"I beg your pardon?" a man toiling away over an accounting book of some sort asked sharply towards the woman who was standing on the opposite side his desk.

She adjusted her glasses and frowned. "It's as I said. I ordered Growol and his merry little band of rapists to capture the foxkin. That was six hours ago. They should have been done two hours ago at most even if they molested the woman with him. I sent a small group of five down into the sewers to see what was taking so long, and oddly enough, in one of the tunnels, there were signs of fighting, though not a single body or even a drop of blood could be found."

"And the foxkin and his 'master' are merrily walking through the streets of Ranton as well?" the man asked as he brushed his hair back with his hand in frustration.

The woman nodded. "That's correct, Sir. It seems that we've underestimated him."

"Where is he heading?" The man had an impatient look on his middle-aged and fairly handsome face.

Frowning once more, the well-dressed lady replied, "The Adventurer's Guild."

"Fuck." The man hung his head back and stared up at the ceiling. "How were 20 men who were all at least D-rankers unable to subdue two F-rankers? I smell bullshit... Ha-ah... Anyway, there's no doubt that he'll squeal to that damned dragonkin... Keep an eye on him, and if he's ever secluded, let me know. I'll capture him myself."

"But sir, there's no way the grand guildmaster will overlook that considering how rare Golden Foxkin are. Thugs in a sewer is one thing, you, a nobleman, acting personally, is another. I think our window of opportunity has passed..." the woman advised regretfully.

The man stood up and shook his head. "I know, but we don't have a choice. He's easily worth his weight in ruby-gold coins. You know as well as I do how many lunatics of the underground scene are dying to get their hands on a nine-traited beastkin. If we can just get him and sell him off... You and I, we can leave this festering cesspool.”

“But your title-”

The man clicked his tongue and interrupted her. “A noble title means nothing in a kingdom like Milindo. I can buy a better title in a better place with the money that fox will earn me.”

The woman looked hesitant but nodded.

In a soothing tone, the man said, “We'll go to the Taslo Empire. With their upcoming war, there'll be plenty of opportunities to slip in there and set up a standing for us in their local underground. It’ll be simple as well to buy a large estate and perhaps a title if needed. It'll be our retirement."

The woman adjusted her glasses again in an effort to hide her rapidly reddening cheeks. "I hope it turns out that way..."

"It will, I promise. We just need to make no more mistakes or experience any more hiccups. We can do this, you hear me, Jess? We can, and we will. We have to. Duke Malik has been sniffing around all of Milindo a lot recently, and he's already caught wind of a few of our less important branches. It's only a matter of time before he finds the trunk... before he finds us. We’re lucky he’s shifted his focus to illegal mages as of late. We have no choice but to take this chance, so trust me, okay?" the man requested in a charming and almost pleading tone as he approached the woman and gently caressed her cheek.

Her expression hardened upon being reminded of Henry Malik and his efforts to purge not only Ranton but all of Milindo of what he deemed to be 'filth'. "I trust you, sir. I always have and always will."

"Good," the man replied as a devilish smile wormed its way onto his face.

Now all cleaned up and refreshed, Lone and Sophie returned to The Adventurer's Guild. Lone purposefully waited until their usual receptionist, Charles, was free, and he then approached the man's desk with the fully armoured Sophie by his side.

"It's good to see you two again," Charles greeted with a warm smile on his face.

Lone nodded. "Likewise," he said and then slid a silver coin across the desk. "I have the slime cores from the quest we accepted, but I also have something that I'd like to report in private again if you have the time."

Accepting the payment, Charles nodded. "Follow me, Lone, Sophie. We can deal with your request reward in the private room at the same time as your report."

Lone smiled in relief. "Perfect. Please, lead the way."

Charles nodded, and Lone and Sophie were soon led to the same room that they'd been in when they had informed the guild of the Manasilk Spider Queen.

After seeing that Lone and Sophie were comfortable - and making sure the sound-sealing enchantment was properly in place, Charles gave Lone and Sophie their reward for killing 25 slimes after he had collected the cores from them.

With that out of the way, Charles wore a worried frown. "Has a Slime King appeared? I don't doubt that with your talents that you two would struggle subduing a Slime Chief, so for you to request a meeting, a king must have appeared, no?"

Lone shook his head. "It has nothing to do with slimes."

Charles seemed confused. "Then what, Lone?"

'I'm taking a risk here by relying on the guild, but they seem uncorrupted, so here's hoping I'm not setting myself up for betrayal here...' Lone sincerely prayed to himself. "When we were down in the sewers, a bunch of men who we think were from the slums attacked us."

