----- Marcy’s POV -------
It is night, and I am in the Guild Master’s office as usual. I am reading the monster compendium, and commiting to heart all the information. Never again. I am also watching the party screen. All four HP bars are topped. This is my lifeline. I’m glad Julius is still unconscious. I left a message with his father to make sure he won’t dismiss the party.
I hear the door creak. I turn around, and I see the tired face of Master.
“Welcome back Master.”
“I’m back, hello Marcy. What are you doing this late in the Guild?”
“I am studying the monster compendium while I wait for Master’s safe return.”
“Ok, good, good job. I found and killed the monster.” - Master makes an inquisitive look. Maybe he is testing me on something. Lets praise him.
“That is awesome, but if the hunter is Master, I had no doubts a B rank monster would go down.”
“What do you take me for… By the way, the girl, Helen, is alive. I saw her.” - Master makes the pauses in his speech very suspicious. What is going on?
“Oh, this is great. You saw her… But you didn’t bring her back, Master. Where is Helen now?”
“Why are you not worried if she is alive or not? You speak as if you were sure she was alive.” - Oh, that is it. I’m worried about Helen, but now that I am monitoring her health, It is not a big deal.
“I am with the party window open right now. I can see Helen’s HP bar.”
By the way, we can’t see the MP bar. But we can see things like status afflictions.
“Oh… I forgot about it… was there such a thing? It completely blew past us, right?” - Master seems worried about something. He finishes with a cute awkward smile.
“But why didn’t you bring Helen back with you, Master?”
“She was… somewhere I couldn’t reach. But somewhere... safe. We will mount an expedition, and leave before dawn, tomorrow. You are coming with us. Can any of the other two, Cloude and Julius, join us?”
My honed woman instincts can tell a man’s lies from a mile away. But they won’t work on Master. Because there is no way that Master would ever lie to me.
“I’m afraid not. Julius hasn’t awakened yet, and Cloude is incapacitated. He attacked Rowdy.”
“That Rowdy, eh? I’ll have a chat with him later. Now head home and ready your stuff. Get some sleep too. I will send someone for you.”
“But I have nothing but my weapons. We left everything behind when we ran. I still have my guild card, because I keep it with me, always.” - I instinctively tap my chest. I can feel the card in there.
“In that case...”
“Can I sleep here at the Guild? It would save the trouble of walking to my parent’s house to wake me up.”
“… its fine. You can sleep here. Go find an empty bunk at the dormitory. Now. Every instant you don’t sleep is a bit more tired you will be tomorrow.” - Master is worried about me. Nice!
I forced myself to sleep. It was really hard. But I must rest my body and mind. I must save Helen.
----------- Guild Master’s POV ------------
And she is finally gone. I will have to tell the on call Receptionist to lock my office when I am not here. Who knows what might happen if she started rummaging through my things without permission. She had the nerve to leave the book open on my desk.
I stow the book on its shelf, put the wyvern venom vial back in the locked drawer then after a quick check of everything else I lock and leave my office.
I go to the garrison, and call for the officer on duty. He is angry at being summoned, but I tell him it is an official Guild business. A B rank monster was spotted in the nearby forest. He pales, and apologizes. I tell him I want 20 of his best men ready to depart before dawn. The troll is probably dead by now, but if it is not, those soldiers will buy time for me. And we need to seize the bride at any cost.
He salutes me, and I leave with the promise that the soldiers will be ready before dawn. I order him to make them assemble in the Guild courtyard. Saves me the time to come back fetch them.
Back at the guild office, I call for the receptionist, and order her to wait for the soldiers. Then I go to the annex lodge wake up some guys. For some down on their luck adventurers, we offer cheap lodging. It is crappy and the company is terrible, but these scum like it. The receptionists sleep in the main building, not in this cesspool.
“Alright you scum, this is the Guild Master with a mandatory emergency request. Everyone get up, gear up and come for briefing.”
As the Guild Master, I can commandeer adventurers on an emergency request. The pay is crap, and they have to comply to the request or take a drop in their rankings.
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Tomorrow we depart before dawn.
----- Marcy’s POV -------
Someone is shaking me. I open my eyes, I see the live in receptionist.
“Good Morning, big sis! Thanks for calling me. I’m going to get ready really soon.” - I check Helen’s status. Her HP is full. But she is suffering from MP depletion for some reason. We can’t see the MP bar, but we can see abnormal status, so we can know when a party member is OOM.
I don my armor, check my weapons. Then I check my other weapons. I’m going on an expedition with Master, what about it? I must show my worth as a wo… apprentice.
We leave for the forest. There are 20 guards, 12 adventurers, me and master in the group. The guards are having a nice time. The monster is dead, Master killed it. It will be a walk in the park. You moved 34 people to rescue you, Helen! Getting important, my dear friend is. I wonder why Master called upon so many people to pick up a girl on a F rank area. It would be so much better if it were just Master and me. Camping out the night.
We move in the forest, and I guide the group to where our campsite was. It is easy, see my skills, everyone.
We begin calling for Helen as we reach the clearing’s edge.
“Helen!” “Helen!” “Helen are you OK?” “Helen are you OK?” - I see bloodstains on the grass. Omg so much blood.
