Cecil and company had quickly arrived at Urub and were currently lounging around in the adventurer guild.It wasn"t really much different than the one from the Anglaria Kingdom, except for the fact that beastmen had replaced the beastkin.
Thanks to Cecil, all the adventurer guilds had begun perusing the Mana Integrated Network to post adventurer quests. It made things much easier for everyone, except of course for the people in the Orca Empire.
Cecil"s generalized MID still hadn"t circulated around in the Empire"s populace so not many had MIDs like in the Anglaria Kingdom. This was why it was currently very busy inside the adventurer guild with many beastmen moving about.
There were only a small few parties like Cecil"s who were lounging around and browsing the adventurer guild"s Network Board on their MIDs.
"He~ey, Cel, I found an escort quest leading to the Empire"s Capital, should we take it?" Lucia said while fiddling around with her MID.
"Hm? Yeah sure, we are heading there after all."
"Huhuhu~ deep within enemy lines and we"re heading straight for the capital~ this is exciting~" Serilla added.
The party quickly took up the quest. They didn"t have to register as adventurers again since the adventurer guild was a universal organization. All they had to do was present their adventurer ID and accept the quest.
"Sure is convenient being an adventurer~ just showing our IDs and we"re able to just waltz on in anywhere!"
"Cel, we should go meet up with the caravan that we"ll be escorting. It says that the quest will start first thing tomorrow morning, so it"s best we show our faces to them."
"Sure, let"s go!"
The party got up and walked out of the guild. Silver was currently in his pet form and being carried around by a tall dragonewt. This dragonewt was obviously the beastman-disguised Yuna.
"Sheesh, I really can"t get used to seeing you, Serilla, and Yuna as beastmen..." Cecil said towards the were-fox girl next to him
"Deal with it Cel. Besides, it"s only until we"ve found the humans..."
Cecil felt uncomfortable seeing Lucia and the rest as beastmen. It was a little unsettling for him since all his life he was used to seeing human-like creatures... not bipedal, talking animals. Though from another perspective, he thought the beastmen were cool-looking.
He was only uncomfortable seeing his companions as beastmen because he was used to seeing them as beastkin.
"Haha, that"s true. Let"s hurry up then. I"m sure we"ll find out the location of the areas the humans are attacking in the capital...though we could go to some other city closer to the continental border, but I"m pretty curious to see how the Empire"s Capital City is like~"
"Hmmm...You and your whims again...please remember you"re being chased after by the Empire."
"You"re transformation magic is flawless~ so we won"t need to worry about getting caught or anything!"
"Hmph."
Seeing the two go off in their own little world, Serilla decided to be the bad guy here and but in.
"You guys are so mean~ leaving me out like that!"
"J-jeez, don"t you creep up on me like that! It was okay back when you were a beastkin, but it"s honestly very frightening when you"re a beastman..."
"He~eh...fine then, I"ll hold off on being all clingy...seeing as Lulu"s doing the same...let"s hurry up and go meet this caravan then."
Following Lucia"s lead, when the party arrived at the town"s largest inn, Cecil asked,
"Is this the place?"
"Yeah, all the adventurers taking up this quest are apparently already gathered together on the 1st floor"s dining hall...the caravan owner is hosting a feast for all of the partic.i.p.ants."
"Oh yay~ free food."
When they entered, a beastman quickly took notice of them and approached the party.
"Are you adventurers partic.i.p.ating in the Kil"gor Caravan Escort quest?"
"Yes, we are." Lucia replied.
"This way please, I"ll lead you to the reception hall where the gathering is being held...this makes 6 now, so you are the last party."
The beastman led them into the reception hall of the inn. Cecil normally didn"t pay attention to this slight detail, but the cities and towns of Alterna were super-sized compared to Earth"s. A town on Alterna nearly rivaled the size of a small-scale city from back on Earth.
"I"ve never actually been to a hotel, but I"m pretty sure only high cla.s.s hotels have reception halls...but man, an ordinary inn on Alterna literally defies all that reasoning...Come to think of it, I"ve been pretty lax about all these small details...maybe I should pay more attention to it..."
Hearing Cecil mumble, Lucia of course asked what was up.
"What"re you mumbling about?"
"Nothing, it"s just...things seem so BIG now that I"ve taken a proper look at things..."
