"A bodyguard?" I echoed. Mr. Forsyth nodded his head.
"Because of our position, we can't rely on Cathy forever. The twins were the ones that came up with the idea, but we intend to raise our reputation through their efforts as adventurers. However, they're still on the low end. Status plates are expensive, so they can't check their strength until they're around B rank. For now, I want you to protect them until they can reach that goal."
"Status plate?" I muttered. I turned to Mr. Forsyth and had an idea. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work out, but it had the possibility of making me rich, "How much are you willing to pay me?"
"5 gold a month," Mr. Forsyth told me.
"10 gold a month," I quickly said. Mr. Forsyth grunted, shocked by my audacity, but I wasn't done talking, "And I'll train them myself."
"Train them? How? You're low-leveled," Mr. Forsyth said. I chuckled, then pointed to my eye with my index finger.
"I have the appraisal skill," I quickly said with confidence. Everybody in the carriage shouted in surprise, "If you hire me, you'll never need to use a status plate again. How about it? Ten gold a month sounds decent for that price, doesn't it?"
"How do you have the appraisal skill? That's lost magic!"
"Call it an Aureys family secret," I chuckled. However, once I heard the term 'lost magic', I slowly started to panic. Mr. Forsyth sighed, then crossed his arms and nodded.
"Glad to be doing business with you," I smiled. I turned to the twins, then introduced myself. The two of them stared at me with shocked expressions and went silent. I was left to talk to Mr. Forsyth, who had more questions than I had answers.
A few minutes later, we arrived at the front of the line, I heard a loud knock on the door, but already understood that it was one of the guards knocking on the door for a checkup.
Jonathan opened the door, then immediately walked out of the carriage. The others moved out as well, each of them standing up individually before walking out of the carriage. No words or orders were exchanged between the guard waiting at the door of the carriage and the Forsyth family.
Once it was Icarus's turn to get off of the seat and walk out of the carriage, he did so while looking around in a confused daze. I followed after him, making sure to keep him close to me to not get lost. Once I got out of the carriage, I glanced at the guard and noticed he was already staring at Icarus with an unsurprising expression of shock.
"Please, continue," I told him, shaking him away from his trance. The guard looked to me, then to Icarus. His eyes widened as he realized our relationship. Then he opened his mouth and tried to speak, but his voice shook as it escaped from him.
"R-right," The guard managed to say. He looked to the Forsyths, then turned back to me. Then, after he took a few moments to regain his confidence, he opened his mouth to speak once more, "If you'll all follow me. We just need to do a personal check while the other guards search the carriage. It's only protocol, so we'll do our best to make sure everything is left exactly as it was before."
I nodded, then followed the guard as he turned around and walked away from the carriage. As we walked, I turned my eyes back to the carriage to see a few other guards inspecting it from all angles. A few of them walked inside the carriage itself while holding small iron rods with a strange blue crystal on the end.
As we walked away from the carriage, I took a moment to look at our surroundings. We were in a large tunnel that was only as long as a carriage but wide enough to hold three. And true to it's size, I saw three carriages including the Forsyth's being inspected. There were around thirty guards in the tunnel working as inspectors while a few others were bringing the carriage's owners through small doors on either side of the tunnel. Both ends of the tunnel were as bright as the morning sun, so I couldn't see the details of the city that waited for us on the inside of the walls.
The guard brought us to one of the doors that a few other guards had led another family to. When the guard opened it, he swung it wide enough to allow everybody to move comfortably through the opening, but Icarus and I were among the last to go in.
While we were waiting for the group to walk through the door, the guard turned in my direction and turned to Icarus.
"Did you really tame that thing?" The guard asked. Though he didn't mean it, I was slightly offended by his question. I looked down at Icarus, then held out my hands. Icarus only needed to look at me for a moment before he suddenly sprang into my arms. Icarus gripped onto my biceps before curling his neck around my shoulders as I carried him comfortably.
"That thing has a name," I told the guard as I walked through the open door. I turned away from the guard as I spoke, but I felt Icarus turn his head to look at the guard and give a low growl. The guard stared at Icarus for a moment before once again taking a moment to overcome his trance. He walked through the door and closed it behind him.
"Now that you're all here, we can begin," The guard said as he walked to the center of the large room. As I looked around the room, I saw that most of it was bare. Other than a large table in the center of the room, it was empty. All of the Forsyths were already waiting near the table, already prepared for the personal inspection. The guard turned to me and pointed to the table, "Anything metal or magical you have on you goes here."
