A Long Walk

It took them much less time to get back to civilization than Souma had been expecting. They followed the river upstream for a few hours as it steadily grew wider and merged with other streams. At some point it led them out of the forest entirely and was large enough they could no longer have crossed it if they wanted to. From there, they arrived at a stone bridge that stretched from one bank to the other, allowing the passage of a broad stone-paved road. Standing on that bridge, they finally made out the small glittering lights of what promised to be a large city.

There was unmistakably a part of Souma that wanted to ignore the call of those lights and rush straight to the Altoria Dungeon to look for the other summoned. But they were both undeniably exhausted, hungry, and unarmed. He knew that would be reckless.

Selina had promised they could restock if they went back to her hometown, but that was a few days away at least, and it quickly became apparent she had even less outdoors experience than he did. To the point it was surprising she had managed to make it to the tower in the first place.

To say nothing of the fact neither one of them really knew how to get to Altoria. Selina had a vague kind of notion it was to the west, but the way she talked about it gave Souma the impression that just heading out in that direction would only get them lost.

"And anyway, we won't even be allowed into the dungeon if we're not registered with the Adventurer's Guild." Selina said, as they walked along the dirt path towards the city. She had her hands behind her head and was grinning up at the sky. "Everybody knows that. We may as well sign up over there."

"They won't let us in? How could that possibly be true? What do they do? Check your papers before they let you in? Do they have a ticket booth?"

"Dungeon entrances are almost always in the middle of big cities, so I suppose they do?"

"You're telling me the dungeon entrance is in the middle of the city? Isn't that kind of... Dangerous?"

"Do they not have dungeons in your world, human?"

"No, of course not! Well, I suppose there are the catacombs under Paris, but... Ahh," realization washed over him. Of course, nobody would just build a giant underground network in the middle of nowhere for no good reason. This wasn't a video game.

"So if we join the Adventurer's Guild they'll just let us in?"

"Absolutely!" Selina beamed.

Souma did not find her confidence reassuring, but decided not to press her. He could tell he was starting to get overly tired, and right now all he wanted to do was find a safe place to sleep.

By the time they reached the city, the moon had almost vanished, and the night had become much darker. The road led them all the way to a huge archway, big enough for at least three wagons to go through at once. The walls surrounding the city were even more impressive, and fortified with battlements through which Souma could see a few steel plated guards peering down.

There were also a handful of soldiers at the gates themselves, and they looked Souma and Selina over as they approached. Souma started to worry they might be held up, but when they got closer the guards seemed to lose interest, and they were waved through without a word. Either it was too late for them to care, or they decided whatever Souma and Selina were going to do in town, there was no way they'd pose a thread.

Through the gateway, the city was vibrant despite the late hour. There was color and movement everywhere. People hurried from one place to another, carried baskets and pulled small wagons, or just laughed and leaned into one another as they stumbled drunk from bars.

Even more exciting, wherever Souma looked he saw men and women with animal ears, small horns, and even one or two men with leathery wings on their backs. There were also plenty of people who looked more like him, but even they had wildly colored eyes like Selina's.

He'd seen things like this before in comics, but seeing it in real life was something else entirely. Somehow, even more than the run in with the muscle-head rabbit bandits, it wasn't until this moment that Souma really felt as though he had been taken to another world.

After the initial excitement had worn off though, it didn't take that long for him to realize that more than a few people were looking at him with guarded, suspicious expressions.

"Am I... doing something wrong?" Souma leaned in and asked Selina.

"It's probably your clothes, human."

"What about my clothes?"

"They look weird," she said simply.

Souma frowned, and looked down at what he was wearing. An old tracksuit and the same cheap joggers he wore whenever he left the house. For a second, Souma found himself staring at his shoes. Come to think of it, had he always been wearing those? He'd been wearing them since he arrived here without a second thought, but before that, he wouldn't have been wearing shoes if he was just lazing around in his room.

