Full Moon

“Business you say” here came the catch.

“Business”

“What about the girl” I had to ensure her safety before jumping into the dark

“She is with Lua now, nothing to worry about. She’s Full Moon’s top healer at the moment. I told her to check on the girl and then she will probably send her somewhere to recover from injuries magic can’t cure. If you know what I mean”

“Healing magic?” I asked

“She can cure small to medium wounds, it comes in handy sometimes but unfortunately she can’t revive the dead. Lua will be here soon to treat you as well”

“Thank you”

“Can I ask you what led to today’s events?” Roxy asked, she was visibly waiting for a good story.

I told her my story, avoiding the fact that I was a reincarnation. My lie involved coming from outside the Kingdom and having lost my memories after a big fall in the forest. It wasn’t the prettiest excuse but Roxy seemed to buy it.

“Are you a calamity magnet or something? You encountered a mother Horned Rabbit and fought over a girl with a wanted murderer, then got to Lyria, risked life in prison, and almost got killed by a Kaiser. The most exciting thing I do these days is kicking someone out of my inn”

“Can...Can we stop talking about that?”

“Oh yeah! Now, where was I?...” she already forgot “Right, the Brooch I just gave you is imbued in a type of spell that makes it stick to its owner. It comes off only when the owner dies or the one who pinned it decides to take it off”

Roxy showed that hers was the one holding the tie together. The pearl was diamond and the metal around it was similar to a snowflake.

“Can’t you just take it off then?” I tried with all my forces to tear it, only bringing the belt along.

“I don’t want to” she leaned forward “You guts, I want them! Not literally of course”

“You want me to work for you?” this was the best outcome since I already decided to try asking

“Pin Pon! You’re correct. With time, experience, and the right teachings, I am sure that you will become a renowned mercenary” she smiled.

“I’d prefer to remain unknown...especially after what happened today”

“I feel you, anybody would want that. I gave you the Brooch, now we have to complete the registration” she handed me a piece of paper and ink.

“I’m sorry but I can’t read nor write” I lowered my eyes hoping she wouldn’t throw me out.

“We have a lot of uncultured people here, it’s okay. I’ll fill it out for you”

The door opened and Lua came into the room. Looking at her closely she was pretty. Her Brooch was a feather with a bronze pearl on top of it, keeping the green cloak closed. Her hair was tied in a braid.

“How is she?” I asked immediately

“She’s fine, I healed her ankle without problems. The other wounds were old and already healed naturally but I can’t even begin to think what she went through” Lua seated beside me. “Her mental state was even worse, I had to put her to sleep and sent her to someone who could help her”

Lua grabbed my leg and placed it on the couch. Both hands were grabbing a wooden staff with Golden rings at the tip, facing the wound. A white magic circle around her wrists confirmed she was casting a spell. Her hands began to shine and my leg was enveloped in warmth. A kind warmth that set my mind at ease.

“First Heal”

I could feel the pain slowly fading away. The rest of my body felt relieved and energized once again almost as if I did nothing the whole day. Both magic circles and the light from her hands disappeared. She untucked the pants leg from the boots and checked where the bunny had bitten me. Under the bloodied cloth the skin was clear and the wound was gone.

“All good” she talked to Roxy then glanced back at me “It was a pleasure to meet you”

Lua got out of the room the same way she entered.

“She’s great isn’t she?” Roxy was looking at the door closing

“Will I be able to do something like that too?” if I could learn that type of magic I could easily fight without worrying too much

“Probably not…” Roxy wanted to add something but decided not to “Let’s fill this and get you to work. Name?”

“Rei”

“Surname?”

“I-I don’t think I have one” even when Aurora showed me my file everything was crossed out except name and age.

“Nameless then”

“Nameless?” I had to write all these new terms somewhere to remember them

“People without a surname or a title are called ‘Nameless’, it’s mostly referred to the common folk and nowadays many consider it a derogatory term. Lua is also a Nameless by the way”

Roxy nonchalantly dropped an important piece of information on me. People were judged based on their social standing, not their qualities.

“The majority of the Nameless can’t manipulate mana and are unable of using magic”

“How is that related to having a surname or not? Isn’t it a bit crazy?”

“Long story short, centuries ago a war broke out and when it ended the people who helped in the fight, by being able to use magic, got rewarded with honorific titles. These warriors began forming families between themselves, creating what is now the whole nobility of the Kingdom. This way, the ability to use magic was handed down during generations only to members of these families leaving the common folk with their hands empty”

It made more sense now. Since Lua could use magic that meant that even the common folk could gain the ability to manipulate mana, even if the chances were low.

“How can I know if I can use magic or not?” seeing how Claude got the advantage with just a spell, being able to use it had its benefits.

