It was a Friday night and the bar was bustling and lively. Large groups of people gathered around the leather couches, chatting and sipping on drinks, while a jazz band filled the air with their rhythmic yet laidback melody. At the bar table, Raph was tapping his fingers and humming along to the live band. As he lifted his glass of beer to take a sip, something—no, someone—crashed onto him from the back. He choked on his drink and almost toppled the cup all over the table.

Without turning around, he already knew who it was.

"Millie!" he groaned.

Indeed, the olive-skinned woman was clinging onto his neck like a koala bear. Her long, curly hair tickled Raph's face as she squealed, "Raph! I missed you!"

Raph's ears turned bright red. He hurriedly struggled out of Millie's grasp. "Millie, I told you not to creep up on me like this," he mumbled. "I have a weak heart..."

"But I haven't seen you in forever!" She giggled before settling down on the seat next to Raph.

That was quite an inaccurate statement; they had met just last week for a drink as well. But compared to seeing each other every single day since elementary school, a week apart did feel like forever.

Millie raised her hand to order a margarita. It had taken Raph a full half-hour to get the bartender's attention, but for Millie, a simple flash of her teeth was enough to have her order taken within seconds—or millie-seconds, he might say.

She turned to Raph and gave him an excited grin. "So, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing much. Crazy busy as usual."

Ever since he joined Blue Cross of Clerics, his work-life balance, or whatever that was left of it, was completely decimated. After all, Blue Cross was a top guild with most of the world's best healers, and thus they get a lot of joint commission requests from other guilds and teams with less experienced healers (or sometimes even no healers at all). The result? An inundation of requests for the healers, with each quest drastically different from the other. Sure, Raph was learning a lot from his six months stint in the guild, but it was probably at the cost of his sanity.

He let out a slow sigh. Maybe he should have taken up his friend Shubham's offer to get back to the clinic instead. However, as he glanced at the bubbly Latina brimming with anticipation, he decided against it yet again.

"What about you? How was your latest commission?"

"Oh, it was so fun!" Millie went straight into an elaborate storytelling mode, spending almost one hour describing every single detail of her quest. She and Irene had been doing freelance quest work together, teaming up with random teams or solo questers who needed additional manpower in their commissions. It was not an easy feat, since their abilities were a little niche, but they were still able to make it work and even made a name for themselves after six months.

"I'm glad you got to do a fun one this time," Raph commented, recalling the first few weeks of Millie's unending complaints and laments. ("We were just asked to put out a fire! How lame is that?")

"I know! It took some time, but we can finally get some fun commissions now. Although..." Millie's mood took a sharp drop. "I don't know... I still wish Lyn would come back soon. I want to be in a permanent team again. After working with so many different fighters, I... I realized that I'm not a fan of most fighters out there. They can be... very rude."

Raph nodded. He had been through similar experiences by now; working with teams of strangers, most of whom had ego problems, was not fun at all. "Yeah, some of them can be pretty full of themselves, even more so than Lyn."

"Yeah..." Millie shuffled in her seat. "You know, I think Cyd is honestly going to be the best fighter we could ever find..."

"Hey, don't say that in front of Irene later."

Out of the three of them, Irene was the touchiest about Cydney's situation. After all, she had lost her best friend ever since that day.

"I know, I know..." Millie said dejectedly as she took a slow sip of her margarita. "Anyway, has it been six months already?"

"Almost. I think"—Raph tilted his head—"next week should be the day?"

That seemed to cheer Millie right back up. "Nice! Will Lyn be back then?"

"I don't know, but I hope so. Gotta ask Irene later."

"Gotta ask me what?" As if on cue, Irene appeared next to them.

Raph almost fell out of his chair in shock when he saw the fire mage.

"I- Irene?" he spluttered. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Instead of her regular maroon hoodie and casual outfit, Irene was dressed in a long, fitted dress. Her usual dreadlocks were pulled into a high bun, while her ears were studded with shiny jewels. She even had makeup on as well.

"Well, of course, she has to dress up for her boy," Millie teased with a chuckle. "Right, Irene?"

"B- Boy? You're seeing someone?"

Irene rolled her eyes. "Argh, Millie, I told you to keep it a secret."

"Aw, don't worry, Raph is very good at keeping secrets." Millie elbowed Raph and gave him a wink.

Raph snorted. Of course Millie would say that; she'd been treating Raph like a personal diary since forever. In fact, if someone were to ever feed Raph truth serum, Millie would be even more afraid than him about the secrets he might spill.

