“I have ta’ say… This is the first time I’ve been beaten by a newcomer so handily! The name is Trey! Nice ta’ meet ya!”

I shook the hand of the man who had accepted his loss gracefully, ignoring the whispers coming from everyone else in the training hall.

“You already know this but I’m Aster. Not to sound weird or anything, I do pass, right?”

“Wahaha! Of course! Here!”

He handed the paper back to me, this time with an “approved” stamped on it.

That easy?

I looked up at him, “Not to sound ungrateful or anything but… Isn’t it a little too easy to get registered? It looks to me like anyone can get registered, even criminals.”

“Heh, a sharp one ain’t ya? Well, ya don’t need ta’ worry about dat because criminals registering at The Guild is the worst thing they could do. The Guild would have their information after all and it becomes easy ta’ identify ’em.”

Ah, I suppose having your own details recorded down somewhere would be a big problem if you wanted to stay unknown.

Although that does beg the question of what happens if they partner with someone else to do the crime while the Guild member partner stays clean to make use of The Guild’s resources?

Eh… You know what, all of that is none of my business. The only thing I care about is that I passed and that’s good enough for me.

I’ll have to get my Dungeoneer registration done some other time but it’s no big deal since I’m not in a rush to get it anyway.

I thanked Trey once again and he saw me off with a smile and wave, looking especially pleased for some reason.

Going back up the stairs, I arrived at the lobby again and went back to the same receptionist.

The receptionist smiled at me, “Oh? Hello again Miss Aster, did you forget something?”

I tilted my head at her, “Hmm? Not at all, I’m already done with the test. It seems like I can’t sign up as a Dungeoneer today though.”

“Ah yes, that was my fault, I totally forgot that our Dungeoneer trainer had already… Wait what? You’re… Already done?”

“That’s right, here you go,” I confirmed, sliding the stamped paper across the table to her.

She looked down at the paper before looking back at me, “But… You were there for barely ten minutes… Surely there wasn’t enough time for you to change out of your dress?”

“Oh, that’s right. I simply just fought the trainer in this.”

“And Trey let you pass despite losing to him like this?”

“Not at all. I beat him in the dress, so he let me pass.”

She blinked a few times at me but smiled and nodded in the end.

“I see, in that case well done, Miss Aster. Could you place your hand here for a moment?” She asked, presenting some kind of glass orb the size of her fist to me.

Huh, I thought she would continue to question me about it but it seems she has accepted it in the end. I understand how outlandish my claims are after all so I don’t blame her for doubting me like this.

Hmm… I just realised I’m doing things that make me stand out aren’t I?

Meh… Whatever happens, happens I guess.

I obliged and I could feel a bit of my mana seep into the orb, turning it blue.

“Thank you, please wait a moment while I process your registration.”

She took the paper and disappeared through a door in the back, reappearing after a minute with a card in her hands.

“Congratulations Miss Aster, as of this moment you are an official member of The Guild’s Mercenary branch.”

I took the card from her and surprisingly, there’s a picture of me printed on the card despite me not remembering them taking a picture.

“How did you get my picture?”

She giggled, “Hehe, is this your first time seeing it? It uses a special spell that captures your mana you gave me earlier to imprint this card to you. The card itself is attuned to you so even if you were to grow or shift forms, it will still display your picture.”

That’s pretty cool.

But does that mean that even if you shapeshift, it would still display your new form? I can see why criminals might not want to register with The Guild.

My eyes scanned the rest of the card and I found that my rank was “F Rank”.

“I don’t suppose there’s a way for me to skip ranks?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m afraid not, Miss Aster. The ranks are also an indication of how experienced the Mercenary is so they need to show proficiency in their work to move up the ranks. A strong Mercenary who is unable to complete their requests would be of no benefit to anyone after all.”

I guess that is true. Again, I’m in no rush so I’m fine with starting at the bottom and making my way up through the ranks anyway.

She then proceeded to explain the basics of being a Mercenary to me.

As a Mercenary, I am allowed to take any request on the board that is of the same rank as mine or one rank higher. If I am in a party, they will take the average rank of the party as consideration.

I am of course allowed to take private requests but the completion of the request would not contribute to my rank consideration and all responsibility of the request would fall between myself and the client. Meaning I am unable to use The Guild’s resources to deal with said request.

As for the Guild’s quests, I can directly take them from the board and bring them to any of the reception counters to register my intent to take it. If there is a party involved, then everyone must be registered to the Request or its completion will not be credited to them.

With that, I am now officially a Mercenary.

As much as I would like to go and take a quest straight away, Mother was still waiting for me outside so I left the Guild building after thanking the receptionist for her time.

“Ara ara? Is my little one a Guild member now?” Mother asked upon seeing me exit the building.

I flashed her the card proudly, which earned me a crushing hug from Mother.

“Ahhh~ I knew my little one could do it! Mama is so proud of you!”

“Mnnnghhh!”

She finally let me go after thoroughly cuddling me for a good long minute.

“Ufufufu~ Now, shall we do some shopping first? Maybe we can even have my little one take a quest later?”

I nodded my head enthusiastically, “Let’s go then, Mommy!”

She giggled and took me by my arm, pulling me along towards the market district.

We moved along the main streets, enjoying the sights of the various people around us. This was my first time in a city after all so I was definitely marvelling at everything around us.

Unexpectedly, after a few turns, Mother took me down one of the deserted alleys.

I assumed it was a shortcut and didn’t question it until we turned the corner and found someone leaning against the wall near us.

It was a man with blue bangs long enough to cover one side of his face and the gear he wore suggested him to be a Mercenary too. He smirked the moment he saw us, his left hand shifting towards the sword on his waist as he pushed himself away from the wall.

I turned back to look behind and, as expected, two more men were there where one was large and muscular while the other was a little on the obese side.

“So you’re the one huh?” The man with blue hair sneered. “You’re the new girl who joined The Guild and bribed the trainer to pass? Don’t you know that it’s common courtesy for newbies to pay respects to their seniors? Now, we’ll accept all the money you have on you.”

Ah, this must be the so-called newbie crushing or something, I’m also assuming these three weren’t in the training area to witness my duel with Trey either and just assumed what happened after seeing my interactions with the receptionist.

Also, the fact that Mother chose to take this route meant that she was already aware that we were being followed from the start.

I looked at Mother, wondering what she was planning to do.

“Oh dear! What shall we do, my child? Mama is no good at fighting! If these men were to attack Mama, there would be nothing Mama could do!”

…

She’s definitely doing this on purpose.

I turned back to check their stats and quickly realised that they were even weaker than Trey.

Damn… These guys picked the wrong person to screw with…

“I’m going to give you guys one chance to run away before I break something,” I warned.

“Pffft! Hahahaha! Look at her boys! Trying to act all tough! You don’t understand what’s going to happen are you? Just for that… I think we’ll have some fun with you first!”

Damn, of course they go straight to that option. Alright then, I already warned them so…

I dashed forward, the blue haired man barely realising I had moved before I had his arm in my grasp.

Raising up my elbow, I slammed it down on his arm with a resounding crack.

Not even waiting to see how he would react, I dashed back to kick the muscular guy in the knee, snapping it and causing his leg to bend backwards.

The obese one widened his eyes at me but I had already punched him in the chest, breaking several of his ribs.

All three men collapsed onto the ground, groaning in pain.

Easy.