After the commotion was over, somehow the entire village began praising me as a hero and threw a huge party in my honor. They kept saying I was some kind of one-man army who had wiped out an entire bandit group by myself.
I tried to tell them I didn't kill anyone. I didn't even meet a single bandit. I was just meeting with my merchant friend, and it was the earthquake that did the job, not me. But it seemed like no one believed a single word I said.
Before I even realized it, my adventurer level had jumped straight to Level 3. Isobel, the guild receptionist, along with her colleagues, tried to explain the level system to me. I think I understood about two-thirds of what they said… maybe.
Apparently, the level system was tied to merit and to demonstrations of power as perceived by the authorities. In other words, even someone lazy, skillless, and all-around stupid like me could become a high-level adventurer… if they believed I was one.
Worse still, the higher your level, the more likely people were to come directly to you for help instead of posting requests on the quest board.
Just thinking about it sent chills down my spine. Because now that I was Level 3, there was a very real chance that difficult quests would be shoved straight into my face.
What's even worse is that everyone in the village initially wanted to raise my level to 4. Naturally, I refused.
Now that the commotion was over, I also received a large sum of gold coins. Some came from the adventurers' guild for completing the quest, and the rest came from the village governor as a reward for saving his daughter.
So today, I decided to just sightsee around the village, find something tasty to eat, and genuinely do nothing. After all, somehow… I was kind of rich now.
---
In the morning, two days after all of that was over, I found myself sightseeing around the village center.
What I saw was a lively marketplace, with stalls selling all kinds of merchandise, from food to trinkets handmade by the villagers. The stalls surrounded a small water fountain, at the center of which stood a marble statue of a knight in full plate armor, holding a claymore etched with runes. The statue had been ravaged by the wear of time.
It was a statue of Light the Hero, who, together with his comrades, had slain the Demon God a thousand years ago.
It seemed like a nice place to buy some tasty breakfast, I thought to myself as I approached one of the stalls.
It was selling skewers of beef, charred tomatoes, and freshly cut pineapple. Just thinking about it made my stomach growl.
"Five sticks, please!" I said to the burly, tanned man behind the stall. He smiled and handed over the skewers in exchange for… five silvers?
That was ridiculously expensive. The old me would've walked away on the spot. But the present me, who was now quite rich, paid without any hesitation.
Now that I had a brown paper bag filled with tasty skewers, I looked around for a place to sit and eat.
The best spot I could find was a bench near the edge of the market, with a large, solitary tree behind it providing a patch of shade. A perfect place to sit down and soak in the atmosphere.
After sitting there and eating for a few minutes, I noticed something at the corner of my eye. Someone… or something… was watching me from behind the tree.
So, naturally, I turned around and asked as politely as I could, "Hello? Anyone there?"
A few seconds passed.
Then she stepped out.
It was the orphan I had ended up rescuing from the bandits' tunnel.
Now, under the sunlight, I could see her clearly.
She was a pale-skinned young girl, maybe around thirteen to fourteen. Her black hair was thin and still messy, probably from not being washed properly for days. Her eyes looked tired, but her pupils shimmered with an amber-gold hue. Atop her head twitched a pair of fluffy black feline ears, and behind her, a matching tail swayed back and forth in a chaotic rhythm.
She was a half-beast. A humanoid race with animal traits like ears, tails, and fangs.
And how in the actual hell I hadn't noticed that when I rescued her… I had no idea.
Being a kind man at heart, I naturally pointed one of my skewers at her."Want some?" I asked with a gentle smile.
She walked over and immediately went, "Nom, nom" on the skewer.
"Other than this, do you want anything else?" I asked.
"This one… has no place to go." she said softly. "Could this one… become your disciple?" She looked at me with an innocent yet sad smile.
"Okay, I guess?" I answered nonchalantly, without thinking about the consequences at all.
"Wait… really?" Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Yeah. What do you want me to teach you, hmm, little miss?" I asked with a bright smile. I figured I could at least teach her how to farm potatoes so she could become a freelance farmhand and have a place to stay.
"I want you to teach me how to fight! I want to become an adventurer just like you!" she said, her eyes sparkling.
I mulled over her request for a moment, then gave a half-hearted answer.
"I can kinda teach you how to be an adventurer. As for fighting skills… you'll have to learn those yourself."
"Understood, sir!" she said, nodding eagerly.
I nodded in response while continuing to chew on the last skewer inside the paper bag.
"What's your name?" I asked her.
"I have none" she said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Okay then, None. Let's go to the guild!" I said confidently, briefly wondering why her parents would give her such a strange name.
---
At Oakenville Adventurers' Guild
As I walked inside, I received a warm welcome from familiar faces. Alex and Marigold, the two adventurers I had accidentally messed with the first time I came here.
"How do you do, Mister Hero!" Alex said with a bright smile, not a trace of malice in his tone. Ever since what happened in the tunnels, he seemed much friendlier toward me. He still hadn't apologized for nearly whooping my ass while drunk, though.
"Fine" I answered awkwardly.
"And what about the young miss over there?" Marigold, his girlfriend said with a warm smile as she glanced toward the girl beside me.
