“Here we are…” Alex announced the three stood at the main gate of an enormous white wall. By the gate were two guards dressed in full plate armor with helmets missing a jaw piece, letting the only thing visible were the guards’ chins and mouths. They were equipped with finely made halberds and beautiful, polished kite shields. “The First Kingdom. The Capital.”

“Shame we couldn’t hitch a ride with Eine and the others.” Sal was carrying an exhausted, out of breath, Lea under her arms.

“You could’ve swapped me with Eine…” Lea whined as she lost the feeling on her legs not too long ago.

“Oh, stop complaining, you!” Sal instinctively knuckled Lea’s head for whining.

“Ow!” Lea winced in pain as she struggled from the noogie. “Stop it!”

“We had no choice but to walk, the carriage could only hold up three more people and that’s excluding our stuff.” She stopped knuckling her head as she gently set Lea down, Lea was attempting to try and stand up on her own, eventually resorting to using her staff as a walking stick. Alex meanwhile, was carrying the rest of the bags the entire time because of Sal carrying Lea.

“And we wouldn’t let you ride it if neither one of us couldn’t,” Alex smirked at Lea and then Sal. “Otherwise, we won’t know what our reactions would look like when we enter.” Alex went ahead as he looked back at the two. “But we’re here now. Let’s go to the guild!” He smiled at the two as Sal smiled back and Lea smiled tiredly.

The three approached the gate, asking the guards for directions to where the Hunters Guild was. The guards handed the three each a map that contained information of the Commoners District. The kingdom was separated into three districts: the Commoners District, the Nobles District, the Royal Core.

The three walked through the streets of the Commoner’s District and looked at the map to see that the Guild was located 10 miles away from the entrance they came in; Pretty far from where they are.

“Jeez, this place is huge.” Sal looked at her map, shifting her own map to get a proper read of it while looking ahead of the road.

“And the guild is apparently ten miles from here…” Lea whined as she felt her legs wobble from the thought of walking all the way there, compared these two who have the stamina to walk or run there, she might just pass out after a half-mile.

“Look!” Lea pointed at an available buggy near them. “Let’s take a ride to the guild. Please, Alex?” She pleaded him with her palms clasped together. “Please please please please please!” She rapidly pleaded as she grabbed his arm. “I’m gonna die if I’ll keep walking! Do you and Sal want to carry my corpse into the guild?”

“Alright, alright!” Alex folded his map and pocketed it, crossing his arms in defeat. “We’ll take a ride to the guild. I’m actually feeling winded myself from all that walking.” Alex yawned a bit.

“Maybe take a nap too while were in there, You deserve it for keeping watch last night.” Sal walked over to pat him on the shoulder. “I’ll be paying for the ride, on me.” She said, her hand reaching over to Alex’s bag to get his wallet.

“Yet you’re using his money…” Lea retorted under her breath as she narrowed her eyes at Sal. Alex looked like he didn’t mind, though that could be him being too tired to notice or care.

“Thanks, Sal.” It’s the former. Sal went ahead of the two to talk to the Coachman to prepare the ride while the two went inside the buggy with Alex’s bag set under his lap.

“Aren’t you coming in Sal?” Lea looked over Sal through the window.

“Nah. I wanna sit beside the driver to have a better view of the streets. You don’t mind, right Mister?” The coachman merely shook his head to answer he doesn’t mind as he made the horse move to start the ride.

Alex yawned a bit as he rested his head on the bag like a lumpy pillow. “Lea, wake me when we’re there now…” It was the last thing he said before falling into a deep sleep.

His eyes open up as he was standing in a familiar room, It was his room, a perfect model of it with the window outside showing a starry night and nothingness underneath, as if his room was the only thing in this void.

“Well, Is this a more comfortable world to be in when you sleep?” Peina was there on his bed, her hair down, wearing baggy blue pajamas. Her emerald eyes looked at him with feigned innocence.

“Well, it’s better than being in hell.” He sat on the floor as he looked back at her. “You’ve been quiet for awhile now. What’s the silence for?”

