The brown-haired girl seemed to notice Aaron's hesitation. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly as she suggested,
"If you register as an adventurer, questions like that are free."
Her expectant gaze fell on him.
Aaron's eyelid twitched. "Can a single person register as an adventurer?"
"Adventuring is dangerous work. Anyone can register; there's no explicit rule on numbers. But in practice, for safety, the minimum is two people."
"Of course, that's not officially written anywhere."
Her voice dropped to a quieter tone at the end.
"How much does it cost to register as an adventurer?" Aaron asked with a blank expression.
"One silver coin!" The brown-haired girl lifted a finger and waggled it.
Aaron reached into his pocket as cover and pulled a silver coin from his Item Box, placing it on the counter.
"I'll get it processed right away."
Her eyes lit up and she spoke quickly.
"No, the thing that costs five copper coins."
Aaron pressed a hand down on the silver coin, his expression still unmoved.
He only had 2 gold, 6 silver, and 3 copper coins left. Once he reached the border city E-Rantel, he would definitely need to spend money, so he could not afford to waste extra on registering as an adventurer.
He did not have time to run guild quests anyway.
"There's an escort request going to E-Rantel right over there. Despite the distance, it only offers the minimum pay for a Gold-ranked job. Stingy, huh?"
The brown-haired girl's face fell, her tone turning listless as she pointed toward the board of posted requests not far away, then added in a slightly meaningful voice,
"It's probably going to be taken by that Silver-ranked adventurer party."
"Since you clearly don't know how things work, here's a reminder: if you want to travel with them, you'll need the client's consent and the consent of the adventurer party that accepted the request."
Hearing that,
Aaron followed the direction of her gesture and saw a four-person adventurer party. A hint of recognition flashed in his eyes.
It was the same group he had overheard earlier, discussing their plan to aim for Gold rank.
He lifted his hand from the silver coin and pushed it toward the girl.
She picked up the coin, rubbed it lightly between her fingers, then dropped it into a box beneath the counter and took out eight copper coins, setting them on the table.
"Thank you."
Aaron gave a slight nod, slipped the copper coins into his pocket, and turned to leave.
Th… thank you?
The brown-haired girl froze for a moment, watching Aaron's retreating back with a complex, odd expression.
Ever since she had started working at the Adventurer Guild, no one had ever said "thank you" to her. Most adventurers were rough types to begin with.
All the more so for a lowly receptionist like her.
"He looks dirt… ahem, plain, but he's unexpectedly polite," she muttered under her breath.
Thinking about it again,
he was actually pretty handsome. Most importantly, he had black hair and dark brown eyes—very rare colors.
An outsider… or from another country?
Her cheeks flushed slightly.
Aaron walked to a corner of the hall and leaned against the wall with a sigh.
Things were more troublesome than he had imagined—or rather, he had been thinking too simply at the start.
Needing consent from both sides meant it was almost impossible.
Since the client had hired an adventurer party for protection, they would not want outsiders tagging along, and the party itself certainly would not want to invite trouble.
But getting to the border city E-Rantel was essential.
Whether it was the Great Forest of Tob to the north, or the Katze Plains to the south, both were excellent leveling grounds. This was a real world, not a game; monsters did not "respawn."
If Aaron wanted to level up, he had to go where there were plenty of monsters.
Also,
since E-Rantel lay at the far eastern border of the kingdom, it was a convenient place for certain plans between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire.
If this were only about safety,
dangers within the Re-Estize Kingdom's borders would not be too severe.
The real issue was
Aaron's lack of understanding of the kingdom's internal affairs. Having an adventurer party around would help him avoid unnecessary trouble.
He knew a lot about this world in a broad sense, but that information was all too high-level. When it came to basic, on-the-ground details, he knew far too little.
If he were strong, it would not matter.
But with his level still so low, he needed to pay attention to every bit of trouble he could avoid.
Aaron bowed his head in thought.
Judging by what the brown-haired girl had said, the distance from the capital to E-Rantel was long enough to count as a Gold-ranked request.
With the money he had, there was no way he could hire a party.
However, there might be a compromise.
E-Rantel was at the kingdom's far eastern border, and between it and the capital lay the large city of E-Raebel, the domain of Marquis Raeven, one of the kingdom's six top nobles.
If he first went to E-Raebel and then on to E-Rantel, the price of a commission should drop considerably.
It would just cost him extra time—and time was precisely what Aaron lacked most.
Suddenly—
"Miss Daya, has yesterday's request been picked up?" A familiar, slightly nervous voice came from the reception counter.
"Oh, it's you."
"You came just in time. Your request was just accepted, by a Silver-ranked adventurer party. Not sure if that's acceptable to you. If not, we can reassign it," Daya's calm voice replied.
"No, no."
"We don't have any particular requirements."
The somewhat nervous, familiar voice spoke again in a hurry.
Aaron looked up in mild surprise, his gaze following the sound.
Nfirea?
He blinked. He had not expected to run into a familiar face here.
Was that escort request to E-Rantel issued by Nfirea?
His grandmother was a third-tier magic caster, yet they still needed to hire an adventurer party?
While he was distracted,
Nfirea had already made contact with the Silver-ranked party. It looked like they had officially accepted the commission.
Aaron watched for a moment, then stood and walked toward them.
Over there—
"Then we'll be in your care for the journey. It might be a bit of a rough road," Nfirea said softly to the four adventurers in front of him.
One of them, seemingly the leader, patted the black leather armor on his chest with a hearty grin. "Don't worry. We've done this kind of job a few times already. We can definitely guarantee your safety."
Nfirea, being naturally reserved, felt a faint flush of embarrassment creep onto his cheeks. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but held back.
That was not actually what he had meant.
"Hello."
Suddenly, a voice came from behind.