Not wrong.

...she feels a bit put on the spot but most importantly kind of confused that she's being trusted with something like this when this is literally the first mission she's doing with them and they don't even know if they're going to be a party in the long term (and the odds are in fact against that). Not that she's going to use any of this against them, obviously, but still. "I could do that?"

"—even if we're not going to party in the long term, acting like we're expecting hostile action from each other makes us less effective and good at achieving our goals. At least for the duration of our mission we should ally in deed, not just in word."

She blinks.

"He just does that," sighs Annika. "Guesses what you're thinking like that."

"Well. Alright. I can do that."

"Excellent, we can meet in the central plaza later to debrief."

Lucky is now having a small problem in that she... doesn't know exactly what to do. Get information, kind of generally, about the current state of things in Arunafeltz, is really vague as a goal, especially when it doesn't even have to be mission-critical. 

...but she'd just been thinking that proper adventures are nosy, so she can just follow her nose. The way she sees it, there are two main things she could do: figure out what problems people have, or investigate further what the political situation is that was being hinted at by the conversation between Niren and Zhed. And between those two, the choice is obvious, to her.

In addition to the standard Eden bounties that are available to everyone at the lounges, major cities (and a few minor ones) have their own bounty boards. Some of the bounties posted there are just the same as the ones posted elsewhere, but others are local, many of which don't even have a proper registration with Eden. A few don't even involve actually hunting anything, which means you can't grow your Stats or Skills with them.

Eden allows anyone to post bounties to their boards like that, with the understanding that if a board starts to fill up those will be the first ones to go in order to make room for Eden bounties. They're distinguishable from Eden's by the lack of an official seal and, of course, you don't get Eden merit from completing them, and there's no guarantee that the bounties are even real let alone that they'll pay up if completed.

Still, Eden does offer to track their completion, and there's a kind of "street cred" you get from doing them, with a certain type of adventurer, when you help people out of the goodness of your heart.

She doesn't keep track of that, though. Or, she does, but in the sense that she's aware that's a dynamic that exists, but she does not want to do these quests for street cred, she wants to do them to help people, which is the whole point of adventuring, in her opinion.

(Lucky might in fact just be "a certain type of adventurer".)

In any event, she goes to look at the bounty board to see if she can find anything enlightening there. Her eyes are immediately drawn to a "Wanted" poster, one of the unofficial bounties, and several things are striking about it.

One, it was posted earlier today, two, bounties for people are pretty rare and usually tend to have reasonably powerful targets, but that's almost certainly not the case for this particular target because, three, the target is a teenage boy. At least going by the picture.

His name is Phobe, and he's suspected of having stolen a jewel from High Priest Zhed. He used to work in Zhed's estate as an assistant to the house servants, but he disappeared a few days ago and shortly after it was found out that the jewel was missing.

Why... is the bounty for the boy and not for the jewel. Why is the kid wanted, rather than just a suspect in a crime. Why is this a bounty at all and not something the city guard is dealing with on its own.

This is extremely suspicious.

Well, the first thing to investigate is probably the people who posted the bounty and get more details about it. Who would that be?

The bounty was posted by the city guard itself, actually! It doesn't say where to find them, though; probably they assume anyone likely to see the bounty would know?

Well, she doesn't. Is there a city guard person nearby she can ask for directions?

Yeah, over yonder. 

"Freyja light your path, adventurer. How can I help you?"

Why is everyone here so fixated on Freyja.

"Hi! So, um, I saw this bounty, well, this wanted poster on the bounty board, and I'd like to know more about it? It was posted by the city guard so I assume I should inquire further with you guys."

"Ah, yes, for the thief?" he says, nostrils flaring in barely-disguised contempt. "You can ask more at the station; go south along that road and it's the second block after the markets."

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome. Freyja go with you."

...yeah, something like that. She has no idea how to respond to that stuff so she just nods kind of stiffly then goes where she was told to go.

The markets are obvious enough, large tents or carts set up next to the road with people peddling food (as it's nearing lunch time), baubles, souvenirs, religious icons, arts and crafts, and all other manners of such things. A few side streets are also lined with stores, usually smaller or more specialised ones, and the bustle suggests that this is actually where most locals do their own shopping, too, not just tourists and visitors.

And as promised, the station is reasonably easy to find once she's walked hovered past those. A large shield with Ræl's coat of arms hangs above an imposing building with one person wearing the uniform and mask and carrying the scimitars typical of the guard to either side of the door.

Once she's inside, though, the reception is not a very large room, with a desk and a waiting area and several doors leading further into the building. There is a glass wall from the top of the desks to the ceiling, protecting the people behind them, with only small little holes for sound to go through. But there isn't anyone in there at the moment other than two people manning the desks and another guard standing at attention.

Alright cool then there's an obvious place to go. "Excuse me?"

The slightly portly woman with pale blonde curls straightens up at her desk. "Hello, dear, is there something you need?"

(The tired, bestubbled man at the other desk continues looking tired and bestubbled. The oddly nebbishy guard-on-duty looks at her with mild interest.)

Oh, wow, someone in this country who didn't immediately say grace as their greeting, that's her first.

"Um, hi, yes, I saw the wanted poster on the bounty board and wanted to inquire about it?"