Coco

Blaze sat on a big chair behind the table in the hall and pulled out the applications from the bag in his hand.

There were three other chairs besides his own chair.

Although those chairs were smaller than his, they were all identical.

Evan had already made seating arrangement for the three kids, even without Blaze saying anything prior to coming here.

Blaze looked towards the closed door on the other side and called out.

"The first person can come in."

*Click*

With the sound of the door opening, a beautiful Blonde women with bronze skin walked in.

She stopped walking when she was a few feet away from Blaze.

"Hello~ Mr. Blaze ! You look even more handsome in real life."

She waved at Blaze with a big smile on her face.

{Well, she sure is lively. But why do I have this odd feeling of deja vu when I look at her?}

"Yes, greetings to you.. Ms. Coco."

Blaze replied as he read her application form.

"So, your class is Archer? Rank - A. Your main skills are?"

"Arrow generation, Target marker and Eraser."

"All of them are class related?"

"Yes~"

"It says here that you have an elemental as well."

"Yes, sir."

Ms. Coco pouted and took out a pink steel pipe from her waistbelt.

Blaze just silently but curiously watched her blow air into the pink hollow cylindrical pile.

A large bubble came out from the other side of the pipe.

Once she was done blowing air into it, the bubble detached itself from the pipe.

It flew over and enveloped one of the empty chairs next to Blaze.

The bubble then flew back towards Ms. Coco with the chair inside it as if the chair had no mass at all.

"I knew that there were many weird elements. But bubbles? That's a new one."

Blaze commented as Coco placed the chair down along with the bubble.

She grinned and explained excitedly.

"Yeah. It's really unique. I can even lift a building with it!

But of course, because of the size difference I would have to blow some more bubbles for the full building to fly."

She then poked the bubble with the same steel pipe with which she had made that bubble.

Then, she proceeded to swing the pipe like a baseball bat and hit the bubble with it.

"The durability of the bubbles depends on mine and the target's strength. As long as the target is equal in strength or weaker than me, there is no way for them to burst it."

As she had said, the bubble showed no signs of bursting even after getting poked and hit by a steel rod.

Blaze nodded.

"Ok. That's enough. You can put the chair back now, Ms. Coco."

The bubble returned the chair back to its original place and then burst without a sound.

{Her abilities will be pretty useful during a raid. But, the issue is whether she is trustworthy or not.}

At that time, light knocks sounded from the side door from which Blaze had entered previously.

Blaze answered without any delay.

"You can all come in."

Frore entered through the door first, followed by the now neatly dressed pair of siblings.

Aakriti smiled at Blaze.

"We are back, big brother."

Blaze smiled back at her.

"Yes, welcome back. All of you sit down."

{He is back at the right time.}

[Frore, use 'lie detection' at that lady when she answers my question.]

Blaze was referring to the skill that Frore had obtained back in the 'Beehive dungeon' from the crazy cult member.

Frore sat next to Blaze and answered without looking at him.

{..ok.}

Blaze made eye contact with Coco.

"Now, Ms. Coco. Honestly you have a good control over your elemental, you have a high rank and a useful class.

The big three would easily take someone like you in, they might even provide you with better conditions than me.

Yet you have never been affiliated to any guilds before. So, why do you want to join our guild now?"

"Hmm..."

She looked up for a minute, she seemed to be thinking about her answer.

"I don't really like the way they do things. They just care about themselves, not about the citizens of the empire."

She then grinned again and made eye contact with Blaze.

"Besides I had no interest in the guild leaders of the big three."

{Basically, you are saying that I piqued your interest.}

Blaze felt a shiver crawl up his skin from her gaze.

Coco had a crazy look in her eyes for a moment before they returned to normal.

Blaze calmly looked at her.

"Why do I feel like you just made up the other two reasons to cover up the fact that your main reason was the last one?"

Coco winked at him and then laughed.

"He. He~ I got caught."

"That's right, Mr. Blaze. I'm interested in you. You're my type."

Blaze was taken aback by her straightforwardness and could only blankly ask back.

"... Excuse me?"

"Don't worry~ that's not the full reason. I know you defeated that S plus ranked monster all by yourself. I want to become stronger and I think you can help me with that."

Blaze glanced at Frore sideways.

Frore had his arms crossed with a frown on his face, but he did not say that any of her statements until now were false.

That implied that whatever she had said, including the two reasons she had given before the 'not interested' part were all true.

{That's really something. But at least she is not an enemy or a spy. Her knowing about me defeating Monoirister is a bit suspicious though.}

Then he seriously replied to Coco.

"I can help you become stronger but, I will let you know right now that I am not interested in dating anyone right now or in the near future. So, if you want to change your decision, now is your only chance."

Frore stopped frowning when he heard that and turned his head in Blaze's direction.

"Aw~but you are not dating anyone right now. That means I can keep trying as long as I am here, right?

Just being able to look at you and having a chance is enough for me.

Getting stronger with a good and handsome guild leader is already a really nice deal. How can I give up on it? So..I look forward to working together with you, guild leader."

Coco walked up to the table and reached out her hand.

Blaze blankly shook her hand.

{Her confidence is something else too. She is sure that she will definitely be selected and will be in the first raid team at that.}

She turned around and excited through the same door from which she had entered.