This Life of Sin

Heroes

Chapter 5: Heroes

The following two weeks went smoothly if I did say so myself. I still hadn't gotten a tamed monster, but I didn't feel as desperate anymore either. After only a couple days of doing jobs in the forest I learned that there was nothing in there that could seriously hurt me so long as I kept vigilant. And with my new bag and knife I was able to bring home enough drops and pelts that I wasn't hurting for money. I was by no means well off, but I didn't have to worry weather or not id be able to afford my room and meals at least.

I got to know the Birch Tree Inn and some of its regulars a little better too. Turns out that Martin the cook was Sally's boyfriend. Her husband, and Fenny's father, had been killed before Fenny was born while out adventuring. Turns out that Sally was pretty pissed about that. Apparently, they had the Inn back then as well and there was no financial need for a man with a wife and soon to be child at home to go out and risk his neck adventuring.

"Its not like the fool was any good at it. He had no magical sense and could barely wield that ridiculous hammer he dragged around with him. He was just a thrill junky fool who didn't want to give up the fun and settle down." She had said one night while I read my grimoire at the bar with an ale. "I tell you I will not be letting Fenny out doing any of that unless he shows an actual knack for the damned job! No way my boy is just tossing his life away just because all the other kids say adventuring is cool!"

I ran into Wells a few times as well. I like most of the garrison even if they gave me a bit of the side eye. I suspect that they know a criminal when they see one. They may not have seen me do anything shady since I've been here, but they could tell I wasn't new to the criminal scene either. Vincent kept his animosity to snide remarks and murderous looks, but other wise no sort of backlash came from my earlier sass. Mostly, when I passed the garrison, either to or from the Adventurer's guild, the men there would wave or say hello.

I got a new cloak. One with a hood, but it only reached the small of my back. It left my hands, legs, and tail free to attack. Though I made sure that my tail was always wrapped around mt belt when I was in town. It looked like I was wearing some kind of black scaled leather belt. I also didn't bother having my hood up anymore. I did start wearing my hair up in a long tail. I pulled my hair up in a way that my tiny horns were all but hidden.

I liked to think I looked like some sort of bad ass but who could say for sure.

As for my adventuring license, I got it up to level C with very little trouble. The Jobs at B-level were on a whole other level from C however, so I hadn't made much headway moving up to the next level. Besides, I was already attracting attention as a person who shot through so many levels without ever joining a party. In order to advance farther I was sure I would either join a party... or get some tames and make one myself. I was partial to option two. I didn't mind talking to people, but I hadn't yet gotten to the point where I trusted my life to them.

Honestly the most surprising thing over the last two weeks was that there had been no news of there being new heroes. No announcements on the notice boards nor just through word of mouth. I wasn't sure what the powers that be were waiting for. Maybe they were giving the would-be heroes some time to train so that they didn't look like complete fools when the queen decided to let everyone know about them.

There were plenty of rumors about the Demon King, however. Merchants brought news of the out-ling kingdoms that surrounded the mother kingdom of Larasta. Dark monsters attacking adventurers in the Kingdom of Wastes in the north, suspicious happenings in the Kingdom of Fire, People going missing in the Kingdoms of Swords and Silver. And that was just the tip of it all if gossip was to be believed. Scattered stories of ancient monster that hadn't been seen since the Demon King was around three hundred years ago. And I'd even heard tell that there were odd weather patterns and natural disasters that were suspected not to be natural at all.