At the door outside of the adventurers guild, Sieghart knocks on the door while Lira and Jinrah are helping a number of lower rank adventurers to fend off the Kruule knights.
"Guild Master! It's Sieghart! Let us in!" He shouted after banging on the door a few times.
The door was then opened by the receptionist and pointed them to the reception hall where the guild master is waiting.
"The Guild Master is in the reception hall. Along with the other adventurers. This way."
Sieghart was directed to the reception hall while David was instructed to carry Eileen to the healing room. The guild master goes up from his seat and approaches Sieghart.
"Where in the world did you guys go? And what happened to Eileen?" Said with a passive and aggresive tone.
"A lot has happened just outside the city... Explaining everything in detail might take a lot of time, Master Elric..." Sieghart spoke in a submissive manner.
The guild master let out a short sigh of disappointment before agreeing about what Sieghart said.
"Fine, we will hold your personal issues later. For now, let's focus ourselves on the current situation. You should be aware of what's happening outside. There are some explosions, screams and destruction."
"Yes." Sieghart politely nodded.
"During the sudden appearance of the Wither Bees in the capital, the adventurers summoned by the Queen's Call proved to be a great help to minimize the casualties back then. That spurred an idea from the Queen to form a contract with us."
Guild master Elric grabs a scroll and showed the content to Sieghart. A content of approval that says of an allegiance between Reilaean knights and adventurers from the adventurers guild founded by guild master Elric.
"This contract will be effective until one of us decides to cut it. "In certain number of occasions such as a sudden mass enemy invasion, the adventurers that are Silver 1 and above will receive an emergency quest. "Queen's Call". The adventurers guild will be tasked to send every available adventurers to help defend the city against any form of threat that endangers the people and the Kingdom itself.""
One of the staff of the adventurers guild walks up to them, holding a pile of emergency requests made by the Queen herself.
"Every individual adventurers partaking in this quest must get a copy of this Emergency Quest letter. With this, you'll be able to receive an amount of gold depending on your contribution to the quest. The bigger the part you take, the bigger the amount of gold you'll get."
"Oh..." Sieghart's mouth fell open in astonishment. "Not even those gold hoggers will let something like this pass." He added.
"Indeed." Elric nodded in agreement. "It sounds too good to be true, but since the Queen herself is the one who suggested this idea, there's no way for it to be a sham. The Kingdom will have additional powerful forces, while the guild will collect gold from it. Both parties will be benefitting from this contract." The guild master nonchalantly smirked a little right after.
"Eh? The Kingdom and the Guild, you say...?" Sieghart's brows narrowed down because of the guild master's words. He was about to ask Elric about the words he told Sieghart, but a voice suddenly gets his attention.
"Lastly, adventurer Ronan Iveagh, Silver 1."
"Ooh!!"
Edle turns around to see five people around the Evaluation Hourglass and a receptionist, making a ruckus as one of them received the rank of Silver 1. The rank that which is eligible to join the Queen's Call.
The one who got the silver rank 1 sees Sieghart looking at them.
"Hey, hey! It's Sieghart Banderas! The Demon Slayer is looking at us!"
Sieghart nodded in response. Then the group began talking frantically at each other.
"He noticed me!"
"Wrong, he noticed us because we are being too loud."
"No, no, no it's obviously because Sieghart can see a potential with us and he'll take us to be his disciple!"
"Ha?!"
The five continued audibly arguing in the background while Sieghart asks their identities to the guild master.
"Master Elric? Who are those punks?" Sieghart spoke in an aggravated tone while sneering at the five new adventurers.
"You say that as if you're not a punk yourself."
"Eh?!"
Guild master Elric looks at the five and gestured at them to come to them. The five of them eagerly approached Sieghart and Elric. The one who got the silver rank 1 took this chance to stand in front of Sieghart and apologized.
"I'm sorry if we sounded like spoiled brats earlier. We were just excited to see the legendary adventurer who took down the demon alone 15 years ago!"
"Right! We look up to the legendary "Demon Slayer", Sieghart!"
"Yeah!!"
The other four followed suit.
"Ah... Ahaha..." Sieghart laughs awkwardly as he whispered to himself. "I've never seen someone so full of energy like these guys... Huh?"
At that moment, he felt the giant black sword he carries under the scabbard throbbing behind him. He turns around as if he's looking at something from the ceiling, the floor and the windows.
"What's wrong, Sir Sieghart?" the young adventurer asked the man. The moment Sieghart looks at him, the sword stopped from shaking. He was troubled after the sudden phenomenon.
"No, it's nothin-"
Suddenly, the sound of the door opening stopped Sieghart. The man who opened the door helped his companions as they carry two injured adventurers to the healing room.