Charles frowned. "Would it not be wiser for you to give that information to the city guard?"

Lone smiled mockingly. "Like I can trust them. Practically every human that I've met outside of the guild has been a speciesist piece of shit. If I told them, I'd likely get arrested for lying or something. Hell, I'm half expecting the guys who attacked us to be somehow in league with the authorities. They were too well-organised and had a clear purpose when attacking us. Even if Sophie spoke in my stead and I played the submissive slave, she'd just get brushed off and given the cold shoulder, I bet."

Charles looked a little bit hurt by that. "I'm sorry for my people's actions against you, Lone. For it to be so bad that you have no trust in them... You have some level of protection as an adventurer. This is common knowledge across the entire continent. There was once a time that a guildmaster was secretly murdered in his sleep by a kingdom's soldiers under the orders of their king. Not a month later, Grand Guildmaster Sarah showed up and removed that king from his position with her own two hands."

Sophie raised an eyebrow. “Removed how?”

“Violently,” Charles chuckled.

Lone nodded. “I’ve heard she’s protective or adventurers, especially those above silver-plate or those working in the guild branches.”

Charles laughed a little bit and said, "Of course, she wouldn't go so far for a normal adventurer, but every single adventurer on the whole continent is free to use her name to protect themselves. You don't have anything to fear from Milindo's guards."

Lone shrugged. "Can I just entrust this to the guild, please? I'd feel more comfortable doing that. You're one of the few humans that I have faith in, and Guildmaster Gilbert seems to be a man with plenty of justice in him, and he's a fellow demi. If you won't take my request seriously, then can I please talk to him? I'll pay any fee you want to make up for taking some of his time."

The men who had attacked them didn't have any incriminating evidence on them in regards to their employer, and Lone most certainly did not want to waste time and effort on finding whoever was behind this attack.

He had more important things to do – namely, getting stronger.

He and Sophie couldn't flee the country until the tournament was over, and that wouldn't happen for another three weeks unless they wanted to potentially be chased down by a powerful mage , so until then, Lone wanted to rely on The Adventurer's Guild if he could.

Charles furrowed his brow and sighed softly. "I understand. I can't afford to bother the guildmaster since he's so busy, but I'll certainly try my best to deal with your req-"

"Ah, so it was you, Lone," a chuffed voice said as the door that led to the staff-only section of the building behind Charles opened up.

Spinning around, the receptionist questioned in surprise, "Guildmaster Gilbert... Should you not be handling the daily noble complaints?"

Gilbert stroked his goatee and flashed a charming smile. "You're the only employee with the balls to call me out, you know that, right? Don't worry. I'll deal with those arrogant stuck-up pricks later. For now, Lone, something's troubling you, yes?" the White Dragonkin asked. "Tell me about your problems. I'll see what I can do to help, hmm?"

Relief and a certain sense of elation could be seen on Lone's face upon hearing those words. "Sure, and thanks."

Gilbert frowned as he stroked his goatee after hearing Lone's explanation regarding the men he had encountered with Sophie in the sewers. "Troubling. Very troubling."

Lone smiled wryly. "Um, we won't be arrested for this, will we? I just don't want to be attacked again, which is why I'm risking our necks by telling you all of this."

Gilbert chuckled softly. "Don't worry, my boy. Killing those men was, yes, technically illegal, but is The Adventurer's Guild an institution of the law and local rules? No. It is an institution of peace and exploration. I have no obligation to reveal what you said to anyone. Of course, we try to follow local law when possible, but we’re not under oath to do so."

Lone sighed in relief upon hearing that, and some of his tension left him. "That's reassuring to hear. I figured as much, which is partially why I felt comfortable reporting this, but yeah, hearing it directly from you, the guildmaster, certainly helps put me at ease."

Gilbert nodded. "I know you don't want this information to be public, so I won't contact Milindo's city guard, as useless as those fools are. Here, take this," he said as he reached into his pocket and then placed a partially cracked orb that was about the same size as an average person's fist.

Both Lone and Sophie looked at the object curiously. Sophie cocked her head to the side as she inspected the orb. "That thing has a lot of magical power in it. Is it a weapon? We feel that if we forced some of our mana points into it then it would create a massive explosion."

Both Gilbert and Charles were scared by such a morbid idea. "Thankfully it's impossible to apply mana points directly into this, so no, it is not a weapon."

That was likely true normally, but Lone had witnessed Soph forcefully extend the life of his Illusionary Dome by injecting her mana into it – an impossible task conventionally.

He had a feeling that if she or Sophie tried to, they could make this magical sphere detonate like an atom bomb. ‘Scary thought.’