The dimmest of memories tugged at the back of his mind. Seeing something outside his window, a humming sound-

"Human! Why are you staring at your feet!" Selina slapped his arm. "We have to find the Adventurer's Guild."

"Why don't we just ask for directions?"

"Foolish human. The Demon Lord has no need to ask for directions. My intuition will guide us."

At which point it became apparent they weren't about to find the Adventurer's Guild any time soon, and Souma asked about until they got on the right track.

As it turned out, the Adventurer's Guild wasn't too far from the entrance they'd come through in the first place. It was an enormous building, which from the outside at least seemed to be part office, part bar, and part hotel. Souma had expecting the place to be as bustling as the rest of the city, but when they walked through the front door, he was surprised to find they'd walked into what seemed to be a fairly normal tavern.

It might have been the late hour, but rather than being filled with laughing, shouting adventurers, it seemed like there were only a few small groups left, and they were mostly huddled peacefully around small tables, drinking or eating meals. As he and Selina walked inside, most of them didn't even bother looking up. The few that did went back to their meals without a second glance.

All except one of them, that was.

As everybody went back to what they were doing, Souma's eye was drawn to a woman sitting in one corner, close to the fire. She was wearing a light but obviously battle-tested leather vest draped over thick looking dark grey linen sleeves. Her coppery red hair was tied back in a ponytail that hung past her shoulders, and her face was accented by a long scar running horizontally from one end to the other. Like somebody had tried to cut her head in half and failed. Souma could see weapons piled up behind her against the wall, as though she was getting ready to go to war, and lay out on the table in front of her was a meal that looked big enough to feed an army of five. Was she holding the table for friends who would come later?

As he and Selina walked between the tables towards a long counter at the back of the room that Souma figured was the reception desk, the woman lifted a small pendant hung from a chain around her neck, and peered at them through a pale blue gem set in its center.

Feeling suddenly uneasy, Souma turned his back to the woman and focused his attention on Selina.

"Alright, here we are. What now?"

"Now we register to become adventurers!" Selina declared.

She led the way to the reception desk, where a man who had the air of somebody who was working long after they'd rather be sleeping eyed them warily. He was obviously much older than anybody else here, but Souma noted he was still muscular enough to give the bandits they'd met before a run for their money. He narrowed his eyes at them as they stepped up to the counter, and ran one hand through his close-cropped grey hair.

"What do you kids want?"

"We seek to register with your guild!" Selina declared.

"Registrations are closed until tomorrow. Come back then."

"Uh..."

Selina turned back to look at Souma, and pointed meekly at the man at the front desk.

"Th-they aren't doing registrations, he said."

"I heard." Souma tried to stifle a yawn. "Okay, let's just take care of it tomorrow. For now, why don't we find a place to sleep." Then he wrinkled his nose. "Is what I'd like to say, but I don't have any-"

Selina held up a finger to hush him.

"Fear not, human, the great Demon Lord foresaw this eventually-"

"Eventuality."

"-and I asked my grandfather for some money before I left home! As you are my underling, the mighty Selina Doombringer will cover your expenses this night! Be grateful!" She raised her eyebrows proudly.

"Ah, yeah. All hail the Demon Lord."

"That's right!"

There was too much about her way of thinking Souma couldn't agree with, but he was hungry and tired, so he motioned for Selina to take the lead.

She turned back to the receptionist.

"We'll take two rooms! And hot meals, like those people over there are having!"

"Room and meals are for members of the guild only."

Selina turned back to look at Souma, and pointed meekly at the man at the front desk.

"R-rooms and meals are only for members of the guild, he says."

Souma sighed, and bowed his head to the bald man behind the counter.

"Please," he said, as humbly as he could manage. "It's been a very long day. We got chased by Rabbit Clan Bandits, and walked all the way through a forest." He decided to leave being summoned from another world. "Anything you could spare would be fine, even just some leftovers or an old closet to sleep in. Please, I'm begging you."

The man rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Fine, just this once, if it'll get to leave me alone. But I can't do the member's rate for you."

