Chapter 101 - An Impersonal Goodbye

Rynold sighed.

'Honestly, what's the point of me waiting here?' he thought to himself; as he watched the receptionist talking about him to another member of the staff.

On his seat, Rynold leaned back and looked at the ornated ceiling. There isn't anything to do here or anyone to talk to. It was just boring.

After a few minutes of waiting, Rynold can still clearly see the receptionist not doing anything to get his request done. Annoyed, he decided to do something about this.

Standing back up, Rynold deeply sighed before looking back at the receptionist. He stared intently as if saying, "I know what shit you're doing."

The receptionist looked back at Rynold with an expression that feigned innocence.

'Well, if that's how you want to play it,' Rynold thought as he approached the front desk.

He called over the receptionist to ask the guy how long it was going to take. After all, sitting and waiting for a few minutes certainly wasn't the best use of Rynold's time. Especially if someone was talking about him straight to his face.

"Look," Rynold said, obviously dissatisfied. "Just let them know that I was looking for them. Then, I'll be on my merry way."

Just when the receptionist was about to dismiss Rynold's request to pass along a simple message, someone called out to him.

"Hey! Rynold!"

'I'd recognize that voice anywhere,' Rynold thought as he turned around to see Leo who was approaching him without reservation.

"Did you consider the thing we talked about before?" Leo asked without even the slightest notion of holding back.

From the corner of his eye, Rynold could see the receptionist eyeing Leo with a face that emphasized his disgust. Clearly, the receptionist had some bad blood with Leo. To which, Rynold couldn't blame them for having a bad impression on humans.

"Yeah," Rynold answered while casually walking to the side, "Let's talk somewhere more private, shall we?"

The two left the common lobby, much to the receptionist's delight, and left for somewhere with a little more privacy.

As Rynold and Leo walked out of the building and entered a sort of narrow and quiet alley at the side of the building, they calmly leaned on the wall and talked.

"Okay," Rynold first spoke, "I've thought about it and decided that I'll take you up on the mission. But, you gotta understand that I'm not willingly giving my services for free."

Leo raised an eyebrow while looking at the stuff that was opposite of the wall they're leaning on. "What conditions do you have, then?" he asked.

"Well, for one thing, you can't really expect me to risk my life on shit that could go horribly wrong," Rynold started his explanation with a rather obvious observation. "It's simple, really. I do this and you have to pledge loyalty to me."

Immediately after Rynold finished to say his condition, Leo turned his head and stared at Rynold.

"And that's it? Seems kind of steep," Leo rebutted, "I mean, especially on your side. If things go wrong, won't you lose out on a lot more? Plus, you won't really gain anything if you want me to pledge loyalty to you after the mission. What if you're dead by then?"

"Heh," Rynold scoffed in the most careless way possible, "You'd be surprised how hard is it to kill me. Besides, it's not always that I can go and upheave an entire government. Call it... a personal goal of mine."

In truth, though, Rynold knew the risks that he was getting into. He wasn't dumb when it comes to his calculations and foresight. In the worst-case scenario, he can just run away if things go to shit.

But, the benefits of having a Thunder God Candidate under his wing would boost the overall strength of the army he's trying to build. Going through this would be one of his many stops in order to beat the Association of Sacrilegious Shits. Or, ASS, for short.

"Well, whatever, man," Leo shook his head in disapproval. If it were him in Rynold's shoes, he wouldn't dare accept such a risk. "If I say yes, does that mean I won't be able to go back home?"

Rynold looked back at Leo for asking that question. "Are you serious?" Rynold asked in return, "You know for a guy who's about to remove their family from the seat of power, you're very clingy to them."

Seeing Leo look back at him with a genuinely concerned expression, Rynold sighed.

"Don't worry," he continued, looking back at the stuff opposite the wall. "I'm not gonna deny anybody that sort of basic human right. I just need you guys whenever something bad goes down. I'm no monster. I'm just the guy who beats them."

Leo thought hard about what Rynold meant by that. Rynold, on the other hand, didn't really care about what Leo was thinking about because he had said his piece.

"I'll see you in the Teleportation Hall later. We leave at dusk," Rynold said as he slowly walked away from Leo, leaving the Thunder God Candidate to his thoughts.

'Hmm... Maybe I should say goodbye to Neana before leaving, huh? Too bad I have no clue where she is,' Rynold thought to himself as he slowly walked away from the Residential District.

Walking out to where he left his personal floating platform, Rynold hopped on and went straight to the Library. From there, he talked to Margareth about what he would need on the journey ahead.

Things such as teleportation stones and other sorts of potions and gear were already ready in preparation beforehand. Suffice it to say, Rynold didn't need to stay any longer than he had to.

From there, he went back to the workshop to double-check if he had left stuff behind. However, in his natural nature to carry things around his inventory all the time, the trip was practically a gigantic waste of time.

Although, one good thing did come out from spending his time moving around the Tree.

"Neana?" Rynold saw her as he locked the door to the workshop.

"Well, we're here too," Jack added from behind.

Rynold scoffed. "Whatever, man," he asked, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Why else are we here?" Oliver snickered in response, "I mean, besides taking over the penthouse area when you're gone."

"Funny," Rynold chuckled at Oliver's answer, "If you actually want to stay inside there, just grab the key from Margareth. I never really opened the place after the first tour."

After finishing that sentence, Rynold moved past the group that managed to show up just when he was leaving. Well, until Neana stood in his way.

"Are you leaving without saying goodbye?" Neana directly asked.

Rynold looked at the girl and patted her on the head, something that he hasn't done in quite a while. He took in a deep breath, looked Neana straight in the eye, and spoke.

"Bye."

And, just like that, Rynold moved to the floating platform that was parked just a few meters away from where Neana had stopped him. Truthfully, he could've given her a better goodbye.

But, he just wasn't good at it.

Call it some sort of psychological condition, Rynold never really liked saying goodbyes. As much as he deemed it proper during the situation, it always felt that they were never going to see each other again.

"Don't forget to bring back souvenirs!!" Chris yelled out as Rynold got on his personal floating platform. To which, Rynold simply responded by raising his middle finger.

Not sparing a glance back, Rynold activated the platform and headed down onto the very depths of the Tree. He took in the sights one last time before leaving for who knows how long.

He couldn't describe the feeling of leaving for quite some time in the most uncanny and impersonal way possible. However, Rynold was somehow looking forward to the tasks he had from this point forward.

In fact, part of him was glad that he had something to do now. Part of him knew that he was never really good at taking action upon himself. He was always reacting, never acting.

Well, he never really complained about being the one who's always taking care of things as they came up anyway. Truth was, he actually liked doing it. Fixing problems as they come up, that is.

And, Leo's problem seemed like an interesting problem to fix.

Soon, Rynold approached the Teleportation Hall.

With his thoughts in a somewhat unfocused state, he didn't realize that he was there until the platform completely stopped. Looking down on the path that he had to walk on, Rynold pushed forward.

Leo was already waiting for Rynold to arrive, seemingly arriving earlier than the time that Rynold had designated.

Without a word spoken to each other, Rynold stepped on the teleportation platform. As Leo inputted the coordinates of his family estate back in his birthplace, the light shone from the ground and soon encompassed the entirety of their vision.

As the light slowly dissipated, nothing stood in their place.

=End of Vol 2=