Adventurer Rank Up! Love Rank Up?

Takao stretched and yawned as he and Sumire walked to the guild hall. They were supposed to be there hours ago, but neither had woken up till almost noon. The battle in the dungeon had worn Takao out more than he expected, and Sumire had insisted on getting food before going to the guild. Takao didn’t expect either excuse to fly with their giant of a guild master, though.

On their way, Takao noticed more people than usual looking their way. When he pointed this out to Sumire, she merely said that the extra sleep must have made her more radiant than usual. Takao was still tired, so couldn’t be bothered to form a rebuttal and let the subject drop.

“You sure you’re feeling alright? You don’t sense that woman around?” Takao asked for the third time that day.

Sumire groaned and rolled her eyes.

“I’m fine. I already told you. If she starts to get close, I’ll know because I’ll lose my strength again, and I’ll tell you if I do. So can you stop asking?” She pleaded.

“Fine. Fine. It’s just that the woman in black tracked you from another continent, so she’ll definitely be able to track you back to Sukiya. And I get the feeling she’s not going to give up. Maybe we should be more concerned?” Takao urged.

“I’ll know when she gets close, so it’s not a problem right now. It’ll take at least a few days to get here from Death’s Cradle, anyway. We’ll come up with a plan before she gets here.” Sumire assured.

“And another thing!” Sumire added before Takao could protest. “She seems to want me alive, so she’s not just going to ambush me in the middle of town. And now that we're all healed up, I have full confidence we can take her in a fight.”

Takao knew that by ‘we’, she meant him, since she would be too weak to fight. And though she sounded confident, the look on her face betrayed her worry.

After the fight with the carcinus, Takao did feel more confident in his abilities, but he didn’t think his monster hunting experience would help much in a fight against people. He’d done sparring while in the dragon guard, but had always lost swiftly. He made a mental note to force Sumire to come up with an actual plan later.

As they approached the guild hall, Takao heard a familiar voice call out to him and Sumire.

“Takao! Sumire! Over here!” Teyumi called in a whispered shout. Her familiar orange hair and freckles peaked out from the alley next to the guild hall. Takao thought it was unusual for her to be away from the reception desk at this time of day, and even more unusual for her to be lurking in the alley. He and Sumire exchanged a look of mild concern, then followed Teyumi into the alley. Takao opened his mouth to question what she was doing there, but she cut him off first.

“Where have you been? The guild master expected you a long time ago!” Teyumi fumed, with her hands on her hips.

“We—”

“Never mind! Just come with me!” She ordered impatiently and led them down the alley and through a back entrance to the guild hall. Once inside, they quickly arrived at the guild master's office, where Teyumi ushered Takao and Sumire inside and promptly closed the door behind them.

The guild master, Aidachi, was sat behind his desk and looked the same as Takao remembered— huge muscles, gray hair, tired eyes, and all around giant. When Takao and Sumire entered, he beckoned them over with barely a glance up. They stood side by side in front of his extra large desk, waiting for the guild master to address them. He slid a stack of papers to the side before finally looking up and speaking.

“So ya killed a death mite, undead carcinus, stone colossus, and potentially over a hundred other monsters. Impressive.” Aidachi said in his deep, gravely voice.

Takao felt a swelling of pride in his chest, and noticed Sumire’s lips creep up slightly.

“Ya also failed to get the carcinus shell, lost five horses, and had to be rescued by bronze eagle.” He continued.

Takao felt his pride vanish, and noticed Sumire stopped smiling.

“Taking all that into account, that leaves ya with this much.”

He dropped a large bag onto the desk with a heavy thud that caused the drawstring to open, letting gold coins fall out.

Takao’s mouth fell open in astonishment, and Sumire’s purple eyes went wide. The guild master grinned, looking pleased with their reactions.

“Another thing I should give ya.” Aidachi went on without giving them time to recover. He slid two adventurer guild cards across his desk.

Takao and Sumire picked up the cards and examined them.

“Rank B?” Takao questioned, unable to believe his eyes.

“Rank B.” Confirmed Aidachi. “Ya earned it. I heard the details from Mikami and Kenta. Mostly Kenta. Killing that death mite was a long outstanding S rank quest. Hence, the sizeable payment, and the large jump in rank. I would’ve actually ranked ya higher, but B is the highest I could go in one jump. Having said that, if ya feel up to it, I’ll approve ya to take the Rank A advancement test this winter. What do ya say?”

“Yes!” Takao and Sumire said together.

The guild master smiled.

“Good. I have high hopes for the two of ya. Ya make a great team, and I see good things in the future for ya.”

Takao couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This was more than he’d ever hoped for. More than he’d ever dreamed of. He couldn’t believe it, and he owed it all to Sumire. He glanced her way and caught her eye. They shared a smile.

“As long as the test isn’t in Death’s Cradle.” Sumire remarked jokingly.

The guild master chuckled.

“It won’t be. The rank A advancement test is a bit special, but I’ll tell ya more when the time is right. And speaking of Death’s Cradle— well, never mind. I’ve sent some adventurers to investigate the dungeon. If anything comes of it, I’ll let ya know, but no point in speculating till they return.”

Takao was curious, but the guild master said everything with an air of superiority that made it hard to interrupt.

“Now then, that’s all I had to discuss with ya. I’m very busy, so go on.” He said, waving them away with a gigantic hand.

Takao collected their bag of gold coins and left with Sumire, but before they closed the office door, the guild master called after them.

“Make sure ya visit the main hall before ya leave.”

And Takao thought he saw a knowing grin on the giant man's face as he spoke.

He looked at Sumire inquisitively, but she just shrugged. As they walked to the main hall, Sumire caught Takao off guard with an out-of-the-blue question.

“What rank is Nanako?”

“Rank B. Why do you—”

But Takao couldn’t finish his question because they entered the guild hall and were promptly assaulted with a cacophony of applause, whistles, and cheers. Takao was so surprised, he nearly dropped into a fighting stance, but relaxed as he realized the hall of adventurers were actually cheering for him and Sumire.

“Way to go, Takao and Sumire!”

“Congrats on rank B!”

“Didn’t think you had it in you! Well done, boy!”

“Way to show everyone what you can do!”

Takao couldn’t help but smile wide as adventurers pulled him into the throng, slapped him on the back, and congratulated him. Next, they shoved food and drink into his hands, and demanded he tell them all about the dungeon expedition. Kenta had been telling the tale repeatedly since yesterday, but they wanted to hear it from Takao too, to make sure the stories matched.

Takao narrated the tale, and soaked in all the encouraging whoops and impressed whistled. By the time he finished, the whole hall was boiling over with enthusiasm and energy. Amidst the chaos, Nanako managed to find him and offer her own congratulations. Takao was retelling the best parts of his story to her when he felt someone whisper loudly into his ear.

“Now’s your chance! Ask her out!”

Takao turned to see Sumire. He turned back to Nanako. He was sure she’d heard. He didn’t know what else to do, so he did it. He asked Nanako out, and she agreed.

A renewed round of cheers filled the hall. More people slapped Takao on the back. He’d finally done it. Nanako was the girl he’d wanted to ask out for years. He’d finally asked her, and she said yes. This was everything he could have hoped for.

So why then? Why did he feel his heart just break? This isn’t how he thought this would feel.

Sumire’s Exposé!
…
Bronze eagles are a very large and powerful bird with feathers that shine like polished bronze. The adventurer guild raises them to use for fast, long distance travel.