There are a few notes to keep in mind when you’re an adventurer. For one, if you are adventuring or performing your jobly duties, you are to be in your uniform at all times. Within reason of course.
Secondly, you are under no obligation to work unless the guild personally requests you to. This means, that if you don’t feel like adventuring for a week or two, that’s up to the person. But chances are that person would also be dead. Gotta eat to live after all.
Last and most importantly, you are absolutely forbidden to attack other people or to steal any of their gear. You would think this would go without saying, but we do have a name for people like this: outlaws.
Outlaws don’t care one way or the other. Be it human or beast, demon or angel, they’re all the same to an outlaw. The worst part was, a good outlaw knew how to sneak around, how not to get caught, to be cunning and ruthless. There were of course sloppy outlaws too, but most of us weren’t too concerned about them. You were in good hands once the guards witnessed a crime.
“Are there any reputable outlaws out there?” I asked Satsu.
“A few. As long as you keep your wits sharpened, nothing should happen though.”
“Did you ever run into one?” I asked as I bit into the crunchy red apple in my hand. Satsu smiled.
“I had a friend. Actually, let me retract that. I thought I had a friend who turned outlaw. Turns out he was stringing me along the entire time. We met as fellow hunters at the guild. He was a little too much of everything. Too quiet, too suave, too skilled. It was suspicious. Me being the fool I was, I thought he was just misunderstood. I offered my hand in friendship and the two of us went out hunting together.”
“Oh crap, did he steal your stuff in the night?”
Satsu shook her head.
“He wasn’t so obvious. He wasn’t one of those clowns who gallivant about aimlessly looking for girls or money. This guy was clever. Too clever. We went hunting for as long as two months together before I started to finally notice trinkets here and there were missing.”
“Doesn’t that make him the obvious culprit?”
“Naturally. That’s the thing though. It was something that started to occur even when he wasn’t with me. So for a while I thought maybe some animal or group was spying on me and taking small things here and there thinking I wouldn’t notice. It worked for a while. I thought something was off, but it took some time before I realized items were missing. At first it was just a few coins, nothing noticeable. Then a couple arrows. And then some gauze. When I couldn’t find my dagger, I finally realized that someone had been taking my things.
“Now something you have to realize. Accusing a fellow guild member of a crime is a terrible shame. The penalties are severe if you turn out to be-” she suddenly cut off when something at one of the stalls. She gestured for me to wait and at a brisk pace, she walked away to a nearby stall, her eyes alit with the shine of the newly displayed dagger. The crowd was bustling, and me being the timid boy I was, I waited nervously in the crowd for her return. Satsu untangled the knot keeping her coin purse to her belt and threw eight gold targents onto the keeper’s counter. The man stroked his beard, thought intensely, then swooped up the coins and placed the now sheathed dagger into Satsu’s hands. She waved to me on her way back and I could feel my nerves calm.
“So as I was saying,” she tied the coin purse back around her belt and we resumed our walk, “you can’t just accuse someone of being guilty for a crime. You’re guildmates. You’re supposed to work together. If the proof’s there, they’ll get caught anyways, and usually it’s best to just let the guildmasters take care of that. But if you feel so inclined to accuse someone, well… you better be right. Because I almost lost everything.”
“What happened?”
“One day he just vanished. Like a ninja, he disappeared into the night with all of my stuff and with a dagger pinned to a note, my dagger by the way. He left a nasty message. We never saw him again.”
“Jeez, Satsu. So what then?”
“Nothing. There wasn’t anything to do. The guild pitched in and got me some new gear. Not as good as the stuff I had, but it was suitable enough. I almost quit when that happened.” Satsu looked pensive at that moment. The sun reflected in her eyes what I felt was a somber, melancholy tone. She seemed to be struggling with the event, and it got me to think that maybe there was more to it than she let on. “So? Did you make a decision?”
“About what?” I asked honestly.
“About what?” she asked incredulously. “Your job, what job are you going for?”
“Oh, right! Ummm, well. I don’t know actually. A knight would be pretty cool. Strong, courageous, dependable.”
“All the things you aren’t,” she chuckled.
Frankly, I was hurt pretty bad by that comment. Sad to admit, I know. But I really had my heart set on becoming a knight. She was beautiful, taller, and her womanhood was, well, for a boy my age, very pronounced where I liked it. I wanted to protect her as dumb as it sounds. She hardly needed any protection from me, but it was a fine dream at the time.
“Let’s see,” she said, stopping me and taking a good long look. “You’re not strong or dependable. You’re fragile, clumsy, and don’t have much of a talent for music or dance.”
I could feel my enthusiasm dropping into the pit of my stomach. My self-esteem was being dragged along with it, and I was beginning to feel less and less like an adventurer, and more like the kid brother.
“However,” she paused, “you’re quite smart, you know how to strategize. Reason is definitely one of your stronger suits and even when you’re panicked your arm doesn’t falter.”
It took a couple more minutes of her touching my face, giving thoughtful expressions and mumbling until at last she came up with an answer. Her answer came so freely, so perfectly. I’ll never forget the way she smiled that moment.
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