Chapter 212: Search Party
Leceiviester city, Duke Erin’s mansion.
"Haven’t you been visiting me too much this days Meryon"
"This is just the second time and this time it’s serious"
"what is it?" Duke Erin faced the elf sage who sat down after coming out of the space within duke Erin’s study.
"The aid, got kicked out"
"What do you mean got kicked out, you don’t wan to admit that what you created was not able to handle the weight of aiding a special existence and got kicked?"
"No Erindell, this was done by some stronger force"
Duke Erin looked at Meryon for a while, "I can tell by your face that you are not joking... how strong is this force you are talking about?" Duke Erin asked.
"an ancient deity..." Meryon replied.
"could he be in danger?" Duke Erin asked.
"Maybe not much threat with godeye and the ancient deity with him... this aid was my way of monitoring him, I won’t be able to monitor him anymore"
"That’s odd..." Duke Erin said.
"No it’s not"
"not you... I sense the presence of a dragon nearby... perhaps you are right, something must have happened to Reinard" Duke Erin said.
***********************
"Guild master, I just got info that we are not the only ones planning to challenge the dungeon."
"hmph, is that so..." Jon asked while going through the papers on his table.
"yes guild master"
He looks up at the young man standing, "that’s admirable of you Vlad. But we can’t back out, is that what you are suggesting?"
"Of course not guild master, I’m suggesting that we should move it forward."
Jon paused, "come on Vlad, you are not always like this. Tell me, what’s the catch?"
"They are an organisation, they call themselves order of the white lotus"
"An organisation instead of a guild?" Jon asked.
"Yes, and this what surprised me is that their leader is the second strongest in the list of the players ranking."
Jon’s expression changed, "I hear those rankers are quite strong"
"yes"
Jon sighs, "a lot has changed with my absence for just one year, it’s stressful catching up to the change"
"But you have changed too" Vlad said. "You are now a dependent young man, I was really scared and thought our friendship was over when you left for the academy"
Jon smiled.
"But I’m still curious about this person called Reinard whom you serve, to abandon your father’s vision for him"
"My father’s vision uh-" Jon paused. "what was that noise?" he quickly stood up and ran out, Vlad followed him.
On getting outside, Jon saw that a part of the walls that surrounded the guild-manor had been crushed but what surprised him more was the black reptile that flew towards him but fell on its way, it looked like it was very injured and was struggling to fly with one wing, regardless it ran to Jon.
"Jon Clemon!!" the black reptile called out his name in full.
’what is this? what is going on? did I make an enemy of a really dangerous person, but there’s no way I wouldn’t have known, is this the end’ Jon couldn’t grasp the magnitude of what was going though the only the that made him scared was the fact that all his life had never seen such a majestic and enormous discharge of mana.
Ben and Katherine came out, Ben ran towards the reptile and bowed his head, "master Azes, why are you injured?" Ben asked with a surprised face.
’Azes... that name sounds familiar... wait the ...black’ Jon’s eye widened, "don’t tell me"
"Katherine answered him with meat in her mouth, it seemed like she had to come out while she was eating. Cualli, Arnette and Sigrid also came out, since they spent most of their time in the guild.
Cualli screamed, but Ben quickly covered his mouth.
Even Arnette was surprised, "I never thought I would see one...’
"...A dragon..." Jon finally confirmed from the exclamation of everyone around this was definitely a dragon, everyone around also fell on their knees the moment Jon said it’s a dragon. The tales of dragon to the westerners made dragons look like another caliber of gods that liked to be left on their own, thus the westerners felt very much threatened with the sudden appearance of a dragon.
But this only made Jon mad, ’what?... Rein had a dragon... and he kept it from all of us’
Sigrid turned away angrily, "that bastard keeps giving me reason to leave over and over again."
"Wait"
She stopped immediately Azes spoke. ’Damn, what is this monstrous overflow of mana’, her stopping was more of an involuntary movement, it was as if her body was faster than her mind, as if her body was scared.
