As the mood in the guild hall lifted and everyone returned to their own business, Theodore walked over to where Gemini stood alongside Bert and Bort.

“You really liked to see me in trouble, Bort,” he stated when he reached them.

“Honestly, you would’ve been scolded anyway, so I just made it easy on yourself,” replied Bort with a cheeky grin.

“You are such a trouble maker,” remarked the young man, which caused Bort to laugh.

“So, how come you two were in the same place?” Bert asked curiously. “Did you happen to run into each other on the way?”

While the young man shook his head, Gemini responded with, “No. I was on my own quest and it was during a hairy situation that he dropped me and the monsters like lightning.”

“What? He did that lightning landing thing again?” Bort asked, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.

“It’s cool,” said Theodore proudly.

“It’s becoming repetitive,” commented Bort dully. “You’re doing it too often.”

“Well, it couldn’t be helped since I was flying on Sestra.”

“You mean your halberd,” said Bort, looking enviously at the weapon carried on the back of his guild member. “You’re so lucky to have one. I wish I could get a Contracted Spirit as well.”

“Well,” began Theodore with a wry smile, “this was given to me by my dad.”

“I wish I have a dad like that,” Bort said sulkily.

“Hey. Our dad will be very upset if he hears this,” Bert scolded his twin brother.

“I know that, but can you blame me for it?” Bort defended without care.

“Even so, don’t talk so openly about it,” criticized his brother before turning to face Theodore and Gemini. “Anyway, you two should check in at the guild counter and update your ranks.”

“Yeah. We will, thanks,” said Theodore, and they waved at each other before heading towards the counter.

On the way, they were stopped by a young girl who was very cute and bright in appearance. She had long black hair that fell down to her waist and round eyes that just sparkled with cuteness. The girl was smiling affectionately at Theodore, who noticed who she was and instantly smiled in return.

“Cloey! What’re you doing here?”

“I came today when I heard that you had come back,” she replied sweetly.

“Word goes around very quick about me,” he remarked sarcastically.

“Being one of the only three S-Ranked Adventurers of our guild, you, Seb and Iliya are really popular, especially you,” she said with a loving smile towards him.

He chuckled and asked, “So, what’s up? Do you need me for something?”

“Actually,” she began hesitantly, “yesterday was my birthday in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Oh,” he started and blinked twice in surprise before remembering what was yesterday. “Oh…! Yesterday was… when I was two days ago… Oh!” He finally said, realising the important date and looking sheepishly at her. “I’m so sorry for missing it, Cloey. Anyway, I wish you a late happy birthday.”

“Thank you, Theo,” she said and beamed at him.

Thinking quickly on the spot, he gestured for her to hold out her hands. Then he placed his hands around hers to cover them and told her to stand still. She watched silently as he murmured some magic words and a dim light glowed in the middle of her hands before the light vanished and he slowly moved his hands away from covering hers.

“Woah…!” She exclaimed in awe, staring at the object that materialised in her hands.

It was a small toy like a doll, and it was no ordinary doll; it was a princess doll that was outfitted with a beautiful dress and smiled at her. Cloey looked at the gift he presented to her and slowly turned it around to marvel its design with a wonderous look on her face.

“This is so… beautiful,” she said in a soft voice.

“Do you like it?” He asked her curiously.

“Yes! I really do!” She replied and looked at him with glimmering eyes full of happiness. “Thank you so much for this, Theo. Thank you. I… I really like this.”

“Ah. It’s no big deal,” he replied with a chuckle. “Anyway, we’ll get going and—!”

“Please hold on a minute,” she said quickly and forestalled him from leaving.

“What is it?”

“I…” she began shyly and blushed a little from embarrassment before saying, “I have something of a c-confession to make.”

“Oh,” he said, his smiling fading as he realised what was coming.

“Theo,” she began earnestly, “will you… marry me?”

Her direct question, no matter how expected it was for him, still managed to startle him.

“Marriage before love?” He asked curiously.

“We can love as much as we want after we get married,” she said shyly. “I… I’ve been in love with you for the past two years, from the moment you first came to joined our guild. It was love at first sight, but… I was underage at that time and so were you. So, I patiently waited these two years, and I turned sixteen yesterday, so I… I finally pulled up my courage to confess my feelings for you.”

They remained silent as he looked at her happy face before saying, “I… I’m happy to hear your honest feelings for me, Cloey, but… I have to say that I’m sorry. I can’t accept your feelings.”

For a moment, she looked crest fallen before gulping and asking, “A-Are you… sure?” When he nodded, she looked like she was going to cry, but she quickly sniffed and controlled herself before asking, “C-Can I know… the reason?”

“I… already have a girlfriend,” he told her and pulled Gemini closer to prove his words.

The cute girl looked at the two of them before letting out a chuckle as if she found it rather funny.

“Don’t lie, Theo,” she said so naturally that she firmly believed their proclaimed relationship to be a lie.

