"You have got to be kidding me," reacted Orihime. "You mean the horrors of that old tale are still haunting you?"
Without having the time to argue for long, she grabbed Kazuya by the hand and drew him along. They both crossed the street and got into the building. The gates to the building were wide open, signifying that the mage within was already hard at work.
They both got into the guild, and the duo instantly felt like they were part of an old fairy tale. Magic was indeed the bread and butter of those who lived in the guild. Around them, they could see items floating across the hall and children levitating on brooms.
Ahead of them, they could see a young lady seated at a large table, and they guessed she was the receptionist of the guild. So they both walked over to her to ask questions.
Orihime walked ahead of Kazuya to the table to see the person. The young girl looked before her and saw two strangers standing there. "Good morning," she said to them, "my name is Genta." Welcome to the Sentient Hunter's Guild. "What can I do for you?"
"We are looking for the head of the guild, the one who specializes in verminous stealth magic," Orihime said to her.
"Why do you wish to see the master of the guild?" Genta asked.
"We have a special request for her—one that can only be granted by her," Orihime replied.
"Alright, I am now going to book an appointment for you to meet her; give me a moment," she said, putting forth a large book and a quilt.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Orihime. "Can't we see her now?"
"I'm sorry, but she is a very busy person," Genta replied.
"You have got to be kidding me," replied Orihime. "How busy can a Mage get that she cannot have a meeting with us anytime soon?"
"She is the master of a guild, ma'am," replied Genta.
"That is all the more reason why she is supposed to be free!" replied Orihime in a loud manner. "Tell me, what is she up to?"
"Calm down, ma'am," Genta replied.
Kazuya placed a hand on Orihime's shoulder. "Please calm down; you are grabbing too much attention to yourself," he said to her, but she brushed her shoulder away from his hold.
"Look, we came a long way to see that woman." "So you better give us a specific time when we can see her today or else I will make a scene right now!" said Orihime, threatening out loud and making a scene before the time she promised to do so.
That was it; Kazuya grabbed Orihime by the arm, ready to drag her out of the waiting room to one of the seats nearby to talk to her as she was going completely out of line.
"Who's... Who's... "Are you looking for me?" came a loud and seemingly drunken voice from the first floor.
Kazuya, Orihime, and Genta looked up to see an elderly woman coming down with a large bottle of sake, walking down the stairs in such a drunken manner that they worried she was going to roll down and hurt herself.
Genta looked around. "Can't someone somewhere closer stop the Master before she hurts herself?" she said out loud, unfortunately to the hearing of Kazuya and Orihime. She had unknowingly confirmed the person they were looking for, making it clear that she wasn't the "busy woman" she was made out to be.
"Bingo," said Orihime before looking at Genta with a frightening stare. "So that is the person of whom you claimed that she is a very busy person, right?"
Genta trembled slightly before answering, "Yes, I'm sorry you had to see her like this." "Please don't take her at face value; she is far more than this," she said to them.
"I don't care if she's a drunkard," Orihime replied. "That is of no importance to us; what makes her important to us is what she is capable of—that is why we are here to see her."
At this moment, several of the wizards close to the Master had gone to help her down the stairs, but she refused to accept their help.
"Leave me alone; I am not helpless!" she yelled at them, but they continually pleaded with her to let them take her down the stairs.
To avoid their pointless pleadings, she jumped off the place where she was, over thirty feet above the ground, about to fall to her death, causing every eyewitness to gasp in shock.
But to their astonishment, instead of falling, she was floating. Genta looked around, wondering who had just saved their master from killing herself, and she saw another young mage, stretching forth his hands, keeping the old woman mid-air through mystical telekinesis.
Genta placed a hand on her chest, feeling relieved. "Thank you so much, Izuku," she said to him, "you are a lifesaver, and I didn't mean that figuratively."
"Can I take that to mean you will be going out with me tonight?" asked Izuku, the young man who had just saved the Master.
"Don't push your luck, cute boy," Genta replied with a slight laugh.
Orihime rolled her eyes when she heard this: "Look, young man. Can you just put the old woman down? "She looks like she will soon get sick and puke on you anytime soon," she said to Izuku.
"Oh, right!" he replied as he steadily brought the old woman down.
Within a few seconds, the woman was back on her feet, on the ground floor, where the rest of the people were. She could hear the sound of everyone sighing in relief the moment her feet touched the ground.
She didn't like that. "Why are you all sighing like that?" It's disgusting. I am not a helpless old woman! "Stop looking at me like that!" she yelled at them. But they all laughed in response, knowing she was exactly what she told them never to call her, especially when she was drunk.
"Now, whose was that strange voice saying that she was looking for me?" the old woman asked, looking around for strange faces. She was indeed the woman they were looking for—the master of the Sentient Hunter's Guild, Shizu Suzuki.
"That would be us," Orihime replied out loud before Genta could answer, now fully assured that they had found the person they were after.
The old woman looked at them and squinted her eyes, confirming that they were indeed strangers to her.
"Good," the old woman said as she took another gulp of sake from the large bottle she was holding. "Come on, come sit with me at that table." Let's talk."
"I don't think that is a good idea, Master," Genta said to her, but she looked at the young girl with a genuinely angry face, ready to argue if she kept talking.
"I'm sorry," Genta said.
The old woman turned around and sat at an empty table, prompting Kazuya and Orihime to come sit with her. Kazuya could not believe what was happening; it felt as if God was making all things work together for their benefit.
Then it occurred to him that he was in a fabricated universe, one that its creators intended to be a game. It was highly possible that this meeting was inevitable and heavily built into the core of the gameplay mechanics. So in a way, they might not have been lucky to have met this woman.
Heck, no victory in this world could accurately be measured by luck because every event had either been predestined or predetermined by the game developers before it occurred.
Keeping this in mind, I sat with Orihime and the sorceress at the table while she called for two extra bottles of sake.
"So, children," she said to them, "you said you wanted to see me."
Orihime, as usual, spoke up first: "We came here because we needed a mage who specialized in hidden magic." "We are after a group of sentient creatures that use that form of magic, and we could use your help with that," she explained.
"And where is the hidden magic located?" asked the old woman.
"At Fabletown, the area that is mostly encompassed by the magical forests," she said to Shizu, the old woman.
"That should be at least a whole day's journey from here," she said to them, "and it is not an easy one, but depending on what you have to offer me, it might be one worth considering."
"What do you want?" asked Orihime in such a bold manner that it made Kazuya widen his eyes at her. What was she thinking? She was talking as if she could afford any financial proposal from Shizu in a heartbeat, no matter how astronomical it might turn out to be.
"You sound quite confident, don't you?" the old woman said before taking another sip of sake. "But seeing the look on your friend's face, I can tell that you both aren't as loaded as you make it out to be."
"I am the one talking to you right now, aren't I?" asked Orihime, and Shizu nodded in response, liking her assertiveness but not knowing what was going on between the two of them. They had no idea how things worked around here.
So she made a limited offer to them.
"Alright, I'll tell you kids what -- you both go get me a silver dragon's egg, then maybe I will consider going with you."