Lucien

Inside the adventurer's guild.

The surrounding crowd was curiously looking at the group of three individuals who were facing personnel of the guild. However, the guild personnel were having a hard time to pacify the middle-aged person and were about to flare up due to anxiety.

"Please, calm down first, Mr. Else I would have no choice but to detain you guys for disturbing the guild." The staff reminded them while giving a glance to the group of three.

Seeing the reaction of the guild personnel, Missa, who was a quick-witted person of their group, voiced out her thoughts, before things got more complicated.

"Mr. Lori, I know you are having a hard time to calm down, but for the sake of the two kids, please settle down for a bit." Saying that, Missa shifted her glance to the staff. "Mr. Lucien, I apologized if Mr. Lori was behaving like this, but please don't blame him. It was because of his nephew and niece went missing early in the morning."

When Lucien heard her explanation, his expression turned sharp for a moment, before glancing at the surroundings as he said. "Come, let's switch location." He said, sending a hand gesture to his colleague. After that, Lucien led Missa's group to a private room. Coincidentally, it was the same room he used to interrogate Aldin, who came last time to report regarding the unusualness of the beginner's forest.

Lucien halted his movement, then he gently opened the door with a welcoming gesture. "Please come inside."

Missa moved her gaze from her sister to Lori, who was trying his best to control his uneasiness. "Let's go." Giving a slight nod, the group went inside.

Once Lucien verified that there were no nearby guild personnel around them, he went inside and gently closed the door.

Missa who was paying attention to his every move found it odd. However, she only shook the head in confusion.

"Mm, please take a seat," Lucien said, while he moved toward the center table as he summoned a beverage inside his spatial tool.

"Please take a sip, Mr. Lori, this tea would help you soothe your anxiety." Pouring the content inside the teacup, a rich aromatic flavor of dried leaves engulfed the surrounding place.

Hearing his voice, Lori wasn't in the state to be polite and drank the mild aromatic tea in one gulp. After that, a palliative feeling calmed his chaotic mind.

Staring at him, Lucien said. "How was it, Mr. Lori?" He said, as he watched Lori's expression return to its tranquility.

"Mm, excellent tea. Thank you, Mr. Lucien." After he said his appreciation, Lori's expression changed. He did not wait for Lucien to ask him what happened and narrated the event that occurred early this morning.

When he was done listening to Lori's story, Lucien's eyes flickered swiftly, before it returned to its serene state.

"Mm, I understand your concern, Mr. Lori, please leave it to the guild." After saying those words. Lucien grinned slightly as he put a pea size medicine inside his mouth.

Watching his odd behavior, Missa could no longer stay put. She was about to voice out her thoughts when a sudden dizziness attacked her consciousness. "Wha—"

Then her body fell asleep on the wooden chair. Lori, who was strongest among the group, tried to fight back the sudden attack. Moving his gaze to his left, there he saw Mirabell's sluggish body on the ground.

Lori resisted the urge to fall asleep. However, his body won't respond to his command. "... What did you do?" Lori grabbed a hold to the recliner of the wooden chair while fiercely glaring at Lucien.

Lucien smirked when he saw Lori's futile struggle. "Hehehe, don't fight it back beast-kin, that medical herb is one of the kind, it's a rare piece you see, and can even take down a high-grade monster, what is a more mere beast-kin like you?" Lucien sneered while he observed the futile struggle of Lori.

"Take it easy, I won't do anything to you guys, after all. There were a dozen eyes that saw your group interact with me." Lucien stood up from his seat as he continued.

"Don't worry after you guys woke up, you won't remember anything." With a self-satisfied smile hung on his face, Lucien left the place.

However, he would've never thought that on the higher floor of the adventurer's building, inquisitive eyes were watching their every move.

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At the upper building of the adventurer's guild.

Inside this study room, the piled-up documents made of untanned skins of animals were covering the silhouette of a woman with a blazing scarlet hair. In the middle of the table woman lazily sitting on a delicate crafted wooden chair, with a bird feather mattress as padding.

The woman darted her gaze beneath the ground. The unusual thing about her was both of her eyes flickered with a radiance of golden-red hue.

"Mm, this mole. He finally showed his true color, too bad even though he was pretty much useful inside the guild. But this time around, his action is not something I could tolerate." The woman said, shifting her gaze to nearby personnel, she said. "Monitor Lucian's movement for me, if there was something out of your control. You can inform me by using this." The woman threw a piece of parchment to the person.

"Understood, Madam Rosaleen." The person said with a slight bow.

"Mm, you may go now," Rosaleen said, shifting her gaze to the far offside of the adventurer's training ground. "So what would you do now, Kiro? I do hope you show me something interesting." Rosaleen muttered with an inaudible tone, whilst peering at adventurer's lodge.

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Back to the training lodge.

Aldin was explaining to Kiro what the newbie crusher was all about. "Newbie Crusher is a group that recruits an inexperienced new adventurer like us. But their intention wasn't appropriate. They intend to take advantage of the fact of those newly aspiring adventurers who were clueless how a union works and let them do the miscellaneous labor work for them." Pausing for a bit, Aldin continued.

"Also, there was a rumor circulating, that certain newbie crusher union was doing an unconstitutional job, like slavery. But those rumors weren't proven, even though the guild took some drastic action. They didn't catch the shadows of the perpetrator."

Saying this far, Aldin recollected a piece of information that was recently circulating around the F-ranking adventurers. "However, rumors were circulating to a certain individual, it was no other than Rex, the union leader of Black Scarf."

"There were some rumors about his frequent visit to the underground world. Still, it wasn't enough reason for him to be suspected. Due to the fact, most of the veteran adventurers sometimes needed the assistance of the underground world when they were dealing with a high-risk commission."

Hearing him, Kiro's expression turned solemn. Because the name of the person he saw was Daren, not Rex. "So how's that Rex connected to that guy Daren?" Shifting his gaze to Aldin, Kiro said.

Noticing his odd behavior, Aldin responded. "Daren is the right-hand man of Rex, usually he is the person in charge of recruiting the new adventurers."

When Kiro heard his words, his expression turned grave. Then, he stood up from the wooden chair as he exclaimed. "We better regroup with Alyva and others, I think I know where we could find those two children."

With that said, Kiro did not wait for Aldin's response as he dashed out of their cottage, searching for the two women around the vicinity of the adventurer's lodge.