I began to panic internally after reaching my initial conclusion about the bounty. However, there were a few things that were off about it, including the fact that the sketch, despite being quite detailed, didn’t resemble me much. The sketched figure looked a lot more wild and villainous. To be sure, I tried to carefully examine the bounty again, but I heard a voice from behind the desk.

  “There he is, Master Varis.” The red-haired receptionist had returned, and clearly not alone. I quickly looked up, my body still bent over from looking at the bounty. “Um, Mister Braith, the guildmaster is available to meet with you now.” Slowly, I stood upright. I saw the two receptionists, looking slightly flustered, and behind them, there was a man with black hair and a full beard and mustache. There were a few small scars on the sides of his face and neck, and he looked to be at least in his forties. His appearance overall was somewhat imposing as he stared right at me with his clear brown eyes.

  “You are the one that Pascal mentioned? The traveler that reported Dennis’ death?” The man asked with a rather casual tone.

  “... Yes.” What to do now?

  “Thank you for coming to meet me so soon.” Milo Varis walked past the receptionists and up to the front desk in order to offer me a handshake. “Ah, right, I am Milo Varis, the guildmaster at the Mercenaries’ Guild branch in Deimos.” I shook his hand. “I take it this is your first time here, Braith? That is your name, right?”

  “Yeah, my name is Braith,” I answered a bit awkwardly, still distracted by the bounty I had just read.

  “And that’s your real name, not just an alias?” Milo Varis asked with a seemingly friendly demeanour, but I was having serious doubts about his true intentions.

  “Yeah, my name is Braith.”

  “Is that so? It’s a unique name.”

  “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean any offense,” Milo Varis replied quickly, possibly reading some annoyance from my face. “So, are you a bounty hunter?” He was probably just trying to change the topic, but that particular topic just put me more on edge.

  “Why do you ask?” I responded after thinking for a couple seconds.

  “Oh, I just noticed that you seemed to be looking at the bounties here.”

  “I was just killing some time,” I responded, trying to seem as nonchalant about it as I could.

  “Ah, right. Well, I wasn’t sure you would actually come here, and even if you did, I didn’t think you would come here so quickly.” As the guildmaster spoke, he motioned over to Shirley. The red-haired receptionist went over to the side of the desk and unlocked something. “As such, I didn’t get around to telling my staff about you yet. I hope you can forgive any rudeness they’ve shown you.” The side of the desk swung out, opening up a path inside. “As a token of apology, I can share a nice drink with you, so, please come inside where we can talk more.”

  “May I ask what you want to talk to me about first?” Milo Varis seemed to be nice enough, but I have definitely been fooled by deceptive appearances before.

  “I’ve heard a number of things about you, so I really wanted to meet you in person.”

  “Is that all? Nothing any more urgent or important?” I didn’t really intend it, but I think I came off sounding quite annoyed.

  “No, nothing like that. When a very strong fighter or warrior arrives in Deimos, I generally want to meet them, but I had another reason I was interested in you.” I shifted my legs slightly, preparing myself to quickly move if needed.

  “And what is that reason?”

  “Well, let’s just say I am interested in you for more than just your strength.” Again, Milo Varis spoke in a seemingly friendly manner, but I just felt more on edge.

  “I’m not sure I feel so inclined to indulge your interest.” I was leaning heavily in favour of just leaving now, so I spoke a bit harsher now.

  “Well, Braith, I think that maybe you are misunderstanding me. I’m not planning to interrogate you or anything like that. And, if you want to, you can just not answer any questions you are uncomfortable with.”

  “No, I don’t really think this is a misunderstanding, either. I just figured that this would be for something important, but if it’s not, there are other things I could be doing instead.” You could say the last part was a lie, since I didn’t actually have anything else planned for the day, having only just barely sobered up recently.

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  “Well, I have heard about some of your tastes from some other mercenaries, so if you can spare at least a few minutes, I have some nice liquors I can share with you.”

  “No thanks, I don’t really drink,” I answered honestly. Last night was just a mistake, but given the change in the guildmaster’s expression, I could see he didn’t believe me. “Really, I almost never drink.” I tried to speak more convincingly, but the guildmaster still seemed doubtful.

  “Well, alright then, if you really must leave, then I won’t stop you.” Milo Varis finally relented with a tinge of disappointment.

  “I will take my leave, then.” I was getting ready to turn around, but after seeing the expressions of the two receptionists, I felt the need to say a bit more to the guildmaster. “And, to be clear, I’m not leaving just because I have a bad impression of you or this place. I really do just have other important matters to attend to.” I just wanted to make that clear since I wasn’t upset with either of the receptionists anymore, but my added words seemed to give a further out to the guildmaster.

  “Well, I understand, but I still wouldn’t want you to leave empty-handed since you already took the time to come here. How about I just give you a bottle of something?”

  “Like I already said, I don’t really drink.”

  “Alright,” Milo Varis began, still looking like he didn’t quite believe that. “Well, I would at least like to try to do you a small favour. About your other matters, are there any you can tell me about? As the guildmaster of the Deimos branch, there’s a lot I can help you with.”

  “Well, I’m not sure about that.”

  “Do you doubt I have the ability?” No, I just don’t have any important matters planned for today.

