Caroline, dressed in her new armor, stood in front of a large board covered in pinned papers of all sizes. Thio stood slightly behind her, observing the process with a neutral expression while being secretly curious (he’d never been in Capital’s Guild before).

Each paper had the award money written in large numbers on the top, then a picture of the item needing fetching, delivering, or killing, and below that a number (for amount) if applicable. Below that, a small hand written note described the Request.

The reason for the peculiar design was obvious when you accounted for how many Adventurers were illiterate. (It was not exactly a profession that attracted intellectuals.) Most people could read numbers and obviously pictures were easy enough understand. The sentence at the bottom was for those few who could read, for extra information.

In Hillsdale they never bothered with this setup, because they were a small operation and it was cheaper and faster just to have Mariel verbally tell people what was available. In the Capital, it was better to have several boards like this for people to pick and choose Requests to reduce lines at the front desk.

Caroline stood there excitedly skimming through the available Requests, rocking on her heels as she did. It felt like years since she’d been in a Guild Hall! The Capital Guild Hall was huge, unlike the Hillsdale location. Not only did it have the Request Boards, it even had a General Store, Tavern, and Inn attached. Repair and armory shops were nearby too. It was everything Caroline had originally envisioned a Guild Hall to be, plus some.

Her hand reached out for a paper—

“No.”

“But—”

“Hunting three horned boars is not a fetch request, Caroline.”

She scowled at Thio’s sensible rebuke. Her hand moved to the paper below.

“Even if they’re winged weasels, exactly how does killing twenty of them count as fetching?”

Her hand twitched and began to move to the right.

“You can’t possible think I’m going to say yes to “fetching” mutated wolf pelts?”

She finally lowered her arm and put both hands on her hips, turning around to glare at him.

“These are all weak monsters!”

“When you had the strength of an Expert level Adventurer, yes. You’re barely strong enough for Beginner Requests.”

“If you know how to—”

“No.”

“I’m feeling so much better—”

“Don’t force me to cast a sleep spell on you and take you home.”

“You wouldn’t!”

He simply stared at her, no hesitation in his eyes.

Her shoulders slumped slightly and she pouted.

“Fine! What looks good to you then?”

Thio stepped forward and looked more closely at the papers. He began moving farther to the left. It was clear that everything was organized, not just by type of Request, but ease of completion. The easier the Request, the cheaper the reward. The pay out numbers were getting lower the further to the left he went. He came to the last board.

“Oh no…” Caroline groaned at where he stopped. She’d purposefully avoided this section. The Beginner section.

He reached out and tapped a piece of paper.

“This.”

Caroline dragged her feet over and read the Request with trepidation.

Yes, it was as boring as she feared.

“…collect two baskets full of wild white mustard plants…” She muttered aloud as she read.

“It looks like the front desk has the baskets.” Thio added, removing the paper.

When he turned to go to the front desk, Caroline blocked him.

“Thio…” She gave a strained chuckle and grabbed both arms, face looking desperate. “You can’t seriously be thinking this is a good idea!”

“It’s a fetch request, as the Doctor recommended.”

“It’s mustard plants!”

“And?”

“They’re every where. Literally every where. I bet they grow in people’s yards in the city, as weeds!”

“Easy to find then, even better.”

“It’s not better!”

“No?”

“It’s boring! This Request is boring! Please, at least not a common weed!”

Even though she was practically begging, Thio’s heart wasn’t moved.

“Boring or not, you need to start with something easy and work your way back up.” He turned and walked towards the front desk.

“Nooooo… the reward isn’t even worth it…!” She’d grabbed him by the chest from behind and dug her heels into the ground, immediately halting him in his steps.

Thio paused, his lips twitching. He was trying not to laugh, but she was making it difficult. He quietly whispered a Weight Reduction spell on her and began walking again.

Caroline was dragged along with him, a surprised look on her face at suddenly becoming lighter.

Several Adventurers, who were sitting at tables nearby with their packs and maps out, chuckled at the scene. When she glared at them, they coughed amongst themselves and hastily went back to their tasks.

The couple stood in line at the front desk, waiting their turn. Caroline had a gloomy expression on her face as they approached the receptionist.

Placing the paper on the desk, Thio politely said. “We’d like to take this Request. We’re here to pick up the baskets.”

The woman, an older woman with graying streaks in her blond hair, glanced at the paper. “Of course. May I see your Guild coin?”

