{Jin’s POV}
******
We reached the inn by evening, the sun painting the sky in shades of orange and pink as it descended toward the horizon.
The common room was busier now than it had been at breakfast.
We navigated through the crowd and headed upstairs to our room.
The mont I unlocked the door and we stepped inside, Tessa made a beeline for the bed and collapsed onto it with a satisfied sigh, clutching the various items she’d bought throughout the day like precious treasures.
She giggled, rolling onto her back and holding up the wooden fox pendant to catch the lamplight.
I gave her a look.
She tilted her head, still grinning. "What?"
I sighed and moved to set down my bag. "You almost emptied ."
Good thing I edited so of those prices. Otherwise I’d be completely broke right now instead of just nearly broke.
Tessa sat up, suddenly energized again despite having walked through the entire town. She grabbed the green scarf she’d bought and wrapped it around her neck with theatrical flair.
And struck a pose, one hand on her hip, the scarf arranged just so.
"So?" Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "What do you think? Don’t I look amazing?"
I removed my hood and placed it carefully on the back of the chair, then pulled off my outer tunic.
"Yeah, you look beautiful," I said simply.
The tunic ca off over my head, leaving in just the thin undershirt that clung to my fra. I grabbed a clean change of clothes from my bag and pulled the undershirt off as well.
The evening air was cool against my skin. I could feel the definition in my abs and chest—product of constant training and the stat increases that had reshaped this seventeen-year-old body into sothing considerably more athletic than it had started as.
Not bad...
I reached for the clean shirt, caught movent in my peripheral vision, turned my head, and found Tessa staring at .
"What?"
Her cheeks imdiately flushed bright red, eyes going wide as she realized she’d been caught.
She looked away quickly, suddenly very interested in the items scattered on the bed beside her.
"Nothing!" Her voice ca out slightly higher than normal. "I wasn’t.. I was just... nothing!"
Sure.
I pulled the clean shirt on, and moved to sit at the small table by the window.
Then I pulled out my coin purse and dumped the contents onto the table.
The sound of coins hitting wood was considerably quieter than it should have been.
I counted carefully.
Twenty-one copper coins.
And... I checked again, hoping I’d missed sothing.
Nope. Just the coppers.
So I’m basically broke.
Perfect.
I looked over at Tessa, who was carefully organizing her purchases and putting them into her small travel bag.
"Give that."
She paused, looking up with raised eyebrows. "What? The bag?"
"The money pouch you’ve been using."
"Why?" Her tone was imdiately defensive, one hand moving to cover the small pouch at her belt.
I t her eyes directly.
"Husband’s order."
Her mouth opened. Closed and opened again.
"That’s... you can’t just—" She sputtered slightly, clearly caught between genuine indignation and uncertainty about whether I was serious.
I waited, keeping my expression neutral.
She glared at for a long mont.
Then, with exaggerated reluctance, she pulled the pouch from her belt and tossed it to .
I caught it, feeling the weight.
Considerably heavier than my own.
I opened it and poured the contents onto the table beside my ager pile.
And there were gold coins. Two of them, glinting in the lamplight.
Plus, another one silver and maybe thirty copper.
I stared at the small fortune, then looked up at Tessa.
"Where did you get this?"
She suddenly beca very interested in folding her new scarf.
"Um... Grandpa gave it to ."
"And you didn’t ntion this because...?"
"Because you would’ve tried to pay for everything yourself and not let buy the things I wanted." She said it matter-of-factly, still not looking at .
I sighed and scooped the coins back into her pouch and tossed it back to her.
She caught it, looking surprised.
"What? You’re not taking it?"
"It’s yours." I leaned back in my chair. "But from now on, we pool resources for shared expenses. No more you secretly paying for things while I think I’m going broke."
"But—"
"That’s not negotiable." I softened my tone slightly. "We’re traveling together. That ans we handle money together. Fair?"
She studied for a mont, her expression unreadable.
Then she smiled.
"Yeah. Sounds good."
She tucked the pouch back into her belt, then returned to organizing her things.
I sat there for a mont, processing the day.
But a knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.
"Who is it?"
"It’s ." Scarlet’s voice, muffled through the wood.
I moved to unlock the door, pulling it open.
Scarlet stood there with her arms crossed, her glamour still active, her expression caught sowhere between irritation and embarrassnt.
"What is it?" I asked.
