Eina Tulle prided herself on being composed.
Professional.
Unshakeable.
An Elf who was ready to tackle almost anything related to adventuring as long as she herself wasn't entering the dungeon.
She was an advisor for god sake.
Morning shift at the Guild was usually calm—paperwork, early reports, the occasional half-awake rookie wandering in.
Honestly, the place never seemed to give her a rest. There was always a ton to do, and almost never a chance to rest.
Still, she found her job an adoring one. She got to meet new people, help adventurers, and it paid well. Good enough that she would be able to afford a place of her own soon.
Till then though, her ten-thousand vali per month rented apartment was good enough.
She had her tea, her neatly ordered files, and the quiet hum of the office settling into the day.
Just like usual, she didn't expect anything out of the ordinary, as much as she could expect in Orario at least…
And then he walked in.
"Excuse me. Are you Eina?"
She turned, perfectly prepared to deliver her usual polite greeting… while recalling whether she knew the sound, but nothing came up. As she turned around though, she found herself frozen like someone had cast a petrification spell on her spine.
The boy standing before her was handsome—too handsome, might even be a crime at how handsome he was.
Not the normal "cute rookie who will probably die on the first floor" kind of handsome, but the kind that made her brain skip like a scratched record. Youthful, sharp-featured, eyes bright with a confident fire she rarely saw in newcomers.
She had seen beautiful people in her life; there were many in Orario, from all sorts of exotic races to even elven royalties.
She herself was an Elf, so she knew beauty. Elves at least weren't that affected by it by their own disposition.
Eina too didn't react too much outside of a sudden blush creeping in on her face at his face. However, that was when she smelled it.
A soft, faint scent—warm, ancient, and achingly familiar. Something she hadn't sensed since she left her homeland. Something like the roots of the Great Tree, long gone but never forgotten. It washed over her so suddenly she nearly staggered.
The paper she was holding slipped from her hands, her mind drifted into memory lane, eyes were glazed, and her face heated instantly.
Her ears burned.
Her dignity fled the scene after this familiar comforting feeling washed over her.
'Who is this boy?' she wished to ask.
She tried to speak. What actually came out was a tangled, breathless stammer that she prayed to every higher being would never be recorded in any official Guild document.
Embarrassed, she tried to compose herself again. But the boy's next words once again drew a reaction from her which she didn't wish to show.
The boy wished to become an adventurer. Well, that was quite obvious considering she worked in a Guild, the only Guild in Orario, but what he said next surprised her.
"A new Familia."
Her quill nearly slipped from her fingers. New Familia meant new god. New god meant instability, risk, danger—everything she dreaded for her clients.
And this boy—this strangely radiant, dangerously charming boy—was planning to jump straight into the center of it.
Eina swallowed hard, trying to reclaim her professionalism. She wasn't the boy's advisor, however, her stomach twisted when she even thought about another one dying inside the dungeon just because they were too careless.
Especially him…
"Hmm… if you wish to register as an adventurer, then I can do that, however, I would like to ask you to reconsider, hmmm…" She was saying but realized she didn't know his name.
"Name's Orion. And I'm perfectly sure I wish to become an adventurer, thanks for your advice anyway." Orion, already knowing Eina's caring character from the story, smiled and replied.
He knew the dangers; nothing honestly was pushing him to become an adventurer. He could very well settle down in this world and do any other job to live his days. However, would he really?
For a man who longed all his life for something interesting to happen, for magic to be real, for him to get access to the supernatural…
Nay… he won't stop.
Not when even dying wasn't on the list to stop him. He was practically immortal in a sense. It would be such a shame if he wasted this life too in mediocrity.
The firm and robust answer from the boy made Eina purse her lips; the answer alone was enough to show that the boy had made up his mind, that wasn't changing.
She actually wished to deter him from following this profession, not something she should do as a Guild staff and an advisor, however, Eina would rather have one less working non-adventurer who was alive over a very dead one.
For a moment she stood there, conflicted over her own choice.
"Are you sure about it? Being an adventurer is quite dangerous, you know." She asked once more time, the tone almost pleading in a sense.
Orion didn't catch that tone though; for someone who mostly stayed to himself, his social skills were abysmal. He mostly took people's words at face value.
"Don't worry Miss Eina. I'm sure about it. I might not look like it, but I'm pretty strong." He flashed a grin.
Eina's face burned again at the careless grin of the boy. Her protective instincts for some unknown reason flaring up.
