Shawn

I stare at him in silence before eventually asking, "Excuse me, what?"

Why would they want me in their party? They all have two stars already, not to mention that my heritage could cause them quite a bit of trouble.

Aldred stares directly into my eyes and answers, "You heard me. We want you to join our party."

I don't say anything and look at each of them in turn.

Elizabeth looks nervous but nods her head upon eye contact.

Josh looks happy, with a large smile on his face as he rapidly nods his head towards me.

Hank immediately looks away when my eyes land on him, but he slowly looks back and gives a slight nod of his head as well.

I am most surprised when I look towards Varthurg and find him sticking his hand out with his thumb pointed upwards.

He really is very quiet for an orc. That is probably the most interaction I have seen from him ever since I met him.

"Come on," Amber says from beside Aldred, "You mentioned before that you enjoyed fighting alongside us, so why not join our party?"

I lower my head and scratch the back of my head.

Should I join them?

It could be interesting. Plus, working with a group would be safer.

On the other hand.

I glance towards Hank before shaking my head at the thought.

He isn't all that bad, I guess.

I raise my head back up before asking, "Why do you want me to be in your group?"

Their answer to this will determine what I decide.

Aldred exchanges glances with his sister again before answering, "There are multiple reasons, foremost amongst them being that you just seem like a good person and we have been wanting a seventh party member for a while now, so why not? Plus, we also enjoyed fighting alongside you."

I stare at him without saying anything.

Aldred seems to get the point and continues, "There is also your heritage and strength to be considered. While you only have one star now, you are still a royal and will get stronger at a faster pace than we will, so you will catch up to our levels soon enough."

Aldred pauses again while looking at me, probably hoping for a response.

I just wave my hand at him to continue.

He clears his throat before continuing, "Well, to be honest? We also thought that you could prove to be useful in our guilds little squabble with the Island Lord."

I stare directly into Aldred's eyes for a second before stating as clearly as possible, "No."

Okay, with that out of the way....

Amber grabs onto my wrist before I can turn around to open the door.

"Wait! That wasn't the main reason we want you to join our party, we really do just want you to be in our party because we think you would make a good fit! Not to mention that you don't have to help us with the Island Lord if you join us!" Amber scrambles to convince me to join.

I narrow my eyes at her hand while lightly peeling it off of my wrist with my other hand and saying, "First, no touching. Second, let's continue this conversation later, after we get to the Guild."

They all relax a little bit at my answer before Aldred says, "Okay, let's go to the Guild then."

I nod my head and open the door that is spilling ash all over the floor around it.

A large wave of heat pours into the room through the now open door, prompting the others to take off their coats in the process.

I ignore the heat and walk through the door, causing me to instantly appear on a portal hub at the center of a rather busy looking city.

Loud noises instantly fill the area, disorienting me for a moment.

"Definitely a change of pace for what I am used to," I mutter before reaching my hand out and catching some of the ash drifting around in the air.

I sense the others appear behind me but ignore them for a moment as I take in my surroundings.

"It's almost nighttime," I mutter while looking up at the setting sun before turning to look at the buildings around me.

The buildings in this city are not all that large, but there are certainly a lot of them.

Not only that, but there are hundreds of people walking around this area. Some of them are shopping at a nearby market, while others are getting off of work and going out for a drink.

There are even a lot of people like us who are arriving on the portal hub from other dungeons.

"I don't like this place," I mutter.

There are too many people, and it's too loud.

I faintly hear Aldred chuckle from beside me.

"Don't worry, you get used to it," Aldred says with a small grin before adding, "We should head to the Guild."

I quickly nod my head and follow him as he begins walking straight ahead, past the market.

We don't end up walking very far. It turns out that the Adventurer's Guild was pretty close to the portal hub.

Although it was probably built nearby it on purpose.

"Have you heard? The Island Lord is apparently on a barren island right now," I hear someone say as soon as I step into the Adventurer's Guild.

I take a quick look around the entrance hall before focusing on the receptionist's desk Aldred is guiding us to.

"Really? I wonder what he is up to..." A feminine voice responds to the first voice.

I glance towards the voices and spot an old human talking with a dryad.

That's a strange duo.

The dryad seems to notice my glance and waves with a smile.

Well, she seems friendly.

I wave back before turning towards Aldred as we reach the receptionist's desk.

The receptionist seems to be either some type of demon, or a dragon-kin. She has dragon-like wings, as well as a tail, with human skin everywhere else.

"Hey, Leah. How are things going here?" Amber asks with a smile from beside Aldred.

The receptionist, apparently named Leah, smiles in response to hearing Amber and looks up from her desk before answering, "Things are going pretty well! How did your quest go?"

She then seems to notice me and adds, "And who might this be?"

"This is Shawn, and he will be registering with the Guild today," Aldred answers her question before adding a second later, "And the quest was a little bumpy, but turned out fine in the end."

Leah turns towards me and starts, "Alright Shawn, if you wou-"

"Wait, I would like to register this one myself in my office," a voice says from out of nowhere, interrupting Leah mid-sentence.

I notice Leah's eye twitch before she says, "As you wish, Guildmaster."

Is she annoyed with the owner of the voice?

Wait, Guildmaster?

A small fairy suddenly flies out from behind Leah before stopping directly in front of me.

"Why hello there, my name is Luke Darkhill and I am the Guildmaster of this humble branch," the small fairy says with a bow while in mid-air.