Forming A Party

After leaving Rebecca’s house and somehow making it back to the inn, I collapsed onto the bed and slept like a log. I didn’t wake up at all… until the sound of knocking on the door brought my consciousness back.

“Luca, are you still sleeping?”

“Mm… wait a second, I just woke up.”

When I answered Rebecca’s voice and opened the door, Rebecca stood there with red eyes and swollen eyelids from crying so much. But since her expression looked bright, it didn’t seem like something bad had happened, like her mother not recovering.

“Luca… thank you so much!”

“Whoa!”

Rebecca suddenly hugged me, and I couldn’t withstand the momentum and ended up sitting down on the floor. But not caring about that at all, Rebecca tightened her arms around me.

“My mom woke up not long after you left, Luca. She said her body suddenly felt so much better and that she wasn’t coughing anymore. She even made breakfast this morning…!”

“I see. That’s great.”

Hearing Rebecca’s voice tremble slightly, I gently wrapped my arms around her back.

“From now on, your whole family can live happily together.”

“Yeah… yeah…!”

After that, I stayed like that until Rebecca calmed down, and once she did, we moved to the chairs and the bed.

“Sorry for losing my composure.”

“It’s fine. So… you said you had something to talk about?”

“Yeah. Um, it might be unfair to say this after finding out that you became a divine servant, but if it’s okay with you――――would you form a party with me!”

Her hands clutched her skirt and her eyes were squeezed shut in nervousness as Rebecca spoke those words, and they made me very happy.

“Are you sure… I’m good enough?”

“Of course you are! I want you, Luca!”

She suddenly lifted her face at my question and nodded without any hesitation.

—Since I was the only one who survived in that village, it felt like this was the first time I truly had someone I could call a companion.

“Thanks. I’d be happy to form a party with you too, Rebecca. Let’s work well together from now on.”

“Really…? Is it okay?”

“Of course.”

“…Luca, let’s work well together from now on!”

Rebecca happily grabbed my hand, and her warm hands made my heart feel warm as well.

After leaving the inn, we headed to the Adventurer Guild to sell materials and submit our party registration. Earlier, we had gone once to the Divine Domain and brought back some of the many monster materials that were still there.

The materials we sold yesterday were only enough for a few days’ living expenses, so we needed to earn more.

I also had to make sure no one discovered Divine Domain Interference, and I needed to buy a large backpack to carry materials. The one I used before belonged to Adolf and the others, so right now I only had this small bag.

“I wonder how people will react when we go to the guild.”

“Who knows. The higher-ranked adventurers will probably act the same as before. The people who used to bully you… will either suddenly try to get friendly with you or keep their distance because they feel awkward.”

“If that’s all, it won’t really harm me. The real question is what Adolf and the others will do…”

Would they resent me for embarrassing them and try to do something, or would they simply stay away from me now?

“How was it yesterday? You went back to the guild, right?”

“They were already gone by then.”

“I see. That’s kind of scary too.”

While Rebecca and I talked like that, the Adventurer Guild came into view, and the two of us entered the building together. Since it was an awkward time in the early afternoon, the guild hall was mostly empty… but even so, the few adventurers present stared at us openly.

“This feels uncomfortable.”

“I think it’ll fade soon enough. You’re just the person everyone’s talking about right now.”

Rebecca said that with a mischievous smile while peering into my face, and all I could do was give a wry smile. It was hard to tell whether I stood out in a bad way or whether people were paying attention because of the sudden strength I had shown.

“Are those people the ones who used to do things to you?”

“Hmm, I don’t really remember them, so I think we hardly interacted. I don’t think they directly did anything to me.”

“So they just pretended not to see it.”

“Well… that’s just how it is for adventurers. Basically, everything’s your own responsibility.”

When we walked up to the reception desk, the veteran woman who had worked as a receptionist in this guild for many years greeted us with a gentle smile.

She was someone who carried out her work calmly and never showed favoritism to any adventurer, which was why I liked her quite a lot.

“Hello. How may I assist you today?”

“We came to submit a party registration today. Rebecca and I would like to form a party.”

“Understood. Please fill out this application form.”

I received the pen and paper and read over the party registration form, which I was writing for the first time. Adventurer Guild parties were originally created to prevent disputes over rewards when taking quests together and to simplify procedures when multiple people accepted a request, but now they hold a different meaning as well.

Famous parties were given names, and those names themselves became a symbol of trust. Sometimes those names were granted by nobles or even by a nation, and other times they were granted by the guild. When a powerful monster was defeated, that very achievement could even become the party’s name.

Incidentally, those names were recognized in other countries as well. In the first place, the Adventurer Guild itself was apparently operated by a world council where the leaders of various nations gathered… or so it seemed. I was vague about it because I didn’t know the details. I had read something like that in a book once.

Because it was that kind of organization, a party name carried very great significance.

“Here you go.”

The application form didn’t have that many sections to fill out, so I finished writing it quickly. When I handed it to the receptionist, she accepted it right away.

“Here is your party card. Please present it when accepting quests as a party. Also, while requests are normally limited to those at or below each member’s individual rank, for parties the applicable rank will be calculated by adding together the ranks of all members and dividing by the number of members. Please note that any decimal points will be rounded to the nearest whole number.”

“Understood. Thank you very much.”

Right now both Rebecca and I were Fifth Rank, so it didn’t really matter yet, but I wanted to raise my Adventurer Guild rank as soon as possible… when you were low rank, the only quests available were things like errands within the city, defeating weak monsters, or gathering medicinal herbs. They were important, but they weren’t very exciting.

In order to investigate the curse, and also for my wish to reduce the number of people forced to carry tragic pasts because of overwhelming power, I wanted to reach at least Third Rank.

Lady Seremees had told me that for now I was free to act as I wished, so from here on, I’d work hard to aim for promotion.