"...now is not the time to worry about the secrets Father has... this is very urgent, permit me for causing an uproar like this, but I’m focusing on healing right now, I can’t morph, it will be reckless...let’s talk"
Immediately Azes said let’s talk everywhere went blank as if everyone was erased within a millisecond. "this is a sub-space, it’s just a pigment of the real space, I did this to get all eyes of us... now can we talk"
***************
After a while of long explanation.
"So, you are telling me Rein is missing" Jon said
"It’s can’t be, I can still feel my lord’s presence" Ben said.
"I can feel his presence too, but I should be able to pin his exact location, which I can’t"
Jon faced Ben, "I’m arranging my thoughts, don’t disturb me..."
"Yes sir"
Everyone was surprised by how Ben was suddenly obedient to Jon.
"So you guys encountered a deity, a real deity... while trying to solve a case from Rein’s father beast taming business, you guys got shot down by the deity which led to your broken wound, hence you had to throw Rein away in order to save him from crashing with you."
"Yes" Azes replied.
"hmm... since you are a new born I guess you must not be that intelligent.."
"eh..?"
"eh...?"
"..."
Everyone was shocked, ’did he just called a dragon stupid?’
"You should have protected him till the end, even if it meant you both had to die, you should have protected him till the every end! Instead you threw him afar off and what exactly were you hoping for? That some lucky eagle would come and puck him up somewhere...? dammittt!!" Jon covered his face with his hand.
’I’ve never seen Jon so stressed and angry, who is this guy... to care about him so much, even more than your father’
Azes expression dropped from confident to guilty, "...I’m sorry"
Everyone screamed.
Azes was learning and was getting better which made him different, dragons do not grow around humans but the fact that Azes was able to apologize meant that somehow the environment he has been growing in has been contributing to his growth what was not known was if it’s a bad or good thing.
Jon was also surprised, he sighed, "we can’t care about that now, we must start searching for Reinard, if we have to go to the northern continent we would go, if we have to go to the ends and edges of the world, we must find Reinard.", ’and now I have to deal with the aftermath of a dragon’s appearance in my guild, just how do I explain this to the guild-bureau.’ Jon was worried about the guild-bureau.
They were worth the worry, they first started in Forgan empire, where the empire soldiers started working together with player’s guilds in order to organize an overseeing body for the rampant growth of guilds, then within a year, the guild-bureau with the backing of the Forgan empire, their influence was already reaching the whole of the western continent though many kingdoms were resisting it, but it didn’t matter, it wasn’t a body for kingdoms it was a body for guilds and the moment kingdoms gave guilds free-will to operate in exchange for some certain terms, they had no say in the issue anymore. More so, the law forcers of the bureau who were known for their duty to subjugate and erase any guild that resists the bureau was very strong and feared but little people knew that behind the scenes, it was the empire’s scheme for having influence outside the Forgan empire, to be exact it was all the crown prince’s schemes’
************
With weeks the appearance of a black dragon began to spread throughout the Forgan empire, there was two thing Jon feared the most, number one was the guild-bureau and number two was the fact that the news about the appearance of the black dragon might attract the attention of other dragons who have been staying hidden for ages, this second fear was brought to his knowledge by the dragon freak Cualli who spent most of his time with Azes, in one of the dungeons owned by the guild.
"I’m sorry I won’t be able to go with you guys"
"It’s okay..." Arnette replied.
"But don’t you have to see your father?"
"I do, he has been calling for me for awhile now, I plan to visit the Belmont’s territory before finally leaving to the central artic." Arnette said.
"no no no no no, I want to go to!!!" Kat kept crying.
"Kat, I promise to find our lord and bring him home to you, do you understand... you have to stay here and protect his friends" Ben said.
Kat’s expression changed, "I get it, stop lecturing me idiot, why don’t you stay and protect master’s friend you shithead"
Jon broke a sweat, "why does she sound a lot like Reinard"
Sigrid, Arnette, Natasha (which was a surprise to Jon) Azes, Braschiold, Cualli and Luisa (the lady Arnette saved from the third union), were the search party that was going to bring home Rein.
"We won’t return home until we find Rein" Arnette promised Jon.
All of them individually sighed, Arnette was a brilliant blockhead and he meant his words.
