Chapter 183: The Invitation (2) (1/2)

After the hearty brunch and friendly chat, the duo quickly made their way to the Adventurer's Hall. As soon as they pushed on the large, double, wooden door and stepped inside the already busy building, they were greeted by a cheerful, feminine voice coming from the far side of the room, the attendee's desk.

”Aiden! Cole! Here!” The cheery shout came again, alerting the duo. Looking at the source of the sounds, Aiden revealed a friendly smile and waved back at Mary who was already working.

They quickly made their way towards the girl and greeted her with friendly smiles.

”Hey Mary, did you rest well?” Aiden was the first to speak, causing the girl to, contrary to her shy behavior yesterday, not avert her eyes but instead, smile back.

”Yeah, I did. Thanks for taking me home Aiden, even if I probably would have been fine. Still, I really appreciate your kindness.”

Meanwhile, Cole decided to just simply wave, feeling a bit like a third wheel in the conversation of the two. He gave a friendly smile as he stood silent, next to Aiden.

”Anyway, it still baffles me that you are the brother, Lily was talking about when she was here. Who would have thought!” Mary exclaimed, still surprised by his reveal last night. ”Also, I'm guessing you are already aware, but the golden armored man that spoke yesterday? That was the man that kept following and pursuing your sister. He is a wealthy noble with great connections and a wife. He is also the only Rank 3 adventurer registered in this local guild as of today. Although…”

She smiled sweetly at Aiden, as she continued. ”...I believe that is going to change soon.”

Turning her head to the side, she gave a nod at Cole as well, before turning to look at the both of them.

”So, what are you guys going to do today?”

As they have already decided during breakfast, Aiden spoke up, with his usual calm attitude. Leaning against the desk, he pointed towards the Quest Board on the side.

”Well, we figured we could pick up one or two quests today as well, maybe aim for around 2-stars, maybe 3, and do them. We don't want to go on longer adventures, at least not yet, but want to gather more experience in working together. Yesterday, we couldn't really do that because of the disturbing… group, you know.”

”Yeah, we want some simple quests that could be done nearby or in the city. Do you have any recommendations, Mary?” Cole chimed into the conversation.

”Well…” Mary looked at the stack of papers at her side with a wry smile on her face. ”We do have quite a few requests that came in last night and this morning…”

Turning around, she faced the closest pile. Approaching it, she was ready to dive in to search for suitable requests for her friends.

”Give me a minute, let me look this through quickly, I am sure we can fin-”

However, before she could finish her thought, one of the strange crystals placed below her desk lit up and began to emit a faint yellowish light, informing the need of her presence at the back.

”Uhm… Wait a bit for me guys, I have to go to the back. The higher-ups are calling.” Before the two could have had a chance to respond, she turned around and rushed to the back office door, quickly entering and vanishing in the long halls of the office area.

Left alone, Cole and Aiden decided to not waste the time, and walked to the request board, looking for suitable requests in the process. This time they did not stop at the first section, but immediately went to the second and third.

Time passed slowly as they kept looking at the posted papers, but most if not all of them required them to either be a bigger party, have some female members, or travel farther. Ones that they could in a close enough distance were similar to those of yesterday, the always available Thorny Frog Gall Bladder farm, several different types of flower or bug gathering requests, and the like. Nothing that would take them any effort to complete and would be at the most a few hours distance away.

”Maybe, we should just wait for Mary to come back and let her look through that pile of papers that was not yet posted?” Cole spoke up after a while.

Albeit unwilling, Aiden could only nod and agree to his friend's thoughts. Unless they were willing to travel farther away, they should just wait for Mary and hope she could find something.

”Fine. Let's just wait for her.”

Just as he spoke and acquiesced, the back office door suddenly sprung open, and Mary ran back to her spot, heaving heavily in the process due to the distance she ran from the office all the way back to the desk.

Noticing her, heated and huffing figure, Aiden and Cole walked back. Leaning closer on the desk, Aiden was the first to speak up once again with his usual smile ever-present on his face.

”So, what is up Mary? Why the rush? What happened?” He inquired.