The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 5 Page 9
His rough appearance was to be expected; he used to be an adventurer. He retired due to injuries, but before he could go back to his hometown, Yaaran’s grand guildmaster appointed him as Maalt’s guildmaster. That was quite unusual. Retiring from adventuring to work at a guild was common enough, but becoming a guildmaster right away was one sizable promotion. Many were opposed to this, and I heard there was a lot of chaos at Maalt’s guild after it happened, but it had settled by the time I became an adventurer. Now the guild was in a far better state than those in most other cities.
“Hm, you, eh? Oh, I ought to introduce myself first. I’m the guildmaster of the Maalt guild, Wolf Hermann. Good to meet you, Bronze-class adventurer Rentt Vivie,” he said.
There was something strange about the way he emphasized his words.
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I was afraid of getting punched before I even said anything. The way he said, “Good to meet you,” sounded almost sarcastic. There could only be one reason why: this wasn’t our first meeting. Now the question was how much did he know? I had to guess he knew a lot. As long as I was living in this town, information would find its way to the guild one way or another. Not to mention both my history as Rentt Faina and my work as Rentt Vivie were recorded and available here. If he took the time to think about it, there was enough evidence to presume Rentt Faina and Rentt Vivie were one and the same. If anything, it was odd I hadn’t been exposed before now.
Not that I was anyone important. There was no reason anyone beyond my old friends, to whom I had already explained almost everything, should care about my situation. That only left those distant acquaintances I couldn’t even call friends, but they knew all about the darker side of adventuring. If they didn’t see you around, then most would assume you were dead. It was too painful to speak of the dead, so they tended to go unmentioned. These sorts of incidents happened. I couldn’t imagine anyone cared to get to the bottom of what had happened to me.
That said, usually some rumors did spread around, but I had yet to hear anything about my own death. That meant someone was keeping that information concealed. I had a guess as to who it was, but that was all an assumption.
I decided to act like I didn’t notice anything. Maybe I could dance around it while I figured this out.
“Right, nice to meet you, Guildmaster. I’m Rentt Vivie, a Bronze-class adventurer. I know this was sudden, so I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.”
Guildmaster Wolf looked fed up already. “Yeah whatever, that’s enough of that. I hate when my time’s wasted, Rentt Faina. I know why you’re here. This is about your double registration? I’ll do something about that for you, just tell me all about it,” he declared, defying all expectations.
I gulped. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“I said drop it. But I guess you’re not getting the picture. I get it, we’ve barely met each other, let alone spoken much. But I’ve had my eye on you for a long time, you know that?”
I never knew that in the past, but I did by now. Rather, I had realized it to some extent before. He had jokingly asked a few times if I would work for the guild. I never thought he was serious, but I’d since heard from Sheila that he was. Though I didn’t know what he saw in me, it was certain he had his eye on me. Still, I wondered what that had to do with anything.
“When I heard you disappeared, I’ll be straight with you, I was the most shocked of anyone. Why, you ask? You see, I was so sure that any time now you’d quit the adventurer life and come work for the guild. But then you up and vanished, and judging from the way it happened, I thought you were dead. That’s how it goes with adventurers. We all know it happens. But still, I was just stunned. You could’ve made my job a lot easier, really lowered the death rate for adventurers around here, but then I lost you,” Wolf explained.
I had no intention of giving up on adventuring. I’d spent close to ten years without a serious accomplishment, so I could see where he got that idea, but I was too tenacious to give up like that.
Wolf seemed to see what I was thinking. “Well, maybe you never would’ve given up while you were healthy, but the older you are, the slower you get. One day you would take a blow you couldn’t recover from. No way you could keep up adventuring then, so you’d need another job. I thought you’d want something as close to adventurers as possible, so if you got an offer from the guild, you’d take it. What do you think?”
I wasn’t so sure. If I were injured so badly I couldn’t keep adventuring, then maybe that would be my only choice. I would likely want to do something close to adventuring too. That’s how much I loved my work.
