Chapter 007. A lull moment

The meeting took a while to conclude since they have a lot of things to consider like the transport of leviaths inside the barrier. Afterwards, Keid left a few reminders especially to Ayla before logging off.

Most of them exhaled, half in relief and exhaustion as the monotonous meeting caused some parts of their body to slumber.

Vega was obviously too thrilled compared to others from the way she impulsively burst to a small jig alone. "We'll be hunting leviaths, darling Ayla. Isn't it exciting?!"

More quick-witted porters were able to catch on Vega's extreme fanaticism having a come back as they subtly avoided the bespectacled woman.

"I thought we'll go back without nothing, but we get take not only one but two leviaths!" She continued emotionally and lifted two fingers and waved it crazily at Ayla's face to emphasize her point.

Her wide intense eyes were emitting so much positive energy that it was overwhelming other porters, but Vega was too happy to care.

However, her reaction isn't entirely unreasonable since this is the party's first official attempt to contain a live leviath inside the barrier.

Of course, they already done it years ago after Ayla was old enough for the operation, but there were a lot of power struggle that happened within the military afterwards that Keid ultimately trash the whole thing together.

Vega had been particularly the one most devastated when they killed the leviath, which she affectionately named Samchon.

But today, they finally receive the green light to capture leviaths for experiments after a long time of pressuring the Higher Council albeit it was reluctantly. Still, it can be considered as a win in their side.

Dabih walk up to Vega after she and her team organized the papers strewn all over the table. Her reliable notebook already filled with additional scribbles, filling a total of 3 pages front and back after the meeting.

"I'll take my team to the location first. We'll need more time to determine the safest location for the porters."

"Sure, but keep an eye out for any valkyrie just in case." Vega advised them.

Dabih nodded before leading her small team out of the tent. Vega and Ayla weren't too worried about their safety since they were one of Keid's capable guys. An ordinary knight is still several notches stronger than an average person regardless of their division.

Vega already settled her energy and lazily plopped down on a nearby chair. "By the way, shouldn't Caelum come here already?" She hummed thoughtfully after realizing the strange silence in the room.

They were the only one left after the porters, not including Dabih's team, already snuck out with the pretense of helping outside.

Right after Vega said that, the door of the tent flap open and a 7 ft. tall muscular figure appeared. He even had to bend slightly in order to slip inside the tent.

Both of them look toward the noise and recognize Hamal, the person inflicted with an rare growth disorder. It was the person with Ayla, who rescued the stranded porters in that crumbling three-story building.

Along with his extraordinary size, his distinct features of naturally golden skin (even with the Kingdoms four seasons) and thick long black hair easily set him apart the common Aeviternian folks.

But strangely enough, this person speaks the kingdom's formal noble language fluently more than anyone in this room.

"I must apologize for arriving late, but it took longer than expected to kill the last two." He muttered quite sheepishly for someone who just plummet a valkyrie savagely thirty minutes ago and still look like it still wants to cause another rampage.

Vega wave her hand as if to dismiss his worry with a cheery grin. "Good job, Hamal. You can rest for a bit while we wait for others to arrive."

"I must thank you for your offer, Miss Vega." Hamal nodded dutifully before walking in the corner of the room where Ayla is lazily reclining in a chair.

He pull a small yet hefty pouch out his secret pocket and hand it to Ayla.

Ayla lifted her eyes to briefly gaze at the pouch before meeting Hamal's gaze with a flat glare.

"Yes?"

"Miss Ayla, this is for you. This is sent by Sir Sirius in hopes you can finish this run with high spirit."

Ayla's eyes brighten up as she receive the pouch carefully. She already had an idea what's inside based on the faint fruity sent.

She laughed smugly as she pop a random dried fruit inside her mouth. The tangy orange flavor burst to her mouth, lifting her mood back to the top.

"That guy favors Ayla too much. I want to file a complaint for unequal work environment."

Vega grumbled, but she was wearing a helpless grin upon seeing that tiny crescent that appears in the corner of Ayla's eyes whenever she's pleased.

