The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 430: Beastport

Chapter 430: Beastport

"Hold there, where are you coming from?"

The guards at the gates of Beastport were both on edge and thorough as they began to interrogate the merchants in front of Rainier. He and Myrti were waiting in line, wearing cloaks and trying to seem inconspicuous... or as inconspicuous as Rainier could be since he was more than two measures tall.

As the merchant explained he was from a small jungle village named Mottin, Rain ran through the lies he was about to use to get them in.

He could see the top of a crystal tower somewhere in the city, which like Norneau had been built to take advantage of a stable dungeon. He watched the tower, imagining he could see it growing, until it was his turn at the gate.

"Where are you coming from?" the guard, , a gangly orc-blooded elf with green skin and greener hair, sized him and Myrti up. "What’s your profession?"

"You didn’t ask them their professions!" Myrti exclaimed indignantly.

"They had merchant passes," the guard frowned. "Answer my questions or get out of the way."

"I’m an adventurer. This is my apprentice." Rain tried to hush Myrti with a look.

"Names and reason for your visit?"

"Gale. And this is... Mora." He gestured at Myrti. "I was ambushed in the jungle, just east of Motti. I’m here to get a new adventurer’s badge."

"Do you have any proof you’re an adventurer?"

Rain scowled before an idea came to him. He manifested a sword of magic and stabbed it into the stone next to his foot. "Proof enough for you?"

The guard paled. "Gods, man, what’s wrong with your arm?"

Rain swore internally. He’d wrapped his hands and forearms but not anything higher.

"It’s magic armor!" Myrti piped up. "We lost all his clothes and he’d be naked without it."

The other guards had taken notice of the situation and had begun to gather. Rain dispelled his sword and covered up. "She’s correct," he said.

"I’ll take it from here, guardsman," a pudgy-looking elf sidled over, inserting himself in front of Rain and Myrti. He took one look at Myrti and his face quirked into a smile. "There’s a tax on demonkin entering the city."

Rain had anticipated this. "I can’t pay in coin, but I can offer this," he pulled out the tiger skin and held it out to the guard.

The guard’s eyes glittered with greed. "Well now, that looks nice, but I’ll need to have it assessed by the Guild. How about I escort you, since it’s right over there?"

Shit. Rainier thought. "Of course," he looked where the guard indicated.

Next to a stable was a giant stockade with spirits and wildlife in various states of captivity, with the tamed ones mostly laying idle as they passed. A green-brown spirit that resembled a mongoose screeched inside a small cage, but Rain paid it no mind. Behind the stockade was a three-story building that was wide enough to act as a sort of second gate, cutting off passage to the right side of the city if not for the arch that took up part of the first story.

I wonder if Kir ever had to put up with bullshit like this, Rainier thought as he noticed the pudgy guard eyeing Myrti like she was about to steal something. He could also feel the first guard from before following behind them. Neither of them had the sort of aura he had to worry about, but the Adventurer’s Guild surely would have strong fighters.

Rain ducked his head a bit as the door was opened before him.

"Paji, my darling!" the guard said as he walked his way to the front of the line, cutting ahead of a trio who were waiting with a job posting in the hands of a mage-looking quokkakin, accompanied by a dusky-skinned elf and a black-haired pantherkin. They scowled at the guard but held their peace as they looked up at Rain.

"Sergeant Komm," an exasperated sounding clerk replied, her image remarkably different from the sorts of clerks that worked in Norneau’s guild. She was wearing a dark green veil over her nose and lips and a squarish cloth top that drooped at her shoulders, almost like a poncho. Under it, she wore an ankle-length skirt with the bottom trimmed in cloth of gold. "How can the Guild help the Watch today?"

"Is Grothi in? I’ve got, a nice tiger skin for him to check out for me."

"Whocha got there, Susser?" a lionkin man who looked half-covered in scars approached. "Hmm, still fresh. Let’s roll it out."

"Paji, be a dear and help Mr. Gale here with his adventurer’s badge? He says he’s an adventurer."

Rain turned, not intending to play along too much. "They were here first," he turned and gestured at the trio behind him.

Paji nodded appreciatively and beckoned the three forward. As she gave them the guild-standard set of warnings and confirmations, Rain thought about how he should go about this.

He didn’t think using his own name would alert Heaven, but he’d also given his name as Gale, and the other guard was parking himself by the window as he kept an eye on him. Myrti was a non-factor. Anyone could be an apprentice, but he had to wonder if giving his own name or Kir’s would set off alarms somewhere...

