17:00, August 15th, 3691 Continental Calendar.
Yarran Continent, in the south, deep within the Neville Federation, lies the small town of Quinzel.
The last rays of sunlight from Hubert, the Sun God, still illuminate the earth while the figures of the three Moon Goddesses gradually rise from the horizon. The glow of the sun and moon illuminates the tranquil town, casting a mellow hue on its buildings.
The Neville Federation is the most commercially-developed country on the Yarran Continent, with a strong commercial atmosphere permeating everywhere, evident even in an ordinary town like Quinzel.
The town follows a layout common in the Neville Federation, with the busy market area at the center. Townsfolk sell their goods at the market stalls, where you can buy freshly caught fish from the river in the south, fresh vegetables harvested from the farms in the west, fruits with leaves still attached from the orchards in the east, foam-crested beer just brewed, homemade bread, smoked meat from beasts outside the town, and, with some luck, you can even find local products imported from other countries.
The Inner Ring, a circle of buildings surrounding the market area, are shops of all kinds. The clanging sound of metal hammers echoes from the weapon shops, while various fragrant herbs emanate from the drugstores, potions of different colors shimmering inside the alchemy shops, and magic pulses from the magic houses. With the tempting food in the restaurants and the noise from the taverns, traversing the Inner Ring is irresistible to passing travelers.
Across the Inner Ring, the Middle Ring of the town is divided into two parts. The institutions of the town's administrative bodies are on the eastern half, and the churches of various gods on the western half. Despite the Divine Barrier created by Yarra in the Fourth Epoch, which prevents deities from descending into the world, the churches, as representatives of the deities, still compete for believers.
The Outer Ring area belongs to the outer perimeter of the town, where all the townsfolk reside. Although it's somewhat chaotic compared to the other areas, it's also more replete with the atmosphere of life. Beyond the Outer Ring is a simple low, shoddy wooden wall. The purpose of the wooden wall is less about defense and more about marking the boundary of the town.
A road running north-south bisects the town. As dusk approaches, people hurry into the town along the road. From time to time, horse carriages or magic-powered motorbikes overtake the pedestrians, disappearing into the town.
As Hubert finally disappears in the sky, another carriage appears on the town's outskirts. The middle-aged townsman hired as the coachman has a leisurely look on his face. However, the atmosphere in the carriage isn't as relaxed; even from afar, the sounds of heated arguments can be heard.
"Claiming to be the best explorer in town, and yet you can't even detect traps or find hidden doors?" The challenger is a female knight, her shoulder-length black hair flowing freely, her tall frame encased in a suit of silvery chain mail that towers over most men. Her beautiful face takes on an authoritative look with her furrowed brows. "Do you realize that if our strength had been any weaker, we would have all died from the trap yesterday? Is this how you take responsibility for your comrades? Is this your professional ethic?"
"What a joke." The only short man in the carriage, discontent, retaliates, "Dismantling traps is obviously the job of a dismantler. Why are you blaming me? And I've been into that cave at least twenty times. I've never heard of the existence of any hidden doors. You all saw yesterday, we searched through the entire cave, there was no hidden door. You all were just messing around."
"While it's true that dismantling traps is a dismantler's job, detecting them is the responsibility of an explorer. It's explicitly written in the Adventurers Guild's handbook." The speaker is another young female priest. As she speaks, this priest, wearing light leather armor with a mace on her left hip and a silver law book on her right, pulls out a thick book from her backpack and shows a specific page. "Look, an adventurer team exploring ruins should consist of at least three people: a defender responsible for combat, an explorer responsible for environmental research including detecting enemies and traps, and a dismantler responsible for dismantling traps and opening paths. This is from the official guide of the Adventurers' Guild; it can't be wrong. And, see Omixios from 'Knight and Princess,' Oula from 'Hymn of Light,' Haines from 'The Destruction of the Destroyer,' Dak from 'The Destiny of Legends,' Nefarian from 'The Rise and Fall of the New Empire,' and Michelle from 'Legends of the Ancient Continent.' They're all excellent explorers. Which one of them ever said that detecting traps isn't their job?" With each name mentioned, the priest girl pulls out another book from her bag, quickly forming a tall pile.
The short man reveals an expression of terror as if he's just seen a ghost, looking at the pile of books in front of the priest girl in bewilderment and asking, "What... what... what are all these?"