“Wondering why I think that?” Wolf asked. “Because the same thing happened to me. Just look at this eye. I can’t go out adventuring nowadays, but I can at least raise the next generation of adventurers. Never expected the guild to hire me, but life’s full of surprises. And adventurers like working for an ex-adventurer a lot more than for some snob who doesn’t know anything. Pretty sure Yaaran’s grand guildmaster is an ex-adventurer too, so I think that was the idea. Especially for this guild out here in the sticks. And, I was thinking I’d do the same thing for you.”
What he said made sense, but I still wanted to know why me in particular. Guildmasters seldom bothered to check information on Bronze-class adventurers. There were hundreds of us, and the job of guildmaster didn’t permit that kind of time.
“I’d been watching you for a while, and when I got a report on the Bronze-class exam, something stood out to me. Now, sometimes people do pass on their first try, that’s fine. But it was the way you passed it, Rentt. You avoided every trap. Not exactly something a newbie can do. You’d either need a lot of experience, or a lot of skill. So I checked your name, and Rentt Vivie reminded me an awful lot of this other adventurer who drew my eye, Rentt Faina. You see what I’m saying?”
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Wolf’s explanation was easy to understand. Given the circumstances, I could see how he realized who I was so early. I didn’t take much care to hide my identity, so that was the biggest reason. If I’d wanted to fully hide away, I would have picked a more distinct name and chose a different town to operate in after I got my adventurer’s license. I knew too many people in this town to conceal myself completely. I figured as much, which is why I let my friends know who I was. Even when it came to the guild, I knew I might have to talk about my double registration eventually. If I wanted to be convincing once it came to that, I needed it to be clear enough who I was.
I didn’t have a strong idea what Guildmaster Wolf was like, but I knew Maalt’s guild engaged in less fraud and collusion than others. It had a lower death rate for adventurers too. Also, the impression I got from our few conversations told me he could be reasoned with. I felt that as long as I was honest, he would hear me out.
It might have been a gamble to be so open with my identity, but it paid off because he picked up on enough to insist I was Rentt Faina. Not that I wanted him to notice everything, but it would have been nice if he figured it out and called me in to talk on his own. He did in fact put it all together, but I still needed to be the one to come to him.
Either way, my plan seemed to be productive. Of course, I couldn’t place too much faith in Wolf’s personality yet, but I decided I could at least talk to him a bit more.
“That’s all the reason you need to believe I’m Rentt Faina? Because our names are similar? That’s absurd. I was named after a saint, as so many others are. And Vivie may not be a common surname in this country, but you see it everywhere in the Empire,” I insisted.
“Obviously that’s not all there is to it. I’ve got more evidence where that came from. First, it’s the way you fight. Second is the place you live. Ultimately you could call it a hunch, but that doesn’t matter. Rentt Faina, I don’t blame you for the double registration or for hiding your identity, I just want to know why.
“You never had much adventuring talent in the past, and I’m sure you had some
vague concerns about your future, but that’s not enough reason to give up your identity. You were friendly with the other adventurers in town, and you had strong connections with the info brokers. Even the townspeople loved you enough to toss you fruit and vegetables on sight. I just don’t get it. Why wear that creepy robe and mask and go by another name? I was an adventurer myself, so I’ve met my share of people with strange circumstances. Knew a guy on the run from some nobles, and a guy with such grave secrets that he refused to show his face. I thought you might be in the same boat, but I get the sense you’re not, so now I can’t help but wonder. Tell me, if you don’t mind. In exchange, I’ll give you some special treatment. Not a bad deal, am I right?”