She hissed quietly, glancing down the hallway to make sure no one was listening.
"What else? I’m hungry."
My mind clicked.
Oh. Right. I almost forgot about her.
"Wait here."
I moved back into the room, grabbed my sadly depleted coin purse, and counted out five copper coins.
Ca back and pressed them into her hand.
"Go eat. Get whatever you want from the common room."
She looked at the coins, then at , then turned and headed down the hallway toward the stairs without another word.
I closed the door and rubbed my temples.
That leaves with sixteen copper. We can’t even pay for another night at this inn with that.
I need money. Can’t rely on Tessa.
My mind clicked again, pieces falling into place.
I turned to Tessa, who’d stopped organizing and was watching with curious attention.
"I’ll be back in a few minutes. Stay here, lock the door, don’t open it for anyone except or Sara."
"Where are you going?"
"To fix our money problem." I grabbed my cloak and pulled it on. "I won’t be long."
She nodded, already moving toward the door to lock it behind .
I headed downstairs, through the common room where Scarlet had found a corner table and was already ordering food, and out into the evening streets.
----
The Adventurers’ Guild wasn’t hard to find, I’d spotted it earlier while walking with Tessa, a large stone building with a distinctive crossed-swords emblem above the entrance.
It stood near the town center, strategically positioned to be accessible from all the main roads.
I made my way through the streets as the evening lamps were being lit, the town transitioning from day activity to night activity with practiced efficiency.
I haven’t been inside one of these before, I thought, approaching the guild entrance.
But from what I read and saw in gas and ani from my previous life, guilds probably work the sa way here.
I pushed open the heavy wooden doors and stepped inside.
The interior was exactly what I’d expected and yet still sohow surprising to see in person.
The main hall was large, maybe fifty feet across, with a high ceiling supported by thick wooden beams.
A massive fireplace dominated one wall, providing heat and light. Long tables filled the center space where adventurers sat drinking, eating, comparing stories and scars.
I moved through the crowd toward the mission boards, keeping my hood up, trying to blend in.
The postings were organized by rank, I could see the categories clearly labeled.
Each board had dozens of postings. I scanned the rewards listed.
F-Rank missions: 20-80 copper per job. Herb gathering, ssage delivery, basic monster culling.
E-Rank: 1-20 silver. Escort duty, minor dungeon exploration, troubleso wildlife.
D-Rank: 40-100 silver. Guard work, bandit clearing, dangerous monster hunting.
C-Rank: 400 silver . Everything got considerably more serious here. Dungeon subjugation, major monster threats, investigation work.
The higher ranks jumped exponentially...
That’s more money than most people see in their entire lives.
I grinned internally.
This could work.
I turned and headed for the reception desk.
One of the receptionists, a middle-aged woman with sharp eyes noticed approaching and gestured to an open position.
"Yes?"
"I want to register with the guild," I said. "What’s the process?"
She pulled out a form without looking, clearly having done this countless tis.
"Standard registration requires a skills assessnt, paynt of the registration fee—twenty copper—and completion of basic safety training. Once registered, you’ll start at F-Rank and can take on appropriate missions to build your rank."
She looked over with practiced assessnt.
"You got any prior combat experience?"
"So."
"Weapons training?"
"Yes."
"Magic abilities?"
I hesitated. "...So."
She made notes on the form.
"Registration is handled by Guild Instructor. He evaluates new applicants, determines initial rank placent, sotis people with significant prior experience can skip F-Rank entirely and start at E or D depending on demonstrated ability."
That could be useful.
"When can I do the assessnt?"
She glanced at a schedule board behind her.
"Instructor already went ho for the evening. He’s back tomorrow morning, first appointnts start at eight. You can co by then for evaluation and registration."
I nodded, filing that information away.
We need funds. This is the most direct path to getting them.
"Thanks for the information," I said.
"No problem. See you tomorrow morning if you’re serious about registering." She was already turning to help the next person in line.
I headed back out into the evening streets, reached the inn and headed upstairs, knocked on our door with the pattern Tessa would recognize.
The lock clicked and door opened.
Tessa stood there.
"Everything okay?"
"Better than okay," I said, stepping inside. "I figured out how we’re going to make money."
"How?"
"I’m going to beco an adventurer."
She blinked at for a mont.
Then grinned.
"That’s actually perfect. Can I register too?"
"We’ll... discuss that tomorrow."
"That’s not a no~"
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