"That's right!"

The new voice I don't fully recognize joining in makes perfect sense. Get a bag! Even if it's not exactly uncommon to see blood when you work with an Adventurer's Guild, it's still terribly uncouth to---

Hey?

Hey hey hey?!

Why is something grabbing my waist what's going on why is the floor so much further way now what why?!

Something's wrapped around me and lifted me up, and now that I have a better view of it it's clearly a tail, attached to a woman. A lamia? I knew there was a lamia here as one of the adventurers but what is she doing?! Why is she doing this?! Why did she think this was okay?!

"H-h-hey!"

Who does this? Who sees someone and just decides they're going to pick them up?! What part of her mind thought this was an acceptable course of action?! I reach down and tug at her tail, pulling at the scaly coils to try and free myself. But from here, with them being what's lifting me fully into the air, it's not like it's easy to get a grip. Damn it---!

"Wh-what are you doing!? Wh-why?!" I cry, unable to connect any chain of reasonable thought in my mind that would make her actions acceptable, "Y-you can't just go picking someone up!"

I'm a Paladin of Reon, too! It's not acceptable to do this to anyone, but I'm sworn to Reon's Justice! Can't you show even a little bit of respect?! That dumb, overly-flashy showoff ingvarr is running her mouth again, too, but it's hard to focus on that when the lamia decided it was okay to pick me up!

[hr]

With a concerned expression, one of the receptionists, a brunette with a short side ponytail tied in a blue ribbon, pointed out the mess that Hrefna's proof of quest completion was making on the floor. Really, they did tend to prefer that anything particularly gruesome was put in a bag to be taken up to the counter. With the other receptionists preoccupied at the moment, it had fallen on her to do something about it.

In this case, that meant letting the other staff know.

The guild staff who handled cleaning and the food and drink were composed of girls in simple dresses and aprons, many of whom lived nearby and sought out a consistent, well-paying job. That being said, some of them were certainly not so happy to be dealing with orc blood, but they couldn't leave it there either. Especially now that one of the receptionists had pointed it out and asked for their assistance.

As such, warm water and other cleaning implements were being applied to the worst spots on the floor. Normally this would wait until the end of the day when business died down, but leaving the blood there was a unsavory prospect.

At the very least, it seemed as if the crowd near the job listings had thinned a little bit. It wouldn't be so hard to take a look, now.