“Huh?” He asked, looking surprised. “A lie? No, no, no. It’s the truth. Really.”

Despite his claims, she continued to deny him by saying, “Sorry, Theo, but it won’t work. You see, on the night of my birthday, everyone was partying hard and had too much to drink. Gemini was no exception and it was during that time she revealed about your deal with her, that you were pretending to be in a relationship to ward off girls from trying to love you.”

“What?!” He exclaimed, looking utterly shocked and wheeled around to glare at Gemini.

As he gave her a “What did you do?!” look, the young girl realised the deep trouble she was in and decided to escape from there. So, she stated that she had urgent matters to take care of and hurriedly escaped, appearing like a rat running away from a cat.

“Why you…!” He muttered, but his attention was diverted when Cloey asked him again, “So, can you answer my confession honestly now please?”

He turned to her and hesitated before smiling sadly while saying, “I’m sorry, Cloey. My answer is still the same.” She was going to raise an objection, but he quickly raised his hand to stop her and said, “I mean it this time. It’s not because I dislike you or anything. I… I actually do have someone that I’ve been interested in for the last two years just as you’ve been interested with me.”

“W-What? Really? Y-You also were interested in someone else?” She asked, looking a little dejected but quickly recovering her smile. “In that case, how come you pretended to be in a relationship with Gemini?”

“To be honest, the girl that I love already knows about my fake relationship as it was she who suggested it in the first place so the other girls would stop bombarding me with confessions,” he admitted with a smile, which really surprised her.

“Really? The girl you had feelings for… suggested that?” She asked back, blinking in amazement. “M-May I know who she is?”

He nodded with a smile and turned to look towards the guild counter. At that moment, the passing crowd parted and a clear view of the counter was seen where a beautiful young girl with medium-length black messy hair was standing behind the counter in a guild uniform. She smiled from ear to ear and attended to each and every one that arrived at the counter without losing any of her energy.

“Oh…! You like Edna big sis,” said Cloey in a saddened voice.

“I’m sorry, Cloey,” he apologised to her again in a matching sad voice.

“No, no. It’s okay. These things tend to happen,” she told her, waving her hand to reject his apology and tried smiling back at him. “Well… it is understandable why you’d be attracted to big sis. She’s The Smiling One after all.”

Edna Roserio was one of the staff for members the Spectres of the Lion guild as she tended to counter duty. She always wore a smile over her face and dealt with any and all kinds of clients and customers with both energy and grace. As such, many in the guild and in the town as well came to the agreement that she should be appropriately given the title of “The Smiling One” due to her bright personality.

Cleoy’s referral by the title made him chuckle before telling her a little awkwardly, “I guess so. Anyway, take care, Cloey.”

“I will, Theo and… thank you for this gift,” she replied and held the gift he gave her carefully in her hands. “I’ll… really treasure this as my best sixteenth birthday gift… ever.”

He chuckled and as she turned away, her name was called and they turned to see an older man walking towards them.

“Dad,” she said to the man as he reached them with a smile on his face.

“Cloey, what are you doing at the guild?” Her father, whose name was Duke Freeder, asked her curiously. “Shouldn’t you be at home preparing for lunch with your mother?”

“Dad, I came to see Theo, and he gifted me this,” she said and held out the princess doll for her father to see.

“Oh? Really?” Duke asked and turned to the young man in amazement. “That’s amazing, Theo, but how did you manage to get the gift when you returned a short while ago?”

“He conjured it into my hands,” his daughter told her father excitedly.

Her statement caused him to momentarily blink in surprise and look suspiciously at the young man, who smiled sheepishly at him.

“He… conjured it into your hands?” He asked as if to make sure he heard it right.

“Yes. It was amazing how he did it,” she said happily.

“I’m sure it was,” her father said and eyed the young man suspiciously.

“So then, have a good day, Theo,” she said and bid her farewell to him.

“Yeah. You too, Cloey,” Theodore said, and the two waved at each other before the cute girl left.

Her father made sure that she had left the building before turning on the young man and asking, “Hey. About that gift you presented to her. Did you perhaps…?”

He got his answer even before he could finish his question as the young man nodded his head.

“Honestly. That’s robbery,” the older man complained as he looked critically at the young man.

“I’ll pay him later,” Theodore replied easily.

As Duke shook his head with a sigh, Theodore said, “Alright. I’ve got to head over to the counter and report in, so take care.”

“Yeah. You too,” the older man said and watched the young man leave.

Theodore made his way through the crowd and arrived at the counter, where the beautiful girl from earlier at the counter was busily writing something in a book.

“Hey, Edna,” he called to her, and she was momentarily caught by surprise before she looked up and smiled happily at the sight of him being there.

“Theo! I’m glad you’re back!” She said, putting down her pen and leaping to her feet. “I’m glad you weren’t scolded too much by the guild master. Are you alright?”

