the news of Airi and Yui's goal of becoming adventurers.
She wanted to be a part of that happiness and after Airi had skillfully shown her magic she had more reason to believe so and show her gratitude.
"Isn't it great to be an adventurer... I always wanted to be one myself but here I am a common girl doing ordinary chores." Andri gave a faint painful smile.
"Andri, I know why don't you join us on a mission when we become certified adventurers." Yui offered on seeing a dull expression on Andri's face.
"I would love to. But I don't possess the minimum skill to do so."
Turns out Andri did have a past with trying to become an adventurer. She was from a backwater town that was continuously being attacked by monsters. Her town's field crops were destroyed. She vowed to become an adventurer and came to this adventurer's town of Belka.
Flourishing with rising opportunities Andri was hopeful.
But later she got to learn the truth the hard way when she realized she had not any proper necessary skills to qualify to be an adventurer. And when she failed she decided to open this adventurer's inn for others to stay and a place traveling adventurers could call their ⸺home far away from home.
"There is only one thing I want from you two to always be careful with what you do. Promise me. I would hate to see you two get hurt on a quest or monster hunting." Andri put her hands on the table.
Painful memories came back to her. As she always saw small fledgling girl adventurers getting hurt easily. Sometimes they would be treated badly or even harassed by those with ill intent. Only making them quit this job.
Worst of all she had even witnessed several adventurer's death in the past from a very young age. Andri in no way was just being passionate but also dutiful as the manager of the inn and the in doing the host caretaker role for Yui and Airi.
"Yes, we promise." Yui and Airi held Andri's hand moist with her tears on the table as they looked at her with smiling faces.
"But only if you too promise that you will always be waiting for us with such good food to always serve." Airi finally made a permanent claim to her good dinner and was looking forward to it.
"I will… always."
Andri was glad to hear that what feelings buried inside of her were finally able to overflow and not withheld inside her. She could find new friends in Yui and Airi and there was also Mia to look after.
She had more work to do than cloud her mind with depressing thoughts and the past.
After the small celebration, Yui and Airi retired back to their room. For that night they had been tired and fill to the brim with food and chilled juice.
So, they decided to sleep together without getting intimate. After a goodnight kiss by Yui on Airi's forehead, they were deep asleep.
In the morning Yui and Airi woke up early and got dressed up after washing up. In the dine having breakfast with fruit salad and bread with mashed boiled potatoes they headed out for the guild building.
They were dressed in their adventurer's clothes and they attracted attention on the street for they were a sight to behold.
Airi searched for the man with the scar from yesterday and found him alone sitting at one of the reception desks. No one approached him as usual but Yui and Airi had no reservations.
"I see you two are back. So did you get what was required for you to complete the quest?"
"Yes, we do." Saying that Airi lay bare the five monster core stones of the horned rabbit.
The man gave a quick look and as if without caring about the number of stones he clapped his hands as if he already knew they were the original and not some fake.
Airi for a moment thought he might not be doing his job properly but she decided it was best to leave the work to the guild staff members to handle.
"Congratulations you two have passed the first adventurer test and have become provisional E-rank adventurers. Here is your adventurer card and please keep it safe as it has lots of perks and serves as your identity anywhere in the world."
Air and Yui look at their E-rank adventurer card handed to them labeled with their basic information and profile face.
It must have been a kind of magic to record their basic information installed at the gate as Airi could sense the magic field change every time someone passed through it.
But Airi and Yui still found it pretty strange since this was too quick to happen and get these prepared on their arrival. What if they had failed the test?
But for now, Airi and Yui were interested in taking more quests and ranking up moving as planned to explore dungeons and hunt more monsters.
***