53rd chapter : ranked up

After getting that announcement done all red mermaid members had their own problems to deal with and so one of them was Marco’s current house.

Few hours earlier, at Marco’s house.

“I can’t believe that you’re asking me to do such a thing” Emilis said as they were walking to Marco’s house.

“I’m not a builder so having master do the rough job for me is better, I still fixed most of your problems too If my current memory is good”, Marco responded as they all felt bamboozled by his reply.

“Woah! so rude and scary too!” Vanica commented as she was still surprised about the long way they’re taking.

“I don’t care about what I say or anything, anyway I did give it a thought but from now on this place will be y’all’s home” Marco said as they arrived at the house.

Sophie and Arthur were about to rush inside but Marco stopped them. Surprised by why Marco did that, Arthur and Sophie understood after seeing Emilis step ahead of them.

“Well then, master, start by scanning the house please”

Marco asked as he was standing ahead with him while the others were on the back, watching excitingly.

“You want me to change the shape of the house or something?” Emilis asked him.

He deployed a window viewer with the house’s plan for them to discuss the next tasks they’re going to do.

“Not exactly, leave the lower floor as it is and change the rooms a little so there will be a place for stairs then add a second floor with other rooms for Vanica san and the rest. Having some other rooms is also good if anyone wants to stay for the night, I guess this is meant for Hana”.

Marco said as he gave Emilis what he wanted to do, pointing it down on the plan.

“I see your point but there’s the room on…” Emilis spoke but Marco interrupted him.

“Don’t think of touching it or changing its shape no matter what, just finish the rest of the house as we talked about”.

Marco’s words felt cold therefore Emilis snorted, laughing at it before doing his work. Marco was determined to keep his grandfather’s room as it is. Emilis found it weird again that the room’s inside was hidden even from him, therefore he didn’t touch it and went with what Marco asked from him.

“All done but man, I’m still your master so have some respect for me, also Vanica!! Nora kun and Minerva chan too!!” Emilis said to Marco as he addressed Vanica and the others after, “mostly from now on you guys are red mermaid members, it won’t be really a problem to get the approval so you guys will come with me tomorrow to the council. It’ll be like giving a proper report for once to the council but I’ll conceal everything for the rest of what happened, I know that Nora kun once belonged to a guild here and Minerva chan was a foreigner that got mixed up in a gang conflict without even being from it, more or less, I did my researches too so take it easy and establish yourselves here”

Emilis smiled at them as he opened a new door for Minerva and Nora who were speechless with no word to speak only but felt the weight of an unrighteous world got taken off their shoulders.

“Thank you very much!! We appreciate everything you’ve done and you’re going to do for us!!” Nora and Minerva bowed to him as they felt relieved nonetheless.

“Good for you!! Minerva san!!” Carla said, hugging her mother in the process.

“Can you guys be happier inside the house?” Marco said as he opened the door for them.

Arthur and Sophie entered first rushing to their rooms, Vanica was the last one to enter as Carla reached for her mother’s hand pulling her inside the house with a bright smile.

Present time, on Alice and the other’s side.

“Never thought that as a worker in a restaurant, a thought of being ashamed by eating in another restaurant will cross my mind ever in my life” Xavier said as they were walking.

“Don’t say that and since we are eating Italian food, I guess this place is better! not fancy but they have delicious meals on the menu”.

Alex was talking as they stopped by a sudden restaurant making it their own destination.

“You’ve been doing some restaurant hunting on your own now, Alex?” Xavier asked bluntly.

“Nah!! I passed by the other day and saw some particular faces here so I went and tried their food!!” Alex replied calmly, looking at the small crowd inside the restaurant.

At that moment Alex, Xavier and Alice smirked at Zack who flustered. He turned red, blushing out of the fact that this place is his secret girlfriend’s place.

“Xavier you damn devil!! I told you not to say a thing about it!!” Zack was shaking him hard as he saw that Xavier was holding his laugh back.

“Don’t worry! we’re here to eat only!!” Alice responded as Zack turned to her too.

“Liar !! I can see you laughing behind those hands!!” he was flustered but ended up entering with them afterwards.

