"She's alive, Eddy. Viola is alive!" Simon said, tears in his eyes as Eddy finally let go of him.
"No, Simon. She's not Viola. We thought the same thing, but the reality is... she's not," Barren said, his head lowered.
"What?"
"Don't joke with me! How can that not be Viola? Those eyes, those facial features, that blue hair—they're exactly the same!" Simon said angrily, thinking it was some kind of prank from his old friends.
"She's dead, and you know it. That day, you were there—you saw her last moments," Eddy said firmly.
"It's complicated. Did you not notice that she didn't recognize you? It's not her," Barren added.
"What? Let me talk to her! I know you're pulling my leg—it's a prank, right?" Simon asked, his voice rising with desperation.
"Damn it, Simon, it's not a prank or anything! Viola is dead! The girl you saw may look like her, but she's not Viola," Eddy said, grabbing Simon by the collar, his voice filled with emotion.
"Simon, where have you been all this time?" Barren asked, trying to change the topic.
"When Viola died, I felt lost. I didn't know what to do, so I went back to my village, thinking I'd never return to this damn city that took Viola away from us," Simon said quietly.
"So why did you come back then?" Eddy asked.
"...."
"We're back!" Barren said as he started approaching Theo and Kathleen, who were standing in front of the quest board.
"What are you guys doing? Are you thinking of leaving us behind and taking a quest for yourselves?" Barren joked, trying to lighten the mood with his sense of humor, but it didn't work.
"Has anyone ever told you that your sense of humor is trash?" Simon retorted as he walked over to Kathleen.
"Hi, I'm Simon. Nice to meet you. And who might you be?"
Kathleen didn't expect him to approach her so suddenly. She was caught off guard and replied, "I'm Kathleen. Nice to meet you too."
"Oh, this is an old pal of ours who thinks of himself as a charming dude, but I can assure you, he's not," Barren interjected, clearly annoyed by Simon's earlier comment.
"This is quite a reunion here, huh?" Theo said, smiling, knowing full well the sadness everyone was enduring right now.
"Oh, yes! Simon, show them the letter, will you?" Barren said, giving Simon a light push on his shoulder.
Simon took out the letter from his pocket and handed it to Barren.
"Why are you giving this to me?" Barren said angrily. "Can't you read it yourself?"
"I could have read it, but now I don't want to. You know what I mean, so that's why I gave it to you," Simon replied, shrugging.
Barren was about to say something, but at that moment, Eddy snatched the letter from Barren's hand. He opened it and began reading its contents aloud:
"By the light and darkness that pierces the veil, reveal what lies beyond the matter. Show me the mirror of existence—Gate of the null room, open my sight!"
"That's it," Barren said as Eddy finished reading. "And also, this letter was sent from this guild hall. You can clearly see the guild stamp on the back."
"I see. That's why you came to the Luminus City Guild," Theo said. "You were sent the exact same letter as my brother and Barren."
"I was shocked when I received the letter because I knew only five of us had knowledge of this spell. And yet, here it was, sent to me out of nowhere," Simon explained.
"At first, I thought one of you sent it as a prank. But I knew that wasn't possible because the three of us swore that day never to bring this spell into our lives again."
"Wait, did you just say five of you? I thought you guys were a squad," Theo asked, confused.
Barren glanced at Theo, his expression warning him not to press further.
Understanding the signal, Theo tried to change the subject, but Eddy interrupted. "Let's not waste any more time chatting about our past. Let's ask the receptionist about the emblem."
"Yeah, let's go," Simon agreed.
Kathleen wanted to know more but suppressed her curiosity. She was so engrossed in their story that she momentarily forgot the uneasy feeling she had earlier.
"Be careful, guys. We're being watched by that group," Eddy said in a numb voice, subtly pointing his eyes toward a group of five adventurers sitting nearby, drinking and chatting. Their eyes kept glancing toward them.
"Welcome to the Adventurers Guild," the receptionist said cheerfully as they approached the desk.
