Forgotten But Not Lost

4

Sherry's Tavern was a common hang out for people from the volunteer army, large enough to host two hundred people, which was why it was packed to the bursting almost every night. However with it only just approaching midday, and the soldiers out in the field trying to make their living, the place still had a few empty tables.
S

hirou and Megumin sat on one side of the table while Kuro sat on the other. The older soldier had called for their drinks and some snacks for the little girl before they got to talking. The man had reluctantly agreed to allow Megumin to order milk rather than mead but had insisted that Shirou drink something strong with him.
Shirou had kept his explanation of what had happened between him and Bri to a simple summary, explaining the circumstances for the fight's start, the equipment they had at their disposal, and the basics of how the fight went down. He didn't say anything about his unusual reactions to the weapons he saw. He felt that was information to be kept to himself.
It hadn't really been a long story, but before Shirou was even done telling it, Kuro had started on his third flagon of mead, and was openly laughing. "Ha! Serves that old faggot right! He's always lashing out at people every time he's called out about his perverted behavior, and I'm glad to hear that someone finally handed him his ass for a change! Good on you, kid! Though I got to admit, you must be something scary if you can beat that queer bastard. I can't remember the last time someone actually managed to get the best of him. Must have been a good four or five years."
"In all fairness, he was working with only his knives. If he had his sword and shield instead, the fight would probably have gone a lot different." Shirou said, feeling like it was a force of habit to try to put his victories, no matter how trivial or grand, in the proper perspective. No good ever came from becoming full of yourself. Bri had been stronger than him, and his body was more used to using the skills that Shirou had been copying. If they had been fighting on even footing instead of Shirou having the weapon with the superior reach, then life would have been much harder. Even as things were, the only reason Shirou got such a good opening on the man was because Bri had underestimated him and believed that he wouldn't have been able to counter attack, so he over-committed on the final lung.
"No need to be humble. You should wear that victory as a badge of pride!" Kuro said, waving his drink around and causing it to splash about as he did so.
"Pride usually comes before the fall. I'd rather avoid it." Shirou said with a bit of a cheeky smile. He found himself actually liking Kuro. He was loud, immature, and seemed to have a bit of a drinking problem, but he had a familiar feel about him. Like everything else, Shirou couldn't place it, but it felt natural to be talking, or at least exchanging quips, with him when compared to the people Shirou had tried to talk to on the street. "Now, if I have satisfied your curiosity, would you mind telling me what you promised us before?"
"Oh, sure. Technically I'm not supposed to, since commander faggot wants all you kids to have to struggle for your first few weeks to build character and weed out the weak, but I've never really seen eye to eye with him on that. What's the point of a senpai who doesn't look out for his juniors?" Kuro said with a shrug. "Still, I can't promise you that I'll tell you the truth."
"Just saying that already proves your more trustworthy than the commander was." Shirou said, before waiting for the man to continue.
"Alright, first thing you need to do is join a guild. There are seven different combat focused guilds in the city. Joining costs eight silver, which will eat up most of what you were given to start with, but you don't really get a choice. Even if you can handle yourself without the training, if you aren't in one of the guilds then you will quickly find that no one will do business with you, and you will be in deep shit." Kuro explained. "Anyways, when you join the guild you will get some basic training and some second-hand equipment to help get you started. The training will last for seven days, during which they will put you up. After that, you can go out hunting. With me so far?"
Shirou nodded, so the man continued. "Alright, the guilds you can choose from are the Warrior's Guild, the Priest's Guild, the Paladin's Guild, the Mage's Guild…"
"Mages!?" Megumin shouted, her eyes widening as she stood up on her stool. "Mages, as in real mages, with magic and everything!?"
Kuro blinked at her, seeming confused by her outburst before starting to laugh. "Sorry, I've been in this world so long that I forgot how surprising it was to first hear that magic really exists in this world. Yeah, real mages with real magic." Seeing how interested Megumin had suddenly become, Kuro decided to entertain her a bit by telling her a bit about magic. "Though mages aren't the only ones to use magic. Priests use magic as well, and so do Paladins and Dread Knights, though to a lesser extent. Priests and Paladins use light magic, which is mostly about healing and defensive blessings, while Dread Knights make contracts with demons and use dark magic. As for mages, they use Elemental magic which is some pretty neat stuff. They can't heal anything but depending on the kind of Elementals they can contact they can produce all kinds of effects, and eventually they can summon up Elementals to fight for them, just like a Dread Knight can with a demon."
