Edited by Solyom

How did the brawl end? The same as usual. After a few minutes, Alesia came down from the higher floor and yelled. It was a bit too late thought, the whole inn section was already in a mess. Not a single chair was left unbroken, almost every bottle was crashed (usually on someone’s head), and almost no face was left without a bruise.

- “THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN HERE?!” She roared, and that sound was more frightening than the scream of an Elder Black Dragon “AGAIN!? AGAIN!?!? Very well. Apparently we have to shut the inn for a few days… maybe weeks… Or months? We will have to hire workers, buy furniture… Ah, of course you won’t be able to buy drinks or food ‘till then…”

This worked on the adventurers better than any kind of motivation, every single one of them rushed in some direction. One of them started collecting coins from havoc-makers, a small group formed that started cleaning up the broken pieces from around the room.

- “Come on, Zari, drop a coin…” the coin-gatherer shoved a hat in which he was collecting money under my nose.

- “I didn’t break anything! I am a victim here!”

- “Come on! Don’t be such a miser! You are the richest one here! Come on, come on…” he poked me with the hat.

- “Why am I supposed to pay for your debts!? Next thing I know is you sending me a bill for your hookers!”

- “The-he! Good one. But now… ”

I groaned and dropped a few silver coins.

I was amazed by the tempo of the adventurers. In less than an hour, they managed to replace every broken chair and table.

- “How did they do that?” I asked Alesia.

- “In every bigger city, a carpenter had set up his business somewhere near the guild. About thrice a month, they can expect getting a bigger order. A few dozen simple chairs, tables… they can make it pretty quickly for a reasonable price…. Oh, I almost forgot! MARIKA! MROGUL! To the corner! And put on your get-along shirt!”

- “But we weren’t even fighting each other!” The fairy groaned.

- “Then you won’t mind wearing one!” the elder woman didn’t want to discuss it.

Eventually, I sat near a brand-new table, on a brand-new chair and ordered something to eat. A few of my friends quickly joined and started discussing different matters loudly. I saw Gisele pushing her chair to me. Very closely to me.

- “I think that’s enough.” I said with a neutral tone, stopping her. Oh, she was so very confused.

- “I… I thought that we are ok…”

- “Oh. We are. I told you, I love you. But in the same time I am very, VERY angry at you.”

- “Actually…” Marika asked. “… Why did you left a guild, Zari? You didn’t even say to us! It wasn’t nice!”

- “Oh, I had… a HANDFUL of problems.” I said looking at the dragoness. She lowered her head a little.

- “Is that so?”

- “Ay. Needed someone to give me a… HELPING HAND, so I met with Daralon, then things rolled by their own and needed my attention. I didn’t want to rush things, in the end you know this saying: ”

- “I see…” Marika finally noticed that I am putting too much accent on hand-related aspects and how Gisele reacted to those. “… but everything is fine now, right?”

- “I think so… By the way, El, I see you no longer have troubles with moving?”

I raised my gaze at the blonde girl located few seats away from me.

- “It’s n-not l-like that! I am still having troubles and I am g-getting exhausted q-quickly…”

- “She did great progress!” Rus yelled from the chair next to Elana’s. “… we can walk from dawn till dusk and El needs only a few breaks during that! She even started stretching again! Such a hard-worker she is!”

- “T-that’s only because e-everyone is helping me!” she blushed slightly.

Aww, come on! How can you not love this little adorable pup?

- “It’s good to hear that, but don’t force yourself. Take your time. In a year or two, you will be able to join regular adventurers…”

- “A-a-a-a-a-actually…” she got suddenly nervous.

- “We want to take some easy quests next month.” Rus finished what El didn’t want to.

- “Isn’t that bit too soon? Being physically able to attend it is one thing, you may still be attacked by bandits or some weaker monster and… Let’s say it. El, you would hesitate to kill a mosquito.”

- “I…I would be prepared…”

- “Or I will do to her what you did to me…” Rus said, looking me in the eyes.

She meant when I forced her to finish off a stray wolf.

- “W-w-w-w-what did mister Zari do to you?” Elana got really concerned about it.

Still… can we tease El about it a little?

- “You sure?” I asked Rus ignoring the blonde. “… the first time in such a young age… It can be a bit challenging.”

- “W-w-w-w-WHAT!?”

The eyes of Rus sparkled. She decided to play along.

- “Yes, at first I was very tensed… and then I had mixed feeling about it, but now I can say it clearly, it all went so smoothly only because you were the one guiding me!”

