Hello, from the dark side in♪

Does anybody here wanna be my friend?♪

Want it all to end♪

Tell me when the fuck is it all gon' end?♪

Voices in my head♪

Telling me I'm gonna end up dead♪

Hollowed vocals bounce around the walls flooding the room, increasing the already tense atmosphere,

Accompanied with the vocals are soulless-sounding drums, and a guitar that which each strum it feels as though I’m slowly immersing more and more into the mind of the vocalist-:

So, save mee♪

Before I fall♪

An imposing figure moves up from behind the equally intimidating ‘throne’

“Can you take that music off?” the figure the groans shielding his face from the bright lights coming from a rugged cubic diamond held by Pinoki,

“Don’t tell me you have one now,

I don’t want to deal with another Saito”

So, save mee♪

I don’t wanna go alone♪

“Giichi sir?” Pinoki aiming the light at the man’s face,

“As soon as I heard a voice, I flowed some magic through this to use the light” Pinoki stops the music,

“What are you doing sneaking up on us like that!?” Karina demands putting away her dagger,

“You are lucky I am not one to attack rashly or you would be dead right now,”

“Ha, I would have liked you to try,” Giichi sir guffaws

“The nerve of you to say I snuck up on you, when you people are clearly breaking into my artifact room,”

“You know that’s what you wanted old man” I dispute-

“-Or you wouldn’t be standing in front of us right now,”

“So, you did figure it out!” Giichi slapping me hard on my back, I stumble forward almost falling over on the murderous spike-lain throne,

“Whoa!

Watch it there boy, you don’t want to end up on that,” Giichi pulls me back

“Thought I almost died there,” I say rebalancing myself,

“Siting on that won’t kill you,”

“Are you sure ab-”

“-If you sit on it,

I will.” Giichi monotones, completely serious

…..

“Ok old man,” Apollo grouses

“You have some explaining to do,

What is this?

Some kind of torture room?”

“Torture room?

Don’t be daft, why would I need to torture anyone,”

“Then what’s that for?” Lyra points to the ‘throne’

“Before I get into that I must first explain my intention of allowing you to break into this room-”

“-Which is?” Karina presses,

“Can I talk for a while without someone interrupting me?”

…….

“I wanted to know exactly what kind of people you were,

If you had come in here and immediately knew what everything was,

I would have kil-

Actually I don’t think we are allowed to kill people here,

I would have severed all your limbs and sent you back from whence you came,”

“That’s a bit excessive Giichi sir” Pinoki says uncomfortably

”Not at all, it isn’t,

You see all the artifacts in this entire room are valuable to some degree,

But this specific enclosure contains the most important, most valuable artifacts,

Requiems.”

(Requiems? That’s what that throne is?)

“This for example,” Giichi pulls a scroll from podium-like stand near him,

“This is the map you were pestering me for ‘Kyler’,”

“It’s Kage.”

“This is probably the least valuable requiem in this room,” Giichi ignores me,

“But you could become the richest person in at least eight different nations by auctioning off this alone,”

“How is a map a requiem Giichi sir?” Pinoki questions,

“Because this isn’t a drawn map, of a certain distance,

This is a magic map of the entire ring

A one of kind,

The creation this map involves the formation of this very guild,

Which ties back to one of the reasons I ‘brought’ you in here,

To educate you on the history of the guild,”

……

No one speaks intently waiting on what the old man has to say,

Giichi smiles pleased at the attention…

“The legend speaks of a boy called ‘Takeroumu’,” he starts,

“His origin isn’t important to the story, but his goal,

All he ever wanted, growing up was to explore,

See the everything the ring had to offer,

He had an unquenchable thirst to know everything, to understand everything,

And well, to make things frank,

That is exactly what he did, by forgoing his responsibilities, his rights his own well-being, he traveled for days, for months, for years.

By the time he saw every inch of the ring he was only in his thirties.

No one knows how he did it, or even what he did, but he explored every inch of the ring,

Some say only because he had special attribute, it was possible, others see it as proof of how far an unshakeable will can take you,

But carrying on,

After he saw everything, explored every area, Takeroumu had nothing left to do, no goal no purpose,

So, he built a small settlement for himself where he lived alone, overtime people came to hear his story, soon his little settlement became a small village then that village became a town and from that it became Furlheim city,

This very building you are standing in, we call the institute, was built by that man.