"...?"
Seeing her questioning look Cecil immediately replied, "What?"
"You really are an idiot, aren"t you?"
"Huh?!"
"I mean...we"ve been on a journey across the beastkin kingdom for over half a year...and it took you THIS long to notice?"
"..."
"Hmmm...You were all gung-ho about training, so I guess I can"t blame you..."
Cecil felt a little disgruntled at her words. Sure he was only focused on training while on the journey, but he couldn"t help it back then. He wasn"t as strong as he was now so he obviously couldn"t go about his journey so care freely as he could now!
"Oi, can you two just like NOT drift off into your own little world again?" Serilla quipped up.
"Ehehehe~ sorry, Seri! Y"see, Cel"s just being an idiot~"
Serilla felt a little left out, so Lucia promised to share some of their stories with her from before the two had arrived at the Academy later after the gathering.
"We"re here." The beastman said as he arrived in front of a large doorway. "Please head on in and sit wherever you like, Caravan Leader Kilna will address all of you shortly."
"Okay, thanks," Cecil said lightly before leading the party inside. The girls followed after him and they found a table and sat down together. The party soon became the center of attention.
"Hey...is it them?"
"That platinum ranked party?"
"Yeah...I think it"s them...but..."
"They"re all just brats!"
Cecil could only helplessly smile when he heard the quiet discussions of all the other parties. It was true that their party was apparently the highest ranked party currently taking on this quest.
Cecil and Lucia were Platinum ranked adventurers after all, so they made a new party since they couldn"t use the name "Little Kings" anymore. Their new party was called Wanderers. As for why it was named that, it"s because Cecil offhandedly gave them that name since they really were just that, wanderers, people with no clear destination.
Also, he didn"t want to deliberate and create a cool name for them since after all, it was only a temporary party that probably wouldn"t be remembered since they were just using the Orca Empire as a pit stop before heading on over to the Midgard Continent.
Cecil and the rest weren"t going to spend so long in the Orca Empire, maybe a week or two. They wanted to find the humans first and join up with them so they could find a travel route to the Midgard Continent.
However, if they couldn"t find any of the humans within the timeframe of 2 weeks then Cecil decided that they"d just find a way on their own. They did have Yuna after all, so if worst comes to worst and they couldn"t find a way, the party would just hop on the Yuna Express and fly over to the Midgard Continent.
Actually, that"s what Yuna suggested, but Cecil, being the whimsical idiot he was, wanted to actually meet up with the Midgardian humans and look around the Beastman Empire before heading over to the Midgard Continent.
The party didn"t have to wait long before a gaudily dressed beastwoman walked into the room. The slender were-leopard woman walked straight to the front end of the room and addressed everyone inside.
"Welcome adventurers! I thank you for taking up my quest. My name"s Kil"na and I am the current President of the Kil"gor Merchant Company."
She paused for a moment and let the information sink in before continuing.
"Well, if you all don"t mind, it"d be nice if I could get all of you to introduce yourselves?"
The adventurer parties were a little surprised to hear this. Normally, a merchant company wouldn"t need all these formalities. They"d just get straight to the point and tell you about the quest details and specifics.
The adventurers hesitated for a moment, but seeing as the Kil"gor Merchant Company"s leader waiting patiently, a party of 10 beastmen immediately stood up and began their introductions.
"I"m Sak"arh, Morux"s Party Leader." A black-furred bearman said.
The rest of the party quickly introduced themselves as well and Kil"na nodded to them in acknowledgement.
"The 4-star Gold Rank party, the Kil"gor Merchant Company thanks you all for partic.i.p.ating."
"No problem. We"re adventurers so if it"s a job, we"ll gladly complete it to the best of our abilities," Sak"arh answered.
"Mhm...Next party?"
Cecil looked around for a bit and waited to see if another party was about to stand up and introduce themselves. Lucia nudged him and said, "Let"s introduce ourselves and get things over with."
"Sure~"
Cecil immediately stood up and everyone in the room turned their attention to the fox beastman boy.
"My name"s Cecil, Wanderers" party leader, nice to meet you."
When Cecil announced his party"s name, Kil"na was a little surprised.
"Hoh? The Wanderers...that Platinum ranked party?"
"Hm~ that"s the one."
"Oh my, you"re all...so young!"