First time stepping out beyond the path from the town, Nine looked at the towering mountains for the first time.
The trees were bare, with barely a sign of life moving through the snowy tops of the ground.
From time to time, a wolf print would appear on the road, while sometimes a mark of slime hopping would appear.
Breathing out, puffy smoke left his mouth, as the cold snow covered him up — "Hoooo, I can't believe I'm going to clear a B-rank quest for my third quest."
He said, looking back at Sheila's group, Jake, and a woman who was moving further away from the town.
"Keep up!" Lien, the sole male of Sheila's group said, seeing how Nine stopped moving.
Keeping up with the rest of the group, Nine looked at the people he was with, still unable to process how he was with them.
"Haha, what the hell is this grouping?" He whispered, recalling who these people were to him before.
Sheila's and Lien's group was one of the people who tried to scam Nine out of his money from his first quest, after someone spread rumors about how much he earned back then.
The man responsible for spreading that rumor, Jake, is the person who has been watching him over all this time, making Nine unable to move freely, without fearing the Authorities of this world.
And finally, the tall woman just in front of Nine, was the same person who tried to get into his pants when he was learning how to write and read the language of this world.
"Fuck..... Elaine is really mad at me huh?" He whispered, looking at his group members once again — recalling back on how he somehow got into this situation.
<— A few days ago.
Leaving the guild after being rejected from taking any quest or even getting approval to take one from the three sisters, Nine left the guild in a bad mood.
Although he said he'll go to the north to hunt, he was too annoyed at not able to take a new quest, that he went back into his inn, and slept till the next morning.
The very next morning, Nine did what he had been doing all this time, doing his morning exercise, running loops into the center of the town, and finally meeting up with Elaine in the guild after a week of not doing so.
Just like how the two have always been since their first morning meeting, the two went inside the guild and prepared it to welcome the adventurers who would come later on.
At first, Nine thought nothing was wrong, seeing how everything was still normal, then halfway through helping Elaine, he realized that he had not been served any drinks.
Normally, Elaine would have prepared some kind of drinks and even a light snack for him as a way of thanking him for helping her.
After Elaine became Nine's personal helper, the two even started talking like friends, asking each other what they had done the day before.
But none of that happened, even when they finished preparing the guild, and Elaine still had not said a word to Nine.
Worried at how she was acting, "You want sweets?" he asked, going off course on what he wanted to say, seeing how bad her mood was.
Elaine looked at him coldly, reminding Nine why she was called the opposite of her siblings, who were considered friendly and sunny.
"Hey," she called out, making Nine move to her, "Let me ask you this..." She asked, waiting for Nine to approve of doing so.
Nine nodded, letting her ask her question.
"What have you been doing all this time, that you didn't come in here for a week?" Her tone carried all kinds of emotions, that Nine couldn't figure out which one was inside of it.
Scared, Nine turned his face away from her, ready to answer.
"Look at me, when you answer," Elaine said, tapping her fingers on the table. Twisting his head to hers, Nine said:
"I was kidnapped....."
"Kidnapped, you? As if," Elaine mused, cutting Nine from his words, "With all your techniques and abilities, no one in this town can do so. Unless they're a literal God or one of the Elemental Dragons...."
"So.... tell me the truth, why didn't you come here for a week, after not missing a single day all this time?"
Seeing the seriousness of the situation, Nine rushed his words to explain his side of the story:
"Look, what I said is the truth, remember Marie? Well, she somehow fooled me into putting the [ Rune of Return ] on myself and making her the summoner. So, each time I tried to run away from her, she would activate the rune, bringing me back to her place. Also, I did not enjoy a single day with her, she fed me so much cake and sweets, that I think my diabetic problem came back, I tried to run away from her, after getting rid of the runes, but somehow she would somehow find all the escape routes, I was gonna run away from and grab me by the neck and drag me back into her placed, she even locked me up in her room. She didn't let me go for three days....."
"So, please, stop getting mad at me. I didn't miss our morning meeting because I didn't want to, because I couldn't, because of Marie. Ask Catherine, I gave her the cake I was gonna give to you!" Nine took a deep breath, not having so, in his explanation.
"Speaking of her, I heard you tried taking another quest from them instead of me...."
"Huh!?" Nine exclaimed, seeing Elaine reminded him of what he tried to do yesterday.
"Tell me..... Am I really that irresponsible that you would go to another person to take a quest? Am I that bad that even having me as your personal helper still didn't satisfy you?"
Elaine asked, her voice now filled with nothing but negative emotions, that Nine literally cannot tell which one, was on it.
"Sorry, I'm really sorry for doing so. I just cleared a problem that's been holding me back from taking any quests and moving up in my adventurer rank. That, the moment I had the chance to do so, I wanted to leave the F-Rank as soon as possible." Nine begged for forgiveness, even going on all fours on the floor — not caring about his so-called pride.
There, within the guild building, the two of them were the only ones within it, yet one of them was on the ground, while the other one was standing up.
Waiting for Elaine to say a word, Nine wondered how long he was going to do this.
"Stand up." She ordered, so Nine hurriedly did so.
"If I ever learn that you tried to take another quest from my siblings or anyone, don't ever appear before me." She warned, taking something from under her table.
Slamming the quest paper on the table, she grabbed Nine and pulled him closer to her face, then said:
"Remember, I'm your personal helper and your personal adventurer, the only person you'll take quests from in this town is me, and only me. I don't care about your relationship with people in the town or with Marie and that librarian lady, but make sure you'll never miss another morning meeting of ours, unless I know of it."
"Un, Der, Stand?"
Nodding and taking the quest paper to read it, Nine replied: "Yes, I'll make sure to!" Promising that he'll never do this ever again.
"Good!" Elaine praised Nine, letting go of him.
Reading the quest paper content, Nine realized it wasn't only a single paper but two.
One was the actual quest paper created by the quest maker, while the second one was the people who were going to take this same quest from him.
"Elaine.... Aren't these people?" Nine called out to her, reading the list of the people he had to be with.
"Yes! These people are the same people, who tried to scam you for your first quest money rewards." She said, smiling at Nine's worried face.
"Well, except for this Jake person."
***
End of chapter 27.
Original chapter 33.