"My name is Elina. How can I help you today? Are you here to take a quest, or are you going to register with our guild?" she asked brightly.
"No, no, we wanted to ask about something," Barren said as he slid a hand-drawn emblem across the desk toward her.
Oh, so he can draw too. What a useful guy, Kathleen thought to herself.
"What is this round-shaped thing supposed to be? And the bird-faced man?" Elina asked curiously as she glanced at the drawing and then back at Barren's face.
"Ah, I see! You're submitting this for the guild's art competition, right? So, where's the child who drew this?" Elina asked with a warm smile.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Simon burst out laughing uncontrollably. "What is this? Did you draw this, Barren?"
"I'm sorry, sir. I thought it was drawn by a child," Elina apologized frantically.
"No, no, no!" Simon said, still laughing. "You don't have to apologize. I think even kids can draw better than him!"
Kathleen was shocked when she saw the drawing and tried her best not to laugh at Barren.
"It's not that bad! You can clearly see it's an emblem from the circular shape. And also, the half-human, half-beast appearance is visible!" Barren said, his face red with embarrassment and anger.
"Now that you mention it, yes, I can see it," Elina said, smiling awkwardly.
"You don't have to force yourself, Elina. This guy doesn't even know how to draw—that's not your fault," Simon said, still laughing.
Barren was about to retort, but Eddy interjected. "What do you know about the half-beast, half-human emblem and those three letters? They were sent from the guild, as I can tell by the guild stamp. Can you shed some light on this matter?" Eddy's expression was stiff.
"Can you describe the emblem?" Elina asked.
"Sure," Eddy began explaining the emblem he saw in the jungle on Scarlet.
"Ah, you're talking about the emblem of a group that has recently surfaced," Elina replied. "Unfortunately, we don't know much about them. They're a very reserved group. To this day, no one from that cult has been caught."
Elina pulled out a large register-like book from under the counter. "As for the letters, I don't think we can help you with those either. I don't think the guild seal is original. If you look closely at the Luminous City guild stamp, there's a spelling mistake in the three letters."
"See this register? This is the original stamp of our guild. Now look at the stamp on your letters—it says 'Luminsh' instead of 'Luminus.' It's missing a 'U.'"
"Now that you mention it, you're right. There's no 'U' in the letters. That's a bummer," Barren admitted.
"Sorry about that, sir. Is there anything else I can help you with?" Elina asked, maintaining her trained smile.
"Now what?" Kathleen asked as they walked away from the counter, thanking the receptionist.
Barren was about to say something when suddenly Elina called out to them from behind.
"Sir, can you come back for a moment?"
"Yeah, what is it?" Simon asked, being the first to return to the counter.
"I was organizing today's new commissions and noticed this quest. I think you all might want to see it," Elina said, handing them a quest notice.
Simon took the notice and read it with a serious look. "The person posting this commission claims to know about the cult group. He needs adventurers to protect his house as the cult members, bearing the emblem, regularly bully him and have even tried several times to kill him."
Due to the sensitivity of the quest, the identity of the quest provider was not mentioned on the poster. Simon handed the poster back to the receptionist.
"We're taking this quest," Eddy said in a serious tone. "If we want to know why we got the letters and why Kathleen was chased out of her village, we have to learn more about this cult. This is our only hope of information."
"You're correct," Barren, Theo, and Simon all said at the same time.
"Do you have any objections, Kathleen?" Eddy asked.
"No. I also want to know why I was chased by that woman, Scarlet," Kathleen replied firmly.
"Excellent! Are you all registered with the guild? If so, we can begin the quest-taking procedure now," Elina said as she took out a glass ball from under the table.
"I'm Barren, this serious guy is Eddy, and this monkey-brain over here is Simon," Barren said, pointing to each person in turn. "We're already registered, but these two need to register first," he added, gesturing toward Kathleen and Theo.
"That's not going to be a problem, sir. Now, please place your hand on this glass ball one by one so we can register you for the quest," Elina instructed with a polite smile.
We will now start the registration procedure.
To be continued...