A few days had passed since Dak and the rest had come back from their quest with Truelip. The orcs they found were feral ones, unlike the normal variety they thought they were and considered very tough for beginner adventurers so almost everyone at the guild had learned of their battle with them, or to be more precise – Truelip’s battle with them. Of course, everyone also knew that the rest of them were barely capable to hold off against half of them.

Dak was currently with Lana and Stela, sitting opposite to them on one of the tables, waiting for the others. Some were giving them gazes from time to time and it was obvious that they were discussing them.

“Sigh… I knew we’d be getting gazes from the moment we asked her to do the quest, but I didn’t expect it’d end up feeling this painful…” Dak said with back hunched the table, as his face was buried in his arms.

“Maybe our oh so great leader should do his job better~” Lana says teasingly trying to brighten him up a bit.

“Nah, we’re lucky he hasn’t done anything too stupid yet. Are we sure we went back with the right Dak?” Stela adds to the teasing.

“Oh, I haven’t checked! We’ll need to send him to the hospital later. He does look not so okay tnow that you mentioned it.” The redhead responded with a hand under her chin in a contemplating posture.

Dak just groaned at their reply, not having the will power after days of being teased by the girls after what happened. They just started laughing when he couldn’t reply back. A mocking laugh came from behind Dak shortly after.

“Hahaha, even your party members are laughing at you! Though I guess they aren’t really in a different boat from you either.”

Dak turned around to see where the voice came from. Behind him was a tall blond man who had a lot broader shoulders than Dak, but wasn’t that more fit than him. His confident smirk thought, unlike Dak’s, pissed Lana and Stela off.

Lana responded with an annoyed tone “What do you want Karis? You don’t need to worry about Dak taking your number one spot as the joke of the guild and I’m sorry if you feel desperate and lonely at the heights you have reached in that position, but I’m positive he isn’t aiming for them either so sadly he can’t spend time with you. We’re very busy so if you could leave us to our discussion now-“

“Fuck off.” The blond said, cutting her off. “If you think you’re so smart then your party wouldn’t be the laughing stock of the guild.” He turns around towards Dak again “So how does it feel to not only have to constantly get help from girls but now also get saved by them?” Karis asked with his annoying mocking tone.

Dak turns his head back slightly before replying “You’re just jealous.”

Lana stiffened a little at that response and looked at Dak, but didn’t say anything and her reaction went unnoticed.

The tall blond crossed his arms “Tch, whatever you say it doesn’t change the fact you were beaten badly and barely managed to survive and to top it all off were nothing but a burden to your own savior. You’re the kind of people that give our guild a bad name.”

Everyone sitting at the table wanted to punch him really badly at this point but knew they’ll be fined if they started a fight in the guild and they didn’t know how to respond either. After all, he was speaking the truth.

Truelip was just browsing quests when she heard their ‘friend’ approach and start speaking and she couldn’t hold back anymore. She approached them just as he was about to continue.

“And not to mention-“

“Excuse me-“

After hearing the soft and empty voice from behind, Karis turned back expecting to find another one of their party members only to see the very girl they were discussing, arms crossed.

“Ha, you don’t need to feel bad for-“

“And what have you done?”

The only response he could muster to that was a shallow “Huh?” expressing his inability to understand the question.

“While they were off risking their lives, trying to fight a group of murderers what did you do?” she explained her question as her tone became slightly more heated, but not enough to not fit her calm expression.

“I uh… I was hired as a guard for a supply storage…”

Her tone and gaze shifted quickly as they both became sharper and she leaned her upper body forward and holding her hands in fists, straightening her arms. “So not only did you stay in the city where your life is in the safest place possible, but you dare fucking complain that they risked their lives and almost die in order to help innocents and defenseless?”

At this point he was the one who had no response and stood in the same place, awkwardly staring into her eyes.

Then her expression changed once more as she donned a sadistic smile and raised one arm up in the air, pressing the other on her waist for support “Or is it that you thought they were too weak to be adventurers if they can’t handle that? Then that means you are more than capable of doing it yourself. Why not spar with me then? Surely as the one who defeated those orcs, I should be strong enough to face you off?”

She donned a serious face, with no emotion shown, like that of a predator eating its prey alive. Her body stiffened, fists straight down again as her chest was puffed, shoulders widened which only solidified her presence. Those that were close to her couldn’t help but tremble as they looked at her eyes, too scared to look away making them focus on how frightening she was at that moment, their vision blurred and darkened anything but her visage. Of course, those who were affected the most were Dak’s party and even more so – Karis.

The poor boy was visibly sweating as he was too scared to even breath in her heavy presence.

“Siiiiighs…” she says while actually sighing “Don’t ever bother anyone again lowling. Got it?” she said as she loosened up a bit and put her hand on her waist again, this time with an expression expressing her annoyance.

