Rank B, Rogue

“Mr. Reeve, I have your new identification tag and the results of your evaluation. You have been classified as a rank B physical combatant. Congratulations. That is an excellent ranking for a novice adventurer.”

{WARNING: RANK B FALLS WITHIN THE ESTIMATED PARAMETERS BASED ON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE STEEL ROSE AND THE LIMITED CAPABILITIES DEMONSTRATED BY THE USER}

“Thank you very much, Miss Hana.”

“You’re welcome. But if you’re truly grateful, you could buy me dinner sometime. Hahaha! Look at your face! Dora was right about how much fun it is to tease you.”

Reeve understood why Dora and the receptionist were friends. Even their jokes were similar.

He paid little attention to the comment. Instead, he took the identification tag and examined it carefully. It appeared to be made of metal and resembled an access card covered in information. Once again, Reeve couldn’t understand any of the writing. This time, however, running his fingers over the symbols produced no sound.

{WARNING: BASED ON THE RUDIMENTARY CONTEXT MODEL CREATED FROM THE PREVIOUS FORM, SOME INFORMATION MAY BE TRANSLATED. SHALL I PROCEED?}

Yes.

As soon as the command was given, rAIven overlaid partial translations onto the tag within Reeve’s visual interface.

The symbols on the first line remained indecipherable. On the second, he could read:

Class: Rogue

On the third:

Rank: B

Everything from the fourth line onward remained untranslated.

When Reeve looked toward the guild tavern, he saw Bain and Dora waving for him to return to the table. He put the tag away and joined them.

“So, Reeve? What rank did you get?” Bain asked excitedly.

“Don’t tell me you two made another bet.”

Reeve stared at them in disbelief.

“No! Not this time,” Dora replied, rapidly waving both hands in denial.

“Rank B. Rogue class.”

“Ha! I knew there was no way they could ignore your potential. They put you at the same rank as us right from the start!” Bain exclaimed, looking prouder than Reeve himself.

“It took me an entire year to climb out of rank C,” Dora lamented, lightly punching the table before lowering her head in defeat.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he caught up to Elise in less than a year.”

Bain nodded with his chest puffed out, as though he were personally responsible for the grueling training of a promising apprentice.

“What rank is she?” Reeve asked.

“She’s rank A, but she had already worked as a solo adventurer for a few months before joining the Steel Rose. Before that, she was a mage in the Inquisition’s Inner Circle. It makes sense that she’s so skilled,” Dora replied, scratching beneath her chin as she considered her companion’s abilities.

“And the captain?”

The two of them reacted differently when they heard the question.

“The captain is a different case, Reeve,” Bain said, taking another drink of beer. “He received permission to undergo a rank reassessment a long time ago, but he refuses to do it.”

“Why would anyone do that?”

“Some things happened to the captain and his old party. I’m not sure I have the right to tell you, but part of the story is public guild information, so I suppose it’s fine.”

Dora traced circles around the rim of her mug with one finger as she spoke.

“Before he joined us in the Steel Rose, the captain belonged to another party with his older brother. No one knows the exact details, but people say the two of them and several servants accepted a mission beyond their party’s capabilities by using their father’s reputation. The mission failed, every servant died, and the captain’s brother was severely injured.”

Dora’s finger stopped against the rim.

“This part isn’t public information, so I suggest you don’t ask about it openly. Apparently, his brother can no longer walk. The captain hasn’t set foot inside his family home since it happened. They say Lord Hans disowned him, or something like that.”

Dora finally took a drink.

“So that notice the captain couldn’t stop staring at on the wall...”

“Yes,” Bain replied without lowering his mug. “The mission is still open, but no one has the courage to accept it because of the rumors that spread after the failure.”

“I don’t think the captain intends to rise in rank until that mission is completed,” Dora added, finishing her beer and wiping the foam from her upper lip.

“Then why don’t you finish it yourselves?”

“The mission requires a priest to purify the miasma around the monster’s lair. No priest wants to join our party because of the captain’s reputation.”

What exactly is a priest?

{APPROXIMATE EQUIVALENT: AN AGENT OF A RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION SPECIALIZED IN THE PERFORMANCE OF RITUALS AND THE PRESERVATION OF DOCTRINE. HOWEVER, GIVEN THE DIFFERENT RULES OBSERVED IN THIS WORLD, THIS DEFINITION MAY BE IMPRECISE}

“What is a priest?” Reeve asked Bain and Dora this time.

“Damn, Reeve... You really must have crawled out of some hole to know almost nothing,” Dora remarked.

“That’s more or less what happened,” he replied, forcing a polite smile.

“Unlike mages, who are controlled by the Inquisition, priests use a different kind of magic—one that can only be taught by the Church. They have far more freedom to act. They can join adventuring parties, serve in other cities, or remain at the Cathedral of Gardenia. The benefits of having a direct connection to the Goddess, I suppose. Almost no one distrusts a priest.”

On certain subjects, Dora’s explanations were remarkably detailed.

The three remained in the guild tavern while they waited for the captain to return. Elliot, meanwhile, waited outside the Guild Master’s office on the upper floor.

“Sir Elliot, the Guild Master can see you now. Please, go in.”

The woman with carefully arranged hair opened the door and closed it again as soon as Elliot entered.

