A/N: Sorry a lot of work came out of nowhere:(

It was the afternoon and Ares was serving drinks and food along with the staff at the Bumbling Bee.

‘I knew he wouldn’t just let me stay here for free.’ Ares grumbled.

Despite his complaints, Ares was quite the waiter. He even took command of the waitresses and doubled the efficiency of taking orders.

Orders were taken at light speed. So much so that it was the cooks who couldn’t keep up.

“Slow down, Ares. You’re gonna make our customers think our cooks aren’t doing their job!” Ryner said before giving a hearty laugh. He patted Ares on the back.

“Well, it’s no big deal.” He said trying to swallow his smile with a grimace.

Rachel was still atop his head. He began to gain a reputation across Helgathor for it. Even when going out to the vegetable districts and port, Rachel was always there.

Seeing a handsome, expressionless young man with an adorable girl wrestling with his hair drew the stares of the people. He was given the nickname ‘The Royal Carpet’ as Rachel’s feet never touched the ground. The name even followed him to the inn.

When Effari came along, they gave the impression of a young family. But Effari was still awkward around him ever since he came back. She was afraid of making him angry again.

‘He was so scary.’ She thought, shuddering at the gaze she recalled. She looked at him talking to Ryner, and turned her head away. Effari thought he was masculine when facing off with those adventurers, but the way he stared at her that night… ‘He was just in a bad mood.’ She thought trying to convince herself, but his cold gaze and murderous intent lingered in her thoughts, unable to fade.

Ares felt sorry towards Effari, but he had more important things to think about. He asked around about Gillius and there were rumors that he was personally assembling strong adventurers across the continent for some reason. This would be the perfect opportunity to meet him.

His plan was simple. All he had to do was become a famous enough adventurer for his father to seek him out on his own. But there’s a problem…

Ares had no mana.

Even with his overwhelming skills in swordplay and the king’s constitution, he wouldn’t be able to kill anything capable of covering their body in mana, which was basically everything but common animals and people.

Ares let out a snort in place of his usual sigh. ‘Damn this body of mine!’ He thought, clutching the cloth near his chest. ‘Even after ten years, I’m still useless…”

His father was so close, yet so far. His solution was right in front of him, but he lacked the means to complete it. He began wiping the empty table with furious whirls and gritted teeth.

“Ever since that Azazil guy came, business has gone so well! This is all because of you, Ares!” Ryner shouted in his direction, but Ares showed no reaction.

How could he forget? He was all the customers talked about. His tales of glory, battle, and charity. Ares heard the beginning of a conversation he knew all too well from a nearby table.

“You think that Azazil-wannabe is going to come today?” A man with a brown robe said.

“I hope so.” Another said. “He might be the real thing. Everyone wants to see the legend in the flesh.”

A woman with a light armor interjected. “There are all sorts of rumors flying around. I came from Fieffel just to see if it’s true that he’s actually here.”

The conversation continued as the men tried to entertain the woman. Just like that, the conversation drowned out of Ares’s ears.

The entrance of the inn was kicked open by a woman with fiery red hair and blue eyes followed by the silver-haired girl, Chyrsella.

‘Not them again…’ Ares said expressionless, giving them a quick glance before returning to his work. But a quick glance was all he needed.

Ares didn’t take a good look at her before. But she was truly breathtaking. Her luminescent silver hair and sharp blue eyes with her light, regal armor and noble atmosphere gave her an imposing presence. He still remembered the eyes that resembled his own. Even so, Ares was not looking forward to their reunion. He didn’t care to look at the red-haired one. He wasn’t interested in her.

He tried to avoid them, but seeing everyone else too busy to take their order as they found an empty table, he made his way towards them reluctantly. He also heard the voices of other adventurers.

“Hoooh, is he going to finish what he started?” Everyone that remembered the short bout said something similar.

‘It seems everybody already forgot I work here now.’ Ares thought.

His first words dashed their hopes in two.

“May I take your order?” Ares said as disinterested as possible. He heard the onlookers sigh, but he paid no heed.

