Reincarnated as the Strongest Dragon

Chapter 22: Productive Meeting I

It took about forty-five minutes of standing in line to get into the city. At the checkpoint, they didn’t just check our cards manually but also inquired about the reason for our visit. However, when I said I came to discuss my S rank promotion, they swiftly gave us our cards without further questions and welcomed us to Lesuna.

We passed the checkpoint much quicker than the people ahead of us. Maybe adventurers are less regulated? Or maybe it’s just my rank?

“Have you been to the capital before?” I asked Liz as we made our way through the crowd of people.

“Only twice, but that was years ago. It’s exciting to visit, but I wouldn’t want to have this as my base for adventuring. It's too crowded.”

“It does sound like it would be annoying, taking all that time to get in and out of town. Not to mention all the walking you would have to do to even reach the gates,” I said while we looked at some signposts, trying to figure out where to go.

“Not that any of that would be a concern for you.”

“Remember that it was you who said we should walk,” I smirked and took Liz’s hand, dragging her along. “Hold my hand so we don't get separated. I would never find your magic signature among all these people.”

We walked through the bustling streets while checking out some of the storefronts until we finally arrived in front of the adventurers guild. It was an absolutely massive building with three different entrances.

“I already hate this town,” I said, mentally drained from more than an hour of walking through hordes of people. 

The introverted former me wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in this hellhole. I should have used my wings.

“At least there are fewer people in this area.”

“Hopefully, the guild isn’t too crowded,” I said and looked at the people entering and exiting. “I wonder if I can even meet the guildmaster without an appointment. After all, this is the capital.”

“What will we do if you have to wait a day or two?”

I tapped my chin while I pondered. “I’m sure I will get to see him one way or another.”

Liz raised an eyebrow upon hearing my answer. “You aren’t going to do something that would get you in trouble, right?”

“I won’t deny the possibility,” I giggled and dragged Liz along to the entrance to the guild.

The guild interior was more imposing than I imagined. The reception area had an impressive eight counters with lines of people in front of all of them. Four of them had a big ‘Reception’ sign above them. The rest had a big sign with ‘Quests’ written on it and smaller signs under it with the letters ‘G-F, E-D, C, B+’.

So they split up the counters to reduce queues? That’s handy, especially since the C and B+ queues are a lot shorter. Hmm… Technically, I don’t have a quest, so maybe I should go to the reception? It would suck if I went to the B+ counter and they sent me to queue at another counter again again.

“I guess we have to queue for a while,” I sighed and walked over to the queue for the reception counters. 

We had to wait just over fifteen minutes before it was my turn. I was met with an older woman who gave off what I could only describe as a gentle aura.

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“Welcome to the adventurers guild. My name is Saria!” The woman said, beaming with friendliness. “Are you here to submit a request? Or perhaps you are here to register with us?”

Register? Should I have gone to the B+ counter after all? Maybe I don’t look like an adventurer… It better not be my height. I’m not even that short. Should I start wearing heels or something? Also, can she not see Liz standing right behind me? Maybe she thinks my big sister brought me here to register? Not that we look anything alike. I Wonder how Liz would react if I called her big sister… I almost want to try it. What am I doing again? Oh, right.

“Ahem, no, I would like to meet the guildmaster if that’s possible?”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but I have this letter from the guildmaster in Baruda,” I said and showed her the letter along with my guild card.

She looked at the seal of the letter and my guild card when all the color in her face drained. “Apologies! I will see if the guildmaster is available,” she said with a flustered tone and walked off to a flight of stairs.

I turned to Liz. “Don’t think I didn’t hear you stifle a laugh when she asked if I wanted to register. You are getting punished later when we get to an inn.”

“What’s with that emphasis on ‘punished’? Should I be terrified or look forward to it?" Liz asked with a slightly worried look.

“Hmm… Both?” I said and gave her a mischievous smile.

After about two minutes, Saria came back. “The guildmaster can see you right away. Please follow me.”

“What will you do?” I asked Liz.

“I will wait over there,” She said while pointing to an area with a few benches.

I followed Saria up two flights of stairs to a big double door at the end of a long corridor.

She knocked on the door. “Guildmaster, I have brought her,” She said and, without waiting for a response, opened the door and motioned for me to go in and entered behind me.

The guildmaster sitting at the desk looked like a man in his forties and was quite burly with short black hair combed backward.

He looks fit for a pencil pusher, maybe an old adventurer? Also, didn't Chloe call him an old geezer? Perhaps they are related? Chloe didn’t look her age either.

“I’m Grahl, the guildmaster here, against my will, mind you. Now, what business do you have with me?”

“Guildmaster! I have told you to stop introducing yourself like that!” Saria scowled.

