Novel Bin Chapter 6: The guild and the weapon shop
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#6 The guild and the weapon shop
Once morning comes, I wake up and get dressed. When I descend the stairs to the dining room, both Lindsey and Elsie are already up and having their meal. When I also sit down on the chair, Mika-san carries the meal over. Breakfast is ham with egg on bread and tomato salad in vegetable soup. Such delicious food to start the morning.
When we finish eating, we three people head towards the guild. The guild is located near the center of the town and is bustling with a fair amount of people.
The first floor of the guild is a restaurant. The atmosphere is brighter than I thought. I imagined it would be like a bar filled with rowdy people. Even though I pictured it like that, it seems it was needless worry. When I go to the counter, the onee-san at the reception desk shows a radiant smile.
[Hello, we would like to register to the guild.]
[Yes, certainly. Including those people, three people is it?]
[Yes, three people.]
[Is this your first time registering in the guild? If so, I would like to explain the simple details of the registration.]
[Please.]
Basically they introduce the client’s task and then they charge a mediation fee. Because the tasks are divided into ranks by their degree of difficulty, a person belonging to a low rank cannot receive a task from a higher rank. However, if half the number of their companions reaches the said higher rank, even if the person is of a lower rank, they can then take the task.
If you complete the task, then you get compensated. If you happen to fail the task, they will charge you a breach of contract fee. Okay, let’s choose our tasks carefully.
Furthermore, if you fail several times and you are judged to be malignant, your guild registration will be erased as penalty. When it comes to that, you can’t register at any other guild in whichever town.
In addition, you cannot receive more than one task and if you don’t take even one task for five years, your registration will be revoked. If you hunt in another place other than the designated area specified on a subjugation task, then that task will become invalid. As a standard, the guild will maintain neutrality in a fight between adventurers. However, if it’s judged that the situation will bring drawback to the guild, then that is a different case altogether. Various things were explained.
[With all of the above, I will end the explanation. In case there’s something you do not understand, then please ask a person in charge.]
[Understood.]
[Well then, please fill in the necessary information in this form here]
The receptionist onee-san gives the three of us a form each and I completely can’t understand what’s written at all. I tell them that I can’t read and write the language and I ask Lindsay to read and write for me. As I thought, it’s really inconvenient not being able to.
When the onee–san takes the registration form, she then places a black card above it and chants something similar to an incantation. Afterwards she presents a small pin and we were told to drop blood onto the card respectively.
I prick my finger with the pin as I’m told. When I touched the card with that finger, white characters slowly begin to surface, but I still don’t know what’s written....
[As for this guild card, if someone other than the original owner touches this card for ten seconds, the magic will turn the card grey. It is for counterfeit prevention. Also, if you happen to lose the card, report it to the guild immediately. Although it costs money, we will reissue a new one.]
The onee-san takes my card and after a short while the black card turns grey. When I touch the card once again, it instantly returns to black. Seems like an amazing mechanism. I wonder how it works.
[That ends the registration. The tasks are posted on that board over there. After you check that place, please apply at the reception desk.]
The three of us stand in front of the tasks posted on the board. Our guild cards are black, showing that we’re beginners. The color seems to change if you rise in rank, but for now it means that we can only accept the black colored beginner tasks.
Elsie and Lindsey seem to be pondering while examining each task one at a time and as for me.....
[This is bad....if I don’t do something about this language problem....]
It’s out of the question if I don’t know the contents of the tasks. Alright, I’ll start studying the language at night.
[Ne, ne, What about this one? The reward is decent, isn’t this good for starters?]
[Un, It’s not bad I think. Touya-san, what do you think?]
[...Sorry, I don’t know what’s written at all.]
In high spirits. Elsie glances at a certain poster and without any strength, turns the board to face her. Damn.
[...Let’s see, east forest demon beast subjugation. Five demon beasts called horned wolf. They aren’t that strong...I think we should be able to manage. Ah, the reward is 18 copper.]
For me who can’t read, Lindsey reads the task description with difficulty. 18 copper...if we split that between the three of us is six copper each. That’s enough for three days at the inn. Not bad.
[Then shall we do that?]
[Okay, then I’ll apply at the reception desk.]
Elsie tears off the poster of the task and moves towards the reception desk to apply. Horned wolf, is it? According to the name, it seems to be a wolf with a horn growing from the head. I feel a little worried if I can really defeat them.
