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We walked through the city in disguise, and at one point we saw a group of soldiers we did not recognize run towards us, but they just passed by and continued behind us. They were probably going to check the mess caused by Karin and Ciel.

“I guess those are the nobles’ servants we were told about? Somehow they look even weaker than the city’s.”

Our city’s soldiers had also attended the training school from time to time, so on average they were more powerful than the capital’s soldiers. I could see our soldiers easily beating and kicking them out if they wanted, but things were more complicated than that.

“They’ve probably been told to stand back by their superiors, and unlike free spirited adventurers, they have family and lives tied to the city.”

A soldier’s entire family could get branded as criminals if they disobeyed orders, so they had to listen to the nobles, even if they did not like it. Walking thinking of random things like that, I saw I was near the building I was so familiar with.

“The guild…barely a month passed, but somehow it feels really nostalgic to be back here.”

After everything that happened in the Dragon’s Nest, I had thought I would never see this place again, so seeing it made me oddly emotional. Usually there was a torrent of adventurers entering and leaving the guild, but now I could count on both hands the people I saw. It really hit me how much things had changed when I noticed that. I walked past those adventurers and headed inside, Camille looking shocked when she saw me.

“La-! Mmm, cough. Hello, do you need something from the guild?”

She almost blurted out my name, but she quickly stopped herself. Were the nobles’ underlings here too? I had thought the gatekeeper said the guild should be safe… I carefully looked around the guild, and noticed one man I did not recognize sitting on a chair in a corner of the building. There had never been a chair in that spot before, so I assumed he was there to monitor things.

I pretended to be a clueless country girl that only came to place a request, and slowly approached the front desk and smiled awkwardly at Camille.

“Hello, I would like to place a request, if possible. Is that okay?”
“Of course. Write down your name and address here, then your request down here.”

Having been a receptionist for so many years, Camille instantly knew what I wanted to do. Without any hesitation, she took a paper from the desk like she usually would, and handed it to me together with a pen. The man sitting in the corner was too far to see the contents of papers on the front desk. This was my only way of communicating with Camille properly. I wrote down what I wanted to know in the paper, but spoke something completely different.

“Fighting monsters sounds so scary. Are there many experienced adventures around here?”
‘Is that man part of the group keeping watch over Grom?’

“Well, yes. There have been a lot of new adventurers coming here lately, but there’s a handful of veterans too. I wouldn’t be able to tell you who will pick up your request though, the guild just acts as an intermediary.”

They came here lately…then my hunch was right.

“I see. But how long will it take then? Maybe I could talk directly to an adventurer here, and explain everything more easily.”
‘Is there a time or place where their watch is weak?’

“Hmm…that’s tricky. They usually work from early in the morning until late at night. If you really need to talk, maybe you should go to a bar at night. There’s this place called the Golden Wheat Pavillion where a lot of adventurers gather, you could try looking for someone there.”

So she was saying they were under heavy surveillance, and it was best if we spoke somewhere else. I carefully looked back, and noticed the man on the chair attentively observing our interaction. Even if we were covering it up, talking for so long was suspicious, so it was best to end it here.

“Alright, I’m done.”
“Let me see…mhm, looks good. The rewards are paid in advance, so we’ll need a deposit of two silver coins too.”
“Alright, here you go.”

Camille placed the request sheet inside a book labeled after a fake village, though it sounded similar to those near us. Locals would notice it sounded weird, but the people who just arrived from the capital would not notice anything weird with it. Even in such a dire situation, I found it fun to sit on the opposite side of the front desk for once.

“Okay, I’ve registered your request.”
“Thank you. I’ll check that place you mentioned too, just in case.”
“Take care. It might take some time before you find someone, so keep trying for a few days.”

I quickly nodded before turning around and walking out of the guild. I noticed the man in the corner staring at me while I left, but he said nothing. When I was a distance away from the guild, I took a deep breath. Somehow I had gotten more stressed than I thought.

“Well, I’ll head to the Golden Wheat Pavilion for now. I think Camille will go there tonight.”

It was very rare for someone placing a request to not try bargaining with the adventurers there. Or at least I never saw someone go straight to the front desk and leave in my experience there. But only guild workers would notice that was weird. I quickly walked down the street, hurrying to the Golden Wheat Pavilion which I had gone to many times before.