Victor rubbed the sleep off his eyes. It was another morning and another day of work. He had gone to sleep way too late last night and woken up far too early. He got up from his bed, dragging the sheet off to the edge before he placed a foot on the floor, followed closely by the other. He walked, still half asleep, into the bathroom, splashing some cold water on his face to fully wake up. He rubbed his face, trying to make the sluggish feeling go away, grabbed the towel and immediately went to take a shower. Once he was out of the bathroom, he threw in a grey pair of jeans along with a ripped T shirt. He wore his favorite pair of combat shoes and stood in front of the mirror, a small comb in his hand as he tried to get his hair to behave. Once he was done and had his trusted red cap over his head, Victor was ready to head out, grabbing the request paper off his table as he did so.

Magnolia was quite a beautiful town and the people were also relatively nice. Some of them, especially the Rune Knights he had talked to, knew his sister too, and they talked quite a lot over some drinks or food about this and that. All in all, it was a good place to stay in for a couple of days. The atmosphere itself was quite spirited. Despite it being summer and the sun here being worse than it was in Hargeon, Victor was surprised to see people still out and about, busy with their daily lives. Most of them simply liked to take a stroll around the South Gate Park of Magnolia, too. Coincidentally enough, that was where Vic was going today.

He walked into the park, looking around at the neatly kept structure of it. It was built in a wide circular area with a huge fountain at the very middle. Circling it was pathways, sakura trees and flowers growing on each side. It was a beautiful little park that anyone would opt for to simply enjoy themselves and Victor, too, felt that the gentle wind around the area was calming his nerves down. There were many benches, some made out of stone and some made out of wood, painted in white, placed around the park for people to sit and read or do whatever in.

Victor sat in one such bench, waiting for Captain Devon, the one who had written the request to arrive. Thankfully, that didn’t take too long because the tall adventurer was soon approached by a bulky figure wearing the city guard’s uniform. He looked up when the captain’s shadow fell on him and stood up when he realized it was his client. “Hello,” Victor greeted him, getting back the same reply in a heavy voice. This man seemed like he was busy, like he wanted to be somewhere else after getting this over with. “I’ll give you the basic details. The city guards need more recruits. It doesn’t matter who you get. As long as that person is willingly ready to defend the future of Magnolia, we need them,” He gave her a clipboard with several papers attached to it. “Get me some names and contact info of such people. I’ll come back in the evening,” the captain said, not even waiting for Victor’s reply and walked away hurriedly, his eyes falling to his watch every now and then. “What a busy man,” Vic sighed, looking down on the white, empty sheets of papers. Was he supposed to fill it all up?

For the rest of the morning, Victor spend his time trying to recruit people for the city guards position. He did attract quite a lot of attention just by taking his cap off but none of the girl and a few boys that gathered around him and went heart eyed was actually interested in the duties as a city guard. He had to send them all away politely, dismissing each of them except one girl that seemed to be just as interested in the city guards as much as she seemed interested in the pink haired adventurer.

For the next few hours, he found no luck. Most of the people that saw him, either walked past him like he didn’t exist or gave him a weird look before passing by. Even the ones that stopped out of curiosity simply waved their hands around and dismissed the idea before slowly pulling themselves back. It made her wonder if the job of a city guard was that bad. From what he knew, the position was definitely risky but it wasn’t something to scoff at or overlook. After all, they are the ones that protected the city from harm.

An hour intense sweating later, Victor managed to grab the attention of a pair of twins, both having slightly blue hair parted in the middle, one to the right, and the other to the left. They both spoke at the same time but looked genuinely interested in the idea of joining as a city guard. They both gave him their names, spelling it out as he wrote it down and then gave the clipboard over to them for them to write their address and contact info down themselves. They did so before walking off, leaving Vic alone for another long hour.

The next one he met, he highly doubted was a city guard material. This man had piercings literally everywhere on his body and sported a mean look. He seemed to like spikes and tattoos a lot too. All in all, this guy seemed like the type that would be a gangster rather than a city guard. But strangely enough, once he opened his mouth, Victor was surprised to hear the sound of a girl. He was definitely a guy but he had the soft and fine sound of a female. But he was genuinely interested in the position. Well, that taught him not to judge a book by its covers.

The last interesting encounter of the day was definitely the little schoolgirl that approached him with a bashful look. When she first appeared, her cheeks red and hands trembling, Vic was genuinely expecting some strange confession like ‘I have fallen in love at first sight’ but he turned to be the one with an ego because the girl stared intently at the clipboard, opening and closing her mouth now and then as if she wanted to say something but she couldn’t. “what is it?” he had to ask finally but pursed his lips together when the girl flinched and took a step back. But she quickly gathered enough courage to stutter but make out words like City guard, join, and sign up. And of course, Vic was no idiot because he could clearly understand what she wanted just from those disconnected words. He gave her the clipboard, watched as she shyly filled her details in, neatly and carefully. Once she was done, she thrust the clipboard at him and ran away, leaving a confused Victor back. He wasn’t sure how this girl would make it in the ranks of a city guard when she couldn’t even look at someone’s face and talk properly.

The rest of the evening passed by uneventfully. Nothing of importance happened other than a few people ignoring him again, and some others giving him strange glances, again, and some, a very few amount of people, coming up to him because they were genuinely interested in the idea of becoming a city guard. Working after about three was much easier since the sun wasn’t as difficult on him as before. He managed to enjoy a cool breeze that flew over the park and even get some ice cream while he took a break.

When Captain Devon came back a few hours later, Victor already had slightly more than twenty names and contact details listed on the blank papers. He looked pleased as Victor relayed all the events of the day, the bigger highlight being the gangster like man that had turned out to be a very soft hearted guy. The captain looked pleased at that. He seemed to be glad that more and more people were willing to join now. He thanked Victor greatly, handing over his reward and sending him off with a friendly pat on the back.

1406/1400