Holo Ruphelt turned to the relieved lady, "Miss! We actually want to sign up to be adventurers." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Eh-oh, I see, follow me!" She adjusted her glasses and smiled as she held her documents tighter. Shun stared at her as they followed behind. Suddenly, a shiver ran down her spine from feeling his gaze. "Is he angry with me...am I going to be attacked?!" She anxiously thought to herself.

Of course, Shun didn’t have any intention of harming this modest lady whatsoever, and she mistakenly thought he was angry, his temperament had actually quickly dropped, but unfortunately for Shun, he just had a

natural, slightly scowled resting face.

"Lady!" Holo exclaimed with an innocent and bright look in his eyes.

"Yes!" She replied while jumping a little out of being startled.

Holo tilted his head, confused at her reaction, "What’s your name?"

She adjusted her glasses, "Oh...you can call me Eleanora." Eleanora led them to one of the many counters. She handed them a piece of paper, "Please just fill this sheet out."

They filled out the piece of paper and handed it to the sophisticated-looking lady.

"Thank you!" She then stamped the pieces of paper and filed them and took out a small rectangular piece of metal that was attached to a thin chain. In the centre was the letter "E" engraved onto the piece of slender metal.

"You’ve officially become adventurers! Welcome to the guild, Stasis!"

Shun took a glance at the metallic rectangular badge and stashed it in his bag. Contrastingly, Holo kept staring at it with a child-like gleam while fiddling around with it.

"The letter represents your current rank! Currently, you two are E-ranks. You can rank up by taking on higher-class quests. The ranks go from the letter ’E’ to ’A’ and then ’S’, which is the highest rank an adventurer can achieve. The quests you can take depend on the rank you have and you can also either take a quest one class below or above your letter. Remember, ranking up is based on merit and it is for the guild to judge your rank."

"Thank you, lady!"

"Ah! You’re very much welcome!" Eleanora felt a sense of relief as things went over so smoothly. Holo turned his head upwards at Shun, "Let’s go get our first quest!"

He then nodded in response and looked around side to side and then tilted his head at the lady.

"Hm? Ah, right!" She then pointed at the large quest board, "You can find all the quests posted there, remember you can only pick out E-rank and F-rank, and hand in a quest to register at any one of the counters."

Holo and Shun walked over to the quest board, seeing a variety of papers posted up with all kinds of different classes, though they hadn’t spotted an S-class quest.

"Let’s take out an F-class quest, what do you think?" Holo’s tail wagged with excitement.

Shun nodded in response and tore off a F-class paper.

≡

Hunting Hornseals

Reward: 28 Bronze Sigils

Rank: F-Class

Size: Small, Medium

≡

"Hornseals, what are those?" Holo’s ears flopped.

Shun shrugged his shoulders and went over to the counter.

"Welcome! O-Oh, it’s you...have you picked out a quest?" She asked with a nervous smile.

Shun handed the paper over to her.

"Haha! You really don’t talk much, do you?" She nervously laughed while trying to break the tension as she stamped the paper.

=Quest in progress=

Holo then quickly spoke up, realising maybe the lady thought Shun was being very rude, "Ah! Shuros can’t speak because...he can’t?"

"I see...I’m very sorry!" She swiftly bowed to Shun while apologising.

Shun then wrote on a piece of paper and held it up while scratching the back of his head, "Don’t worry about it." He looked away. The lady stared at Shun and noticed a little blush.

"...He’s blushing?" Eleanora thought while being taken aback, "Hmm... you’re blushing." She said quietly under her breath while staring down at the piece of paper. Just then Shun grabbed the paper, held Holo’s hand and hurriedly left, all while covering his face.

"Did he...get embarrassed?!" She thought to herself and then suddenly exclaimed, "Wait!...ah they’re gone...I didn’t even tell them where to find Hornseals."

Zenith kept his eyes on the two newbies as he drank beer, "This tastes horrible...Tch! Dammit, I need blood..." He grumbled to himself.

They were both outside the guild now and kept walking for a bit.

"Shun! Wait a sec’..."

Shun then stopped in his tracks.

"Ah...I mean Shuros!" He corrected himself. "Shouldn’t we go back and get more information?"

Shun immediately shook his head in disagreement.