“Well, there was no time for us to have the time to talk together, simple as that. You were busy socializing those two girls and had that encounter with that snack that your friend popped like bubblewrap; thank you for the meal by the way~”

“Well I did say I’ll do my best to feed you and being clean up was a good excuse.”

“Yes, gathering the remains, burying them, and impaling my body through the ground is indeed good clean up. Unnecessary ritual but I still get food in the end. Besides, burying them would fool your friends to think the remains are still buried.”

“So you don’t eat the soul of the monster or something? You eat it straight up?”

“Like a straw.” She audibly mimed holding and slurping on a straw before she raised her leg and stopped gesturing to place her hands on her raised knee. “What do you think of my outfit? I’ve been thinking of being more comforting with a more human wardrobe.”

“I mean you’re wearing my PJs. Nothing too good to look at.”

“I suppose being exposed to mostly females your whole childhood seems to numbed what appreciation for sex appeal to casual wear.” She jokingly retorted. “But enough chit-chat. How about I tell you something important?”

“What is it?” He stood up to open his closet, revealing the same starry void before closing. “Uhm, you mind making a seat for me?”

“You don’t need my permission or my assistance. This is your dream, I only took hold of it when the contract was being made.” Alex thought of a chair and sat down when it was made as he listened to what she has to say.

“Now pay attention. You should learn to utilize me. You are my host, and seeing you using the weapons you make instead of me makes me a little bit jealous~” She said in a faux tone of playful jealousy

“I—It’s a habit.” He stuttered and scratched the back of his head. “It’s my style to fight making weapons on the fly.”

“But compared to the flimsy sticks you make, Dear Ares, is that I am a very powerful weapon. Imagine...a simple, tiny cut, I can sap the power to weaken your enemy with each slit; It doubles as a weaken to help you in battle and a snack for me to taste my next meal.”

“That kinda makes me not want to use you often. Especially when fighting other humans or humanoids.”

“Ah, I forget you and your grandfather had...morals. But the point still stands. Neglecting me is something you do not want. After all, I can provide you power, at the simple requirement of feeding me. You need that power to be strong enough to go to Gria, correct?”

“Well… As long as it’s not involving any humanoids or innocent people. I guess I can think of using you as my go-to weapon for monster and demonslaying.”

“That is a compromise I can accept... Very well. I’ll be patient for the good meals; massive beasts with a meaty body, and a powerful soul; unholy cretins filled with the nostalgic flavor of demon flesh. To satiate my neverending hunger, and to provide you strength and allow access to my other abilities, I suppose.” She giggled darkly, covering her mouth with the tips of her fingers before stopping abruptly. “Oh my, I got myself carried away and got scary for a moment, didn’t I?”

“Just…just a little bit, yeah…”

“Apologies. Old habits are hard to be rid off, even when you are given the knowledge available to the current host.” She stood up from the bed and walked through the window. “I have nothing else to say to you, for now.”

“Weeell, I’m technically still asleep. How about we spend some of that time to show you some things to keep yourself entertained?”

Peina turned her head to him, her fingertips on her mouth as she feigned a gasped. “My, how bold of you to come onto your own weapon, you must have a rather odd fetish.” She giggled as it turned into a playful chuckle.

“Not like that.” He quickly responded, voice oozing with how he’s really just done with the teasing and previous advances caused by Sal. “I noticed you made a copy of my room but you don’t have the things that’ll be a good time killer, does your knowledge gathering not take account for personal entertainment?”

“More or less, I take the necessary knowledge and the ones that are not required are only vaguely collected, which is why I compared what my ability does from a general understanding of how you play your so-called ‘Roleplaying Games.’ ”

“Oddly Productive and also that’s good. Means that I can provide you with my comics, my video games, and my shows!”

“How sweet, Though I can always prod the knowledge of what you have played or read without your knowledge. But I appreciate your effort to give me a more human experience.” The Devil smiled sweetly, this time her smile was not a fake one. Though the smile was more of amusement than out of endearment.

“Let me just imagine which comic and game should be a go-uah!” Alex yelped as he fell off his seat when the room trembled; Peina remain unfazed and was static at the sudden rumbling. “W-what’s happening?”

