Volume 01: Start Again
Chapter 06: Contract
"I want to have you." The woman responded as if flirting.
"What do you mean by that?" I responded rather nonchalantly as I basically knew what the woman wanted now.
"Ah not like that I am not that type of woman. I just think you are rather promising" The woman spoke out now sounding serious.
Feeling the coldness in the woman's voice I became a little happy as from this action I knew that the woman was rather serious even though she did not know much about me.
With a slight smile, I spoke out. "What if I do not accept?" After speaking I gave a slight smirk to the woman.
"Fair enough. You should not trust people easily and I understand but why not listen for a bit longer before making any decisions." The woman spoke out once more but instead of just speaking I watched as her hands that were on the table began to move to the top of her head.
Grabbing ahold of her bamboo hat the woman slowly took it off slowly revealing her face behind the veil. As she did this I watched as the red fabric began to separate from the front of the woman's face. Revealing the entirety of her face I could not help but slightly freeze.
A sudden thought struck my mind like lightning as I saw the features of the woman.
'She is of the drow race.' Looking over the snowy white features of the woman I could not help but admit that this woman was rather scary looking. Her cold and beautiful features made her look untouchable as if she would kill you if you looked at her the wrong way.
'Man, I do have to admit the drow race looks rather cool when compared to me who is a walking bag of bones, but what is shocking is that I thought she was an older woman.' Thinking this to myself I was not too shocked after looking on for a while as I had seen more bizarre races in my last life fight in the arenas.
"Surprised." The woman began to smile as she watched my expression.
Looking at the woman I respond, "I thought you were older." Without thinking I said exactly as I thought to the woman.
Hearing my response to her revealing the woman sitting opposite of me began to narrow her eyes at me and if looks could kill, I would have been beheaded. Realizing what I had just said, I began to scramble for something else to say, but in my frantic state I accidentally knocked over my glass of water spilling it all over the table.
Seeing my actions, the woman before me began to smile once again before speaking, "You must still be young." Reaching out to the edge of the table she grabbed some napkins passing them over to me as she wiped her own side of the table dry.
'This is embarrassing technically she would not be too much older than me in my last life as she looks to be around her early thirties.' As these thoughts ran through my mind, I could not help but embarrassingly wipe up the spilled water the best I could.
After we both finished wiping up the table, we placed the wet napkins on the edge of the table and the woman across from me began to chuckle when she looked back at me.
Seeing this I could not help but reach to rub the back of my neck in embarrassment as I did not expect such a thing to happen in my stupor. Luckily, I watched as the waitress came back out from the back door carrying two bowls of steaming food. Seeing as I was going to get out of this situation, I breathed a sigh of relief.
As the waitress arrived before our table, she looked to place the two bowls down but before she could she looked at the woman across from me now who no longer was wearing her hat.
"Ma'am you are rather beautiful no wonder you wear such a thing as I am sure thousands of men would be fighting over you." Awing over the beauty of the woman before me the waitress held onto the food in her hands before she looked further down and noticed the ruby-red crest on the woman's cloak. As she saw this crest the waitress's entire body began to shake and little bits of the broth that was contained inside the bowls began to slip off the edges dousing the floor and edge of the table.
Noticing the waitress's state, the woman began to speak again, "Young lady thank you at least some people know how to compliment a lady and happen to not call her old." After she was done speaking the woman turned to me and gave a slight chuckle before she reached out for the two bowls in the waitress's hands.
Seeing the woman's hands moving towards her the waitress took a large step backward trying to avoid the white hands of the woman. As she did, she ran into a small table behind her creating a loud sound in the dining room after realizing what she did the waitress's eyes widened. "Ma'am I am so sorry. I am so sorry." Bowing her head, the waitress quickly stepped back forward and handed the woman the bowls before she quickly walked back to the kitchen seemingly trying her best to stay calm.
Seeing these events happen before me I once again recalled the terrible things of this world that power and these crests could hold.
"Ah, I knew I should have just kept my crest hidden it always scares people." The woman rubbed her crest that was on her cloak then looked over to me to continue speaking, "But how do you think she would have acted if she saw yours." After speaking and placing the two bowls on the table the woman smiled to herself before she started blowing on her bowl of food.
Thinking about her last words I played cool only shrugging my shoulders before my nose was once again assaulted at all angles as the smell of the simmering meat bowl in front of me made my mouth tremble.
