Unsealing Emptiness

While when Ozul was just walking towards Clara, he had noticed the overwhelming emotions that she directed towards him, but no one knew that he could sense emotions, so he just had to act like he saw nothing.

He had seen the same emotions from other women too, and he just dismissed them as her admiring him. However, he could not guess how much of an annoyance this would cause him in the future.

He had also noticed how the girl was about to run after him, so he increased his pace, making Raven and Blaze wonder what had happened. But they dismissed this as Ozul trying to avoid the trouble of going through the questioning.

After walking for about a minute, they had already left the commotion behind them. The trio also noticed city guards rushing towards that site.

It seemed that security was tight around the city since only a minute had passed, and the guards were already on the location.

This efficiency just displayed the disparity between any other cities and the Capital city of Silverbird Kingdom.

.....

Walking a little further, Ozul saw the big three-story tall building with a sign on the front that announced that this was one of the Headquarters of the Mercenary Guild.

The Mercenary Guild was not limited to the Silverbird Kingdom; they had their main Headquarters somewhere else while branch headquarters were settled across different nations.

This branch’s head was only a Rank-8 Mage. But it was rumored that the most powerful person in the Mercenary Guild was not a Rank-9, but a Rank-10 entity!

Hence even when they had set their branch Headquarters across the continent, the leading person that was stationed was never better than the Monarch of that said nation.

This move of the Mercenary Guild had made everyone in the continent know that they would remain neutral.

The trio did not waste any more time and just entered through the front door. They had already seen many Mercenaries roaming around the area.

Silver Rank Mercenaries were a common sight while they could also occasionally see the Gold Rank ones.

Once they entered the Guild building, everyone was busy with their tasks, and no one had the time to care about the new faces. It seemed that people here were even more efficient than in other cities.

This sight made Ozul feel a little better as he observed everyone on the 1st floor.

As usual, there was a big board that had many documents pinned on them while a bartender stood behind the bar. However, this time, the bartender was just serving the drinks while a female worker acted as the guide.

Then he saw the round tables set up for the Mercenaries to sit and relax a bit. Most of them drank together with their teammates while others planned the next task that they would take.

The atmosphere also wasn’t as loud as it was in the branch of Sester city. Maybe it was because a Rank-8 Mage looked over everyone? Ozul did not dwell on these questions for long and went straight towards the female staff that had short blonde hair while she also wore glasses.

The trio noticed that she was probably around a Rank-5 Mage too. No matter what your Rank as a Fighter is, if you’re not a Mage, you will probably be put in the bottom of the hierarchy.

So people with essential positions are always Mages.

When the trio came before the counter, the woman with the glasses looked up from her documents, and her cold face instantly melted when she looked at Blaze.

“H-how can I help YOU?!”- It seemed that the woman lost her cool and shouted out loud.

Only when everyone on the first floor had their attention towards them did the woman realize her blunder and put her hands on her mouth while looking down embarrassedly.

Most men who looked at the woman’s blushing face started glaring daggers at Blaze, who was unperturbed by the events.

‘This woman has not even looked at Master, hmph!’

Blaze only had contempt for this woman while everyone else was thinking of how smug this cyan haired man would be feeling right now since he was able to make even the stone-faced Lucy blush!

Ozul’s face was indeed covered with the pointed hat which he had created after the earlier incident of assassination.

After a few seconds, everything calmed down while people only talked in whispers about this incident.

“Pst... did you see that? Lucy blushed!”

“Of course, I saw that you idiot! How could I miss it when everyone else did not?!”

“Hmph! We can’t be sure that Lucy blushed because of that guy!...”

. . .

The trio, of course, remained indifferent to all the whispers while the woman who everyone called Lucy also managed to calm herself down and regained her previously calm demeanor.

But if anyone were to look deeply, they would notice the slight redness that was still present on her cheeks.

At this moment, Blaze took out the letter and placed it on the counter. When Lucy noticed the Mercenary Guild’s seal on it, she quickly picked up the letter and began to read all the content in it.

Her expressions kept changing and after she had read everything, Lucy again lost her control as she shouted;

“You’re the one who helped Duke Edwin in defending against that vicious evil monster!?”

These words again quietened down the room, and everyone stared intensely at the trio. Ozul sensed myriads of emotions detected towards them, which mostly contained jealousy since they were still only Silver Rank Mercenaries and had gotten such fame.

Ozul narrowed his eyes at these words.

‘That Rufus guy was not so dull after all.’- Ozul quickly assessed that this situation must be Rufus’s ‘revenge’ against him.

He had annoyed Rufus so much that in turn, Rufus announced that his group of three had helped Duke Edwin defend against the Monster!

Since no one was present at the scene to refute this claim, everyone just believed the words from the Chief Leader of Silver Knights.

Rufus wanted nothing more than to annoy Ozul since the latter had done the same to him. People might not know, but he was quite a petty person.

However, Rufus had made a big mistake to think that Ozul did not want attention towards himself. On the contrary, Ozul wanted to have some fame for the start of his plan!

If Rufus had not done this, Ozul would’ve had to find another method to increase their group’s reputation.

“Follow me upstairs. We will talk further in the office.”- Again, only when everyone had their attention on them did Lucy realize that she had lost her cool.

But she did not get embarrassed this time and coolly led the trio upstairs.

Everyone in the room kept staring at the trio and Lucy, which would have made just about anyone uncomfortable, but the trio all had indifferent faces.

When they reached the office on the 2nd floor, Lucy opened the door for the trio to walk in as she followed behind them.

In the room stood a man with short brown combed hair. Ozul did not need to examine him to know that the man was a Rank-7 Mage and probably a Rank-7 Fighter as well.

“Vice Guild Master Emory, they are the trio who had helped Duke Edwin with defending against the Monster.”

Lucy bowed towards the person, and after getting the nod from the man, she went in the back and stood there silently.

As usual, without waiting for anyone to ask them to sit, Ozul took a seat, followed by Raven and Blaze.

Both Lucy and Emory narrowed their eyes at Ozul since, in their eyes, he only appeared to be a regular human.

“We know that you guys may have found this sudden notice of summoning a little forceful, but the Guild Master had given direct orders, I couldn’t disobey,”- Emory said with an amiable smile on his face.

While he would appear friendly to anyone else, Ozul knew better than to trust that fake smile of his.

“Why are we here?”- Blaze asked after receiving the signal from Ozul.

“Oh, nothing to be worried about~. Since you guys had obtained so many merits fighting together with Duke Edwin, Guild Master had ordered me to promote you guys to Gold Rank.”

“Oh, just that?”- Blaze asked in an uninterested tone like the promotion to Gold Rank was not even related to him.

“Of course not! You will also obtain many benefits...”- Emory was about to explain all the perks of becoming a Gold Rank Mercenary, but Blaze intervened in the middle;

“We don’t want to hear all that nonsense. Just tell me what do we have to do for the promotion?”- Blaze asked with a bored face.

This irked Emory, but much to his displeasure, he couldn’t do anything about it.

“...You just have to come here tomorrow, and some trainers will test your capabilities. If you qualify, you will receive your Gold Rank badge.”

“Is that so? Okay. We will take our leave then...”