- “I-I-I-I-I-I I don’t understand what is g-g-g-going on!”

- “Oh, I picked you only because I saw that… sparkle deep in your eyes. I knew that you were ready. You just needed someone to deliver one… final… push.”

- “And I am happy it was you. To be honest, I don’t imagine anyone other in this role… Can we… Would you mind if we would repeat it? Not now, I know you are busy, but maybe one day?”

- “Of course, but you need to gain some more experience. Try it with different people till the day you would be on my level.”

El started getting redder and redder, her lower lip was already trembling and she tightened her hands into fists.

One final strike? Hell, why not!?

- “Still, it was quite bloody after that.” I sighed. “… Well, I think that every first-time looks like that.”

Rus, probably because she felt sorry about El, decided to destroy my fun.

- “But I won’t use a wolf on El! Maybe a rabbit? Less dangerous, less bloody. Yeah, no point in starting with predators right away. I couldn’t stand the thought of putting my El in danger!” She hugged her friend.

- “W-w-w-what? What wolf? What rabbit? What are you talking about?”

- “About the first kill, of course! Big bro Zari crippled a wolf and asked me to finishing him… Hey, I did tell you about it already! A few weeks ago! Don’t you remember… wait, what did you think that we were talking about?”

- “N-n-n-n-nothing!”

Rus continued mocking El for some more time, Marika was making fun of Mrogul, Mrogul was making fun of Loki, Loki was telling unfunny jokes, Gustav was boasting what a great progress did twins have under his guidance, the twins were making fun of Gustav. Pyrox was playing with fire and Daralon and Jason were still sleeping on the floor.

… Peaceful. It was so, so peaceful. The fireplace was crackling, our bowls were full, music was being played somewhere around. I allowed myself to relax.

My family. My silly, goofy family. My eyes started growing heavy. After a few more moments, I excused myself, went on the higher floor, entered my room and lied on my bed. After some time Gisele came in too, and lied next to me.

We didn’t say a word to each other. We just put our backs into each other, to feel our warmness and fell asleep. I embraced the warm, cozy darkness.

…

I woke up in the middle of the night with this awkward sensation. This weird, crawl-like feeling on your back, as when you know that someone is watching you. I opened my eyes and gazed across the room.

There was no one here, no one but Gisele. She must have twisted her body as she was sleeping and right now she was hugging my chest from behind.

It was nothing. Must have been the wind. Just my imagina…

Wait.

I gazed again. On one of the very few furniture in the room, a single, huge, black raven was sitting and looking at me.

Sebastian?

He flew through the room and left it through the window. I don’t remember opening it… Still, the message was clear. I freed myself from dragoness embrace, got myself dressed and left the guild. Sebastian was waiting there, circling in the air. As soon as he noticed me following him, he started flying away once again. The bastard was leading me out of the city.

We were slowly getting to the town gates. The raven flew over the guard’s head. In the next moment, they fell on the ground.

Holy sh… He didn’t kill them, did he? No, after quickly appraising them, I saw that their status showed the “asleep” effect on them… I didn’t know you have such an ability, you sly bastard!

We moved from the main route and stepped into the plains, then into a small forest growing nearby.

I left in the middle of the night, when we stopped, the sun was slowly raising on the horizon.

He started turning into his guard form… or so I thought.

- “Sebastian, I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but… you had some reason to wake me up in the middle of the night and leading h…”

But he didn’t stopped changing after he reached the form of a humanoid bird. His feathers started melding together, turning into leather clothing, his talons, beak and wings retrieved into his body.

Soon, it was not my bird-familiar standing in front of me, but some man, unknown to me, around his 30’s. With hair darker than darkness itself, red eyes with vertical pupils and pale-sick looking skin. His body was thin, yet he stood tall, easily over 1.9 meters. His expression seemed to be tired, exhausted even, yet his eyes were focused. Like a predator that hunted every possible pray in his life and had no more challenge awaiting for him.

- “Sebastian?” he asked. “You are mistaken. Sebastian is the name of your familiar. My name, is Bahoru.”

I shivered. Not because I was afraid, but simply because his presence was overwhelming. I had troubles with breathing.

- “S..Stop it!” I hissed.

- “Oh, pardon me.” he smiled. Like a wolf playing with crippled rabbit.

Yet in the very next moment, that sinister aura disappeared.

- “What do you want?” I asked, mostly to get rid of the awkward silence.

