章 2: Chapter 1
The rabbit, having silently leaped from grass to grass for the past few minutes, had only now arrived at Orario's gates.
The distance from the old trader's carriage to here had been minor, yet regardless of that, Bell was clearly exhausted, though that was to be expected as, for one without a falna, the toll on the body was rigorous.
Despite that, Bell's enthusiasm was far too great to be overcome with short breath. Pushing away any and all fatigue, he began making his way towards the entrance of the famed city.
Weaving through multiple people and carriages owned by merchants, it didn't take long for him to find himself at the tail end of a line formed as a result of masses trying to gain access to the city.
Multiple guild members and guards of the Ganesha familia were stationed about. The former helped oversee the area and personally handled things like inspections; the guards themselves weren't for show and would not hesitate to strike down anyone causing trouble.
A short while later, and after multiple inspections, it came to be Bell's turn.
"Next."
Affirming the previous statement, the person in charge of the queue called for the next person.
The white rabbit, finally delighted to be informed that it was his turn to make his way to Orario, couldn't hold his eagerness and immediately jumped forward, waiting hastily for the upcoming words that would grant him access to pass through and enter the labyrinth metropolis.
"You got your travel papers?" The examiner questioned, ignoring the excitement of the boy before him.
"Uh... my what?" Dumbfounded, the lad could only ask what the guild member meant.
The inspector studied the boy, or rather his clothes, before finally coming to the realization that he probably wasn't a visitor.
"Ah, you don't look like a traveler to me, so let me guess... you're here to be an adventurer?"
"That's right!"
"Not an issue then. You'll be let through once we check you for a falna."
"Go on, turn around." Pointing his index finger in the opposite direction of Bell, he continued, "Face that way."
"Okay...?" With a slightly oblivious look on his face, the boy shifted his feet and spun around, only stopping midway so that his back was facing the supervisor.
The latter wasted no time pulling out a purplish device from his pockets, the size of it similar to that of a thumb that it could easily be mistaken for a magic stone to the uninformed eye.
Moving the object closer to Bell's back, it made a short ding, indicating that the lad in front of him had no falna.
Confirming the fact, he then voiced, "Well, you're good to go. Just go forward, and the guards will let you pass through."
Nodding to the guild official, it took but a moment of thought for Bell to start moving again, and soon enough, the boy who had wanted to be a hero now found himself in the city of heroes.
Everything was overwhelming, for Bell at least. Not being able to contain himself, he looked around everywhere, from the Tower of Babel to the common infrastructures of Orario that far dwarfed any building the boy had ever seen.
Jumping around from place to place, occasionally asking questions to any passersby the boy saw-some would ignore the lad while others would satiate his curiosity.
But this was to be expected; he didn't know anything about the city itself, and anything that he recalled were remarks from his perverted grandpa about the city and the women it had to offer.
Pushing those thoughts away, Bell focused on the task at hand-firstly, to find a place to stay and secondly, to find a familia to join. The first being doable; however, joining a familia isn't as easy as it sounds. Bell would no doubt have to act fast if he or anyone else wanted to be an adventurer because here in the center of the world, time was of the essence. Don't act now? The opportunity you wanted will be stolen from you in a day's time just like that.
Taking that into account, Bell quickly went on the move. The first part of the order was to find a place to stay at. Suppressing his childish side that wanted to stop every time he saw something interesting, he went ahead and entered the southern part of Daedalus.
Eventually, after looking around, he found a shabby-looking inn.
Though it wasn't to Bell's liking, he couldn't be picky, as there was no choice but to choose some of the lower-end inns if he wanted to save money.
Going ahead bell entered the inn, and to no ones suprise, it was devoid of people and eerily quiet.
That was until a middle-aged man, who was presumably a Chienthrope, by his dog-like ears made his way down the stairs stairs adjacent to the second floor of the inn.
The man, at the sight of seeing a rabbit incarnation, could only scoff because he had always disliked the little creatures that often reminded him of rather... 'embarrassing childhood memories.'
Making his way towards Bell, who by the second got more frightened and shrank as the Chienthrope looked annoyed, he calmly asked, "What do you want, kid? I'm not looking to accept any new workers." Shaking his hand, he tried to shoo away Bell, unknowingly.
"Are you the owner of this inn?"
"Yes, but I just told you I ain't accepting anyone."
"Ah... that's not it." Shifting his hands up to show that it wasn't his intention, he resumed, "I actually wanted to rent a room."
"Is that so? Then 900 valis per night, no meals included."
"!" Mouth agape, Bell could only stare wide-eyed at the man's prices. Of course, back in smaller towns, inns usually costed 200-300 valis per night, but here in Orario, even a low-end hotel would cost twice as much as the best inns anywhere else on earth.
But the issue was, Bell's pouch of money was, a meager 3300 vals. At most, the money could maybe last for a few days, and that's not even taking into account food and other essentials.
The man silently stood still, waiting for a response. Sighing for a moment, he made an offer. "The best I can do is 2100 valis for 3 nights." Even then, Bell still didn't answer, which made the man slightly irritated.
"If you don't like the prices here, then you can get the hell out and find somewhere else t-"
"Okay, I'll take it."
"Huh?" The man hadn't been expecting the lad to accept the deal, and when he did, all he could do was stand there stone-faced.
"Mister?"
'Ahem,' covering his mouth with his hand in an attempt to shake off his surprise, he continued, "Your room number is 7; here's the key." Taking out a large key ring attached to his belt, he removed a key with the number '7' signified on it and handed it over to Bell.
Grasping the key tightly, he made his way upstairs, but not before saying, "Thanks, mister!"
As Bell left upstairs, the middle-aged man could only mumble, "Jeez, why do I get all the weirdos here..."
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