"Eh, why?" Holo then looked closely at Shun, noticing that his face was completely red and innocently asked while pointing at his face, "Why is your face red?"

≡

Grassy plain near Kagekawa’s home

A few days had passed since everyone had met Arthur’s weapon, Excalibur. Chronos mostly recovered and was as energetic as ever. Both of them, just as Arthur expected, got on pretty well and were running around outside in the grassy plains, close to Kagekawa’s home. Amygdala was also with both of them, supposedly supervising them but in actuality, she was running around and playing as well. Arthur and Kagekawa were off at a distance. Kagekawa glanced at Arthur, who had his arms crossed and a smile on his face.

Kagekawa then nudged Arthur with his elbow while having a mischievous grin on his face, "Look at you now, Arthur."

Arthur then snapped out of his focused gaze, "Huh, what?"

"Your eyes can’t help but follow Amygdala, Haha!" He said teasingly.

"Yeah...you’re right." He kept a smile on his face as he continued to watch Amygdala, "I can’t help but have my eyes completely follow her. She’s beautiful and kind..." He then pointed at the three of them frolicking in the flowers, "Look, master. Do you see it? Her smile is so precious and it just fills my heart...I’m so lucky to have her. If it wasn’t for her, I think I’d lose myself."

Kagekawa was expecting a more embarrassed reaction, "Lucky you." He sighed with a slight smile.

Arthur’s smile soon faded into a serious expression, "This is why I can’t stay here any longer. The war between Vastos and Coldera...it’s taking much too long to start. Of course, I’d rather the war never happen, but I’m wasting time staying in Vastos so I’m planning to head out tomorrow. There’s a much greater threat that’ll happen and I need to be prepared."

Kagekawa then slapped Arthur on the back, "Haha! You’re absolutely right Arthur!... You need to get strong enough for Sedah. Don’t worry about the war."

"Hm?"

Kagekawa grinned, "After all, Vastos has me on their side."

"Ain’t you confident? Though I suppose you have every right to be."

"When do you plan on leaving?"

"Tomorrow, I’ll spend the rest of the day with Chronos." Arthur had no intention of taking Chronos and entrusted Kagekawa to make him stronger.

"I see...and what about Amygdala?"

"I plan to travel with her...though I am worried about the towers. After everythings all finished up, I officialy want to marry her, sadly it won’t be for a while." Arthur gazed down with a smile on his face, "Also, I want to form a contract with her." He added in calm tone.

Kagekawa became shocked at the idea, "You can’t make a contract with two gods Arthur. It’s impossible!"

"I’ve been thinking, currently I have two souls in my body, right? Seraphina and I, so what if it was possible to do so...contract with two gods."

Kagekawa then looked deep in thought and tried finding a reason against it.

"Ah! Of course, I still need to get my contract with Chronos sorted. Also, Seraphina is technically a monster and I’m not even completely sure if she’s in here or not." He placed the palm of his hand on his chest, "There’s a big chance it won’t work. It was just an idea that popped into my mind."

"Really? It seems you’ve really thought things through. Ah! What if Amygdala is already contracted with another person?" Kagekawa asked jokingly.

"Hmph! Then I’ll be mad." He was irritated at the idea of someone else having a contract with Amygdala. "Wait! What if she actually is?!" Arthur then quickly ran off, "Amygdala!" He shouted her name in a sad and desperate tone.

Kagekawa stared with a blank expression and sighed, "...He’s really hopeless without her."

Kagekawa stared at the distance, "...He got there fast." At a distance, it looked like they were speaking. Amygdala spoke to Arthur. Arthur’s mouth opened up in distress, and he looked really sad. She giggled and spoke again and Arthur’s face perked right up.

"Eh? You’re coming back?!"

He ran straight to Kagekawa and soon he arrived back, "Good news! She’s not contracted with anyone."

"Why did you look so sad at first?"

Arthur then averted his gaze, "She played a really mean joke on me..."

"?"

Arthur then pouted while blushing a little, "Amygdala...told me she was contracted with someone! Hmph...I’m not forgiving her."

"Seriously...straighten up Arthur!"

"Heh!" He folded his arms while looking away.

Kagekawa shook his head in disappointment, "Maybe you’ve changed a little too much..." He mumbled under his breath. "Well, at least he’s happy...if even only for a short time." Kagekawa thought to himself.