“Welcome to our restaurant!!”.

A beauty welcomed them with a warm smile, pointing to some vacant tables for them. Alex and Xavier whistled before patting his shoulder and heading to the table first.

“You sure got a top notch, as you’re big sister!! I’m proud!!” Alice whistled too, saying as she patted his shoulder too then followed the other two.

Zack was hiding his face from embarrassment as the girl also exploded blushing in red. After taking their seat at a table of four, the girl went to take their order but she was still looking red from blushing that much.

“I guess we should apologize first, he hardly tells us about you and these two wanted to see him flustered that’s all so don’t mind him!! Any recommendations from the house?!” Alice said as she smiled at the girl who smiled back an awkward smile.

“Ahaha! no it’s ok! I can understand that feeling, if you want recommendations then I’ll bring the best dish on the menu”.

The girl answered, shining in happiness as she smiled at them. Upon seeing her smile, Alex and Xavier were going to take the chance and tease Zack again but Alice held one of the forks and pointed to Alex’s neck, threatening both to not speak a word

“Say one other word and you're gonna spend the night at the hospital” the scary aura made the girl shiver a little, so she went on her way to get the food as fast as she could.

The other three enjoyed her act of fluster while Zack was dying from embarrassment.

“Sorry for the wait!!” The girl returned faster than expected as she put a big plate on their table, “The spaghetti here isn’t the best out there but it’s delicious, enjoy it!!”.

She smiled at how they ravaged the food as soon as she put it down for them. As she was about to go back to work, Alice caught her hand saying that they wanted to talk after finishing their food. Upon their request the girl talked to the owner who was her father and told him that she’ll take some rest to sit with some friends who came to eat.

Her father didn’t mind and told her to have her time, as for the other four Zack was the one who had to pay although Alice forced Xavier to pay along with him.

“So your name is Iris!! What a lovely name!!” Alice smiled at her as the three girls were talking.

“Also! forgive us for earlier, Zack is like our little brother. We grew up together so you gotta excuse our urge to tease him although he did keep it a secret from us in the first place, so it’s understandable to tease him this much about you!!” Alex patted Iris’ shoulder and smiled as she took the cup of juice from Xavier’s hand as soon as they returned.

They took their time discussing a lot of stuff, how the two met and what she sees in Zack as a person in general, the talk went for quite a while until they felt it was time to go.

“You’re a great woman Iris chan and Zack is our little great brother so make sure to not lose him and thanks for the food!!” Xavier smacked Zack’s head as he was talking a few times, he got a reply for that afterwards.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The five of them went out to the front door as Zack was still blushing, because of this whole conversation. Iris giggled a little at his honest pure reaction then smiled at them responding.

“Thank you for the good talk too!! That was a thing that I needed and that’s a new side that I never saw in him so thanks again!!”.

Iris’ response showed how pure she was as Alex and Xavier took a deep breath while looking at Zack with cold death glares, Iris didn’t understand why they did that but Zack showed her again a different side as he said,

“I won’t hesitate in fighting you even if it makes the city a ruckus after that!! So choose wisely!” His words left Iris speechless.

Iris was surprised as well as feeling worried at what he said, she overlooked the fact that these four are from the red mermaid.

“Don’t worry about that since it’s not something they would do in our presence, anyway!!” Alice replied, taking down Iris’ worries for her.

Alice was about to say something else as they saw that the district is livelier than ever therefore they heard someone shouting so suddenly,

“A thief!! stop that thief!!”.

Alice and Xavier sighed.

“So who’s going after him?” Xavier asked.

“Let’s decide with rock paper scissors” Zack responded forgetting that Iris was still with them.

“More like why not do it on your own Zack, right Iris chan!?”,

Alex said as she meant to tease him but Xavier didn’t waste the time and shot down the guy with an arrow.

“Bingo!”. Xavier said before starting to drag the guy with a thread of euro particles that was attached to the arrow.

Without getting any response from Zack who was lost in thought of how to explain his side again, Alex was hooked up with Xavier as they were playing around the thief while returning what he stole.

