The mighty and the fallen

*Fwoosh*

A strong puff of smoke covered the old woman's face, she grabbed the cigar she was smoking with two fingers and sucked the smoke in deeply before taking it out of her mouth and flicking her wrist back.

Her face was serious.

"Nayana it's been 3 whole days since you told me to wait! We must take action!" an old man sputtered out.

The man was shaking his fist and straining his voice to yell out the words with as much ferocity as he could muster, his words were as if they were begging the woman, but his tone was venomous.

"Now now Rupert, is that any way to ask a favour?" the old woman croaked, her left eyebrow lifting itself inquisitively.

"Your grandson clearly wrote down his name into the dungeon logs before entering, you yourself proved it to me that it was indeed his own handwriting and signature that we found there, correct?" she continued, staring at the shaking old man.

"Yes Nayana I am well aware…" the old man kept his tone in check but the suppressed animosity wasn't hard to detect.

"Then you must also be 'well aware' of how our guild deals with such things? Hm?"

"NAYANA!" The old man leapt out of his chair, pushing himself up by his cane.

"We are not talking about some random adventurer! This is my grandson! He wouldn't be one to make a stupid mistake and get himself killed; we need to investigate this immediately! He could very well be trapped in there! Kidnapped! Abducted! We cannot chalk his disappearance up as easily as we could any other person!"

The old woman's serious face now had a wry smile creeping across it, her wrinkles looked even deeper afterwards.

"I wonder… what part of you is requesting this of me so desperately?" she asked with a bemused expression.

Rupert restrained his emotions after hearing that question

Nayana snuffed out her cigar with her fingertip and flicked her eyes up at Rupert.

"Are you speaking as the ex-guild master who wants the best for your comrades? Or as a grandfather?"

Her smile didn't waiver.

"You… why you… "

Rupert, who had sprung up from his seat, slowly sunk himself back onto the soft cushions of the chair.

"Nayana… please…"

Hearing this, Nayana's eyes opened a bit wider.

"Wow! Did you go from yelling at a superior to now begging? Oh, how the mighty have fallen~" she exclaimed, her voice going mockingly higher as the sentence went on.

Hearing this, Rupert felt fury rising up his chest, he wanted to take his cane and show the old hag that a cane and a sword weren't as different as they seemed; but he suppressed every single instinct he had and clenched his fists tightly.

The once loud room fell silent.

Nayana lightly tapped her desk twice and without warning, the drawers of her desk opened up and a cigar sprung out of it and fell into the opening between her fingers, lighting up in a flame without even a glance.

She stared at Rupert for a while, enjoying both her cigar and the joy of having a former rival have to beg her.

"Tell Frankie to organise a 4 man search party, and E rank adventurers or lower only, we can't afford to miss any important quests that come our way," Nayana said, breaking the silence.

Rupert on hearing this felt no hope.

'E and lower? Might as well just give me a wooden leg and throw me down there!' he thought, admonishing the old woman's actions.

However, having little help was already much better than having none. Rupert wanted to stay there and convince Nayana to increase the quality or quantity of adventurers for the search party but he knew that she wouldn't budge.

'I've had to talk with this wretched person for 30 years and she's managed to get worse every single day!' he cursed internally.

Rupert had no time to waste.

The old man pushed himself up by his cane and walked across her lavish office, even if this was the guild of a small city, the guild leader's office was extravagantly furnished. Rupert gazed longingly at the soft brown carpet before hobbling on outside.

----

The guild, however small, was buzzing with commotion.

Cal was a well-known face around there as the previous Guild leader's grandson, most veteran adventurers that had been active in the Black Bear guilds past had worked with Rupert extensively; some even more so than Nayana.

"Only E and F-ranks? How can those guys possibly go as far down as Cal did?" Frankie said incredulously after hearing what Rupert said.

Frankie was an energetic man in his late 30's, besides his bright orange hair, the moustache that adorned his face was his most eccentric factor. Upon Cal's disappearance, his previous energy had dwindled quite a bit.

Frankie twirled his moustache with one hand while he frowned at the mission report in front of him.

Rupert sighed, "I had to beg that hag for 3 days to get even this much... even if it's close to nothing... we need to work with what we got!"

Frankie solemnly nodded.

Rupert gazed at the 4 adventurers who had signed up for the mission. They were all E ranks.

The guild was banned from disallowing any who fit the qualifications of a quest to not take it but every F-rank that came close to signing up and taking one of the spots of the search team had Rupert's swift cane smack the pen out of their hand.

Rupert wanted to save face as one of the ex-guild leaders, but this was a time when he had to set aside his appointed position in favour of his one as a grandfather.

The conditions to progress from G-rank (the very first rank all new adventurers are given) to F-rank were so measly that a competent person could rank up within a week! Rupert would not allow his grandson's search party to be filled with greenhorns that were still wet behind the ears.