“We use this” reaching behind the couch Roxy grabbed a big glass cube and put it on the table “Place your hand on it and we will be able to determine which class to give you”

Another word I didn’t understand. Was this the turning point in my story where we would find out that I could wield any type of magic, and was so strong to be able to overthrow kingdoms and obliterate armies? I placed my hand on the cube. Nothing happened.

“Try placing both” Roxy proposed. Yes, there was a mistake.

When both my hands were placed on the glass cube, it vibrated for a moment and turned completely white. It gave the impression to have changed the material it was made of, completely.

“Springer” announced Roxy, writing something down on the paper.

“Is that good?” I asked, not knowing what the outcome of that test had been.

“The Guild has divided every combatant into three classes: Reiter, Laufer, and Roch” she placed her hands on the cube and it turned grey “I am a Laufer, it means I can wield magic but can cast it only with the help of a catalyst like this one”

She whipped out her gun from the holster and pressed the trigger while the barrel was facing the couch. A magic circle appeared on the gun and an icicle stuck into the pillow.

“Catalysts are made with a special metal and an artificial magic circle inscribed in them to help fill in the gaps in the process that turns mana into a spell” The light blue cylinder in her gun turned off and Roxy switched it with one of the ones on her belt “I store my mana in these bad boys so I can use more spells than usual”

“You can use Ice magic too” I noticed the cylinder she just took out was already starting to light back up.

“Yes, although Claude is part of the Roch class, they can freely cast spells without a catalyst. Many Royal Guards are Roch as well.”

“Then what about Springer? Is it above these two?” I was hoping for a good news

“Springer can’t use magic at all” Roxy put her gun back.

“Eh?” I felt like I could cry.

“There are cases where someone awakens his ability but they are even rarer than a Nameless being born with the ability to manipulate mana” my dreams shattered.

“Even if I can’t use magic could you at least tell me how to distinguish different types?”

Roxy got up from her seat and grabbed a book from one of the shelves. She sat next to me and opened the book at a specific page with a graph and began explaining. The picture showed the same shape as the magic circle Aurora created. A colored symbol was inscribed in each smaller circle. I could distinguish some of them, one looked like a flame, another had the shape of a thunderbolt.

“There are 9 main elements in this world: Lux-Light, Nox-Darkness, Aqua-Water, Ignis-Fire, Electro-Thunder, Glacies-Ice, Petra-Earth, Ventus-Wind and the last one is Herba which is Nature”

“What’s this one?” I pointed at the symbol in the middle, It was an open circle with three tips. The same as the object Aurora wore behind her head

“This is Aether, the mana of the Gods and the mana all the other elements derived from. Like Nox, no one in history has been able to wield it”

“Lua was using Lux right?” I noticed that the color of the magic circle changed from wielder to wielder

“You have a keen eye, I like it. Lux is one of the rarest elements to possess”

Was Lua being blessed by the Gods instead of me? No, I couldn’t think like that. Just the fact that I was there was enough to consider myself luckier than most.

Roxy closed the book. She switched couches and continued with the form. She wrote a bunch of stuff without talking to me which I found really suspicious.

“Age?”

“18”

“You’re younger than me, I thought you were around your 20s already” was that supposed to be a compliment? “Do you have any previous experiences in combat with monsters or humans?”

“Let alone this morning, no”

“Would you like to take a test to receive a rank different from the one given to you: Iron? No”

“Hold on I didn’t say anything”

“Are you filling this form out of your own will and are not forced by anyone to join the Guild? Yes”

“Wait”

“Sign here….R-E-I”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“How do you rate the procedure used during the registration and the ability of our staff to answer your questions? Impeccable” she took a stamp out of her pockets and smashed it on the paper almost breaking the glass table below “We’re done”

“I feel like you needed my consent to fill some of those” I said as the form turned into shreds before my eyes

“It wasn’t that important” Roxy was more dangerous than I thought “The Guild now has your information and you are a full-fledged mercenary. Welcome to the big family”

“Does this mean that I can start working now?” I got up from the couch, headed towards the exit.

“Not so fast Rei” an icicle impacted just over the handle I was reaching “We have to talk about money”

“I don’t have any money, Roxy”

“I know, I know, I’ll lend you some money till you can pay me back in full. Now sit down” following the movement of the barrel I found myself on the couch again.

“Is this some kind of scam?”

“Of course it is, nothing is free in this world and kind-hearted people are extinct” she took a small notebook from under one of the pillows “I’ll have you work for me as a porter until you have the money to pay for the registration fee, then you’ll be able to accept jobs directly from the guild. Since you have nowhere to go I went ahead and told Chevy to get a room ready for you. You can stay there as long as you want but you will have to pay weekly for board and lodging. You can eat here at Full Moon since it’s included”

“How much do I owe you?”