“Oh, I can take a guess that your ride is getting pretty bumpy. I suggest you should wake up for a moment to know what is happening. I can always wait for what you are going to offer me; I’m not going anywhere.” She said with a mixture of acceptance but also futility; a depressing mixture but she cannot do anything about it. “Now. Wake up.”

Alex blinked. He’s back inside the buggy, the whole cart was violently shaking as Lea was holding onto the edge of her seat. “What’s going on?” He asked Lea who quickly pointed at the driver’s seat. It was Sal, who was driving the buggy poorly as the coachman was unconscious on her lap.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Alex moved his bag aside as he leaned over to her.

“It was an accident!” Sal quickly reasoned as she quickly took a sharp turn to avoid colliding with another carriage. “I just pointed at something that caught my attention and I pointed too hard that I punched the driver! Get off of this cart and help me stop this horse!” She wants to brute her way out of this problem but she’s not stupid enough to do that, worrying she might break the neck of the horse or worse snap the reins.

“You decide to be conscious about your strength now?!”

“Just stop the damn horse!” She tried to pull the reins to stop the horse but she tugged too hard and actually riled it up into a panic.

“I’LL STOP IT!” A booming and familiar voice reached the ears of the two; Lea whited out in fear of dying from crashing. An earth-shaking stomp caused a tremor with cracks that pursued the buggy as the next frantic of the horse had its hoof sink into the ground as the road became liquid and viscous like quicksand, the chasing cracks vanish and so was the quicksand properties of the road, It was back to being a solid road, the horse was halted having its hooves sink a foot deep into the ground, along with the wheels of the buggy.

“It stopped…” Sal said as she gently set the unconscious coachman down and stood up to where that voice was. “Look, it’s that muscle guy!” She grabbed hold of Alex’s head to force him to turn to reveal the familiar-looking musclebound giant was carrying what seemed to be a grocery bag.

“Allow me to reintroduce myself! Bartholomew Gormin, Official of the Hunters Guild. It is good to see you three again. Though I am curious as to what happened.”

“Bahaha! What an interesting accident!” Time passed as the coachman regained consciousness and promptly left the group with his horse once his buggy got unearthed by the Official.

“I didn’t mean to punch that guy, alright? His head was in the way when I pointed at the thing that caught my eyes.”

“What was the thing that got you point-punching someone, anyway?”

Sal felt her cheeks redden, clasping her hands together and rubbing her thumbs. “I-It was nothing.”

“Don’t tell me you got excited looking at some dre-shack!” He was quickly punched on the forehead by Sal and was immediately muzzled by her hand.

“I’ll kill you if you finish that!” She squealed in embarrassment as she was not going to let him spill what he thinks that got her interested. Because what he was about to say was exactly that got her to accidentally punch the driver.

“Bahah! Do not worry, You don’t need a reason to tell me that it was but an innocent accident. Now how about your other friend?” He looked at Lea, slumped against the large bag, out cold.

Alex forcingly removed Sal’s hand out of his mouth. “S-she passed out cold from Sal’s bad riding.” He struggled against her as she pulled away from him to cross her arms.

“It’s my first time horse riding! Be glad I didn’t crash or hurt anyone.” She huffed. “So that means we don’t have to pay for any damages, right Mister G?”

“If you didn’t break anything or hurt anyone, no. Now judging from you three arriving with such luggage. I assume you three are here to become members of the guild?”

“Yeah. And since that driver left the moment he woke up. You don’t mind if we follow you to the guild?”

“An alternative choice! For you three, I shall give you these.” He pulled out something from his pockets, containing three scrolls that are tied by a red ribbon.

“Is that a map?” Sal looked at it and at Gormin quizically. “We already got a map, Mister G.”

“No no, It’s a scroll, teleportation scrolls!” He handed one for Sal and two for Alex. “These scrolls are fixed to the guild’s front entrance, they are a very important item for every hunter to have. However, they are very expensive so early beginners and lower ranks don’t usually have these scrolls on them.”

“And you’re letting us have three of them to go to the guild?” Alex asked him as he looked at the scrolls.

