“Come in and take a seat, Theodore,” his sister said, gesturing for him to come in cutely as the door behind him shut smoothly.
He did not heed her gesture and instead turned towards Edna and asked, “Wait. The person that urgently wanted to meet me was… her?”
“Ah… yes. She’s the one that wanted to meet you as soon as possible,” replied Edna, her smile slowly fading as a sense of worry appeared on her face.
“Oh,” he said, nodding slowly in understanding and turning back to face his sister, who was still smiling cheerfully at him and indicated for him to take a seat. “In that case, I’m leaving.”
With that, he turned around to leave by opening the door that that closed behind him.
“Wha?! Wait! Theo! Hold on a second!” Edna pleaded with him and managed to grab his hand and tried hard to stop him.
Unfortunately, she was not as strong as him and ended up hopping out of the room as he forcefully headed out.
“Edna!” He said, rounding on her with an irritated expression. “You know how much I dislike meeting my family members! How can you deceive me like this!”
“I didn’t deceive you in any kind!” She protested, still not letting go of his hand. “When she came yesterday to meet you, I told her you wouldn’t be interested to meet her or any of your family members. But she insisted that she met you and went as far as to propose an attractive deal for us that we just couldn’t ignore.”
“Deal? What deal?”
Edna explained that his sister would provide them with a ready amount of money to be used for the renovation of their guild building as well as procuring more quests for their guild members to take on.
“We’ve been on a shortlist due to the guild council not really giving us much room for our guild members to go on quests and earn some gold,” she tried imploring to him to understand her reasoning. “You’ve seen how the guild looks, right? It looks very shabby and needs repairs as a lot of places are getting old and rusty.”
“Your reasoning is fine, but was it necessary to sell my trust?” He argued heatedly.
“We didn’t sell you off or did anything of the sort!” She implored. “Please believe me.”
“Then, what do you call this, Edna? Back stabbing?” He asked sarcastically.
“No, no, no,” she said, still trying to convince him as he tried to yank his hand free from her grip.
Just then, they heard the guild master call for them to come inside. He hesitated for a moment before she managed to tug at his arm and drag him back into the room.
“Don’t take out your personal feelings on the rest of us, Theodore,” said the guild master while breathing a deep sigh. “Our payment for our work from last week from the council is still in transaction and may take some time. In the meantime, some major repairs and renovations needed to be done as the building has gotten quite old. The top right room’s flooring already cracked and could collapse if any unfortunate individual sets foot in there.”
“Be that as it may, guild master, but,” began Theodore earnestly.
“Theodore,” said the guild master a little firmer than before, and he looked imploringly at him, “when you joined our guild, you swore you would do everything in your power to help us maintain ourselves and even grow if necessary, including putting aside your personal needs and preferences for the overall picture of the guild, did you not?”
Theodore could not give an immediate response to such a statement as he remembered making such a promise upon joining the guild. Still, he looked coldly at his sister, who simply beamed at him while magnificently ignoring his cold attitude towards her.
After a moment of pause, he turned back to face his guild master and spoke in a curt voice.
“It’s evident that you require money more than the comfort of your guild member.”
To that, his guild master coughed and looked uncomfortable as he said, “Theodore, just calm down for a second and think. She’s your sister, and it’s been over a year since you two met. Why don’t you sit down and hear her out on what she has to say? If it’s something bad, we’ll definitely refuse her support. Alright?”
“You will?” He asked her suspiciously. “How do I know that I can trust you when your intentions are as clear as day?”
As his guild master opened his mouth and looked flabbergasted, Edna quickly said, “You trust me, don’t you? I promise on behalf of the guild master to refuse any deals if they are not up to your liking. Is that okay?”
He turned to her and remarked, “You… kind of just lost some points in the trust department when you led me here to meet her,” and gestured with his thumb at his sister.
“Theodore…! Please…! Listen to reason…!” She said imploringly.
Looking at her and then at the guild master and then back, he finally breathed a sigh of resignation and said, “Alright.” As they felt relieved, he walked over and sat on a chair opposite his sister and looked coldly at her as he asked, “What brings you here, sister?”
