"You're going to join the Dancing Phoenix guild!"
"What? Why would I want to join your guild out of every possible options ?" He said bluntly.
"Every possible options? You're a commoner Renji, people like us are not welcomed when it comes down to joining an elite guild. Just where do you think you'll be accepted?" She asked as she was slightly offended by his statement.
"I don't know, I really don't know much of anything right now. My head is still kinda fuzzy." He replied, feeling the effects of the transmigration. His attention was stripped away by the Reaper's Pit quest and his head didn't have enough time to fully embrace his transmigration.
Till now he only gained a portion of the previous host's memories which were still fuzzy. In these memories, he remembered being surrounded by many male friends who abandoned him prior to his death. Asides that there wasn't much to go on.
"Then you're joining the Dancing Phoenix!" Hinata bellowed as she made it clear he couldn't oppose her decision.
"Oh fine." He said with a smile, it was nice to know that there was at least a place where the less privileged is welcomed as that was exactly what he was right now, less privileged.
"Good, we'll crash at my house first and head there tomorrow. After all that you must be tired and hungry." She spoke happily as she offered him some accommodation.
"No thanks, spending a night with you means forfeiting my sanity. I think I'll take my chances under a bridge." He was quick to reject her offer, he felt a bit unease spending the night at the house of a woman he just met.
"It's not like you have an option so quit being stubborn!" She squealed loudly.
Heaving a sigh, he reluctantly accepted her offer. "Say Renji, what about the pit?" She asked.
"What of it?"
"I mean the temple below the river, what becomes of it now?" She added
"Like Tunlop said the village is poor, the treasures beneath the river should be enough to rebuild and sustain the village." He replied.
"Oh, I see." She replied with a radiant smile and in a couple of hours they arrived at her house. She prepared some food which they both ate and after a brief exchange of words, Renji slept off on her couch and she retired to her bedroom.
It was a long and stressful day for both of them, especially Hinata who had traveled a long way just for the quest. The night went by quickly and morning approached just as quick.
"Get up!" Hinata exclaimed, for quite some time she has been trying to wake Renji up but all her efforts proved useless. Normally his heightened senses would have allowed him to detect Hinata's irrational behavior before hand. But he was trapped in a trance.
One could assume it to be his body's attempt to recover his previous memories now that his nervous system was at rest. In the trance, he saw himself pleading to some shadow figures. Their faces were fuzzy and his words barely understandable, but then in the blink of an eye, a scaly and bony creature crushed his neck.
His eyes widened instantly as he forcefully pulled his upper body up. Hinata drew back, obviously startled by his sudden and terrifying awakening. "Renji... Are you alright?" She asked as that wasn't how a normal person woke up even with a nightmare.
"Ugh, my head." He groaned as he covered half of his face with his right palm. "What was that?" He thought.
"Did you have a nightmare?" She asked out of worries.
"Yeah, but it's alright just a bad dream." He replied, he became fairly certain that the memories of his body's previous host's death returned to him. What he couldn't understand just yet was why the figures he saw abandoned him to die.
"In that case, LET'S GO!" She resumed with her annoyance. "We are late enough as it is." She said as she rushed into her room to dress up before heading to the guild. Renji sighed softly before smiling a bit, in his previous life they were at peace because they didn't want to draw the attention of the Storm clan, but now he didn't have to worry about that. "So this is freedom huh?" He said as he went into the guest bathroom to freshen up.
As he emerged from the bathroom, he overheard Hinata talking to someone at the door. "You have till tomorrow to pay up Anoha! If you can't, get out of my property." An angry voice bellowed. "But.." Her attempts to plead was cut short as the owner of the voice left instantly.
"Is everything alright?" He asked.
"Yeah... Just let me grab my stuffs and we can go." She said, attempting to hide the slight depression she harboured but Renji saw through it all.
As she returned to her room, he could only sigh as he realized why she was in a hurry to leave. "I see."
The reason behind her quickness to leave this early in the morning was because of the conversation she had with her landlady, her rent was almost due and she had to pay soon or she'll be kicked out.
In this world of magic, there were limited ways of making a large amount of money to sustain necessities and those limited ways was by being a top mage. Top mages such as Magic Knights, Sages and S-Class mages were paid huge sums of money for their services.
Ordinary mages like Hinata had to depend on daily quests such as the Reaper's pit quest to pay the bills, unfortunately she gave up her reward due to the village's condition and that decision put a dent in her plans.
"Let's go." She said as she emerged from her room wearing a radiant smile on her face. Examining her closely, he realized she was quite a beautiful lady. Even the most simplistic clothing brought out her curves and beauty. "Oh..k." He said.
The Dancing Phoenix guild was not too far from her house, most members of the guild had their homes located closely to the guild for easier movement. It didn't take long before they arrived at the guild and when they did, what he saw far exceeded his expectations.