"Of course, elves and dwarves have their own schools of magic, but they guard them pretty seriously. You'd have to really do something impressive before an elf would be willing to teach you how to be a Shaman... They also need to be finding you physically pleasing, if you catch my drift." Kuro added with a shake of the head. He might have even sounded a little bitter.
"There are elves!?" Megumin shouted, her eyes seeming to shine like stars. Shirou wasn't really as surprised to hear about magic, but hearing that elves and dwarves walked around in this world was a bit of a lurch for him.
"Yeah. They're kind of stuck up and obsessed with beauty, but they are at least peaceful with us. You probably won't have an opportunity to see them for a few months. But if you and your party do well, you might get a chance to the elves' forests or the Iron Mountains of the dwarves." Kuro admitted. "Anyways, the last three guilds are the Thief's Guild, the Hunter's Guild, and the Dread Knight's Guild… though take my advice and think long and hard before you join the Dread Knights."
"Why's that?" Shirou asked.
"Well, it's because once you do decide to become a Dread Knight, there is no going back. While the other guilds will let you quit if you want, some even letting you rejoin after you have quit once, the Dread Knight's Guild is different. If you try to quit it, they will hunt you down and execute you." Kuro said seriously. Megumin shifted about uncomfortably at the mention of execution. "Also, Dread Knights… I'm not going to say that there aren't some of them that are alright fellas, but a majority of them are kind of weirdos."
…This man was calling them weird? Alright then, avoid the Dread Knight's Guild at all cost. "So then, which Guild do you suggest we join?" Shirou asked.
"Well, a good party is supposed to have a little of everything. But it is believed that the most important classes are the Priests and Warriors. Priests are probably the most important, as their healing magic and defensive blessings lessen the chance that one small mistake could cost you your life, but most Priests find it difficult to properly defend themselves or kill strong enemies." Kuro said, starting to list out the classes and their individual jobs. "Warriors are your more balanced frontline fighters, while Paladin's are more defensive and Dread Knights are more offensive focused. The frontline fighters are to distract or take out any enemy that tries to get at the backline, which will usually be your Mages and Priests. Mages provide ranged support, hitting enemies hard from faraway or doing some kind of binding to keep them still long enough for the frontline fighters to finish the job. A good strategy will usually involve a mage casting a larger spell to injure or restrain multiple enemies as part of an ambush. Thieves could best be described as opportunist fighters, not really fighting the enemy head on, but hanging back and lunging in whenever they see a good chance to kill or cripple a target. They also serve outside of the fighting by scouting the area and perhaps sabotaging the enemy before the fight even starts. Finally, Hunters are the all-around guys. They both scout and fight in any capacity that is needed, both long range and short range, frontal assaults and sneak attacks. Though like most jack-of-all-trades, they tend to be a little worse at everything than the people who specialize. They can track better than a thief, but finding the enemy usually isn't the problem, it is going unnoticed yourself."
"The little girly should probably either join the Priests or Mages. All of the other classes require you to have a bit of physical strength in order to pull some of the things off." Kuro said, pointing at Megumin.
"Mage!" Megumin said immediately. "Do I get to wear a witch's hat?"
"You sure do." Kuro chuckled before glancing at Shirou. "What about you?"
"…Not sure. I'll have to discuss it with the others." Shirou said as he considered his options. "Something tells me that I won't make a very good Mage or Priest… though I don't remember why. As for the others, I'm already fairly good with weapons, so if I am getting to get training, it should be with something I don't already know. Thief or Hunter would be best for that." Actually, the Hunter's Guild really did appeal to him, he liked the idea of being able to operate with both long range and short-range weaponry without anyone giving him strange looks.
"Don't go turning up your nose at the Guilds' training too quickly. There is more to it than just swinging your sword around." Kuro said with a knowing smile, not knowing that Shirou already knew very well what he was referring too.
"You're in the Hunter's Guild, aren't you, Kuro-senpai?" Megumin asked the man.
Kuro shook his head sadly. "Good guess. I used to be, but I was too much of a black-sheep to follow the White Goddess, and though I still offer her my prayers and thank her for her protection, I left it to join the Warrior's Guild."
