Anice exchanged a confused glance with Lessa before asking, “What does that mean?”
“Just as mages and swordsmen have their rankings, so do frontiersmen. The more successful jobs you’re involved in, the more recognition you gain in the guild. Once you build up enough achievements you’re given a new membership badge of a different colour, which allows you to take on harder tasks, which means more recognition and more money. Team Tempest has the most accomplishments out of all of the frontiersmen in Civus, and they’re incredibly powerful.” Eyes shining, Edmun looked like a child that was visualizing his greatest hero. “They’re true warriors worthy of our respect. Now come! The last thing we need is for Calum to embarrass himself in front them.”
Alistar silently agreed that the possibility was quite high, but he hadn’t expected the area to be so congested when he’d decided to lead his cousins to this part of town and was thus slightly reluctant to rush toward the source of everyone’s attention. What was worse, he was vividly aware of a familiar aura within the vast crowd of people, one that was currently at the centre of it all. Due to the large amounts of other auras in the area, Anice and Lessa hadn’t seemed to notice.
“Do we really have to?” muttered Lessa, who wasn’t one to enjoy the public eye.
Anice crossed her arms in annoyance as she watched her older cousin leave them behind after growing too impatient. “We should use this chance to run off somewhere. They can find their own way home.”
“We should go. Zech’s over there, too.”
The girls shared a worried stare.
“Let’s hurry,” said Anice, grabbing Alistar’s hand and dragging him after the others at a run. Seeing the questioning look he sent her, she explained, “Zech cursed Calum during their last visit, and ended up being forced to bow down and kiss Calum’s boots. That’s the only reason they stopped teasing me.”
Lessa was right beside them, dress swaying as she shuffled forward as quickly as her slipper-like shoes allowed. “I hope they don’t cause him any trouble.”
Alistar was a bit taken aback. Zech hadn’t said anything about this when he had shed light on the nature of his cousins, and none of his other friends had brought it up. Had they been hiding it to protect Zech’s pride?
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the fringes of the crowd and then carefully wormed their way towards the centre. People were quick to part at the sight of three pairs of silver eyes, which made their movement quite easy. When they finally arrived at the scene of interest, they found a group of five armour-clad adults making their way forward amidst a mass of slowly moving people, a couple of them tapping their feet impatiently as they were held up by the sea of onlookers. At their side and looking both embarrassed and uneasy, Zech was doing his best to ignore all of the excited voices that poured in from all directions as he tried to get a word in to the young woman at his side.
Why is he walking with them? From the looks of it, his friend was not only familiar with this supposedly famous group of frontiersmen, but he appeared to be on friendly terms with them. Who…who is she?
The woman at Zech’s side was the only one in the group that wasn’t wearing a helmet, displaying an astute pair of hazel eyes that seemed to take in everything around her without much movement. Even Alistar was momentarily taken aback by her beauty, with long silver hair that seemed to shine like moonlight and a crystal clear complexion of soft, fair skin. Although most of her body was covered in mud-stained metal, her armour was close fitting and fairly thin in comparison to that of her comrades, likely made of a lighter yet sturdier material considering the effortlessness with which she moved around in it. Not only that, but there was a subtle aura to her that hid a heavy pressure, like a pot of boiling water that could lose its lid at any moment.
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Catching himself with his mouth slightly agape, he collected his wits just as Lessa and Anice pinched at his sides with displeased looks on their faces.
“What did I do?” he complained, though any possible responses were lost in the raucousness of the voices around them.
Calum and Edmun were visible about ten paces to the left of where Alistar stood, both of them observing the members of Team Tempest while wearing the expressions of giddy children that were expecting a great gift. Both were blushing slightly, also aware of the beauty of the woman that so many wishful men were beholding. Not just with her, they were so enamoured with the five in front of them that they didn’t seem to notice Zech’s existence in the least.
Just as Alistar was wondering whether or not he should approach his friend amidst all the tumult and hysteria, the largest of the armoured figures stomped his foot with enough force to shake Alistar’s feet with a palpable tremor. As several dozen people nearly lost their footing—mostly those closest to the group—the man snapped out with a powerful voice that left a little buzz lingering in Alistar’s ears.
“Get the hell out of our way! We’ve got things do to!”
Hearing the air-shaking, intimidating tone, most of the gathered people hurried to put a significant amount of distance between them and the five frontiersmen. Of those that didn’t heed the man’s words, Calum and Edmun were quick to take advantage of the sudden dispersal and rushed in to introduce themselves.
“Excuse us, but we’ve been great admirers of your team ever since we were kids. Do you think that one of you could leave magic imprints on our swords so we can prove to our friends that we met you?”
The man who had just cleared the crowd glanced at the brothers, the sound of a clicking tongue leaking from his helmet as he quickened his pace toward the frontiersmen guild. “Didn’t you hear me just now? Piss off.”
Nobody in the group stopped walking, including a sour-faced Zech whose displeasure at seeing the brothers was momentarily replaced by immense satisfaction at the way they were being treated by one of their heroes.
Another man in the group removed his helmet to reveal a shrewd-looking face beneath a thick shock of bark-coloured hair. “You don’t just ask strangers to imprint their magic on things for you. What if one of our enemies gets a hold of it and tracks us down?”
“I apologize for my brother, he tends to blurt things out in excitement from time to time.” Ignoring an angry glare from the boy in question, Edmun introduced himself without bowing his head as was customary for the younger party to do. “My name is Edmun Caerson Silverkin. I do hope that you can give me some sort of souvenir to commemorate this wonderful occasion.” His eyes momentarily reverted back to their original sheen of silver as he slipped the enchanted ring off of his finger for just a moment.
Alistar imagined that the obscured expressions of the other Team Tempest members looked similar to Zech’s, as if they had just taken a bite of very bitter food.
What thick skin Edmun has.
To ask strangers for a gift upon meeting them in such an awkward atmosphere, especially such reputable individuals, was an outlandish thought. The fact that he had exposed his lineage made it seem like an attempt to force compliance out of the five, though it had the opposite effect.
The shrewd-looking man let out a muffled scoff, while the bigger, more outspoken fellow let out a curse as he caught sight of Alistar and the girls, his eyes lingering on theirs.
“You Silverkins are relentless. Do you think we’re made of presents? Every city we go to, there’s always at least one of you running over and asking for handouts. What, do you three over there want some gifts as well? Will you tell your daddies and mummies if we don’t hand over something nice? Piss off already.”
“You’re the one who wanted to come here, Vaun,” said the shrewd-eyed man, who wiped a bit of sweat from his eyes. “I told you people would recognize us even if we wore armour, but you just couldn’t hold back your thirst for ale, could you?”
“What? Am I supposed to live like a rat in the sewers? I can’t go out into the world anymore?”
Nobody in the group had stopped walking, the beautiful woman maintaining a blank, neutral expression as if she were oblivious to the developments around her.
Alistar maintained a distance of about fifteen paces from the frontiersmen as he and the girls watched the situation unfold without saying a word. The man wasn’t wrong to assume that he, Anice and Lessa would be similar to the two boys, since the only thing he knew about them was that they were of the same bloodline and that they apparently kept one another’s company. Zech had noticed them as well, and in response to Alistar’s apologetic expression he shook his head in a subtle manner as if to tell him not to worry about it.