“That was awesome!!” Iris blurted out these words, looking like she was thrilled from this small scene. Seeing her react that way, Zack already drowned in his embarrassment.

“Thank you but I’m not the only one who can do that!! all of us can do” Xavier kept teasing Zack even though they were about to head home.

“That’s one of our big specs so don’t let go of this blushing man!! You two let the guy go and let’s head home already!!”

Alice said as she saw that Iris was that type of woman who gets excited easily. It was the right call for someone like their little brother Zack to choose her, in other words the other three felt like it was a matchmake from heaven.

“Uhm!! I also got something like that!! I don’t know how to control it!! or call for it!! Can you teach me!?” Iris addressed Zack who was surprised but happy to hear what she said.

“With my utmost pleasure!! I’ll teach you what I know!!” Zack replied without another thought in his mind.

“Then it’s a date! Promise!” Iris replied with a soft smile.

The other three stood speechless at how angelic Iris was, even for them, on the other side Zack replied instantly.

“Yeah!! you can come to our house! or the restaurant!! It’s a promise” he replied then smiled back at her, a soft one.

With that reply Alice and Alex pulled Zack to their side as they were walking away, he turned to see Iris’ face one last time as she shouted for him to hear,

“It’s a promise!!”.

“Yeah !! It’s a promise!! Take care of yourself!!” Zack shouted back then followed the other three on their way home.

He caught with their steps, Alice was the first one to start the teasing session.

“It could've also been good if you invited her to join the guild too!! or even coming to the festival with us!! to see how strong her boyfriend is!!” she had a smug face as Zack sighed after that.

“I’ll do it I guess, her father wasn’t really in my favor but if he learns that I belong to the red mermaid!! He might accept me!!” Zack was having other thoughts.

“You never back down huh?” Xavier said to him as Alex was the one to reply,

“Leave him be, if it’s gonna be like that for more than a month then I guess we all need to start looking for things from a better perspective”.

The four of them grinned awkwardly at what Alex said as they felt like the dream that they were having when they were kids back then in the orphanage is coming true and so their life will become what they believed it will be.

At Marco’s house,

After returning home, Mostly looking at the new rooms in the house and having some fun until dinner time, Arthur was the only one who spoke about someone who should’ve appeared earlier.

“Ah, you mean Hana, I thought so too but I guess she’s not around the city for a week, good for her I guess” Marco answered as they were eating dinner.

“Who’s this Hana?” Vanica asked as she started to have some second thoughts.

“My childhood friend…” Marco answered but before he could say another word the doorbell rang, “You really had to speak about her?”.

Marco looked at Arthur with a sigh as Hana opened the door on her own and rushed as soon as she saw the lights.

“Marco!! Damn!! I thought I missed the house?!” she said in a rush with a happy expression.

“Glad you’re doing good but what we said about entering without knocking three times?” Marco said as he flicked her forehead.

Hana grinned at him with a smile while holding her forehead then went to hug Sophie along with forcing Arthur in it too. Ignoring that there were new people in the house, Hana got herself caught from the back of her neck by Marco because of that and had to present herself.

“I know I know!! I’m sorry!! I’ll do it right away!!” she said to Marco who was tightening the grip on her.

Hana had an annoyed face for him then turned to Vanica and the others.

“Sorry for not introducing myself earlier, I’m Hana Loki!! Marco’s childhood friend. I'm sorry for entering so suddenly!! I do that because he sometimes isn’t around so I just use my spare key!!”

Hana bowed to Vanica then showed her the key. She instantly hid it back so Marco wouldn't take it from her.

“No it’s ok, I understand, I’m Vanica Fullblack ! Carla’s mother and this is Minerva Lreux and Nora Encer.” replied Vanica.

Vanica bowed in return as Hana looked at Carla with a surprised expression.

“Good for you Carla chan!!” Hana said as she looked like she was talking about something else.

“More importantly!! Guehee!! Why did you hit me!!?” Hana was about to talk again as Marco landed a chop on her head.

