Despite Rodrick’s grumblings, every team member enjoyed the cookie sandwiches Arthur and Valar brought them from Jean. Ice cream seemed to be a universal delicacy, as every single person in the queue was eating it too.

  “You’re saying we haven’t properly introduced ourselves to Valar yet?” Rodrick was questioning Arthur. “How in tarnation did that happen?”

  “Well, he came in as a surprise when we were leaving and all of us were already in work mode. These things happen, you know.”

  “I know… I know, but it just seems so unlikely,” Rodrick muttered.

  “I introduced myself already,” Arthur said. “You can do it now as there’s plenty of time to use up.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea,” the big man nodded to himself and turned to Valar. He extended his hand for a good shake.

  “I’m Rodrick Steelheart, leader of team Cookie Sandwich,” even though his hand was way stronger and bigger than Valar’s, he didn’t attempt to show his strength in any way. It was a genuinely normal, firm, handshake.

  “Valar, no surname. A life mage, I guess?”

  “You tell me,” Rodrick laughed. “Based on this mission, I’m going to the adventurer’s guild to license you as an iron rank life mage, so it would be nice that you knew you were one!”

  “So I’m in? I did well enough on this trial run?” Valar asked with a hesitant smile.

  “That you did!” the big man clapped him on the shoulder. “You saved us from quite a lot of trouble, and you were an actually reliable healer. That’s more than enough!”

  Carla extended her hand too. The young woman’s hand was around the same size as Valar’s, so the handshake felt more natural. “Carla Thorn, ice mage. Before you check, house Thorn is a noble house based in Thornton. I’d appreciate it if that didn’t come up often though, as they suck and I don’t want to associate with them.”

  Valar shrugged. “Alright. Good to be part of the team.”

  Ciel didn’t extend her hand for a shake and just waved. “Ciel, rogue and dark mage. More of a rogue.”

  Valar just nodded, not sure what he should even say in response to the concise introduction. At least there was one other member who didn’t use a surname, so he wouldn’t be the only one.

  After the brief introductions were over, the group returned to the great tradition of waiting in line. And what a fine tradition it was! Two hours later... they finally reached the city gates.

  The caravan driver hopped off the first wagon and showed his identification to the city guards. The soldiers they had rescued from the outpost remained with the caravan, but the driver pointed at them as he spoke. Valar couldn’t fully hear what was being said, but the gist of it was that there had been a stampede of monsters and bandit activity was more frequent than normal.

  “We have heard that from most of the caravans passing through here,” Valar heard one of the guards say. “Most manage to escape or fight them off, but 3 caravans have gone missing during the past week. I hear there’s an adventurer expedition brewing.”

  “Did you hear that?” Arthur asked with a gleeful voice. “Lucrative work!”

  Rodrick grunted in annoyance, “Calm down, Arthur. I know you like money, but that could be a dangerous mission. We don’t even know if bronze rankers will be allowed.”

  “Of course they will! Promise to at least check it out?”

  “I will…”

  “Yes!”

  The rest of the discussion was quite mundane, as was the routine check that was done on the wagons. A missing spatially expanded cabin was cause for worry, but as the guards didn’t find anything, they were let through relatively quickly. Valar was filled with thoughts of nostalgia—both good and bad—as they stepped into the city that had been his home and prison for the past ten years.

  He had to admit to himself that the city was quite beautiful in the evening light. The almost mint green color that pervaded through the eastern cityscape really brought a cohesion that was missing from the large apartment buildings of Rhondell. While the murals of the capital were beautiful, the artist’s district had felt more like an exhibition than an area where people lived. That wasn’t a problem in Lyndale.

  The city felt much more whole, city blocks and even districts flowing into each other seamlessly. Shops, restaurants and cafe terraces were directly on the streets instead of being squished between large apartment buildings. While the capital felt like it tried to cram as many people into one spot as possible, Lyndale felt like an actual city with an inherent culture compared to the melting pot of Rhondell.

  Still, there were some downsides to the smaller city. First of all, the area was quite obviously less affluent than almost any district in Rhondell. Rich people in Lyndale moved quickly to other cities—especially Rhondell since it was the closest one.

  Even though the city was less ‘nice’, Valar realized that he felt more at home in the mint green cityscape of Lyndale than the chaotic mess that was Rhondell. It felt wrong—like like his grand escape had been for naught.

  That’s a stupid thought, and you know it… I’m awakened, soon in an adventuring party and most importantly out of that hellhole. Still, I can’t shake the feeling… I think I want out of here as fast as I can.

  “When are we heading back to Rhondell?”

  “We’ll probably take a mission or two,” Rodrick said. “If the expedition has spots, probably that. Then we’ll take a caravan back. How so?”

  “Being here… It just feels wrong,” Valar muttered.