- “To save you. Again. And I need to quickly figure out how to warn you without being punished. You see, we can’t get involved into lives of mortals… too much. Aira prohibited us. I am walking on thin ice by talking to you. This world is going crazy. Things that never were supposed to happen ARE happening. I watched this world, this universe die and reborn over and over again… yet I never saw angels being BORN into this world. I have never seen god-level rituals being used without their blessings… yet it is happening. Zariel, you have pissed off someone. And someone is coming for you… The measures has been taken. You can’t afford inactivity!.. I trusted that you can change the world, but world is changing to remove you. Don’t know who, don’t know why and how. But you promised me something. This is the last time I am putting myself in danger because of you. Either you do what you promised… Or I will break the contract…”

That was… alarming.

- “… I don’t understand what is going on…”

- “Of course you don’t!” the devil hissed, annoyed. “No one does! Neither you, nor me, nor the gods! This is why you need to be prepared! For EVERYTHING! Start taking measures. Now.”

The devil turned into a pile of feathers, that were blown by the wind.

What the fuck was that supposed to mean?!...

… Ha, apparently here goes my whole lazy weekend. or .

Bullshit. In the end I will never fucking rest. Yet, if there is something I learned in this world, is that celestial beings rarely share their secrets with mortals, and they tend to act a bit violent when their warnings are being ignored… So… Training. Again.

And now I needed to get back to the town in next three hours, because some fucking stupid raven couldn’t just drag me into some back alley, like a civilized thug. Nooo. He wanted to play a fucking Robin Hood! Meeting in the bushes like animals. Tsk.

As I got to the Guild, I met Mike.

- “Hey, would you please consider doing me a favor?” I asked with a sweet tone.

- “Haha, what do you need?”

- “Provision and tran.. Nah, forget about the transport. Just food. I will pay while collecting it.”

- “How much?”

- “One full bag. Aaaalso… would you consider preparing few quests for me?”

- “For you? Everything!” the young noble smiled at me from behind the desk.

- “Aw, stop it you! You will make me blush!”

- “Any specific requirements? Locations? Type?”

- “Killing or raiding. Hard ones.”

- “You are… C rank? Are you?”

- “I wonder…”

- “Damn, did you know that the letter C looks like the upper half of the S? I could mistake those two, for example if a part of the quest rank was covered by paper…”

- “Thanks, Mike, You da best, Mike.”

- “You owe me.”

- “Whatever you want.”

- “You bring me a bottle of booze. We will drink it later, as you would share tales about your adventures!”

- “Angel among mortals. See ya!” I moved toward Slums and Library.

From the library, I picked a few books about languages. (I still remember about the Ogre knowing more languages than myself. What a humiliation.) Then I quickly moved to the factory to inform Clarice that she will be responsible for the whole newly formed Guild.

- “SAY WHAT!?” she didn’t like the idea.

- “Fear not. It is easy. Just don’t blow things up, keep selling stuff to the usual people… or you can double delivery to the guild…”

- “And if someone would come to negotiate new terms? New delivery?”

- “Depends on your mood. If you think the deal is good, take it, if not, then don’t. See? Leading a business ain’t that hard.”

I gave her a pat on the shoulder.

- “Soon, you should gain access to the library, take your time studying there. Ah, also, if you would do fine, you will be rewarded, if you would fuck something up… I have a friend. Zanes. You don’t want to meet her.”

Another pat. I turned around and left again.

Oh, the poor girl wanted to stop me, another little torment I enjoyed.

Once again I entered the guild, sneakily, I hoped that I would avoid meeting with…

… guess who stood near Mike’s desk with TWO bags of food.

- “I heard we are going on another adventure!” Gisele smiled shyly.

- “Reaaaly?” I looked at Mike.

- “Sorry, she was asking and asking and asking...”

- “The bruise under your eye tells me that these questions could be… hard.”

- “Oh yes, very hard questions.” Mike said with a sad expression. I don’t blame him.

- “Gisele, I go, you don’t.”

- “Yes, I do.”

- “Gisele, it’s not about you or me! I have… obligations, and…”

- “These obligations require you to be alone?”

- “Well, no but…”

- “Perfect. It is settled, then. Pick a quest, for we are ready to move out!”

- “Giss-eeel!”

- “Zaaari! I will behave!” I already heard that somewhere. “… please?”

Absolutely not. No. No way. I am a man, and I value my own word! I already said no, so…

- “Promise?”

- “Promise!”

Fuck.