"Yeah, okay, you'd better." Irene plopped down on a seat next to Millie. "Please just make sure to keep it from Lyn. Every time I bring a man over, she scares him off. The only good thing about her being gone now is that my dating life has never been better, and I would like to keep it that way even when she comes back."

"So she's coming back?" Raph asked. "Will she be back next week?"

"I haven't heard from her yet, but if she doesn't, I'll make it my personal quest to hunt her down."

"Where is she right now anyway?" Millie frowned.

"No fucking clue. She hasn't been responding to my messages, and even when she responds, she's being cryptic as hell. All I know is that after she was released, she went to her parent's place for a month, and then disappeared. Even her parents don't know where she is right now, or what she's doing, and they're driving me insane as well. It's like that idiot had completely forgotten about the fact that she has actual friends and family beyond C..."

Irene's voice trailed off before she snatched up Raph's beer and took a large gulp.

"Dude!" Raph tried to complain, but he was ignored by both women.

"Do you think that Lyn..." Millie glanced nervously at Irene. "Do you think she could be... trying to find Cyd?"

Irene's scowl deepened. "Why the fuck would she do that? She'd better not be. As if that bitch didn't cause her enough trouble already."

Raph and Millie exchanged a sad, knowing look. Even though they were not fully sure of the situation, there was one thing for certain: Cydney did cause Lyn a ton of trouble. After she had run away, Lyn had taken all the blame for it. Without a good explanation for letting Cydney get away, Lyn was sentenced to three months of jail as well as six months of suspension from questing. The team had to be disbanded for this period, and Raph had not seen nor heard from his team leader ever since that day.

"I mean, Lyn can't do anything right now anyway," Millie said. "Just... let her be, for now, Irene."

"Yeah, but it would be nice to at least get an update from her!" Irene snapped. "We're her friends, damn it! I don't know what she's doing right now, or how she has been surviving in jail, or how she has been holding up ever since Cyd..."

Her voice trailed off again at the mention of the fighter. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. "I'm worried for her, but she won't even tell me anything."

There was an uncomfortable silence as the three of them stared into their drinks solemnly. It was difficult enough having a friend disappear and be labeled as the most wanted criminal by the QA, they could hardly imagine what Lyn—who was head over heels for her—must be feeling.

"I'm sure she's fine, Irene," Millie whispered, although she did not sound like she believed it either. "She created this team, she won't just let it go like that."

"You know, maybe she's finding us a new fighter," Raph suggested.

Irene perked up; a glint of hope flashed across her eyes. "Yeah. Maybe."

Suddenly, Raph felt a small piece of note crumple in his pocket. A message. Taking it out to read, he furrowed his thick brows in annoyance.

No way, a message from his superior at this hour?

"What is it?" Millie asked.

"Argh, Carina assigned me a commission for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? How is there time to prepare?"

"She assures that there's minimal prep, but she's asking for a short meeting right now to go over it." He tapped on the note, and the piece of paper disappeared into flames. "I guess I'll have to leave now, then."

Millie pouted. "I finally get to see you and you're leaving?"

"Sorry, Millie, it's just that Carin—"

"Yeah, whatever, you're always hanging out with this Carina." She uttered the name as if it was a cursed word.

Raph blinked, taken aback. "W- What? Erm, Millie, you know her, y- you've met her during our joint commission. She's a nice person."

"Nice? Yeah right, wanting to meet at this time. How is that nice? Why not an early morning meeting tomorrow? Why not send you some notes for you to look over?"

Raph stared at Millie, feeling both shocked and helpless at that outburst. He tried to look at Irene for help, but she seemed equally perplexed. It was rare to see Millie get angry, after all.

"Sorry, Millie, that's just how she does things. S- Should I tell her that I'm not free? It's past work hours anyway so I could probably do that—"

"I don't care, go meet with her if you really want to." Millie averted her face away.

Raph hesitated, wondering what he should do. Should he stay and apologize? Figure out a way to placate Millie?

Before Raph could sort things out in his mind, another message appeared, this time with an address of a cafe that Carina was already at. Wow, that was fast—does she even have a life outside of work?

There was no time for Raph to think anymore, so he stood up and blurted, "Really sorry, guys, but I'll- I'll see you next week!"

Then, he left the bar and the furious Millie behind for a flabbergasted Irene to deal with. 

☮❣☮❣☮

A/N: Welcome back, all, to the second part/season/series of the book. 

There have been a six months time skip from the previous chapter. From here on, there will be some new characters, a lot more exploration of the world, and of course, a brand new plot for Lyn to undertake :P I hope you'll stick around and may you enjoy what I have planned. *bows*