Where am I?
As I opened my eyes, I saw a room's ceiling above me. I got up from the bed, confused. What happened? Was that a dream? Did I just dream about being falsely accused and then beaten up by the crowd?
I thought to myself because, surprisingly, I didn't have any injuries on my entire body, nor did I feel any pain.
"Oh, you're finally awake," a female voice said, clearly worried about something.
Who is she? I thought. She was quite beautiful, with long blue hair, and she was carrying a short sword, which made it clear that she was an adventurer. But why was she waiting for me to wake up?
Wait— I quickly checked my other side. No, no one was there. That meant she was talking to me.
"I'm sorry, but who are you? I don't think I recognize you," I asked her.
"Oh yes, I am Viola. How are you feeling? No pain or anything, right?" she asked me with a smile.
Pain? But wasn't I dreaming about that?
Then I saw him— the man who had frantically stood in front of me to protect me from the crowd.
I looked toward him but didn't manage to say anything.
Slowly, he came toward me and asked in a gentle voice, "H-How are y-you feeling?"
Wait, did he just stutter? But that wasn't the point right now. This man saved me from the crowd. I think I am alive because of him.
"Thank you so much," I said as tears started to fall from my eyes. "You saved me."
I looked toward him, thankful for what he did for me. That seemed to make him uncomfortable, as he didn't say anything in return.
"Don't mind his rudeness," the girl said. "He's just introverted. He can't talk to strangers," she said with a wry smile.
"Oh, he's awake!" someone said from the back. "Hey, buddy, how are you feeling?"
"Hi, I'm Eddy. Nice to meet you. And what's your name?"
"My name is Simon. I'm new to this town."
"Yeah, we know that because the group only targets newcomers and then blackmails them."
I looked toward my savior. I was about to ask him his name, but Viola answered my question before I could even ask.
"He's Barren, and as I told you before, he can't talk to strangers easily."
The man just smiled at me as if to agree.
"Hey, Eddy, did you really get targeted by those girls in the past?" the girl asked the new guy.
"No, never."
"But you said that back then."
"Oh, that was just a hoax. I was lying to control the situation."
Both Barren and Viola were shocked to hear that, but I was the most shocked. I just looked toward them, clear confusion in my eyes.
"Ah, wait, I think Eddy noticed my confused expression because he said, 'Let us explain what happened after you fainted.'"
"...."
"You stupid meathead! I said we will take this escort quest. Don't you understand me?!" the boy I saved just three months ago from the crowd yelled at me. Actually, he wasn't the only one yelling— I was also yelling back.
"You stupid birdbrain! We are only going to take the extermination quest. This one pays way more, which means we'll get more money individually."
Yeah, we'd been bickering for the last hour nonstop.
"Hey, stop that, you two," Viola said, now sitting in front of us. "You guys fight way too much."
"He's the one who's bickering!" I said to Viola.
That made it worse— we started quarreling even more.
"Girls, girls, you both are beautiful. Now stop this! It's been going on for way too long," Eddy said, standing up from his seat and coming to our side.
He was right, actually. I don't know why, but we fight a lot these days. And as for my introversion, it's starting to get thinner and thinner because of our adventures.
My stuttering isn't as bad as before when talking to people.
"We are taking this quest, and that's final," Eddy said in a firm voice.
"That's an investigation quest, and it's Silver rank, so that means it's going to be very hard."
Actually, if it had been three days ago, we wouldn't even have been able to take this quest because of guild rules. But three days ago, Eddy got promoted to Silver rank, and as for me, I got promoted to Gold-ranked adventurer. As for Simon and Viola, they are still Bronze-ranked.
"Yeah, so what? We can do it," Eddy said confidently.
And also it giving 400 more that means it 100 for each its practically made for us.
"Yeah, let's take it. The reward is also not that bad," Viola agreed. So I took the poster and started to read the details.
There is a mysterious spell mentioned in old literature that is rumored to resurrect dead people, and I think I know where we can find it. I did some private investigation on this spell, and I believe it's real. I need some adventurers to accompany me to the dungeon where I suspect it is. As for the difficulty, I think it would be no more than silver-ranked. The reward is 400 mora.
This quest was not posted by the guild but by an adventurer named Adlet Alder, so the guild does not take any responsibility for the quest details.
There are quests that the guild provides, and there are quests that normal people or adventurers post. There isn't a huge difference between them, but the quests provided by the guild pay more compared to the normal ones. Also, the guild-provided quests have clear instructions on what we have to do, whereas in individual quests, sometimes we have to do way more than what the poster says.
"...."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" I interrupted Barren in the middle of the story.
Barren looked toward me with a knowing smile.
"Did you just say Adlet Alder?" I asked, clear confusion in my tone.
"Yes," Eddy replied.
"But didn't the guild representative just name him as a Black Card Holder, like Kathleen? Are they the same person?"
"We don't know that, but I think they are the same because he was shady as hell," Simon answered.
"When we took the quest, we didn't know what would come out of it. If we had known what would happen next, we would never have taken that quest."
"It's because of me that we took that quest," Eddy said angrily.
"Don't do that. We all agreed to take it. That is not your fault, Eddy," Barren said with a firm voice. "We talked about this."
The room's atmosphere was as dense as possible from the suspense of the past.
I just looked toward Barren as if to say, Please continue.
And I think he understood that because he started tell rest of the story.
To Be Continued....