Thio turned to Caroline, who was begrudgingly taking her coin out. She’d gotten the coin when she’d reached Expert level, but never had to use it. At the Hillsdale branch, Mariel knew each Adventurer by name and everyone else in the Southern branches knew her by face, so they never bothered with coins. But in busy places like this, where she’d only been once before, it was required.

Guild coins were used as identifiers for Guild membership and strength level. When an Adventurer first started, they were given a generic wood coin with a crude carving of the Guild brand on one side. After completing a set of Requests, the Adventurer was given a Beginner copper coin with a stamp of the Guild and local city emblems on each side of the coin. Intermediates got a bronze coin and Skilled got a silver of the same design. Expert Adventurers got a customized gold coin, with one side having the Guild brand and the other side being whatever they wanted.

The bulk of Adventurers stayed squarely in the Intermediate levels. This was because the vast majority of people simply weren’t skilled enough to go higher, and the ones that had the skills often chose not to. No matter what the general population said about Adventurers, they did not actually have a death wish. So safety-to-profit ratio was a strong motivator for many to stay at the Intermediate Level.

The higher Guild levels meant taking on some very dangerous, but higher paying, Requests. Most Guilds had at least one or two Skilled Adventurers at their branches, but Expert Adventurers were rare. Because of their rarity, every Guild office knew the design on the coins carried by Expert Adventurers. They were treated like national celebrities within the Guild, with the more charismatic ones gaining international fame.

Caroline was not, as far as she knew, internationally famous. She was, however, nationally recognized. So when she slide her coin across the table to the receptionist, the older woman across from her gasped.

Grabbing the gold coin eagerly, the receptionist flipped it over to see the customized side. There was a fox chasing a sparrow delicately designed and imprinted on it. It looked absolutely nothing like Caroline’s Handle namesake, something she had done on purpose. This inversely made her coin more recognizable without realizing it.

The receptionist shot out of her seat and came out from behind her desk and grabbed Caroline’s hand, shaking it enthusiastically. “Oh my goodness! I heard just yesterday that the Berserker Bear Claw had requested to get transferred to our location, but I had no idea you’d be here so soon! This is such an honor! I’m Alanna, the Senior Receptions in this Branch. If there’s anything, anything at all that you need, please let me know!”

When Caroline went to open her mouth, Alanna kept talking.

“Oh! Missions for Experts such as yourself are kept with the Guildmaster. I can get him right now, if you like. He’s not busy, so it won’t be a problem—” Alanna turned to go get the Guildmaster. Caroline’s hand shot out and grabbed her arm.

“No, no need to get him!” Caroline had a trace of panic in her voice. “We’re just here to do some simple Requests.”

Alanna’s face blanked for a moment, and then she blushed. Patting her cheeks, she said with some embarrassment, “Goodness! I got ahead of myself, didn’t I? I’m terribly sorry! Even in the Capital, I don’t talk to Experts often. They usually don’t even bother with the front desk system.”

The receptionist quickly went back to her seat, still a little red in the face. She picked up the Request paper again and then blinked in confusion. She looked at Caroline with extreme uncertainty.

“Did you, perhaps, grab the wrong paper or..?”

“No. She will be doing this Request.” Thio stated firmly.

“And who are you?”

“Her husband.”

Alanna looked at Caroline in surprise, only to see the other woman give a slight nod.

The older woman leaned back in her chair, glancing between Caroline and Thio. The Berserker Bear Claw’s love-life was a source of a lot of strange, scandalous rumors. The rumors were made worse by the fact that most people thought “she” was a “he”.

Some rumors said he had gotten his heart broken by a high ranking military officer (also a man) and gone on a rampage using monsters as his punching bag. Others said she was a love-struck stalker, following around her lover across the country. Others said she was a aristocrat’s son who’d escaped an unwanted marriage and gone into Adventuring. Still others claimed she’d married a wealthy merchant who traveled the world and was almost never home, allowing her to Adventure as she liked.

Alanna knew perfectly well not to believe in rumors of that sort. Especially since she knew Caroline was, in fact, a woman (so half the rumors could be safely ignored).

That being said, she’d participated in some of the more innocent gossip. Like what kind of guy someone like the Berserker Bear Claw would go for, if she was to go for anyone at all. Alanna had always been firmly of the opinion that an archer would be a good fit. They were usually good looking fellows with just the right amount of muscle and very little scarring. They were generally good hunters too, so they did double-duty in a party.