“Ah. I knew he didn’t mean any of it, he was just letting off some steam because of the silly behaviour of the Guild Council,” he told her easily with a grin. “How have you been while I was away?”

“Busy as usual as you can tell just from seeing all this,” she said and indicated the loads of papers waiting for her to go through. Then she turned back to him and said, “Anyway, enough about me. Tell me how were things on your end for the past few days? How was your journey? Was it as hard as you mentioned to the guild master earlier? Did you face any kind of serious trouble with those members from that guild? Are you perhaps hurt anywhere?”

He explained to her the difficult of the journey due to the rain and the surprise that awaited him when he arrived at the scene. At first, he just wanted to get his compensation and leave but realised there was something more going on as he did not sense any signs of monster life being present in the vicinity. That was when he admitted he realised the situation he found himself in.

“So, just from that, you deduced that they planned all that to lure you out there to take revenge against you?” She asked, looking amazed.

“There could be no other explanation when the contents of the quest were rather murky.”

“Yes. I suspected as much, but I was worried about the safety of the quest giver and didn’t think too much of it,” she admitted and looked saddened by her mistake of overlooking small details. “I’m really sorry, Theo, for neglecting to check things through.”

“It’s fine. Nothing bad happened, and I kind of got some exercise out of it,” he replied, to which she chuckled.

“You’re always like this, but how did you get back from there? Don’t tell me you ran?”

He chuckled at her joke and stated, “Of course not. I have a Contracted Spirit, remember?”

“Ah, yes. The halberd,” she said and glanced briefly at the weapon strapped to his back before looking back at him. “You must’ve flown on it. I have no idea how you manage to balance on it while flying high up in the sky.”

“You get used to it when you’ve travelled as much as me,” he told her, to which she nodded.

“I guess so, but I wouldn’t know as I’ve always travelled in a carriage,” she said wistfully.

There was a moment of pause before he braved his feelings by asking her, “Do you want me to give you a ride sometime?”

“Really? You will?” She asked him in surprise. When he nodded, she asked, “If I was travelling to a long place, you will take me there like how you usually travel?”

“Yes. I’d be happy to,” he replied firmly with a grin on his face, “although I can’t promise the journey would be all that comfortable.”

“It’s fine so long as you promise me to take me whenever I ask. Will you promise?”

“I promise!”

“Then it’s settled!” She said, and the two grinned at one another with great joy.

After that, he questioned her about the situation with the quest, and she assured him to get to the bottom of it and get compensation from the quest giver for giving out a misleading and potentially lying to an adventurer to bring harm to them. She reassured him to rest easy as this problem would be sorted out soon enough.

“By the way,” she began, and he looked at her as he pocketed his adventurer card. “There was someone that wanted to meet you on something important.”

“On something important? Really? Who was it?”

“She came by yesterday, but since you were out, she told me to call her when you get back. It was evidently about something very important as she wanted to keep her identity confidential. It seemed like you were the only one she felt reliable to entrust whatever she wants you to do.”

“Mmm. Alright. When can I meet her?”

“I’ll arrange for your meeting later today as she wanted to speak to you as soon as possible.”

“Sure. Let me know when she comes and I’ll come then.”

“Okay then. In the meantime, have a nice day,” she wished him with a beaming smile.

He grinned at her and turned away to leave when she suddenly called, “Actually,” and he turned around to listen to her continue saying, “today evening, are you busy?”

“Not in particular.”

“In that case, would you accompany me around the town?” She asked much to his surprise. “You see, I haven’t had the chance to go shopping for groceries in the past few days and had been eating out, so I’d appreciate it if you could help me shop. I promise I’ll make you a delicious dinner for your effort.”

“Yeah. No problem. Let me know the time and place and let’s meet,” he told her, and the two once again exchanged cheerful smiles with each other before he left, and she returned to her work.

***

Later that day, Theodore received word from a guild messenger boy, who told him that Edna Rosario wanted him to come to the guild as soon as possible. Knowing what it was about, Theodore headed back to the guild in his casual wear and arrived several minutes later at the counter where she was seated, busily going through a stack of papers on her desk.

“Edna, did that person you mention come?” He asked her.

“Yes. She’s waiting inside the guild master’s room,” she said, and rose off her seat.

She gestured for him to follow her, and so they headed through the side corridor and arrived at a door with the name place “Guild Master” written on it. Edna knocked on the door twice and heard the guild master say, “Come in,” and she opened the door before going in first.

Theodore entered the room right behind her and the first person he saw was the guild master doing some paperwork. Then he shifted his eyes to the left where the seats were at and instantly groaned. A grown woman sat on a chair and was holding a small device in her hand, where a holographic display could be seen that had text displayed on it.

She had been in the middle of reading through the text and was scrolling through it with two fingers when the door opening, which made her look up. Upon seeing him, a bright smile spread across her face which was filled with happiness.

“It’s been a while, Theodore.”

In return, the young man released a weary sigh and replied, “Yeah. It’s been a while, sister.”