This time he knocked on the door. A voice filtered from inside the room. The voice was low pitched but was still undeniably female. "Enter."
"Do not be nervous," Lashfen said comfortingly as he pushed open the door.
The interior of the room was bright, seeing as there were close to four windows in the room. The blinds were open, showering the room with light rings of light.
"Maria." He called out after he was room.
After their eyes had gotten used to the light in the room, the first thing that Almathea noticed was the woman who was seated behind a large mahogany desk. She was stunningly gorgeous. Her hair was long, and she had allowed it to fall over her shoulders in curly gray waves. When she looked up, the monocle she was wearing over her left eye slightly glinted in the light of the sun.
Her eyes were a chocolate brown and her lashes were long. "What is it Lashfen?" She went back to the pile of documents that were seated upon her desk upon realizing that it was him in her office. "I see that you have brought children with you today. Is it bring your child to work day?"
Lashfen shook his head, "To begin with, I do not have children." She leafed her fingers through five sheets of paper and they burned to ashes before looking up at the three children who had walked into the room with her secretary.
"Looking at them once more, they do look nothing like you." She turned once more to the children. "Children, how have you bribed my secretary into bringing you into my office? He usually doesn't like snotty bratty children."
"Maria." He chastised her over her use of words.
As if she did not care, she shrugged her shoulders and muttered, "those were your words you know. Why are you acting as if they are not?"
Lashfen chuckled. "The reason I am here is that these children want to register their identification with our guild." His words caused the woman to look up from her work.
Her eyebrows scrunched up slightly, "I hope they at least have the necessary documents. With the rise in the second-born cases, we cannot simply register anyone anymore. It would be difficult to pull ourselves out of such a situation if they were discovered to be second borns in their families." She placed her pen down as she spoke, and placed her hands together.
"They do not have the documents," Lashfen spoke up for them.
"Then why…"
"They are orphans. They traveled from the North, up from the Vekshir border."
Maria raised a brow. "The Vekshir border?" she tilted her head, "Orphans?" She repeated.
Then she looked at Almathea, standing a little bit in front of the other two. Her red eyes were somewhat unnerving. "You have a beautiful pair of eyes girl." She said in passing. This child, although she was in front of someone who was higher in rank than she was, did not look even the slightest bit frightened. If anything, it seemed like she was ready to fight them if they refused to assist them.
Was it her posture? Or was it her eyes? Maria could not place her finger on it.
"Do none of you have last names?" Maria finally asked. "Before you answer that, I can detect whether you are lying or not. Your answer will determine whether or not I will take you into the guild and assist you to register your identification."
Almathea turned to Evy and Zingel. Zingel was still taking his time trying to understand what it is Maria was saying, while Evy's eyes were wide. She was nervous, Almathea could tell. Evy was the strongest one out of the three of them.
From their interactions, she could tell that she was also the one who knew the most about the world. Thanks to her, they had managed to live out in the wild, and it was also thanks to her that Almathea knew that to live in their kingdom, they needed identification. Almathea would have been completely lost without them. That thought made her take a step forward and hid them behind her.
"Evy and Zingel are orphans, so they have no last names. I had promised to give them my last name as we registered. We promised that we would be each other's family."
The woman, Maria, raised a brow upon hearing her words. She tilted her head slightly, and gave her a small smile, "I see, then what is your last name?"
Almathea hesitated, but she still went on to speak, "I am called Almathea Vermillion. My whole family was killed in the monster attack up North. I believe I am the only one still alive."
Upon hearing her last name, both Maria and Lashfen widened their eyes. The Vermillion family was in no way a large family. However, they were a noble family. The two high-ranking members of the guild had made an effort to learn about all the noble families in the kingdom. The Vermillion family was one of them.
The family itself was a countryside noble family, thus, there wasn't much talk of them in high society. However, it was an open secret that they were the family used to barricade the north since they were one of the few countryside nobles who were able to use magic. However, they had all perished a few weeks prior due to a monster attack.
There wasn't much known about the child born to the Vermillion family, apart from the fact that she was female. Her father had gone to great lengths to hide her from high society.
Lashfen laughed out loud. It all made sense. How she had such an imposing posture, and how she looked down upon him subconsciously. It was all because she was a noble's child. The only logical explanation would be that she had run away once their mansion was attacked. Maybe along the way, she picked up the two other children who had also survived when monsters attacked their orphanage.
He turned his head to the woman seated behind the chair and raised a brow as if asking her what she thought.