Loitering around in the guildhall, the time passed slowly as it finally reached four. During the time frame of waiting, Roy silently sat by the corner whilst Orelia and Damian were sitting at one table, reading tarot cards.
"Orelia, is this really necessary?" Damian blinked at the cards laid out in front of him on the table.
"Well~ It's not like we have anything better to do!" Orelia chuckled. "Come, come, let me just play around for a bit."
"Uhuh..." he nodded his in doubt as he moved over towards the three cards laid out on the table. Soon after, his hand moved forward over towards one of the cards as he opened, revealing that of an upright [Death].
"An upright huh? The meanings of ending and change."
"..." Moving his hand over towards the second card, he flipped it, quickly revealing the arcana card of an upright [The Hanged Man].
"Oho? Another upright? The meanings of transitions and patience, sometimes sacrifice."
"..." Finally he moved his hand over towards the last card, revealing that of a reversed [Strength].
"Hmm... the act of giving up care for one's being, action and instinct huh?" Orelia nodded her head.
"...Orelia, this makes no sense," Damian sighed.
"Hehe, you'll understand when the time comes!" she smiled. "Though, it might not always be accurate." Moving her hands over the tarot cards, she slides them all into a deck, quickly tucking it away. "Now then~ It's four now. Where on earth is Balmar?"
"He should be back by now... it's already a quarter of four," Roy said in an unsure tone.
"Sigh... then we wait till five then?" Aina sighed.
"Mhm~ Then Aina, Roy allow me to read your future!" Orelia said happily.
"Hey- You didn't explain whatever those cards mean..." Damian helplessly said.
"But I did~ It's up to you to interpret it!" Orelia chuckled. "Unless you pay me 500 Fiol~ But as my wonderful student, you shall receive a 50% discount, so 250 Fiol!"
"Orelia... aren't you scamming me?" Damian blinked at the statement.
"Of course not, my predictions and interpretation are but the topmost accurate!" she said firmly. "Don't you know? Everyone from the entire country wants in on my readings!"
"...okay, not a scammer. A con artist."
"Hey! This is legit work~" she said. "Besides, I did say that my readings are mostly accurate right? So what do you say?"
"...is that how you treat a student?" he sighed in disbelieve. "And you said 'mostly', so it's not 100% true, not is it?"
"Well, the future can change no?"
"Yep. Definitely a con artist."
"Hey!"
"Aha, well she's not the 'Con Artist', but the 'Arcana Fortuna." Whilst the two were conversing with one another, they heard a sudden voice coming from the entrance. Soon after, footsteps rang through the floors.
Turning towards the direction, their eyes opened wide as they saw two figures making their way over to the group. One was that of a brown-haired man who had a handlebar moustache, while the other was a red-haired man who seemed to have a lean build, from behind his back was a large greatsword.
"Oh look at who finally decided to show up!" Orelia said.
"Sorry for the late arrival." The brown-haired man laughed awkwardly. "I had to fetch someone from Brime, and then... Laurence kept me busy."
"Sigh... so you did drink, huh?" Aina shook her head.
"Hey, it was only just a little!" he said. "But in any case, were you all waiting for me?"
The one who was speaking was none other than the guild master of the Yumin Branch, Balmar Rong.
"Obviously. We wouldn't be bored out of our minds if we weren't waiting for you," Damian said.
"Sorry, sorry. I tried to get this guy to move, but it ended up being this late..." From beside Balmar, the red-haired man spoke.
"Could have probably tried a little harder," he shrugged in reply. "You're big, Xan. You can just drag him like how Orelia drags Fei everywhere."
Xander Blane, the childhood friend of Fei, as well as Damian who had come to Yumin later. Though, unlike Fei, they weren't as close.
"Come on, I have to keep some face for him!" Xander exclaimed. "Where's Fei anyways, is she lost somewhere?"
"Fei? She's dead asleep," he shrugged. "She should be coming down now since you've arrived."
"Really?" he excitedly smiled, quickly he hid by the entrance that led to the second floor. "She's sleeping in the vacant rooms, right? Hehe. I'll surprise her."
