Ms. Emilia and President Talcot ended the hour-long press conference with reassurance.
Nathaniel hadn't said a lot, which was unusual for him, but he managed to keep his cool and maintained the position that the President should not take the whole blame. His presence alone did a lot to subside the concern for the safety of the hunters.
After the conference, Talcot and Emilia left to take care of the families. Talcot was hoping the support from the hunters who'd been healed by Faust could help soothe the grieve and anger of the deceased's family.
No one dared to pose the thought that perhaps Nathaniel had deliberately caused the event to boost his power but Faust could feel the growing speculations. After all, Nathaniel was also the one who'd caught the creature.
A few comments were made here and there on the internet and they were gaining momentum. Faust frowned, tempted to hire someone to bash down the comments before Nathaniel could see them and make a ruckus.
However, compared to retaliation, Faust had a better ally. He found Ms. Emilia's secretary still in Talcot's office, cleaning up the last few reports.
"We need a scapegoat," she said after he posed his concerns. Then, her lips twitched slightly upward. "That can be done. Leave it to me."
"No strings attached?" Faust asked hopefully.
"How unprofessional." She scoffed. "I'll tell you what I want when it's done."
Out of all the people in the world, only she knew his powers. She didn't know everything he could do but she knew that he could do a lot more than anyone else could imagine and that was enough for her. That way, if anything strange happened to Faust, she would be better prepared to deal with it.
Nobody knew her first name; they all knew her as Ms. Belyre and that name in the Cardinal Guild was very well respected for a variety of reasons.
Ms. Belyre knew everything she needed to know and she was at a place she was content with. Those two qualities of her made her Faust's closest ally because she had no reason to disclose his secret.
"Will I see a headline tomorrow?" Faust asked.
"How early you want it?"
"It doesn't matter as long as Nate doesn't pick up on the speculations." Faust waved a hand dismissively. "Early enough to give me a day of peace."
She nodded. "I'll see what I can do." The papers clattered on the glass table as she straightened them.
Nathaniel had decided to stay in the Association a little longer. He looked a little angry last time Faust had seen him, which was only half an hour ago, and Faust presumed he was picking a fight down at the training center again.
As Faust left the office, he felt a chill. It was the same as before and naturally, he sneezed. And then the feeling was gone.
โฆPerhaps he was just cold, Faust thought. He laughed quietly at himself with a shake of his head and took the elevator down.
Since it was the same chill he'd felt when the giraffe had breathed down his neck, it seemed probable that the giraffe wanted to see him.
A few guards stood by the entrance and they let him in after he showed them his hunter's ID card.
The creature was placed behind a stronger barrier this time and blue light shimmered every now and then when the creature accidentally came in contact.
It'd returned to the shape of a giraffe.
Nathaniel's sword had impaled its body and there was nothing it could do besides sitting perfectly still to lessen the damage.
The giraffe then spoke to him. Its mouth didn't move and the sound was projected directly to his head. It was a deep voice, perhaps even lower than that of the Dark Dragon.
Faust couldn't understand the words but he remembered hearing something similar in tone spoken by the satyr from the first white gate.
"What do you want?" he asked.
There was nothing vicious about its appearance but Faust could not dismiss the eerie chill he felt when he met its eyes.
It didn't speak again. Instead, with a hoof, it pushed a small piece of metal over the barrier. Faust picked it up as it skidded to a stop by his shoes.
It was a small white ring. There was nothing engraved or embedded but an ominous shudder traveled through his body as the cold metal touched his palm.
"...Is this an engagement ring?" Faust asked eventually.
The giraffe jerked back as if disgusted and spoke again. It seemed to be annoyed that Faust couldn't understand.
"I will keep this," Faust decided. "I think I know what you want to say but until you've learned how to speak our language, I won't make any moves. That's the least you can do after killing three of our hunters."
It laughed condescendingly at his airy threat.
Faust wasn't afraid of the creature before him but he was afraid of the ring that was now in his pocket. A surge of power had washed over him and it was so frighteningly powerful that he'd almost accepted it out of human nature.
What stopped him was his confusion. That creature was barely a tenth of the power in the ring. Why would it have something so powerful in its possession and why did it give the ring to him instead of using it itself?
Faust didn't want to go against a schemer because he wasn't good at using his brain. He left the brawn to Nathaniel and the brain to Ms. Belyre. That was why he loved hunting, a brainless, brawn-less well-paying work that occasionally demanded he went out of his comfort zone to greet reporters.
But since the event with the creature five hours ago, the public had demanded a temporary halt on the opening of white gates until they've figured out a better safety precaution.
Leaving the creature's prison, Faust spent the next few hours watching Nathaniel fight until it was dusk. And then Nathaniel was invited to dinner with the instructors and a few higher-ups, presumably to go over what happened today.
