“… So, what do you think?” I asked Jenny after she finished reading my story. I had written it the night before, putting in all the details I could remember of my life.

She looked at me with eyes filled with compassion. “That must have been hard.”

I wasn’t sure why, but this comment irritated me. “It’s ok. I lived.” I said, more harshly than I wanted.

“Right. Then, I’ll do some research with the information you just gave me. It should take around a week to get results. What do you want to do until then?” She looked at me from head to toes. “Actually, before that, let’s go shopping. I’ll show you around the city and buy you new clothes. What do you think?”

“Sure.” I didn’t have any spare clothes after all, and those I was wearing made me look like a beggar, as they were covered in mud and had holes at some places. “Give me my mask before we go.” I needed it. It felt really uncomfortable being around people while able to see, since I felt like I could kill them at any time if I was careless. I didn’t know why Tetsu and Jenny weren’t affected by my ability, but I didn’t want to make any assumptions regarding the other town people.

“Oh, here it is.” She said as she handed my mask back to me. She watched me as I put it back on and proposed: “Wouldn’t it be better to wear something lighter, that would only hide your eyes? It would make you stand out less, I think. Let’s buy something when we arrive at the market.”

“…Yeah, sure, we’ll see.” I said reluctantly.

We went down the stairs and arrived in a place where there was a lot of noise. It seemed as if there were a lot of people here, and, curious, I slightly pushed my mask in order to see where we were. It was a big and spacious hall. There were hundreds of people in here, either looking at a gigantic board on which were thousands of papers, waiting in line at a counter where a receptionist argued with an adventurer, or were sitting at a table, talking with other people.

Probably noticing my intrigued look, Jenny started explaining to me: “This is the Guild Hall. It’s in this place that most transactions related to adventurers take place. There is a Guild Hall in every major city but this one is probably the biggest there is, and lots of adventurers come here at least once in their life to experience this place for themselves. The counter over there is where you have to go in order to receive the reward for completing a quest, or to sell the materials you gathered. The board is the place to go if you are looking to start a quest, or to check the price of the materials for the week. Quests are classed by difficulty, from G to A. There are also S, SS and SSS difficulties, but those are only available to the few adventurers who have the ability to complete them and are most of the time treated as secrets, due to their importance.”

“…I see.” I said. I was indeed interested in this kind of job, as it seemed really thrilling and fulfilling. I had read so much stories about adventurers that I started wanting to experience it for myself.

“Oh, if it isn’t Miss Jenny!” A man said, approaching us. I hurriedly put back my mask into place.

“Hi, Mark. How are you?” Jenny said with a polite tone.

“I’m great, I just came back from a rank C quest and received the reward, it feels good indeed to have some money in your pockets, ahaha! It took us almost a month to finally complete it, and we’ll be celebrating as soon as my party is done with the paperwork. What about you, why do we get the honor of seeing you here with us today? You rarely show yourself in public, even more in the Guild Hall!” He continued enthusiastically.

“Oh, good job! Actually, the Guild Master just picked up this child, and we were about to go buy some new clothes for him,” she said, talking about me.

“Another one? Gah, Mister Tetsu really doesn’t show any restraint… Oh, my teammates are done at the counter! I’ll be going then! Have a good day, Miss Jenny! Good luck with the kid, ahaha!”

“…Who was that?” I asked when the man left.

“Oh, it’s an adventurer I traveled with some years ago.” She answered.

“…Are rank C quests difficult?” I continued. The man seemed happy about finishing this quest, and I wondered if it was really this hard.

“It depends for who. Mark is only a D ranked adventurers, so this quest must have given him some trouble.” She said quietly.

“Hmm… How is the rank of adventurers determined?” I asked. I wondered if I really was only ranked G, as my Guild Card said.

“Mostly by quests completed. You need to complete quests of your rank and of the higher rank in order to rank up. For example, a rank E adventurer can do G, F, E and D ranked quests, and need to complete 20 E quests and 5 D quests to rank up. Failures are… Well, you can only fail 2 quests per rank before risking being down ranked.” She explained patiently, holding my hand as we went towards the exit.

Walking without seeing anything in a place I didn’t know was something I wasn’t used to and was difficult. I had been in the same room for most of my life, and I knew the place by heart. I didn’t need to look where I was going then, because I knew where everything was. But now that I was in the dark in a new place, I felt for the first time in my life the urge of taking off my mask and looking around me with my own eyes.

I continued relying on Jenny’s hand without saying anything, tensing up slightly with each step I had to take. I was afraid of this unknown world, where I wasn’t sure about anything. What would happen to me if Jenny let go of my hand? What if she was leading me somewhere only to leave me there and lose me? What if—

“Hey, what are you so stressed about?” Jenny cut me in my overthinking. “You are trembling and gripping my hand really strongly.” She pointed out.

“… It’s nothing.” I said, trying to calm myself.

“…” She said nothing back, but she had stopped walking. After some time passed, she let go of my hand.

“Huh? Why did you let go? … Wh- Where are you?” I panicked slightly. Were my fears becoming real? “Jenny? … Are, are you there?” Nothing but silence answered me. Ah, that was it. I took of my mask and opened my eyes slowly, looking at the ground to make sure I didn’t cross the eyes of anyone. “Heeh?” I closed my eyes as soon as I opened them as the first thing I saw was Jenny’s face. “What do you think you’re doing? Why didn’t you answer when I talked to you?” She kept silent, and when I opened my eyes slightly again, she was still staring silently at me.

“…” I turned around, annoyed at her strange behavior.

“Oh, sorry, I was lost in my thoughts.” She finally said.

“Why didn’t you answer sooner? I was afraid you were—“ I stopped suddenly, realizing I was about to say something I didn’t want her to hear. I didn’t want to let her learn about my weaknesses, and the fact that I was afraid of going around with my mask on was the last thing I wanted her to know.

“You were afraid of what? … Oh-“ She suddenly brightened up, as if she understood something. “Alright. Let’s cancel today’s expedition. There is something I have to show you.” She said hurriedly. She then put my mask back on, took me by the hand and made me follow her once more.