After deciding to ignore Damien and his antics and let Josephine continue snoring on the ground in peace, Rachel sat next to Oliver gushing, “I’m excited to see Kaitlyn again! She’s fun to talk to, you know! She even has that little tint of mystery surrounding her identity! Never thought I’d meet a cute girl like her outside of Uni!”

“Really now,” Oliver droned in a robotic tone, cleaning his sword, “I have never heard you gush about another girl before. Never ever...”

Pouting and smacking Oliver on the shoulder, Rachel complained, “Hey, you’re gay too, we’re in this boat together! Just let me gush about who’s giving me lesbian panic!”

“Alright, alright...” Oliver laughed, putting his sword aside, asking with a curious smile “What do we know so far about Kaitlyn’s identity? Also she’s not like a secret spy planning to kill us, right?”

Joining the conversation having decided to ‘hide his shadow dragon side’, Damien explained, “We don’t have to worry about that at least I have a few reasons for that, one is the way we met her wasn’t the way you meet scammers, at least in the novels I’ve read at least. Also, she doesn’t carry herself like she’s hiding something, and doesn't talk like it either. Lastly we’re not targets, nobody knows who we are, you know? We look poor, have a poor carriage, and in the end... really are poor.”

“I see, I see... you still didn’t answer my first question though,” Oliver chuckled, raising his eyebrow in question with a smile.

--------

Meanwhile, having washed up, Kaitlyn made her way to the Adventurer’s Guild, tapping her fingers along the two swords by her side as she walked down the street. 

The skies still overcast, Kaitlyn scrunched her eyebrows, reasoning to herself, “I haven’t been keeping track of the date... is it already almost winter? Maybe? There really hasn’t been too much sun recently.”

Trekking on towards the Adventurer’s Guild, Kaitlyn turned the corner, seeing it come into sight, lamenting, “I hope the old geezer is actually there, I even came early just to see him, otherwise I would’ve come for nothing...”

Coming to a stop in front of Adventurer’s Guild, Kaitlyn looked up, marveling still at the large building, a converted town hall that had been expanded over and over again. A building built with stone, soaring pillars to hold up the high roof, several floors with different purposes, a library full of books, and training grounds free for all. 

Pushing aside the solid ornate wooden doors that marked the entrance, Kaitlyn walked in, ignoring the mission board before looking up to the second floor where most of the staff were, yelling out to a familiar face, “Hey, Marie! Is Dexter here?”

“Hm?” The guild employee that seemed ageless named Marie asked, turning around, “Oh, Kaitlyn! Are you here to see Dexter? He’s here this time, so come on up, you can just go knock on his office door! It’s nice to see you back, Kaitlyn!”

To the amazement of all the other adventurer’s who were in the guild at the moment, Kaitlyn had been granted access to the staff only second floor by just calling out to an employee.

“Who is she?”

“I’ve never seen someone do that before...”

“Do you think it’d work if we tried it?”

“Are you stupid? Didn’t you hear she wanted to go see Dexter?”

“You mean THAT Dexter? The Guildmaster?”

“Who else could I mean you braindead fool?”

“Alright, as a veteran here I can explain, so calm down everyone...”

Ignoring those murmurs, Kaitlyn pushed aside the small curtain in front of the stairs and climbed up to the second floor of the guild, where she was greeted by a waiting Marie, “It’s been so long, little Kaitlyn! How are you doing?”

“I’m not little anymore!” Kaitlyn retorted, still unable to hide a small smile, “I’m 21, you know? You don’t need to Mom me... We’re past the days where I was an orphan and you were my guardian...”

“Well, I still am allowed to care for you, am I not?” Marie inquired with a smile that seemed empty behind its bright exterior, “Hmm, Kaitlyn? Hmmm~?”

Feeling a demon appear behind Marie’s smile, Kaitlyn retracted her words while shifting away, “I-I mean... I mean, yeah you’re allowed too...”

“Anyway!” Kaitlyn coughed, deciding to run away from Marie to Dexter’s office, “T-Take care Marie! I’ll see you later!”

Running off, Kaitlyn barged into Dexter’s office, slamming the door behind her, “Hi, hi, old geezer, I came to see you again!”

“Did you run away from Marie, again?” Dexter asked, looking up from some paperwork that he was totally not drawing on, before laughing with a hearty smile, “Still calling me that, huh? Why don’t you call me Dex like the rest of our party does?”

“You’re 43... literally more than twice my age,” Kaitlyn rebutted, looking to the side, “And after all that training you made me do, you deserve to be called an extra old geezer...”

Standing up and flexing his hulking body in a pose, Dexter smiled while letting out a booming laugh, “A strong body is the answer to everything!” 

“...Anyway,” Kaitlyn sat down, laying down on one of the couches in the guild office, “It’s been like 3 months since I’ve seen you, how’s life? How are the others?”

“Jayce and Sasha are still struggling with their responsibilities for now, you know, newly weds and everything,” Dexter explained, sitting down on the opposite couch, “And Chelsea... well she’s being Chelsea and decimating the monsters by the border of her own country. Though I think recently she got promoted to a duke.”

Yawning while stretching out on the couch, Kaitlyn murmured, “Good for Chelsea... happy for her, happy for her. Though, how are Jayce and Sasha still newlyweds, they’ve been married for what... 7 years now? That’s an old couple to me.”

Rolling over, Kaitlyn asked again, “So how’s life as the Guildmaster? Mr. Super adventurer? How’s your wife doing?”

“The wife is well,” Dexter nodded, imitating Kaitlyn by also lying down on the couch, “I’ve been well, been training in my free time when I’m not swamped with paperwork as the guild master. I have to maintain my skills as one of the few X-Ranked Adventurer’s after all.”

Sitting back up after almost rolling off the couch due to his large frame, Dexter added, “Life’s much easier now after we beat that demon lord, you know? Even though it’s stressful at times as the Guildmaster, it’s still nothing compared to those times...”

Esiyx

I dragged my ass out of bed to schedule this! look at me, so dedicated to my craft...

Thanks for reading you all!! another chapter tomorrow so look forward to that!!

I appreciate all the comments! they're all so nice~

thank you everyone~ have a nice time living life, it's hard out there <3 i hope this chapter could be a little bit of a bright spot~