ebookland Chapter 82 – Exploring the capital
Chapter 82 – Exploring the capital
Chapter 82 – Exploring the capitalIt felt like an eternity to Sophia because of just how much happened since coming to this world, especially after meeting Maya, but the group had finally arrived at the beastfolk capital after their long and eventful journey.
"Uuh..." They were currently walking alongside a big road that leads towards the main gate of the capital. There, the blonde tiger noticed that every single gaze of the beastpeople along the way was focused on her while they were respectfully stepping aside from the group to make way for them. "S-So much attention…"
"The lost tiger has returned home." Aura was having fun. "Everyone is, of course, curious."
"I'm not lost! Nor have I returned!" She retorted on instinct.
"Well, that story makes a lot more sense than what actually happened, Sophia..." Maya, unfortunately, had no nice words for her.
"I hate that you're right..." She hung her head. While trying her best to hide herself between the wolves, which wasn't overly effective because they had shrunk in size, the gate soon was in full view.
"Ahaha..." The cat-girl let out a dry laugh when she spotted a couple of stone statues near the gate. There were a few tigers and multiple tiger-beastpeople that had very similar features to the one in their group.
"Uuh... I should've gone for a cat-girl, after all... They're super adorable, as well, I would've matched Maya even more, and I wouldn't get so much attention!"
"You decided that yourself, though."
"Because it's cute! I love the stripes!"
"Then stop complaining!" Maya naturally had no sympathy for such a reason, not that she disagreed.
"Urgh..." There was a lot of regret in her voice, but Sophia had gotten way too attached to her tiger form that she didn't want to give it up anymore.
"Come on, it's going to be fun." Maya grabbed her hand while saying so. "It'll also help you get rid of the rest of your shyness."
"F-Fine..."
"Shyness?!" Aura sounded surprised about this absolutely unfitting description.
"Long story, don't ask." Fen stopped her from going down that rabbit hole.
"Haa..." Sophia kept complaining all the way until the central gate, which didn't take long because everyone was making room for the group, parting the crowd while they were whispering about them, or rather, .
"Eh...?" They had reached the guards, who looked very confused about their arrival. From the looks of it, it were mostly men in their late thirties with all kinds of animal-like features to varying degrees. "Excuse me this terribly rude question, but... who are you?" A guy with ears resembling those of foxes addressed them while he was clearly looking at Sophia as he said out loud what absolutely everyone around them was thinking. "We know every individual of the tiger family, but I never saw you before..."
"Uhh..." She tried to find an answer. "I... I'm S-Sophia... It's my first time he-... I-It's my first time being here. It's natural you never s-saw me before..." She needed two tries.
"How's that supposed to be possible? Every member of the royal family has its permanent residency here. I mean, your hair color is different, but there's no doubt..."
"W-Well, no one told me about that... In fact,... I only learned that me being a t-tiger-girl is something out of the ordinary a little while ago... I'm from, err... really far away and never met another tiger before..."
"S-Seriously?!" The guards were shocked.
"Y-Yes..."
"Wow... this is going to be a massive uproar!"
"O-Okay... let's go back, girls..." Sophia already had enough and turned around. She had thought that it was not going to be easy for her, but actually hearing it was too much.
"Nonono, you can't just leave now, miss. Now that you appeared, they're going to dispatch
"Seems like it. Want to take a look?" Maya was a little curious as well.
"Hrmn..." Sophia wasn't sure. She didn't remember why, but something about entering such a place in another world made her uneasy. "Yeah, whatever, let's go. I have a bad feeling, but I want to see it..." Having agreed on it, the group walked over to the building with the many people. Arriving there, they earned a ton of curious gazes, as usual, but no one raised too much of a fuss.
"Welcome to the of the capital! How can I help... huh?" An energetic girl with brown hair and dog ears stood behind a counter inside and greeted the group once they entered the building. Even her tail seemed to be wagging for a moment, but she stopped when she saw Sophia and noticed her features that the hat wasn't hiding.
"Shhh." The cat-girl put a finger on her lips. "She wants to explore the city on her own because she hasn't had the chance to do that yet."
"I-I see..."
"So... adventurer guild, what's that?" Maya tilted her head.
