“What are you doing here?” Quester asked, large knife swaying in his hand. Around the room, the citizens of the town paused half-risen from their seats, several hands clutching at rusted weapons.

“Wai-” Christoph’s words were cut off as Emilia bounded off his back, her twin daggers gleaming in opposition to the adventurer’s unnaturally sized blade.

“Calm down!” Pulling the cat-girl away from the Sacrilegious Shield, he raised his hands above his head. “I’m with the guild now, so you can put that away. You too, Emilia.”

Quester seemed unconvinced by his show of empty hands, and Christoph sighed as he realized the futility of the gesture. Of course, he could never be truly unarmed. The surrounding crowd didn’t know that, though, and a sigh of collective relief ran through the small building as they realized he didn’t intend to fight. The young woman behind the counter seemed particularly ready to flee the area.

Rather than adventurers, it appeared to Christoph that the town had evacuated their citizens into the building. The Sacrilegious Shield would probably be their only hope of defeated the magma whale had he not done so already. The only sign that Emilia had heard his words, on the other hand, was a single ear swiveled back towards him. No, wait a minute… she was listening to something else, after all. Footsteps began to sound from outside, growing closer with a heavy thud of boots on the building’s wooden porch.

“It’s okay everyone,” Frederick said, the guild doors swinging open again as he stepped in. “The magma whale’s been slai- what’s going on here?”

“See?” Christoph said, looking meaningfully down at his medallion and then back to where Quester was still brandishing his knife. “I’m an adventurer now.”

“You’re a Gold ranker?” Ruth asked, placing a hand on Quester’s shoulder. No matter what, unsanctioned conflict between guild members was strictly forbidden. “And you killed the magma whale?”

“That’s right!” Emilia replied. “We’re here for our reward, so pay up!”

…

Ruth sighed down at the town map, arms crossed over his breastplate as his shoulders sagged. The members of his party were arranged at his sides, and he glanced across the table as Emilia shifted in her chair.

“Hey.” The beast-woman leaned into her partner as she whispered, but her voice was still too loud for anyone to miss. “Can’t we just get the reward and leave already?”

“Be quiet,” Christoph replied, pushing her back into her own seat. “This is important.”

“You’re a Gold ranker now?” Coin asked. “Last we heard, the church had sent their knights after you.”

“A lot happened,” Christoph said, ignoring Quester and Lily’s glares. “I spent some time in the beast forest until I was… attacked by Editor. After that, we made our way to Manitas City.”

“Editor?” Ruth frowned upon hearing the name. “The two-man party out of Starthall? Liam, and Ginger, was it?”

“That’s right.” Christoph tried to remember if Liam had put any restrictions on his memories regarding the duo. The effects of his power might be gone by now, but it’d still be best to avoid angering the pair of world travellers. If they decided to get serious, building an army wouldn’t be an impossible task for them. “This probably wouldn’t concern you anyway,” he said, “but you should think twice before deciding to oppose those two.”

“Last I heard,” Quester said, “you’d just killed Henry of God’s Compass, and destroyed his soul.”

“Quester!” Regal objected to her partner’s words, tugging on his sleeve with a hurt expression. Turning towards Christoph, she bowed her head slightly. “Sorry, it’s-”

“That’s right,” Christoph repeated, interrupting the small mage’s apology. “A Silver-ranked adventurer forced a civilian into a duel, and was killed. Is there a problem with that scenario?”

“A duel’s a duel!” Emilia stretched out as she spoke, turning until she was half reclined over her chair and half pushing Christoph out of his. “Who cares about that elf brat anyway?”

“I see your manners still haven’t improved,” Lily said, eyeing the flippant cat-girl. “Emilia, future Lord of the Greater Paw.”

“I’ve given up on that stuff now,” Emilia replied with a grin. Wrapping her arms around her partner, she widened her smile until her teeth were bared. “I’ve got to look after Christoph. You never know when someone’ll pull a knife on him, even in the middle of a guild building of all places.”

“That’s enough.” Christoph seemed bent on ignoring the way the beast-woman was slowly sliding out of her chair and across his lap, but her words were another matter entirely. Calling out to the guild worker, he asked her to bring a copy of his guild card to the table. “There, that’ll save a lot of time.”

