As we reached the periphery of the town 'Horaud'. The first thing that caught my attention was the familiar large stone gate, 'the entrance of the Orcus Labyrinth.'
The gate filled me with nostalgia, reminding me of the time I spent training with Shizuku, [Now that I think about it, it's been over three months since I left them.] While lost in memories, I heard Myu calling me.
"Papa, papa… what's that big gate?" Myu asked, her sky-blue eyes full of curiosity saying 'Tell me, tell me…'
"That's the entrance of the Orcus labyrinth, where dangerous monsters live. It is an extremely dangerous place for normal people to go near there. So, you should never go there on your own, unless you are with me, big brother or big sisters, you understand." I said the last part sternly.
"Un," Myu nodded cutely.
"Good girl," I ruffle Myu's hair.
"Papa stup that… It tickles, hehehe~…"
Shea, Tohru, Yue and Tio seeing me acting like a father muttered to themselves.
"Hey, Rihito is now totally acting like a father isn't he," Tio.
"Yeah, he is. It's really nice seeing him like this." Shea responded, with a smile thinking about her future with Rihito.
Tohru, listening to their gossip, looked at Rihito, considering something, she then observed Shea for a moment and checked herself. Finally coming to a decision, she looked at Rihito. However, this time her eyes held a depth that hadn't been there a moment ago.
"..."
Yue seeing Myu acting all cute looked at Hajime. Hajime noticing her gaze looked at her with questioning eyes.
Yue looked into his eyes and said, "I want a child."
Hajime's brows rose in surprise and fell silent. He thought about it for a moment and responded straight, "After we are out of this world."
Yue in response was slightly disappointed that she couldn't have his child now. But she was also happy Hajime was open to the idea of having a child.
Tio hearing the discussion of Hajime and Yue says with twinkling eyes, "Master… I am also available for pro…"
"Your existence is enough of a joke already, don't make it worse," Hajime knowing what Tio was about to say cut her off harshly.
Sadly, for him instead of discouraging her, it made her squirm in her seat.
"Master haa… haa… you are so harsh haa… haa…"
Rihito with twitching eyes, complained, "Oii, don't talk about these things in front of Myu." he complained while his hand covered Myu's ears.
"Papa… I can't hear anything."
…
Taking Myu in my arms, we headed towards the Guild. It was about a Km away from the entrance and the labyrinth right at the centre of the town.
After walking for a while, the entrance of the guild was visible, where few guards were standing as the adventurers entered or exited the guild.
Myu saw the guild building and exclaimed in excitement, "Wow~, papa look it's a castle."
"Yeah," I nodded.
Unlike the other guild building which has a fantasy feeling to it. The adventurer guild building of 'Horaud' was more of a fortress.
As we entered the Guild, from inside many burly-looking adventurers looked in our direction. They looked rough and had many scars on their faces which gave an intimidating feeling to others.
"Eeek!" Myu seeing the scary adventurers screamed in fright and clung on to me tightly.
"Papa, I am scared," she said, shaking.
Rihito seeing her like this tried to calm her but, a burly guy with a scar on his left eye came out of nowhere and said, "Hey ya… kiddos. Get the hell outa here. This isn't ya place for pipsquick brats like ya. Now, piss off before I make ya."
"..."
Ignoring the burly guy, who suddenly started to ramble about how great of an adventurer he is. I said to Shivering Myu, "It's ok Myu, I am here."
While I said that I grabbed the adventurer's skull and bashed his head on the floor.
"Boom!"
The impact cracked the floor and knocked out the nuisance. Rihito wanted to put a little more force but thought he better not or he might pop this guy's head.
"..."
On the other side, Hajime who was also ticked off seeing Myu cry blasted his <Pressure > making most of the adventurer faint and few who were still awake, they immediately looked away deciding not to get involved in this. They were not dumb enough to threaten someone who could easily deal with a white rank. 'No thanks, they are good.'
Rihito scanned there was nothing scary in sight and called out to Myu, "It alright now Myu, all the scary people are now asleep."
"..."
Tio seeing them both acting like this mumbled, "Rihito and Hajime have totally become father and brother haven't they," hearing her comment all the girls nodded in unison.
After taking care of pesky adventurers we went towards the receptionist, "Sorry for the mess. I am sure that guy will happily pay for the damages." I said with a 'kind smile'.
"Ah! Yes…You are right." the receptionist slightly jumpy responded.
"I want to see the Guild master here. We have a letter from Fuhren Guild master for him." shifting gears I say what we hear for.
"A direct request from Fuhren guild master," The receptionist's eyes widened upon hearing that. She then as protocol asked, "May I see your status plate?"
