14th chapter : Give it back .

After that incident in the dungeon a few days ago, Marco was kind of punished with a week off work. Things weren’t looking good for him either, he didn’t have a lot of money left for the rest of the month after paying some taxes to the council and the house bills.

The work was suspended and Alice was staying at their house.

“Uhm, can you explain again why Alice Neechan is staying with us the whole week?!” Arthur asked with an enraged voice.

Alice was hugging him tightly and patting him nonstop like playing with a cat, it’s the reason why he was mad like that.

“uhm, yeah. I told you that they’re staying for a week, I’ll be off, for work because we need money for the rest of the month” Marco was discussing with Arthur while setting off to work.

“hai, in the first place I don’t know whether I want it or not, but just to tell you I’ll close my door!! knock when you come back!” Arthur replied as he ran free from Alice’s arms right to his room.

“Sigh, don’t be that pushy Alice senpai, he doesn’t like doing this a lot” Marco said while looking at Alice giggling a little.

“I know that, but I can’t help myself. He's fluffy and cute just like Sophie. Also, is there something you want to add after this, Carla seems to not be talking a lot with you recently? ” Alice asked, changing the subject.

The two of them were outside the house speaking , after not knowing what to answer Marco kept calm then heard Alice sighing.

“Don’t think about it a lot, also Carla isn’t the type to hold a grudge so she might be thinking of a way to say sorry or thanks” Alice was serious with a smile on her face.

“I see, well as long as she won’t hate Sophie and Arthur I’ll be glad for that” Marco replied then went to the work he was going to do.

“You heard him, so what are you going to do?” Alice said right after seeing Marco go away.

she was letting the phone on for Carla to hear what he wanted to say, at that sudden moment.

“Hai, I’ll see what I can do” Carla replied calmly after opening the door, Alice looked at her then calmly patted her head before heading inside first.

Two hours earlier, the new city at the market mall,

“Hurry up!!! Hurry up!! I wanna go already!!” a girl was complaining as she was waiting for a guy to finish his work.

“Don’t be that pushy Ruby, he won’t finish if you keep annoying him that much” Nate said addressing Ruby.

“He’s right! and Cornelius!! Finish that part already!! it’s not that hard!!” Jasmine, another girl said as she was working with Cornelius who sighed a grief complaint at their unstoppable yawning.

“I know that already, and please Call me Cor!! Jasmine senpai!!” Cor replied as he was wearing his jacket to move up after finishing his work in that instant “Sigh, it’s just 10am and we are heading to a far old city just for that. Ruby really pisses me off sometimes” Cor mumbled as he was looking around.

“Don’t say that, she’s a new member so you gotta do that for her, I would’ve gone but I’m helping Nate with this paperwork. Black heart guild is big after all,” Jeff, the third seat of Black heart said as he was working.

“Sigh, we work in a mall and we still have to do this too, what happened to -the guild master must check the paper himself-?” Cor asked after seeing the huge mess in their work.

“Ahaha , if he hears you , you’ll surely be dead, master Recka is nice for not doing that. Now let’s gooo!!!” Ruby replied as she was acting childish, pushing Cor around to walk.

“Fine, fine! we’ll get going, vice master. please put that in the reports for today” Cor said.

“Yeah, don’t worry, have a good day!! the couple is setting off on their date!!” Jasmine said, teasing them.

Ruby giggled knowing that Jasmine was teasing them unlike Cor who turned red for a second.

After taking their departure, they walked for thirty minutes to reach the train station. Roughly there’s no way other than the train to enter the city they were going to. The palm city is covered with mountains around and an old like city. with people not giving it a lot of attention despite being a good place to have a vacation it became a city for sightseeing to strangers.

On the other side of the society, the holders don’t like the palm city because of a lot of reasons. First, the city itself is like a hole, monsters usually hunt there but for the last 20 years not even a single monster appeared or tried to trespass the boundary of the dungeons. Even before, it was most unlikely a time where the councilors were sending holders all the time to clear the dungeons once they respawn.

The disappearance of the monster is because Emilis Vengeance, the strongest holder in the human history is living there and that’s the second reason, because the council hates him so they’ve made it clear for the other holders, that it’s his territory and his guild’s own territory. In other words, the Red mermaid has the full right to do whatever they want in the palm city .

“I see! Cor kun really knows a lot about the guilds, so what do you think? Do you really believe that he’s the strongest?” Ruby said after hearing Cor’s explanation about the palm city and red mermaid.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Hmm, as long as I did not see it with my own eyes , Emilis Vengeance is still looking like a normal holder to me” Cor replied while looking around.

The two of them reached the palm city within an hour by train, after that they walked to Eyezar’s shop.

“heeh!? I see, well, I don’t think he’s that strong either. after all Red mermaid itself isn’t a proper guild” Ruby replied while looking at the stalls on their way there.

“Well, at least walk alongside, I won’t pay for any of the food you’re looking at. even if it’s your birthday, I don’t think that I will have money left if you do that ” Cor said as he was walking ahead of her.

Ruby on the other hand wiped her mouth with an upset face , she pouted then tapped his shoulder.

“Cor kun is really meanie, just one meal!!”.