"But everything I'm wearing is magical," I told the guard. All five of the people in the room, including the guard, looked at me in shock, "Do you want me to strip naked?"
"If your suit is enchanted, then just put anything metal onto the table," The guard sighed after he quickly accepted the truth behind my words. I nodded, then walked to the table and stood next to it in silence. The guard looked to me, confused once more, and asked, "Go ahead. Metal objects on the table."
"I don't have anything metal on me," I told the guard. Then I looked down at Icarus in my arms and slowly set him on the table, "Or do dragon scales count?"
"It's fine. Just stand near the wall," The guard sighed again. I nodded and moved to the side of the room and watched the Forsyths complete the inspection on their own. A few of the family members brought out metal jewelry such as bracelets or necklaces, while Mr. Forsyth brought out a seven inch knife from his boot.
Considering his occupation, I wasn't surprised to find him carrying a knife the size of a short sword in his boot. Then, after all of the metal objects were removed from their bodies they began to pile magical items on the table. However, due to the rarity of that type of item, only Abigail had placed anything on the table.
"That's all?" The guard asked. The four Forsyths nodded. The guard took a clipboard from a hidden compartment under his side of the table, then began to jot down a few scribbles on the paper that was already attached. Once the guard finished writing whatever he was writing, he turned to the Forsyths and asked their names.
He listened carefully for each of their names and jotted it down to the best of his ability. Then he turned to me and asked me the same question.
"Arthur Aureys," I told the man. The guard looked to me and cocked his head.
"How do you spell that?" The guard asked.
"A-U-R-E-Y-S A-R-O-S," I said, carefully sounding out each letter so the guard could accurately write it down on the paper.
"Are you a citizen of Hewe?" The guard asked. Hewe was the name of the city they were in, and it was a question that he had already asked the four Forsyths.
"No," I answered.
"Do you intend to become one?" The guard asked, his eyes refusing to drift away from the paper in front of him.
"I don't know yet," I told the guard, "I guess it depends on my purpose."
"Okay. What is the purpose of your visit?" The guard asked.
"I'm a bodyguard," I told the guard. However, as I spoke, the guard looked at me with skepticism.
"Huh," The guard said as he finally turned away from the paper. He looked to me with a concerned expression, then turned to the Forsyths, "Okay, now I just need to scan the magical tools you brought with you. Arthur, I'll have to scan your entire body, considering you're wearing a full set of magical equipment."
"That's understandable," I nodded. The guard turned back to the table, then pulled a metal rod with a crystal on the top from another hidden compartment under his side of the table. The guard held the metal rod over the items on the table, hovering it in a way to allow the blue crystal direct overhead access to the items he was scanning.
As the metal rod made it's way over the table, I heard a faint buzz. The scan only took about a minute. Then, while the Forsyths were working to put their items back in their correct pockets, the guard walked to me with the scanning rod in hand.
"Stand," The guard said. I stood up. Then the guard held his hands to his side and hovered them flat in the air. I didn't even need instruction to understand the guard's intentions. I held out my arms, then watched as the guard spread his heels apart. I did the same as him, paying close attention to the distance between my heels. Then, once my pose was correct, the guard began to hover the scanning rod over my entire body.
Now that it was closer than before, I was able to easily hear the faint buzzing noise that the rod made. It was a very annoying sound, more so than anything else I had ever heard before. I was grateful that the noise wasn't too loud, as it was easy to understand why somebody would want to destroy it if it got louder.
"Good," The guard said as he backed away from me. He looked into my eyes, a stern look on his face, "Don't eat anything for four hours. The rays that come from a scanning rod can be very dangerous if they're combined with fresh nutrients."
"Should I be concerned about anything else?" I asked. The guard shook his head.
"Nope. Piece of advice, though. If you need medical help, seek out Doctor Swansea in the northern district. He'll get you a good price for good service," The guard said. I thanked him, then followed the Forsyths out of the room while Icarus followed behind me.
"That wasn't so bad," I said. Mr. Forsyth turned to me, then shook his head.
"Don't take the guard's warning lightly. If you get sick from scanning rays, there is no way in hell you'll survive. It's 100% fatal," Mr. Forsyth told me, "That's why it's common practice to perform the scan away from the body, despite it being faster while everything is still on."
"Oh," I said, "That's not good news."