***

"There's nothing we can do, we have been wandering the streets for ages."

 

Ayano started to pout thinking that another day had been wasted.

 

"There, there, isn't it a good thing that there's nothing for us to do? It proves that things have become more peaceful."

 

"But peace means we won't be getting as many jobs, I hope something happens." she wished with a tired look.

 

"Hey, that's not something you should be wishing for."

 

"But it's true!"

 

Ryzeu sighed.

 

Ryzeu looked over to Ayane who was quietly walking beside them munching on some snacks and chuckled, "She never changes does she?"

 

Ayane looked back and smiled, she shook her head innocently before going back to eating.

 

“And she never changes either.”, Ryzeu thought to himself, he then let out a small laugh.

 

"What are you laughing at? Has walking all day caused you to finally lose your mind?"

 

Before Ryzeu could rebuke her, a deafening roar broke them from their conversation, not shortly after screams were heard as panicked people frantically started to run away.

 

"What's going on?" Ayane panicked as she dropped her snacks.

 

"Has a monster been let loose in the city?" Ayano asked gleefully but quickly hid her smile.

 

"I don't know, come on let's go, I think the noise came from the Guild Building!"

 

All three of them rushed over.

 

***

Black and blue smoke quickly filled a portion of the guild building, and tables closest to Kibo were pushed back as adventurers jumped out of their seats. Many of them were already in their transformed states and were charging basic defensive spells. 

 

Thinking the suspicious person had released the smoke for cover, they waited for it to quickly disperse and when it slowly did they heard a roar break out, shattering every window in the guild building.

 

Passerbys outside panicked and started to clear the area thinking a fight had broken out inside the building. Guards along with a nearby group of Gold Ranked adventurers rushed towards the roar thinking a beast had been let loose in their city. 

 

Inside the guild building, the adventurers closest to Zana were seen shivering in their boots as they saw something they had never seen before. A midnight black beast appeared before them as the smoke finally disappeared. 

The spells from the weaker adventurers stopped out of fear. The ones already prepared were locked and ready as they had already created distance between Kibo and themselves.

 

 A large shout was heard, “This is my summon, anyone who dares oppose me will be killed!”

 

Kibo looked towards the grown man who had constantly insulted him and questioned, “Why have you stopped insulting me? I’m just a mere weak villager boy aren’t I? come up and fight me!”.

 

The man was frozen in his boots, jumped when the beast let out a puff. He quickly slammed his hands together and apologised.

 

 “No, no, I-I-I’m sorry I w-w-was mistaken, please forgive me!”

 

 

Kibo ignored him and looked away until suddenly a male with two females burst in through the doors. 

 

“What’s going on? We heard a roar.”

 

The first thing Kibo noticed was the man's white vest, with brown straps around his shoulders. Along with wearing black trousers with a strap wrapped around his left thigh for additional storage. Lower down you could see the long brown boots, something straight out from a wild west movie, however, it made sense seeing it in this fantasy world. He had a young, pale white face with light blue eyes which went well together with the hair of the same colour. He was holding a single white and gold sword with both his hands

 

Kibo also noticed two beautiful women behind the man, both were wearing black cloaks with their hoods on, their mouths were covered by black masks which perfectly covered everything below their eyes. If you looked closely you could just make out their lips behind the mask. However, their piercing gazes were enhanced by their blood-red eyes. They both wore a single quiver bag on their backs to hold their arrows. Like Ryzeu they were holding their weapons which were bows, and with arrows already in place to react quickly. 

 

For the many similarities, the only difference you could notice was that one was taller than the other. ‘I’m assuming they are sisters and the guy in front of them is probably their leader. Are they part of a team?’ However, my line of thought was quickly cut off by a distant shout.

 

“Yes the Gold-ranked Crimson Hunters are here, we are saved!”

 

A commanding voice fell upon everyone, and a lot of the weaker adventurers who were afraid felt a sense of reassurance return back to them, “Everyone step back, we are here!”

 

The man looked towards the beast and thought, ‘How has it gotten that far into the guild building without the place being destroyed?’ Not wanting to waste further time, he leapt forward, the two ladies also raised their bows to offer support.

 

Just before he could swing his sword, he stopped, because the guild reception lady who was attending Kibo stepped in front of the summon. He felt a large sense of confusion and the fear of her being in imminent danger.

 

“What are you doing Cecilla gets out of the way, why are you protecting a beast! Quickly move to the side!”

 

Ryzeu clenched his grip on his sword even harder as he pointed it past her shoulder to keep the beast from getting closer to her.

