Arc | Chapter. 78: Holiness (Patreon)

Chapter. 78: Holiness

Note: I forgor Mythril coins never actually existed, they are all platinum coins 💀

I stared at the woman who basically jumped from my gaze⁠— I was annoyed. Annoyed that this stranger, who was B Tier, was essentially stalking Ceylon and Malz. I didn’t know what kind of intentions they had, and if they were the wrong ones then I’d have no choice but to do something.

The woman gasped for a moment, her green eyes trembling. Her hair was black and her body resembled that of an adventurer⁠— because she probably was one. However, she didn’t seem old.

“So?” I pressed.

The woman backed off, her heart evidently racing, and her being panicking.

“W-Well, I have my reasons. There is no animosity there, I-I promise you that,” she stuttered. “It⁠— it’s just…”

I raised my brow. “It’s just…?”

“I-I know it’s hard to believe, but… I have a request to slay a dragon so…” she meekly trailed off.

For a moment I tensed as she flinched, then processed the reality that the girl would be unable to lay a finger on Malz, an SS Tier being, while she herself was merely B Tier.

“What does that mean?” I frowned. “Aren’t dragons S Tier?”

The woman slowly nodded, I could see a bead of sweat trailing down her forehead. “T-This one is reported to be A Tier, it’s… a wyvern, a kind of lesser dragon…”

“A wyvern, huh?” I finally relaxed thinking. “Hm…”

“Yeah!” she piped up. “I wanted to ask for Malz’s help because she is incredibly strong! She made half of the Adventurer’s Guild pass out with her bloodlust.”

What the woman said made me pause. My eyes widened with some surprise.

“You’re telling me she did something in the guild?”

“Huh you don’t know how strong your friend is?” the woman asked in shock. “Some adventurer implied that they didn’t respect her, so she essentially displayed her bloodlust for everyone to see.”

“That is…”

I didn’t know how to exactly react other than it seemed overkill and completely unnecessary, but I wasn’t too sure what to actually make out of things.

“Yeah, so that’s why I’m following after her, I hope she can help me with my dragon-slaying request… perhaps if she has strong friends like you, they can help too… the rewards are pretty nice you see?”

Admittedly, I wanted to point out the irony of asking a dragon to help you kill another dragon, but the woman didn’t actually know who she was trying to ask help from. However, that said…

“You say the rewards are nice, right?”

“Yeah about twenty-five platinum coins per person for a party of five…” The woman said hesitantly. “If it has less members it’s even better…”

“Oh, that is quite a lot actually.”

“Are you interested?” The woman asked.

I didn’t know all that much about the economy given I hardly even touched money, but it was still a high quantity based on my understanding. I did wonder however, how much my ice spear had been sold for. Though that wasn’t too important, there was something else that mattered to me.

“Are there a lot of monsters past the wyvern?”

“There is a high likelihood of it, yeah.” The woman thought for a moment, evidently much more relaxed than before. “Why?”

I nodded. “I think we can assemble a party, Malz will agree to it too.”

“Really, how can you be so sure?” The woman asked dubiously before frowning to herself. “Also, I’m sorry for my actions earlier, they really weren’t right…”

“Right, it’s fine.” It seemed that she was just fucking weird rather than having bad intentions after all. “As for being sure, well, I guess you’ll see.”

“She didn’t seem like the type of person to easily agree to things⁠—”

“I told you that I don’t need a sword or these kind of weapons!” Ceylon protested as they exited.

Malz was carrying a spear on her back, a sword on one hand and a shield in the other, and she was clearly somewhat bothered.

“Well how are you going to injure the monsters then? You cannot even use magic. I already relinquished on you wearing armor, you’re just making things difficult at this point.”

“A dagger is all I need for this.” Ceylon sighed.

“Perhaps, but a sword or spear is a safer method to gather experience,” Malz said simply. “It wouldn’t hurt to just listen⁠—”

“Malz,” I called.

