In the Yorland capital city of Verbeau, my party visits the HQ of the Keepers Guild. It is a sturdy looking building made of rather pricey materials.

The stones come from Basilisks apparently, creatures known to paralyze their prey with a gaze. Basilisks consume their petrified prey and when killed the Basilisk corpse will undergo a similar process turning to stone.

The Keepers Guild here is made almost entirely of Basilisk stone remains. A material hard to acquire like that shows their money and power.

In this very guild we met Jyorven and Greyorg, two men that dedicated their lifetimes in pursuit of thicker muscles. These two also happen to be Brigid’s brothers, and the cause for her revulsion of the male gender.

Brigid gives us a tear-jerking account of her struggles living with meatheads that don’t treat her like a delicate girl. A part of me remembers the beatdown she gave a Wyvern, and I feel the urge to counter her claim.

Her sob story garners sympathy from the girls who join in a team effort to rebuke her brothers. The two men larger as a refrigerator can only squirm and avert their eyes like guilty suspects being grilled in an interrogation room.

The girls call them tactless and lacking in delicacy, piling on the guilt and emotional damage. Here’s hoping this will be cathartic to Brigid’s plight and hopefully curb her obsession with women.

To prevent us from getting carried away I cough and bring us back to business. I state my wish to Jyorven who eyes me like a rare animal species.

Jyorven 「 You want a rank reevaluation? How long have you been a Keeper for? Regulations state— 」

Greyorg 「 Ignore my stick in the mud brother over here. You want another assessment, then your best bet is speaking to the guildmaster and having him make an exception. 」

Becca 「 Sounds simple enough. Who’s the guildmaster here? 」

Jyorven and Greyorg 「 Me! 」 /「 Me! 」

The two men enthusiastically respond only to further my confusion. They stare at each other with bloodshot eyes and proceed to argue and butt heads, quite literally. Their foreheads smash together like bulls that lock horns with each other.

Brigid 「 You two are competing over the guildmaster position? Then does that mean the previous master is retiring? 」

At their little sister’s words the two separate and Jyorven’s face brightens up.

Jyorven 「 That’s right. The Guildmaster is finally retiring and ready to choose a successor. Although he hasn’t announced it yet but between me and Greyorg, he’s bound to choose the stronger leader, namely me. 」

Greyorg 「 Quit spreading lies Jyorven! He’s picking me of course! Say, Brigid, why not pay the old man a visit? He’s been missing you an awful lot. 」

Brigid 「 I guess we should. If he hasn’t retired yet he can still nominate Becca for a rank-up. Is he in his office? 」

Now why would this bunch of brothers and sister call the guildmaster old man so affectionately? Is it what I’m thinking of? An addition to the buff family?

At the guildmaster’s office, located on the top floor overlooking the lobby and the city plaza, a heavy bronze door greets us.

Brigid knocks on the door and an old but deep voice echoes out. Enter, he calls to us. The door is turned open revealing a room sparsely decorated, save for one side wall plastered with stuffed monsters.

Like a hunter’s trophy wall, taxidermied monster heads and fangs litter the wall, mounted on plaques with summaries of the monster’s name and difficulty rank.

The Keepers Guild ranks quests and monsters by a difficulty rating of 1 to 9 stars. A lot of these kill trophies are of 5 stars up to 7. To put it into perspective, a monster of 7 star rating spells doom for a regular city.

The inhabitants would have to gather the 7 mystical orbs and summon the wish granting dragon, Sh*nron, to stand a change.

And this room actually has a 7 starred monster trophy here, nestled at the centerpiece of this wall. It’s a gigantic monkey skull that Grandpa Goh*n would be proud to see.

In the office is a towering figure hunched over a wide desk. The scattered papers falling off the edge are a clear tell of how busy this man is. This person should be the guildmaster of the Keepers guild HQ.

True to his title, he seems like a behemoth in human skin. Although he is seated and bent over with his head buried in papers, he still seems so much larger than any of us.

He looks up and takes off a pair of tiny round eyeglasses that look completely out of character. He pinches his eyes in a massage you’d see a middle-aged office worker do to relieve eyestrain.

With bloodshot eyes, he stares at my ensemble. His thick gray beard splits open with his mouth and speaks.

「 Ubren, guildmaster and overseer of all Keepers guilds. What’s your business? Hm? Is that...Brigid? 」

The old man’s stern expression swaps for a jovial one as he scoots out of his desk. His towering figure almost reaches the tall ceiling. Is this man half-human, half-giant?

Ubren exclaims in joy and lifts Brigid up to scan her face in closer proximity. His eyes squint into happy lines and he bellows a thunderous laugh.

Ubren 「 Little Brigid has come home at last! How are you my little pumpkin pie? 」

Brigid 「 Grandpa! Not in front of my friends! Put me down. 」

Unlike how her words sound, Brigid is smiling as she avoids Ubren’s barrage of kisses. Her head weaves like a boxers’ and deftly avoids the puckered lips. After this fiasco continues for a while, Ubren calms down and plops Brigid onto a nearby chair.

Brigid introduces the old man as the one who took in the 3 siblings from the local orphanage. He was already too old to be called father so they aimed to call him old man or grandpa and such.

Ubren 「 I apologize if Brigid has been a handful for you. Especially in regards to her manners towards… the fairer sex. 」

As a man who witnessed her growth, he was keenly aware of her perverse nature. He and I exchange knowing looks. I can practically see the weariness in his eyes, the sleepless nights spent worrying for her future.

The exchange is speechless but we both nod in deep understanding. I feel like I’m beginning to understand how a parent feels looking after their rambunctious children.