The top guilds

"Now, for the fake identity. Tell me if you have a name in mind."

"...Frost" Frore replied unhesitatingly. 

{Seems like he had already thought about it.}

"Oh...it's similar to your real name. Then, your second name would be 'Ignis', the same as me. As my "little brother", what do you think?"

"...ok." for some reason Frore didn't feel good about being treated as Blaze's little brother. But, he accepted it anyway, for the time being.

"Be prepared, you will need to get a new hunter's licence and I will go through a rank re-evaluation to make my rank S. There might be reporters there too. If they ask you any questions you don't have the answer to or you don't want to answer, you can just ignore them."

Frore nodded his head. 

The next day, at the association building.

{As expected, as soon as the test results came out, the reporters all flooded the association building's entrance. Well it will be good for the promotion of our guild anyway.} 

Blaze had this thought while looking out of the window. 

{I expected 'them' to make a move, but that was much faster than I anticipated.}

Blaze was looking at the leaders of the top three guilds of the empire, who were climbing the stairs at the association building's entrance one by one, while waving at the cameras and answering some questions asked by the reporters. 

{Hmph. Look at them all, acting like nice and sophisticated people. In reality, they are just waiting for a moment when there is an opening, to snap each other's neck.}

{Of course, all of them want to recruit me to their guild first. It's understandable, since the balance will be greatly affected and tilt towards the side of the guild I join. I am the 10th S-ranked hunter of the empire, after all. Each of the three big guilds have two S-rank hunters. While one of the remaining three works for the association and the other two prefer to work alone.}

He then turned to look at the person who just entered the room.

Frore was not here as he was still taking the exam for the new hunter's licence, but he shouldn't have trouble in finding Blaze anyway. Blaze had brought Kaiser with him.

The person had better than average looks with brown eyes and light brown styled hair, he was wearing rectangular glasses and black formal suit. 

"Hello, my name is Sirus. I am the director of the hunter's association. Congratulations, Mr. Blaze on becoming the 10th S-ranked hunter of the empire." 

He extended his hand towards Blaze. Blaze stood up and shook his hand. 

"Yes, thank you very much." Blaze smiled.

He was smiling but he wasn't happy on the contrary, he was feeling frustrated. He wanted to punch Sirus in the face, but couldn't.

{This guy, he is one of the people I never wanted to meet. In , he created a lot of trouble for Frore who already had enough on his plate because of the cultists, even before he was declared as a 'villain'.}

In fact, Sirus had played a huge role in making Frore a criminal, public's enemy. He was greedy guy and took a lot of bribes from the three top guilds who were jealous of Frore's power and wanted to bring him down. 

{Ah ... it's difficult to hold back. I want to slap him at least once!}

Blaze squeezed the hand which he was shaking tightly. 

Sirus tried to take his hand back and shake Blaze off, but failed. He was just a B - rank, he could not compete with a S - rank's strength! 

In the end he could only cry out.

"Um..Mr. Blaze. My hand ..!" 

Blaze let go of his hand and said with an apologetic smile, " Oh my! I am sorry. I think I haven't properly adjusted to my new strength yet."

Sirus took his throbbing reddened hand back. 

"It's fine.." he replied as if it was not an issue. 

{As if it's fine! You rascal! Even a kid can tell that it was on purpose. You got a problem with me or the association? I don't care either way. Just listen to what I have to say and I will get out of your hair!} 

They both sat down on the chairs opposing each other.

Sirus took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Blaze, I would like to officially invite you the Sakura guild. They promise to provide you with the best treatment possible and have proposed to give you twice the amount of pay than the combined offers of the other two guilds."

{Woah ... that will be a really huge sum! As I thought Sakura's leader, Miss Hikaru isn't stingy with matters that can be resolved using money. It's a great offer. Too bad, but I can't accept it. }

Blaze asked with some amusement in his voice. "Sakura guild? I thought you were here to recruit me for the association." 

{He is a greedy bastard in the end. He doesn't give a damn about the empire or it's people, as long as he is getting what he wants he will even lick your boots...Tsk.Tsk.}

Blaze internally cliched his tongue.

"...Well, you can join the association too is you want. However, they can only provide you with benefits and salary of a regular government worker. That's why I proposed something that will be beneficial for you. I heard you have a little brother. You are young too and have to take care of him, so joining Sakura guild can benefit you both. They said that if your brother successfully passess the hunter's lisence exam, they will accept him to the guild as well; irrelevant of his rank." 

{Oh! This shrewd bastard has done his homework before coming here. He must have recieved a good sum from Sakura.}

"Is that so? I am grateful for their kindness."

"Then let's quickly sign the contract!" Sirus placed the documents and the pen on the table with a bright smile.

"But, I would be rejecting their offer."

Blaze stood up and started walking towards the door of the Director's office.