B1 Chapter 7 - Celebration

Nancy was bringing out a large cake. “For our two girls who passed!”

“Should we really be wasting funds on this?” I asked.

Nancy shook her head. “Life isn’t about just surviving, sometimes you gotta thrive. Plus, you said you’d donate money, right?”

I smiled and accepted a piece of cake. I wondered what it tasted like. I had never had cake before. When I was a kid, I heard only rich people made it. I took a bite, and my heart melted a bit. “Sho good,” I mumbled with my mouth a bit full.

“Fun bit of trivia, the ingredients aren’t that expensive, but the knowledge of the recipe and the kitchen to properly cook it is why this isn’t more common in Rumora.”

“Wait, are you saying this is common in Drachenlict?” I asked.

She nodded. “We would have a slice of cake for every birthday when I was a child. It was a tradition. To be honest, I very much miss not being able to enjoy this as often as back home.”

Man, I was born in the wrong country. Drachenlict seemed awesome. But then again, had I not been here. I wouldn’t have met the woman who changed my life. I smiled. I guess my life wasn’t so bad. I had a new goal. I wanted to take my mother a slice of cake. Maybe not today, since this cake was for the shelter. But I would love to learn how to make it myself.

“So when is your birthday?” Nancy asked as she took a bite of her own slice of cake.

Tough question. I sort of had two; one was in early winter. The other was early summer. That one felt more important. “About three weeks ago, actually,” I said.

“Hmm, too bad. I was hoping you would have an excuse to bake a cake,” Nancy added.

“Oh, I would love to learn, if that counts as an excuse in of itself?” I asked.

She smiled. She glanced at the kids and the mothers nearby them, smiling. It was almost magical just how much a small slice of sweet bread called cake could change the atmosphere here.

“Ah! So good!” Emily said, taking a bite. “Even if it isn’t for me. I am still so happy that someone passed!”

“You just need to study with your abacus more,” I said. “I’ll help you.”

“Huh?” Emily asked.

Everyone sort of paused and stared at me.

“Aren’t you leaving? You got a job, the guild will put ya up in a room till your first pay,” Nancy said.

I shook my head. “I will move out eventually, but not anytime soon. I’d rather save money by living here. I don’t really have anything to store anyhow. That means I can donate a bit more and save money.”

Emily hugged me. “Oh my gosh, you are the best!”

Cecilia paused. “I thought we would be moving into the guild together. Oh well.”

“We will both be working there. That is enough, right?” I asked.

She nodded. “Right.”

“Something in particular you are saving for?” Cecilia asked.

“Well, my little sister is in a city by the border, staying with some friends of the family. I want to have a safety net to take care of her once things are ready,” I said.

“Aw! You have a cute sister! I wanna meet her!” Emily said.

I laughed. “I’m sure you will!”

Once the festivities calmed down, I decided to walk with Cecilia back to the guild. We needed to get proper uniforms and undergo a bit of training before we got to work on the main floor. But even if we weren’t ready to work yet, the guild offered their employees a room. Taking it was very much the normal thing to do. But it wasn’t free; it was cheap, but they would take a small fee from her first pay.

“Thanks,” Cecilia said as we reached the guild.

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I looked around. The market for food was nearby. If she decided to live in the guild permanently, she would basically never need to leave the main square. This would be the safest place for her in town. I couldn’t help but want to protect her on her last walk outside of her new safe zone.

“I guess, I’ll see you tomorrow, right? We gotta get measured for our uniforms,” I said with a smile.

“Right! You can move into my room to be closer to Emily if you want,” she said as she held my hand.

“Scared?” I asked.

“Natural to be a bit scared when sleeping alone in a new place, right?” she asked.

I nodded. “Very natural. I could maybe stay the night, but I should tell Nancy.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I don’t want you to walk back for that. I’ll be okay.”

I smiled and patted her head. I was slightly taller than her, so it wasn’t hard to do.

