Guild Cards Updated
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Meanwhile, Sue is leading Thoma Ahad’s party to a different office on the fourth floor. Unlike her office, this one has multiple seats available. She then sits down behind a desk and glares at the party, seemingly angry.
“I am temporarily suspending Thoma Ahad’s work allowance until she comes of age.”
Rayla exclaims, “What!? Why?”
“You know why. Thoma Ahad is obviously a child. I don’t know what the laws are in Berk and I don’t care, in this country we value our children. She will still be able to use her card as an ID and I will update the card as you wanted but she will not operate in this country until she has reached puberty.”
“But that could take hundreds of years!”
“So be it then. All this poor kid talked about was work, has she even seen a playground before?”
Confused, Rayla asks, “What is a playground?”
“By Holly’s green locks, you lot in the west truly are barbarians.”
“Excuse me!?”
Sher Aka intejects, “So what are we supposed to do then? Obviously adventuring is our profession and we can’t just leave Thoma Ahad someplace for weeks. He’d never agree to that.”
“I’m well aware of that. I wouldn’t even leave her with you if she wasn’t what essentially boils down to a child soldier that can easily escape any childcare facility I send her to.”
John asks, “So it’s fine for us to take Thoma Ahad with us on the way to quests?”
“It’s not fine but it’s legal.”
“Then I assume self defense is also legal in case he gets in a dangerous situation.”
She gives him a glare, “What are you trying to say?”
He grins, “Nothing. Adventuring is a dangerous job though and we can’t just leave such a young child alone in some random village every time we go do our job, that would be neglect. So, while we carefully watch over him he has of course a right to defend himself as long as he won’t actively participate in the quest, no?”
“...”
“I’ll take that silence as a yes.”
Sue slams her hand on the table, “Do you lot not have any conscience!?”
Which causes Rayla to yell back at her, “Of course we do! I know well that this lifestyle isn’t good for him! But I also know that his cursed existence is something that will break him if we don’t do something about it! The only thing we can do is get stronger and get him to Naturia, it’s the only way without resorting to illegal methods!”
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After about fifteen minutes of drinking hot chocolate in the office, Sue and my party arrive.
“Hey guys! Did Scarlet pass? You took pretty long.”
Rayla looks a bit mad as she says, “Yes, she passed. Come with me, we need to update your card.”
“Alright…Is everything alright? You guys look…Annoyed? Angry?”
“I’ll tell you once we’re out of here.”
“Uhm…Okay?”
We then go down to the ground floor where Scarlet gets her card made and I get mine updated. Looking at it it has a different color than before, it’s now red. My race has been updated to mixed and the picture is up to date now. There is only one weird thing about it, ”Minor? Why does it say minor on the card?”
Sue answers in a kind voice, “Because you are obviously a child.”
She then hands me what looks like a big piece of chocolate and a business card, “If you ever feel like you’re not safe with your party anymore show this to any guild and I’ll come get you.”
“Uhm…Okay?”
Rayla takes my hand, “Come on, oki. Let’s get out of here.”
While I’m being led outside, Sue, with a smile, waves me good bye.
Outside, we walk through the masses of people until we find a somewhat quiet park bench.
“Sit down, oki.”
I sit down.
“So, I’m not sure how to phrase this best so I’ll just say it. You are technically not allowed to work in this country.”
“What?”
“Essentially, because your card says ‘minor’ now you fall under child protection laws and can’t work. But that doesn’t mean we won’t take you on quests anymore, you just won’t be allowed to get any rank up points while we’re here. John is going to teach you what to say if they ask you questions.”
“But why did they decide I’m a minor? I didn’t tell anyone about Holly’s gift and I didn’t act childish.”
“I’m sure you tried your best oki. But she is a Vice Guild Master in what amounts to basically the main branch of this country. I’m sure she had her ways to find out.”
Looking down to the ground, I ask, “So, what are we gonna do now?”
Ralya puts her hand on my shoulder and smiles at me, “The same thing we always do. We’re going to be questing soon. I wasn’t sure how long the whole bureaucratic aspect would take though so our hotel is booked for two more nights. Until then, let’s have some fun. I especially want to see what the hell a playground is.”
Rayla then stops a passerby, “Excuse me ma’am, can you tell me where the next playground is?”
“A playground? Probably in middle park. Just go that direction, it’s about two blocks down.”
“Alright, thanks. Let’s see what this playground stuff is all about…”
Following her directions, we move down the streets passing many street vendors and street performers on the way. One of the fascinating things about this place though is that they use walls of buildings to advertise products. Everything is just full of them, I have never seen anything like it. What makes it even more jarring though, is that suddenly after being surrounded by giant buildings we see what looks like a park the size of a forest in the middle of the town.
“This place is very confusing, ane.”
“Yeah…No kidding. Who builds their city around a forest?”
Sher Aka answers, “This isn’t a forest. Just like the name says, it seems to be a park artificially created for the enjoyment of the people here. Nature had no involvement in this.”
“I can’t tell if you’re impressed or disgusted.”
“I’m very impressed. I wonder how many gardeners it takes to maintain this place.”
We then enter the park and after some asking around, are led to an area surrounded by a huge wooden wall that you can’t see through or over with the sound of screaming children behind it. On it, it says ‘Playground’.
“Hmm…This place looks a bit creepy, ane."
“Yeah…Is this perhaps a secret training area of some kind?”
Scarlet takes my hand and moves me to the entrance, “Of course it’s not a training area. It’s a play area, we have something similar in Blaze, we just call it differently.”
At the entrance, there are what look like four guards. Two Frigants, one male one female and two Wolf-Beastkin also one male and one female.
The female Wolf-Beastkin looks at me and Scarlet and takes a deep sniff, she then looks at me again and says, “I assume you want to go in with your little sister?”
Scarlet answers, “Correct,” before looking at me and saying, “Man…These guys are good, they knew instantly.”
The wolf woman gives a smug smile as she tells Scarlet, “Well, that’s why they hire us. But aren’t you a little old for the playground?”
“Well, yeah. I’m only here as a guardian.”
“To who?”
She tilts her head a bit in confusion, “To my little sister of course.”
“Okay? Where is she?”
Scarlet gets a baffled expression on her face as she asks, “Are you stupid or something?”
“Excuse me?”
Rayla quickly interrupts before this situation escalates, “There’s a big misunderstanding going on, the little sister she’s referring to is this guy here.”
The guards then look at us baffled and the male Frigant blutnly answers, “If you are just going to waste our time, please leave.”
“Sigh Come on Scarlet did you have to complicate it by saying sister? Couldn’t you have just said brother?”
“I might have but she asked if I’m here with my little sister so I thought she understood.”
“She was referring to Thoma! She thought Thoma was the big brother and you the little sister, like any normal person would…Anyways, this is his guild card, he’s a minor and quite a bit younger than any of us.”
Rayla gives the card to the Frigant who looks at it and passes it around to the other guards who pull out a book, look through it, then look at me and back at the book again.
The female Frigant then puts her giant hand on my head and brushes through my hair, “It must have been tough…”
Rayla sighs, “Can we go in now?”
“We need to know your relations with her first to make sure you aren’t just some strangers.”
Annoyed, she asks, “Really? What is in this playground that’s so damn important you need to do all these checkups?”
“Children of course. Nothing’s more valuable and precious.”
“Huh…Scarlet and I are his direct family and those two are friends of the family.”
“Ah, a patchwork family then. Please hand over your weapons and then go in.”