บท 19: Chapter 19: Male
I told Lia about how I got my ass kicked.
"Even though you might be at fault for startling her, I still think that she went overboard and unnecessarily hurt you," Lia said objectively.
We arrived at the guild precisely at lunch time. There were seemingly more adventurers than they were yesterday. Well, it had been afternoon by the time we came by yesterday. I felt my stomach grumbling and we went by to the guild's mess hall together for a meal. The mess hall was crowded with adventures, even more so than the main hall. We queued in line for a while, awaiting our turn to be served in a school cafeteria kind of way. The cook was a big bald man, with a mustache who wore an apron. When it was finally our turn, I fished out 4 Coppers from my pouch and handed it to him. The cook in turn, accepted it with a grunt and ladled up a few scoops of viscous gruel to a bowl. If it weren't for him serving food, I wouldn't had actually believe that he was a cook. I might've even assumed that we was a butcher instead. He handed me the bowl and I accepted it with my good hand. I peered into its content and lifted an eyebrow. It doesn't seem much, but oh well, it's cheap. Lia got hers too and we went to find an empty spot. What is it with big bald man and food? Could it be that cooking in this world is actually considered a masculine job? I snorted and tried to eat with my left hand; my good hand. I slowly maneuvered and finally got the spoon in mouth, spilling some of the gruel on the table - since I was born right-handed. "Hey, that's pretty good," I lifted my eyebrows. Contrary to its appearance, it actually tastes quite okay. Well, quite okay for something that only costs 4 Coppers. Lia tried a spoonful and reacted the same way as I did. I proceeded to eat a few more spoonfuls sloppily until Lia stood up and lifted her bowl. Putting it back down as she took a seat right beside me. She took the spoon from my hands, scooped up some gruel and lifted it beside my face. "Here, let me help."
I looked at her, "Lia… Are you fine with this?" I wasn't sure of the expression I was making right now.
"It's alright. I'm used to nursing patients who aren't capable of feeding themselves," she smiled gently.
Ughh. I get it, I'm sorry I got hurt, okay?
I slowly opened my mouth and suddenly felt a flood of killing intent directed towards me. I froze on the spot, leaving my mouth half-opened. I slowly turned my head around and found every single adventurer staring at me with pure malice. If looks can kill, I would've be dead a hundreds times over and it still wouldn't be enough. At that moment, I suddenly realized something of great importance; most adventurers were actually male!
"What's wrong? I can't feed you if you leave your mouth hanging like that. Open up!" Lia demanded. I glanced back at them, their gazes all filled with disapproval. Some crossed their arms and shook their heads while maintaining eye contact with me, threatening me with their glare. I turned to see the cook, and the big man even went as far as to make a throat-slitting gesture with his thumb. Was I about to make an enemy out of every adventurer in the room only to be fed a by a cute girl like Lia? The answer is an obvious no! Because I'm a smart man who knows how to measure gain and loss. I turned to Lia to tried to refuse her kind offer, "Lia-" *plop* She put the spoon in my mouth and I instantly felt their killing intent soar by bounds and leaps, their envy-fueled-hatred making me shudder in fear. I closed my eyes and chewed in defeat.
After we finished our meal, we returned the bowls to the cook (I had Lia returned mine, since I'm too scared to face him) and decided to wait at the main hall for rank-allocation-test to begin, blanketed by countless of murderous stares as I strolled out the place with Lia. That was the worst meal I had in my life. Whilst eating, I could sense their malevolent emotions bite into me. My heart lurched with every mouthful I received, feeling as if each swallow could actually be my last.
We entered the main hall and took a seat on one of the benches. I wanted to walk around and check out some of the requests on the board, but Lia insisted I stayed put and try to recover as much as I can. With nothing else to do, I began doing one of my favorite past-times: People-watching. I observed the adventurers, gathering fragments of data as I scanned through the hall. You can be surprised of how much you can learn just by observing. I watched the entire hall as a whole, finding patterns in everyone's movement and noticed an anomaly in it. The Elven cross-dresser who gave me a major boo-boo a few hours ago was here. The reason I picked her out is because of the way she carried herself; the unmistakable grace that everyone with the Elven blood carries in their stride. That, and because the other adventurers seemed to consciously distance themselves from her, like a school of fishes avoiding a shark. She eventually noticed me, but turned her head to ignore me. So I did the same.
I turned to the counter and saw the clerk from yesterday beckoning us to come.
"How's your shoulder doing?" Lia asked.
"It should be fine right now," I took the sling off and tried flexing my shoulders, but was stabbed by a needle of pain and yelped. Lia frowned at me. "Just kidding, I'm good."
She eye me suspiciously but didn't say anything.
"The test is about to begin anytime, you both should make your way combat hall. It's right there on the opposite of the mess," she informed us.
"Thanks," I said.
"Mike," she called out and I turned, "Good luck," she smiled warmly. "You too, Liarelle."
"Thanks."
Me and Lia proceeded to the combat hall. We entered and I noticed that we weren't the only ones taking the test. There were five other adventurers aside from us. Some looking nervous, some looking confident, but I can tell they were fresh by the way they stood around statically. Their eyes were wandering around, indicating how they don't belong. The combat hall was about as big as the mess, a spacious room with multiple weapon racks standing beside the wall. Each weapon was sorted in the racks according to its categories. Blades, axes, hammers, bows, staffs, shields, and even whips. A man in glasses, holding a clipboard in his arms entered the room and counted our numbers. "Are you all here for the rank-allocation-test?" he asked. He wore a white shirt, coupled with a brown vest and long pants. The sleeves of his shirt rolled up on his forearms, not adding any manliness to his lean built.
We all nodded in unison. "Alright, please wait a moment. I'll call the examiner in and begin the test soon after," he said, and walked back out.
He returned shortly as promised, with a big man wearing an apron. "The cook?" I muttered in disbelief.
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