“If you wanna say something, talk about it tomorrow. If you wanna stay then there’s a room up there for you”,

Marco responded as he looked like he did that on purpose so she won’t speak about anything else, only Arthur noticed what Hana was talking about but decided to wait for tomorrow too to hear about it, aside from the fact that he wanted to talk about the new floor of the house.

“That’s rare, coming from you to let me stay the night?” Hana said as she thought that Marco was acting strange.

“I don’t have a problem in throwing you out either so choose what you want” he replied as Hana got what he meant by that.

“Hai hai, I’ll go check the room and I guess master Emilis was the one who remodeled it, right?” she said, walking to the stairs.

“Of course he did”

Marco responded then went outside on his own, seeing him acting strange for a while made Hana giggle.

The next day arrived. The city was too calm as everything returned back to normal with few new changes along the way.

For Emilis’ side, he stayed up all night to check on the cords he planted around the city to keep the monsters around, Along with the help of Alex and Marco who were also doing the same thing to preserve the calm around the alleys of the city.

“Welcome back!” Sophie and Hana greeted him as they were eating breakfast.

“Ah, who cooked this time?” Marco asked as he saw that the kitchen was clean and everything was prepared.

“I did, since Carla and Hana chan said that you don’t let anyone use the kitchen” Vanica responded as she gave him some pancakes.

“Is this some kind of punishment?” asking bluntly, he took a seat next to Sophie.

“That’s not exactly a punishment but she was persistent to cook, they had an argument about it!” Yuna responded as she was keeping Sophie company.

“I see, well, I don’t really keep them away since Hana is the one who cooks around from time to time when I’m not here, so I guess I should thank you” Marco said as he took a bait from the pancake.

Sophie gave him some to eat, therefore the second he took another bait the house phone rang.

“Marco!! Alex senpai is looking for you!!” Carla responded to the phone as Alex was the one who called.

After hanging off the call, Carla went to the table.

“She said that she’s gonna need you later when we go to the restaurant, mama and Minerva neesan are going with master so everyone should head to the restaurant now” Carla spoke while eating her breakfast.

“We still need some groceries for tonight’s dinner so Arthur, you’re going with me to buy the groceries” Marco responded as he saw that Arthur was going to shut himself inside the room, again.

Even with the complaints, Arthur ended up going with Marco by force. He looked like a dead fish the whole road to the grocery shop.

“Sigh, you should really look at my sentiments too you know!” Arthur said as they were buying vegetables.

“I don’t think that’s what you really wanna say, our family is getting bigger now, so can I say that from your perspective, it is fun?” Marco responded while he paid then went ahead.

Arthur looked at Marco then caught up with him to answer,

“Beats me, actually it became harder to move around the house but if Sophie is having fun then I’m good with it. More or less, I know how you feel too” Arthur responded as they were walking.

Both tilted their heads to the side, looking at each other before sighing as they walked, silently heading to the restaurant.

The second that they were to take a turn they saw Emilis flying away as if he was blown towards the other side.

“You bastard wants more of this!!”.

An old woman’s voice echoed through the area as Marco recognized the voice. Arthur on the other side, had no clue who it was.

“What tha?” mumbling out of pure curiosity.

Arthur was holding his laugh as he saw that Emilis was blown away like a rag of trash.

“Been a while Fabia ma”,

Marco said, greeting Fabia as he got closer to the front door, trying to slip through her to enter inside. Fabia looked at him as the second he passed she caught him from shirt.

“You come here too!!”.

Fabia said as Arthur was watching next to her, he chuckled, seeing his brother getting blown by the same hit as Emilis. On the other side Arthur saw that all the red mermaid members had gotten a beating from her.

“It’s already enough now Fabia ma? Don’t you think it’s a little bit exaggerated?” Rebecca said as she got out of the restaurant to look for Marco.

“Hein?! they need more!! and don’t talk back to me!! what kind of a guild who leave their own base and city to go somewhere else and have some sort of vacation!!”

Fabia was totally mad, not resonating with anything other than getting all the members punished. From a different angle, Arthur was enjoying the view of the red mermaid totally acting like scared children including Emilis.

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