“Exactly. If it’s in the best interest of the nation, surely the Holy Church would be obliged to send me in.”
I drag my hands down my face. “This isn’t the cleverest plot in the world, you know. They’ll see right through you.”
“What’s there to see through? I’m telling the truth.”
I shake my head, giving up as the two high-five. I have a feeling this won’t be my last time fending off wendigos with my crazy wife and my even crazier sister-in-law.
We wait in line instead of skipping it, opting not to draw too much attention to ourselves. By the time we get up to the counter, though, the entire Guild is whispering about us, their expressions shocked as they confirm with their fellow adventurers that we are, indeed, the royal family, returned from our adventure so soon. The receptionists, a pair of smaller women dressed in thin dark blue skirts and long sleeve shirts of the guild employees, pale considerably upon recognizing us.
“Your—Your majesty!” the blonde gasps.
“Lady Daelia!” the brunette squeaks. “You’re back early!”
“We have our reasons. We will discuss them with the Guild Master after we report to the Holy Mother and the royal advisors,” Daelia explains. “For now, we have some monster items to turn in. Four wendigos’ worth.”
Fervent whispering breaks out across the room as Alessia pulls out the wendigo horns, hearts, teeth, and claws out of our travel bag. She drops it on the counter, the dull thump nearly causing the receptionists to jump out of their skin.
“My lady! You killed four wendigos on your journey?” the brunette clarifies.
“Yes, we killed four,” Daelia confirms. “We also encountered a group of traveling elves and a demon. They escaped before we could close in on them.”
I wince. There’s no doubt in my mind that Daelia isn’t telling the full story because it would be embarrassing to admit she’d been shot by an arrow. The Hero of Celestia can’t have rumors of weakness running rampant; it would forever damage her reputation, and the Holy Mother may rescind her privilege of taking on “unimportant” quests.
I really need to buy her a drink. After I see that she’s healed up, of course.
“Well! We’ll have these assessed right away!” the blonde receptionist says, snatching up the bag of monster items. “You can come back tomorrow morning to receive your payment first thing.”
“No need. Donate it. My usual,” Daelia says.
I arch a brow. “Your usual?”
“Yeah. I’m not allowed to be paid for my quests. That’s the rules for the mages, and those same rules apply to me.” Daelia turns to shoot me a wink. “But I make sure my payments find their way into the right hands.”
“And by that, you mean…?”
“The guild’s training fund, of course.”
My mouth drops open. “You mean to tell me you’re the one that’s been donating hundreds of gold coins every year to the knight instructors?”
“Yep. That’s me. I begged and pleaded to take on some extra quests in the last few years, and it’s finally afforded them a brand-new batch of equipment for the young ones.”
I forget how to speak as Daelia casually strides out of the guild, Alessia on her heels. How did I not know this? The commoners used to fight for equipment and training hours to become knights, but recently, the training program has upped its efforts tenfold, and now there’s so many quality knights pouring in from the commoners’ ranks that the aristocrats finally have to give it their all in training. That’s how Kharu, Emilia, and I finally found new, worthy opponents to test our skills against.
Thank you, Daelia. I was so bored before you fixed the funding issue.
“No way! Is that you, Aurelio?”
I gasp. I’d know that voice anywhere. I whirl around just in time to get tackled in a bear hug. I’m lifted completely off the floor, and there’s no way in hells I’ll get him to set me down anytime soon.
It’s Kharu, my best friend since childhood.
“Gods above, I can’t even think about you without summoning you,” I laugh.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily, brother!” Kharu bellows.
Daelia and Alessia turn around, confused, but I wave them on.
“Go on without me! I’ll see you at dinner!”
