Several days later,
In the city of wind, it was early in the morning.
The mansion that belonged to the city lord remained as quiet as always.
Tak Tak Tak
A person, covered in robe from head to toe, walked through the hallway of the mansion as he soon stopped before a big door and knocked on it.
Knock Knock
"…Come in."
In just a minute, he got a cold response as he opened the door and walked.
"Good morning, city lord."
Louis said as he slightly lowered his head in respect.
"Mhh."
Sitting on his table while looking through piles of papers, Enel was as busy as always, with the glaring dark bag under his eyes.
"The young master seems to be adjusting to the academy." Louis said, as Enel didn't bother to reply to that.
"With how he was reacting after coming back from the dungeon, I feared he would give everything up and go after the dungeon." Louis said as Enel briefly stopped looking through the papers and glanced at Louis.
"Are you curious about what I told him to make him calm down?" He asked as Louis just kept his head lowered.
It wasn't like him. Louis knew that he wasn't allowed to question anything as the assistant of Enel, but after seeing the crazed young master calming this much, he was curious about what he said.
"I'm not, sir. Sorry for my behavious." Louis said as Enel nodded his head and returned to going through the papers.
"You can go now." Enel said as Louis nodded his head and walked out of the room as silently as he entered.
Clack
"…Sigh."
Exhaling a deep breath, Louis continued walking through the hallway as he walked past the young master's room.
'It's been a week since he entered the academy. I hope he is doing well.' He thought as he recalled the events that took place after the young master's rescue from the dungeon.
…
Half a day after the exploration team left for the dungeon,
Inside the huge government mansion of the city of Wind, there was a spacious room where various blue colored jade crystals were hanging in the wall.
Each jade crystal was clean and kept with importance in mind.
Right under the crystals, a name plate was kept to notify their owner.
[A jade crystal artifact made from the tears of dolphin race. These tears, when they leave the dolphin's eyes, turn into clear crystal form. When someone drops a drop of their blood onto the jade crystal, it turns blue, signifying the succession of its connection with the blood owner's soul. These jade crystals keep their connection to the soul and stay blue until the owner dies. When the owner dies, the jade turns red and becomes useless.]
At a corner of the room, a blue jade crystal hung with a silver name plate below it.
[Aron Belur]
It belonged to Aron Belur, son of the city lord Enel Belur.
Flick Flick
The jade was blue until it suddenly started flickering with a red color.
"…Again?"
At the side of the door to the spacious room, a person wearing a helmet and armor stood straight as he muttered upon noticing the flicker from the jade crystal.
'It has been like that for quite a while now.' He thought as he stared at the jade.
Jades turn red when the owner dies, but this one was just flickering. It meant that the owner was in a life threatening condition.
Being in this position where he had to watch over several jades, it was a common occurrence for him, but the only difference this time was that the jade belonged to the son of the city lord.
'Immediately notify me if this jade starts turning red.'
Remembering the words from Sir Louis, the guard calmed himself down as he averted his eyes.
The jade was only flickering, not turning red, so this wasn't something he had to report.
Being in this line of work where he had to anticipate the jade turning red, which indicated that a stranger, somewhere and somehow, lost his life, required him a lot of mental power to stay strong.
Clack
As he was standing still, he suddenly made his move, opening the door and quickly walking towards the office where Louis worked.
'It's turning red.'
He had seen the jade stop to flicker and slowly start turning red.
Knock Knock
Stopping in front of an office, the guard started to knock.
"Get in."
Louis's voice echoed from the inside as the guard opened the door and walked inside.
"Sir, the jade is turning red." He said as Louis, who was going through some papers, stared at him for some moment and stood up.
Tapping a small blue crystal beside him, it glowed upon activation.
Beep
"Prepare two officers to come with me."
Louis ordered the person connected to the other side of the blue crystal as he stood up and signaled the guard to lead the way.
Nod
The guard nodded his head as he started leading Louis to the jade room.
…
"It's not entirely red yet."
Louis said as he observed Aron's jade crystal.
"But he is inside the dungeon. I don't think we can go and rescue him." He muttered since a dungeon allows only one party to enter at a time.
'Guild master Ann, what are you doing?' He thought as he frowned.
"Sir."
When he was on his thought, trying to think of a plan, two people wearing black dresses appeared in front of him.
Louis looked up at them and nodded.
"We are going to the dungeon where the guildmaster of the Hosling guild is." He said as he made his decision.
One day later, they returned with Aron, who was unconscious with light injuries all over his body, including his head.
Clack
"What happened to other members of the exploration team?"
Walking outside Aron's room, a woman with blue hair asked as she looked worried.
"They are still inside the dungeon. It seems the young master used the heart stone to exit the dungeon." Louis said as he looked at Chlory.
"I see." Chlory replied as she frowned.
'I wonder what's happening inside the dungeon.' She thought as Ann's image popped up in her mind.
'If the kid exited the dungeon, then it can only mean that they ran into a situation where Ann couldn't help him.' She thought as she raised her head.
"…Young master will be fine; it seems he consumed some healing potions before losing his consciousness." Chlory said as she noticed Louis hesitantly staring at her.
"I see." Louis muttered as Chlory frowned.
"However, there is some problem." She said as Louis froze.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Three times, he has been badly injured three times in a row in this very short amount of time. Even if it's a little, unless he has strong mental strength, he is surely to have some kind of mental problem once he wakes up." She said it in a solemn tone.
"…Young master has always been strong minded." Louis said as Aron has gone through many pressuring things that have made his mentality strong.
It wasn't really a thing that he liked to hear, but he is the son of Enel Belur after all.
"If that's the case, then good, but just keep in mind that if anything happens, neither my healing nor anyone's healing will help." Chlory said as Louis silently nodded his head.
…
'Thinking about it, she might have jinxed it.'
Getting off of a carriage, Louis thought as the conversation he had with Chlory echoed on his mind.
'Young master woke up three days after that.' He thought as he remembered the dark and restless look on the young master.
'He asked to return to the dungeon as soon as he came to his senses.' He thought as he walked towards the mansion where he worked.
As he approached its gate, he saw two figures standing in front of the gate, waiting for somebody.
'But maybe I should have waited before telling him what happened in those days he was unconscious.' He thought in a regretful mood as he approached the two figures.
"Goodmorning, Guildmaster of the Hosling guild and Lionhot guild." He greeted them as the two figures nodded their heads.
"I know I ask it every day, but how are you adjusting to your new position as the guildmaster?" He asked as he looked at them.
"It's a hard position to be in, but I've been managing."
Among the two figures, one girl with a pointy red hat spoke as she took off her glasses and started cleaning them.
"I see. What about you?" Louis asked as he lowered his head to look at the other figure, who had a green bandana on his head.
Nod Nod
The guy nodded his head as Louis understood what he meant. The guy was small, like a dwarf, but he wasn't actually a dwarf.
"I see. I wish you the best of luck. It must be hard with your previous guildmaster gone, but time will heal it." Louis said as the three of them entered through the gate.
'…One day after the young master was rescued, the jade crystal belonging to every member of the exploration team turned completely red.'
'When people were sent to the dungeon to investigate the situation, the dungeon was no longer there; it had disappeared.'
'Every member of the exploration team except the young master were deemed dead.'