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Section 1
Last edited by s7715810 on 2012-8-28 23:36
Chapter Index
Chapter One Going Home
Chapter Two The Clan Wiped Out
Chapter Three Training
Chapter Four The Long Journey
Chapter Five Joining the Guild
Chapter Six Jieduo
Chapter Five Joining the Guild
The Silver Lion Guild had been founded more than two hundred years ago. Its founder was a man of extraordinary swordsmanship, whom later generations revered as the Sword Saint. His name was unknown. All that was known was that he had close ties to the royal house of the Kingdom of Autler, and so the royal family held the Silver Lion Guild in high regard and let it grow as it pleased.
By the present day, the Silver Lion Guild's strength was renowned across the Sacred Continent. It stood among the top three guilds on the continent. The talents it had taken in were beyond counting, and every one of them was a remarkable figure, often praised by those who came after.
Reis and Leah had not searched long before they reached the Silver Lion Guild's headquarters. Before them stood a classical building. It was not grand, not splendid, not imposing. What it had was a plain, old-fashioned look. The front might as well have been a somewhat large tavern.
"This is the Silver Lion Guild…"
Reis said it with his heart sinking a notch.
"It can't be."
Leah said it just as gloomily.
The two of them stepped inside together, and a thick reek of liquor came at them. It really was a tavern!!
The inner hall was broad, lined with long wooden tables and long benches. Men and women who looked like ruffians sat drinking and laughing. The atmosphere was lively in the extreme, and strange in the extreme.
Reis nearly fainted. This was the strongest guild? How could it look like a commoner's tavern, far coarser in style than any high-class bar?
He felt dizzy.
"Ah, Reis, are you all right?"
Leah caught him at once.
"No, I'm fine. We should find the registration desk and get certified as members first."
"This… is there one here?"
Reis looked around the whole place. There was only the bar.
"Who's in charge of the Silver Lion Guild!!"
Reis suddenly roared. The men and women in the room all froze, every one of them staring at Reis with odd looks. A moment later, they went back to their noise.
"Damn it, what kind of place is this."
"You two—are you new members here to check in?"
All at once, a pleasant woman's voice came from behind Reis. He turned to look. Standing before him was a woman with black hair curled and falling to her waist. Her bright eyes shone like gems. Her nose had a slight hook to it, and her red lips were full of allure, enough to make a man want to step forward and kiss her.
Her clothes were light and elegant. Beneath her long skirt a pair of calves showed. She was not tall, but full-breasted and narrow-waisted, rich with feminine beauty.
"Y-yes."
Reis nearly forgot why he had come. She was simply too tempting.
"Mm. Come this way, please."
She smiled sweetly and led Reis to the bar. The man working behind it, the moment he saw the black-curled woman, grinned lecherously and tried to send her a look full of charm. It did nothing.
"Yo, Frelia, free today?"
The bartender said it lightly, flirtatiously.
"No."
Frelia answered, cool and flat.
"Oh, how disappointing… Huh? The young lady behind you is beautiful too… Oh, no, I mean she's a stranger. That's what I meant."
The bartender noticed Leah at once. Hearing it beside her, Reis was about to lose his mind. This male bartender couldn't be the registrar, could he.
"Roa, enough chatter. These two are new members here to check in. Register them."
"Oh, so they're newcomers. Fine. First, take out your proof of admission."
Reis nearly shouted. So this bartender really was the registrar!
So the two of them produced their proof of admission. It was a letter.
"Mm, it's real. The guild master really does know how to pick people. To think he'd pick such a beautiful young lady. So your name is Leah Vels. Tsk tsk, what a fine name, Miss Leah."
"Roa!"
Frelia said it, her face darkening.
"Yes, yes, sorry. The moment I see a beauty I forget what I'm doing. Your proofs of admission have been verified. Genuine articles. Then the two of you are officially members of our Silver Lion Guild~ Congratulations."
Then Roa took two silver lapel pins from under the bar. Each pin was engraved with a single star, and nothing else special.
"Let me explain the rules to you first. What the Silver Lion Guild values most is cooperation and unity among members…"
Reis began listening to a pile of rules. The whole thing took a full five minutes. It really was long enough.
"So everyone still ought to love and cherish one another, hehe. Last is the explanation of ranks. The Silver Lion Guild is divided into nine ranks, which is to say nine stars. You are now one-star members, and the benefits and privileges you enjoy are the smallest. If you want more benefits, take promotion quests. That's all. I hope you enjoy yourselves here, hehe. Miss Leah, are you free today?"
