The next day, Rein left the inn early after breakfast. He wanted to give Tasha and Stella some time to freely dress up. They planned to meet up at about 9 AM. Rein left the inn before 7 so he had 2 hours to kill. So, he decided to visit the adventure guild.
Every platinum rank adventurer had partial access to the special information network of the guild. Rein was planning to use that network to get updated about everything happening around the world. This was also something that Rein did very often not only with the information network of the adventure guild but also the merchant guild. Information was very important in his opinion.
After entering the guild he went straight to the special counter. In this period of time, the adventure guild was very busy as most of the adventurers chose their quest during this time period. But the special counter, that was there to handle the high ranking adventurer was empty for the time being. So Rein did not have to wait in any line.
The one handling the least busy special counter was Lulu who was Rein's acquaintance. Today was her lucky day as she was able to handle the least busy counter and her day became even luckier when Rein came to visit her.
After hearing what he wanted, Lulu personally took him to the back of the guild. There was a room there that kept the record of all the important recent news and Rein could read anything there.
As that room was completely empty Lulu was able to spend some time with Rein alone. When she first saw Rein, she had immediately fallen in love with him. She was not ashamed of this fact. After seeing him, if any single girl did not fall for him then that would be weird.
But Lulu knew that her love was less like a lover's and more like a fan's. So she thought that she would be able to just normally admire him after some time. She had many people she admired and she thought Rein would become just like one of them.
But as she spent her time with Rein, her love for him just grew and grew. She was a common girl who had never really fallen in love with anyone before. So, as she experienced her first love, she was able to feel how painful it actually was.
Rein was a great adventurer and she was just a common receptionist you could find anywhere. She was not worthy of him. She had heard that first love never became successful but Rein was her first love. Was it destined to be unsuccessful. All these thoughts were rampaging inside her mind, making her feel measurable.
Suddenly Rein held her hands. Lulu looked up to see he was gently smiling at her. Then Rein asked her in a soft voice -
"I hope I'm not being presumptuous here, but miss Lulu, have you taken a liking to me ?"
Hearing such a direct question from Rein Lulu's face turned red. But still she mastered her courage as she did not want to lie to her idol and nodded her head slightly. Seeing that Rein's eyes became even more gentle and he said -
"Fufu, then why were you hesitating ? Were you thinking silly thoughts like you're not worthy of me ? Foolish girl. Not underestimate yourself. I'm an amazing man and I know it. But you're also an amazing woman. It is a fact as I'm saying it."
Lulu looked at Rein and love almost overflowed from her eyes. His words were like strong shelter, saving her fragile heart from wind and rain. She then used up all her courage and said in a shaking voice -
"R-Rein, I have fallen in love with you on the first sight. We have not known each other for a long time but I really really love you. I am so madly in love with you that I don't think I can live without you."
Saying all that in a single breath, Lulu felt very weak and almost fell. Rein caught her and gave her a gentle kiss on her lips. Then he said -
"I'm very happy to hear it, Lulu. I'm really a lucky guy. I also love how earnest you are. I love your silky red hair. I also love your determined expression. If you're fine with it, please be my girlfriend. But do keep one thing on your mind before making your decision. Once you become my woman, you will stay my woman for eternity."
Rein's voice did not change when he said the last few lines but Lulu felt a shiver running down her spine. But the feeling was very pleasurable for her. The way Rein was looking at her now was filled with desire and possession. He loved getting looked at by Rein with those eyes. She then seriously nodded her head and replied - "I agree" and her eyes also became a little like his. Then they shared a long kiss.
Rein told Lulu that they would meet again at night as now two hours were almost up and he needed to meet up with Stella and Tasha. They shared a few more kisses and Lulu saw him off with a gentle smile on her face. It looked like she had suddenly matured quite a bit after getting accepted by Rein.
...
Rein met up with Stella and Tasha in the same fountain plaza where he met Stella for their date. Then three of them went to an open market hand in hand. Actually not hand in hand as both Stella and Tasha were hugging Rein's hands instead of holding it.
While going to the open market Rein told them about Lulu. Stella and Tasha congratulated him and were happy that their small family had increased. They wanted to meet their new sister right away but Rein stopped them as Lulu would be now busy and told them that they would be able to meet at nighttime.
The open market was a place where many travelling merchants and adventurers were able to set up a temporary stall to sell things. This was a famous practice as it allowed someone to sell their stuff without much hassle and without going through an intermediary.
There were various types of items sold in the open market. Most of them were junk, but rarely valuable treasures might appear among those junks. There were even stories about someone picking up a trash item in an open market which turned out to be a legendary item. So many people liked to try their luck in an open market.
But Rein did not need to try his luck with his Eye of Truth. So he was actually trying to find out something valuable in the sea of junk. Even though Stella and Tasha did not have an ability to appraise like Rein had, they were quite intelligent and knowledgeable, so they were also looking around trying to see if they could find something interesting or valuable.
It was Tasha who noticed an interesting item first and she immediately told Rein about it. Rein looked at the item that she had noticed and gave an amazed smile. Then he walked toward the shop which was selling that item.
The shopkeeper handling this shop did not look like a merchant or an adventurer. So Rein guessed he was most probably a thief. He started to fiddle with various items of his shop and asked about their price. As Rein looked like a really rich person, the shopkeeper was happy to answer all his questions.
Soon Rein chose three items from that shop and brought them. The shopkeeper tried to ask for one thousand zeni for those three items but Rein haggled the price and took five items for that same price. The shopkeeper saw it as his win because the items that Rein chose were both useless junk in his opinion.
After leaving that shop both Tasha and Stella were unable to hold back their giggles. It was truly a sight to see how Rein tricked that shopkeeper to give away the most valuable item of his shop as an useless extra. Rein took out a small stone the size of a pigeon's egg.
It looked extremely dull but actually it was a very valuable item. This was an item that could only be found in a dungeon called confinement escape stone. This item could allow a person to escape the confinement type traps quickly, saving a lot of time for anyone. It was not very useful to Rein and his team as all them could use space related magic but still it was a very expensive item.
Just as they were laughing and talking with each other. A little girl suddenly came in front of them from an alley. Rein noticed that she had dog-like ears on her head. She quickly hugged Tasha's legs and asked in a quivering voice -
"Please help me."