Chapter 30: First battle evaluation for the Leaf Party
Three months passed as if in a blur. Johnny didn't move into the Elathana estate, but he visited his husband often, and Filarion visited him in his house as well. Adam didn't approve of the marriage, and neither did Filarion's siblings. Still, the two didn't care.
The pair trained their adopted kids until they would drop where they stood from exhaustion. Johnny had gotten Filarion to see some sense, and they had put off going on quests, until the three children were tested and at least given the rank F.
Then, on one crisp morning, it was finally time. Filarion had paid for the battle evaluation, and Johnny had stayed the night in the estate. The family wanted to go down to Westermire village together.
The two husbands ushered the half-asleep teens to their horses, and then all five rode off. They were before the village, as the sun began to rise. Before the guild house building, just as the village's clock tower chimed for six o'clock.
The receptionist at the front desk stared at them for a while, and then shook her head.
"Three months of training is too little," she said, as she stared at the teens. "F is the most you are looking forward to."
"Be that as it may, we will still go through it all," Filarion told her, half-asleep himself.
"It is still not too late for the two of you to go back to being solo adventurers, and get your former ranks back," the receptionist looked at Johnny, as she spoke. "I can't give dragon slaying quests to an F ranked adventurer, Johnny."
"Then someone else will have to slay the dragons," Johnny told her with a wink. He loved dragon slaying quests. Sure, for those that were as big as a small hill he needed a party. But for the smaller ones he did not.
Still, Filarion was not going to let the children make their own way into the world without him. The elf didn't care if he was going to be an F ranked adventurer. So, neither did Johnny.
"Well, the guild master is waiting for you all in the training hall. Good luck," she said, and then waved them away.
"Fil, what if we fail again?" Nathaniel asked in a small voice. Back during their first attempt, it hadn't been the guild master that presided over their evaluation, and they had still been balls of nerves.
"You won't," the elf told him with a gentle smile. "You will be with a rank by the end of the hour. We trained the three of you too hard, for you not to be."
The guild's training hall came into view, and Johnny pushed the door open, holding it open for his family to enter. The old gruff and battle-scarred guild master waited for them with his arms folded over his chest.
Marius had been a guild master for more than fifty years. His hair was white as snow, and his face clean-shaven. The berserker could have afforded himself a beard, for he could move like lightning, and it surely won't be a problem for him. Yet, he didn't allow himself that, and kept himself without any hurdles.
"When I heard that my two SS ranked adventurers, one of them who should be SSS, were coming in for F ranked battle evaluations I knew I just had to be the one to see it done," Marius told them instead of greeting them. "Your names are both in the mud, these days."
"Sorry, guild master," Johnny said, and the old berserker just huffed.
"I should have known that Filarion's business was no good," Marius said, leveling Filarion with a glare. "But you, Johnny? You were with the man for how many years and didn't notice a thing until recently?"
"Three years, guild master. Again, I am sorry," Johnny was staring at his shoes. The guild master had always believed in him. He had been the one to praise Filarion to Johnny, and the one who offered to the tank the opportunity for a meeting with the elf.
"Two prodigies, F ranked," the guild master rubbed his chin, and then finally saw the three teens behind the two men. "And you? Are you part of the mafia as well?"
"We are not, although we had dealings with dad's business, when it was still a shady undertaking," Zaine met the guild master's eyes and held his gaze. His brothers did much the same.
"I like you, kid. You have spunk," the guild master gave out a belly laugh, and then pointed at a running track.
"Run the length of this track. Go, now," the five went to the starting position, and took off running. Filarion was in the lead in seconds, yet, Johnny soon caught up to him. Without all his heavy armor, he was fast on his feet. The two raced to the finish line. The elf still won, and turned around to give his husband a teasing smile.
"I dare say that this deserves a foot rub," Filarion spoke, and Johnny grumbled.
"I swear, your feet are as delicate as those of a princess," Johnny protested, and then looked behind himself. The three teens were giving their all, but they still arrived a whole minute after him.
"Slow," Marius said, and then leveled the three with a long stare. "You better do better at the other tasks, or you will fail your parents."
"Sir, yes, sir," the three chorused, not feeling down in the least. Now that they had witnessed what Filarion and Johnny were capable of, they had a new goal.
It didn't matter if they could get into a rank today, but they wanted to be as fast as the two. As the day progressed, and they did different tasks, among which weight lifting, swimming, jumping, and even sparing against the guild master, the three added being as strong and graceful as their parents to the mix.
All five of them gathered before the guild master, and waited for his verdict.
"You trained them well. I think they would have benefitted from a bit more time, but they are good enough for cat sitting and the like," Marius admitted, and then produced five F ranked badges. "Welcome to the Westermire Adventurer's Guild, Leaf Party."