"Okay… I understand." She finally relented; she couldn't deny him. And if this was the final outcome, then she just had to make sure he was absolutely ready to venture inside the dungeon when he did.
'Wait… why am I already thinking of myself as his advisor…' Eina slightly jolted, the realisation making her wish to dig her head somewhere in a quiet corner.
'Gather yourself, Eina Tulle, what's wrong with you.' She screamed to herself, but…
…but that intoxicating smell coming from him. Her face blushed just by being near him.
"Hmm excuse me. You okay?" Orion asked, wondering why the girl was acting like this. Was she shy? He didn't quite remember her being this shy in the anime.
"Hmm nothing. Sorry I dazed off over something. Yes, what you were saying." Eina shook her head, putting it back into the game.
"I wanna be an adventurer."
"Ah yes, of course. So you said that you already had a Familia you wish to join, and that the Familia is new. A new god, right?" Eina asked, finally the blush and stuttering retreating for a seasoned and experienced Guild advisor coming out.
Now that she had decided to help him, she'd give her best.
"Yes."
"May I know the name of your god?" Eina asked as she took out a standard registration form for an adventurer, while recalling where the Guild had placed the documents regarding new Familia registration; there weren't one of those in quite a while now.
"Marika… Her name is Marika." Orion said as he glanced over to the floating goddess beside him, amusement playing on her face as she looked at him with a sigh.
What was that even supposed to be? Did he do something wrong!
"Goddess Marika, hmm I never heard of her. From which pantheon does she belong?" She asked, internally fact-checking whether she forgot any goddess named Marika.
'Pantheon… how am I supposed to know that? What should I say, Dark Souls pantheon?' Orion pondered and ultimately made his decision.
"She's not from any pantheon. A stand-alone goddess."
"Not from any pantheon…" Eina's eyes narrowed. She knew there were gods who didn't belong to any pantheons like Buddha, but he was a special case; there weren't many special cases like him.
"Okay, here is your adventurer registration form. Please fill it. As for registration of your Familia, I would need your goddess to come here for that."
"Ah… okay." Orion sighed; he knew this would happen.
"So when should I bring my goddess here, Miss Eina?" Orion pondered the best time to bring Marika so she didn't attract too much attention. Miyazaki knows the last thing he needed right now was attention.
Especially on his eccentric goddess.
"Hmm, honestly tomorrow should be the best. Guild usually doesn't have registration forms for new Familia handy, it's quite a rare occurrence, you see." Eina replied with a soft smile.
"Okay, then perhaps tomorrow early morning will do?"
'Early morning?
Isn't this already morning?
When is he planning to come?' Eina's eyes drifted to the clock on the wall. It was 6 in the morning.
He wasn't planning on coming even earlier, was he?
"Good then, so I'm good to go in the dungeon, right?" Orion asked, a bit excited over once again delving into the fights and getting stronger.
"Oh no… not at all. You need to get the right gear and education before you step your foot inside the dungeon, you hear me." Eina almost screamed, like she had dealt with this kind of situation quite often.
She slightly leaned forward, eyes narrowed as she said with authoritative tone.
"First order of business is to get yourself an advisor, then you have to take a few necessary classes with your advisor to learn everything about the dungeon you need to know, and only then you're allowed to go dungeon delving."
"Ah, okay. I already have the gear so let's choose an advisor and then let's be done with the dungeon schooling…" Orion muttered, already put off by the name of lessons.
Huffing, she finally motioned her hand around, showing him all the Guild staff.
"You can choose any staff member from here to become your advisor, of course they have to agree as well. The advisor for new adventurers is not mandatory but a necessary investment." Her tone softened, recalling just how many new adventurers lost their lives just because they didn't heed their advisors or didn't have one.
They were especially new adventurers who didn't have backing from a strong Familia, no one to mentor them.
Just like Orion here.
Orion just nodded as to quickly get through the entire process like clicking the skip button on a dialogue box.
"You can ask anyone here…" She said and then slowly trailed off for a second,
"Or if you wish I can play the role of the—"
"Yes… please be my maiden…"
"Huh…" Eina blinked. What did he just say!
"I mean advisor… advisor…"
xXx
A/N: What do you think, like the story so far? By the way tell me if you like the conversation between the characters, I'm not usually good in that area. Tell me how to improve. Also please give this story some stones, comment to improve its ranking