The Genius in the Smoking Room
We walked through the current of Adventurers, asking guards for directions while sometimes bumping into people, as we made our way to the guild.
"There are so many people here… We might get separated."
"Do you want me to hold your hand?"
"Don't be stupid, I'm not a child."
Damn it…I glare as Daniela laughs mockingly at me.
"Ah, but maybe I am close to a child, considering your age."
"I ought to punch you for that."
It was a surprisingly short trip, as long as you followed the main road and didn’t take any detours. We looked up at the giant building in front of us and saw a sign that read: Grand Guild.
I suppose it meant that this was not just any guild. Perhaps it was an elite facility with welfare and other benefits. Even the gate was extravagant with its double doors. Each side was draped with a hanging banner with an insignia on it. A dragon, sword and shield and…was that a shoe? Did they represent the grand guild then? Fighting, protecting, and exploring?
"Well, let's go in."
"Even I am feeling a little nervous now…"
"So you still get nervous even when you've lived so long."
"You should not tease me too much. My revenge will come at night, and you will cry in defeat."
"You better not. I'm not a fan of anything painful."
We joked as I opened the doors.
"Ahh…it's big."
It was large, like a hotel you would find in the city. The ceiling was open all the way to the third floor, and a giant magic illumination device was hanging in the center. I stared up with a stupefied look. Daniela suddenly jabbed me in the ribs.
Oh, right. First impressions were important. We couldn't let others take us for fools.
I looked at the front to see that there was a row of counters. The resting rooms and dining hall were on the left and right. We could hear pleasant laughter and music coming from the dining hall. And a number of Adventurers were talking in the resting area. Hmm, the atmosphere here was nice. As was fitting for a place named the Grand Guild, there was a notable absence of Adventurers with bad behavior. Their management was competent or the instructors were. But if the later was the case, we would probably be hearing from the guild master at some point.
The counters had the usual signs reading: Registration, Accept Quest, Rewards, Questions and Other, plus two new ones: Request and Convert.
Requests were usually done at Other, so they must have separated them to decrease the workload. As for Convert, it was apparently to convert materials from monsters into money.
There were quite a lot of people lined up at that counter, but each counter here had two lines with two guild workers, which made things move faster.
"Alright, we better update these status cards first."
"I suppose we should go to 'Other' then?"
"Well, it's 'Questions' as well, so we'll find out something either way."
"That is true. We should go then."
And so we took our positions in the 'Questions and Other' line. No one tried to cut in or bother Daniela. It really was peaceful. But kind of boring, to be honest. Encountering trouble gave you something to talk about. Matsumoto was hogging all of it with his protagonist qualities. Poor guy.
"You two are next."
Oh, the person in front of us was finished. Daniela and I took out our status cards and walked up to the counter.
"Excuse me, we would like to have our status cards updated."
"Yes, very good. Please hand them over."
"Here."
We put the two cards on the tray.
"Asagi and Daniela. It will be finished in ten minutes, so please wait in the room over there."
We were politely directed over to a room that had a sign reading 'Waiting Room.' The walls were made of glass so you could see inside. It was just like a smoking room.
"Alright. Thank you."
The guild worker bowed slowly and Daniela and I headed for the smoking…the Waiting Room. We could see that there were several other Adventurers waiting inside. Oh, someone would definitely try to talk to us. Yeah, right. Haha. I'm not Matsumoto.
"Excuse me."
"…"
We opened the door with a word so it wouldn't be awkward. The Adventurers who were sitting looked up to see who we were, but they quickly looked away without much interest. The floor was apparently much more engaging. All of the chairs were occupied, so I would not be able to join them in their stare-down with the floor. And so we leaned against the wall and waited for the time to pass.