“The registration fee is 200 Karses while the room and everything else is 50 Karses a week. I’ll pay you 30 Karses a day to be my porter so in about a week and a half you’ll be able to take better-paid jobs”

“Is that it?” it seemed reasonable. I wouldn’t mind lifting some weights for this short time.

“Then we add the Guild’s Brooch cost, the lessons about magic I gave you, and an additional 5 Karses for personally filling out your form.”

I didn’t ask her to teach me about magic, and she forced the whole brooch thing on me. It was a bit exaggerated but still reasonable.

“Since the girl is also penniless the costs for her treatment fall onto you, we can also include Lua’s treatment in here”

“But you offered her money and she refused”

“The service was still delivered diligently” I could see the list of things in her notebook getting longer and longer “Finally, the cost of saving your life which is a rough estimate of how many Karses it would have taken to free you from prison if you got arrested”

“But I am innocent”

“The guards didn’t know that” she did quick maths and closed her notebook sticking it back under the pillow “Your total debt is 25.405 Karses”

“Did you save me just so you could rip me off?” the number was so high I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how much work I had to do in order to repay that.

“How cruel! Back in the plaza, I chose to save you because I saw potential. Potential and a gold mine” my mind broke “You can worry about repaying me starting tomorrow. Tonight we party!”

I stood up, this time I wasn’t threatened by a gun.

“I have one last thing for you” she gave me a notebook similar to hers.

It had a leather cover with the same dragon insignia. A string held it close and a pencil was tucked on the side. I opened it and shuffled the pages. They were all white. A pleasant scent of paper came from that gesture.

“Consider it a gift. You can use it to learn how to read and write and use it to keep track of stuff. If you ever need more, just tell me” she genuinely smiled.

This was the first kind act she did for me and almost forgot about the 25k plus debt I had. We both opened the door and headed back to the main room, it was filled to the brim with people, even more than before.

“A new rookie is now part of the Full Moon!” Roxy shouted, “All drinks are on the house tonight!”

Everyone cheered and started gulping whatever was left in its mug trying to order another. Chevy was running like crazy trying to keep up with the orders. Laughs and joy filled the room and even if my life was now in Roxy’s hands it wasn’t that bad. Roxy pushed me into the crowd and started serving drinks and shooting icicles at everyone who kept his hands too close to Chevy.

Not knowing what to do, I noticed Lua sitting alone and decided to join her. She was looking outside the window. It was already dark outside. I sat on the stool in front of her.

“Hey, thanks for everything you did before” she was surprised by my presence

“It’s just my work. I’ve seen worse stuff. I’m Lua by the way” she extended her hand.

“I’m Rei” we greeted each other.

“What brings you here Rei? Not many people decide to become mercenaries this easily”

“I was kind of... forced into joining” she laughed “What about you? You don’t have the same frightening aura as the others”

“I had my personal reasons” I shouldn’t have dug deeper than that “Did Roxy assign you to a Unit already?”

“A Unit? She never mentioned it”

I took out my notebook to try and write down the things I learned that day. My hand didn’t know how to move. Even the language I used in my previous life was now gone. And here I thought I could write some secret stuff without others noticing. I closed the notebook again.

“It’s just the group of mercenaries you take jobs with. You can create one yourself but most of the time, if you’re alone, Roxy makes you join a random one. It happened to me”

“Where’s your Unit now?”

“Probably in a brothel in the suburbs, they’re not the best teammates one could ask for. I’m sorry but I just got back from a job and I’m pretty tired. I don’t want to sound disrespectful but I think I’ll go in my room now” Lua got up, greeted me with another smile, and went up the stairs.

“I should probably do the same thing too”

I intercepted Chevy while she was coming out of the kitchen with a tray full of beers. She told me how to reach my room and handed me the key to the door. She asked me if I wanted her to wake me up the next morning. I kindly refused.

I slowly climbed the stairs with my last bit of energy and reached my room on the first floor. I unlocked the door and looked around the room. It was dark but I could see it was rather simple. A bed against the wall and a small desk on the other side with a chair. Next to it is a small closet and a rack for weapons. The window was open and I could see the moons up in the sky...moons.

Yeah whatever, I had all the time in my life to worry about these useless things. I put my sword on the rack and jumped on the bed, face-down. I was so tired that as soon as my face reached the pillow I was already sound asleep.

Hey! Ecspo here. Hope you liked this chapter!

Since this is my first serious work and also my first work in English I would very much appreciate any tips, critiques, comments of any kind. Tell me if the chapters are too long, short, or whatever, it would mean a lot to me.