Chapter 127: Meeting Guild Master (2)
It took nearly half an hour to explain everything.
Noah and Damien recounted the events from start to finish the monsters, the battle, the strange man doing ritual and the unknown creature that had emerged from the depths of that huge hole.
How it started to talk in human language, but it felt like someone else was talking through it’s body. Oliver listened through all of it without once interrupting, his expression unreadable, his eyes steady.
They told him almost everything.
But there was one thing that they didn’t told him.
The one thing they left out was the creature’s words. The moment it had looked directly at Damien and called him ’the child blessed by the sun’, that part never left their mouths.
Instead, Noah smoothly filled the gap with a different version. He told Oliver that the monster had suddenly begun to speak on its own, rambling about searching for a child blessed by the sun. That they had no idea what it meant or who it was referring to.
It wasn’t a complete lie. It just wasn’t the complete truth.
The two of them had agreed on this before even stepping foot inside the guild. No matter what, that detail stayed between them– for now.
When they finished, Oliver said nothing for a long moment. He sat in silence, fingers laced together, eyes cast slightly downward as he turned something over in his mind. Then he exhaled slowly and looked up at them.
"Thank you. Both of you." His voice was calm and genuine. "Is there anything else? Anything at all you may have left out or forgotten to mention?"
Noah met his gaze without flinching. Damien did the same.
"No," Damien answered.
"There’s nothing else..." Noah also replied.
Oliver studied them for a brief moment, then gave a single nod. "Then that is all I needed."
Noah leaned forward slightly. "Can I ask something? Is this situation serious? And what about that huge hole, the one that creature came out of. Did you find anything down there?"
Noah was really curious about this. What was inside that hole. Where did that creature came from, where it was before coming up.
Oliver shook his head. "We looked into it. There wasn’t much to find." He paused, then added in a calm, firm tone, "You two don’t need to concern yourselves with this. Focus on your studies and your training. Leave matters like these to the adults."
As he finished speaking, the faintest smile crossed his face. It was quiet and genuine. It was the first real smile he had shown since they arrived.
Noah didn’t push any further. He glanced at Damien, then back at Oliver.
"Then... can we go?" Noah asked.
"Yes." Oliver nodded. "Take care of yourselves."
Both Noah and Damien rose from their seats and bowed respectfully before turning and walking out of the office.
---
The door clicked shut behind them.
Oliver remained at his desk, unmoving.
He didn’t suspect anything. Nothing about their account had struck him as dishonest, and nothing in their demeanor had given him reason to doubt them. As far as he was concerned, they had been straightforward.
And yet, the worry that had been sitting quietly at the back of his mind since last night refused to leave.
His gaze drifted toward the window.
"...I hope it’s not what I think it is."
The words came out barely above a murmur, swallowed quickly by the silence of the room.
---
Noah and Damien stepped out of the elevator on the second floor, and Noah stopped walking.
Damien glanced at him, momentarily confused, then it clicked.
He had totally forgot about it because of yesterday’s incident. The monster bodies.
They still had everything stored away. Goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, and those strange bat-like creatures from the night before. All of it sitting in their storage devices, untouched.
They made their way to the commercial counter on the second floor, where a woman stood ready to assist. Noah spoke first.
"We’d like to sell some monster bodies. Goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, and a few bat-type creatures."
The woman nodded and led them into a large back room. The space was busy staff members moving between stations, other adventurers hauling in their own hauls from recent hunts. It had the efficient, slightly chaotic energy of a place that dealt in this sort of thing every day.
Noah and Damien began pulling the bodies out one by one.
Then more.
Then more.
The woman’s expression shifted somewhere around the fortieth body. By the time they were done, the number had climbed past eighty. Eighty monster corpses laid out across the floor — all low-ranking, but the sheer volume of it was something else entirely.
She looked at the two of them with barely concealed surprise.
After verifying their ranks and processing everything, she returned to the counter.
"Total comes to one million zela."
Noah and Damien exchanged a glance.
"Not bad." Noah said with smile.
"Yes, it’s good amount."
They split it evenly down the middle, five hundred thousand each — pocketed their share, and walked out of the Crimson Vale Guild into the open afternoon air.
---
The ride back toward the academy was quiet for a while.
Then Noah broke the silence.
"Damien."
"Yeah?"
"Ask Instructor Morgana about what’s under that hole."
Damien turned to look at him.
"Sir Oliver didn’t tell us anything," Noah continued, his eyes fixed on the passing streets outside the bus window. "But your master might know. And if she does, she’ll tell you." He glanced over. "Then you tell me."
Damien was quiet for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah. I’ll ask her."
Noah nodded and then asked, "By the way did you talk with her? Told her what happened yesterday?"
He shook his head. "I had call her but she said, rest for tonight. And she asked for us yo come today to meet her."
Noah’s eyes widened.
"Why didn’t you tell me this before?"
"What? I told you just now." Dmaien said with frowned. As if he didn’t do anything wrong.
Noah ran his hand through hair.
Not questioning anything further.
If he also need to meet her, he might just ask her directly.
