Secret Agent Chapter 071 - The Receptionist and The [Familiar] (Patreon)

It was to Zack Adder’s dismay that he discovered he had lost some of his strength.

At least in terms of weightlifting.

It was really no surprise. It had been over a month since his transmigration and in all that time, the most he had done was some pushups and a fair bit of running around. He had been severely wounded fighting thurgenrats, healed, and hadn’t been eating particularly well either.

All the stagehands, and even Ronaldo, had joined in the lifting, competing with each other to see who could put up the most weight while Roxy cheered them on.

It was Fyodor, though, who stopped Zack from immediately jumping into his normal routine.

“Jack, slow down! You are tomorrow to hunt thurgenrats, no? It would be a poor showing to go hunting sore and stiff. There will be time for bulking up later.”

“Master Jack.”

Nerezza got his attention.

“It is time for the young master to return home to rest.”

The Director clapped his hands, as well.

“Alright, the Theater is reopening in six days! That means rehearsals all day in five days, starting from mid-morning! Don’t be late! Now go home and rest up and let Fyodor recover in peace!”

The party broke up, Zack picked up Sienna in her case, and he slowly walked back home with Vlad and Nerezza.

“Ah, I do believe Jenny is usually free at this time, Jack, let me introduce her to—”

“Young master, you need your rest.”

Nerezza wasn’t having any of it.

Vlad slumped his shoulders in defeat.

Zack reached up and clapped him gently on the shoulder. “Maybe in a few days, Vlad. I really do need to rest up for tomorrow.”

“Ahem, of course. It wouldn’t do to be deprived of sleep before a hunt. Yes.” Vlad recovered and pretended that it was his own idea and that he wasn’t just coping.

Hunt tomorrow, Sienna sleepily told Zack as she snoozed.

They made it back without incident, and the fatigue of a long day washed over Zack, and he barely managed to remove his armor and put Sienna in her terrarium before he fell asleep.

***

Late that night, on the Campus Martialus, a cleaning and landscaping crew was fixing the field after the day’s activities.

Equipment racks were packed up and taken back to the Castle and the bales of hay that had been used as targets were moved to a staging area by the main gate to be taken back from whence they came.

Abandoned bags were picked up and tossed into a special cart: those were to be taken back to the Grand Cathedral.

There was other litter, as well. Trash discarded throughout the field. The crowds had been far beyond the planners’ projections, and the waste bins scattered throughout the field were overflowing with trash.

[Scavenging]. [Sorting]. [Detect Valuables]. [Night Eye].

It was not uncommon for valuable materials to be discarded as trash, waiting to be claimed by one with eyes to see.

And in this case…

A fresh, barely used bottle of Oral Deodorant was crammed into an overflowing wastebin. More than half the potion remained.

The trash collector added it to his sack of valuables. The boss would probably let him keep this one.

The stars and moon crossed the sky and by dawn, the Kingdom’s Army staging grounds were back in pristine condition, ready for troops to muster as needed.

***

Zack Adder woke with the first light of dawn and found Sienna coiled atop her rock under the heat lamp, awake.

Hunting day!

He stretched, groaning with some satisfaction at the mild soreness in his muscles.

Fyodor had been right. Any more lifting last night and he’d have been in poor condition today.

But this was fine. It wouldn’t impact him at all.

He showered and touched up his [Disguise] and armed and armored himself and brought the orphanage’s box and the clearsteel case with him as he set out for the day.

Once again he had a lot to do.

First of which, was keeping a promise.

Claude, the early morning receptionist at the Adventurer’s Guild, had hooked him up with really good courier requests the other day, which had earned him the money to pay for the leather armor he was wearing and his training at the training day, though he hadn’t done as much as he would have liked.

In exchange, Claude wanted to see Sienna.

“Hey, Sienna,” Zack said, his voice now fully recovered, as he walked down the bustling early morning streets to the Guild. Everyone gave him a wide berth as soon as they saw the highly venomous tan-scaled taipan on his shoulders.

Saa?

“Would you mind meeting one of the receptionists at the Guild? He did me a favor the other day.”

Friend?

“Yeah, probably.”

Friend okay.

They arrived at the Guild and found a sizable group of angry-looking men and women departing. Zack gave them a wide berth as they commiserated with each other.

“Ridiculous prices for training.”

“Seventy lindra for an hour’s training? What a ripoff.”

“I heard training yesterday was only five lindra, all day…”

“You had to get there super early, though…”

Sienna flickered her tongue.

Danger people?

“Maybe. Still, don’t bite them.”

No bite people.

A sensation of… haughtiness? came through their bond, as though Sienna considered such people beneath her biting.

Bite many rats today. Revenge!

Sienna was fired up and the tip of her tail tapped against Zack’s leather pauldron with a tap tap tap.

Revenge.

Zack didn’t think of himself as a particularly vengeful person.

Other than preventing other people from wronging him in the future, he didn’t see the need to balance the scales, so to speak.

It never seemed to work out for the people who did that.

But…

There wasn’t anything wrong with taking out a bit of frustration on thurgenrats.