By the end, it sounded like Wolf was begging. I didn’t know how sincere he was, but he did seem desperate to know. Maybe it was just part of his plan, but I wanted to believe him. Besides, Wolf had more or less hit the mark. I’d cleared up suspicions about me, but Nive was still on my tail, and I did have a secret to hide with regards to my vampirism. However, I didn’t know how much I should say or if he would even believe it. As far as I knew, the second I said I was a vampire, he might slay me. Wolf was retired, but he had been a powerful adventurer in his day. I didn’t know what rank he reached by the end, but his intimidating aura was enough to know that while he couldn’t go adventuring anymore, he was still far more powerful than me.
To say I was a monster would be suicide, but after our discussion so far, I was feeling inclined to tell him everything. Wolf was a likable man. He had grasped everything about my circumstances except what I needed to hide the most, namely my vampirism, and he offered a deal that would be easy to accept. That was nothing less than kindness, atypical of a guildmaster. Others were busy with collusion and illegal activity. That generosity made me believe he was a good man in earnest. It made me say what I said next.
“Can you prove you’re worth trusting? Double registration is against the rules as it is. You’re the guildmaster, should you really allow it?” I asked.
Wolf laughed. “Starting with your second question, I think you know double registration’s nothing serious. The worst punishment I could give would be to ban you from taking requests for a few days, or maybe charge you a fine, but that’s it. Nothing to worry about there. As for the first question, I can’t tell you to trust me, but what if we signed a magic contract that says I won’t share anything you tell me. Though that might cause some issues, we can work out the finer details. In any case, it’ll keep your secrets from getting out. If you still won’t believe me after that, well...”
“Then what?” I asked. I wasn’t going to be the one to suggest a magic contract. It was true they couldn’t be broken, so trust would no longer be an issue, but contracts could have loopholes. While I appreciated his show of trust, I wasn’t sure what to say.
“I’ll tell you my secret right now,” Wolf said. “I used to get laughed at a lot. Back when I was still an adventurer, I had a dream. Everyone thought it was a joke, but it was serious for me. No matter who belittled me, no matter who insulted me, I was set on making it happen. I ended up here instead, but I never regretted being a dreamer. It turns out, Rentt, that I wanted to be a Mithril-class adventurer. That’s why I like you. We’re a lot alike.”
Maybe that wouldn’t have meant much to anyone else. After all, reaching Mithril-class was an absurd goal nobody took seriously. It was the kind of bravado you heard from newbies. But the look in Wolf’s eyes told me he meant it. We held the same objective and begrudged our own powerlessness, and in that way we had a connection. I had to believe him now. This was everything to me, the dream I brought with me throughout life. Maybe I was being naive or impulsive, but that didn’t stop me.
“All right, I trust you, Guildmaster Wolf,” I said with a nod.
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While I did want to talk, I knew better than to tell him everything without proof. That could wait until after we signed the contract. As long as we had that, I could avoid the worst-case scenario.
We discussed the conditions of the contract in detail before we signed our names. Though I had already as good as confessed, I was going to write my name as Rentt Faina, so I couldn’t go first and give it away. Wolf recognized this before I said anything. He took out a quill and then wrote his own name. For as brutish as this man was, he had neat handwriting. I watched Wolf write until he finished and looked up at me.
“All the paperwork forced me to get good at handwriting. If it looks too rough, the staff at the capital all laugh at my proposals. You have to show them that you got an education,” he said.
In other words, it was one of the struggles he had to endure as a guildmaster. He spoke to me like an adventurer, but he likely approached nobles with the proper etiquette. His handwriting was so elegant that I would have believed he was a noble if I hadn’t seen his hulking arms or the scar on his eye. His was the unmistakable face of an adventurer.
“Here, sign,” Wolf said and handed me the paper and quill. I had no more reason to hesitate, so I wrote my name.
Wolf looked at it. “So you really are Rentt Faina,” he muttered. I thought he was already certain, but even 90% certainty isn’t absolute confirmation. He must have had more hope in me than I thought. He looked like a man reunited with a party member who had stayed behind to hold back a powerful foe. He was happy I survived. I couldn’t see him as a bad person, but maybe I was naive. Maybe that naivety didn’t matter.