“Indeed! Do not worry about paying me back, Consider this as compensation for my incompetence for not assisting you three.” He remembered back his incompetence when letting his passion for YOUTH take priority of his duty. “Now I must go, I have frozens with me!” He picked up the grocery bag and started sprinting, leaving a heavy trail of dust. The two turned to see him salute to them. “I shall see you three again as true members of the guild!” His voice far but strong enough to still sound like he’s close to them before he ran off.

Lea stirred and slowly came to when Gormin left. She groaned in exhaustion as she rubbed her head. “Ugh, where am I? Am I dead?” She looked up to see Alex and Sal. “Are we dead? Did Sal kill us?”

“I’m not that bad, am I?” Sal asked Alex which he simply responded with silence and gesturing a terrified Lea. Alex kneeled down to help Lea up.

“Don’t worry, we’re not dead. Also, I got some news, the bad news is that the driver left us when he woke up, but the good news though is we got this!” Alex handed Lea a teleportation scroll.

“A-are these...these are TP Scrolls!” She quickly took the scroll and inspected them. “How did you get this? And three for each of us too.”

“Remember that muscle guy back at Huis? The one who took Alex’s Shitty Uncle? He came to the rescue to stop the horse and gave us these scrolls.”

“That’s really thoughtful of him...but to give us such expensive items...” She was really exhausted from all that walking, It’s the reason why she whited out, from a mixture of exhaustion and panic that got her unconscious. A really embarrassing moment for her, but regardless of her fatigue she doesn’t want to waste these scrolls on teleporting somewhere nearby.

“So you want us to hold onto these things for now?”

“Yeah. These things are very useful. We could be back in Huis or in another Kingdom and once we remove the ribbon, we’ll be teleported back to the guild in an instant.”

“So we’re gonna go find another ride then?” Sal suggested, she and Alex pocketed their scrolls as Lea promptly went to Alex, wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted herself up, which Alex reacted to immediately carry him.

“Lea, what are you—”

“Carry me, Alex. You and Sal should start walking. I am not getting into another carriage, for now…”

“Well, I gotta admit that whole incident made me lose whatever drowsiness I had left, let’s start walking Sal. Carry my bag, will ya?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be the pack mule for now.” Sal groaned as the two walked, carrying their respective luggage as they walked the rest of the way to the guild.

“This is the place.” Lea looked at the map and lowered it to look at the guild. It was a massive structure that was larger than anything the group has seen, a 13 story tall complex that looked more like a mansion with how modern it looked, but it was still a guild with how it had banners and how there were adventurers coming and going through the path of the main entrance, where they passed by the group, some giving Alex looks when they saw him carrying Lea.

The banners had an emblem, what appeared to be a masked crown and seven multicolored triangles with one triangle in the center, a blazing red triangle in the center as the triangles around it represents the other elements of what brings the world together.

“So like, can I put you down already?” Alex asked Lea as he felt a bit embarrassed his first impression to his soon-to-be guildmates was him princess-carrying a girl.

Lea’s aware of his embarrassment but simply chose to deny his request with a shake of her head and her arms crossed. “Nuh-uh.” She hummed while shaking her head. “I’m still dead tired, just keep carrying me.”

“And besides,” Sal wrapped her arms around Alex’s and gave him a sly smirk. “Isn’t it a good impression to have two girls be so intimate with you? Being a pimp will make you look cool.” She snickered.

Alex was making a face of annoyance mixed with disgust in response to Sal’s suggestion of a good first impression. “Not this shit again…” He said in his head as he heard faint laughter echoing in his head. “And you’re witnessing this too, great.”

“What is this, Highschool? Knowing my luck with first impressions I’ll just be seen as a girl instead of being seen as a guy.” He said the second part under his breath which Sal and Lea heard.

“Then you got nothing to be embarrassed about with us being this close then. You don’t have any problem with that when we were back home.” Sal’s smile widened and closed her eyes to give him a playful look.

“That’s cause everyone knows us back home.” He retorted, sighing as he “gently” dropped Lea on the ground and pulled his arm away from Sal’s hold of it.

