"N-No kid... It's my bad." The man, who happened to be the guard they met outside, apologized while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. This made everyone in the hall throw a glance at him before sitting down and placing their weapons back in their sheaths.
"For you to have that kind of reaction, you must have had a few bad experiences with..." The guard paused for a moment before looking at the sheet of paper.
After a few moments of silence, Syra finally spoke up with a slightly hoarse voice.
"Darkless..."
"I see." The man sighed and walked over to a particular counter. While the adventurer hall was a place where people would go to find parties to join in order to go on hunts, it was also a bar since that's the place most people would hang out, especially the adventurers who, despite being looked on lightly by the rest of the townspeople, weren't ever treated the same.
Getting a large cup and filling it with water, the man quickly returned to Syra and placed it in her hands. She quickly drank it and cleared her throat, suddenly becoming try the moment she saw the bounty on the wall.
"Come on... Sit down." The man said while walking toward one of the larger tables. Everyone in Syra's group looked at each other with a little bit of weariness; however, when Syra eventually stepped forward and walked with the man, the rest of the group shrugged and followed behind her.
Sitting down, an awkward silence fell upon them. None of them said a word, and even after several minutes passed, they were staring at each other.
The man who had sat on the opposite side of the round table simply smiled with warmness as he waited for Syra to say something. He could immediately tell that she was the group's leader, and since she was the only one who wasn't actually staring at him, he thought that she would probably be the person who had something to say.
Syra, on the other hand, was staring down because she didn't know what to say. She wasn't about to open up to a stranger, but the situation they were in right now made it feel like she was being forced to.
The rest of her group all felt something crawl down their skins as they simply sat there without saying a single word.
Everyone in the hall was staring at them, the only difference this time being the fact that they didn't have their hands on their weapons.
"They attacked us a few years ago... 6 years ago..." Syra finally sighed and relented to the stares around her.
Her friends widened their eyes as they had never heard this before, but now that they were hearing it, they kept a keen ear to not miss anything.
"I see. And... I'm assuming you want revenge on them?" The man asked with a curious tone in his voice.
"I wouldn't say that-"
"If that man in the picture were to walk down this street right now, would you attack him."
"Yes." Syra immediately answered before her expression changed, as if she was shocked by the words that had come out of her mouth.
Letting out a sigh, the man rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked her in the eyes again.
"Are you stupid?" He asked with a genuinely curious voice.
"What the fuck did you just-" Zelon suddenly stood and tried to point the wand he kept in his pouch at the man; however, by the time he had reached for it, he already had a blade placed on his throat.
"Stop... They're kids. They don't know better." The man spoke commandingly, causing Syra to raise a brow.
"For a guard, they sure listen to you." She said with a piercing glare.
"Let's go for a walk..." The man suddenly stood up and walked away from the table; however, when he saw several people stand up simultaneously, he sighed and continued.
"Alone..."
Hearing him, everyone in the hall sat down again while the students followed him by a few steps. Only Syra walked next to him as they left the hall.
As they left, Syra glanced at the board, allowing her eyes to catch something she hadn't seen the first time she had looked at the bounties.
There were two other bounties with Darkless under their descriptions. One of them seemed familiar, but by the time she had left the hall, she couldn't see the name on it anymore.
Not thinking much of it, she sighed and let go of the matter. If she really wanted to know the name of that bounty, she could just return after she was done with the mission they had been handed.
She didn't need any distractions right now...
"Here's a word of advice, kid..." The man budged her to catch her attention again.
"Hm?" She raised a brow.
"If you see anyone from the Darkless organization, either don't attack them or walk the other way." She said while giving a her a sidelong glance before looking back to see if her group was far enough to not hear them,
"Hm? I don't get it. I'm already at around the same strength as one of their generals, and with my armor, I could probably beat them." She sneered.
"You know of their rankings?" He asked, making her also look back.
She hadn't told them of what happened to her... Hell, for all they knew, she was a kid from the Skylark family who happened not to align with her family's morals. It was the same thing with most wealthy teenagers from an influential family.
It happened all the time. It wasn't any different from normal teenagers.
Only Herla knew that something had happened to Syra; however, until now, she hadn't asked her to expand on what had happened. In her eyes, no matter what the problem was, it would never change anything between them, so to her, it didn't matter if she knew or not.
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