- Viscount Hogomori’s Residential Yard, Inclira Kingdom –

- around 0930hrs –

One hour has passed, both Kurogane and Sicily were extremely exhausted, breathing and sweating heavily, it’s a good thing that Sicily was wearing her knight outfit that didn’t hinder her movement and covers most of her normal clothing. It can’t be said the same for the young Hero who was completely tattered here and there around his body.

“ugh… I can’t move my legs…” Florentina giggled at Kurogane’s complaint and casually gave him a glass of water that she summoned out of thin air, giving it to him.

“Ah, thanks Miss mage”

“Again… I’ve told you on the journey here, just call me Tina, Kurogane. You do not need to be formal with me”.

“you’re still older than me though”.

“Would you please stop reminding me about my age every several hours!” the young man burst out laughing. “haha! Please, you’re not that old anyway and still looked cute”.

“ww-wh-whaaaa-! “ she quickly looked away from him as her blush slowly began to visible, stuttering as she continue, “a-anyway! L-Lady Sicily is quite amazing to handle my training unscathed, u-unlike someone”.

the aforementioned girl was letting out a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of her head, “it was quite an interesting experience, Miss Florentina, in my honest opinion, I could barely keep up it”, humbly said, the court mage was astonished as she was far more mature than the hero himself who was a couple of years older than her. Sicily also bowed in respect to the Mage that trained her, even if it is only a brief moment of the training.

“Miss Mage, since we are done with this training, shall we go to the Guild and register ourselves as adventurers?” Florentina looked in scepticism at the princess since she was still sceptical of that plan she mentioned before the summoning.

“for starters, I don’t know if it’s a great idea, your highness, being an adventurer means we’re going undercover and our knights won’t be our backup. furthermore, I don’t think His Highness would agree with this plan.”

“oh don’t fret, I have requested my permission to do so beforehand” the Princess had this smile of victory, which made Florentina sigh, “you sure are steps ahead of me…”

“hehe~ I sure am! Well… regardless... it’s also my father’s request. I hope you’ll understand, also…” the princess looks towards the young lady who is cleaning herself with magic in silence. “I think with the three of us having another member will be more reassuring”.

“Eh? Me??”

all Sicily knew next is that she was being dragged all over the city with the curious trio and their easygoing attitude and in the next hour, they already visited multiple shops and stalls in half of the district they were in, including weapon shops and blacksmith as Sicily needed more arrows and Kurogane needed another kind of armour for his disguise as an adventurer. it’s a good thing that Maribel made a disguise for them right before they went out of the mansion.

At noon, they’re finally done with their shopping which is mostly weapons and supplies, and the excess luggage that the girls bought was brought back to the mansion earlier beforehand. The team now headed to the guild which resides near the edge of the city, located several blocks away from the city gate. The walk there was quite exhilarating as they were conversing about each of their own experiences with fighting monsters, which Kurogane is lacking since his first encounter against one was yesterday, though it was far tougher than the ones they’re discussing. Furthermore, since Sicily was already registered and was a renowned adventurer in her city, she told her story about the way of being an adventurer from her perspective and also how she sometimes got hit on since she was also a beauty.

As they arrived, they were greeted by several adventurers who were Sicily’s acquaintances who also started small talks with her, asking if she was still looking for a party that was heading towards the Endless forest while also inviting her, which she politely refused. As the group left while saying their goodbyes and good luck to her, at the receptionist desk where the main Hero’s group were registering. The Receptionist is rather an ecstatic person, a girl in her teenage figure yet has this mature vibe, having her black hair tied in a ponytail with a hairpin on the left side of her long bangs which makes it not cover her eyes. As Kurogane is writing his form, he is rather anxious about something… whispering to Florentina about it.

“uhh… my job… should I put mine or…”

“of course not you dummy! I already told you that we need to disguise everything, including your job. Just write it as [advanced swordsman] or something similar to a Hero job set, that will suffice”

“if you say so…” he then filled in the last one needed on the form and gave it to the receptionist which has an enthusiastic look. “my, are you going to form a party with the two girls that’s with you, sir Kurogane?”

“ah, indeed I am, it was uhhh…” he looked at the Princess with a concerned look, hinting to her that he doesn’t know to address her name to not cause an uproar that another country’s princess is registering as an adventurer, which she replied with a warm smile and mimed, “Luna”

“ah yeah! It was Luna’s idea for us in the same party. We discussed it last night and we’ll name our party [Luninous Virtue]”

“I see, let me register it real quick!~” she then grabbed another form for party registration, giving the paper to Kurogane as he needs to sign them. “by the way, who will lead the [Luminous Virtue]?”