I decided to take Cecilia’s room as suggested. Emily was hyped about that. The day may not have been physically hard, but it was stressful, and I was eager to get some rest.

***

The next morning, I was once again up before everyone else. I thought about leaving for the guild, but noticed the front door was still locked. Meaning that even Nancy was still asleep at the moment. The sun did appear to be up, but just barely. She’d probably wake up soon enough.

I just kind of stood there grinning. I actually did it. It’s not like I initially thought it would be that hard, but I studied hard and managed to achieve my first goal so quickly. There was a certain surrealness to it yesterday, but at that moment, I just felt profound happiness that I had managed to do it.

I heard a yawn and saw Nancy. She froze as she saw me. She wasn’t in her usual blue robes with messy hair. “Oh my, pardon me,” she said as she quickly retreated back to her room.

She came back out a couple of minutes later. Now in her normal blue robes with her hair wet and straightened back.

“You scared me half to death,” she said. “I’m not used to girls being up before me. I guess I should be more cautious in the future.”

I let out a bit of a giggle. It was odd seeing Nancy being concerned with something like that.

“So, Abigail’s daughter's birthday is in three days. We could try baking a cake together for her, since you wanted to practice,” she said.

I smiled. “Sounds great.”

“So, what are you planning to do today?” she asked.

“I just kind of wanted to walk around town,” I said. “I have to get measured for my uniform today too.”

“I don’t like you being out so much; you could get hurt again,” she said. “At least let me see your injuries.”

She undid my dress and looked at my ribs. I think I was fully healed at this point. Which might have been a bit fast, but I don’t think it was unreasonably fast.

“You do look a lot better,” she said.

“I have a lot of experience with my body having to recover,” I said with a smirk.

“That doesn’t make me feel better!” Nancy added with a hint of worry. “But you clearly aren’t the type to change your mind that easily,” she finished as she unlocked the front door.

From my understanding, the guild was technically always open, but this was more of an emergency service. Official business is regulated to specific hours. So, I enjoyed the exercise as I walked around the town. A few guards patrolling took notice of me, but didn’t say anything.

I decided to wait for the last bit of time in the guild. It didn’t seem to be a long wait. Cecilia was still sleeping, but I doubted we would have been measured together even if we came in at the same time.

One of the guild ladies took me to a back room. After I got mostly naked, she measured me and took notes. It was a relatively straightforward process, but it tickled a bit. I had never been measured before. Back when I was a kid, my mother mainly gave me hand-me-downs or stitched something together that stopped me from being naked. I was quite excited about something made to fit.

She handed me a slipbook to study. Apparently, we wouldn’t start working, even in the back, until we got at least one uniform.

I decided to sit outside in the morning sun to read the book. It mentioned some basic concepts I remember from my past as an adventurer. Monsters, for example, all had cores. A monster's core and age would determine its strength. This was determined by something known as its core rank. Which was a number. An adventurer would be assigned a number based on their perceived ability to handle threats.

So, for example, a succubus was rated on average as a core rank of eight. They could range, though. A young succubus may be more accurately described as a core rank of five. But since the succubus looked human, the guild book said it was better to err on the side of caution. It would be tragic if a short elder succubus were mistaken for a young one.

So, in theory, if you had a guild rank of eight, then in a one-on-one fight with a core eight creature, you were said to have a fifty percent chance of victory. So the guild book encouraged me to tell adventurers they should work in teams for such moments. Understandable.

Back when I got my guild card, my rank was just three. The lowest passing rank. So I wasn’t anything special back then. I wonder what my rating would be now? I was a lot stronger now. But I wasn’t really an adventurer anymore. So I guess it didn’t matter.

“Alexis!” I heard a male voice say.

Looking, I saw Jackson. “Oh hey.”

“I heard you passed your test,” he said.

I nodded. “I did.”

“Wanna celebrate? I’ll buy you breakfast? Call it a date?” he asked with blushing cheeks.

I smiled. “Sure, why not?” Today was all about celebrating. It sounded fun.