I stop before the clearing, getting cover on a tree. By the book. Master is watching. Go by the book. I scout the clearing perimeter. My presence detection skill is only level 2, but I can focus it on an area, to get a much better reading. It is clear.
I signal the guards, four of them enter the clearing. Bravo!
I enter after them. I feel a gaze on me. I can’t know where from, and I can’t redirect my skill. We must secure the clearing.
The remaining guards enter the clearing. They reach the campsite.
“What is this disgusting thing? Is this an arm?” A soldier says in a low voice, kicking something on the ground.
I look at the thing, it is the arm of that monster. I am sure of it. It is all rotten. I can see an arrow wound that has not regenerated. Maybe the monster’s corpse was torn apart by wolves. Those wolves will have a bad indigestion case. Hehehe. Serves them right.
Around the campsite, several scraps of wolf leather, and of clothes. Entrails, fragments of bone and blood everywhere. There is blood on the stones of the campfire. And more destroyed clothes over there.
Hey those were MY clothes. My favourite clothes. And this… it is burnt, but it is a piece of Helen’s wool robe. I remember this knitting pattern. Her HP is full. She is not suffering from MP depletion either. I had so much hope for this clothes. I bought it so I could wear it on my triumphant return from my very first mission. So Master would praise me. It was two months of wages. I shed a tear for my clothes, but Helen is more important right now.
“Helen!!! Helen!!! Are you out there Helen!!! Please, please come out.” - I shout.
Nothing happens. The men are looking at me. Good. I need to put more power into my voice. I’m useful, look at me.
“Helen!!! Please!!!” - My throat becomes hoarse, because I forced too much.
Master and the adventurers enter the clearing. Master is wary. The monster is dead, but master works like a Pro! I need to keep it up also.
People are rummaging through the campsite remains. Some time passes. Master is scouting around.
Then I hear a faint voice…
“I don’t want stupid monster cores. I want...”
That is Helen. I recognize her voice. I look at the party window. MP depletion. What is she doing with monster cores?
Since master is scouting the clearing, I shift my presence detection to wide area. I pick up two presences in the direction of that voice. I look in that direction, but fail to see anything exceptional.
Then I hear Helen call for me.
“Marcy! Marcy! I’m here!!!”
I begin to run at full speed towards the voice. One of the presences is of Helen. The other at her side, unknown. But something makes me scared. I must reach Helen.
When I am about ten steps away from some bushes, Helen comes out of them. She trips, and falls on her stomach. Her skirt is all torn. I can see her thigh and part of her butt. Too white.
Something is running away from us. That other presence. It is going away, then it is not a threat. I reach Helen, and crouch down to assist her. She is not hurt, I can see her HP is almost full. Just some bruises.
I hear master drawing his bowstring. Since his bow is one crafted for power and distance, it makes a lot of noise.
----------- Guild Master’s POV ------------
I draw my bow, and concentrate to make a precise shot. Then I see a goat horn behind a tree, and the creature peeking. I only need to see an eye if I am going to shoot at the eye anyway.
The arrow will fly true. I begin to activate my [Sniping] skill, and…
Before the skill finishes triggering, the creature roars. I fail to contain myself, and relax my hand, the arrow goes off without the skill’s correction. It misses by a hand, and lodges into a tree in the background.
I must order the soldiers to rush the monster. But almost all of them are cowering, except two that are further away watching for Marcy. And before I can raise a voice...
“Hey, hey, I need some help here! Helen has fainted.”
Marcy calls out those guards. Who gives a shit about a fainted girl. We need to take that troll down now. It is an intelligent subspecies, who knows what terror it will unleash upon us.
The thing is hiding behind the same tree still. Were not all these useless maggots cowering, I could order an attack on it.
Marcy and the guards carrying the harvest girl return to the clearing, and right after this happens, the troll runs away into the deep woods.
Unbelievable. I let my prey escape. I hesitated. I should have gone there and baited it to come at me. Then kite it back to the clearing, where the soldiers and adventurers would engage it.
But now it is too late. Behind me, the dumb apprentice keeps staring at my back. The adventurers and soldiers are recovering. Some soiled themselves. If I could, I’d murder every single of them right now for incompetence. But there would be too many questions from the other town powers. I cannot let my standing dip because of this. I must find a way to earn something from this operation.
I look around. The harvest girl is safe. With her, the crops can be restored.
“We accomplished our mission objective, gentleman. The magician girl was rescued. The coward creature has escaped, but we shall hunt it soon enough.”
I put on my best fake smile. Yes, rescue successful. I will have to answer annoying questions about the B rank threat, but now that I have that arm, I can use it to show that not even wyvern venom was enough to kill it. I can then use my Guild Master authority to bump its rating to A as a subspecies variant.
But then we will have to report to the kingdom. It will be out of my hands though. I won’t be promoted, but some dividends will come out of this. Nobody expects a backwater Guild Master to deal alone with an A rank.
Yes, for now, the girl and the arm are enough spoils to satisfy the hyenas. But not to placate my anger.
I look around, and see Marcy gazing at the sleeping harvest girl with motherly eyes.
It is decided. I will begin to vent my anger with this girl’s training. She piled up enough fails today.
We take the girl back to town. She can be the town’s saviour. And everyone will know that I was the one to rescue her.