Ank

The city gates came back into view, but this time, the guards recognized us and opened the gates without a question.

We walked straight to the adventurer’s guild building, but while crossing the city square, my twin sister and I noticed that same rude merchant we found back on the road, and the silent ones trailing behind him. He was talking, then, with an old man in priestly clothes, but noticing us, the merchant smirked.

I shook my head, sighing, and ignored him. Soon enough, we were back at the 9^th Guild Master’s office.

“You took quite some time”, she pointed, handing us our stamp infused with her magic, which gave us as 90^th rankers.

“We found a hurt dog in the way”, I shrugged.

“Did you help it?”, the 9^th Guild Master asked, frowning, and letting her aura slip a little; surprisingly, she clearly was stronger than a [Level: 200] adventurer, though I couldn’t really pinpoint her exact strength, her [Level] hidden. Her aura made the air around her feeling cold and inflexible, carrying even more authority than the [Zemi] we killed back then.

“Of course, we couldn’t just let it die, right?”, Hunah replied, tilting her head, just as confused as I.

And the other woman agreed, pulling back the threat from the air.

“That’s true, it’s our duty as adventurers to help others, and this definitely includes dogs”, she sighed. Sounding a little tired, she added: “Sorry for this, it’s just that, not all adventurers that go beyond 80^th rank are…”, she seemed to search hard for a proper conclusion, when she came up with: “deserving of living! Many think that they are above good and evil, and that every life is just a sack of EXP waiting to be collected.”

Once that I stopped to think about that…

“Do the Guild Masters deal personally with troublemakers?”, I asked.

“Not really, we’re supposedly needed to only put up a reward for the head of the troublemakers, and point someone to get the job done.”

“Supposedly?”, I pointed.

“I like to take matters on my hands. I’m used to do so”, for just an instant, she looked at her arms, before staring back into my eyes, sternly.

It didn’t seem she would say anything anymore, and I definitely wouldn’t be the one pressing the angry rule enforcer any further, so I just tried to change topics smoothly:

“Talking about headhunting quests, maybe there is one for that merchant at the square?”

“Unfortunately, slavery isn’t illegal.”

“Oh~ what a shame, I’ll content myself with other que-”, as the 9^th Guild Master’s words settled in, I froze midway a request for a new mission.

Slave merchant? He stopped at the [Zemi] mansion. At Cloud Fortress City temple. His goods were people, and he sold them to the [Gods]. He-

“I don’t know what are you two thinking, but stop right there”, the 9^th Guild Master commanded, noticing something changing within my twin sister and I, and let out her policing aura once more, and this time she even got up, prepared to suppress us right then and there if necessary. “The guild is tolerated in most places, but we’re still bound to their laws: break them, and I will be forced to give your crushed bodies to the authorities.”

Then, my twin sister and I were not intimidated, however. As we also got up, Hunah replied:

“The slaves are gonna be killed.”

“It is the law”, the taller woman whose muscular arms were covered in scars kept her stand, her frown deforming her pretty face intimidatingly. “If you put the guild in danger, you will be annihilated.”

It was unbelievable! For someone who was all about doing good and not caring about the rules, she…!

…Wait, “if we put the guild in danger”?

“Hunah, let’s go”, I said, taking one of the papers over the 9^th Guild Master’s table, a quest of proper rank. “We need to go away and complete this quest out of the city, and far away~”, my twin sister seemed to get it too, and obliged without any more complaints.

Honestly, as much as people called us, twins, lazy, our logic seemed to work just perfectly.

We went shopping for the new equipment, took everything from the inn we were staying in, and got off the city with Taffy. As the night fell, we started camp, but Hunah and I got back on the road. And stood right before the pile of rocks that guarded the road to the city.

Then, conscious that it was something alive, I finally saw it; and obstacle that we’d need to kill, or could pursue the freed slaves to itself:

[Species: God, Type: Apacheta, Level: 254]