"Then what is it?" Sophie asked.

"It's a fairly rare and very valuable communication orb. It only has thirty or forty more uses in it before it shatters, but it'll work well enough," Guildmaster Gilbert explained before saying, "Lone, I can tell that both you and Sophie here have both of your mana organs awakened, so if you ever get into a bit of a pinch, contact me immediately with this. You just need to let some of your mana flow out of you while holding the orb and it’ll activate, linking it to the sister orb I hold, allowing for long-distance communication."

Lone was initially in awe at such a wondrous item, but he quickly came to his senses and shook his head. "This'll be very useful, but there's no way that I can just take this from you. How much would it go for on the market? I'll pay you what it's worth. I'm not swimming in gold, but I have some wealth."

Gilbert chuckled. He picked up the orb and walked over to Lone and Sophie's side of the table. Once there, he grabbed one of Lone's hands and placed the sphere into it. "Take it. That thing is worth way more than you could ever pay me, and I don't need it anymore. I used to use it to talk to my uncle, but he's been nagging me to return to our clan for far too long, so I don't need it now."

The dragonkin laughed a bit more strongly. “The old bastard. He got so upset I stopped answering him, he sent me his orb, hence why I have both. And tell me, what’s the point of that? Two different people need to hold possess each for them to have any worth.”

"But... I really can't accept this in exchange for just nothing. It could save mine and Sophie's lives," Lone's sense of personal honour was stopping him from accepting Gilbert's kindness.

Gilbert laughed again. "You can and you will. You're an honest kid, but seriously, if you want to give me something, then simply don't die. I never had the chance to meet the reclusive Golden Foxkin before their clan mysteriously disappeared a hundred years ago, so I feel it'd be a great show of disrespect to them as well as to Altros herself if I irresponsibly let one of the only two known Golden Foxkin in the world die to some criminal thugs. More seriously, I’d be the biggest disgrace of all beastkin if I didn’t do everything in my power to protect the only known nine-traited one to currently exist."

'Two known Golden Foxkin? Huh.' Lone didn't know what to say. "Uh... Well, thanks. I guess I can't really refuse you at this point, huh? I swear, I'll pay you back for this somehow."

Gilbert slapped Lone's shoulder with care and closed his eyes as his handsome face grinned. "Just keep adventuring. Also, don't let the fact that you killed some people wear you down too much, okay?"

Lone's eyes shook. "Wha-"

Gilbert's grin only grew. "Despite how young I look, I'm still over 400 years old, you know? You? You're actually young, anyone with a bit of wisdom could see that with but a glance. So don't let it eat away at your heart, okay, Lone? It was a you or them situation. Try not to lose too much sleep over them dying, will you? If it helps, no one will miss them. Not you, not I, not the people they knew, and most certainly not history itself."

Lone genuinely had no words for that. He stood there silently as he tried to find the proper way to respond.

Seeing her other personality's lover clamming up, Sophie took the initiative. She grabbed Lone's hand and bowed her head. "Thank you for the advice. I'm sure he'll take it to heart."

"The same applies to you, young lady," Gilbert claimed with a wise tone in his voice.

Sophie sneered a little. "If we are young, then what does that make you? Nothing more than seminal fluid? Regardless, thank you again. We shall not forget this favour of yours. We will not keep you for any longer than this."

With that having been said, she led Lone out of the room. Just before they left, however, Lone snapped out of his trance-like state and thanked both Gilbert and Charles before leaving a small sack filled to the brim with gold coins.

Gilbert had his hands clasped behind his back as he made his way back up to his office. He was humming happily as his mind wandered. 'What a good child. What Sophie said bothers me somewhat. While insulting words, there was meaning there. She truly thinks herself to be older than me. How? She’s a human at a low rank and while short, she looks no older than twenty or so.’

His racial skill truly could be a massive annoyance at times.

‘For all I know, she could be a demigod in disguise. Hah! Wouldn’t that be something? Regardless, she seems to genuinely care for him, and she serves as a good anchor to teach him not to hate humans... The auction is being held just after the tournament, isn't it?' Gilbert thought.

Auctions were commonplace all over the continent’s many kingdoms, empires, and ruling factions. Milindo was no exception to that despite how primitive the kingdom seemed to many.

The upcoming auction, however, was particularly special for a few reasons, only one of which Gilbert cared about.

His eyes narrowed as he used one of his hands to stroke his goatee. 'Yeah. Let's do that. They should be perfect. I can't let that bastard Malik get his hands on the baby, after all. The sooner it and Lone can leave Milindo, the better. Neither are safe here in this rotten country.'