“Oof!” Lea grunted when he dropped her. “Ow…” She groaned as she looked up at him. “What was that for?” She puffed her cheek as Alex walked ahead of the two,.

“You seem rested enough.” He rested his arms at the back of his head and looked back at them. “C’mon you two, let’s go get signed up.”

“You just had to tease him like that…” Lea stood as she patted off any dust or dirt on her skirt.

“I can’t help it. It’s involuntary at this point.” She grabbed Lea’s hand and gently pulled her to walk with her. “But Sharky’s right, let’s go!”

They entered the guild, there was a built-in guide showing where new recruits can go, at the receptionist desk where there were desks that had receptionists dealing with recruiting new members and receiving items from the guild members like proofs of monsters.

“There’s a receptionist that’s not doing anything over there.” Sal pointed at one receptionist who was sleeping her head on the counter, arms used as pillows. A blonde woman with her hair on a bun but still had plenty of hair to reach her shoulders. The bell most receptionists had on their desks are absent on hers. She also had a different uniform from the rest, a long white coat instead of a cute uniform that was elegant and professional.

“She’s sleeping though, Let’s just line up behind someone and wait for them to finish.” Alex suggested.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s their job to help recruit people anyways.” Sal assured him. She grabbed Lea’s hand again and grabbed Alex's to pull them to the sleeping receptionist’s desk.

One receptionist took notice as she quickly excused herself from guildmember she’s working with. “Excuse me, miss! I’ll get to you and your friends as soon as I’m finished finalizing my client’s mission. Please don’t wake her up.” She pleaded, saying the last part quickly and her hands balled together to beg the three to not wake her.

“What?—Why?” Lea said as the two looked at the receptionist while Sal was walking out for a moment.

“She’s uh...very...Intimidating for new recruits; she’s also our boss and she's also very scary for us too.” The fear and worry in her voice were obvious.

“Oh...it’s a good thing you stopped us before we woke her—where’s Sal?”

DING DING DING DING! “Hey! Wake up! You got a job to do, Lady!” Sal came back from sneakily taking a bell from a different desk and proceeded to repeatedly ring the bell until she wakes up.

“No!” They all exclaimed as Sal’s ringing stopped immediately as the sleeping woman’s hand grabbed her wrist with a surprisingly hard grip.

“Ow!” She winced and tried to retreat her hand but her hold was too firm.

“Twenty bell rings.” She said. “Gods I hate hearing that thing blasting so closely to my eardrums.”

“M-miss Ria. I-I’m sorry for letting these three wake you up. I should’ve done a faster job to finish my client.”

Ria let’s go of Sal’s hand as she adjusted her glasses and wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her coat. “Take a break after you’re done with your client.”

“Y-you’re firing me…?” The receptionist’s breath becomes shaky and her throat suddenly dry as she gulped nervously.

“No.” She said bluntly. “I’m actually telling you to take a break after you’re done. I’ll cover your shift along with mine.”

The woman yelped in fear and nodded as she took the bell that Sal took and returned it to its original desk before going back to hers as she forced herself to ignore her worry.

“She doesn’t seem that bad…” Alex said under his breath as she was nice enough to cover both shifts.

“Now then.” Ria yanked Sal’s hand to pull her closer. Something came into contact on Sal’s forehead. It made a clicking noise as Sal looked up to get a vague look of what was pointed on her head. “You have five seconds to apologize before the last thing you’ll ever hear is the noise of my barrel and your friends screaming no.”

“A GUN?!” All three screamed in their heads at the sudden appearance of her holding Sal at gunpoint out of nowhere.

The receptionist from before looked over as she finished her client. She quickly left her post and walked out in fear of being in Ria’s wrath.

Sal swallowed dryly as she tried to catch her words. “I-i’m—I’m sorry! Please don’t shoot!”

“Apology denied.” she pulled the trigger and the barrel fired. But a gunshot wasn’t heard, just a loud snap as Sal’s forehead was struck by a BB pellet.

Alex and Lea quickly tried to reach forward and shouted, “NO!” But were frozen in place in shock and disbelief at the gun being nothing but a toy.

