Shia and the others finished their bath and then retired to their rooms for the night.
Luchila and Lord Gerberga also went to their room.
And so I asked Goran,
“Have you received any information relating to the vampire investigation?”
“No, nothing important…”
“I see. I guess it’s still too early.”
It was practically starting from today.
They would not discover much in so short a time.
“What about the A-Rank party that was sent to the place with the head of the dark god?”
“They have sent in a few reports…but nothing noteworthy has come yet.”
“I see.”
I had already searched the place. It might not be easy to find anything else.
After talking with Goran, I took a bath with Grulf and then we went to bed.
Grulf liked taking baths in spite of being a wolf. It was a very good thing.
◇◇◇
When I woke up the next morning, Goran, Serulis, Shia and Nia were already gone.
They all had work to do.
Luchila was reading a magic book and studying.
It was necessary to study in order to grow as a sorcerer.
“Milka. I’ll be leaving the house again today.”
“Will you be home for lunch?”
“I think I will eat outside. But I should be back before dinner.”
“Understood.”
And so I decided to go to the Adventurers Guild with Grulf.
Grulf wagged his tail and followed me.
“You haven’t been able to run in awhile, have you?”
“Grr?”
“I’ll try to find a quest that will take us outside of the city.”
“Groof!”
Grulf was large, but still young. He needed a lot of exercise.
I wanted to let him run to his heart’s content outside of the city.
“But don’t exhaust yourself either.”
“Groof!”
Grulf wagged his tail happily.
We entered the Adventurers Guild and looked at the quest board.
“Ah, goblin hunting. And it’s close by.”
“Grr?”
Grulf sat with a serious expression.
“Goblin hunting is not the most interesting, but it can be bad if no one else does it.”
And since it was close by, we could be home by dinner.
I took the request and headed to the counter.
“Ah, Mister Locke.”
Just then, Shia, Nia and Serulis came out from the back.
“Did you get registered, Nia?”
“Yes, I did.”
You could register alone if you were over fifteen, but not if you were eight.
Of course, she needed a guardian. That made the process a little more complicated.
But now that it was all finished, Nia looked a little nervous.
Serulis patted her gently on the head.
Shia looked at the paper I was holding in my hand.
“Mister Locke, which quest are you accepting?”
“Goblin hunting. Why don’t you all come with us?”
The guild could be very annoying if you tried to do a quest alone.
But it couldn’t be helped, since I was an F-Ranker.
“Oh, are you sure?”
“Of course.”
“Then we would be glad to!”
“Thank you, Mister Locke.”
“Thank you!”
Shia, Serulis and Nia bowed.
“No, thank you.”
“Groof.”
As we were now a party of four, I was able to accept the quest smoothly.
The four of us plus one wolf left the city and headed for the place that the goblins were supposed to appear.
A merchant who had been traveling near the main road had been attacked by them.
The merchant had managed to escape and come to the guild for help.
Goblin hunting near the main roads was the responsibility of the state, and so the quests did not pay much.
“Groof-grroooof!”
Grulf was so happy to be outside, that he started to run excitedly.
“Grulf, calm down or you’ll get tired.”
“Groof-groof!”
We weren’t far from where the goblins usually appeared. We would arrive before midday.
Still, that was enough time for him to get exhausted.
While Grulf was full of excitement, Nia looked very nervous.
Perhaps she didn’t realize it, but she was constantly touching the sheath of her sword.
“How long have you had combat training, Nia?”
“Uh, half a day everyday. I train in tournament style matches.”
“From what age?”
“As far back as I can remember…”
Shia said with a laugh,
“We start at the age of three in my tribe.”
“From three. So that means Nia has trained for five years.”
“Yes.”
“Well, while you shouldn’t let your guard down, you don’t have to be so nervous.”
“Yes, I will do my best!”
She was putting too much pressure on herself already. However, all Adventurers were like that in the beginning.
As we walked, Shia would occasionally stop.
Then she would take out a map and have Nia find our current location.
She was teaching her the very basics. That was a good thing.
“Nia. Where are we now on this map?”
“Here.”
“Why do you think that?”
She wanted to know honestly what her sister knew and what she didn’t.
Shia was a good teacher.
When we got close to the place where the goblins would appear, Shia started to teach her about scouting.
She would look at the footprints and make guesses about their number and type.
Serulis and Nia listened as they watched from behind.
Grulf was also behind her, and his tongue was sticking out as he breathed heavily.
“Grulf, are you tired already?”
“Grrr.”
“Grulf. Drink some water.”
I took out some water from my magic bag and put it in a bowl in front of Grulf.
He drank it happily as I patted him on the back.
“Grulf. You never know what might happen on an adventure. So you have to be careful not to waste all of your energy.”
“Groof.”
Perhaps it was because he had not gotten enough exercise recently.
I would have to make sure from now on that he had long walks every day.