The woman and I took our spoons and began to drink the broth not bothering to worry about anything else besides eating for a bit. As I continued to munch on my food the woman's voice came out once again.
"Well since you do not want to share then I will share first. My name is Amelia Lor of Scarlet Nite. I run an elite-for-hire team that does contract work for wealthy parties. We usually do escort services for high-end clients that want to hunt in high-level areas, or we also do bodyguard/escort duties every once in a while. These are the three main things we are hired for but are not limited to these things as our team also goes out to solo high-leveled areas to hunt and gather resources for our members especially when we get near our class upgrade levels. This means that our team makes large amounts of money after every activity we do and distribute everything fairly as everyone on the team respects each other and wishes to grow in this world." Speaking rather uniformly Amelia stared directly at my face making sure I was following along. Seeing that I was following along she continued to speak, "Since you are still just a seedling as I can tell by your clothes and the fact you have not disclosed what crest you have yet I do not know what position on the team you will have but considering your current calm demeanor I assume you are equal to me and are a ruby tiered player. With this, I can extend an invitation to join our small select team." Finishing speaking Amelia went back to sipping at her soup.
Taking in all of the information the woman had just said to me I began to think about what could be helpful for me at the moment. 'I should ask her about their average levels as catching up to them will be very important for the short term and will be a good excuse to decline.'
"I have a question."
Hearing my question, the woman put on a rather interesting expression as she continued to sip at her spoon of steaming soup.
"What level are you?" I asked after moving my eye contact downwards as I spun my spoon around my soup trying to find some more meat in it.
Raising one of her black eyebrows she smirked and then answered, "118."
'118 it has only been over two years since the majority of people were able to start crossing over so for her to be done with her first-class evolution and be level 118 is rather interesting as everyone else on the team must be rather close in level. This means this is one of the most advanced teams created at this point in the new era. As all the other teams with such strength are the players supported by large corporations and governments.' Feeling rather shocked this woman before me became even more mysterious in my eyes.
"What are the requirements you have for me for leveling?" Looking up I asked curiously.
"You can do whatever you want until you reach level 70 then you will have to come to the team to accompany us on quests. The only thing that comes attached to our contract is the term length. The minimum length will be 10 years." Amelia responded as if this was only normal.
Nodding my head at the level requirement I could understand and realized that the woman before me had a very good understanding of this world as she knew that once you reach level seventy leveling towards level one hundred becomes exceptionally harder. Thinking of this everything sounded rather nice as having someone of the ruby tier standing next to me, but ten years is too much for me as I do not want to be stuck as I had been.
"It all sounds good, but I will have to decline," I spoke out.
"Why? This contract is rather normal and even a little beneficial for you as our team will give you the most freedom to do as you, please until level 70." Looking over to Amelia she had a rather shocked expression on her face which compared to her regular cold demeanor was kind of funny.
"It is me. The contract is fine for anyone else but not for me. I have a lot of things I want to do and am afraid I will have to let you down." Trying my best to sound like I was disappointed I stared down at my soup.
'Ah, hopefully, she does not make me pay for my own food.' Staring at my food I could not help but feel a bit sad in anticipation.
Sitting in silence for a couple of seconds Amelia finally spoke out, "I understand but if you are ever looking to join a team in the future you should promise to join mine."
Thinking to myself quietly I looked up at the woman and nodded my head seriously. "If there comes a time when I need to join an elite team, I will find you first."
As I said these words a notification popped up on my screen.
[Friend Request: Player [Amelia Lor]]
[Accept]
[Decline]
'What a person.' Seeing this notification, I could not help but chuckle inside as this woman was rather smart. She issued a friend request that way there was no way I would not be able to find her or her message me to find me.
Sliding the large screen of text out of my way I looked directly at the woman who was observing me from across the table. Watching my every action she began to smile as if she knew I was stuck.
'Accept.' Shaking my head, I accepted the notification watching her name be the first one to pop up on my friend list.
'Well, I can see why she has been so successful so far. She is rather smart.' Smiling at the woman I continued to try and eat my food. Before I could eat any more of my food the woman looked past towards the doorway we entered from.
"Do you have any plans to as where you are going?" Amelia spoke out as she looked back at me.
Thinking about this question carefully I decided to play along and see what she would tell me.
"I am thinking about heading to the capital," I responded honestly as it stood to make no difference if I told her this information or not.
Hearing my response Amelia smiled as she stood up.