“HYIAAAH!—Ow!” It didn’t stop Sal screaming, however. Panicked, she let out a shrill shriek as she felt like she was going to die when she pulled the trigger. But instead, her scream was cut off when she winced in pain when the pellet hit her forehead. Ria let’s go of her hand and as Sal stood there in frozen shock.

“I’m not that pissed to kill someone on the spot.” She looked at her as she yawned. “And about your apology? Can you please say it again?”

Sal blinked as she looked at her. She would’ve been angry at her for threatening her at gunpoint with a BB gun. But looking back it was her fault for waking her. If that receptionist before hadn’t given them enough hints or they misheard how she stated that she’s the boss, it was really her fault.

Sal took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she bowed a bit. “I’m...I’m sorry for waking you u—hngh!” She was struck hard in the face with the same BB gun that scared her. Ria pistol-whipped her as the BB gun was heavy like an actual pistol than some toy. Sal was knocked down onto the ground as Ria spun her pistol before putting it under her desk.

“Sal!” Alex quickly caught the falling Sal as he looked up at the lady at the desk. “What’s your problem?!” Lea came second to try and help Sal up.

“Okay. You’re forgiven.” Ria looked at the other two with a simple gaze as she crossed her arms. “My problem is that I was woken up from my break. You guys don’t notice the lack of bells on my desk? That’s because I hid it to show I’m unavailable. Judging from the lack of knowledge of knowing something as simple as that, you three are here to join the guild?”

The two went silent for a bit as Sal rubbed her cheek. “That hurt!” She grabbed Alex and pushed him to be at the front. “You deal with her!” With that said, Lea also went behind Alex as he was now face-to-face with the blonde bitch who unreasonably smacked Sal.

“Y-yeah. Were new here. And we want to be in the guild.” Alex forced himself to look at her straight in the eye, not wanting to look away from her glare.

Ria looked at him as she crossed her arms. “Alright. Are you and your friends Humans or Hunters?” She asked him with a simple question as her hand reached something underneath the desk.

“The two of them are human, I’m a Hunt—what is that?” He stopped himself when she pulled out what looked like a marble colored chisel where the top of the handle had a flat surface that looked like a small screen.

“This is a scanner. It’s used to Scan what element is the essence of the Hunter. All it needs is a sample of your blood.” Ria explained as she removed the cover that keeps it blunt to reveal a rose thorn-looking spike. She pulled out a disinfectant spray at the pointed end of the scanner. “Give me a finger; this’ll sting.” She warned as Alex hesitantly complied as Ria suddenly grabbed his wrist and pricked him with the scanner.

“Hn!” Alex winced as he felt the sharp pain and his fingertip bleeding a little bit from the prick. Ria lets go of his wrist and proceeded to unnecessarily spray the puncture with the disinfectant, making him wince more. “Ow! The hell?” He retreated his hand and wiped off his finger with his pants.

“You three sign your names here. Ignore what the contract says. It’s just terms and agreements. If you read it I’ll tear the papers right in front of you and prevent you from joining.” An extreme threat said in a blunt tone. Ria pulled out three parchment papers; contracts, and quills that are already inked.

“First and last name, please. If you don’t have a last name, use a guardian’s or a made-up one, Choose the latter and that’ll be your legal name from now on.” She printed three papers and placed them side by side by the contracts. “Do the same thing here. It’s just another version of the contract.” She pulled out from her front pockets 3 pens and placed them beside the quills.

“Last names…” Lea looked at Sal and looked at Alex.

“She did say you guys can make one up.” Alex had his quill ready as the two looked at each other and both shook their heads.

“If we did that, we’ll probably regret it.” Sal went ahead and wrote her name in the contracts, writing down her name as the one in parchment vanished into blue flames. “Is that—is that a magic contract?”

“Only thing magical about it is that it’s just a copy for this.” Ria pointed at the paper she signed.

Lea went next as she signed her contract too, Alex stood there as he looked at the two. “What did you guys write as last names?”