The man before her was… hrm… frail looking. He was taller than the Berserker but with thin limbs that looked easily breakable. His long black hair framed his thin face, making him look girlishly pale by contrast. His intense green eyes and no-nonsense facial expression were the only thing keeping him from giving off a “delicate maiden” aura. Alanna felt like, if she were to fight him she would probably win, and that automatically made her think less of him.

“Are you a Guildmember as well?” Alanna asked stiffly, her entire (low) opinion of Thio forming in a scant few seconds.

“No.”

“Hm, right then. You might not be aware, but the Guild discourages high level members from taking Requests from the Beginner boards. It’s unfair to the Beginners, who need the experience completing Requests.”

Thio’s eyes narrowed slightly. “But there’s no explicit rule against it?”

“Well.. No..”

“Then this will be the Request she’s taking.”

“Sir—”

“Acanthio.”

“Mr. Acanthio.” Alanna rolled the name in her mouth, feeling like that name sounded familiar. “The Guild isn’t a rigid institution. We have very few rules and depend on our well cultivated sense of respect and honor to guide our behavior. Though it’s not technically against the rules, it will make your wife look bad if she takes the Request.”

“I see.” Thio thought for a moment. “There was a Request for killing Slypas in the fields to the north of the city on the board. Would that be acceptable?”

Alanna made a face at Thio. That particular Request came from the city council and had no amount cap or time limit. Slypas seemed to endlessly form in that field, which was right next to a major road leading into the Capital. While Slypas weren’t deadly, they were destructive and annoying. Since no one could stop them from forming (no one actually knew how they formed to begin with), the Guild had been tasked with keeping their numbers down.

“It… it would work.” She admitted begrudgingly. Doing that Request wouldn’t harm Beginners since the Slypas were never ending.

“Then we’ll do that mission.”

“We? Are you going with her?”

His eyes narrowed. “Yes. Is that a problem?”

“…not exactly. The Berserker will need to fill out a waiver for you if she wants this Request to count towards her membership level and to determine how the reward is split. Without the waiver she gets the full reward but no points towards her membership.”

“I don’t need the reward but..” He looked toward Caroline inquiringly.

“It’s fine if this Request doesn’t count.” Caroline said and then added somewhat sourly, “I’d rather it not be on record anyway and it’s not like it’ll add much of anything at this point.”

“In that case, we’d like to do the Slypa Extermination Request.”

“Is that really fine with you?” Alanna turned to Caroline and asked in faux concern, pointedly glaring at the frail man. She disliked how the skinny Non-Guild member was trying to take charge and wanted him to understand who was the boss in this endeavor.

Thio stiffened at her behavior. Having been belittled for most of his life, he was keenly aware when he was being dismissed. It’d been a long time since someone treated him that way and it startled him. He was unpleasantly reminded of his time in Hillsdale.

Caroline could practically feel the temperature around Thio drop by several degrees. Walking next to him, she grabbed his hand and squeezed it. When he glanced over and saw her slightly furrowed brow, he immediately relaxed and felt silly. Who cared what a Receptionist thought of him anyway?

“It really is fine,” Caroline explained to the older woman. “I ran into a con-artist who falsified a Request down South. My team was almost wiped out and I only barely made it. I’m in recovery right now. So I’ve got to take things slow.” She winked playfully. “Even if I don’t want to.”

“Ah!” Alanna snapped her fingers and pointed at Caroline in realization. “Cursed Ruins right?” When Caroline nodded, she continued, “I had no idea that was your team. That scumbag! May his corpse be fed to the birds! Our branch donated to the bounty, three whole Gilda. I heard it’s up to thirty right now.”

“Thirty? You mean thirty Gilda?!”

Alanna nodded, looking smug. “That’s right. Whoever finds that man is going to be filthy rich.”

“Wow… it was only five Guilda last I heard…”

“Well, we can’t have people thinking they can falsify Requests and steal from our members, now can we? I hope they pluck his eyes out when they find him.” The receptionist’s own eyes narrowed dangerously, Thio nodded along in agreement, forgiving her earlier behavior.

There hadn’t been such grievous mistreatment of the Guild’s honor and member’s safety in over a hundred years. As word spread, more Guild branches had pitched in to raise the bounty. Such behavior could not be tolerated. They would find the one who did it, and they would make an example of him.

But they hadn’t found him. How someone could run off with so much treasure and have such a ridiculous bounty on their head and still manage to slip by authorities and mercenaries was a real mystery to everyone.

It was just a matter of time though. With the bounty so high, it made the charlatan an easy target. Eventually he’d run into someone even less trustworthy than himself, and they’d throw him in front of a carriage for the coins.