The Dragon of Shadows paused and turned in our direction. I immediately saw Malz’s eyes grow wide with surprise before smiling and immediately hurrying in our direction.

“Arc, you’re finally free from whatever you were doing?”

“I am.” I smiled before pulling the woman next to me. “She has a request to go kill a dragon, are you interested? Ceylon will probably be able to get some levels from it.”

“Oh, that is a bit of an ironic request but sure.” She nodded simply as the woman blinked. “Though wasn’t she the person that has been following us this entire time?”

“I-I’m sorry I just⁠—”

“Yeah she was,” I interrupted. “But her intentions were simply to ask for help in regards to the request. Which, well, I think it’s a good request given Ceylon needs to level up.”

“Wait, you'll make me slay a dragon?” Ceylon asked wide-eyed.

“A wyvern so not too bad,” I dismissed before turning to the woman. She was a head shorter than me. “Any other information we should know?”

“Not really…” the woman meekly said before looking towards Malz. “Sorry for following you around and stuff.”

“Oh it’s fine,” Malz casually dismissed. “I was aware of it the entire time.”

The woman paused and lowered her head.

“Right, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I reassured her once more. “Anyway what is your name and when should we meet for this request?”

“I’m Meika,” she said, taking a breath. “Tomorrow morning at the guild, when the sun is barely shining. We will need to register for the request before leaving.”

“Oh, alright.” I nodded. “See you then, I’ll bring other people along.”

Meika slowly nodded letting out a breath of relief as she finally relaxed before turning to Malz. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” She nodded at Malz before turning to me. “Thank you for helping… Arc, I shall see you tomorrow hopefully.”

“Yeah.”

With those words, Meika left. Her mood seemed a bit weird but I didn’t particularly question it. Instead, I was just glad that there seemed to be something to look forward to for now. I watched the woman leave and go back to the adventurer’s guild. Ceylon and Malz did so too, before finally Malz asked.

“What is this about a dragon?”

“The woman has an adventurer request to slay a wyvern or something.” I shook my head. “I don’t know that much other than the total reward for the request is 100 platinum or so.”

Ceylon blinked. “That is quite a lot actually… I wonder how she even got such a request in the first place.”

“Unsure, and I don’t think it matters too much,” I dismissed. “For now I guess…” I thought for a moment. “Are you two done buying whatever you need to buy?”

Malz tilted her head. “I think so, we are missing rations but I never intended to take her out of town for multiple days, so it should be fine.”

“We aren’t missing anything.” Ceylon sighed. “That said I don’t need a sword, nor a shield, nor a spear, a dagger is just fine.”

“No, you⁠—”

I sighed, interrupting Malz. “Ceylon, just take the spear okay?”

Ceylon looked at me somewhat baffled and shocked, but ultimately slowly nodded and approached Malz, sighing.

“Just give me the spear.”

“Only because Arc said so?” She raised her brow. “Fine.”

I shook my head as I watched Ceylon receive the spear with some difficulty before she stored it away into a ring.

“Alright, with that out of the way we should go tour around. Not like Malz has been in Rivas before.”

Malz nodded very slowly. “Well is there anything for me to see anyway? Even though I don’t travel that much I’ve actually seen quite a lot of stuff.”

Ceylon thought for a moment. “I think there is something you’d like to see.” She smiled. “We can go do it later today.”

“Is that so?” Malz raised her brow.

I too was confused but didn’t comment on it as Ceylon simply nodded before turning to me.

“We should just do what we usually did in Rivas, I’m sure Malz will enjoy it a lot.”

“You mean go to the ice shop?” I asked, confused. “That sounds a bit boring for her.”

Ceylon just smiled. “I’m sure she’ll like it.”

I blinked but didn’t argue against it, instead just nodded in acceptance. I was actually never opposed to doing ice carving⁠— it was therapeutic and relaxing. So, with those plans in place, we headed to enjoy the day.

