"...Who the hell is Faust?"
"Huh? Faust?"
Rosalía had just finished with the receptionist and had come over to him without him noticing.
"Is that someone you know?" she asked curiously.
James, who obviously couldn’t explain that the name had been whispered to him by a magic screen only he could see, wasn’t quite sure what to say.
"I heard it around somewhere..."
"Hmm... Faust... Faust," she repeated to herself, glancing around the hall. "It sounds familiar, but... I can’t remember where from."
And suddenly, her expression changed.
"Ah, wait..." Rosalía said, discreetly pointing toward one of the tables at the back. "I think I know who you mean."
James looked in the direction she was pointing and, to his surprise, found the elf whose group had been humiliating her just a few minutes earlier.
"..."
She had her arms crossed on the table with her head resting on them.
"That elf over there is Faust," Rosalía continued, her expression softening slightly. "Honestly I only know her by name and from what the other mercenaries say about her."
"I see."
"Though if I’m being honest, I feel a little sorry for her," she admitted. "Every time I see her she’s alone, and everyone pushes her aside like she has the plague."
"It must be hard being alone all the time in a job like this," he replied, still watching the elf.
James thought about it for a moment and, almost without realizing it, ended up turning to Rosalía.
"Now that you mention it, how do you manage?" he asked curiously. "You told the receptionist earlier that you don’t belong to any group either."
"While it’s true I don’t have a fixed group, it’s not like I always work alone either," she replied. "I usually collaborate with different teams depending on the job."
Rosalía leaned toward him to speak quietly.
"Don’t tell anyone, but working freelance is much more profitable," she admitted with a mischievous smile. "If I joined a group, I’d be making a lot less, hehe."
James let out a laugh at that unexpected honesty.
"Well, well, well so behind that angel face there’s a whole businesswoman," he teased. "And here I thought you only helped people out of the goodness of your heart."
"Hey, I do that too!" Rosalía protested, though unable to fully erase the smile. "But I have to eat too, don’t I?"
"No, no, seems perfectly reasonable to me," he replied, still amused. "You’re even tempting me to join the guild myself, you know."
"You should try it! You just have to pass the classification test to get assigned a rank," Rosalía replied enthusiastically. "And with that you can start taking jobs like anyone else."
James didn’t even need to think it over.
With that quest hanging over his head, it wasn’t like he had many other options anyway.
But at least he could act like the decision had been entirely his own.
"Alright, you’ve convinced me," he agreed. "Let’s give it a try."
"Perfect!" Rosalía gave a small clap, clearly pleased. "Wait here a moment, I’ll go request the test."
"I’ll be here."
And the moment she walked away back toward the counter, James took the chance to glance at Faust again.
She was still slumped over the table, her face half-hidden in her arms, and judging by her breathing, she had fallen asleep right there.
’Well... doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere,’ he thought. ’That gives me time to do the Main Quest first.’
Rosalía didn’t take long to come back.
"Everything’s ready," she said with a smile. "Come with me, the test is in one of the rooms in the back."
James followed her through the hall to a side corridor and, from there, to a small, quiet room.
Inside, on a table in the center, was a large white, semi-transparent stone.
And beside it, wiping it down with a cloth, was the same receptionist who had attended them earlier.
Seeing them come in, the woman set the cloth aside.
"Let’s make this quick," she said with evident weariness. "Put your hand on the stone. It’ll react to your energy, and the glow will indicate your rank, the stronger it is, the higher the rank. Understood?"
"Yeah."
The receptionist stepped back and gestured toward the stone.
"Whenever you’re ready."
James looked at the stone for a few seconds and finally placed his hand on it.
But nothing happened.
"...Is it normal for it to do nothing?" he asked, looking at the receptionist.
The woman frowned, and for the first time since he’d seen her, that bored expression gave way to something resembling confusion.
"No..." she replied, moving a little closer. "The stone always reacts, even if just a little. Even the weakest people I’ve ever seen register manage to get a faint glow out of it."
"Really?"
"Yeah... this has never happened to me before."
She stood looking at the stone for a few more moments, clearly unable to understand what was happening.
"Sometimes the energy takes a while to settle, right?" Rosalía offered, though she didn’t seem very convinced by her own words.
"Take your hand off, please," the receptionist said. "We’ll try again from the start."
"Sure," James said with a shrug.
But just as James pulled his hand away, the stone became covered in cracks from one end to the other.
Then a crack broke the silence, and the next instant, the stone shattered.
"...Huh?"