Ch.13 The new guild card and a talk

I said my good byes to Halan and the heartbroken receptionist and followed Mika to the guild masters office. Shiro, Tama and Ricca were currently tested, so they would come to us later.

"So, miss Mika returned to adventuring huh?" Guerno, the guild master, asked.

"Well, I have failed as a receptionist so I used it as an oportunity to travel."

"I heard you go by Flameburst now. So you got married to the boy?" Guerno's sharp eyes looked at me.

"You have problem with that?" Mika gave him a cold glare.

"I know, I know... I lost," Guerno shrugged with a dry laugh.

'So this guy was into Mika huh? Well, I'm not surprised, she's cute.'

I walked up to make a line with Mika and a sigle touch of our fingers made her spring into action. And that action, of course, was hugging my arm tightly.

"You've become quite a love birds eh?" Guerno smiled and continued walking.

Soon we came to the office, where we sit on a couch while still linking our hands.

"Well, allow me apologize for our Hannah, she got recently dumped by her fianceé so her judgement can be a little swayed towards couples. Don't worry, I already thought of a punishment for her. Additionaly, your rank was determinated as C rank correct? I shall make you a special permit for buying things from the guild at prices for one rank higher then yours..."

Guerno was met with Mika's cold gaze.

"A-and! I shall grant you permission to use other bonuses of B ranks too!"

"This was dangerous for my darling, I want you to acknowledge that. I will not ask for much, but getting some A rank magic stones at a discount would be great," Mika made a grimace suggesting some interesting things.

"Miss Mika never changes..." On the other hand Guerno made a sour face, "Well, not like I mind," he smiled shrewdly.

"Let's get the negoation started," Mika smiled wolfishly herself.

In summary, after the negoation were over, and guild master turned pale at all the things he promised Mika, we recieved a discount on Magic stones for ten years, discount on magic items for B rankers, drop items that could be used for summoning fifty percent cheeper and equipment repairs for me cut by twenty percent. Additionaly, we recieved a personal receptionist.

"Urgh... I never thought that women can be so scary..." Guerno slowly raised himself back into the chair. From the other side, Mika and Tama, who joined mid-way, were smiling in satisfiction. I was meanwhile sandwiched between them with Shiro and Ricca silently standing behind us.

"Well, we got our guild cards reissued, so we will be taking a leave for now," Mika smiled and rised from the couch.

"Sure," the guild master responded weakly not even trying to look up.

We took our guild cards from the table and went out of the guild together.

***

Meanwhile, in the royal capital, Tenebrés. The inner rooms of Grand cathedral of Five great gods.

"My pope, first princess of the kingdom came to visit you," a holy knight clad in pale blue armor bowed deeply before a woman in her early twenties, Juya Quandel Apposia, the sixth Pope of Five great gods religion, the most spread and most influential religion on the continent.

"IT has awakened, I see."

"Yes, the seal you placed crumbled like a house from paper. I've seen everything in the crystal you've given me," the princess sit on the oppositee side of the pope in the inner parlor.

The seal could only work with combined effort of the three [Holy maidens], but the seal was placed only with two, hence the weakened seal broke.

"If I've just came sooner back then... I could've made the last [Holy maiden] work with us," the pope sighed and looked at her friend, the princess and second [Holy maiden], Wallentia El-Mar Tenebrés.

Both of the girls awakened their special crests, the [Sacred sword] and [Sacred staff] when they became adults.

"Don't think too badly about it. The archer have power to destroy both sword and staff if pushed too hard. If you did anything more back then, you would most likely got HER at your throat," the princess smiled, "But was it really good idea to let IT be, after the curse broke? Who knows what IT can do."

"Probably not, but I belive it will be better in longterm. IT is after all bearer of that special crest."

"Heh, there is only fifty special class crests, five of them appeared in this kingdom. Is it really a coincidence?"

"I do not know. I only know that if IT becomes an enemy, no matter how much of the special class crests we throw at IT, it will all be in vain, that's just how powerful IT really is. Did you talked about it with Father?"

"No, I'm keeping our dads out of it. It would be dangerous if they learned about our failiure. Not to mention my brother would use that as an oportunity."

Currently, a great struggle was happening in the kingdom. The royal faction that supported princess Wallentia's claim on the throne as the first in line in the succession and then the other faction which supported the oldest prince, Faarius Xavier El-Mar Tenebrés. Currently the faction of prince was slowly stagnating due to not having a strong central figure. Certainly the prince was considered a genius mage, but it was not to an extent of his sister, princess Wallentia, who mastered both sword and magic.

If it became known that the seal on IT came undone, the political power would sway from Wallentia's side so much that she would be at her brothers mercy.

Of course, the church that asked for princess Wallentia's help in the first place, would ended up recieving a severe damage too.

To say the least, the prince was a lax beliver. So if there was ever a crisis in the church, it was possible that he would wait until the problem dealt with itself over time. If the church lost it's support in the kindom, it's home turf, the other provinces would naturaly fall in power as well. The church only allowed humans and most of the beastmen (not all of them, mostly those who didn't look human were treated more poorly. The Shadow walkers had it worst as they were in the lands controled by church viewed as 'reformed devils' at best) to recieve a blessings.

Juya, being a pope changed a lot of things, starting with treatment of not-human-looking demi-humans and making progress towards higher acceptance and mutual understanding. Still, the fight against devils and monsters that lived from and generated miasma was getting even stronger. One could say that the poor treatment of summoners was becouse of the church who viewed everyone who could manipulate the miasma as evil.

"Seems we both have it rough," Juya laughed, "Haaaaaah, how I wish I could return to traveling around like I did as the Saint apprentice... those were good times," Juya smiled as she remembered a boy who's crest she apprised and turned out to be a summoner, yet instead of getting gloomy and sad, he set out to form a contract right away, almost getting himself killed in the process if she didn't safe him.

"You're thinking loud again," Wallentia smiled.

"Huh?!"

"You're thinking about that boy again... you almost look like a girl your age," Wallentia outright laughed now.

"Y-you were no better when you met him!" Juya got all flustered and counter-attackked Wallentia.

"Y-you... I guess you're right," Wallentia blushed, recieving a super effective damage.

The two after all, were barely twenty five years old women, and they too, had their dreams of future.

Following that little embarrassing moment, the two returned to their tea.

"Oh, did you heard about that El Mayleen girl?" Juya suddenly asked.

"Yeah, of course, if she had stronger body she would be more of a threat to me then my brothers, after all. But, she's sweet, so I got angry when someone used precious Ancient item to curse her."

'Be it as it might, you have quite a competetive streak right, Wal?' Juya smiled to herself.

"Apparently they took an adventuring team to find a cure for them in the dungeon in Almarion."

"Ah, the sponsorship thing right? What was their name again? Lotus?"

"Your informations are outdated there, Wal. Lotus fell apart. Just three days ago four people disappeared. Two died and three more are asking around if they can swich teams."

"Hm? Doesn't that mean they still have four people?"

"Indeed they do. A holy knight, wizard, and two regular warriors. Nothing to be happy about," Juya shrugged her shoulders with a smile.

"If I remember correctly, they forced their summoner to commit suicide right?"

"That's the story yes. But there is no body so it's just rumors right now."

"Well, they were known for their shady bussiness for some time, the duke must've been desperate. Did he found a replacement?"

"Apparently his daughter did, but it's still unknown who it is," Juya said and finished her tea.

"Unknown eh? I will look into it." Wallentia nodded her head and finished her tea too.

"Please do, I will await your report here."

The two women took diferent paths at the doors and returned to their usual jobs with first class fake smiles, like any other politician.