"As the name implies, it's a place where adventurers gather together and do quests or tasks for rewards." The dog-girl managed to keep her composure in front of the tiger.
"Oh, is that so?" Sophia had gotten interested in it because she had read about this in countless novels in her previous life before. "Like, you have to register with your party and advance in ranks to do more profitable quests?"
"No?" She immediately shot her down.
"Ehh...?"
"You just come here, either solo or with your companions, and fetch a quest that tickles your fancy."
"But... how do you make sure no one takes quests that are too difficult for them?"
"We don't? People have common sense and know that they'll die if they undertake a too difficult task. Well, we'll provide assistance and recommend quests that match your power, but it's ultimately your own responsibility not to die a stupid death."
"I-I see..." Sophia sounded a tiny bit disappointed that there were no ranks and the likes.
"I'm sorry for this girl. She doesn't do well with common sense." Maya apologized for some reason.
"Hey!"
"I understand." The dog-girl simply nodded.
"Hmpf!" She pouted for a moment but swiftly recovered. "Wait, so we could do some quests, as well?"
"Uhh..." The guild worker looked at Sophia, mainly at her tiger bits. "Technically... yes? There aren't any rules against it, but... are you sure?"
"Great, let's take a look at the quest board thingy!" She didn't care about her reaction and headed straight for the bulletin board.
"Don't worry, it's fine." Maya gave the dog-girl a slight reassuring wink before following after Sophia.
"Let's see what kinds of quests are available in this terribly lackluster guild..." Sophia was still disappointed that they were so easygoing. "Escorting a merchant... Nah, let's not do that. Oh, teaching someone fire magic, huh?"
"We're definitely not doing that!" The cat-girl instantly stopped her. "You already destroyed common sense enough."
"Aww... I thought that could be fun. Hmm... fetching kows, yeah, we did that enough already..."
"Are there any dragon-hunting requests?" Aura also had gotten interested.
"Dragon, dragon, dragon... nope." She actually searched for it.
"Aww..."
"Thank goodness... Also, there are no dragons here!"
"Okay... giant frok killing... Frok?" Sophia tilted her head. "Ahh... probably ? Green, somewhat slimy amphibians with long tongues?"
"They come in all sorts of colors, but yeah, that sounds like them." Maya confirmed her suspicion.
"This world... Wait, how are we talking about here?"
"About three meters tall. They even attack beastpeople or humans and try to catch them with their tongues, swallowing them whole. You apparently can get out by cutting their stomach from the inside, but you'll be slimy and smelly for days, or so I've heard."
"W-What else is there to do?" She didn't even want to comment on it, let alone consider going near them. "Forest lizards... 10 silver coins each... 100 silver was one gold, right? Wow, that doesn't sound profitable at all."
"They're really easy to catch."
"Hmm... you would still need to catch a 1,000 of them to get the same pay as for a rock golem, whose eyes sell for 100 gold each."
"Sure, but they're also 5,000 times tougher. Ten silver is still enough for a somewhat decent meal or a ton of sweets because those lizards are mainly hunted by children, and that's some nice pocket money for them." The cat-girl was telling her more about this world.
"Ohh... yeah, wrong quest for us, then... Also, the sweets example just now sounded oddly specific?" she looked at Maya for a moment, who averted her gaze. "Ah, look at this! They're actually looking for the eyes of said rock golems. Wait, don't we still have a ton of them left from Fenny's killing spree the other day?"
"Right, you kept them, didn't you?" The wolf in question had already forgotten about it.
"Let's sell a couple of them the next time we come here. I don't think taking them out of my extra space here and now would be a good idea."
"My girl's growing up!" Maya was proud that she had developed a tiny sliver of common sense.
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Because there was a distinct lack of interesting quests, the group left the adventurer guild for the time being, but Sophia immediately regretted this decision.
"There she is!"
"Wow, the rumor was actually true... An unknown tiger-girl has really arrived in the capital." Two male and official-looking beastpeople were waiting in front of the guild. While of feline origin, as well, they didn't look like tigers. Instead of stripes, their yellowish hair, fur, and tails had more of a rosette-like pattern, resembling those of a jaguar.
"A-Ah." Sophia had a bad feeling about this and wanted to go back inside the guild again.