“ah, it’s me” the receptionist giggled at his reply. “it's great then, men suppose to lead girls in these kinds of jobs, but I will remind you to not step over ‘that’ line okay? We also have a regulation if there’s a report about sexual assault, the perpetrator's licence and civil rights in this city will be revoked”

“I’ll… keep that in mind” the receptionist smiled at his response. “great! Here’s your adventurer identification, the quest board is on the other side of the room. Ah! I forgot to mention to tell you that I’ll be the personal receptionist for your party and where are my manners… my name is Lilly, it’s a pleasure to know you…” Lilly stopped her sentence as she whispered to him without standing from her seat, “Sir hero~”

The young boy was slightly surprised as she knew his identity. “how did you-“

“Relax, I’ve been informed by the guild master that this information is top secret. That aside, I saw you were talking closely with her highn- I mean, Luna, were you two in a relationship? Hmm?~”

“wha-! No I don’t! I mean… she’s cute and sweet but…”

What he doesn’t know is that he accidentally said that slightly too loud, which made the aforementioned girl go stiff as she was blushing heavily. The receptionist's table now has this awkward aura between the two whilst Lilly giggled at the development between them, though she noticed that one of them isn’t that delighted with the scene, but rather… “Jealous?”

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“wha-! No! I’m not! It’s just…” the red-haired mage went silent, and couldn’t continue her sentence as she sighed, dejected, gripping her staff hard. “nevermind…”

As Sicily returned from her talks with her acquaintances, she has this weird questioning look about the aura between the three. Curious, she nudges Lilly who is in her fantasy world as she was thinking about scenarios between the three. “could you please snap out of your daydream ms. Lilly…”

“Hmm? Ah! Sicily! It’s rare to see you here at this time! Are you looking for another expedition team?”

“Oh, currently I am not looking for any. Also, what happened between the three of them? Why did it feel like the air is fluffy yet awkward?”

After telling her what happened in the past few minutes, she has this look of annoyance which she focused on the boy. “that’s quite childish”

“aww don’t be like that Sicily~ they’re still young! Ah- well… you are young too but still!”

“you’re enjoying it because you could gossip about this isn’t it Lilly?” the mentioned receptionist averted her gaze from Sicily, letting out an awkward chuckle.

“you can tell?”

Sicily sighed, crossing her arms. Lilly has this bad habit of gossiping and having fictional scenarios in her mind about it which is sometimes disturbing for most people if she decided to tell what’s in her mind when she does that. “of course, I’ve known you for more than 3 years already. That habit of yours is pretty much a screw loose if I say so myself”

“Ughh… thank you for your blunt honesty…”

the two had a small laugh and returned to their main topic. Lilly explained the detailed rules and explanation of the guild rank system, which surprisingly very cliched on how it was ranked just like in other fantasy stories. Starting from bronze or G rank and slowly raise to the top as adventurers complete the quest that was given whilst earning achievements on their journey which also helps raise their ranks faster. Furthermore, other rules are pretty much generic, for example, “an adventurer must not take each other’s lives unless the opposing is marked as a criminal” which the criminals people mostly refer them as bandits.

Kurogane listened thoroughly to the chatty yet merry receptionist’s explanations, which made him gain her respect as most adventurers would just ignore. As she finished explaining, Lilly was surprised that Sicily was invited by her highness herself, which made her delighted since it was quite a feat to be recognized by the Saintess in person. Before they decided to leave, Lilly gave them their adventurer licence and to the [Luninous Virtue]’s surprise, they were given D rank to start. The gang then said their gratitude and farewell to Lilly as they will return to the mansion since they weren’t going to do any quests yet. Lilly waved at them as they left and as they close the main entrance of the guild, she returned to her working tone having her eyes look behind her left shoulder, looking towards the well-built man wearing an average worn-out torso steel armour along with a long-sleeved writing on a desk behind her.

“Are you sure giving them a head start at their ranks is a good idea, guild master?”

The man stopped his writing and looked at her, he has a visible scar on his left eye which is covered by an eyepatch, running his hand at his beard with a chuckle. “I’m sure about it, a friend of mine suggested that also. Well… I was quite surprised that they would register here instead of in the Nelimista capital branch but regardless, that young boy was highly regarded by him”

“your friend? You mean that knight that you met last night in the tavern?”

“sharp intuition as per usual” he stops his motion on his beard, staring at her seriously. “the way he explained the boy’s power is rather unusual, even by my standards. The King of Nelimista didn’t mention anything about his powers, he just said that his daughter will be joining the [Hero]’s journey being an adventurer. Lilly, I hope you can guide the future of humanity properly… I could see he was still very unstable and someone might make use of him behind the strings, especially two of his companions. Can you do it?”