When I finished signing, the contract glowed and surrounded us in light. The magic had activated. It stipulated that nothing I said today could be repeated by Wolf in a way that would harm me. There were more specific terms, but it would take ages to list them all. It was about the same as what I had signed with Sheila. In fact, the terms she had suggested were so perfect I went ahead and copied them. That probably wasn’t an issue.
Wolf got straight to the point. “So, Rentt, why register twice when you knew it’d be trouble? Not like you died, is it? You could’ve kept on adventuring as you had been.”
It was hard to believe he didn’t already know more, given how he’d said exactly what had happened. He likely didn’t know, but to specifically say I hadn’t died was comical. I wanted to point out I did in fact die, but it was too soon for that. I had no idea when the right time to breach that topic would be, but I needed to approach it step by step. I decided to start by describing what happened.
“There were a lot of reasons, but—”
Wolf interrupted. “Might be late to mention this, but you can just talk to me like any old adventurer. No point being polite here. Now if we saw each other at a noble’s party down the line, I’d expect some formality, but you can keep it out of the guild,” he said.
I immediately relaxed. I’d had to be polite with so many people as of late I had begun to watch my words around superiors as a matter of course. He was right, though; it didn’t fit an adventurer.
“Honestly, it’s not a big deal anymore, but something did happen to me,” I continued.
“What was the problem?”
“I couldn’t show my face around people.”
“I see, that explains the mask. More than a few adventurers have big injuries though, and the face is no exception. Don’t see why that means you had to change your name.”
He was correct, and I didn’t know how to explain it without revealing too much. The simple answer was I became undead, but revealing that so soon seemed like a bad idea. I had no way to prove it anyway. Not even Nive could determine I was a vampire.
As I thought about what to do, I spotted a dagger on the wall. I pointed to it. “Can you give me that for a second?” I asked.
Wolf hesitated for a moment. I assumed he was afraid I might attack, but there would be no sense in that now. If I wanted to kill him, I would have already tried. Besides, Wolf may have had only one eye, but he was likely a mighty warrior. He was confident he could stop me if I pulled anything.
“All right, fine. But what f
or?” he asked.
I didn’t answer him. I just picked up the dagger and rolled up my sleeve.
“Hey now, what are you doing?!”
Wolf panicked and stood up, but it was too late. I had already sliced down the middle of my left arm. It left a long gash, and blood oozed out.
“What in the hell?” Wolf said as he looked at my arm, but his eye soon widened in shock. He witnessed the impossible. “The wound closed up? How? I didn’t see you use any medicine or magic.” Using either divinity, magic, or ointments would have had the same effect. Wolf knew from experience this was something else.
“This is why I had to hide my identity. Staying the person I was would have led to chaos down the line,” I said.
“Now what’s that mean?” Wolf asked.
“I’m undead. This body is no longer that of a human but that of a vampire.”
Or so I assumed. I had started to question that as of late, but it was a good enough explanation for the time being.
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Of course, my claims startled Wolf. He thought I was out of my mind at first. It was a hard truth to swallow, but I had displayed abnormal regenerative abilities. The only explanation was I was telling the truth, as he was quick to realize. Still, he had a load of questions.
Wolf finally broke out of his dumbfounded stupor and moved his mouth through force of will. “Wasn’t expecting to hear that. Not sure what to ask first, but putting aside whether this is true, how’d it happen in the first place?” he asked.
Wolf still wasn’t convinced I’d turned undead. I would have felt the same way if someone told me that, no matter how honest they were on average. He wanted to know how it happened, or maybe more so how I had gained the power to quickly recover from wounds. It seemed I would have to start at the beginning.
I told him about everything in order, with the exception of the secret passage in the Water Moon Dungeon. I left that out because of my promise with that mystery woman. That shouldn’t have mattered anyway. The important information was I got eaten. That part had surprised the woman so much she didn’t include it among the things I couldn’t mention. I was only supposed to keep the room a secret, so I was free to discuss transformation.