 

“No, this beast is a summon!”

 

“A summon? That’s impossible, the few elite summoners of the kingdom serve in the nation's military. Why would they be in this guild building? They do not have any summons which looks like this beast. So step aside”

 

Cecilla remains adamant in her reasoning and stays still but she suddenly speaks up.

 

“Listen Ryzeu, This is Kibo’s summon, he is a new adventurer who just joined us today!”

 

He opened his eyes wide at the prospect of another new summoner appearing and lowered his sword. He looked towards Kibo who was wearing a dark grey cloak with a hood on and had an angry expression on his face. He then proceeded to look back towards the summon. He repeated this a few times until the summon slowly turned to smoke and disappeared into Kibo. 

 

Ryzeu entered into deep thought, ‘The Kingdom only had eleven summoners who were all quickly hired by the Royal Family to serve the nation's military. They were trained into elite mages to serve the Kingdom of Yuinia. It’s not that summoners were rare, it's just that our kingdom had lost their entire summoners branch, and the most elite Tanks and Warriors in a portal which linked to another world. Time after time we had sent out our best warriors, but they never returned...’ 

 

‘...After such a large army was sent in, and for them to have never returned, it crippled the Kingdom’s military, and it’s once status as a global superpower was shattered instantly. Our Kingdom was once far superior to every nation which surrounded us, however, with such large losses, news spread like wildfire. Other kingdoms seeking this opportunity started to pressure us more since our might had fallen to the same level as theirs if not lower...‘

 

‘... To prevent a civilian uprising and to quell their anger a lot of officials were beheaded and their families purged from the kingdom. It was the greatest military blunder in history, because a lot of people had lost their parents, and it created an unprecedented amount of orphans. It was an absolute nightmare, and those times came to be known as The Reckoning. Since then the portal has been heavily guarded by the nation's remaining elite, and an entire bunker has formed around it to buy time for reinforcements to arrive. In case whatever lurks on the other side finally decides to enter into our side.’

‘So for another summoner at this age to just to show up out of nowhere is nothing other than impossible. Where has he been hiding for no one to notice he was a summoner?’

 

He looked back towards Kibo and inspected him once more.

 

He was wearing a hood to hide his face and inspected the quality of his cloak. He then thought, ‘He doesn’t have any expensive equipment, is it possible he is from a village? We send soldiers out to inspect villages once a year to make sure all new awakened children's powers are recorded. How is it possible for him to fall through the gap? I can’t waste any more time wondering and focus on bringing him onto my team.’

 

‘If I can get him to join my team he won’t be pressured into joining the Kingdom’s military and I can get a powerful ally. Even though I’m a gold-ranked adventurer the number of strong people has fallen in this kingdom so now even gold-ranked adventurers are treated very highly by the Kingdom and the Guild Organisation.’

 

Kibo continued to stare at him until he saw him walking over to him.

 

“I would like to apologise to you for causing this commotion”

 

Kibo became surprised at the sudden apology and looked away.

 

“It’s fine as long as you don't bother me again.”

 

“Please let me make it up to you by buying you the best meal in this guild.”

 

“No thanks.”

 

“Please, I insist.”

 

“I said No.”

 

“I’m not leaving till you say yes…”

 

Kibo realised he was trapped in a situation he couldn’t get out of easily, so he just gave up.

 

Kibo sighed and thought, ‘It’s only a meal and maybe I can learn something from this guy. They do seem to be respected here.’

 

“Fine, I’ll come.”

 

A large smile grew on Ryzeu’s face as he escorted Kibo towards the table. He asked Cecilia to get their best meal ready. She nodded and quickly rushed over to the kitchen. He also directed the guards who were behind him to inform the others outside that the situation has been taken care of.

 

The other two ladies who were accompanying Ryzeu slightly bowed their heads to Kibo before taking a seat. 

 

“Oh my apologies, I forgot to introduce you, this one on my left is Ayane and the one on my right is Ayano. I know they look similar but if you look closely you can tell that the slightly taller one is Ayano. Please don’t be afraid of them even if they look mysterious with the black cloaks and semi-masked faces. They are actually nice people.”

 

Kibo looked towards Ayano and they locked eyes, she gave him a nasty gaze similar to piercing daggers as she looked away.

 

He then looked towards Ayane and the moment she looked up and locked eyes she quickly looked back down even though her mask was covering her cheeks he could tell she was shy.

 

‘Well, this is surely an interesting bunch of people. Do I really want to get myself involved with them? I could just ask them questions so I can learn more about this city and how things work.’ He decided.