Instead of telling people stories of what he did, he taught them how to do the same, to become adventurers,

He lived out the rest of his days sharing his knowledge on adventuring,

And when he finally died, this map was what he left behind-”

…………

“What’s in this?” Lyra kicks at a large trunk at Giichi’s feet

“Were you not listening to my story!?”

“I heard you, old man,

The map is a requiem of some dead man who founded this city and guild, right?’ Lyra summaries,

“Couldn’t have said it better myself actually” Giichi shrugs,

“So basically, you told us we couldn’t come here, just so we would, so that you could lecture us, even though you could have just told us normally from the start?” Apollo breaks down situation,

“No, I let you break in to find out your true intentions, curiosity or larceny,”

I eye Karina, remembering how she suggested robbing them,

She meets my gaze staring back intently

(She has no shame)

….

“So, on the topic of requiems Giichi sir, what is the story behind the throne?” I turn my face away from the unabated stare of Karina

“This trunk you were kicking contains many beastmen requiems” Giichi seemingly ignoring my question, turning to Lyra,

“Well, few that is left of them anyways, some of our former members that went on to be part of the hunter coalition,

Stole a majority of the requiems,”

“What do beastmen requiems do?” Pinoki asks,

“That depends on the beast that died,

Unlike humans, beastmen have stronger convictions and thus, upon death there is a greater chance of them leaving behind a requiem,

The effects of what said requiems do, varies from huge strength boosts to being able to access incredibly powerful magic,”

“Hmm, I don’t think I ever saw a beastman before, but I have read about them,” Apollo comments,

“Is it true they want nothing more than to eradicate all humans and become the dominant species?”

“Completely true,” Giichi informs,

“Vile disgusting creatures they are, many of the beast requiems here I obtained personally from killing a lot.”

“I met some beastmen before” I speak up,

“I used to-”

(Sell human body parts to them for Jissepi as well as stolen weapons and supplies)

“Used to what, Kage?” Apollo jabs

(Maybe I shouldn’t mention that)

“I used to be scared of them,” I half lie,

“But, back in the desert, I was going to die I think, it was after Omari blew himself up,

That was his requiem, I now know,

But then a beastman saved me I think…,.it…”

(I forgot about that, what ever happened to that beastman)

“Are you sure you did not dream that boy?” Giichi sir, scoffs

“Those creatures are programmed to murder us, feast on us,

If you met one you either would not be alive to talk about it,

Or you killed it yourself.”

“Hoping to never encounter one in my lifetime then” Pinoki shudders

“What about the chair, you never answered Kage when he asked,” Karina presses the old man

…

“I was getting to that,” Giichi’s tone becoming grimmer,

“First you have all have to look me in my eyes and say that you will give, not me, but this institute, this guild, your complete loyalty,”

…..

The five of us exchange glances before nodding simultaneous to the man,

“We can agree to that,” Apollo being the speaker for us,

Giichi smiles, in a somewhat relieved way,

“That ‘throne’ you look at-” Giichi breathes, “-is a beast’s requiem but not just any regular creature,

That is the requiem of the dragon king,”

Pinoki lets out a loud gasp,

“Aren’t dragons supposed to be extinct?”

“They are extinct, how that came to be is another story for another time,

But this throne is the last piece of their existence,

If you sit on it, you will be granted nigh-infinite power, at the cost of your humanity,”

(Dragon’s requiem huh

Is that what those hunters were talking about?)

…….

“Huwahh!” Giichi yawns,

“Alright, it’s getting late, I think I’ve shared enough,

I have decided that I can trust you all to an extent,

You five can go, I have to lock everything back up and change the sealing now,”

“Wait, you haven’t told us about that.” I point to the back corner of the enclosure, a sound hums from underneath a thick black cloth,

“What?

…..

Huh?” Giichi removes the cloth revealing the ‘audio projector’ device

“I don’t know what this is,

Who put this here?”