Lilly nodded, “will do” and with that, the Guildmaster stood up and went inside the room behind her. But right before he closes the door, a teasing grin grew on him while he peeked behind the door.

“Also, don’t daydream too much and gossip with the other members behind the guild building that it neglects your paperwork if you don’t want a cut on your salary. Being serious once in a while made you elegant in my opinion” he quickly closes the door, leaving the receptionist flustered.

“wha-! So he knew… damnit! Also, what's with that last line!”

- Viscount Hogomori’s Residence Gate, Inclira Kingdom –

- around 1415hrs –

“the guild and the members were rather friendly huh?...” as they were greeted by the guards and went inside the residence area, the statement Kurogane said confused Sicily who raised her eyebrow.

“what do you mean by that?”

“Oh, uhh… it’s just that there’s a cliche in my world of a newbie registering as an adventurer always getting bullied, I was rather surprised that it didn’t happen here”

“Of course, there isn’t. if there’s one, the ruffian who did it will have his license revoked that same day.”

“you’re right…” the boy just went silent as he looked at the scattered clouds in the skies, having a long face painted in his expression. The princess who’s gleefully eating her snack that they bought on their way to return, notices his wondering expression.

“Kurogane? Are you okay?”

“hmm? Yeah, I’m fine. it’s just that… what’s Jaeger currently doing right now? I really thought we could be friends when we first met during our summons, to think he would go that far… and I just hope we won’t fight each other in the future, he’s just… too powerful to be my enemy”

Luna sympathizes with him, as she also hoped when it was two [Heroes] were summoned instead of one, they would work together and defeat the demon lord with their powers. To her also, Jaeger wasn’t a bad person either, he was just very realistic in his approach to the ongoing conflict. “I do hope so…”

Meanwhile, as they went inside, one of the maids who heard their conversation as she was watering the plants in the front garden, reported it to the Head maid who was slightly surprised that there were two summoned otherworlders instead of one. The maid then left Maribel who was humming with the thought.

“Another hero huh…” she muttered, turning around and heading straight to a certain hallway in the mansion where she knows that someone good at gathering information still lurking. “Grey”

The man came out of the dark corner, having him still hiding his face with the hood of his distinguishable grey hooded coat ready with his equipment, on his hips has two custom-made short swords and some disposable daggers hanging on the back of the belt. “could you stop calling me like I’m your subordinate? You know we’re currently on an equal standing right?”

“Enough with your pitiful jokes, I have something new for you” he grew a grin under his hood, interested in what she had to say. “tell me then”

“the object that the Wyvern Knight described, I think it is connected with the second hero.”

“what? Second hero?? The Holy Kingdom of Nelimista only officially confirmed one hero. There shouldn’t be any mishap on any modern summoning spell for it to summon two heroes, unless…”

“Information control most likely… this is urgent, Grey, if the other hero possesses an unknown power and he didn’t side with us, I don't think humanity has any chance of winning. I want you to gather information inside the Holy Kingdom, they might be hiding something or something might’ve happened to make that hero deserted.”

Grey sighed, “you know, even now you always give these long missions for me for some reason. Don’t you know that this will take more than a month to properly gather secretive information?”

“I know, which is why I asked you personally, the Silver Shadow, who has a one hundred percent success rate on undercover missions to complete this task”

“you’re quite a slave driver aren’t you?” the maid giggled at his remark, she got close to him with a teasing look, putting her index finger on his chest. “my, I thought this is a good practice before we do the promise you made”

He grew a light blush, clearing his throat to regain composure. “I did mention after the war remember?“

“I know”

“then why are you teasing me like this?”

“you always have an interesting look on your face, hehe~”

“… that’s cheating for you to say it like that Bel”

“hmm?~ is that so?”

He then took a step back, turning around, having his coat flutter due to his movement. to the dark area of the mansion. Before he left, Maribel called him one more time, this time with a softer tone. “Grey…”

“yeah?”

“don’t die” the man smiled, and left. Leaving the Head Maid gripping her fist, anxious for what to come later on, especially when she heard the news that the [World Gate] is slowly dissipating from the Viscount himself, fearing that the demons might do a massive attack if it were to disappear. Though, as she look out the window beside her, the clear skies, the cool breeze and the chirping birds made her anxiety slightly go away, with the hope that the same peace will continue. What she doesn’t know, is that the deserted hero has plans for himself, as he finds something interesting within the shadows…