"Good question, Miss La Cour."

"I'm Shiroe. Strategist, Level 3. I'm from out of town. I'm interested in forming a party. I'd also like to know the benefits and obligations of guild membership." This woman seemed to value efficiency, so he spoke quickly and clearly, so as not to waste her time.

She picked up the cadence of Shiroe's sentence without missing a beat. "Welcome to Avana, Mister Shiroe. What's your city of origin?"

"Akihabara, Nippon, Earth."

She glared at him briefly over the top of her glasses, as if trying to decide if he was serious.

"I'm sorry, Mister Shiroe," she began, opening a file cabinet and aggressively leafing through the many folders within, visually double-checking what she was already saying, "but I don't believe we have any record a nation named Nippon on the Isle of Earth. Or are you perhaps referring to some informal group operating out of the Earth Temple in the Blackrock Jungle?"

"Neither. I was born on Earth. Earth is a planet."

Amellia froze entirely, her jaw slowly hanging open. She took off her glasses, checked something on them, and put them back on. Shiroe thought he noticed a faint magical glow flare up around the edges of the lenses.

"Could you repeat that statement, please, sir?"

"I was born on the planet Earth." Shiroe said this very slowly and carefully, just so there could be no mistaking it.

"(He's telling the truth,)" she mouthed to herself. "ah... this is highly irregular... one moment, please..." Amellia dug a small, leatherbound handbook out of her vest pocket, and thumbed through it to a rarely-used page in the back. When she found the correct page, she scanned it, took a deep breath, and read verbatim:

"Legendary Traveller From Beyond Asteria's Womb / Take Pity On Absoterra And Deliver Us From Our Doom / Slay The Mighty Demon Queen And All Her Evil Minions / Restore The Sacred Balance Of The Four Righteous Dominons / For Though We Are Not Worthy And..." Amellia's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Though You Come From Dirt! / We've Kept The Pacts Of Asteria's Boosm, Womb And Skirt / So Go Forth, Mighty Hero, Be The Tool Of Our Reprieval / And Reprimand The Demon Queen And Free Us From Her Evil."

Silence filled the great hall as the receptionist finished reciting the ancient poem. The other adventurers hadn't seen her do anything like this before.

"What a quaint way of welcoming new adventurers to the Guild,"Shiroe said, subtly trying to downplay the significance of what she'd just read. "I like the poem. The rhyme scheme is solid, although the meter could use a little work..."