Life in a new Kingdom

After a few moments alone, I left my room to see Mei. The smell of her cooking was exquisite. The essence of her craft would make anyone hungry. Eckhart shared the same sentiment. I sat next to him as she properly placed plates in front of us.

"How was Celia? What did she need?" Eckhart turned to ask. I felt a cold sweat hit my back, and I remembered what had happened between her and me. What I did afterward, I was a bit unstable with my thoughts.

"She is feeling better but would be left alone for now." I stay silent afterward, not choosing to show much thought. An excellent and quick meal from Mei passes; I take the chance to take a walk around the town to myself.

The long day passed quickly soon after. I had no training; I just had my thoughts to myself, figuring that I had much to consider with Celia, the Phantom Blades, and my training with Eckhart to proceed. The next day arrived with a bang on my door. Eyes barely open, I rushed to open it. Standing at the doorway was Julia, her face flushed and her breathing heavy. She had run from the Guild Hall to the manor.

"Julia? What are you-"

"No time! I need you at the Guild Hall right now."

"I'll meet you there." Quickly changing into my gear, I rushed out of the Manor.

The streets were filled with villagers, and they tried to refer to me with any questions. I could only respond that I didn't know and that I would find out. I made it to the Guild Hall to see a mountain of people swarming the doors.

"Let me through!" I shouted the order, which the townspeople acknowledged. I entered to find the whole place filtered in chaos.

"What do you mean they were lost? Wasn't their job supposed to take a week?" one of the new party leaders yelled at Julia.

"I'm sorry, the information we have is limited. Once Caleb gets here, we can devise a plan to"

"This is a Guild! We should be doing our best to put together a rescue team!"

"I know, but I would like to have-"

"Julia! I am here. What's going on? What is with this commotion?"

"Good, you're here. We have a situation."

"Tell me." I approached Juila and looked around the full Guild Hall. The Phantom Thieves were nowhere to be seen.

"We just received word that the last party to return hasn't sent a signal of their progress."

"What do you mean?"

"Due to it being a test, we gave them a magic signal rune that summons a pillar of light into the air to alert us of their status. It was mainly used to see if they failed or needed help, but it has gone past the date of their report to see if they were still on the quest or returning. We believe they have been lost to the quest."

"Admit it! You sent them on a harder job than the rest of us!"

"Wait, they had the Goblin Nest, didn't they? It was the hardest one of the three given for the test, but I trained those adventurers. They were more than ready." I look at Julia and the party leader. His eyes were swelling with anger.

"That's bullshit! You know, as much as I do that, they weren't ready!"

"Troa, please leave Caleb alone. He only meant well."

"Whatever!" Troa turns around and joins the rest of his party, the Roaming Fangs.

"Sorry about that..."

"Enough about it. Tell me what you know."

"Well, as I said, they haven't reported, and even if they did now, it is well past their deadline. They have failed, and I was going to organize a search and rescue team, but I wanted you to help with the efforts."

"The protocol for such an event isn't normal in this. Where is Gale? Where are the Phantom Thieves?"

"They took a job yesterday and set off immediately. They won't be back for months. We have no way of reaching them in time before we set out. All that's here are the two freshly appointed Silver Rank parties who are still resting and recovering from their own quests. I could see if any of them would be willing to form together the search party, you saw how Troa was raring to go the first second he could."

"What do you suggest we do with the given information, Juila? You have been in this business for much longer than me. What is your insight on this?"

"I want to gather as much information as possible and locate the exact location of the party. If we can do that, it would help us search for them." Julia pulls out a big map and rolls it across the counter in front of me. It has the details of the surrounding areas and locations of possible nests of creatures.

"Is this map going to help us? Do we at least know where they were going from here?"

"If my old days being an adventurer is spot on about my intuition, then they should be in the northern region beyond the village. If we could locate the nest, we might make a restricted zone area to search. It should work if we have everyone-"

"I don't think we will be doing that, Juila." A sudden voice rings out in the Guild Hall. Catching my attention, I found myself staring at a tall beast woman with red cat ears and a tail. Her toned body is exposed by the short vest jacket and cut shorts. A black eye patch over her left eye, holding a massive sword on her back.

"Ahh...I.... Guild Master Nana?!" Standing just a few feet from us was the large and powerful Guild Master of Saiana. A wicked smirk across her face...