"Then why do you still have a bow? Does the Warrior's Guild use bows too?" Megumin asked, with a confused tilt of the head.
"Not a chance! They all call me as sniveling coward for even having one. Not that I ever cared what those idiots think. I didn't join the Warrior's Guild in order to swing some oversized sword around. I joined it in order to pick up a particular skill." Kuro said before downing what was left in his drink. "I'd tell you what that skill is, but that would be against the Guild's rules and I'd get in trouble."
"You're referring to the [Steel Guard] ability." Shirou said, causing Kuro to freeze. "You draw your bow to its fullest before strengthening it with [Steel Guard], greatly increasing the power behind your arrows. Then by strengthening your arrows to be as hard as steel, you can punch holes straight through an armored enemy."
"How… in the world..?" Kuro mumbled, his eyes widening, but then he just started to laugh again. "In the last four years, not a single person has realized the secret to my success, and then you just say it so casually. Kind of hurts a man's pride."
"I told you that pride comes before the fall." Shirou said with a small smirk.
"How do you even know about [Steel Guard] anyways? It's not a high-end skill, but it is still something that only people from the Warrior's Guild should know. So how do you know it?" Kuro asked Shirou, his grin widening as his interests were piqued.
"Would you believe me if I told you I have no idea?" Shirou replied.
Kuro snorted in amusement. "I just might. I've been known to be gullible."
Kuro then continued his explanation, telling them about the bank and exchanging goods, as well as the cheap as dirt barracks in the slums where they could get housing. Though it would only become free to them once they get a proper Volunteer Forces Badge, till then it would be ten coppers a night for four people. Then he pulled out some paper and made a map of the nearby area for them, telling them the best hunting grounds for beginners and what land formations they could use to their advantage. He also marked an Orc observation outpost on the map, telling them to stay away from it for at least the two months, though probably for more. Orcs weren't something rookies should try to deal with, since they were about as smart as humans and even stronger. Not to mention that the outpost would have around a thousand of them. Too densely populated for casual hunting.
Shirou was surprised that one of humanity's greatest enemies seemed to have an outpost no more than thirty minutes jog from the city's front gate. You would think that they would have done something about that, but apparently it just wasn't worth the effort to take, since the Orcs could just as easily take it back.
Once Kuro was done with his explanations, he handed the map over to Shirou who put it in his pocket and then they shook hands. "Thank you for all your help, Kuro-senpai."
"If you kids need a hand, just give your old Senpai a holler. Can't promise I will help, but you never know." Kuro said with a shrug and a grin.
"Um… Onii-chan." Megumin mumbled. Shirou looked down to see the small girl squirming around a bit. "I… I think I drank too much milk."
Kuro quirked an eyebrow. "Does the little girly need to take a squat?" He said with absolutely zero tact at all. Megumin flushed, but nodded. "Alright, Sherry's got a pot you can use for that."
Kuro lead them over to a back room that had a large brass pot for people to do there business in. Megumin turned green as she saw the contents of it and had to hold her breath as she went in, closing the door behind her.
"You'd almost think she never taken a crap before." The man mumbled as he lend up against the wall.
"I… don't think that people did it in pots in our old world." Shirou said.
"Really? Then what the hell did they use?" Kuro blinked in surprise before tilting his head and making a face like he was thinking hard. "Hm… you're right. Can't really remember. But it feels like your right. Honestly, I've just accepted the way life was a long time ago. Hardly even think about the fact that there was a previous world for me. There's just this one."
Shirou nodded, understanding what the man meant about living in the moment. However, now that Megumin wasn't there to hear him, there was one final question that Shirou wanted to ask. "Kuro-senpai, how many volunteer soldiers are there?"
"How many?" Kuro repeated the question before thinking about it. "Probably around eight hundred active soldiers in the city right now, with another hundred or two scattered throughout the frontier. Why you ask?"
Shirou huffed. "Because the commander told us that there were over a thousand five hundred still alive out of the two thousand who had joined in the last fifteen years."
"Is that so." Kuro frowned. "Well then, I should tell you that two thousand people have appeared out of the tower in the last fifteen years, but that doesn't make up all of the volunteer forces' recruits. Some people who were born in this world join, either out of a sense of honor, or adventure, or because they were kicked out of the real army, or out of simple desperation for the money. So the real total for the number of recruits to join in the last fifteen years would be closer to three thousand than two."
