"Silver Hearth!" someone hollered again. "You owe us a tale!"
"Start with the boar!" another shouted from across the hall. "I heard it shot lightning from its face!"
Kael raised his cup. "You mean Glassy? Our friend here named it!"
Before they got into the battle in the forest, Akito gave them every bit of imformation about his encounter with the boar, including the nickname he shouted before he goes back to his camp.
That turned heads. A few nearby adventurers looked toward Akito, who blinked in surprise as the attention shifted to him.
"Wait—you named it?" A red-haired elf, clearly a few drinks in, leaned closer. "So are you the newest member of their party?"
Akito raised both hands, backing up a step. "Whoa, no. Total coincidence. We just happened to run into each other during the… uh, Glassy incident."
"Just happened to?" someone else echoed.
"I was more of a spectator. You know—on the sidelines. Watching the chaos. Rooting for survival."
A few laughs broke out around him. Someone passed him a tankard, and another clapped him on the back.
"Well, you look like you survived something nasty," the red-haired elf said. "If you're not with Silver Hearth, what's your rank?"
"Uh…" Akito scratched the back of his head. "I don't have one yet. I was planning to register today, actually."
The five of them stood at the Guild's administrative wing, turning in the official quest slip for the boar.
"Well-documented, clean kill, and intact tusks," the staffer noted, eyeing the preserved materials. "You even tagged the trail signs. This is textbook work."
They sold most of the usable parts—hide, bones, internal organs, even the crystallized nerves lining the tusks. Only a small shard of the boar's mana-reactive tusk was kept aside, tucked into a pouch and handed to Caldus.
"For research," he muttered, though his eyes gleamed with a rare intensity.
After splitting the payout, each party member received thirty gold—a heavy pouch that would feed a small family for months.
Before Akito could politely step away, Ruva approached and flicked a single gold coin toward him.
"You helped. Took a risk, even if you think you didn't." Her tone was blunt, her eyes unreadable. "Take it."
Akito caught the coin reflexively, hesitating. "I… appreciate it, but I wasn't really part of the job. Just kind of there."
Ruva crossed her arms. "I don't do repeats. You earned it. Don't make me change my mind."
He looked at her for a moment, then down at the coin in his hand. Slowly, a wide grin spread across his face—equal parts gratitude and playful surrender.
"Well, if you insist," he said, pocketing the gold with a mock sigh. "Guess I'll just have to spend it wisely. Or at least dramatically."
Ruva snorted and turned away, but there was the faintest curve at the corner of her lips.
"Perfect!" the elf grinned. "The desk's open. First round's on me once you're official."
Guided by the collective momentum, Akito found himself approaching the long stone desk at the side of the hall where a tired-looking guild staffer glanced up at him.
"New registration?" she asked.
"Yeah. Just arrived in the city."
"Alright then." She slid a thin slate across the desk, along with a charcoal stylus. "Name and any details. Class if you have one. If not, just leave it blank. We'll assign you a provisional rank based on your submitted info and a basic assessment. By the way, my name is Sylphia."
Akito scribbled quickly. "I'm Akito. Uh… no class yet. No magic. No weapons."
The staffer raised a brow. "Adventuring for the thrill of it, then?"
"Something like that."
"Got it. You'll start at Rank D. That's where we place beginners—people with limited combat experience, low mana presence, or no formal training. Ranks go from D to S. C is standard. B is competent. A means elite. And S…" She shrugged. "Well. There's only a few S-ranks on the entire continent."
"I've met A-rank," Akito murmured, eyes drifting to Silver Hearth across the room. "They're terrifying."
"You'll be assigned a temporary guild ID. It records your rank, quest history, and guild standing. You can take Rank D and C quests, but if you party with higher-ranked members, their word holds more weight."
Akito took the ID slate she handed him. His name was etched across the surface in silver script, along with a tiny glowing symbol denoting D-rank.
He looked down at it thoughtfully.
A small piece of legitimacy. First official step. One line closer to figuring this place out.
When he returned to the center of the hall, Kael raised a tankard in his direction. "Welcome to the system, Rookie!"
"Thanks," Akito said with a grin. "Do I get a pin or a badge?"
"Just your sanity slowly draining away," Ruva muttered, sipping something dark and definitely alcoholic.
Varek smirked. "He doesn't have much of that left anyway."
Akito lifted his drink. "Then I'm already halfway to B-rank."
They all laughed.
For a moment, the noise and chaos faded into something softer—connection.
He wasn't part of Silver Hearth.
But he wasn't alone anymore, either.
Members of Silver Hearth began to drift off one by one. Varek went to check on his gear, Kael slipped away with a smirk and an excuse about "scouting the taverns," and Ruva disappeared out the front, her cloak fluttering like a shadow swallowed by moonlight.
Caldus lingered by the fire, swirling his drink absentmindedly. He caught Akito's glance and nodded for him to come closer.
"Got a minute?" the older mage asked.
"Sure."
Caldus leaned on the back of a chair and lowered his voice. "You asked a lot about mana earlier. Questions most don't think to ask. That curiosity… it reminds me of someone."
"Someone brilliant and charming, I assume?" Akito teased.
"Someone annoying," Caldus replied dryly, though a faint smirk betrayed his amusement. "But useful."
He tilted his head toward the door Ruva had exited moments ago. "You've noticed she's different."
Akito followed his gaze. "Ruva? She's… cold, but not uncaring."
"I meant her bloodline," Caldus said. "She's half-elf."
That caught Akito off guard. "Wait—seriously? But her ears are…"
"Rounded, like a human's," Caldus finished. "Her heritage's not obvious unless you know what to look for. But the eyes? Emerald-green, nearly luminous. That's an elven trait, through and through."
Akito's mind reeled back to earlier, remembering. Ruva had always kept her hood low when they traveled, but around the fire, her features had caught the light—eyes like polished gemstones, deep and unreadable. Her hair, long and raven-black, fell in clean layers down her back, a stark contrast to her pale complexion. Even when she barely spoke, her presence lingered. Like winter's breath. Cold, quiet, but undeniably alive.
"She moves like no one I've ever seen, plus she's a total beauty." Akito murmured.
"Elves are born with grace in their bones. Even a half-blood inherits that. But Ruva… she earned her steel. The world wasn't kind to her." Caldus paused, then added, "She won't tell you any of that, of course. She'll just glare at you until you stop asking."
Akito nodded slowly. "Noted."
A moment passed in comfortable quiet.
Then Caldus said, "If you're serious about understanding this world—mana, magic, and all the rest—there's a place that could help."
Akito looked up.
"The Royal Academy of Arcane Studies, here in the capital. I'm an instructor there." Caldus crossed his arms. "If you're interested, I can make you my assistant. It'll give you access to the academic library."
Akito's brows shot up. "Seriously?"
"You'll also need to register as a student," Caldus added. "Assistants can access theory, but to practice? You'll need the proper clearance. Learn magic, swordsmanship, history, whatever you can handle."
Akito was quiet for a long beat, staring into the dying fire.
An academy. A proper place of knowledge. Books, tomes, scrolls. People who knew things.
Step two: Understand the world.
The fire crackled low, shadows stretching long across the emptying guild hall. Caldus stared into the embers, the soft glow casting flickers of gold along his lined face.
Then, without looking at Akito, he asked, "By the way, how long do you plan on using the name Akito?"
The question cut through the quiet like a whisper of lightning.
Akito blinked. His body tensed, not outwardly—but deep beneath the surface, a slow chill ran down his spine. He hadn't told anyone. No one should've known. Not in this world.