The blond could only nod with his head as every movement showed how much he was actually trying to hide his trembling.

“Good-” And with that, she turned around started going to the receptionist.

The moment there was a few meters of distance between them Karis turned towards his party and walked to them as fast as possible, almost running. The rest of Dak’s party silently looked at each other, all with an expression showing the discomfort they also had when returning with Truelip. They were kind of glad they only asked her to join on the quest and not their party.

As Truelip was walking towards her destination she noticed none other than the boy she had walked to the guild with, laying his head on a table as usual. Needless to say, she walked over to him.

“Hi.”

“Huh…?” he spoke by habit as he lifted his head nervously to see if they were talking to him and who it was. Of course, seeing Truelip made him feel a bit more comfortable as he didn’t really want to deal with problems.

Then again maybe she isn’t really a person I should feel more comfortable around…

He says to himself as he thought about the conversation he could hear a few moments ago. Half the guild went silent just for that.

“Why are you so down?”

“Eh… I finally got my training and am no longer on guard duty so I’ve just been thinking about a few things…”

“Did you regain some of your memories?”

He was quiet for a few seconds before he finally replied “A little…”

“That’s wonderful!” a sudden gentle feminine voice was heard from beside them. As they turned around they saw none other than Catharine, the receptionist they met on their first day at the Guild, holding an empty plate with both hands against her front thighs. “What have you remembered? Do you remember your name?” she continued to bombard him with questions.

“A few things… My name is Elliot Diosfol. I remember bits and pieces, but it’s mostly there…”

“But?” Truelip asked.

“I the last memories I remember I was getting sick more often, but I don’t really know what happens as the memories start getting scarcer…”

Catherine looked worried, but also didn’t really know how to respond.

“So you still haven’t realised what this world is?” the blond girl asked. Hearing the question, the purple haired girl only started to become more visibly nervous.

“No…”

“When some people die they end up in this world.”

At first, he couldn’t process those words, but when their meaning finally reached him his eyes opened more profoundly as he looked down in thought. After a minute of even more silence, as Truelip just stared at him and Cathy was holding the plate next to her chest tightly so worried that she panicked and couldn’t think of anything to say, he finally spoke up.

“I see…”

Hearing that the purple haired girl lowered her shoulders a little relaxed now that he accepted it.

“Some parts are still missing… But it makes more sense now… But then… why here…? And what happens if we die here too…?”

This time Catherine was the one who took the lead “We still don’t know why… There are many legends how the universals made this world just for this purpose… Of course, that was so long ago that no one is alive that can confirm it… But there are records of those who have… not to mention every record of a meeting with a universal states that when asked, they say that Righteousness had proposed the idea and it was accepted.”

“…I see... So if this is a world where the dead end up, why does it have some minor similarities to games…?”

“Well apparently the universals made it so that it’s easier to understand and it just looks like in games because there it’s also made to mimic real life, but easier… They also have events and similar things to keep us entertained…”

“Also, you don’t age here. As for the dying part… it’s said that we simply get reborn… Again there are records of some people claiming they’ve remembered multiple past lives… But there isn’t anyone we currently know of like that… Although after you remember your entire life you should start to slowly remember memories of being here too… Everyone who has ever been here always remembers being here before too… Also as you slowly remember you should also be getting stronger at the same pace until you fully remember all of your last life… of course everyone’s starting and final strength are different from each other usually …”

After a pause to process, the information Elliot replied “So then does that mean that we can meet our friends and family again…”

“Not really… What records we do have a warning from the universals themselves, stating that the universe they get reborn into is random and that even if it was the same universe, it’s too unlikely for it to be in the same place at the same time as last time considering how big universes are…”

Elliot was quiet again. After a moment he turned towards Truelip “Is it the same with you…?”

“Actually I’m a bit different… You see I have a special ability which allows me to remember all of my last life so I directly start remembering the time I’ve spent in this universe instead…”

Elliot seemed down again as Cathy replied intrigued “Ooooh, so maybe you directly start off at your max level and don’t need to wait… That would explain why you’re so strong for a newbie…”

“So then do you also get stronger when you remember your last time here instead of just till your last life…?” the red haired boy asked.

“No, it simply allows me to remember. It’s not that special of an ability.”

“Maybe I should tell them to promote you to an experienced adventurer then?” Their private receptionist suggests.

“Wait, she’s gonna skip intermediate?”

“I mean, experienced is where only available to high-level adventurers… if they deem her strong enough then why not? It’s obvious she’s definitely not a beginner. Especially considering she literally has the experience of her last time here.”

Truelip suddenly turned her head “Oh by the way Cathy, I wanted to talk to you about something.”