"Books. What else could they be?" The priest girl carefully places each book back into her backpack like tending to a rare treasure. She then turns to him with an expression as if she were looking at an idiot, "You can't even recognize books? Anyway, the bottom line is this: whether it's from the guidelines prescribed by the Adventurers Guild or our previous teammates, you're unqualified. In our previous adventures, the explorer was responsible for detecting traps, and Vivian was responsible for solving them. Isn't that right, Vivian?" She pats the shoulder of a third girl in the carriage as she speaks.
"Huh? What have you been talking about?" The girl being patted, who appears to be only about eleven or twelve years old, looks confused. Her short, blue hair is parted on both sides and pulled into two small ponytails. She has big, round eyes full of bewilderment. This girl wears a blue dress made of workwear-like material with many small pockets distributed all over. A large blue backpack that she could just fit into if she curled up hangs from her back. She looks up at the sky in confusion after hearing the priest's question, "Ah, have we left the cave? How come it's not light yet?"
"Oh, God." The priestess girl covered her face with a shattered expression. "We're already back in town, and it's not that the sky is not brightened, but it's already dark. What on earth were you thinking all day! Oh, omnipotent Denia, please save this fool."
"I'm sorry, I've been thinking just now." Speaking of thinking, the girl's voice grew fainter and fainter until it vanished, apparently deep in thought again.
"You crazy lot." Seeing the carriage had entered the town, stopping in the town center, the man picked up his luggage and jumped off, "I've had enough of you all, even if you don't hurry, I won't work with you again."
"Stop." The knight girl also jumped off the carriage, standing menacingly in front of the man: "You're going to leave just like this?"
The man flinched at the girl's formidable aura, involuntarily stepping back a couple of steps, only then realizing he'd conceded ground, hastily swallowing and saying: "What is this, even if I didn't fulfil my duties, I've already quit, what more do you want?"
"At the outset, our recruitment requirement posted in Centre Square was to hire a Bronze Upper Rank adventurer, right?" The female knight kept a stern face, her tone firm, "We hired for ten days, paying daily wages of four gold coins. After your application, we advanced you three days of wages, correct?"
"No, not correct, what about it?" The man's voice turned somewhat nervous.
The stern expression on the female knight's face deepened; she took two more steps forward. Her imposing aura forced the man back until his back was against the carriage: "Because of your fault, the hiring agreement ended prematurely, so we have the right not to pay you the rest seven days of twenty-eight gold coins."
"I never wanted them anyway." The man seemed to heave a sigh of relief.
The female knight's usually tight lips turned upwards, her solemn face revealing a hint of dangerous amusement: "It's not over yet, all of this is based on you completing your tasks. However, the current situation is that you didn't fulfil your duties. According to the guild's regulations, if a hire fails the task due to their actions, we have the right to pay only half of the agreed wage, and if the hiree practises deception, we are right to withhold any wage. You are aware of this rule, aren't you?"
The man wiped away the cold sweat trickling down his forehead and coughed, retorting, "Ms Knight, you never stop raving about the knightly spirit, but being so petty about money, isn't it against the knightly spirit?"
The smile on the female knight's face remained. With no hint of hesitation in her voice, she extended her left hand towards the man. "Humility, honour, sacrifice, bravery, mercy, honesty, spirit, justice, seeking compensation for one's losses, does not violate any of the eight virtues of the knight. On the contrary, it embodies honesty and justice. Therefore, please return the twelve gold coins to us."
"I will not return them to you; you are just spouting nonsense. I never practised deceit." The man was thoroughly flustered, screaming aloud.
"Really? Are you saying that you are a Bronze Upper Rank Explorer?" sneered the female knight, extending her left hand even more towards the man. "If you insist, I can apply for arbitration at the adventurers' guild in the nearby city. Whether you're deceptive will be judged by the adventurer's guild. Rest assured, I'll cover the 100 gold coins for the arbitration application. Of course, you can also refuse. However, guild personnel will naturally decide in that case issues related to your adventurer qualification."
The man, as if stupefied, stared open-mouthed at the woman for a long time before angrily extracting a money bag and throwing it into the wide-open hand of the woman. He swiftly moved away from the woman as if avoiding a plague, mumbling angrily as he retreated, "Willing to spend 100 coins just to retrieve 12, crazy, all three are crazy. I'm so unlucky to meet these three crazy women."
Ignoring the man's exasperated words, the woman hurriedly opened the money bag, pouring out the twelve gold coins into her hands. She took the cloth she used for maintaining her armour, gently and lovingly polishing every single shiny golden coin one by one. She was entranced and unconcerned, her face shining with a joyful smile.