IV

━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━

Arc IV Chapter 10

━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━

10th Ignis Solar 753 AAC

Confronted with the incessant assault of a little girl's pleas, Lambert was slightly unsure about what to do with the application form handed to him. Handling written matters usually didn't fall within his area of competency. For good reasons. “...” Fortunately, he had an optimal solution to this pressing problem.

“Ahem, Iris ...” Lambert cleared his throat before handing over the form to his esteemed colleague and domestic erudite mage. “Here! For you!”

“Wait ... What ... Why me?” Iris blinked, dumbfounded by the sudden change of events.

Lambert wore his typical diplomatic smile, his best typical diplomatic smile. “Your handwriting is exceptional, Iris. Nobody at this table has such beautiful handwriting as you.” Or at all, for that matter ... His shoddy handwriting was beyond atrocious, a failing he was painfully aware of. They were not much better than ancient, time weathered hieroglyphs in terms of readability.

“...” A sigh escaped Iris’ lips, as she grudgingly accepted his shirked task. Not that she wasn't used to being relegated to writing duties by him and company. This was neither the first time, nor would it be the last such. “Seems that I have little choice, as usual.”

Having accepted the form into her hands, Iris produced a pen and an inkwell, her private belongings, from her personal satchel. Dipping her pen into the inkwell, her hand was prepared to commence. “We can now begin.”

Lambert studied the form over her shoulder. “I guess that we start from the bottom with the least problematic questions first. Starting with the simpler parts might save us some time.”

Iris started reading aloud before pausing. “Credentials ... ... ...”

They both stole a quick glance at their girl, her soft cheeks, her fluffy hair, and the cute doll tightly enclosed in her arms.

Considered her childish, almost innocent, appearance, the adorable pair didn't look particularly intimidating, threatening, nor ‘adventurery’. Quite the contrary, their little princess and her doll felt misplaced amidst the harsh world of adventurers. Adventuring was a cut throat business for the brave, the desperate, and wood headed fools, a life ill suited for little girls. The girl wasn't cut out for this kind of life, yet she was also exceedingly stubborn and strong willed. Hopefully, she would prove as resilient as stubborn, as dissuading her from applying was impossible at this point.

“Put our name below.” Lambert cleared his throat. “We are vouching for her … extraordinary potential ... and capabilities. Make sure to write that down. That should suffice to get her through the application process.”

“Are you really sure about this?” Iris' hesitated.

“ ... Quite.” Lambert reassured Iris his with a simple nod. “Our girl will require all the support we can provide.” He truly meant his words.

Scribbling ahead, her pen was dancing across the milled paper before pausing.

Leaning back in his chair, Lambert watched her. “Is something amiss, Iris?”

“The next point is combat experience ... What shall we put in there?”

“Nothing”, Lambert waved off, stealing a glance at their young, cuddly protégée. “Ignore it. I doubt that she has any to begin with anyway, so no sense in faking it, right?”

“That's not true. I do have combat experience, Uncle Lambert! I have fought a dread wolf and demon, and even survived!” Aurora pouted, objecting in the strongest terms possible.

Lambert clicked his tongue. “I disagree, running away and hiding barely counts as fighting, does it?”

“...” Aurora grumbled and pouted, muttering under her breath. “Uncle Lambert is being unfair. No justice for little girls in this land.”

Ignoring her complaints, Lambert rolled his eyes at her melodramatic tendencies. “Iris, let's move on to the next point.”

Her eyes scanned the application. “Next are skills and abilities ...”

Drumming his fingers on the table, his mind started strategising. This wasn’t going to be easy. To lie, or not lie, that was the question. So far, she didn’t look particularly good on paper. Unless they were fudging details a little bit, but such was risky. Getting caught with a falsified account was neither in their, nor in her best interests. “Skip it for now. We will deal with it later. I will come up with something to sell the guild on her.”

“Very well. Next point is place of birth.”

Lambert turned his gaze to their girl. “Can you help us?”

“Sowwy, ... I don't... remember yet.” Aurora shook her headsie, continuing her tradition of withholding vital information.

“Thought so.” Lambert sighed. The girl and her amnesia. What a hassle. “Iris, just write down Freyburg. Tell them that we picked her up in the suburbs and took her in. Make up some eye watering story about her being a poor orphan, her parents dying from an illness, and whatever. The city is full of children like this. The guild shouldn't question our story.”

Iris furrowed an eyebrow. “Are you sure? What if they find out the truth?”

Lambert dismissed her concerns. “ Don’t worry, or do you seriously think they will look into the background of a simple orphan? Unlikely. And even if, they won't find anything. We have no idea whatsoever who she is, so they do neither. As far as they are concerned and as long as we don't tell them anything, Freyburg sounds entirely plausible. After all, where should our ‘orphan’ have come from otherwise?”

“Right ...” Iris agreed despite some reservations on her part. “The next one is age.”

Lambert turned his gaze at their ‘orphan’. “Lass, any idea how old are you?”

“...” Aurora chose silence in this matter.

“You are certainly short.” Lambert studied her figure, inspecting her from head to toe. “Your muscles are underdeveloped. I would say that you are around eleven, or twelve years old at most. You could easily pass for ten, given your frail body.”

Aurora mentally pouted. Hey, she wasn't ten, she was fourteen! And she wasn't short. She just didn't hit her due to growth spurt yet. The latter would surely arrive one day.

“Iris, write down fourteen. That should be the best age to get her accepted.”

━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━