Chapter 34: Back to Orestria

After the race that Thomas would like to forget, the two went towards the market district, while Arnold went to the warehouse district. Rina walked up front, a bounce to her step. The slimes were outside the city, in the forest. Thomas felt naked without them.

"Do you have to be so insufferable?" Thomas snapped, when they neared one of the pawn shops.

"I won, Tommy. You had a dragon to carry you, up in the sky, and I still won. Now, keep talking. You know how much I like your voice," whatever retort Thomas might have given was forgotten, when a man was all but dragged out of a nearby weapon's shop.

"Come back with the money, or don't come back at all," the shop owner snarled, and shoved the man out into the streets. The door closed behind him, and the man's shoulders slumped.

Thomas went to him, deciding to ask what this all was about.

"Hi, trouble?" The summoner began, as the man refused to look him in the eye.

"Are you here to laugh at me as well? Look at Teri, he got kicked out of the guild, his money confiscated," the man barked a laugh, and Thomas knit his brows.

"Guild master Yima kicked you out? Why?" Thomas needed to know. Was this man the reason behind the mystery of the hag of Golden Leaf party?

"It is all lies, I tell you. I didn't doctor any of the mission contracts to make them look easier. But did Yima listen? No," Teri's shoulders slump even further.

"I command you to tell me the truth," Thomas said, pouring mana into his voice.

"You command...who do you think..." Teri's eyes became glassy, and he began to speak again. "It wasn't me; I swear. There was this receptionist who did the quest giving. Hey, you look like him."

Thomas nodded. He had figured that the tank, judging by the massive shield on his back, was not the culprit.

"Come with me, we need to get your testimony to the guild master," Thomas said, and he walked towards the guild hall.

"Hey, if you are the receptionist, did you, do it? Send the upstarts to the hag, I mean?" Teri asked. The summoner shook his head.

"I am not allowed to open the scrolls, if the client doesn't allow it. I just see the rank on the outermost layer, and that is all," Thomas wondered why the guild master had not sent someone after him. After all, he should be the prime suspect.

"What did you do to me? I felt I would die if I didn't speak the truth," Teri pressed on, his anger visible for all to see.

"I became a siren," Thomas told him. The tank barked a laugh. When Thomas didn't laugh with him, he blinked.

"You are serious?" He stuttered.

"As he can be," Rina said from behind Teri. "Man, this brings memories of, well, being kicked out of the guild hall. They told me I will never survive a dungeon delving. Now, I have a dungeon delving and a transport mission under my belt. That would show them."

"The Orestria guild takes only the best," Teri said, then he looked to Rina's bow. "Hey, that is a magical bow, right? Where did you get it?"

"From the dungeon that Tommy and I beat," she said proudly. The ebony of the bow glimmered in the sunlight and the string was impossibly white. To Teri, this must be what a legendary weapon looked like.

"So, you carried the siren?" Teri thought that Thomas's harp was impressive as well, but didn't think it was a weapon.

"No, Tommy carried me. But, next time, that will change," Rina's smile dimmed somewhat. Most of the heavy work had been done by the slimes. They, in turn, belonged to Thomas. So, it was fair to say he had been the one to defeat the dungeon.

"If you haven't gotten through the puzzle of the first mosaic, we would have spent days with me trying to feel up the right combination," Thomas said, and Rina's smile returned.

"Yes, well, be that as it may, we can only improve from here," Rina saw the gates of the guild hall. She remembered banging on them to be let in, after her evaluation had shown her small rank. She shook her head, to clear it from the sour memory.

Thomas opened the doors and looked around. There was a new receptionist on his old desk. He didn't know the woman, but she looked to be taking her job seriously because her eyes were attentive, and she waved them over.

They walked to the desk, and stood before her.

"What are you doing back here with the traitor?" She snapped, and Thomas was quick to do damage control.

"It was not him who doctored the scrolls. I can prove it. Just let me speak with the guild master," the least they could do for Teri was to give him his money back. No one would hire a traitor to a guild.

The woman pressed a button, and a hologram appeared.

"Guild master, there are two freelancers who have come with proof that Teri is not involved in the Golden Leaf incident," she said, and they saw Yima pace in his office.

"Bring them up. Wait, is that Thomas?" Yima's eyes narrowed, and Thomas did his best to smile.

"It is me, guild master. I sort of became a siren," Thomas's smile faltered, when the guild master rubbed his temples.

"Bring them up," Yima commanded, and the woman turned off the connection.

"Come along now, the guild master must not be kept waiting," Thomas saw her name tag on the desk. Clair. He needed to remember that, if he ever hoped to come back to the guild hall.

Clair led them up the stairs and before the door of the guild master's office. The red wood door looked foreboding to the three. Even more so, when Clair left them before it. Thomas knocked, and the door slung open.