None, the girl who was now supposedly my disciple, flinched at Marigold's words. She took a step back, then quickly hid behind me, her tail wrapping tightly around my leg like a frightened cat.
"She's my disciple!" I declared proudly.
Both Alex and Marigold stared at me with puzzled expressions. I ignored them completely and walked straight up to the receptionist's counter.
Behind it, Isobel looked at me with the same confused expression as the other two.
"I want to open another room for my new disciple here. Put it on my daily tab." I said.
"Wait. Isn't that the orphan you saved just days ago?" Isobel asked.
"Yes. And she's my disciple now."
"Isn't she supposed to be under the church's supervision? I think this is their class time right now."
"I dropped out." None said. She had been silent until now, but her eyes burned with pure determination.
"Then who's going to take care of you if not the Church?" Isobel replied, her voice filled with both concern and disbelief.
"With Master Rise!" None answered without hesitation.
At that, Isobel slowly turned and stared straight into my eyes.
"You wouldn't do anything bad to her… right?" she asked, suspicion clear in her gaze.
"Umm… no?" I replied.
She let out a long sigh, then asked a question that genuinely puzzled me.
"Then why bring her here? There's an inn if you just want a place for her to live."
"Obviously, I want to register her as an adventurer!"
Isobel stared at me blankly, then shifted her gaze to None hiding behind my back. After a moment, she let out a long, agonizing sigh.
"There's a rule that forbids anyone under the age of sixteen from becoming an adventurer." she said.
Hearing that, None's eyes immediately began to well up with tears, like she was on the verge of crying.
"But" Isobel continued, "I'll make an exception. On the condition that you only bring her along on safe, easy quests. Alright?"
Hearing that, I nodded with a happy smile. That was what I'd wanted to do in the first place anyway. Even better, if someone tried to push a dangerous quest on me, I could just point at None and say, "Think of the children!" What a perfect plan.
"Sure!" I replied.
"Promise me you won't put her in any dangerous situations."
"I promise."
"Then, girl, fill in the document." she said, handing the registration paper to her.
None took the paper and began filling it out, signing her name and writing her information at cheetah-like speed.
In the meantime, I spent some time asking Isobel where I could find a blacksmith as well as a good restaurant where I could get a decent dinner.
By the time we finished talking, None had also finished filling out her registration form.
"A half-beast, Warrior class, huh? You'll go far, kid." Isobel said in an encouraging tone. "Just… not at this age. Try not to get hurt. That comes first, okay?"
None looked up at her and nodded in response. "This one understands."
In the end, I accepted an easy and safe quest: "Find me twenty wild tomatoes" Definitely a beginner-level job.
So I decided to stop by the blacksmith first. Not that we needed weapons for something like this, but better safe than sorry, right?
---
At the Blacksmith Shop
A few minutes later, we arrived at the blacksmith's shop. From the outside, it was a sturdy stone building reinforced with gleaming steel beams and bars, looking both solid and absurdly expensive. The owner had to be either incredibly wealthy or someone who had devoted his entire life to craftsmanship.
I pushed open the steel-clad front door, and a bell rang out as a cheerful greeting.
"Welcome, customer! What would you like to buy?" an old dwarf asked. He had a sturdy build, short gray hair, and wore a white shirt beneath a brown leather craftsman's apron.
"Umm, hello." I greeted him with a smile, then got straight to the point. "I want a sword and a shield that even this girl here could carry around." I gestured toward None, who was standing beside me.
"Equipment for a child, huh?" the dwarf said thoughtfully. "For training?"
"Yeah, something like that." I replied.
"Then you've come to the right place! I'll show you around!" the dwarf answered proudly.
The three of us walked around the shop, browsing for suitable equipment. Not for me, of course. I had absolutely no intention of fighting.
After a while, we reached the training section, filled with wooden weapons, practice shields, leather armor, and other beginner gear. The blacksmith suggested she start small, using light equipment to build her fundamentals.
None, however, tugged at my sleeve, her eyes sparkling as she begged to begin with real weapons and armor.
So I relented and kept browsing until something caught my eye.
Before long, I found it.
A pair of small, jet-black metal short swords, matched with an equally small jet-black buckler, and a set of child-sized chainmail armor. Each piece had a modest price tag and a label that read: For Training Purposes.
"I want to buy these." I said to the blacksmith.
"I think that equipment might be a bit much for a young miss…" he replied, concern clear on his face.
"If Master wants them, then I want them too!" None said firmly.
"But… those are made of Burdenmite, you know?" The dwarf straightened, clearly hesitant to sell them. Maybe they were expensive. But I had money now, so I didn't really care.
"I'd like to buy them." I said confidently. "Just tell me the price."
For some reason, None looked at me with concern.
"Umm… ten gold coins each." he said in an awkward voice.
"Here!" I paid him immediately. I wanted to move on to the next objective as soon as possible: teaching her how to identify easy, safe quests that even a kid could handle. Like the "Find Twenty Wild Tomatoes" quest we'd accepted.
After paying, I grabbed the equipment and quickly left the shop with None.
Behind us, the blacksmith stood frozen, mouth hanging open like he was about to say something important.
But it didn't matter. We'd already left.
If we didn't know about it, then it wasn't a concern.That was one of my many life mantras.