The red-haired one seemed ready to lunge at him, but was stopped by Chyrsella as she grabbed her wrist. She gave her a glare before she sat down reluctantly, arms crossed.

Seeing she wouldn’t be able to resume her duel, she started to provoke him with words, like Ares thought she would, but he was prepared.

Rachel tried to stare the other one down, but she only giggled at her cute act, which prompted her to hide her face in Ares’s hair.

“I would rather a real man take my order.” She said with a mocking smile.

‘…That actually pissed me off a bit…’ Ares thought. His eyebrow twitched slightly. No one would normally notice… but she did and her smiled widened. ‘Damn…’

Before the situation, escalated any further, Effari bumped Ares to the side. When he tried to look at her, she avoided his gaze. Even though she saved him from a bad situation, she seemed scared for her life.

After taking their order, she looked up to Rachel and pleaded her to come down. She refused and Rachel scuttled away.

The girls at the table gave him questioning glances. But the whole inn was focused on the two girls, who came with a man that claimed to be Azazil not too long ago. As Ares left to occupy another table, the girls were surrounded.

“Are you really traveling with Azazil?”

Before any more questions could be asked, a deep voice drowned out all the noise, making his stand out.

“Is it true he accepted Gillius’ invitation to join his expedition?” The man said, chewing on some sort of black material. He had a brown beard and short hair with no eyebrows. He was wearing heavy armor and a large shield was on his back accompanied by a large blade about half the width of his large body. He spit the black material out his mouth before awaiting their answer. But Ares was stunned.

‘That man was asked by my father to join his… expedition?Ares thought. But that wouldn’t make any sense. That man seemed like nothing more than a conniving, lazy guy that had an exact replica of his sword. He knew he must’ve had some skill with a sword to get a blade of that caliber… but to have been personally asked by Gillius, his skill must be greater than he imagined and Ares’s ears perked up to hear the rest of the conversation.

“Ask him yourself.” The silver haired girl replied.

Before the man could reach for his sword, the red-haired girl answered his question.

“He’s at that whorehouse sleeping with worthless women every night when he should be training us!” Sirana snapped, slamming her fist on the table.

‘Which one?” He asked, releasing the grip on his blade.

There were multiple brothels in Helgathor, mainly based in the slave district. It would take 2 months to visit all of them and Ares was thankful the man asked for more information.

“The Humming Bird.” Chyrsella replied with a tinge of disgust on her face. With that, the man returned to his table with a satisfied grin and the rest along with him. ‘Azazil would never visit a brothel!’ They thought. In their eyes, ‘this’ Azazil was obviously a fake and returned to their tables.

“Father isn’t even here.” She said. “We have to return to Yewac Academy soon and we haven’t done anything!” The red-haired girl screamed pulling her own hair in a frenzy.

“You are right, sister. Before you accompanied us, all I did was watch him hunt. It was very impressive… I thought If I proved myself he would—“ Chysella began, but cut herself short, balling her fist up.

“I can’t believe I looked up to him! Let’s just go to Yewac like we planned…”

“Is it right for us to go without telling him?”

“He doesn’t seem to care about us anyway… We’ll just take our supplies and leave tonight.” Sirana said disappointed.

“…” Chyrsella thought about the way he mended Sirana’s words the last time they were here. She didn’t know what to think of him anymore.

‘I would be disappointed too.’ Ares thought, remembering the way Astercoth and Vi disappeared. ‘At least I knew they cared about me somewhat.’

After hearing them complain, he didn’t even want to speak the man’s name. He knew what it felt like to be unwanted… a burden, a nuisance.

Chyrsella seemed to be more depressed at the thought and he empathized with her. Ares was interested in her. They seemed similar to each other. He always wanted someone able to understand his feelings. Effari didn’t seem to be that someone.

‘Maybe she would...’ He thought, gripping the rag, then lightening his grip. But quickly tossed the idea aside. Tonight he had someone to meet and somewhere to go.

The Humming Bird.