“I apologize for the trouble my party has caused you today,” Ruth said. Taking the card from the staff member when she appeared, he thanked her before looking over the sheet of crystal. Rather than a physical copy of Christoph’s data, the guild relied on a network of enchantments to retrieve data on its various members. “Let’s see…”

“I don’t understand why we couldn’t just go to the inn,” Emilia said, chair shifting under her buttocks as she stretched her back out over his legs. Raising her head above the table, she shot a glare towards the members of Sacrilegious Shield before falling back down. “Aren’t you the same rank as these people?”

Christoph covered the cat-girl’s face with his hand, smiling over at the party as her voice was muffled. It might be true that there was nothing forcing him to reconcile with the five adventurers, but having enemies among the upper ranks of the guild would do him no favors, either. At the very least, he wanted to be on civil terms with the group to begin with. Wincing, he jerked his hand back up onto the table as Emilia bit into his thumb.

“Granted Gold rank by the Manitas Council after appearing with Diana the Exile, former achievements include two pirate subjugations, a duel, a beast subjugation, and pilot status.” Ruth narrowed his eyes at the paper, glancing over his companions before he continued. “It’s noted that you’re a wanted man in the Kingdom, but that the guild considers you a full member and… you were granted the title of Dragonslayer by the city lord.”

“Ah!” Emilia sat up suddenly, her head smashing into the underside of the table with enough force to shift the entire wooden frame. Rolling off Christoph’s lap and shunting the table further across the floor, she rubbed at her forehead as she stood. “You killed a dragon?”

“A young dragon,” Christoph said, returning the cat-girl’s frown. “Didn’t you know?”

“Impressive,” Quester said. Leaning sideways to glance over the crystal plate, he turned towards the pair with a stony expression. “So what?”

“The point is that neither the guild nor the beast clans consider me to be a demon,” Christoph said, pushing Emilia away as she began to sit onto his lap. “It’s only the Kingdom which lumps the crystal monsters in with their kind in the first place.”

“I won’t apologize,” Quester replied, leaning his elbows onto the table. Ignoring Regal’s glare, he matched Christoph’s gaze. “Demon or not.”

“That’s fine,” Christoph said. “I just wanted to make sure there was no bad blood between us.”

“Very well,” Ruth said, holding out his open palm. “Let’s start anew. The Sacrilegious Shield is not the type of party to hold needless grudges.”

“It doesn’t look that way to me” Emilia said, sitting back down in her seat. “Aren’t you the ones who attacked Christoph in the first place?”

“That’s right,” Lily said, throwing a pointed look in Christoph’s direction. “A Gold ranked party discovered a dangerous demon, and moved to subjugate it. Is there a problem with that situation?”

“Actually, he said ‘scenario’.” Coin’s correction was met with a boot to his skin, and he hissed in pain, hands clenching into fists atop the wooden table. “What’s the matter with you, woman?”

“Um.” Regal squirmed in her seat, staff tapping against the floor as she fidgeted. “I’m sorry for… for attacking you in Forestry.”

“Oi,” Emilia said, eyes narrowing as the smaller woman apologized. “Christoph’s mine. He didn’t even know you were a girl, you know?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Lily replied, her voice forming a hard edge as Regal began to blush. “Nobody wants your man. Regal already has Quester, anyway.”

“Calm down, Emilia,” Christoph repeated, waving a hand in her direction. “I’m not going to… wait, what?”

“You too, Regal,” Lily said. “You shouldn’t apologize for saving your fiance from an attacker.”

…

“A fiance, huh?” Christoph thought back to his first few days in this world. Coin and Lily had been together, of course, but Regal and Quester… No, they had shared a shelter as well! At the time, he’d thought that Regal was a boy and that it was Ruth who was odd for sleeping alone, but it all made sense in retrospect.

“Hey,” Emilia said, poking at his cheek with her fork. “You aren’t still thinking about that little girl, are you?”

“It’s just…” Christoph took a bite of her food as he spoke. “How could I miss something like that?”

“No idea.” Pulling her plate away across the table, the cat-girl continued to wolf down her meal. “How’d you miss the dress?”

“Enough about the dress,” Christoph said, looking over at where her stack of used plates was slowly growing larger. “Are you planning on spending all of my reward right here?”