"I…"
"Don't bully the newcomers. Reis, Leah, welcome. If you run into any problem, you can come find me. I'll answer you."
"Mm. Then we can go now?"
"You can."
Stepping out of the Silver Lion Guild, Reis breathed again that faint sea-scented air. Compared with the drunken reek of liquor inside the tavern, the air outside was far better.
"Leah, where do you plan to stay?"
"This… all the money I brought was robbed by bandits. For now I don't even know where I ought to stay. The Silver Lion Guild does have rooms reserved for members, but you have to be four stars or above to use them. This is really awful."
"Don't worry. If you don't mind, stay with me."
"Really?"
"Mm. I plan to buy a small house here. It should be enough for two people."
"Thank you, truly, Reis."
"Don't mention it. We're friends."
In truth, what Reis was thinking just then was how to turn Leah into a sex slave. A priest who could heal, living under the same roof—when he was hurt on guild quests there would be someone to tend him, and there could be plenty of hehe and panting besides. It really was too perfect.
In the days they had spent together, Reis had learned that Leah was a kind-hearted, gentle-looking girl. So long as he could win her favor, the hehe ought not to be hard, and with his demonic charm on top of that, a girl this innocent would be his for the taking, wouldn't she?
"Reis, you're smiling in a really wicked way."
Leah had noticed Reis wearing a lewd grin as he spoke.
"Ah, am I? I've always been like this."
Reis spent several thousand gold coins in the city of Badelo and bought a small house. The two of them were settled at last. Next came the plan to make Leah his slave.
That day Reis and Leah went together to the Silver Lion Guild to take a quest. There was nothing special about how one took a quest: find Roa and apply to undertake it. Once it was finished there were merit points and money as reward. When the merit points reached a set standard and one passed a promotion quest, one could advance in rank.
Yet Reis had not expected that even a one-star quest would be this hard. Again and again it was slay the chief of some ferocious monster, or else deal with some extremely wicked wanted criminal. According to the materials provided, these quests were all judged by the state to be A-rank level, the sort even some veteran mercenaries would not take lightly. Reis had not imagined that in the Silver Lion Guild a one-star member's quests were these. Then what were four-star quests?
What about seven-star quests?
What about nine-star quests?
"Well? Picked one yet?"
Roa said it, a little pressing.
"I… haven't picked yet…"
"Hehehe, Reis. Long time no see."
Just as Reis was flipping through the quest book, a familiar woman's voice came from behind him. That voice, full of confidence and arrogance—Reis would never forget it. It was her.
Aemilia. A woman who always walked ahead of him. A victor he could never catch.
"What a coincidence."
Reis turned to look at her. Those heroic eyes of hers had not changed. She always looked at you with the smile of victory, and that had left Reis stifled for a long time. There was nothing he could do about her either. In looks and in figure she was beauty of the first order, a body all curves, that chest forever on the verge of bursting her clothes, forever tempting. He badly wanted to seize it in one hand and take it into his mouth. Just thinking of that soft, springy flesh in his grip was enough to send blood surging to his groin and raise the flag.
A mind smarter than other people's, magic superior to other people's—this was the thought Reis had when he envied this beauty.
"It isn't a coincidence. I came into the Silver Lion Guild on purpose."
"What? Then you turned down the invitation from the Wings of Judgment?"
"Yes."
Why?
The question rose in Reis's mind. The Wings of Judgment were the strongest guild on this continent, and she had actually refused an invitation from a guild that powerful, a guild tens of thousands of people dreamed of entering. She had refused?!
"No need to be shocked. Because it's a guild of another country, so I didn't want to join. And I just happened to learn that you were entering the Silver Lion Guild, so I came in on purpose to say one thing to you."
Reis swallowed a mouthful of saliva and waited, intent, for what this proud beauty before him was about to say. What did she have to say to him?
"And that is… you will always be a dog tagging along at my heels!"
Everyone in the tavern looked toward this beautiful girl. No one had expected that she, only eighteen years old, would say something so insulting. The whole place went dead silent.
Hearing it, Reis was both furious and heartbroken. He thought back to when he had first entered Saint Prolo Academy. He was always bullied, always cursed at, called a tagalong dog, a stupid pig, an idiot, all because he had come to know her.
Aemilia. His first good friend, and the first girl he had fallen in love with.
All of it, every bit of it, came down to one mistake. He and she had broken apart.
To be continued.