The two looked at each other for a moment and simply handed him his contract. “We’ll tell you later.” They both said in unison as Sal managed to smile despite the tiny moment of her struggling to as the cheek began to sting.

“Better sign yours before the mean receptionist rips them.” Lea smiled as she handed Alex the quill and Sal handing the pen.

Alex didn’t say anything as he smiled and signed his name on both contracts as he took the physical contract and handed it to Ria.

The bitch receptionist looked at the copies and looked at the three. “And here I thought the Ares family only had one Daughter.”

“I’m a man, damnit!” Alex retorted quickly as the two simply chuckled at his response.

“What’s so funny? I thought you guys got used to me being seen as a girl?” Seeing them laugh again at this made him feel a bit confused but also annoyed that it came back.

“Sorry, Alex.” Lea patted his shoulder. “A good little laugh is what we need after the tension caused by that lady.”

The scanner made a beeping noise as Ria came to check the results. “So you’re a fire and light user, interesting. You got your parents’ essence together instead of one or the other.”

“How much do you know about my family, anyway?”

Ria looked at Alex with a quirk in her eyebrow. “I know you Ares aren’t the…” Brightest? Sharpest? “Smartest, but you don’t know about how your family is one of the best in this guild?”

“I mean...I know that because my uncle’s like, an Official.”

“Right, with the Second Place Gunslinger being the exception, you Ares are the modest type and don’t brag. Other than them being the best. My brother was acquainted with your sister, leading me to, unfortunately, know more than I should about your family.” Ria filed the rest of the papers and placed them in a cabinet under the drawer, opening a separate cabinet, She pulled out a stamp and ink pads that looked like a blank white. “Please show me where you want to be stamped and imagine what the color of the stamp you would prefer.”

“Stamped?” Alex and Sal asked together quizically.

“It’s to be stamped with the guild’s emblem, correct?” Lea removed her right glove and presented the back of her hand as Ria stamped it and it revealed the Guild’s emblem in white before turning violet.

“You are smarter than the two over there, at least,” Ria remarked as she looked at the two idiots. “Start showing me where you want to be stamped already.”

“S-sorry.” Alex took off his right glove and offer the back of his hand as it was stamped with the emblem as it turned blue.

Sal walked over and lifted her top a bit to reveal her smooth, yet toned stomach.

“How bold. Honestly I expected you wanted to be stamped on your breasts considering how reckless you are” She stamped her stomach as her own emblem turned red. “One last thing before you are official members of the guild.”

Ria stood up and all of a sudden, she slapped Alex and Lea on the face with her hand and once again smacked Sal’s other cheek with her BB gun. “The complimentary welcome slap by courtesy of the guild. Use that frustration of being slapped to go do a mission. Also, you guys are at the starting rank of all the recruits. D-Ranks.”

Pulling out something from her desk is an “Out to lunch” desk sign, ear muffs, and an eye mask as she kicked her feet up to rest them on the desk, putting on the ear muffs and mask she pulled out a pillow from her desk; If she had such things to help her sleep better, it’s like she was intentionally waiting for someone to interrupt her sleep to make someone’s day a little bit worse for trying to wake her up. “Welcome to the guild.” Was the last thing she said as whatever they’ll say to her in response from being smacked and whipped, it won’t reach her ears.

“My cheek!” Lea whined as she rubbed her smacked cheek, feeling it sting and already forming a bit of a red hand mark as Alex whined the same with the same mark on his face.

“Agh…!” Alex sharply inhaled from the pain, rubbing it as he looked at the sleeping Ria. “I really feel bad that she’s the boss to these receptionists…”

“Why was I whipped while these two get slapped?!” Sal felt like she’ll get bruises than a temporary stinging on her face than these two. A receptionist approached them, it looked like the one from before.

“I’m really, really sorry for our boss’s behavior...she’s always like that. Let me take you to the clinic to heal those bruises.” She apologized on her boss’s behalf as she added, “Also...the slap is actually true, we slap our recruits in the face to get themselves motivated to do a mission immediately.”

The three followed the receptionist to the clinic to have Sal’s bruises be healed by a cleric. Welcome slap-based injuries are free of charge, fortunately enough.