  “How does it-. Oh, right, I at least partly understand,” the warrior sighed. “I’ll try to take fewer Lyndale based missions in the future.”

  “I didn’t mean… You have family here and-." Valar panicked a bit, not wanting to trouble Rodrick with his own worries.

  “Stop right there. I’m the team leader and I feel some responsibility towards every single member, including the newest—that being you,” Rodrick poked Valar’s chest with his finger. “I won’t entirely forsake my family and only go everywhere else, but I won’t drag you here every other week either. I appreciate your concern, but I’m an adult. Let me act like one, alright?”

  After a small pause, Valar nodded hesitantly. He still felt a little shitty for affecting Rodrick’s life in such a negative manner, but that didn’t take the feeling of wrongness away. He felt both familiar and out of place in Lyndale… It was disconcerting.

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  They walked the rest of the way to the workyard in companionable silence.

  “That was fine work from you all!” the caravan owner laughed when they arrived at their end point. “Rest assured that I will be giving you the highest reviews I can!”

  “Thank you for the compliments, sir,” Rodrick bowed lightly. “Don’t hesitate to call on us in the future if we are in town. Adventurers like us are always seeking work.”

  “Ain’t that true?” the owner laughed. “I’ll do that, I think I’ll do indeed… But now, some others want to say their thanks.”

  Greta walked up to the team with her two underlings. “We offer our sincere thanks for helping us, adventurers,” each one bowed deeply at the waist. “If that matters at all, we will be submitting our report to both the guild and guard barracks. I hope that you’ll get a bonus for your excellent work!”

  “Thank you as well, sergeant,” Rodrick smiled congenially. “You were of great help in protecting the caravan.”

  “That’s nonsense, and you know that,” Greta spat to the side. “Your ice mage was the overwhelming force in the only battle that mattered.”

  “Yet she required plenty of time to cast her spell, which you provided.”

  “It’s true,” Carla added. “Don’t sell yourself short, sergeant. That spell required almost five minutes to cast, and you fought ferociously during my casting. Honestly, it was not the most efficient way I could have used my time, but you made it work.”

  “Well, let’s agree to disagree then,” Greta shook her head ruefully. “Regardless of that, we thank you.”

  It was time to head to the adventurer’s guild.

  In a city like Lyndale, where commerce ran through all four cardinal directions, there was really only one place where an institution like the adventurer’s guild could be: in the very middle of the central district.

  The central district was the only one that wasn’t completely covered in mint green, the richer folk opting to use different, more vibrant colours instead. The whole district was covered in shops, restaurants and opulent inns instead of apartments or businesses like the other districts around the city. It was a place where few lived but most visited; if not for the restaurants and cafés, it was for church.

  Lyndale’s church of light wasn’t as big as Rhondell’s cathedral, but it was huge nevertheless. The tall white tower with golden angeli wings resting on top towered over the rest of the city. No other building other than the walls even competed for the top spot. It was impossible to miss, and people tended to agree.

  When the team walked past the church, a large congregation of people was just flowing into the sacred building through the wooden gate. A mass was starting, and the people of Lyndale were a religious lot.

  “My mother is probably there right now,” Rodrick said offhandedly. “She’s more devout than father and I ever were.”

  “What does the church of light even teach?” Valar asked. “Some priests visited the orphanage a few times, but they just spoke of the angeli and blessed light.”

  “Well…” Rodrick grabbed his chin in thought. “It’s that and compassion for other humans, I guess. The church of light does have a sacred codex that contains all of its teachings, but I never bothered to read it. I followed more in my father’s footsteps, and he isn’t particularly religious.”

  “The church is a common gathering place for non-combatant iron and bronze rankers,” Carla explained. “There are religious adventurers and guardsmen, but they are significantly fewer in number. Additionally, the church hires adventurers for beast culling really often, so you’ll probably meet them soon enough. Just don’t insult the light or the angeli and you’ll be fine.”

  Ciel spat to the ground but didn’t comment.

  The adventurer’s guild wasn’t directly next to the church, but as both were close to the middle of the city, they weren’t far apart. The guild wasn’t nearly as magnificent as the church, but it was still a sight to remember.

  As in Rhondell, the building was surrounded by adventurers enjoying their evening with beer, wine and other drinks that Valar didn’t recognize. One glass even looked like some kind of poison, glowing a bright unnatural green, but he damn well wasn’t going to ask the rogue dressed in dark clothing about it.

  The building itself was quite different from the one in Rhondell. Where the guild in the capital had been mostly made from wood, this building was almost fully stone. That wasn’t a particular surprise, as most of the construction in Lyndale was made of the same stone and just painted different colours. The fact that the guild was made from stone didn’t mean that it was undecorated, however.

