CHAPTER 37: THREE ADVENTURERS

The Adventurer’s Guild in the capital was loud as always.

Voices overlapped—mercenaries arguing over loot, clerks reading out quest details, the clatter of tankards from the attached tavern. The smell of ale, leather, sweat, and ink mixed into that familiar guild scent every regular got used to.

Near the center of the hall, a tall quest board stood against the wall, covered in papers—some fresh and neat, some already yellowing at the edges.

An elven woman stood in front of it, arms crossed, ears twitching slightly as she scanned each quest one by one.

She was tall for an elf, with long pale-blonde hair tied into a high ponytail and sharp green eyes that missed nothing. A composite longbow rested across her back, the grip worn smooth from constant use. Light leather armor hugged her frame, reinforced at the chest and shoulders with darkened plates. At her hip, a short elven blade hung in a slim scabbard.

Her name was Lyris Faelion—C-rank archer, veteran of seven years, known in the capital guild for never missing a target once she decided to shoot.

Behind her, two women sat at a nearby table, half-watching her and half-working through their own meals.

One was human, about the same age as Lyris, with shoulder-length dark brown hair and a faint scar over her left brow. She wore a navy-blue robe with runic thread sewn along the cuffs, practical traveling boots, and a leather belt lined with potion vials and spell components. A staff leaned against the table next to her chair.

This was Mira Lorne, C-rank mage. Calm, logical, and usually the one who kept their party’s plans from turning suicidal.

Across from her sat a tall, muscular beastkin woman with short silver hair, wolf ears, and a tail lazily swaying behind her chair. She wore light plate armor over chain, a greatsword propped beside her. Her amber eyes followed Lyris with mild boredom.

She was Ragna, werebeast warrior—C-rank, frontliner, and the one who hit things until they stopped moving.

"Still staring at that board," Ragna muttered, chewing a piece of bread. "She’s been at it for ten minutes. At this rate, the ink will dry off those quests before she picks one."

Mira took a sip from her cup. "Let her think. Last time we picked quickly, we ended up escorting a noble who tried to pet you like an actual dog."

Ragna’s eye twitched. "...I’m going to pretend you didn’t remind me of that."

At the board, Lyris’ brows drew together.

Her gaze had settled on one specific quest near the lower right corner. The paper was worn, edges curling. Ink slightly faded compared to the others. It had clearly been there a while.

The request read:

Urgent Request – Goblin Activity Near Aldo Village

Location: Aldo Village, Eastern Frontier of Altfordia

Details: Reports of increasing goblin sightings, possible horde formation. Request for extermination and protection of village.

Lyris exhaled slowly through her nose.

"...Still here," she murmured.

A younger party, clustered nearby, noticed what she was looking at. One of them scoffed.

"That Aldo request again?" a novice swordsman said. "Forget it. That thing’s been up for weeks. If goblins really were swarming, that village is gone already."

His spear-wielding companion snorted. "Yeah. No point saving corpses. And the pay’s trash. Who are they trying to hire, idiots?"

They laughed and moved on, looking for something that promised quicker coin for less risk.

Lyris’ jaw tightened.

She reached out, fingers brushing the edge of the quest paper. The date at the bottom glared back at her.

Weeks old.

Too long.

She pulled it off the board.

Mira looked up from the table immediately. "She picked something."

Ragna finished her bread and stood, stretching lazily. "Finally. So, what is it? Bandits? Escort? Monsters? Please tell me it’s not another herb-gathering job."

Lyris walked back to their table and set the paper down between them.

Ragna leaned forward. Read it once. Then frowned. "...Aldo Village?"

Mira’s expression turned serious. "That one’s still up? I thought someone would’ve taken it by now."

"No one wants to," Lyris said quietly, pulling out the chair and sitting. "Low pay, long distance, and rumor says goblins have been heavy on the eastern frontier this season. It’s bad math."

Ragna tapped the reward line. "One gold coin. That’s what—barely enough to cover travel, supplies, and repairs if things go wrong. And that’s assuming the village is still standing." She glanced up. "You know it probably isn’t."

"I know," Lyris replied.

Mira studied her face, then the paper again. "You’re thinking of taking it."

It wasn’t a question.

Lyris didn’t deny it. She just looked at the request quietly.

"Aldo Village," she said. "Eastern frontier. Far from the main roads. The kind of place that puts up a quest and no one cares because it doesn’t have a noble estate or a trade route nearby."

"That’s the kind of place that gets wiped out first," Ragna pointed out bluntly.

Mira stayed silent, listening.

Lyris went on. "You remember last year? The hamlet near Silverwash River. They posted a request. Wolves. Just wolves. No one took it for two weeks because the pay was low." Her eyes hardened. "We passed by the ruins on another job. Only burned huts and bones left."

Ragna’s tail lowered slightly. "...Yeah. I remember."

Mira sighed. "We’re C-rank now, Lyris. We don’t have to take every charity job the Guild posts."

"I know we don’t have to," Lyris said. "I’m asking if we should."

The three of them fell quiet for a moment.

Around them, the guild hall continued as usual. Adventurers laughed, argued over rewards, flirted with barmaids, or sharpened weapons for their next job. No one paid attention to the crumpled Aldo request in front of them.

Mira eventually broke the silence.

"Let’s assume the worst," she said. "The request has been up for weeks. If there really was a goblin horde and no one went..." She paused. "The village might already be destroyed. If we go now, we might just find ashes. No survivors. No one to pay us."