After safely carrying the injured to the said room, the man went to the guild master to send a report.
"Master Elric... There's another group of Kruule knights charging in both from the southern and western side of the city. They are pushing us back."
"More, huh?" Sieghart responded.
Elric began rolling the scroll of contract between the guild and the Queen back.
"...I admit, the number of adventurers here are just a small fraction of a huge army." The guild master proceeds to pass on the scroll to one his staff. He then continues. "But, my guild is a home of adventurers who weighs more than every single individual."
The people inside the guild let out an awe-inspiring roar after Elric's statement. The guild master calls to Sieghart.
"Sieghart, you know what to do."
"Yes." His face grew serious. "We will drive back the enemy and return to the guild victorious!"
"Yeah!!"
Everyone followed with a loud roar.
...
Moments after Raiha and Raika hid Rose to the basement and went to run to the central district and eventually meeting Christa later on the way, Rose wakes up with pain still crawling inside her head.
"It hurts!" She grunted.
Rose takes her hand off of her head and began to look around. She later realized that she was inside their basement.
"Eh...? Why am I in the basement? Where's Raika and Mother... Ack!"
The ache in her head causes her to be in distress once again. But the second time it happened, a memory of her dream comes back to her.
Monsters hidden in the shadows killing everyone all around them, a towering pillar with a figure of a girl seemingly inside the mysterious structure, and a land in a sea of flames and blood.
"That dream..." She uttered.
She looked into her hand as she felt it was shaking vigorously. She then realized she was getting nervous about what she sees in her dream.
She proceeded to slap her face with both her hands hard enough to leave marks to her fair cheeks. "It's okay, something like that will never happen." She said to herself, knowing all too well that all of her dreams she talked about with Raiha all happened in real life.
She took a deep breath and out. "I need to get out of this basement for now."
Rose stands up, fixing her knee-length brown over white dress, her rose-pink hair that she combed with her fingers to make it fall behind her shoulders.
She began walking towards the stairs to the door. As she gets closer to the door with every step, she hears a faint sound of steel clashing into one another, although she couldn't recognize it because of how weak the sound is.
"What's that sound?" She asked herself.
She continued to move forward upstairs until she can reach the door and open it. The moment she does, the sound of swords and the voices of people roaring and screaming becomes clear.
Her body begins to tense up as she noticed that she's alone inside the Inn. There was no sign of anyone who were there earlier celebrating for the Prince. Not even her mother, Raiha and her little sister, Reika.
Even so, she gathered up the courage to approach the door to see what's happening outside.
From that one small hole in the middle of their door, she sticks one of her eyes to take a glance outside the Inn. And what she sees sends the feeling of terror down her spine.
A group of Reilaean knights and unknown soldiers in black armor were clashing with their swords. Exchanging every strike against each other.
"W-what's happening...?!" She muttered in a horrified tone. She remained still, peeking at the hole without moving an inch. Hoping that no one notice her hiding inside Inn.
But, there was a Reilaean knight and a black armored soldier fighting right to her point of view. During their fight, the Reilaean knight unfortunately lost after getting pierced by the enemy's sword.
"Raagh!!"
"Aahh!"
The knight died, but the black armored man did not stop. He pushes the lifeless Reilaean knight straight to the door of the Inn. Where Rose was peeking.
"...!"
Rose was alarmed as she sees the two charging towards the Inn. She takes a step back away and goes to a corner without regards to the tables she hits on her way.
Rose has her back on the wall, while in front of her is a black armored knight grinning maliciously as he pulls his sword from the poor Reilaean Knight. She tries to be quiet, hoping that the black armored man would go out of the Inn without noticing her.
However, one of the clay mugs that fell after she hit the tables slowly rolls down to the floor. The sound of it breaking caused Rose to yelp in panic. Giving the black armored knight a hint that she was in the corner.
Their eyes meet and Rose began tearing up.
"Die!"
"...!"
The man charges towards Rose with his sword ready to slice her. Rose grabbed a jar of pepper on the table near her and throws it at the man out of sheer panic. The man was in disarray as the pepper thrown at his face gets into his eyes and into his mouth.
Thanks to the jar of peppers, Rose was able to move further away from the man. However, that distraction did not last long as the black armored knight cleared his eyes and can now see where Rose was.
Rose once again found herself in a corner, looking at the man who were angered after what she had done to him. At that moment Rose is left without any option.
"Mama... Save me!"
A last cry for help. She closed her eyes as the man slowly approaches her. At the moment he raised his sword, at the very second he runs down his blade, a hand stood in the way his sword, protecting Rose's head in the process.
Rose gently opens her eyes and sees a dark red tunic in front of her. She turns her face forward and sees Christa's grinning at her.
"Yo! Glad you're awake!"