Inside the Guild, Claude was slumped over his desk at the window, face down, sighing heavily.

“Y’alright, Claude?” Zack asked.

“Ugh… Why do people come here to complain? That was the Kingdom’s event, we just provided trainers…” He looked up morosely, but then his eyes flicked to the side and he beheld Sienna in all her glory.

“Ah! Ah!! Jack, you brought your [Familiar]! Oh isn’t she a beaut. Come over, bring her closer!” He beckoned Zack forward, and Zack stepped slowly forward, making sure Sienna wasn’t nervous.

But she merely flickered her tongue, sampling the air. Cool and relaxed.

Eventually Zack stood at the service window while Claude leaned forward, well within Sienna’s striking distance. The man must have been fearless.

“Fascinating… Taipans are extremely rare this far west. And your file said you found her inside the city? Were there any others where you found her?”

“No, just her.”

Claude continued to ask questions about her habits and behaviors and preferences, which Zack answered for a while, but Sienna put an end to it.

Hunting time! Hunting time!

“Claude,” Zack interrupted the receptionist’s mutterings. “We want to go hunting thurgenrats today. Are there any parties going out we can join?”

“Eh? Thurgenrats? Ah, right, ahem, yes. You’re a bit early. Parties are going to form up soon. We’re putting inexperienced adventurers with a C rank lead these days. With the thurgenrats in such numbers, swarms are far more likely than they used to be.” Claude gave him a serious look. “A swarm of thurgenrats is a D rank threat, you know. Make sure you only fight one thurgenrat at a time, and follow the directions of your party leader.”

“Right, will do.” Zack nodded.

“As for your familiar… Well, she should be fine to do as she likes. There was a report several years ago of an entire lupinoid pack wiped out by a taipan, you know…”

Sienna’s smugness flooded their bond.

“Ah, that does remind me. Don’t go out with your [Familiar] after dark. Shadowshrike numbers are swelling, too. During the day there are also glimmerhawks…”

Sienna tightened her grip on Zack’s shoulders.

Bad shiny birds.

“Well, keep an eye out. They don’t often hunt in forests, but if you find yourself in a meadow or clearing, keep an eye on the sky.”

Zack nodded seriously. “Thanks for the warning. And thanks for those quests the other day.”

Claude managed to drag his eyes away from Sienna to glance at Zack’s armor. “Ah, yes, of course. Thank you for bringing your [Familiar] this morning. It was just the pickup I needed.”

Zack made an expression of concern. “People came here to complain?”

Claude nodded. “And not even guild members. Some people don’t understand just how valuable a trainer’s time is…”

“That reminds me, can I borrow a spear, and is there a spear trainer I can talk to? I just want to double check my form before I go out today.”

“Hmm, you want to borrow a spear? That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Oh, and a bag, too, if possible.”

“A bag?”

Claude eyed the bag of rocks on Zack’s hips. Zack gestured at the request board.

“I thought I might try to collect some plants while I was out today.”

“Ahh, that would be appreciated. The usual gatherers have stopped going out, given the thurgenrat situation.”

Claude went to the back and returned a minute later with a short spear, only five feet long, and a sturdy, reinforced backpack.

“Lang should be able to give you some pointers before you head out, he’s due to arrive soon.”

“Got it. Thanks Claude.”

“No, thank you, brave adventurer. Good luck on your quests, and I hope to see Sienna again soon.”

Zack took a moment to double check the request board, especially the requests for gathering plants, and confirmed that none of them included any kind of drawing of the desired plant. Few even had a physical description.

Kathy Virgrim, the apothecary he had met the other day, had shown him samples of most of the desired plants. It was easy enough to recall what they looked like.

Sienna kept a watchful eye on their surroundings, and the woman at the food and beer counter proved unflappable even with the snake on Zack’s shoulders when he ordered a few sausage rolls for breakfast.

While he ate, couriers filtered in, looking for easy money in the city, and a few adventurers returned from overnight excursions into the surrounding forest. A few men and women came in to make requests, and a requester arrived to complain about an adventurer hired for a security job in the market.

Eventually Claude left and Stacy and Belinda and Rosa arrived.

Zack was surprised that Sienna was being so patient waiting to go hunting, but she seemed preoccupied with tracking the people coming and going in the Guildhall.

More adventurers were filtering in and hanging out, with either new or mismatched old armor pieces. Clearly other low ranking adventurers like Zack. They were borrowing spears as well.

“Oh, Lang’s here!” one said, and there he was.

He was a tall and broad-shouldered man, appearing to be in his late twenties, with shoulder length brown hair and a short beard. He had narrow eyes, wore scuffed leather armor and a cape, and carried a shield and spear, though he also had a dagger and a sword sheathed on his hips and an unstrung bow on his back. Lastly, he had a bag strapped across his chest with a stylized potion bottle brand.

Ah, a first aid kit.

Zack quickly got to his feet.

He needed to be better about remembering these things.

As he stood, Lang turned and his gaze locked directly onto Sienna, perched on Zack’s shoulders.