THE HERO'S SON IS A MONSTER-Chapter 80: Provisions

By definition, a vigilante is someone who decides to uphold the law outside of the legal institutions. The thing is, few were those in the lower ring who had the chance to read a dictionary. Or even could, for that matter. That is probably why nobody found it strange that the Lower Ring armed forces were called that way.

They were recognized by the state – read the LIBRARY – and as such, had a lot of advantages and even grades. That was one of the best positions someone in the lower ring could aspire to reach. A high-ranking official in the Agency, the organization handling the vigilantes, and located in the South District.

"..."

Half of that wasn’t true. Being a vigilante was closer to being a mercenary or the employee of an enterprise providing services. All kinds of services. Alexandra quickly understood that as her eyes hovered about the Red Road Hotel’s billboard.

"Mas— I mean, big sister, is there a problem?"

"Minus 1pt."

"Eh?! Why?!"

"I feel frustrated."

A quest about finding a lost beetle.

Another about carrying a lunch (seriously?).

Another one was about helping sort provisions.

Those quests were exactly what that Shogo doll said earlier. For some reason, Alexandra found that slightly annoying.

"If you want to make money, you should register as a vigilante. I know exactly the place and you can even sleep there."

Or so she said, but seriously what is this? As Alexandra asked herself that, she became more and more annoyed. The Red Road Hotel was, of course, a hotel but in the Berattelsian sense of it. If vigilantes were, well, all-purpose personnel, hotels were places where all matters were discussed, often leading to a ’quest’ being issued.

Quests are... requests. Apparently, it sounded better to say quest so everyone just settled with it. Apparently. That is what Shogo said anyway.

Regardless...

Hotels are sort of bars where people drink and eat. Where people gather, people talk. Where people talk, people make requests, and alcohol help talking for sure. Once the customer has issued a quest, it is registered for free. The quests on the billboard are for those who paid to have them advertised like so.

Though that means people paid to post quests about... oh well...

To take a quest, you had to present your vigilante license which was, then again, not a license so to speak. It was a tattoo. You present your tattoo and register for the quest. Additionally, if you want to be the only one on that quest, you have to pay another fee.

All in all, hotels work fairly simply. The only issue was that not everyone could become a vigilante. On the paper, yes, but the reality was different. It wasn’t a question of competence, not totally. It was all about factions.

Long story short, hotels thought one day "Hey! Why should we settle with only quest gathering? Let’s have our own vigilantes working solely under us! Imagine how much money we can make!" or something along those lines. Thanks to that, hotels became sort of guilds with vigilantes under them. The problem was that, since the only way to officially obtain a quest was registering yourself in a hotel, every vigilante had to work under one to be able to accept any quest.

The resulting situation was this – hotels gained a sort of monopoly on quest handling. You had to join the roster of one of them or suffer as a freelancer. Sadly, it was difficult to join, especially for a random like Alexandra. Besides...

"Nobody must know that you are a bibliomancer. Especially not her."

With such recommendations, Alexandra couldn’t stand out. She never had the intention to yell on the roofs that she was a bibliomancer of course, but she wasn’t especially trying to hide it. If she had to hunt angels, her secret would necessarily be discovered at one point. Nevertheless, Alexandra decided to go out of her way to heed Shogo’s warning. For now at least.

If everything the doll said was true, her opponent was a monstrously strong bibliomancer. So strong in fact, that just a meeting would be enough for her to die. That isn’t exactly the kind of future you look forward to.

"Everything will be okay," Shogo said when Alexandra voiced her worry. "As long as you befriend Rouge in the meantime, your survival is assured."

Rouge. That was the name of Alexandra’s rumored savior. Well, future savior. Shogo didn’t describe her, she just said that the girl would leave a "strong impression" on Alexandra when they would meet.

"I will bring you to the Red Road Hotel. Enter, order something for you and your doll, and stand in front of the quest billboard. After a while, the rain will fall harder and she will talk to you."

Alexandra did as she was told. Everything went as the doll foretold even the rain. That meant she would appear soon and Grimm knew how hard Alexandra was wishing her to! She was standing in front of that billboard for minutes now and the clients were giving her weird glances. Thankfully, none of them talked to her because she felt capable of insulting the first one to make any remark.

Still, was it just her impression, or that Rouge girl was taking her time? Did the doll get something wrong somewhere? Alexandra couldn’t say for sure, but she was getting more and more nervous. It was at that moment someone approached her.

"Ahem."

With one throat clearing a presence was announced. Alexandra nervously turned around, surprised by the sudden apparition behind her.

It was a girl probably around her age with wide and sharp eyes, short blonde hair, and a delicate oval face. Her outfit consisted of a knitted pullover with rolled-up sleeves, a long black skirt, and a white apron.

"Dear customer, can I assist you in any way?"

"Huh? Ah! Um... Actually..."

A blank. Alexandra couldn’t remember what she wanted to say in the first place. But she wasn’t really bothered by it since she now knew for sure that she found the person she was looking for. It was as if it was written on her face. This girl was definitely "Rouge".