In the end, I got Katsuki to go ahead and sign up as a Guild member after, although she did swear that she would train herself to be of use to me to support me.
I paid for my Inugami maid’s registration from my own pocket and set her up to be tested by one of the trainers of the branch.
Jack and his party followed us to the training room which, surprisingly, was overseen by a male Meslatar.
Unlike me, he was a full grown adult and his wings were on full display as was his tail, the scales on his tail being a dark brown colour.
He received the registration form from me and took a look at Katsuki who had changed out of her maid uniform and into a set of borrowed practice gear.
“She’s the one looking to sign up?” He asked.
I nodded.
“Then you must be really rich to not mind wasting your money or you have some kind of fetish seeing your slave getting beat up.”
I narrowed my eyes and used my [Screen] on him.
<strong>[Name: Deah</strong>
<strong>Title: Guild Trainer</strong>
<strong>Race: Meslatar</strong>
<strong>Stats:</strong>
<strong>62 Strength</strong>
<strong>20 Dexterity</strong>
<strong>50 Endurance</strong>
<strong>10 Magic</strong>
<strong>Skills:</strong>
<strong>Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier 1), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 3), Greatsword Proficiency (Tier 3)), Hunting (Tier 2), Aerial Manoeuvre (Tier 2)]</strong>
Comparing his stats to Katsuki’s I suppose I can see why he might be of that opinion.
<strong>[Name: Katsuki</strong>
<strong>Title: None</strong>
<strong>Race: Inugami</strong>
<strong>Stats:</strong>
<strong>13 Strength</strong>
<strong>30 Dexterity</strong>
<strong>15 Endurance</strong>
<strong>32 Magic</strong>
<strong>Skills:</strong>
<strong>Assassination (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 1), Throwing Proficiency (Tier 1))</strong>
<strong>Magic Skills:</strong>
<strong>Umbramancy (Tier 1), Pyromancy (Tier 2), Mana Management (Tier 1)]</strong>
She still stood a chance to pass since there wasn’t a need to beat him. As long as Katsuki could convince him through their spar that she was good enough to be a Mercenary, she would be accepted.
Nevertheless, I turned to Katsuki to let her decide if she would proceed.
“Mistress had placed your faith in me. Then please allow me to prove my worth to you,” She requested with her fist over her chest.
The trainer shrugged, “If you guys have decided then I won’t stop you I guess. Go on and pick any weapon from the wall. I shall be unarmed, but do not think that is a sign that I am looking down on you. I will let you pass if you impress me enough.”
Katsuki nodded in understanding, probably because she’s seen me take out a Hell Wolf Alpha with my bare hands before.
She went up to the weapons rack and took two wooden daggers before moving towards the sparring area where the trainer was waiting for her.
He raised an eyebrow at her choice of weapons, “Daggers? Well, I suppose anything else would have been too big for you… Alright then, before we start, I am Deah, Guild Trainer for the Latipac Guild.”
My Inugami maid responded by raising her daggers in a defensive posture, “I am Katsuki, servant for my Mistress, Lady Aster.”
Deah then took out a coin and flipped it into the air, the sound of the coin hitting the ground being the signal for their duel to start.
Deah charged forward immediately, his fist raised and punching towards Katsuki’s chest. Judging by his stance, he believed that he could end the test right there and then.
He paid for his arrogance with Katsuki sidestepping the blow and delivering a slash with her wooden dagger along his outstretched arm. Had that been a real blade, Deah would now have a nasty gash along his elbow and to his shoulder.
To his credit, he recovered quickly and leapt back, barely dodging from the second slash that Katsuki sent towards where his neck had been.
That’s right, Katsuki may not be as strong and durable as he is, but she’s definitely fast. Her duel with me had also made her aware of how outclassed she was and she had already made some improvements to herself.
There’s no use to all that strength of his if he couldn’t land a hit on her.
Katsuki seized the initiative this time and charged towards him, ducking underneath the tail whip he tried to send her way and leaping over Deah’s kick to deliver a kick of her own across his head.
Deah managed to recover quickly to deflect her stab away, his other hand reaching out in an attempt to grab her.
