Waking up, I was very surprised to find myself on a soft, comfortable bed. Looking around I saw a beautiful young woman with medium length black hair dozing off by my bedside.

“HEY where the hell am I?” I asked, a little disoriented.

“Oh, you are awake?” The girl spoke lazily as she rubbed her eyes and let out a cute yawn.

“You are in one of the guild’s healing rooms, I found you passed out near the entrance of the city.” She continued.

Before I could respond, a tall and gorgeous woman boldly entered the room.

“Hmm? Lena, why are you here?” The girl who was attending to me asked the tall woman named Lena.

“I should be the one to ask you that, Asayo. I heard you stopped by the healer, so I wanted to make sure you were ok. So, why are you here? And who is this?” Lena responded with a hint of worry in her voice.

“Oh, him? I was on my way to complete a solo mission when I saw him passed out near the entrance of the city. I was just waiting here to make sure he was ok until the healer got back.” Asayo replied while getting up to stretch.

Attempting to stand up as well, I immediately felt light-headed and collapsed again. The last thing I saw before everything faded to black was the worried faces of Asayo and Lena.

Instead of a peaceful slumber, my mind quickly shifted into a vision or a dream, I couldn’t really tell which as everything seemed so real yet so abstract at the same time. I found myself standing alone in the middle of a field with the wind blowing fiercely against my face, causing all of the grain surrounding me to tear apart and float upwards. As I realized how strange the situation was, the wind suddenly stopped, dropping all of the grain to the ground.

Suddenly an unnaturally large eagle flew above me, the screech it let out thundered through the field. I could feel the force from it vibrate through my entire body, causing my right eye to burst. Once again I was unable to see from my eye, but this time it was true blindness. A few seconds after darkness had enveloped my right eye, it began to expand, devouring the entirety of my vision.

After what felt like an eternity within complete darkness, I noticed a spark of light from a distance that was rapidly getting closer. Before I knew it, I was back in the field and the same sequence of events played out once again… and again… and again.

The amount of times it swapped from the field to darkness and back all blended together. I eventually lost count, it could have been hundreds, thousands, or even millions of times that I went through the cycle.

All I knew was that I soon became numb to the pain in my eye, and got used to the constant changes in my state of vision. Eventually, solace would come when I finally awoke from the dream. Looking around the empty room, I noticed I was in the same place where I passed out a second time. I also noticed that, although the vision in my right eye had not yet been fully restored, the opaque color was now lessened, becoming more translucent.

Right as I was about to get up again, two vaguely familiar figures walked into the room—Asayo and Lena.

“You’re finally up! Remember us?” Lena smiled with a satisfied expression.

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“Hmm… so you were right after all.” Asayo spoke cryptically while taking a nearby seat.

“Of course I was.” Lena responded to Asayo’s comment.

“It's you guys again… Thanks for helping me last time… Asayo, was it? But, how long have I been out for?” I asked, trying to organize my disoriented thoughts.

“It’s been a few weeks.” Asayo, the girl who initially saved me, responded in a neutral voice devoid of emotion.

“...No, no, no! That's not good! I need to get to the main guild office now! I was supposed to register there after turning seventeen. My father is probably wondering what’s going on after he wasn’t released from his duty.” I began to panic at the sudden revelation.

“Oh honey, you don’t have to worry about that. Given the circumstances and how long it's been since you were supposed to report to the guild for your official duties, they have already assigned you to a party. Fortunately for you, I pulled a few strings and was able to get you into our brand new party and as the official leader no less. So welcome, Leone, to the Cat Dragons!” Lena responded excitedly as she looked at me with a grin.

“...What the fuck.” I didn’t know what to say.

There were so many things wrong with what Lena said, it was giving me a headache.

“Wait, doesn’t there need to be seven members to form a party? Also, I was gonna wait for my friend and then form a party with him. And what about my family, do they know that I’m ok?” I asked in an attempt to understand the situation better.

“Well, for your first question, you already know two of us and you’ll meet the rest later. As for your second, I don’t know who your friend is exactly, but chances are, since it's been so long, that they have already joined another party. Even if that wasn’t the case, it's not like you can join him now anyways. Once you're in a party, you can’t switch so easily without reason.” Lena spoke casually.

“As for your family, they have already stopped by multiple times to make sure you're fine, so you don’t have to worry about them for now.” Lena addressed my last concern.

For a moment, I was left speechless. This whole situation was so unexpected and incomprehensible to me. To say I was frustrated, was putting it lightly.

“Oh you gotta be shitting me! While I’m grateful that you saved me Asayo, does it make any sense that I’m suddenly forced into your party? And as the leader no less! Also I don’t even know you two, how can I be sure that you can fight? I don’t want to be forced into a party with people that can’t even pull their own weight!” I voiced my anger.

“Oh trust me honey, I’m plenty strong.” Lena replied in a self-assured smug tone as she approached me.

Bringing her left fingertips up to the base of my chin, her hand slowly changed into a scaly claw, with an electric current crackling between her solid nails. Her deeply beautiful black hair became silver and cloud-like while her gorgeous features contorted into a blue scaly dragon-like face with antlers protruding from the back of her head.

As soon as I fully processed what I was looking at, she tapped me on the cheek, sending a wave of energy through it that forced me to make a slight smirk. Her body then changed back to normal.

“You are just so cute when you smile like that.” She said seductively as she sat down on a nearby chair.

“You don’t have to worry, I can absolutely fight.” Asayo said as she got up from beside me, her tone was somehow colder than before.

Once fully standing up, she removed a strange charm from around her neck. Instantly a pair of cat ears emerged from the sides of her head, as her human ears receded. Along with her ears, a black forked tail emerged from behind her, and her eyes became sharp and catlike.

“...So you named our party, that I'm supposed to be the leader of, after yourselves.” I relented.

“That's your only comment about this? Lena responded playfully with an amused expression.

“...I’m over it. It’s not like if I complained anymore, the situation would suddenly change. Let's just get this over with and meet the other party members. That way I can go meet my parents, they probably want to see that their son is awake and well.” I sighed as I slowly got up.

“Well then, follow me, Leone, so we can go meet the girls.” Lena laughed.

“Yep, let's get this shitshow started.” I replied as the three of us left the room.