Chapter 1 Arc 1 The Windmill

Chapter 1

Arc 1

The Windmill

The train comes to a stop. A silent, anticipatory tension hangs in the air—at least from one person's perspective. Koro already has his bags packed, with enough money gathered to last him a few weeks. He stands, walks out of the train onto the station platform, and looks past it toward the much larger village ahead. It's only slightly smaller than a city—definitely more room than where he came from.

Koro glances at the map. “Huh, seriously? It's that easy to find this place? It must be really famous if the only directions are ‘keep straight ahead.’ And there's a pretty big walkway too. A bunch of restaurants and other establishments line the sides. They do look pretty tempting. Should I eat first, or just head straight to the guild? Eh, I think I'll go with the latter.”

Koro starts walking straight down the walkway. A few carriages pass by as he carries his bags.

Meanwhile, Maya is washing dishes. There are a huge number of plates, and she's constantly pressured to “wash faster, dammit!” Maya shakes her head and blinks a couple of times—she zoned out for a second. “Maya, hurry up! You know we're short-staffed, and we have a bunch of barbaric animals to feed out there—especially after their battles.” Maya glances at Violet. “Could you be any more insufferable? I already know our predicament. You're just demotivating me with your dumb ass—”

Suddenly the doors swing open enthusiastically. A really tall, athletic-looking guy with beautiful bright purple glowing eyes, medium-deep brown skin, and semi-freeform afro locs walks in. With a few bags in his hands, he says, “Ahhh yes! Finally, I'm here.”

Violet looks at Maya. “Damn, another newcomer? Welp, you know what that means, right, Maya?” Violet mocks her.

Maya looks really annoyed as she drops the dishes in the sink. She lets out a mix of a sigh and a scoff, then walks over to the reception counter of the guild. Koro eagerly approaches the same spot.

“Ahhh, kill me now. Anyway, welcome to the Legend Cry guild, where legends are born and tales are woven, I guess. What name shall echo through the annals of our history? Just so you know, my guildmaster forces me to say that stupid fucking line every time. Anyway, just sign here and here, and then I'll bring out the magical scale to rate your magic output and see what rank you are. I just hope you're not totally useless like the other 700 guys who came in here earlier.”

Koro signs his name and information as she walks away to grab the magic scale. She returns with a crystallized ball containing swirling white energy inside. Koro casually places his hand on it, pouring all of his mana output into the scale. A symbol appears—an A. A pretty strong A at that.

Maya smirks. “Well, call me surprised. It seems like you're not useless after all, color-eyed boy. That's pretty decent for a newcomer, Mr… Hailey? Huh. Koro Isaiah Hailey. Interesting.” Maya had seen his name on the paperwork he signed. She hands him his adventurer's ID, which allows him to travel dungeons legally and freely enter any capital in the world that doesn't have a no-outsiders law.

Suddenly, a pale-skinned, white-haired guy no older than 21, with red eyes and a long sword on his back, approaches Koro. “What's up! Um, Koro, isn't it? My name is Aaron. I really wish I could introduce you to my twin sister Alice, but she's on a quest right now. By the way, your A-rank mana puts you among the upper echelon of mages—alongside me, of course. I'm A-rank too. With that kind of power, you should find top-tier quests and spoils to match. The guild could use talents like yours. NO, NO—I could use a talent like yours!! Welcome aboard, adventurer!!!”

Koro raises an eyebrow and shakes his hand. “Ummmm, thanks? You seem way too excited about this, dude.”

Maya says, “Just don't worry about it. He's almost always like that. He's a total schizo when it comes to meeting new people that excite him. Aaron, you gotta stop smiling like that when you meet new people—it makes you look like you want to eat them.”

Aaron nods. “Right. I guess I'll think about improving on that later. But for right now, I have another quest to do, so I'll be off!”

Koro watches Aaron dash off at hypersonic speeds, leaving a dust trail behind. He's only mildly impressed—nothing he isn't used to. “Huh. What a weirdo. Hey, do you think you can show me around the place?”

Maya nods. “Sure, I can do that. Anything to get out of this stupid reception center.”

Maya shows him around the guildhall; it's loud and chaotic. Big men are shouting, a few women are drinking, people are dancing on tables holding mugs of alcohol. Violet glares at Maya from across the room as she serves drinks. Maya playfully flips her off and drags Koro toward one of the most important features in the guild: the bulletin board.

Koro says, “Wow, you guys have a much larger board than the one back at my old village. Wait—is that an S-rank black dragon quest? Holy shi—”

Maya smirks. “Of course the Legend Cry board is way bigger. We have it all here—powerful adventurers, ambition. Maybe not anyone who could slay a black dragon yet, but to be honest, we haven't had a single S-rank adventurer. And I find that weird—we have so many A-rankers who are borderline there but not quite. Still, we mainly get our reputation because of the huge quantity of A-rankers. We vastly outnumber anyone else in the northern region of the world. But besides an S-rank, you name it and we have it.”

Koro looks around. “But what about staff members?”

Maya stops smiling and looks at him, annoyed. “Ugh, fuck you.”

Koro throws his hands up, confused. Internally he thinks, “I wasn't even trying to be rude—I was just genuinely curious.”

Koro looks at Maya with a hint of endearment, then his eyes flicker back to the bulletin board. There are a few S-rank quests, obviously ones he can't do yet. He needs to rank up first. But he does get curious about what he's seeing: quests like stopping an island of dangerous titans, or retrieving the missing elven princess Alexia. In the picture she has brown hair and amber eyes. Koro's eyes linger on that one a bit longer. Then he spots a few other interesting things, but the one that catches his attention most is a picture of a windmill.

It's an A-rank quest—finally one he can do—and it's worth a lot of gold. He grabs the quest paper. “Maya, I'm going to take on this quest.”

Maya looks at him, shocked. “Oh, already? Well, I'll notify the guild master. You run along.”

Koro smirks. “Okay, I will. And I'll be back in no time, I promise. I won't disappoint on my first quest.”

Koro turns on his heel and heads off.