The next morning, I woke up earlier than I had intended. I was always early to rise in the orphanage, since as the senior kids there was alwyas chores to be done to help lighten the sisters loads before we went out for our regular hunts during the day often not even returning until well into the afternoon or sometimes even evening.
Reaching up to instinctively scratch my hair, only to feel the course freshly cut ends scratching at my fingertips.
Right.
I had cut it last night to hide who i was by changing the look everyone who knew me by.
Under the new light of a new day, i coiuld see more of my new look in the mirror and in a single word... it was bad.
Like it looked only slightly better than when my hair was long and shaggy.
I should have just ponied up the coppers to get someone else to cut my hair for me, at least then it would look good.
At this rate the only way i could have even hair was to wait for it to grow out and get cut again, or go for broke and just shave the rest of it off and go with the bald look for awhile till my hair grew back in a few months.
Well who cares not like i needed to be handsome or beautiful.
All that really matter was that i looked different which i definitly did, once i had a new change of clothes probably only the sisters and mother could actually tell who i was since they were the ones who always pulled back my hair to get a good look at my face to make sure i wasnt lying whenever they would question me on if we were getting into and trouble or danger on our excursions.
The odd think i found was as i looked into the mirror that i looked younger than my siblings, which was odd, i was the oldest of the four of us, and yet without my hair i instead looked the youngest.
Getting dressed in the only clothes i had, and strapping my dagger to my waist as the only weapon i had on hand since i had left behind my wooden stick when i reached the town, tucking my wooden guild card into an inner pocket, and headed downstairs.
two copper bought me a bowl of watery porridge and a cup of something that was apparently a common beverage consumed at breakfast... but it just tasted like dirty water to me.
I didn't ask what it was, fearing that revealing i didnt like it would make everyone else who happily was drinking it to look down on me or worse.
Some mysteries as they say were better left unsolved.
Once I had eaten, I began my real work.
Finding what my siblings were getting up to since they had abandoned me to start their new lives together.
Town YY wasn't enormous, but it wasn't exactly a village either, it would take hours to walk all the way around the town, but at least the town was arranged intelligently with the city being split into five districts, my first target to hunt for was going to be the easiest one to find.
Cade the hero. And there was nothing more interesting than a Hero appearing in town. So I started at the Adventurers Guild at the center of town in the commercial district.
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I wasn't allowed to register there for work probably due to predjudice, but nobody had said I wasn't allowed to ask questions or try to submit a job.
I just walked in like i belonged took up a place at the F rank job board and stood there like i was looking over the quests that were available for beginners.
All the while my ears were twitching listening to the morning rabble of adventurers coming and going, i managed to pickup an interesting piece of information by a couple of guild workers talking over by the C-rank board as they were hanging up new requests.
"Can't belive you missed it, a Hero arrived a few days ago while you were away."
"No way! A hero! Wow, cant believe the next hero is also born to our country the last one was also born here just over a decade ago right?"
"Yeah, but he was a failed hero, rumor has it he was killed during training, can you imagine that, a hero the defender of mankind, slain in practice combat..."
Two or three days ago, they had moved alot faster than i expected, but given their new temperment this wasnt shocking to find out they had all but run to the town rather than take it slow and sleep outside for a couple of nights.
I even got to know a little bit more about the bandit hero i had slain before, the one who'd attacked our village, turns out the belief that there could only be one hero at a time was incorrect, not that i didnt already know that.
All four of us could become heroes if we wanted to, it was only that i had only chosen Cade to become a hero, while keeping the job hidden from the others.
As for what Cade was up to, that also was easy to find out.
Apparently the day after he arrive he made quite the scene in the guild, refusing to accept the guild rules about starting as an F-Rank and calling out the guild to challenge for his rank.
Because of his inflated status, Cade was capable of winning his match, of course the guild hadnt taken him seriously, but even so he manage to defeat a D-Rank while only sustaining light injuries.
As a result he got to join as a D-Rank, he tried to challenge a C-rank to get an even higher rank, but the guild master himself had but his foot down, C-Rank requests start to get you invovled with Merchants, or Nobles and the guild needed to vet who they let represent them when dealing with those groups, a criteria that Cade currently didnt meet.
Intead of meshing with the nobles or impressing them he was far more likely to enrage them, drawing their ire.
I rubbed my forehead trying to absorb all the new information i had gathered, "You're kidding me."
I had known Cade my entire life, He had always dreamed of becoming a hero just like i had. But I had given up on my goal and changed it to find someone who was worthy of becoming a true hero while i supported them with my power.
The fact he had even gone so far as to demand the guild provide him a proper set of equipment and a suitable weapon just because he was a hero... asking for something by doing nothing.
Seems he had grown used to the world handing him favors rather than working for them, as i left the adventurers guild behind i could only shake my head at the person i had caused Cade to grow up as.
My only hope now was even as conceited as he was turning out to be, was that he would live up to his job and be a paragon of justice protecting the innocent and striving to protect the world.
~
Cole as it turns out was even easier to gather information about, just leaving the adventurers guild the people on the street were openly gossiping about the young knight who'd gotten into a fight with a group of mercenaries in the middle of the street just yesterday.
Once one person started talking about it people around couldnt help but also bring it up.
His few days in town became quickly know to me.
He had not joined the guild instead he got himself attached to another knight almost as soon as he got to town and pledged his sword to a local baron, but not even the strongest lord nor the ruler of this town.
As soon as he became a knight in service of a lord his sense of purpose exploded, and the senior knights who were used to oppressing the commoners were quick to take him under their wing.
In less than a day he had already started to join in, if not initiate the conflicts in direct violation of the town laws.
He had in less than a week become a notorious figure known throughout the town, and a knight to steer clear of if you saw him on patrol around the streets.
Compared to Cade who was just full of himself, Cole was already reaching the point of no return on that if he crossed i would need to deal with to the best of my ability.