She pleaded the whole way before they reached their destination. on the same side Cor didn’t react to her words and kept walking.

“Well, we are here. so don’t ruin the things, it’s your birthday so choose whatever you…want?” Cor said as he opened the door of Eyezar’s antique store then got a weird shock from what he saw.

A moment ago,

“They’re coming, so wear this!!” Eyezar said to Marco while forcing him to wear a costume.

“Old man. I’ll really kill you!!” Marco coldly yelled while trying to avoid the wearing of the costume.

After some insisting moves from Eyezar who had to give him more money saying it’s for work and with Selicia too insisting on Marco, he gave up and wore the costume.

“If she’s not satisfied I’ll kill you!!” Marco was preparing himself.

Eyezar was preparing the things for the customer to come up. Ten minutes later as Cor opened the door, Marco stood in a position wearing a birthday cake costume and put on a smile along with some words.

He said along with Eyezar “Happy birthday!!! may all your wishes come true within this day!!!”.

Cor was kinda confused as Marco saw his face he looked aside to Ruby who was having an open mouth spacing out.

Marco sighed as he was about to remove the costume.

Ruby shouted “Cake man!!!! I wanna eat you!!”.

She said with every ounce of her voice rushing to bite Marco’s costume but Cor stopped her immediately. After that, Marco removed the costume and threw it at Eyezar as he caught him with the chains.

“I’ll kill you old man!!” he said with a cold voice dragging him to the other side then Ruby responded, returning to her senses.

“No wait!! I’d rather you let him live for a few more hours, until I get my serment ”.

Marco looked at her then remembered that they met somewhere.

“You’re the mall girl, so you guys are holders. As you requested! this is work so I’m expecting from you to pay up everything, creepy old man!” Marco said with a calm expression on his face.

Ruby didn’t expect that herself as she chuckled after that, Cor felt something weird and didn’t speak up about it.

“Sorry about that, she’s a freak when it comes to cute stuff and weird things, also she awakened recently so that’s was making her slightly unpleasant to people” Cor spoke as he was stopping Ruby from biting Marco.

“I see , well I can’t say the same but I’m new to this too” Marco replied as they were waiting for Eyezar.

Cor and Marco looked at each other then before anyone would speak another word Eyezar arrived.

“Sorry for the wait,” Eyezar said.

As he brought his one eyed glasses to do his work Eyezar was about to scan Ruby but Cor stopped between them after a small amount of time.

“What are you doing?” Eyezar asked.

“Don’t stare too much old man, if it wasn’t for my senpais I’d rather go for one of the five cities to buy, but…” before Cor would finish Eyezar chuckled.

“Well, don’t be that pushy. also I already got what I needed, her states are good so, Marco bring that box from the back please?”.

His words were calm therefore Cor didn’t want to calm down as he stopped Marco too.

“Sigh, since it’s her birthday. I guess you should let her choose, old man” Marco said as he took a seat.

“Why do you think that?” Eyezar asked.

“Because she already went ahead to choose.” Marco calmly replied as he pointed to Ruby.

While they were arguing Ruby had already entered the back of the shop and started looking around. Cor smirked as Eyezar sighed knowing that she can’t be stopped by now, Marco on the other side was watching silently as it was his first time seeing a person get a new serment.

“Well, Sorry but I’ll choose this one!!!” Ruby said with a big smiling face while holding a hairpin up in the air.

Marco whistled as he saw her acting all bossy, even Eyezar wasn’t expecting her to choose something from that section. She took a deep breath then her serment instantly released itself, the pressure of the euro particles wasn’t too big but it had some affection to the point where Selicia appeared.

“She even picked something related to me! This girl is interesting!!” Selicia was impressed.

Ruby smiled as she released her serment taking a part of her hand and warping it with a metal like protector along with a long scarf around her back, after releasing it fully Ruby looked at Cor keeping the same big smile.

“Well, whether you liked it or not. It’s now your serment”.

Cor said to her with a little smile showing how he was liking that, after seeing her releasing it. Marco took a closer look scanning Ruby’s serment while Selicia was speaking with him.

“You’re being rude!! move aside!!” Cor yelled at him.

Ruby awkwardly smiled as she sealed it back.

“Sorry, but since it’s her birthday and I work here I would like to invite both of you to launch on my treat” Marco apologized and proposed something weird.

Both Ruby and Cor looked at each other and moments after she started spacing out as she remembered the word food. Ruby insisted after that.

“What’s wrong with that!! Cor kun!! food, it’s food!! and free too!! Also, it’s my birthday so I don’t mind free food!!!”.

“Sigh, you’re being too annoying!! At least, be a little cautious about it!!” Cor replied.

“Don’t mind me, I’ll be waiting outside. Now Marco kun was it!! Lead the way!!” Ruby said as she stopped arguing and held her arm in the air like a little child.

Marco looked at Cor then went after her,

“Sigh, this girl” he murmured before going out then Eyezar stopped him.

“Wait a second, are you perhaps forgetting that you need to pay me?” Eyezar had a calm deadly smile at Cor.

“Tsk, what a day to go out bringing serments. sigh, I didn’t forget!!” Cor murmured the first words then yelled as he gave him a pile of gold won.

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