"Sure," I then pulled out my card and handed it to the receptionist.
The receptionist taking the card looked at the rank and there she saw the golden emblem of the guild which she had only heard until this day. For a second, she was confused, but processing what it actually was she screamed out, "Gold?!!!!!"
"..."
"..."
Hearing the rank of the new guy all the adventurers who stayed out of the previous conflict sighed in relief, and those who were planning to ambush them outside immediately scrap the idea.
"That dumbass really picked a fight with a gold, how stupid."
"Hahaha… you said it."
"Well, it can't be helped no one expected them to be a gold rank."
Hearing the adventurer muttering, the receptionist apologized for carelessly exposing private information by screaming, "I-I am so sorry! I shouldn't have screamed like that."
"No worries can you please inform the guild master? It getting awkward here."
"Yes, please come with me." the receptionist took us to the upper floor where the guild master's office lay.
…
Inside the office, Roa Bawavis the guild master of 'Horaud' completes reading the letters from Ilwa and Catherine, then looks at us with exaggeration.
"You guys are really something," Roa couldn't help but slump on his chair after reading their track record. He is a tall, brown skin man with a bald head and a long scar on his left eye which is blind.
He wants to call all this bullshit. But they have the recommendation letter from teacher Catharine and his good friend Ilwa. There is no way they will recommend someone insignificant to gold rank.
Sighing to himself Roa speaks, "I have no problem giving you guys my recommendation and signing this document, but."
Roa clasped his hands and looked with a sharp look, "Why are you guys in such a hurry to climb the ranks."
To Roa, it seems suspicious. After completing Ilwa's request, why would someone face an army of 60000 monsters without any assistance and then take down one of the strong underground organisations the next day?
No matter how many times Roa thinks about it they had to have an ulterior motive, the question is whether it is harmful to the guild or not.
"..."
"..."
For a moment silence rained except for a little girl's munching sound which everyone ignored.
"Well, if you want to know we could tell you, but it will take time, and as you can see, currently we are in between a quest," I said looking at Myu munching on sweets.
"But, if you still wanted to know more, you could ask the guild master, Ilwa. He's aware of our objectives," I said. As I was talking, Myu noticed my gaze and held a cookie to my mouth, which I gladly accepted and ate.
"I see… if Ilwa knows about it and still trusts you. Then I guess, I will do the same," Roa sighed in exhaustion giving up on asking more and signing the document. He then tucked the letter back inside the envelope and returned it to us.
"He then looked at us with an authoritative gaze and said, "From this point onwards, I, Roa Bawavis, officially promote Rihito Sakai, Hajime Nagumo, Yue, Shea Haulia, Tohru, and Tio Klarus to the gold rank. Congratulations to you all. From now on we will expect great things from you." Roa then shook hands with us."
In the middle of my handshake through my <Mana Sense> I sense someone entering the guild frantically.
[So, it happening,] I sat down.
…
Endou, after finally getting out of the dungeon ran towards the guild with all of his might, [I…need to hurry…] he burst inside the guild.
"Help, hah… I need hah… to tak… guid… Master, please!!!" Endou completely exhausted said somehow.
The receptionist sees Endou in all four gets near him and says, "Sir you need to calm down, I am unable to understand anything you said, please rest for a moment."
Endou taking deep breaths says again, "PLEASE CALL THE GUILD MASTER NOW, THERE DEMONS INSIDE THE DUNGOUN. THE HERO'S PARTY IS IN DANGER, WE NEED HELP…please."
"..."
"..."
The receptionist after processing the situation became pale, "WHAT!!"
Endou looked around to see if any strong adventurers were nearby, but to his desperation, the guild was almost empty.
"I understand please come with me, we need to immediately inform the guild master," she then took him to the office.
"Knock Knock"
"Come in," a rough voice said.
The receptionist headed inside and said with a slight panic, "Guild master we were informed…"
Endou in a hurry cut the receptionist off and said "THERE ARE DEMONS IN THE DUENGOUN…"
…
"Chapter end"
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Author note:
Hello guys, you see after reading some comments about how my ff is sounding more like a story them a novel. Reading that I was confused. Isn't every ff is a story of a character, so, I did some digging about it and found it has something to do with the over-explanation of the background and tried to fix that in this chapter. What do you guys think, Did this chapter turn out alright? if not can you guys point out the parts where are the problems?
While writing this chapter I got a fever and a nasty cold. So, I gonna take a rest for a few days.
The chapters will come weekly until my Patreon is up.
(If you like my story, give me power stones. If you don't have power stones. Then please comment, and Rate my FanFiction. It will motivate me plenty to write more. Thank you.)