Instead of answering his question, his sister asked back, “Before I answer your question, I’d like to know how you were these days. Are you eating well? Sleeping well?”
“I’m doing fine until you showed up,” he replied curtly.
She wore a saddened smile and asked, “Do you still resent us for what happened that day?”
“No. I don’t resent you. I just don’t like you,” he spoke honestly, making her bow her head a little in sadness.
“It is our fault for not believing you at that time,” she admitted in a sorrowful voice. “I don’t even know what came over us that day, but the incident was so serious…!”
“Yes. It was serious, but you instantly forgot that I was part of the family and instead, you took the side of a stranger and blindly believed whatever garbage they told you. Because of it, I was blamed for a mistake that I didn’t commit. If it weren’t for dad and mon deducing the truth, I’d be living right now feeling guilty over something that I had no hand in under your piercing scrutiny!”
“We’re really sorry, Theodore, for not believing in you,” she apologised in a sincere voice. “I’m truly sorry for not thinking things through at that time.”
“Sorry won’t cut it, Terra!” He complained, looking furious as he folded his arms and turned away. “The damage is done. I was very hurt. I felt betrayed by the people I considered my family. Do you know what it feels like?”
She remained silent for a moment before saying, “That’s why I came the moment I knew your whereabouts to bring you home after you joined this guild but, as expected, you refused.”
“Terra,” he began with a hurt look, “please understand that things weren’t great between us. Despite me doing my best and being the oldest son in the family, I was already compared to Helmut. It didn’t make sense for me, the eldest son, to be compared to the youngest son in the family. I never knew there existed a competition in our family till then.
That’s why, I decided to leave the family and go live out my own life. I was already fourteen-years-old, so the timing was perfect and since then, I never looked back. I am very happy being a part of this guild with people that understand, respect me for who I am, and emphasise on trusting one another before anyone else.”
For a few seconds, there was a tense silence in the room as no one knew what to say to that. The silence was finally broken by his sister, who smiled bitterly as she spoke.
“I… guess I should take a leaf out of your guild’s example.”
“Yes. Yes, you do,” he agreed. “Anyway, enough of that, Terra. Tell me why you wanted to meet me so urgently? Did something happen in the family?”
“No. Everyone is fine,” she assured him with a smile.
“Then, is this about something else unrelated to us?”
She nodded and said, “I came here with a quest, although it’s more of a mission to be precise. It’s a very important mission that we felt we could entrust to you only.”
“We?” He asked curiously. “Who else is involved in this mission? What is this mission about precisely?”
His sister drew a deep breath and said dramatically, “You are to become the bodyguard of the Princess of the East Nation.”
Both Edna and the guild master opened their mouths in awe by her statement while Theodore stared at her as if he misheard her before asking, “Hold on. Can you repeat that because I could’ve sworn you said that I’m to become a bodyguard for a princess?”
His sister nodded and said, “You heard it right. I want you to become the bodyguard for the Princess of the East Nation. I think you know that I’m referring to one of the four nations on the Unity Continent.”
The Unity Continent was previously called as the Human Continent, but after the departure of the Phoenix Clan sixteen-years-ago, the three human kingdoms agreed to reform their structure and removed the names of their kingdoms and opted to becoming known by the four directions in the form of four nations; the north, south, east, and west. That was how they renamed the Human Continent into the Unity Continent, which meant they solidarity to stand united.
“If it’s for a princess, how come you’re asking me to be her bodyguard. Why not assign some powerful guards to protect her around the clock?”
His question made her appear startled before asking him, “Hold up. Don’t you know what’ve been happening in the news recently?”
“I’ve been too busy to stop and care,” he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “Was it that important that I should care?”
His sister nodded and handed over the device in her hand that had a holographic text over it. Looking strangely at her, he took the decide and read the headline of the article out loud.
“A near miss assassination attempt on the Princess of East Nation,” he read aloud and instantly furrowed his eyebrows.
