I am so absorbed in these thoughts that I don't even notice the town wall in front of me. The town guards look down on me, but they don't raise any alarm; apparently a lone traveling human running in at night isn't a cause for much concern.
"You there! Back away from the walls, we are closed until morning. Be warned however, there are orcs nearby, wait some distance away and return tomorrow."
[Well, that seems rather dangerous, they would rather send a traveler off into the night with orcs that they believe to be nearby than just let him in? Crap guards… in my opinion, I suppose.]
Still, I have a better response for him than to turn away meekly. "Actually, I am the adventurer hired to deal with those orcs; and in fact, I already have."
He is silent for a moment before calling down "Oh? May I request proof of these claims?"
"Sure," is my response as I take an air-infused leap off of the ground and land atop the wall.
If he is surprised at my approach, he conceals it well; instead, he only asks "The evidence?"
"Well, first I have the job request," I say, handing it to him. "As for proof of their destruction, I'm afraid that I didn't take any trophies. However, if you go a few miles due east, you will find the charred remains of their camp, with some burnt corpses among them."
He looks it over, and then asks to see my guild identification, which I obligingly provide.
I'm not sure what exactly it is that he is looking for, but he seems to like what he sees. "This appears to be in order, I'll take your word on the destruction of the orcs."
[Really? I thought for sure he would make me stay until morning and make me lead a party to verify my claims. Perhaps there actually are perks to being a B-rank adventurer, I can only assume that this trust comes due to me being a rather highly ranked member of the guild. Though one must really question why that one town governor had the audacity to even lie to a B-rank adventurer, much less his other sins against me which I generously relieved him of alongside his material wealth.]
"Well, in that case, where can I go to receive the quest reward?"
"Considering the circumstances, I see no problem letting you in, you can stay at an inn until tomorrow, the quest was issued by the town defense headquarters, if you go there tomorrow you can receive your reward."
To this, I shake my head, saying "My apologies, but that will not work. I need to return to the kingdom's capital as soon as possible, I don;t have time to spend the night here."
While it seems a bit rude, this is the truth; I have a ticking bomb hanging over my head in the form of the ever looming threat of Lector, if he were to return to me tomorrow before I can get the name removed and took all my possessions and skills, how foolish would I feel? No, I need to be stripped of my name as soon as possible, even if leaving tonight instead of tomorrow morning only pushes my naming forward by a few hours, it is still something that needs to be done.
After thinking for but a moment, the guard replies, saying "Follow me, then, I'll see if I can arrange the meeting now." The guard then leads me down a flight of stairs into the town proper, and down several streets until we reach a building with a shut door and no light coming through its windows; it is at this building we stop.
The guard raps three times upon the sturdy, plain wooden door (its finer details hidden from me in the night), and after a moment it is opened a crack. Once the man within has seen the guard at his door, it is opened fully, displaying his tall, heavily muscled figure. An unconstrained aura of power emanates from him, at least on par with what mine would be were I too release it, and I am quickly forced to question why this man couldn't handle the orcish infestation on his own.
"Elrefson, why are you here at this hour? And who is this with you? You know that troublemakers are to be left in cells until the morning when I can go and look over the situation, not brought to me at any hour of the night."
[Troublemaker? Who is he calling 'troublemaker'?!] I am about to voice my annoyance when the guard, Elrefson, explains the situation.
"Yes, I am aware of the protocols; however, this is the adventurer the town defense headquarters hired, he says that he must be on his way immediately and cannot wait until tomorrow to receive his pay."
"Receive his pay? Wait, so is the mission to take out those orcs already complete?"
Before my escorting guard can answer, I say "Yes, the orcs have been entirely annihilated, down to the last man."
He turns to me and eyes me up and down. "It was you who defeated those orcs?" he questions, a thin edge of doubt in his voice.
"Yes, it was. I accepted the request from the guild to deal with them, and so I have." [Why are these people so doubtful towards me? While I would not have been surprised to lose to that group, especially if I were to challenge them with naught but my own inferior brute force, it is not as though it is all that surprising either. While I am of lower level and lesser skills (at least most of them) that what is considered standard for a B-rank adventurer, that quest still wasn't that difficult.]
"Can I see your guild identification and the request, as well as any material evidence of your victory?"
