A Hint From The Past?

Shade, Arora, and Tristan settled down inside a small restaurant around a table filled with exquisite food. Alongside them was Celia who Shade had rescued a few hours ago. She hurriedly feasted away on her portion of food that had been provided by Shade.

"So, how'd you meet this girl again?" Asked Tristan shocked by Celia's appetite.

"She was being attacked by a boar and I saved her in exchange for some information," replied Shade.

"Yeah, that sounds a lot like you..." Laughed Arora, half-heartedly.

Celia then stood herself up as she chugged a cup of root beer before slamming it onto the table. She had finally finished her meal.

"Ahh! That was great!"

"Man, you're heavy appetite doesn't match your cute face in the slightest..." Mumbled Tristan.

"Firstly, as your new team captain, I would like to thank all of you for the food and equipment that you have provided me with!"

"You do know that you're basically freeloading off us, right..?"

"Nonsense! This is more of an investment in a beautiful team captain such as myself!"

So far, the team had bought a place to stay, food to eat, equipment for battle, and even stylish clothes to make themselves look more intimidating. They had even gone as far as buying Celia new pieces of equipment as well.

She now wore a black and blue armor-like dress that allowed her to move around swiftly in battle. Her Class Ability was also that of the Sword King, similar to Shade's. They had even bought her a new metallic sword so that she could be a part of battles.

Shade facepalmed himself as he sighed. He was starting to worry about the kind of team he was putting together. To him, they all looked a bit too carefree. His team was centered around trust but they also needed a firm mindset if they were to survive.

"So, since we're now officially a team, what should we call ourselves?" Queried Celia.

"Hmm, maybe something cool like the DYNAMITES!" Proposed Tristan.

"Eww... That's a bit too flashy. What about you Shade? What do you think we should call ourselves?" Asked Arora.

Shade sighed unenthusiastically. He truly just wanted to call it a day and get to bed given that it was now late evening.

"I'm not great with names."

"Man, you're always so dark and boring. You've got nothing flashy about you..." Murmured Tristan.

"That's it!" Suddenly exclaimed Celia.

"What's what?"

"What about, Shadow Liege?!"

Everyone then looked up as they thought about the name. It didn't seem like too much of a bad choice.

"Why Shadow Liege though?" Asked Arora.

"You know how Shade is so mysterious, dark, and boring just like a Shadow? And we're his liege because, in truth, we just follow him! So Shadow Liege! It's a great idea!"

"I slightly take offense to that. I can be a fun person too," argued Shade.

The rest of the team looked at Shade in silence. They strongly disagreed.

"So anyway, should we go with Team Shadow Liege then?" Continued Celia.

"Sure! Shade, are you okay with it?" Queried Arora.

"Yeah, the name's not important so I don't mind. Anyway, I think it's about time we get back to the motel that Arora rented. It's getting late and a lot more players are starting to arrive which means a fight or even an all-out war could take place."

"Sigh... I wish you were a little less serious sometimes, Shade. This game is depressing enough as it is. We need to wear a smile to keep our mood up!" Mumbled Arora.

Just then, two players dressed in expensive gear walked past the team as they moved towards the cashier NPC. As they walked by, Shade could hear them talking about something quite odd which diverted his attention from Arora.

"You need to do better," began the first player. He had dark brown eyes, black hair and was dressed like a knight. "ME is not about to cut corners if you keep slacking off. They simply kill you! You need to get that through that thick skull of yours!"

"Calm down... We've been working our butts off for four days now. Would ME really kill for a single day?" Argued the other player. He had emerald green eyes, black hair, and was also dressed like a knight.

Shade quickly began pondering to himself. The way they had mentioned the word "ME" was quite odd. Paying closer attention, Shade remembered that the old man had spoken in the same manner when he had presented himself before all the players back in the first town. In almost every statement, he had said "ME" which had sounded quite odd. Was there something to this word that he didn't know about?

"Shade, are you even listening..?" Grumbled Arora who was trying to talk to him.

"Be quiet for a second," he quickly replied.

Shade then peered his ears again to continue listening to the two players.

"I'm telling you that they'll notice if you keep this up!" Boomed the brown-eyed player.

"Okay, geez... Keep your voice down. Someone will hear us if you keep babbling that loudly."

"Yeah, sorry. It's just that that Rein dude scares me... Rumor has it that before he joined ME, he killed-"

"Let's not get into it here, idiot..!"

Suddenly, Shade's hands made a heavy thump on the table, almost throwing the food to the ground. His eyes were widened with a frightful look across his face.

Tristan, Arora, and Celia immediately stopped playing around as soon as they noticed this. It was evident that something was wrong.

"Shade..? Is something wrong..?" Asked Arora in concern.

"You were listening in on those guys too, huh?" Noted Celia. "They've been talking about some weird stuff. But did they say something to offend you?"

"That name... Rein..! That's the name of my older brother!"

Tristan then picked himself up with a worried expression. He didn't know much about Shade but it had been evident to him that he had gone through quite a lot in his life. Due to Shade's uncanny reaction, Tristan could tell that he probably hated his brother severely.

"Hey, Shade..! Calm down for a sec. Why would they be talking about your brother? It could be someone else that goes by the name, Rein."

Shade, however, ignored Tristan's statement. Instead, he turned himself around and began approaching the two players. This concerned the others severely as they didn't know what to expect.

Shade then grabbed onto the shoulder of one of the players with rage pulsating through his body.

"Huh? Who the hell are you?" Questioned one of the players.

Finally, Shade then placed his hand on the hilt of his sword as he spoke;

"You're gonna tell me everything you know about, Rein!"