* * * * *

That night Malz witnessed something from Arc she never thought she would. It was something she had never imagined, but also something that made Arc’s words about wanting to be more finally click.

She was already more than just a battle driven person.

Out of all the heroes she had met, Malz couldn’t think of anyone as passionate for something as Arc, even if it was only reflected within ice out of all places.

It was… magical.

And something that Malz committed to memory.

* * * * *

Meika hadn’t been able to sleep all that much, she was nervous and borderline panicking the entire night. Someone as strong as Malz had easily agreed to Arc, which meant they were at least of equal standing and that was… terrifying.

Meika had thought about it long and hard, and concluded that Malz at the very very least was an A Tier individual that had used a special skill, but deep down she felt like things were different; that in fact Malz was S Tier, and by extension so was Arc. Though, she hadn’t heard of either of them.

S Tier individuals had almost worldwide renown…

Even as she slept and fell from exhaustion, she still couldn’t comprehend who Arc and Malz were, or where they had come from. And in the morning, Meika had the same questions but decided that she would just see for herself. So that’s what she did, she set off and waited right outside the adventurer’s guild.

She had a cloak on, and adventurer gear.

Today they were going to slay a dragon.

It was a monumentally daunting task. And something that worried her to her core, but for some odd reason she was more preoccupied wondering about Arc and Malz, and her party in general. Who would they even bring?

She waited for a few minutes with her eyes closed until a voice piped up.

“Well now we are all here, it’s fine if a few extra people tag along right?” A familiar voice asked.

Meika opened her eyes to see Arc, and people⁠— he saw a noble boy with red hair, he saw a man dressed in bandages and blue robes, he saw a green haired woman with a tunic, he saw Malz and Arc, as well as Ceylon.

“Right, I guess it’s fine, I’ll take my part of the payment,” Meika said hesitantly. “If y’all wish to distribute the rest⁠—”

“You can keep half of the payment, we don’t care too much,” Arc said. “Let’s go register for the request.”

Meika nodded very slowly and entered the guild. It was the early morning so it wasn’t too busy, but they still drew strange gazes and Malz specifically was looked at with animosity. But eventually, Meika reached the counter and grabbed her adventurer tag.

“I’m here to accept the request I had reserved.”

The woman behind the counter nodded and upon inspecting the tag for a few moments, a piece of parchment was pulled out. And then, the receptionist turned towards the group.

“I require your adventurer tags too.”

Arc nodded and took out a normal tag, something that Meika found strange⁠— weren’t S Tier tags black? In the same vein, the red-haired boy did the same and the receptionist frowned.

“If this is the entire party, assuming the others don’t have tags then you cannot accept the request.”

Arc spoke up. “Huh? Why not?”

“Well, because this is one B Tier adventurer and two C Tier adventurers trying to do an A Tier request. We cannot allow it for such an important quest like this one.”

Meika paused. Arc was C Tier?

“Okay, but I’m a Medal of Bravery holder, that ought to help no?” Arc said showing a shiny pin.

Meika blinked once more. A C Tier person had a Medal of Bravery?! The woman behind the counter shook her head.

“Unfortunately not, I cannot allow you all to take this request. There is no way it can be completed. You’d need a party of full B Tier adventurers for me to accept this.”

Meika felt her heart drop, and also confusion. Malz wasn’t an adventurer? Arc was only C Tier? Nothing made sense to her. She was pushed aside by the man in the blue robes, Arc raised her brow and the receptionist seemed confused.

Without hesitation, the man took out a black adventurer tag with gold engravings as he slammed it onto the table.

“Will this make you reconsider?”

Meika and Arc blinked; an S Tier adventurer?! The receptionist gulped and took the tag before reading it, and at that moment she began to shake.

“Y-Your holiness… the leader of the church of the Dragon of Water, the Water Paladin…”

Meika felt her brain completely pause, and the rest of the guild hearing the news lost their mind, even the Guildmaster slammed the door open as she called for a private meeting with the party. She didn’t understand anything.

What was… happening?