Ayla never realize how anyone could easily understand her expressions by just spending a small amount of time watching her closely.

"If I may say so, Miss Vega. You don't act different from Sir Sirius toward Miss Ayla also." Hamal remarked lightly.

Vega only smiled wryly at Hamal's words, however, she didn't negate his words.

Maybe it's because they could never separate the Ayla now from the little girl, who was close to dying in that godforsaken place.

She went through so much to become this arrogant brat today. Sometimes Vega was confuse where that snot-faced girl from the past go.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Ayla find it disgruntling catching Vega’s sappy gaze pinned on her.

'Well, I do think we spoil her too much.'

They lounge around the tent for a few minutes just chatting while eating dried fruits. However, waiting while doing nothing can feel like so many hours had passed.

Vega groaned, throwing a dried plum black to the bowl and slouching further deeper on her seat. She was getting impatient waiting for that person to arrive. Her babies are waiting for her!

"Where the hell is that blockhead?"

....

The blockhead, who was just observing the dead valkyrie, suddenly sneezed loudly, catching the people around them off guard.

"Goddamnit, I think this frigid weather is getting worse." Caelum rubbed his nose roughly causing it to turn red. He also strangely felt goosebumps on his arms even when the carcass was emitting so much hot vapor around the place because of its sheer size.

But that was only Caelum’s fleeting thought and put his attention to the porter, who walked up to him to report.

"Reporting, we have a visual of the blue flare. The extermination should be successful as expected."

Caelum made small hum of acknowledgement and jutted his thumb to the direction of the stationary cavaliers behind him, while speaking, "then, I'll leave them to guard you all. I'll have to report to the party leader about the status over here."

"Yes, sir. We will work double time to complete the harvest!" There was obviously a bit more happiness after mentioning the harvest.

Caelum simply grinned at the porter's enthusiasm, patting the porter's shoulder briefly on his way out of the area with the dead leviath.

He was also looking forward to seeing a few more zeroes today like the porter. The valkyries were beginning to look like sweet luxurious candleholders in Caelum's eyes.

Because the valkyrie this time had a bulky mass, the porters had to wait a bit more until the hot vapor dissipate a little in order to safely gather the hard materials and precious ores underneath.

Still, the waiting time is nothing compared to the expected exorbitant value they'll earn from the raw materials of a valkyrie.

"What do you think will happen to the run?" Azah's haggard appearance suddenly lagged beside him with a somber grimace as if he was sentenced to ten years of forced labor.

Caelum raised an eyebrow at Azah’s expression, but had a sliver of conscience to not provoke his mood like he would normally do.

He looked away and hummed thoughtfully. "Well, Keid will definitely let us continue this time."

Azah's shoulders instantly droop down ruefully. All hope were already lost after he was convinced by Caelum’s self assured words.

“We already used a lot of energy and time to kill 5 valkyries. How can we still continue in this state?"

Azah continued to grumble something along the lines of forcing hardworking employees to overtime every damn time is a form of job abuse.

For a person who runs a bakery full time, this person has the text book personality of a slacker with the least qualities of a business owner.

“Seriously, you done laughing?” Azah felt seriously vexed seeing Caelum having a great time at his suffering.

“Ah. I’m sorry. My brain malfunction for a second.” Caelum revert back to his cool expression nonchalantly and replied sincerely. That conscience he had was originally just a sliver anyway.

“Like I would believe you.” Azah retorted sardonically. He don’t even want to waste more energy to stay angry at Caelum’s halfhearted excuse and simply ditched him for the sake of a sound mind.

Caelum, unaware of what the other’s thinking, didn’t question Azah’s abrupt desertion after he spotted Miroh at the same time, standing stiffly at the side in consideration for the busy porters.

"This is crazy..."

Miroh muttered unconsciously, revealing his thoughts out loud. He didn't even realized that he was clenching the still burning icy blue tyrfing tensely. His eyes can’t help from darting left to right, trying to take in everything to his memory.

He had a suspicion that this party wasn't your ordinary rogue party, but this is beyond anything he imagined. The people he initially accused of being cults actually have monstrous skills that left him lying to rust.