After about ten minutes, Paji stamped the form the adventurers brought her and they were on their way.

"Now, Gale, was it?"

And for all he’d tried to plan, Rain was left with only enough time to make a snap decision.

"Kir Gale," he said.

"You go by your last name?" she quirked an eyebrow.

"I’m from Areth," he replied.

"Alright. Please sign this form authorizing us to access your records, and this one consenting to acument verification tests, and this one..."

Thirteen signatures, forty initials, and twenty minutes later, Rainier finished with the paperwork and handed it back. He knew his aura was somewhere in the light blue range - one of many results Maledict had verified during his interrogation, which included testing Rain’s body as he sought to understand godflesh.

Most guild tests confirmed magical aptitude over raw mana, and he was confident he could pass at the same or higher level as what Kir had tested at years ago.

"... and that will be one gold strip for the replacement badge and one gold for scrypen communication with your affiliated guild in..." she looked down at the papers "Norn-yoo?."

Rain suppressed a flinch. He hadn’t thought about money, aside from bribing the guard.

"It’s pronounced ’Nor-nay-oh,’ and I’m afraid I don’t have any coin," Rain said. "I recently lost almost all of my things in the jungle."

"Everything set, Paji?" Sergeant Komm asked as he returned, looking moderately happier as he passed a silver strip to his compatriot. "Is Mr. Gale who he says he is?" He let out a boisterous laugh.

"The Guild is close to closing for the day, and I’m already working overtime as is," she projected more than a little annoyance through her eyes that Sergeant Komm ignored as she returned her attention to Rainier. "Mr. Gale, you can, of course, defer payment until after your testing."

"How long will testing take?" he asked.

"We’ve been having some trouble with the scrypens and teleporters, so depending on our records and available proctors, up to one week. You’ll be allowed to stay at the dorms, during which you may earn some coin if you have skills that can be applied within the guild hall. Unfortunately, that also means you cannot take Guild requests or missions while we verify your identity."

"Looks like you’ll be staying here for a bit, Gale," Sergeant Komm burst out laughing, slapping Rain on the back. "Don’t worry, I’ll have Nahbi keep an eye on you," he gestured at his fellow guard, the green elf from before - likely a mix of stone elf and orc, now that Rain thought about it.

Nahbi looked rather unsure about the situation, but some amount of professionalism reasserted itself as Sergeant Komm briefed him on what would be expected of him. From what Rain overheard, Nahbi would be watching him during daylight hours, and would have to escort him anywhere outside the Guild he wished to travel. For now, Rain would be given the night to settle in.

"No offense to you, Mr. Gale, but we don’t get a lot of visitors from outside the continent nowadays," Sergeant Komm said shortly before he departed with Nahbi.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Paji relaxed and opened the sidebar to her station, with Rainier’s papers in hand. "Please follow me, Mr. Gale. I’ll show you and your apprentice the dorms."

Rain followed in silence and was led upstairs and across the bridge over the street. He was led past a small training arena, which had been partially demolished on one side. "What happened there?" he asked.

"The teleportation circle exploded a few weeks back, after the sky opened up, and even scrypens stopped working right for a time," she explained, a hint of suspicion in her voice. "It’s all everyone’s talking about. In the Guild, that is."

"I’ve been away for a long time," Rain said.

She paused at the entrance to the next building. "Hunting demons in the jungle, I assume?" Her eyes flicked to Myrti for a moment.

"Yes," Rain lied, noting where she was looking. "Demons. Not innocent demonkin."

"Most people don’t see the distinction."

"I’m not most people," Rain said.

"I can tell," a shift behind the veil indicated Paji might be smirking at him. "For one thing, you’re wearing something that looks like the same armor the angels wear."

"And?" Rain asked, forcing his voice to remain neutral. She was wrong, since only Elevated were "gifted" with godflesh to "make up for their mortal shortcomings."

"And I’ve never seen anyone who isn’t an angel wearing it. I think the Guild leader will want to speak with you at some point. Her name is Azhem."

"Then that will be between me and her," Rain replied. "Thank you for taking the time to help me, Miss Paji. Are there any tasks that I can get started on immediately to begin earning some money?"

"Do you know how to read and do sums?" she asked instantaneously, a glint in her eyes. "Because I’m still on overtime, and I’d love to not be!"