He continued to read the holographic article, which it explained that the girl was on her way home from Astral Academy after enrolling when two assailants suddenly appeared out of the crowd unawares and attacked her. She had narrowly escaped with her life intact despite the fact that she was surrounded by several Royal Guards that were highly trained and were equipped with enhanced armour and weapons. The Royal Guards fought off the assilants, but the attackers vanished just as easily as they had appeared out of thin air.
“Eight Royal Guards? Sheesh!” He commented in amazement. “Even with that much security, she nearly died?” He asked aloud in disbelief. “Were the guards sloppy or something? How the heck did they let it happen?”
“They were paying the fullest attention,” Terra said as she took the device back from him, “but the assassins seemed to have some sort of equipment that allowed them to move stealthily. That’s how they managed to get so close in taking her life that time.”
“Hmm…! Makes sense, although how these assassins got a hold of such advanced stuff is anyone’s guess,” he remarked and looked at her. “So, you want me to protect a princess that eight Royal Guards couldn’t protect together? Mind you, they were fully equipped and trained at the highest level? You seriously think I can do better than them?”
“Dad thinks so,” his sister replied, which caused him to widen his eyes in shock.
“What? Dad… thinks that I can do it?” He asked her uncertainly.
“Yes. He was very confident that you could handle this far better than them,” she told him with a beaming smile. “Aren’t you forgetting whose son you are? Whose genes you’ve inherited just like the rest of us?”
“Well…” he began awkwardly before finishing with, “whatever it is with the genes, I definitely didn’t inherit all of his powers. Isn’t that why you constantly compared me with Helmut?”
“Give it a rest, Theodore,” said the guild master from behind his seat. “Stop clinging onto old baggage. It’ll only weigh you do in the long run. Push it away and move forward. The life of a young girl hangs in the balance.” Then he seriously asked, “Are you seriously going to ignore the confidence your father has in you and let an innocent girl die when you could possibly help her?”
“Guild master,” began Theodore while letting out a sigh, “I’m not saying any of that.”
“Then what’s with the hesitation? Do you need a special envoy to come and request you in exchange for granting you a large sum of money?”
“No…!” His guild member insisted while looking troubled.
Seeing his expression, his sister added, “Actually, dad wanted to come personally and inform you this himself. However, he was in the middle of an important crop farm and couldn’t just leave it to the others, so he tasked me to get you to take up this mission on his behalf.”
Her statement made him remain silent for a moment as he thought about what to do next. He would have not taken this mission on willingly at any cost, but hearing that his father had confidence in him and that he wanted to assign him this mission made him reconsider things.
“How is he confident that I’m as powerful as he thinks I am to handle this far better than the Royal Guards?”
This made her laugh and respond with, “Theodore…! He is our father. He wouldn’t miss any small details about us. When you left, he kept track of you by using one of his copies to watch you from afar. He watched you train, become familiar with your Contracted Spirit, dealt with quests on your own and rose through the ranks as you gradually became stronger over the course of these two years. He didn’t let you go all alone you know.”
Her statement made him realise all that times he felt a small feeble presence that seemed to be constantly tailing him was indeed his father. During those times, he did not give it much thought as he believed it to be a small animal moving around in the vicinity that he couldn’t yet see.
“So, he’s been watching me this whole time… and never visited me once?” He asked her, looking hurt.
“Don’t take it wrongly, Theodore. He didn’t want to disturb your training and quests, but he wanted to make sure you didn’t get yourself into deep trouble. That’s why he wanted to come this time personally, but alas, he had to hang back because of the important things he’s got to do on his end.”
Terra noticed the change in her brother’s expression and smiled how effective her father’s presence was to convince him even if the man in question was not there himself.
After a few seconds of pause, Theodore finally said, “Fine. I’ll take up this mission.” As Terra, Edna and the guild master looked relieved and smiled happily, he asked his sister, “So, how am I supposed to become her bodyguard?”
“It’s very simple actually,” his sister said with a wide smile. “You just need to enrol at the Astral Academy and join her class as her classmate as an undercover bodyguard.”