"Your skill at groveling is unmatched, human," Selina nodded, impressed.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," Souma bowed again, and tried to ignore Selina.

"It'll cost you two coppers. One for each of you, but you'll have to share a room. Only one bed. Not that I imagine a young couple would mind either way," the old man chuckled.

"I don't mind sharing, what about you Sel..." Souma looked over at Selina, but her face had gone almost the same color has her eyes.

"Y-y-young..." She punched Souma in the stomach.

"Ow? Why?"

"I'm not sharing my bed with you, human!"

"The room! The room, you gremlin! I meant you take the bed I'll sleep on the floor!"

Selina pulled her cloak over her head.

"B-but what if you try something during the night?"

Souma pinched the bridge of his nose. Nothing was worth this.

"Can we get separate rooms?" He asked the receptionist.

The old man sighed, and shook his head as though he had just seen somebody spill their drink. "You try to help a brother out... Very well, two rooms, but you'll have to pay three copper."

"Thank you. Selina? How's that?"

"F-fine," Selina frowned, still not looking him in the eye. "N-not that it mattered."

You were the one complaining about it!

"Three coppers then, if you don't mind, oh great Demon Lord." Souma motioned towards the receptionist.

"I know! And you owe me, human!"

"Yeah yeah."

Selina, still red in the face, scowled at Souma and turned back to the muscular old man behind the counter. She pushed her cloak aside, and patted her hip.

Then she pushed her cloak the other way and patted her other hip.

Selina turned back and looked up at Souma, her bottom lip trembling and eyes brimming with tears.

"I lost my wallet."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"It must have come loose while we were running away from the bandits," Selina looked down at her hands. "Or maybe it fell off while we were wandering around town? I thought I tied it on really well and everything."

With this last blow to their rapidly dwindling reserves, the two of them slid down to their heels in front of the reception desk.

"You're not allowed to sleep on the floor, either," the old man's voice floated down after them.

"What are we going to do, human? I don't know what we should do..." Selina looked up at Souma through her wet eyes.

"Maybe we can just go sleep outside somewhere?"

"In a city this big? I-I'll be kidnapped and sold as a slave."

"You're really hung up on that slave thing, huh."

"It happens all the time!"

Before Souma could say anything else, though, there was a sharp clink from above them. When they looked up, he was surprised to find they were no longer the only two on this side of the counter.

Leaning on the bar and grinning down at them was the same woman who had been looking at them from across the room. As she caught Souma's eyes, he realized belatedly that her pupils were horizontal slits.

"No need to sell yourself into slavery just yet!" She chuckled.

Souma quickly got to his feet. He saw that she had placed a small stack of three small coins on the counter, held down with one of her fingers.

"I'll cover you this time," the woman continued. "After all, looks like you two have had a rough night."

Selina, who stood up and was hiding behind Souma, peeked out from behind his shoulder.

"C-can we trust her, human?"

"Can you afford not to, little one?" The woman leaned over to look at Selina, her ponytail tumbling over her shoulder.

Selina hid behind Souma's back again.

She laughed, and turned back to the old man. "Go on, I'll pay. Go get them something to eat."

He raised his eyebrows, but still took the coins from the counter. "It's your money," he sighed, and headed off through a doorway behind the counter.

"And bring beer!" The woman shouted after him.

"Th-thank you, miss." Souma bowed his head.

"Oh, no need to be so formal. You can call me Reiny. Come, join me." She motioned for them to follow her as she headed back to her table.

It didn't seem like there was any getting out of it. They followed her to the table, and took the seats opposite her as she sat with her back against the wall. Selina didn't complain, but kept her eyes cast downward, and didn't let go of Souma's sleeve after they were seated.

"Now then!" Reiny smiled. She brought her pendant back up to her eye, and peered at them through the pale blue gem. "While we wait for your food to arrive, why don't you tell your big sister Reiny what the Demon Lord is doing traveling all the way out here with a human?"