  “No, it’s not that.” I tried to not look like I was making something up on the spot as I did exactly that. “They’re all personal matters.”

  “Something personal? Merchants’ Guild business?” The guildmaster seemed to think that he caught on to something based on my look. I only changed my expression because I was reminded of the reason I first came here.

  “Well, sort of. Actually, I guess there is one thing you can do for me. I was told that there is an open commission to track down the people who killed Dennis. I’m not planning to join up as a mercenary, but it is something I want to help with.”

  “I didn’t think you would still be so involved in the matter. Well, there’s no problem with joining the search, and I can even have you registered as a non-mercenary participant, although you would get a smaller payout compared to the registered mercenaries.”

  “I’m not concerned about the money. Like I said, this is a personal matter for me.” I tried to convey my seriousness with my eyes.

  “Alright, will you also be going at this alone, or do you want to join up with another group? The payout won't change in either case, unless you or your group are the ones that find them.”

  “I’ll be going at it by myself.” I then paused to think about Tasha and Flora. Yeah, I don’t think I can convince them to just stay out of it. “I may be going with some others that I know.”

  “Do you want to register them as participants as well, then?” No, I don’t think I do. Having some children registered for a manhunt just seems like a bad idea. Although, even if it’s impossible to go incognito at this point, I should still make a bit more of an effort now, right?

  “... Actually, do I need to officially register myself at all? I just want to help with the search and to help with capturing them if they try to escape. If the reward prevents anyone from sharing information or asking for help from, then I don’t care about the reward at all.” I’m not sure it would make a meaningful difference, but the fewer records about me, the better. Milo Varis looked at me pensively for a moment, but he didn’t seem surprised.

  “I understand. In that case, let me just give you something else.” The guildmaster turned to the red-haired receptionist and asked her to bring him something. She left and came back with a slip of paper and a stamp a few moments later. The blonde one handed the guildmaster a pen, and he wrote something on the paper, and then stamped it. “Here, take this. In case you run into any mercenaries that try to give you any troubles during the search, just show them this. This is just to let them know you’re not interfering, and I’ll make sure your name doesn’t come up on the list.” I took the paper from him. “I think the Merchants’ Guild will also send some of their own men. I think this’ll probably be good enough for them, but you might want Pascal or Zalae to give you something like this as well. Up to you, though.”

  “Maybe I’ll talk to them about that. Have any mercenaries already accepted the commission?”

  “It only came in this morning, so news hasn’t gotten around yet. However, given the amount of the reward as well as the guaranteed pay to everyone when it’s done, there’ll probably be at least thirty or so mercenaries taking this on within the next several days. There would be even more if a lot of them weren’t abroad or taking other commissions right now.”

  “Alright, well, maybe I’ll see you and the others around soon.” I didn’t really mean it when I said that, but saying such general pleasantries gets ingrained in you over time.

  “Hopefully you’ll have time to chat then.”

  “Maybe.” Hopefully I won’t need to see you again. I left the guildhouse and took the carriage back to the inn.

  Both Tasha and Flora were back when I returned, and I let them know about the Merchants' Guild’s commission. Of course, I suggested that I should go at it alone, but Tasha flatly refused. Unlike the previous times, I didn’t bother having a long back-and-forth and quickly relented. I also told them that we would only be doing it for the next five days while the Merchants’ Guild was still footing the bill for the inn. I told them that it wasn’t such a good idea to be so obsessed at this point. We had to move on, I already did what Dennis told me to do, and I should trust in the two guilds. Of course, this was what I believed, and since Flora and Tasha both seemed rather pleased about how reasonable I was being, I didn’t feel the need to add the last bit. I made no mention about the bounty, and honestly, if neither the Mercenaries’ Guild nor the Merchants’ Guild were coming after me, there must be a clear lack of resemblance. The name rhymed, but it was still a different name, and really, why would such a notorious criminal just be traveling around with a couple children. All I need to do is not go back to any Mercenaries’ Guild branches in the future and everything should work out fine.

  *********************************************

  After Braith left the Mercenaries’ Guild, the guildmaster went to close up the side door ino area behind the desk. Before he did, though, the red-haired receptionist, Shirley, nervously called out to him.

  “Guildmaster, I’m really sorry.” The blonde receptionist also looked nervous, but wasn’t as submissive.

  “What’s there to be sorry about? There wasn’t even a meeting scheduled, but he still got to meet you. Besides, he left because he was busy.” She spoke with shaky confidence. Shirley shot an angry look at her friend, but otherwise said nothing.

  “That’s right, there is nothing you two need to be sorry about. I should have made sure to let you two know earlier,” the guildmaster began. “Anyways, even though he was in a hurry to leave, I still mostly got what I wanted out of that talk.” The guildmaster turned around to go up to the front counter again. Then, he peered down at the bounties posted along it. “For someone who doesn’t care at all about the reward from this commission, he seemed very interested in one of the bounties here.”

  “Maybe he thinks the reward is too small?” Shirley suggested. “The largest bounties are also placed around there, after all.”

  “Possibly… or maybe it’s related to one of those personal matters of his. Shirley, could you bring me a copy of all these bounties.”

  “Of course, guildmaster.”

  “Take them to my office when you have them all.” The guildmaster walked away as Shirley got to work.