The center's light began to dim when it was almost eight o'clock and by then only a few hunters remained. They were all instructors and by and by, the guild recruiters seated near Faust lost interest and began to leave as well, closing their notebooks and shaking hands with the other poachers.
Faust sat for a little longer, waiting patiently.
The sanitation worker entered a bit past nine when it was completely dark outside and there was only one hunter left on the floor, training his stamina and speed by dodging and racing against the simulations.
Faust watched as the man leaped into the air, his feet breaching the height where the walls began to slant into a dome, and dropping like an arrow onto the floor as the blue silhouette of a simulated creature shot flames at him.
"You're leaving later than usual," one of the workers said when the hunter finally shut off the simulator and wiped his face with a towel. The worker handed him a bottle of water.
"Sorry for delaying your schedule," the man said, smiling a bit awkwardly as he realized the time.
"Not at all." The worker smiled pleasantly. "Have a good night, Mr. Fernsby."
"Call me Collin."
The worker hurriedly shook his head. "I'm not a hunter."
Hunters greeted each other by their first name because it was a special accommodation as a hunter. Between a hunter and a civilian, however, there was still the formality of last names. That was why reporters would call Nathaniel 'Mr. Whitman' but most hunters, even ones they'd never met, would call him Mr. Nathaniel.
Faust found it a bit troublesome to balance respect and tradition so he resorted to not calling their names at all.
Collin was leaving the training center when he stopped at the door and turned around to look directly across the room at Faust. Faust knew his brother had spotted him long before but neither had said anything for the duration.
"Aren't you coming?" the man asked curtly. "If you wanted to talk to me, you could've just asked."
Would you have agreed? Faust thought wearily.
He shook his head and replied, "I'm waiting for something." Any other day Faust would've grabbed the opportunity to talk with his brother, but today, he had something to do.
The giraffe had been breathing down his neck for the past few hours as he waited patiently for Collin to finish. It'd finally relented and spoke to him in a language he knew. The creature wanted to show him the power of the ring and in exchange, he would help the giraffe retrieve something.
By now, Faust more or less knew what the ring could do.
"Nobody else can get in once the workers shut the gate," Collin reminded him. "Don't be stubborn. Come along."
"Collin, I'm glad to see you but I'm not here for you today."
"Then what are you here for?" Collin narrowed his eyes. However, before Faust could reply, his brother nodded and shrugged. "Fine. Do whatever you want."
The man closed the door behind him and left.
After waiting a few minutes, Faust took out the ring from his pocket and slid it on. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Tell me what to do."
๐๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ, the giraffe scoffed.
Of all the words it could've learned, the creature seemed to have equipped itself with the more casual dialogues. Faust's eye twitched but he took off the ring and laid it on his palm.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ, the giraffe said. ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ. ๐๐ฐ, ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐บ๐ฆ๐ต! ๐๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ฌ ๐ช๐ต ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ถ๐ฑ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ.
Faust snapped its finger and summoned the ring back to his palm. It was a light-type object, which worked more or less like a weapon he could summon at will.
"Can you please not pause at misleading spots when you speak?" Faust chided.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐จ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ด. ๐๐ฐ๐ธ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ช๐ต.
Faust achieved it on the first try. As soon as the ring flew to the center, a large gate burst from the ring. White light spread from the center and drifted like smoke into oblivion at its edge. An oppressive feeling permeated the room but soon quieted down.
๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ช๐จ? the giraffe questioned.
"You said to picture a gate. The first white gate I went through looked something like this."
๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ง๐ข๐ต ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ช๐จ ๐จ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ?
Faust was a bit offended but he did agree with the giraffe's words. Perhaps it really was too big. The top of it was gently blowing white light at the high ceiling and the gate stood in the middle of the training center, blocking Faust's view of the doors behind.
Faust snapped his finger and the gate shrank in size.
๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ด๐ฏ๐ข๐ฑ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด? ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐บ.
"Snapping my fingers helps me end my thought," Faust replied. "And you speak a lot for a giraffe."
He leaped onto the floor of the training center and stood before the smaller gate that was just a bit taller than him.
"Where will this gate open to?" he asked, reaching a hand to gingerly touch the gate.
๐๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ. ๐ ๐ฅ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐น ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ. ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ท๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐น.
"Vulders?"
๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ'๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฃ๐ช๐ต๐ด. ๐๐ด๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐น ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ต. ๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ซ๐ถ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฒ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ, ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฃ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ.
"What if I trade them your dead body?"
๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ธ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข. ๐๐ณ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ ๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด? ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ, ๐ช๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐น ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ด๐ข๐ง๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ, ๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.
Faust was interested. "What kind of something?"
๐ ๐ด๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด, the giraffe said proudly. ๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ด.