Ragna nodded. "Exactly. A dead village can’t pay. And goblins don’t keep ledgers."

Lyris looked at both of them. "Would you rather not know?"

Ragna opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Mira rubbed her forehead. "You always do this. Turn it from coin-counting into a conscience problem."

Lyris shrugged lightly. "We’re not starving. We just finished that ogre subjugation for the merchant caravan. We have coin. Enough for a few weeks of supplies. We can afford one job that doesn’t pay well."

Ragna snorted. "You mean ’doesn’t pay at all’ if we show up to a crater."

Lyris met her gaze steadily. "If Aldo is already gone, then we confirm it. We report it to the Guild. At least someone will bother to write down that it fell. That it existed. That it wasn’t just a name on a request board no one touched."

Mira watched her for a long moment.

"You’re thinking of your hometown," she said quietly.

Lyris’ shoulders stiffened, just for a second.

Brisel had been lucky. Bandits had passed it by three years ago when their party happened to be nearby and took the job for half the posted reward. It could’ve gone the other way.

"We’re adventurers," Lyris said. "We take risks. But if we only accept clean jobs in rich cities and ignore villages like Aldo... then what’s the point of having this rank? Of being stronger than the people who need help?"

Ragna sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. Her wolf ears twitched.

"You know I don’t like goblins," she muttered. "They smell worse than normal monsters and they laugh too much when they die."

"That’s not a reason to refuse the job," Mira commented.

"That’s exactly a reason to refuse them," Ragna shot back. Then she huffed. "But fine. I get it. If that village fell and we’re the ones who walked away from the quest, it’ll sit in the back of my head and chew on my brain."

She leaned back, arms crossed.

"I’m in."

Mira looked at both of them.

"You realize," she said slowly, "if the goblins are still there, we’ll be walking straight into a horde with just three people."

Lyris nodded. "We’re not rookies. We scout first. We don’t charge in like idiots."

Ragna smirked. "We’ve seen worse."

Mira let out a long breath... then smiled faintly.

"Alright," she said. "I’m in too. But if we survive and the reward really is just eighty silver, you’re both buying my drinks for a month."

Ragna barked a laugh. "Deal."

Lyris’ lips twitched in a small, rare smile. "Then it’s decided."

She stood and headed toward the main counter.

The guild receptionist—a young man with tidy hair and ink-stained fingers—looked up as she approached.

"Miss Lyris," he greeted politely. "Back already? Looking for a new quest?"

"Yes," Lyris said, placing the worn paper on the counter. "We’ll be taking this one."

He blinked.

"Ah... the Aldo Village request." His expression shifted, turning a bit uncomfortable. "You’re aware it’s been posted for some time, correct? There’s a high chance that—"

"We know," Lyris cut in gently. "We’re taking it anyway."

He hesitated. "The guild master will likely mark it as high-risk with low reward. It’s a long way to the eastern frontier. Travel alone might take you a week and a half from here, depending on route and weather."

"We’ll manage," she said. "Register it under our party."

He hesitated, then sighed and pulled out the ledger.

"Very well. Party name?"

"Silverleaf," Lyris answered.

The receptionist flipped to the correct page and began writing.

"Party Silverleaf," he recited as he wrote. "Members: Lyris Faelion, C-rank archer. Mira Lorne, C-rank mage. Ragna, C-rank warrior. Quest accepted: Aldo Village—goblin horde investigation and extermination. Status: Active."

He stamped the paper with the guild seal, then handed the quest slip back to her.

"Please be careful," he said honestly. "And... if you find nothing but ruins, at least bring back confirmation. The Guild needs to update its records."

Lyris nodded. "We will."

She returned to the table where Mira and Ragna were already packing up—checking straps, adjusting armor, making sure their gear was in order.

"All set?" Lyris asked.

Mira tied off her staff holster. "I’ll restock on potions and mana draughts on the way out. We should also bring extra bandages. Goblins don’t kill clean."

Ragna swung her greatsword over her shoulder and settled the strap comfortably. "Already squared my tab with the tavern. If I die, they don’t get to complain I owed them anything."

"Idiot," Mira muttered.

Ragna just grinned, sharp teeth flashing.

They stepped out of the guild hall together.

The capital’s streets were busy—merchants shouting prices, carriages rattling over cobblestone, children weaving between adults, city guards in chainmail making their rounds. The sun was starting to dip but hadn’t yet touched the rooftops.

Lyris looked up at the sky for a moment, then toward the eastern road visible through the city gate in the distance.

"Aldo Village..." she murmured.

"Think there’s anything left?" Ragna asked.

"I don’t know," Lyris admitted. "That’s why we’re going."

Mira adjusted the strap of her staff. "We’ll stop at Eastwatch first, resupply, and get whatever rumors are floating. If goblins have been moving in large numbers, someone will have seen something."

"Sounds like a plan," Ragna said.

They reached the gate a short while later. The guards glanced at them, recognized their gear and guild tags, and waved them through with minimal questions.

Outside the walls, the landscape opened into rolling fields and a worn dirt road stretching toward the horizon.

The wind felt different here—less crowded, more open. The kind of wind that belonged to borderlands, not city streets.

Lyris tightened the strap of her quiver.

"Let’s move," she said.

Mira nodded.

Ragna cracked her neck.

The three C-rank adventurers of Silverleaf turned east, toward a village most people in the capital had already written off as dead.

And with steady steps, they began their journey toward Aldo.