At the back of the room, behind a large wooden desk, a man even larger than Bain stood gazing out the window.

“No need for ceremony, boy. Sit down,” he said in a deep voice before turning around.

His features were rugged, and a large scar crossed one eye, which had turned white from the injury. The other was a vivid green. His unshaven beard, flecked with gray, and hair that already showed clear signs of age gave him a rough appearance, yet one marked by unmistakable nobility.

“Greetings, Guild Master Bron.”

“Spare me the formalities, boy. Tell me what you discovered on the mission.”

“Impatient as ever, aren’t you, old man?”

“I doubt you’ll have more patience when you reach my age, kid. Assuming you manage to live that long, of course. Hahaha!”

The tension in the room gradually eased.

“Now, enough delays. I need the report. Those bastards from the Merchants’ Guild have been breathing down my neck over the attacks on their precious crops.”

“Then you’d better exercise more if you want to carry even more weight from now on. We confirmed that the monsters near the southern frontier are displaying the same behavior.”

“Not encouraging news, but it was expected.”

“That isn’t all, sir.”

“There’s more?”

“Much more. In the frontier village, we encountered a monstrous goblin with an unusual mana stone implanted where one of its eyes should have been. Elise detected traces of magic used to insert the stone and force the mutation. Not to mention the abnormal number of monsters in the surrounding forest.”

The Guild Master rose and began pacing across the room, stroking the beard beneath his chin with a firm hand.

“For this to happen just after the Inquisition’s raids against apostate camps became even more brutal cannot be a coincidence. We can always count on the Church and the nobility to make our lives more difficult.”

“I’m not sure you should be saying that in my presence, Master Bron.”

“You’re one of the decent nobles, boy. The problem is that the Inquisition is cornering mages more than ever. What else can they do but fight back? Even so, deliberately creating mutations makes no sense. Those abominations could attack their own camps.”

“Can we be certain the apostates are responsible?”

“Who else would be foolish enough to implant mana stones into monsters?”

“I couldn’t answer that, sir. A mage is clearly involved, but most apostates are only trying to cross the frontier and leave Olliria behind. It makes no sense for them to waste time experimenting on monsters while fleeing the Inquisition’s hammer.”

“You may be right, boy. Was this mutant goblin truly that different?”

“Far more than you can imagine.”

Elliot placed a hand over the spot where the giant goblin had struck him directly.

“Without outside help, I believe I would have died at the very least.”

“Outside help?”

The Guild Master stopped pacing abruptly.

“Yes. There was someone in Lume who followed us to the site of the battle. After I was struck, he defeated the mutant within moments. Later, we convinced him to accompany us to Gardenia and register with the guild.”

“He sounds interesting. Do you believe he can be trusted?”

“Not at all, sir. Elise has distrusted him since the first day, and I’ve never had reason to disregard her judgment. He is obviously hiding something. He may be even more powerful than he allows us to see.”

Elliot looked down at his chainmail glove.

“That does not change the fact that he saved my life at a critical moment. I’ll keep an eye on him while he remains with the Steel Rose. I have the impression he would attract dangerous attention if left to wander Gardenia on his own.”

“Pragmatic as always, boy. In any case, as long as this man causes no trouble in my city, I won’t interfere.”

“Thank you for your trust, Guild Master.”

“Besides, I have far greater problems at the moment. I need to order every rank B or higher adventurer across the kingdom to report to the guild. If the mutation you discovered was not an isolated incident, but part of a deliberate and systematic effort, I suspect we will be facing serious trouble very soon.”

Bron turned his gaze back toward the window.

“You may leave, boy. Good work gathering the information. Ask one of the receptionists to pay out the mission reward.”

“Thank you, sir,” Elliot replied with a bow.

He left the room while the Guild Master returned to watching the city through the window.

“Come on, Bain. It’s only an arm-wrestling match. You can’t keep us in suspense forever,” Dora complained, already slightly affected by the alcohol.

“Hahaha! The suspense is the best part. And I can’t even consider the possibility of losing an arm-wrestling match to my rookie. How could I guide him after that?”

Bain also seemed considerably intoxicated.

Reeve sat between them. Dora kept a heavy hand on one of his shoulders while Bain repeatedly slapped the back of the other.

A short while later, the captain returned carrying a sizable pouch.

“That sound, Captain... It’s like a choir of angels,” Dora said, gazing at the coin pouch as though hopelessly in love.

“It was a good reward, considering the work we had to do. We even received a bonus for the information about the mutant. We’ll return to our headquarters and divide the remainder into five equal shares after deducting the household expenses.”

The four of them left the guild building. Dora leaned against Reeve because he was the most sober of the three who had remained in the tavern. Elliot, who had probably dealt with the same situation countless times, moved ahead to guide them.

They headed in the opposite direction from the one they had taken upon arriving. At the beginning of the market, they turned down another street and entered a simple square surrounded by houses built extremely close together.

The captain approached a residence constructed almost directly against the city wall. Given Gardenia’s scale, it was the first place Reeve had encountered in that world that reminded him of Nova Tokyo’s lower levels.

He followed Elliot, now carrying the small Dora in his arms after she had passed out halfway there.

Bain went ahead and opened the door for Reeve.

“Welcome to the Steel Rose headquarters, Reeve.”