A lot of people didn't know it, but this guild master wasn't always a guild master. At some point in the past, he lived in the castle and he was one of the soldiers that was in charge of fighting for and protecting the former king of the kingdom. After the dragon wars ended and everything fell apart in the kingdom, all soldiers and servants left the castle because there was no need to protect an empty throne. This man was one of the very only people that didn't leave the castle. He stayed behind and took care of young Elias and Eliss until they were teenagers and then he finally had to leave as well.
Elias and Elias were very young when the dragon wars happened, and so, many people in the kingdom didn't know about them. The people in the kingdom only knew about Eliss now because she is the one that stayed back to continue ruling, but Elias left too early for them to even know what he really looked like. That is why the people in the town all thought that he was an outsider. They just didn't recognize him. But the old man could never forget Elias' face.
[My king, I see that you finally returned. I didn't think I would live long enough to see it.]
The entire room was shocked by what the man said! The adventurers in the room had no idea who Elias was since most of them never saw Elias before Elias left Volcanica! But once the guild master called Elias king, they all knew that Elias was the son of the former king!
Elias sighed silently and he nodded to the man before speaking.
[Hello, Barnabas. It's been a long time since I last saw you. I hoped you were doing well, and I'm glad to see that you are,]
Barnabas smiled a little before telling Elias and his group to follow him to his office. They needed to talk. Barnabas told the receptionist that he is not to be disturbed before he took all of them to the back of the building.
The group entered an office at the back of the building and they went to seat on the various chairs in the room. Once they were all seated, Barnabas looked towards Elias expectantly and waited to hear what Elias has to say. Elias has been gone for a very long time now and Barnabas didn't think that he would see him anytime soon. But now that Elias was here, Barnabas wondered if he succeeded in what he wanted to do or not.
Elias went to retrieve a dragon so that they would stand a chance against the demon lord and Barnabas wanted to know if he succeeded or not.
But Elias ignored the expectant look on Barnabas' face and he just spoke up.
[We came here to find something, do you know the direction of the Duruvian mountains? There is something hidden there that we need at all costs in order to complete our mission.]
Barnabas was a little surprised by what Elias said. The Duruvian mountains? Why in the world would anyone want to go to the Duruvian mountains? Barnabas thought for a moment and after some time, he shrugged when he couldn't think of any reason why Elias would even want to go to that mountain! There was nothing in the Duruvian mountains that he could think of that word attract this sort of attention.
Barnabas walked towards a shelf on the wall to his right and looked through a bunch of old paper before he finally brought out a map from somewhere in the middle of all of them. This was a map of the whole of Volcanica and he spread it down on the table in front of the group. Elias stood up to look at the map with Barnabas and the both of them started to converse quickly as they looked over the map together.
Barnabas pointed to a spot on the map and said that this was where they currently were. This map was drawn a very long time ago and some things might have changed since the dragon wars. But it is the most accurate depiction of what the continent looked like so they can be sure that it would still be valid.
Barnabas then started to move his hand in the opposite direction. Elias' brow rose as Barnabas almost got to the opposite side of the continent before he stopped and said that this was where the Duruvian mountains were! What the hell? Why was it on the other side of the world!? From what Elias could see, it would take at least a week before he could get there! And it would only take that long if he was riding Givalich! If he is walking, then this is a journey that would take at least two months!
The Duruvian Mountains were a large cluster of mountains located right at the edge of the western side of Volcanica. The mountains were not that popular among the current generation living in the continent, but the previous generation all knew about the mountain because, during any war, they used it as a stronghold to prevent enemies from attacking them from the western side of the continent.
Elias' father would have also known about these mountains, but Elias didn't know what the hell was so important about the mountains. Even though the former generation used it as a stronghold once upon a time, the mountain was useless during the dragon wars and it will be useless now. When the former demon lord attacked them, he didn't come here with an army. That bastard came here alone with his household! Just six people against an entire race of dragons and monsters and the dragons fucking bullshit!
"-ias! Elias!"
Elias suddenly heard his name from behind and he turned around to see Ria frowning at him! She rolled her eyes when she saw how distant Elias looked. Don't tell me he was getting lost in his thoughts in the middle of the explanation!? They were here to finish something important and they didn't have any time for this! Ria turned to Barnabas and asked him how long it would take to get to the mountain! Ris could understand what they were saying when Barnabas showed Elias the map, but she didn't hear them say anything about how long it would take to get them to get to the mountains.
Elias shook his head and told her to hold on. He already knew all that so there was no need to ask again. He turned to Barnabas and asked him another question.
[Do you have a room that we can stay in for the next few days? We need to come up with a plan of action before we leave]
The old man nodded and told Elias that he had two rooms in the house that he was not using. The men could share one of the rooms and the women could use the other one. Elias turned around to look at Dray and a frown of irritation appeared on his face once he saw the boy. There is no way that Elias would be able to share a room with Dray without killing him in five seconds!
[You don't have any other room that we can use?]
Elias turned to Barnabas and asked this seriously. Barnabas was surprised by the question/. He didn't see anything wrong with the men and women sharing rooms.
[I'll share with you, Elias. The two of them can use the other one]
Ria suddenly spoke up from behind as she heard what they were talking about. She knew that Elias and Dray didn't have the best relationship and they would end up hurting each other if they even stayed in the same too together! Well, Elias would end up killing Dray. Dray couldn't really do much against Elias if Elias decides that he just wants him dead.
Elias turned to look at Ria and he thought about what she said for a moment! He didn't feel like sharing a room with Ria either. He wasn't in the mood to face her attempts at seduction right now. But he would rather spend a whole year with Ria than spend a single day with that idiot Dray, so he shrugged and accepted the arrangement.
At the side, Guvalich could only scoff as the two of them were making such stupid plans. They didn't even bother to ask her if she was okay staying with Dray. Givalich didn't have anything against Dray, except for the fact that he was a little naive. She didn't mind staying in the same room as him since he was her contractor. At least that way, she can make sure that he stays alive.
But Dray was lost as he tried to follow their conversation. Dray was so lost that he didn't even know when they started talking about one thing or when they finish talking about another one. They could have been selling Dray as a slave and Deay wouldn't even know it!
Dray could only fold his hands and look at all of them as they spoke in a language that he has never heard before. It took more than twenty minutes before Elias finally collected two keys from the old man and turned to hand them to Ria. He told Ria that he would be coming out soon since he needed to talk to Barnabas about some important things.
Ria frowned once she heard this but she didn't argue with Elias and she just took the keys and they started to leave the room. Dray just stood up and followed after them. Even if he didn't understand shit, he understood that they were going to be staying the night here.
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