“I’m only speaking the truth. I wanted to continue adventuring, but that old bastard forced this job on me!”

“You are almost sixty years old. How long do you think you could keep that up?”

“I still have a few good years left in me!”

“Then put them to good use here. Now do your job,” She said and turned to me. “Apologies that you had to see that. He always tries to slack off if we aren’t keeping tabs on him.”

I looked at the guildmaster. “Sounds like you have it rough.” 

“See! This youngling agrees with me,” He said with a smile. “Now, what can I help you with? It’s not often that Saria interrupts my work.”

“That’s because you’re never working when I come here, so there is nothing to interrupt,” Saria muttered.

“I have this letter from the guildmaster in Baruda,” I said and gave him the letter before sitting down on a couch next to a table in the middle of the room.

“A letter from my niece?” He said and started reading the letter.

His niece, huh? Called it.

“So Chloe sent you here because you wanted to be promoted to S rank?”

“Technically, I want to be promoted to SSS rank. I came here to ask what I needed to do for that.”

“Hah! Quite ambitious, aren’t you? Do you have any achievements to back it up?”

“Chloe said that I had enough for at least S. Take a look,” I said and gave him my guild card before sitting back down.

He looked at my card and whistled. “A Lightning Evoker? At your age? You clearly aren’t your run-of-the-mill adventurer,” He said and put my card in the device on his desk.

He spent a few minutes looking at the display before he leaned back in his chair. “This is quite an impressive list of subjugated monsters. But you have only made a few lower-ranked quests. Any reason for that?”

“Didn’t have the time,” I said with a shrug.

“Though it’s technically possible to advance through ranks with subjugation points alone, the guild generally prefers adventurers take quests before they get promoted to higher ranks. We Can’t have a whole bunch of strong people slacking off while difficult quests pile up, after all. How long have you been an adventurer?”

“Uhm... Three days, I think? It might be four, actually,” I said with a frown, trying to remember what I had done the last few days.

Both of them stared at me with shocked expressions. “I’m sorry, I must be getting old after all. I thought I heard you say four days.”

“That’s right.”

 “Four days? Not years, months, or even weeks, but days?” Grahl asked with wide eyes.

“That’s what I said.” 

“That is impossible! It takes at least a week to travel from Baruda to the capital. And that is not even considering your list of subjugated monsters. That alone could take months.”

“Do you think I would come here and ask for SSS if I wasn’t confident I could back it up?” I said and gave the guildmaster a smile.

 “Sadly, we don’t promote people based on confidence,” Grahl said and sighed. “Did you really defeat all these high-rank monsters alone?”

“I did.”

“Even the behemoth?” He asked as he tapped his finger on the device.

 “Yes. Oh, speaking of the behemoth, can the guild dismantle it for me?”

“You brought it with you? How could you even transport such a massive monster?”

“I put it in my [Inventory].”

“[Inventory]? I have never heard of anything with that name,” Grahl said with an exhausted expression.

“It’s a spatial and chrono magic compound spell to store items. I made it myself, so I doubt it’s something you would have heard about.”

“You are a T7 Lightning Evoker… And you can use both spatial and chrono magic… And can make your own spells… And you say you did all that in a few days…” He muttered to himself and looked at Saria. “Saria, what should I do?”

“Do your job. But if you don’t promote her and she decides to leave the country, the king might take your head,” She said with a stern look.

That sounds scary but understandable. Strong adventurers were always of national interest. Countries usually tried to tie them down by offering them noble titles or worse.

“But you wouldn’t be satisfied with just S rank, would you?” The guildmaster looked at me with a pained expression.

“It’s a start, but the goal of my trip here is SSS.”

“You have to understand that jumping up to S rank in a few days is unheard of already. Asking to go beyond that is just asking for the impossible. I wouldn’t even humor you if it wasn’t for Chloe’s letter.”

“Oh? Now I’m curious what she wrote about me.”

The guildmaster looked at what was written in the letter and frowned. “Apologies in advance, but try to accommodate her as much as you can.”

That’s… More helpful than I thought. Didn’t she say it was just a letter of introduction? It does make me sound like a troublemaker, which may not be completely untrue. Should I bring back a souvenir or something?

“We don’t have anything that would fit in the category SSS rank promotion test. I don’t even know what it would be. There has never even been an SSS rank adventurer before.”

“But the rank exists, so it should be possible, right? There’s a first for everything.”

“Technically true, but you would have to achieve something that would show that your strength is basically unparalleled.”

“How lucky for me that I am unparalleled then,” I said with a smile as I batted my eyelashes.

He rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath before looking at Saria. “Could you leave the room for a bit?”

“Certainly,” She replied and promptly left the room.