[Damn.....I forgot something important.]
[What’s wrong?]
Lindsay asks me with a surprised look.
[I...don’t have a weapon yet.]
I forgot.
Weapons aren’t included in the request either. Going unarmed is not even worth considering. Therefore after we leave the guild, we head for the weapon shop.
When I walk on the street named sword and shield towards the north, we saw the usual recognizable signboard logo. And as usual, I can’t read the store name under the logo. When I open the door of the entrance. a small bell attached to the door makes a clink, clink sound. In reaction to that sound, a middle-aged man with a large beard shows up slowly from the interior of the shop. Big! Almost like a bear.
[W’lcome. What are you looking for?]
It appears that the bearlike uncle is the shopkeeper. But, tall! He’s at least no shorter than two meters. His body is like that of a professional wrestler.
[We were thinking of buying a weapon suitable for this person. Can we take a look around the shop?]
[Go ahead. Pick them up and take a closer look.]
The Bear-san answers Elsie’s question with a smile. What a nice bear...er, rather, what a nice person.
Weapons are displayed everywhere when I take a look around the shop. There’s a lot of variety: swords to spears, bows, axes, whips, the various weapons are cramped and lined up.
[Touya, is there any weapon that you’re good at?]
[Hnーthere’s not particularly any worth mentioning.... but if I had to say I’ve been taught the sword for a while.]
I reply to Elsie’s question while thinking a little. You might say it’s from kendo class from school. Not that I was actually properly taught it either. It was something like the basics of swordplay, I’m roughly like an amateur.
[Then...I think a sword is good after all.... in Touya’s case, instead of a contest of strength....I think he will have trouble in terms of speed, how about a one-handed sword.]
Lindsey points to a corner where one-handed swords are lined up. On the wall, I pick up a sword together with the sheath with one hand. I grip the handle with the other. It’s light. I think a little heavier would be better.
Suddenly, a sword hung on the wall caught my sight. No, rather than a sword...that’s a katana. A slim blade that curves from the center and a magnificently crafted round handguard. A belt like strap attached and a black sheath. Somewhat, when I look carefully, there are some parts that are different from the Japanese katanas that I know. Would it still be fair to call this a katana?
[...what’s wrong?]
[Ahー, this is a sword from Ishen right. As expected, is the sword from your hometown on your mind?]
When they saw me gazing at the katana, Elsie and Lindsey call out to me. I see, so this is a sword from Ishen?. Rather that’s not even my hometown. It appears Ishen has parts largely common to Japan. I’m becoming even more interested in Ishen.
I take the katana hung on the wall and slowly pull it out of the sheath. The beautiful pattern on the blade shines, very captivating to the eyes. The blade is thicker than I thought and the body of the sword is also heavier.
[How much is this?]
The Bear-san at the back of the shop hears my voice and sticks out his neck.
[Aah, that, is it? It’s two gold coins. However, that is hard to master which is why I don’t recommend that product to beginners.]
[Two gold coins? Not expensive?]
[It’s rarely in stock and the numbers of users are limited. I can do that much.]
Although Elsie is pouting in displeasure, Bear-san says it calmly. I wonder if that’s a reasonable price. I admit that it’s worth at that much.
[I’ll take it. Two gold coins, it is.]
I return the katana back into the sheath, I take out two gold pieces from my wallet and place it on the counter.
[Thank you for your patronage. Then what will you do about protective gear?]
[We’ll postpone it for now, I’ll come again when I earn money.]
[Is that so. Please earn a lot with that katana.]
After saying that, Bear-san laughs heartily.
Although my shopping ended with this, Elsie is there with her greaves (armor that covers the foot to the shin) and Lindsey bought a silver wand. Their combat styles are Elsie fights at the front as the vanguard and it seems Lindsey uses magic as the rear guard.
We leave the weapon shop and head towards the second-hand shop. Along the way, it was on my mind a little. I confirm that weapon shop earlier on the map.
[Weapon Shop Bear Eight]
......The naming sense in this town is a little amusing.
In the second-hand shop, I bought a small pouch, a water bottle, rations, a fish hook and strings, scissors, a knife, a tool box filled with convenient set of tools such as a match, medicinal herbs, and something like antidote grass. Because Elsie and Lindsey already had them, it was only me shopping here.
Okay, everything is prepared. Now, we depart for the east forest to defeat horned wolves.