"So, while the Commander tried to make it sound like the survival rate was seventy five percent in order to not scare us off, the real survival right is around thirty percent." Shirou said with a sigh. "Not that it changes anything. We still need the money if we want to survive in this world."
"Two hundred gold." Kuro said simply before adding context. "That's what most volunteer soldiers set as their goal. Once you make that two hundred gold, you will have enough money to retire and live a comfortable life. I'd say there are probably only a couple dozen people who have managed to save it up and then actually retired. Most of those are Dread Knights whose parties all mysteriously died, leaving them with all the wealth their group had managed to put together… Not that anyone can prove anything."
"How close are you?" Shirou asked the veteran of ten years.
"Close enough to worry 'bout the fact that there is a Dread Knight in my party." Kuro said with a worried chuckle. "Luckily he is more motivated by boobs than money. His stated goal in life is to 'taste all the different flavors of women'. I doubt he cares about retiring so long as he can keep running into new pretty young girls. I've got a hundred and twenty-seven gold save up. I could probably make the rest of it in another five or six months if I rushed it, but that's the trap isn't it. Being in such a rush to get to safety that you end up in the Black Wolf's jaws before you realize that you are no long the one doing the hunting.
"Besides, retirement isn't for everyone. Lots of people have made the money but just kept going. I don't think I could live with myself if I retired, not after everything I've done and seen. I'll just keep on hunting until the day that I die and go happy knowing that I protected my cute little juniors the best I could." Suddenly, his twenty-six years looked very old indeed as his eyes lost their focus and his smile faded away.
"…Is your name really Kuro, or is that just something you call yourself?" Shirou asked the man. He seemed to follow a religion where the White Goddess is the ultimate form of good and the Black God is the truest evil. For he himself to have been named 'Black' was an odd coincidence.
The smile returned to the man's face. "Boy, you really should just mind your own business. You've got enough problems on your own plate already to be trying to steal stuff off of mine." Kuro snickered, but then he added something else. "Stay strong kid, and don't ever leave anyone behind." After that, he just turned away and left.
Megumin walked out of the room with the camber pot and slammed the door behind her before taking big gulps of air. "I will never eat or drink anything ever again. I don't want to have to go back in there." She solemnly swore.
Shirou couldn't help but chuckle. "Come on, we need to get back to the others."
Shirou and Megumin were the last ones to arrive back at headquarters, and by the looks of it, people had already been exchanging notes. Though voices quieted a bit as they watched Shirou walking towards them.
"Good, you're back. I was starting to worry you had gotten into trouble." Rin said as she created a gap in the group for Shirou and Megumin to fill.
"I can take care of myself." Shirou said, feeling a little indignant.
"That's exactly what I was afraid of. That someone saw you as just another rookie and that you did to them what you almost did to the commander." Rin said… and she had a point. "What have you managed to find out?"
"We met a veteran. He gave us the run down of joining a guild and gave us a map of the nearby hunting grounds and places to avoid." Shirou reported, holding up the large sheet of paper. "He also showed us to a tavern that is regularly visited by volunteer soldiers, being a place where they exchange information with each other, a place called Sherry's."
Rin took the map from him and started to look it over. "Already heard about the Guilds and Sherry's, though the map will be useful. Good work." She said before handing the map back to him. She still didn't have any pockets. "Since you two have already heard about the different Guilds, we can return to the subject of which guilds everyone should join."
"In order to keep the option of dividing the group up into smaller parties later available, we need to make sure that we allocate enough people to each role to make such a division possible without sacrificing our current setup. Let's start with the basics, each group will need a healer and a scout. Since Priests have the only type of healing magic available to us, we will need two Priests. As for scouts, the possible classes that can fill this role are Hunter and Thief. For the sake of diversity, I think our original group should have one of each. Everyone else should pick an attacking class, either Warrior, Paladin or Mage." Rin said, looking over the group. "Now, I'm all for gender equality, but if we are being realistic, some of these duties are going to require an amount of physical strength that us smaller girls can't handle. This unfortunately means that people who are taller are going to need to step up to fill these roles, and the rest of us will have to do what we can."
"Makes sense." One of the boys said, his name was… Richard? Shirou wasn't positive about it, but he thought he had heard the name before. He wasn't all that tall, being an inch or two shorter than Shirou was, putting him at about five foot nine. His hair was black and matted to the point where it almost covered his blue eyes. "So, which jobs are we talking about?"