[Take trophies from defeated foes, especially when they are defeated out of sight of others; noted. Seriously though, this is the second person to ask for material evidence of the orcs' destruction, as if a B-rank adventurer would lie to get the reward. The penalty from the guild alone would be astronomical, they'd probably kick out any adventurer who did such a thing for tarnishing the guild's reputation.]
As I think this, I hand over the requested documents, and give an apology for not collecting any evidence of their conquest.
I half expect him, just as I expected the guard beside me, to demand material evidence; however, he isn't dumb enough to try to insult me in such a way, I guess our mutual understanding that it will be checked at some point and my career will be over if I am lying is sufficient evidence. Of course, I have nothing but joy over this development; the sooner I return to the city, the better.
The defense department higher up then dismisses the guard, who leaves without complaint. [This place is certainly governed far more competently than that village] I observe.
Once he has left, I ask the man's name, to which he replies "My name is Gordier, and, as I'm sure you have surmised, I am in charge of the defense of this town of Samsten. It was I who approved the hiring of an adventurer to deal with our orc problem. Now, please come along, we are to go to the headquarters of our department of defense, the money set aside for you is waiting there." Saying this, he immediately begins to lead the way without waiting for a reply. Hurrying along, I can't help but question why he couldn't just pay me from his own pockets and reimburse himself from the set-aside fund tomorrow, allowing me to leave sooner and him to return to be; however, this is an question to which I can have no answer but my own assumptions, and it is not of enough import to ask, so I keep my mouth shut regarding this matter.
Still, there is one question that I simply must ask. "Sir Gordier, if I may ask, why was I hired at all? It would appear to me that you are more than sufficiently strong to deal with the orcs."
"Yes, perhaps I am, at least from the perspective of personal level and skill within one's own area of strength. However, we knew that they had an orc mage with them on par with a B-rank adventurer in might from their first long-range attack, and I am incapable of magic myself. Perhaps if I were to lead the entire town guard against their force, we could have won; however, it was determined that the cost would be too high, so we chose to hire you instead."
[Ah, I see; he is like Reinhart, then, a capable warrior, but unable to surpass the expansive gap between the might of those who can employ magic and those who cannot. Of course, Reinhart had his sword to negate the gap, and was far stronger than this man, he would have had no issue with this assignment.]
"If I may ask a question of my own," he asks following a brief pause, a time in which the only sound is our footsteps on the gravel pathway, "what level are you? I have met many B-rank adventurers in my time, and you have one of the least oppressive auras out of them."
"Hm? Well, I am level 40, perhaps a bit below the standard B-rank adventurer, yes. However, I think that the greater cause of my weaker aura is that I often keep it retracted so as not to frighten off weaker opponents and not to induce fear or worry in my allies."
"Ah, I see. Yes, I often do the same, it's just that most adventurers tend to keep it active when doing a job as a show of strength to their hirer, I didn't realize you were not doing the same, that is all."
[So the looks and words of doubt earlier were simply caused by me not following an unwritten operational convention of adventurers to show off their strength to induce confidence in whoever hired them? My, there really is still a lot for me to learn about this world.]
We come to a large, rounded building made of stone bricks. Gordier unlocks the door with a key drawn up from somewhere upon his person before leading the way inside.
Within is a rather small room with a desk and a single door on each of the walls adjacent to the one we entered. One of the doors, the one to the right, is clearly labeled 'prison,' and the other, the one to the left, is unmarked; again, I am grateful for my enhanced vision.
Thankfully, we take the latter door, showing once and for all that this place is different from that first village which had had the audacity to imprison me in the governor's own home. We walk down the hallway that lies beyond until Gordier comes to a halt; he then pulls out another key and opens the door, leading into a candle-lit room with a large safe.
He asks me to look away, and I oblige as he opens it. Once I hear it close again, I turn to him to find a small cloth sack, with a tag labeled 'orc assignment' on it, in his hand, already held out towards me. I take it from him, and unlike in that village, I do not count the coins; I trust him at least enough not to cheat me out of what I am owed.
We are both silent as he leads me from the building all the way to the city gate, which is promptly opened upon his command. "Are you sure you don't want to spend the night here?" he asks, demonstrating the minimal amount of customary politeness to persist in this world.
For a moment, I consider saying that I do, just so I can see the look upon Gordier's face upon the realization that he was forced to get up in the middle of the night for no reason at all; however, that would be the type of foolishness that comes with consequences, and as such it falls under that category of behavior which I have recently sworn off in my own best interests. So, of course, I turn down his offer. And then, finally, I am on my way.