Katsuki didn’t give him the chance as she retreated out of range quickly, adjusting her grip on her daggers for her next move.
The Meslatar trainer leapt forward with a quick flap of his wings, buffeting the area with a gust of wind at the same time.
Katsuki held her ground and deflected the jab Deah sent towards her face with the flat of her blade, opening up his arm for a few quick slashes from her other dagger.
He tried to counter with a right hook but Katsuki merely ducked under the blow and gave him another slash along his side, pulling back her hands before he could try to grab her.
It’s clear that it would be Katsuki’s loss if Deah managed to catch her, but my maid is much faster than he was and could avoid him rather easily.
Still, the moment Katsuki makes one mistake would be her defeat.
Katsuki dashed in again, throwing a few feints that he ignored to try and stab his chest.
Deah was ready for it and his hand was already moving to intercept her.
Fortunately, she managed to pull her hand back at the last second but that opened her up to a snap kick in her abdomen.
I winced as I watched her roll onto the ground, that attack should have done quite a lot of damage.
Deah rushed towards her while she was trying to get up, his hands stretched towards the side in preparation to grab her.
Katsuki reacted quickly by throwing one of her daggers at him, forcing him to slow down for a split second to dodge it.
Feeling emboldened by the loss of one of her weapons, Deah continued his advance towards her which proved to be a mistake.
Fire blasted out from Katsuki’s empty hand, enveloping the Meslatar trainer in a sea of flames.
Katsuki pulled back, expecting that to be the end of the match.
Unfortunately, she fell victim to the trope of letting her guard down too early as Deah emerged from the flames, slightly burnt but still in the fight.
He grabbed her by her collar and slammed her to the ground, pinning her underneath him.
“Heh… I suppose I should apologise for looking down on you earlier. You pass, Miss Katsuki.”
He moved back to show that Katsuki had managed to move her hand at the last moment to bring the dagger to his neck.
Though it might look like she had won, she wouldn’t have enough leverage to slice open his neck in that position and Deah could still easily snap her neck with his hand.
Still, he probably had already intended to pass her the moment Katsuki showed off her swiftness and battle senses at the very start.
He got up and offered his hand to her, which Katsuki chose not to take and got up on her own. Obviously my Inugami maid was still upset with him over the fact that he looked down on us.
A woman came by after a while and used some healing magic on the both of them. It looked like it wasn’t a perfect heal since some burns still remained on Deah and Katsuki was still nursing her abdomen from the kick.
The healer assured me that it would get better in the next hour or so.
Katsuki came up to me, “Mistress, I apologise for the embarrassing display.”
I patted her head, “What are you talking about, Katsuki? You passed! That’s something to be proud of!”
Jack backed me up, “Yeah! That was really impressive, little girl! You’re what? Twelve? Yet you managed to hold your ground against a veteran! That’s something to be proud of!”
“Mistress is better than I am,” Katsuki announced as a matter of factly.
Melissa giggled, “Oh, come now. You’re just saying that. Besides, she’s obviously older than you so that’s quite natural.”
Katsuki turned to me and I shook my head, no reason for them to know everything about us though.
But as though the World was conspiring against me, Deah came up to us as well and laughed, “Ha! The lady is no more than ten years old by my reckoning!”
“Eh? But she looks like she’s at least eighteen though?” Markus protested.
The other Meslatar grinned, “You guys aren’t familiar with Meslatars I take it? Our bodies mature fast, though other Meslatars can guess your age by the scales on your tail. It doesn’t look that mature yet so to us we definitely know you’re still a youngling. Also, you don’t have your wings yet, unless you’re adept at Somatomancy which I doubt you are.”
He narrowed his eyes at my tail and I got really conscious of it so I hid it behind me.
He grinned, “Yep. Definitely ten years old at most. But you got me curious with what the little maid said. You’re stronger than her? What do you think about sparring with me?”
I took Katsuki’s stamped registration form from his hands and smiled, “I think you should mind your own business.”
Without a second glance back, I turned and walked out of the training hall with Katsuki in tow, ignoring the stunned looks from the others.
What? I’m not just going to fight just because someone asked!