"Beyond the obvious jobs like Warrior and Paladin taking up more physical strength than Priests and Mages, between Thief and Hunter, the Hunter class takes more physical strength in order to draw back their bows. So, it would be better if one of you boys took the Hunter role while a girl filled the thief role." Rin said, earning nods of agreement. "With one of you boys already filling the role of Hunter, the other four are going to have to split yourselves between Warrior and Paladin classes. Sara has already volunteered to be a Paladin. It would probably be for the best to have three Warriors and two Paladins. Does everyone agree?"
There were nods all around. Shirou included. It made sense for them to tend slightly more towards the type of fighter that was more offensive, since hit and run tactics rarely favored those who didn't take the initiative.
"Good, then Shirou will be our second Paladin." Rin said giving a sharp nod.
"I am?" Shirou couldn't help but gawk at her.
"Of course, you are. Between Warriors and Paladins, Paladins are more focused on using one hand swords like you did earlier this morning." Rin explained, one hand gesturing at empty space next to her as he spoke. "Why, what guild were you planning on joining?"
"Well, since I already know how to wield a sword, I figured it would be more useful to learn other skills. So, I thought I might join the Hunter's Guild and…" Shirou started, but Rin cut him off.
"Rejected." She said sharply before he could finish. "While you are indeed already skilled at using a one-handed sword, you won't get any better at doing it unless you join a guild that specializes in it. It is more valuable for the group for you to become as good as possible in a single field rather than trying to learn more trades. Besides, the Hunters guild may require some physical strength, but not nearly as much as the Warrior or Paladin's. You are probably the strongest member of our group, so it wouldn't make sense for you to fill the Hunter role."
Shirou grimaced a little. He couldn't argue with her logic, save for that she didn't know that he already knew everything that the Paladin's or Warrior's Guilds could teach him, and he didn't want to share that information. Not in front of so many people.
In the end, Shirou just nodded then watched as the other four boys got into an argument as to who should be in the Hunter's Guild. Having had it pointed out that it was the one that required the least strength, none of them wanted to be the one to end up in it and look like the weakest boy.
It ended with an arm-wrestling competitive, and the loser, a boy named Itsuki, became saddled with being the Hunter. The skinhead kid was the shortest of the boys, being around five foot six. After losing he gave a bit of a tantrum, though ultimately seemed to accept the result.
The final divisions of labor ended up with three Warriors, two Paladins, two Priests, three Mages, a Thief and a Hunter. Rin then divided the money she had gotten from selling the daggers among them, giving each of them three silver and twenty-five copper a piece. She had stored the remaining few silver coins away to be used as a rainy day fund in the most literal sense, since they couldn't work on rainy days.
She gave them all clear instructions not to spend the money on things like spare clothes or shaving razors, and that it all of it should go towards buying additional skills and preparing themselves for that first fight. After they survived that and had a better understanding of what they were in for, they could judge better on what they needed and could maybe think about other necessities beyond just surviving. The groups reviewed the directions on how to get to the different guild halls and they went separate ways.
"I… I suppose we will be joining the same guild, huh." Sara said nervously as they walked along.
"I suppose so." Shirou said back.
There was an awkward silence between them as they walked towards the hill near the back of the city. Shirou wasn't a great conversationalist. He couldn't even think of a topic to talk about. So he didn't even try. He just let his eyes wonder.
That is, until they spotted Itsuki walking in a very different direction than he was supposed to be. Rather than going towards the outskirt of the city, where the Hunter's Guild was, he seemed to be heading towards the slums. And standing right there next to him as a tall pale man with black armor and a two-hand sword strapped to his waist.
A Dread Knight.
The sore loser was going to go behind everyone's backs and join the Dread Knights instead of the Hunter's Guild.
Shirou groaned, but then he realized that this was perfect. Now he had a good excuse to have had joined the Hunter's Guild instead, since they would still be best served by having a second scout. Shirou wished Sara good luck and headed straight for the Hunter's Guild.
He was going to get an earful about this later from Rin, but he honestly didn't care. He had the suspicion he was going to be yelled at by her a lot anyways. Which was strange because other than with Bri and Shirou himself, Rin had seemed to have infinite patience with people.
Maybe she just really didn't like him.