"Mr. Parkor shouldn't we move? We are already running behind schedule."

"Not yet. All of them are not here yet." Makayla whispered.

Aiden furrowed his brows. He couldn't be wrong in counting. So it could only mean one thing.

"New member?"

Makayla nodded.

Aiden expressed his worry. All the members were already here and yet they were waiting outside of the dungeon. Shouldn't they have been hunting inside already?

Aiden wanted to quickly finish his job and go home. Today his sister was supposed to stay at home. An occasion like this rarely comes by and Aiden wanted to make full use of it considering his sister's birthday was coming close.

'As it was, she is somewhat acting strange.' Aiden furrowed his eyes in worry. 'If it is a new member then he shouldn't have acted so haughtily and should have been on time!'

Aiden cursed this newbie in his hearts of hearts.

'Is it really important to wait?'

Makayla 'should have' felt the same as Aiden, at least that was what Aiden thought. It wouldn't have been far fetched if Makayla were to drop the idea of this new member and enter the dungeon without waiting for him.

But that never happened.

Why entertain a late comer in the first place? Aiden had no idea.

Instead, Makayla had a look of worry instead of annoyance.

'Is it some kind of big shot?'

The only one who could make Makayla sweat like this would be a C rank or a higher level D rank. And when it came to B rank or higher... well there was no way they were going to join such a hopeless team of nobodies.

Having a D rank or higher was always welcomed. In fact, they were sought after and hard to have on your team. The earnings of the E ranks of the team doesn't necessarily get higher with a strong ally. As the high ranked hunter sure took its own large chunk of 'cut' in the money. But it sure got a lot safer to dive into the dungeon with such strong helping hands.

Between the option of not having one and having one, the latter had ruled out by a fair margin.

*Gulp*

Aiden gulped down his saliva.

"IS it probably a C rank?" Aiden asked Makayla in a squeaking voice.

Sure having a C rank teammate was nice, but you had to be on your tows when you are around them. An E rank like himself couldn't really afford to offend someone like that, especially considering that Aiden had 0 family backing. Hell, he was the only earning member of his family.

"Ho-" Makayla whispered.

It was just for a split second...

But Makayla raised his brows in surprise. No one in the group would have arrived at such a conclusion but Aiden being the most experienced one there could easily perceive Makayla's troubles. Perhaps that was why Makayla was taken aback.

But he shook his head denying it.

"No, it is an E rank."

"E rank? The same as me?"

'Wait a minute, this sounds really suspicious.'

No matter how much Aiden thought about it, it didn't make sense. He couldn't put 2 and 2 together.

The only solace that Aiden had was that he trusted Makayla. Not to mention that he wouldn't have brought his wife on this mission, had he believed that this new person was someone dangerous unless Makayla was himself plotting something with this newcomer.

Aiden turned towards Mrs. Parkor.

No matter who the person is, their family always took priority.

it was the same for Aiden and the same for Makayla too. And especially true for all the people of their group, they wouldn't have been risking their lives pointlessly if they didn't care for their families. At least that was what Aiden believed.

Aiden shook his head.

'I guess I am overreacting.'

They waited for a bunch. While they were waiting Aiden didn't forget to check up on Yuna and sent her a message.

[Hi Yuna, did you finish your breakfast?]

Aiden didn't have to wait long as there was an immediate reply. 

[Yes, Ni-san doesn't worry, I had my fill. But where are you now Ni-san? I thought you were diving in the dungeon already.]

Aiden smiled.

'As always, she is hooked to her phone.'

[Was it nice?]

Sadly he completely ignored the later part of her text.

[...]

[Don't watch too much Naruto, okay?]

[For the love of God! Every anime under the world is not NARUTO!]

Yuna was obviously annoyed. From her perspective, her brother just pried into her life a bit too much. And he was inconsiderate as hell.

[I know. I know. I was just joking. It's cute when you get flustered over it.]

[That's not the point here.]

Yuna wanted to have a little more freedom in the things that she wanted to do without his brother going after her tail.

And Aiden probably understood that too. But he couldn't help but be worried about her.

[Hmm, take care okay?]

There was a long pause with no reply from the other side.

Perhaps Yuna was expecting Aiden to pass on some inconsiderate comment. But all she got was an indirect good bye.

It was a misunderstanding on her part with underlying emotions hard to reach on the other side with the barrier of text.

Aiden was definitely just expressing his genuine concern.

But perhaps deep down he didn't want to come off as nagging too. After all, Aiden was definitely sure Yuna was hiding something from him. That is why he cut the conversation short.

[You too. Take care.]

Aiden smiled.

Then he began typing...

'If there is something that is troubling you, then... '

But he could only go halfway through the text as his fingers stopped in between.

Aiden felt a chill down his spine as if someone was glaring at him with cold eyes. His hair rose up in response to such a stimulus. With such a stimulus he was more worried about his surroundings rather than his phone. He forgot to send the text.

When Aiden lifted his head out of his phone screen his eyes met her.

She was walking towards them with a blue hoodie on her head and her blue sweatshirt covering her blouse. She didn't show any of her skin. Her sweat shirt covered most of her arms and her long legs were hidden under a baggy and greyish trousers. It was hard to guess her appearance because of her attire but you could say at a glance that she was pretty tall.

Even her face was mostly covered as she wore a white mask on top of her mouth. Her pale blue prismarine eyes were the only contrasting feature about her that helped her in standing out of the crowd. They were quite in contrast to the normal blue eyes that one gets to see normally and had a foggy feel to them.

When Aiden stared in those eyes he gulped a mouthful of saliva. But even that didn't help him in wetting his scorching neck which was now devoid of any moisture.

No, Aiden wasn't smitten by a breathtaking beauty or anything cliche like that... her charms as a woman were mostly hidden. Not to mention Aiden's mind was already coggled with the troubles he was having raising with his younger sister..

Thanks to her baggy attire you wouldn't be able to figure out anything. Guessing her gender from afar was out of the question.

At least Aiden had a hunch that she was a girl.

But rather there was something about her that immediately made him feel uneasy.

'She is definitely not an E rank,' was what Aiden wanted to say but he swallowed his own words as he realized that he was the only one acting weird.

'No way.'

Upon closure inspection, Aiden realized that he was the only one she was staring daggers at and others hadn't noticed the cold gaze that he was being subjected to.

Makayla walked closure to her.

"She is an E rank. She will be joining her today. Though she is an earth elemental but she has high defence based skills, and would mostly work as our tank. And her name is..."

"Kaguya...My name is Kaguya Otsutsuki." the mysterious girl blurted cutting off Mr. Parkor.

"Wait sorry?" Aiden cried.

How could he not? He could hardly have been mistaken about her being suspicious here.

'It's like she is not even trying to hide the fact that she is suspicious here!'

The only complain that rang in Aiden's head was that she could have picked up a better and more convincing alias.

Twin

For those who are uninitiated (possibly no one), the reason why MC was so flustered was because Kaguya Otsutsuki was bascially the endgame villain of Naruto. This girl didn't think much and just picked up that as an alias 😂