  Beautiful details, stone statues and painted glass windows depicting great battles made the guild look more like the nearby church than the Rhondell branch, and that made it hard for Valar to see the building in a similar light. It didn’t feel like an adventurer’s guild, even though he had seen only one other.

  “Why does it look like that?” he asked. “The Rhondell branch seemed more… adventurous?”

  “True,” the one speaking was surprisingly Ciel. “This branch sucks.”

  “Hey, you’re speaking about my home branch!” Rodrick said. “The fact that it wasn’t purpose built doesn’t make it any worse…”

  “It just sucks,” Ciel muttered.

  “Agreed,” Carla added.

  “The worst I’ve seen,” Arthur nodded sagely.

  “You three are the worst,” Rodrick complained loudly. “And Arthur, I know for a fact that you’ve only seen three branches!”

  “Kilras is the best, then Rhondell, and deep deep below that is Lyndale. I don’t need to see every one to know that this one is at the bottom of the barrel.”

  “At least the branch leader is halfway nice,” Carla commented.

  “Is he?” Valar asked. “I need to sign up, so a nice person to talk to would be good.”

  “The branch leader is a woman named Selin Forst,” Rodrick said. “She’s plenty nice until someone attacks the guild. Then, she’s not…”

  “You make it sound like that happens often?”

  “It does. It’s kind of an adventurer tradition to take out your rage on the local branch if something bad happens. It’s a bit silly and really not recommended, but at least it prevents frustrated adventurers taking their anger out on innocent civilians. Usually, the branch leader just ends up beating them up,” Rodrick laughed. “Always a fun sight.”

  “She’s strong then?”

  “Peak gold rank earth mage,” Carla explained. “She’s actually believed to be really close to onyx, but nothing has been confirmed as of yet.”

  “Let’s go see her then.”

  “Let’s.”

  Similarly to the Rhondell branch, the inside of the guild was quite a sight. The adventurers inside the building weren’t enjoying their days but hunting for missions that suited their teams. Different types of missions were always up for grabs, but the most lucrative and interesting missions were often the ones that got snatched up the fastest. The silver and gold rank sections of the notice board were obviously less populated, but the bronze rank section was practically buzzing with people.

  “We’ll need to report our mission success first, then sign up Valar!” Rodrick shouted over the noise. “I’ll try to set us up with a private room!”

  “Alright!” Carla answered. “We’ll wait here!”

  Rodrick’s discussion with the man at the front desk wasn’t long, and he came back to the team relatively quickly. “We got room seven. I submitted the report, so our only thing should be to sign up Valar.”

  “Did you get the contract money?” Arthur asked.

  “I didn’t take it yet,” Rodrick said. “The compliments from Greta and the caravaners hadn’t arrived yet. Everyone else other than Valar can go relax outside for now.”

  The big man led Valar to a room with wooden flooring, a comfortable sofa and magical lights. “I’m here as the leader of the team that is hiring you, but I expect you to introduce yourself and tell of your capabilities to Selin. Don’t worry, I’ll handle the paperwork.”

  “I can do that… I think,” Valar muttered.

  Not that much later, the door opened once more and a woman that looked like she was in her late 30s walked in. She wore a brown mage’s robe and loads of jewelry on her ears, fingers, neck and even ankles. Selin Forst had clearly opted to show her affluence with jewelry.

  She was holding a stack of papers and reading through them as she walked. “I’m reading here that you’re hiring an iron rank life mage to your team, Rodrick. Pray tell how this mysterious life mage popped up in Lyndale without my knowledge?”

  “You can ask that from him yourself, branch leader,” Rodrick grunted. “Valar is right here with me.”

  The woman turned her head sharply from the papers, her blonde hair whipping through the air and making a whoosh.

  “I recognize that name… Umbral terror, about two and a half months ago?”

  “Yup, that’s me, ma’am,” Valar waved shyly to the gold ranker. “I would like to join team Cookie Sandwich.”

  “I see you got your robes from the royal academy, but tell me, how did you manage to graduate so fast?” Selin asked. “I remember my iron rank classes taking twice as long.”

  “Hard work?”

  That got a laugh out of the woman. “Hard work… I must’ve slacked off when I was younger. So, you want to be an adventurer?”

  With Valar’s nod, she continued speaking. “I see nothing preventing that, as any awakened person who has no warrants for arrest can join us.”

  “It’s not hard to join?” Valar asked. “Why do people resort to banditry and stuff like that then?”

  “That’s the thing,” Selin snapped her fingers. “The problem isn’t with joining the guild but actually finding a team that wants an intern. Especially affinityless people tend to have problems with that, but as you already have a team, that wouldn’t have been an issue anyway. Also, you’re a healer, so…”

  “Not hard to find a team?”

  “No.”

  Valar smiled. “Then shall we get to work? I’d like to be an adventurer, my name is Valar, and I’m a healer.”

  “That we shall.”