After they’d collected the reward, he’d let her drag him away from the guild. The town was larger than he’d thought, a couple hundred people who mostly survived on mining and basic farming. The town’s two inns had been reduced to one now that the magma whale had destroyed their competition, and Emilia had set a beeline for its familiar hanging sign. It boasted enchantment-type showers, clean beds and a diner, and Christoph knew there was no way the beast-woman was going to overlook any one of the three.

“Itsh phine.” Emilia’s mouthful of roasted meat did nothing to help her speech, and Christoph thought of the magma whale once more. The gigantic toad didn’t seem appetizing in the slightest, but he would end up eating it anyway. For now, he’d dragged it out of the town to cool down. Swallowing her food, the cat-girl chased it down with a swig of ale. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll worry about what I want,” Christoph said. “You didn’t even help kill that monster in the first place.”

“We’re mated together,” Emilia said. “What’s yours is mine.”

“Oh really?” Christoph asked with a flat look and a raised eyebrow. “Are you going to be contributing anything to the relationship?”

“Uh, excuse me sir?” A knocking sound came from the entrance to the dining room. “Can I trouble you for a moment?”

Due to the attack of the magma whale, the various inns and stores in the town had naturally been closed. The owner of the establishment had therefore accompanied them back to the building in order to set them up with a room and a meal. At the same time, the remainder of the villagers left with Sacrilegious Shield to put out the remaining fires. Right now, Christoph and Emilia were the only two customers in the diner, the owner having disappeared a while ago.

“Yes?” Christoph looked up at the doorway, recognizing the woman who’d been manning the desk at the guild. Was she here to request his help in the clean-up? He might be an adventurer, but if she wanted to take him away from his bath he’d have to decline.

“I’m sorry for the interruption, it’s just that we don’t usually get a lot of gold rankers in this town,” she said. “I’m supposed to make several requests if anyone comes by.”

“What about the others, then?” Christoph asked, ignoring the way Emilia was eyeing the woman. Was she worried that the worker would try and steal her man, or her food? “How do you stay safe without the guild, anyway?”

It might be a mining town, but the vast majority of the occupants were humans, with dwarves making up most of the remainder. If they couldn’t rely upon adventurers, how did they protect themselves all the way out here? From what he’d learned about the dwarven territories, he doubted they’d offer their protection in such a case. The trees might offer a natural protection against the elven ships, but even so the settlement was in an odd place.

“We hole up in the mines whenever raiders come,” the girl replied, smiling somewhat insincerely. This might be a sore topic for the town. “The village isn’t well-off enough to make the journey from the plains worthwhile, so they usually don’t bother anyway. We do get a few travelers each month come by, usually on their way to the abandoned mines at the feet of the Chain.”

Charter’s Chain was the name of the mountain ranges that covered the North-Western region of the continent. Stretching almost from the desert to the coast, it separated the beast clans from the fairy forests, the two lands joined only by a thin sliver of trees. Although the beast-people treated the connection as an unavoidable nuisance or entrance to their territory, the other races referred to it as the ‘Leash’, because of how it joined onto the far side of the lands around the Beast’s Mouth Bay. The fairies of the Leash were given a wide berth by most people, a fact which made the already secluded dwarves seem even more distant yet. Even now, the ‘mountains’ which this village lay at the foot of were merely hills in comparison, lying on the desert side of the Leash.

“You don’t get fairies coming down from the Leash?” Christoph jumped as Emilia’s foot hit his shin, scowling at the cat-girl as the pain subsided. “Seriously? Do you want me to call you ‘Lily’ from now on?”

“Don’t call it that,” Emilia replied, gnawing on one of her many bones. “It’s demeaning.”

“The fairies don’t usually leave the forest,” the guild worker said, her best customer-service smile remaining plastered over her face. “They’re quite tolerant up to a point, but still dangerous when they do take action.”

“Lazy little bastards,” Emilia said, sighing as she cleaned off her plate. Meeting the woman’s gaze, she narrowed her eyebrows in annoyance. She’d finished eating now, but there were still the two other parts of the inn to cross off her to-do list. “You’re here to make a request, right? Spit it out already.”

“Very well.” The young woman straightened to her full height before lowering into a bow. “There’s been reports of a dangerous beas- uh, monster in the hills. As a gold-ranker, the guild requests that you carry out a subjugation mission.”