Even the porters were performing like top notch experts as they obviously follow a systematic order in harvesting the raw materials from the carcasses efficiently.

Caelum snickered upon hearing Miroh's words by chance. Contrary to his expectation, Miroh didn't run to the hills yet. It seems like he wasn't affected by the valkyries like Keid had originally worried.

"How are you feeling, Greenie?"

Miroh slightly grimaced after recognizing the owner of the voice.

It was Caelum, the person with the ambiguous identity who he considerably bonded earlier, walked up with an unconstrained air to him with that lopsided grin.

Caelum eyed the tyrfing burning blue in his hand and let out a small whistle marveling the sword's aesthetics. "Wow, you lucky greenie! You finally calibrated your tyrfing. What are the odds of it happening today?!"

Miroh hunched his shoulders even more at Caelum's words, avoiding the stares prickling at him.

"All knights has to overcome the greatest struggle in their mind to calibrate their tyrfing." He stated genially, shrugging off Caelum’s compliment without sounding conceited.

To be honest, all the excitement he felt for his cool tyrfing diminish as soon as he realized the chatty "doctor" he met actually wields a long ranged intangible tyrfing and worked together with another strong cavalier to bring down a single valkyrie, which would originally take fifteen or more ordinary knights to do.

It was like watching two giant whales fighting, while being in the middle as a shrimp. How can he still feel arrogant around this group of munchkins?

Miroh eyed the smiling blond figure in front him curiously.

Caelum stared back at him, noticing the look on his face. “Whatcha looking at, punk?”

Slowly, the righteous image that Miroh envisioned on Caelum disintegrated to dust as if it was never there in the first place.

“Uh, I noticed that Sir Caelum uses a long ranged tyrfing. This is the first time I saw a long ranged weapon used in a run.” Miroh recalled the long ranged weapon that Caelum and the longsword Azah were using earlier.

The weapons weren’t like anything he had seen back at the military. Unlike the polished and pristine weapons fit for a knight's image, their weapons seem to possess a rugged edge to it.

Moreover, disregarding the workmanship of the weapons, they were using the tyrfings however they like. Long ranged weapons were exclusively for the elite Blue Summertide faction inside Keren because of its innately weaker aurora imbued for human safety.

“Ah. That’s because my body’s constitution is not enough to fight leviaths directly like others. I prefer working as a support when it is needed.” He replied without missing a beat.

Miroh had never see someone confess their weakness so casually to him. “Ah. Is that so?” He mumbled with an awkward drawl at the end.

Miroh felt an iffy feeling at the strange contradiction. What kind of person with weak constitution can make a harmless long ranged weapon look so threatening?

“By the way,” Caelum piped up, glancing at his tyrfing in concern, “why are you still using your tyrfing? Aurora deviation is more likely to happen in the early stages of calibration.”

Miroh flinched and glanced down at his tyrfing, which was drawing in unnecessary stares even now.

He already realized this predicament once he tried turning the tyrfing back to normal. He couldn't control his tryfing in his own volition for some reason. This means he had to meet that terrible green haired again for help.

“It’s like this...I couldn’t turn it back to normal.”

Caelum instantly raised an eyebrow, perplexed. “Really? What happened?”

Miroh initially didn’t want to tell anyone, but the risk of aurora deviation is higher than facing any possible charges for tampering his tyrfing.

He briefly recounted meeting the green haired and causing the calibration of his tryfing minus the part where he was thrown over the shoulder to the leviath’s mouth. That’s the bottom line.

Caelum didn’t interrupt him and only nodded along until Miroh finished his narration.

He suddenly trudged forward as making up his decision, while stretching his stiff limbs. "Okay, let's go see Vega, right now."

"What?" Miroh’s heart beat almost skipped a beat at Caelum’s casual remark. Why does it sound like an evil foreboding?

Caelum paused in confusion at Miroh’s strange reaction. “You have to meet the troublemaker who made that sword this way.”

“Plus,” he then looked up, scratching his cheek thoughtfully, “you probably want to meet the party leader, right?”