Moments later, footsteps tread down the stairs as a brown-haired girl was seen yawning. "...Orelia, you called me... but where are they-" Suddenly, she quickly interrupted was a silhouette of a man moving in front of her.
"Boo!" Xander instantly appeared before Fei.
"Agh...!" Fei jumped back at the sight from Xander. "Xan?!"
"Pfft... you should've seen that look on that face!" he laughed.
"You... it's not funny," she pouted. "You almost made me fell!"
"Aha... sorry, I just couldn't resist," he continued to laugh. "How are you doing, Fei?"
"Great until you scared me like that!" she answered angrily. "...but, at least you're finally back after months!"
"It's good to be back," he smiled, quickly moving back towards the group.
"Great, great, a happy reunion~" Orelia clapped her hand happily. "But we got overdue business to do!" Quickly, she took out two items which seemed blank cards.
"Huh? What's that?" she tilted her head at the sight. "You had us waiting for your arcana cards??"
"Nope, nothing of that sort," she turned to Balmar as she nodded her head. "Ahem~ Balmar, would you finally do the honours of activating them?"
"Right, right, will do," Balmar took the blank cards from Orelia as he quickly infused a white aura of mana onto it. The moment he did so, the card slightly shook, as the symbol of the guide soon appeared. "Here, you two take one each." Turning to Fei and Damian, he gave them the cards respectively.
"What's this?" Fei blinked at the card in her hand.
"It's your guild identification cards! You'll be using this a lot for registering completed jobs into your rank as well as identifying your status as a guild ranker," Balmar explained. "It's empty right now, but once you infuse your mana in, it'll be yours!"
"Wait... registering completed jobs into your rank?" she raised her brow. "What do you mean?"
"It means no paperwork is needed to be done on Balmar and Aina's side when it comes to a job completion," Roy stated. "I'm sure they're overjoyed."
"Haha, of course. Paperwork is just a pain! It's so much better with this thing, gets rid of plenty of burdens!" Balmar said happily.
"Uhuh. Says the one who hasn't touched his paperwork in ages," Aina glared at Balmar.
"...cough. I do them! You just never noticed..." he sighed.
"You're hopeless, Balmar, you know that right?" Damian shook his head helplessly.
"Ouch... give a man a break will you?" he cried out.
"In any case, all we have to do is use mana on this card?" Completely ignoring Balmar's cry, he turned to Roy and asked.
"Yes, that's all needed to be done. you just need to link your mana to the card, and the phenomena of 'Mana-linkage' will work its magic for you," Roy answered.
"Right," he nodded his head. Momentarily after, a dark aura protruded out from his palm, quickly seeping into the blank card.
[ Damian Lin ]
Element: Abyss
Guild Branch: Yumin Guild Branch
Rank: E
...
Moments later, on the card itself, details of his name, element, guild branch and rank began to appear. Alongside that, his face could be seen right beside his name.
"...?!" Fei eyed Damian's card in shock. "Cool!" Without wasting time, she quickly mimick the same thing as what Damian had done.
[ Fei Lin ]
Element: Wind
Guild Branch: Yumin Guild Branch
Rank: E
...
"Done!" Fei cheered. "Now, can someone tell me what the heck identification is this for? Seems useless when we have our badges for identification..."
"Well, Fei, the badge is used for identifying your status as a guild ranker, but... for a more thorough identification, we use the ID," Orelia explained. "It's much convenient anyways since it reveals your element and rank in the case you need to show proof for a job's requirement."
"Yeah. And not to mention the less paperwork you have to do!" Balmar cheered. "Just imagine, you submitting your job in, and then you automatically gain the required points and go through rank-up easily~ Ah, the life of automation and mana!"
"You're just happy you don't have to write more than you have to," Damian scoffed. "Well... not like you write much in the first place."
"Ahem, in any case! I have yet sent my congratulations to you two, now have I?" Balmar smiled. "Welcome to the guild, you two! We're so happy to have you!"
"Yep~ Congrats you two!" Xander cheered. "Now you can work your way towards that dream you've been aiming for since a kid, huh?"
"Yes! To be an S-Ranker, here we go!" she jumped in excitement.
"How enthusiastic, my lovely daughter is dreaming big!" The voice of Kruz resounded from behind Fei. "I'm so proud~!"