Located ihe main headquarters of the guild, Thran sat at a rather rge table. To most of the workers of the guild, it is the maiing room for the officials to discuss important matters. Banners hung off the walls, the designs on them were intricate, ranging from a sword and shield, to a quill. Directly uhe quill, Thran looked through the dots he brought.
His normal posed demeanor pletely disappeared, repg that he looked rather nervous as he kept moving his hair away from his fad he tapped oable repeatedly. Although he worked at the guild for nearly 30 years, he only ever met the higher ups once or twice, mostly due to his work ethic back then.
His attention was brought to the sounds of the doorknobs turning. Quickly fixing the tie of his suit, he stood up with his hands stuck to his side. Moments after, four individuals walked in. A middle aged woman, whose bck hair was tied into a ponytail was the first to ehran reized her as the guildmaster.
The adventurer’s guild is a ral power in the world, there was a guild located in every major, or minor kingdom. Each differing building of the guild had a separate guildmaster. They held the sed highest authority iire guild, rep only uhe head guildmaster. Their position required them to hahe internal strifes, and affairs internally aernally.
“Good afternoon, Miss!” Thran excimed as she walked by him, giving her a plete y degree bow. “I hope you’re doioday!”
She didn’t respond till she walked towards her seat, directly uhe bahat had the design of a sword. “Thank you Thran, please have a seat.” She asked him
“You’re wele, and thank you.” Thran straightened his back before sitting down again.
The three other individuals sat at their respective seats. An elven woman, who wore a white dress took her spot uhe banner of a staff. Every receptionist knew her as the head receptionist, or rather their superior. A rather rge, but muscur man wearing a tanktop sat directly o her. Not much was known to Thran about him, but him being there marked him as important.
“Not going to say anything to us? Man, what are we? Not important?” The st individual, a demi-human man with dog-like ears, quipped. His to a joking impression, but his face said otherwise. He set a book down oable, i held the name of every employee in the guild. Thran knew him all too well, he was the head of internal affairs.
“Don’t mind him, he still has things to work through.” The elven woman responded
“Oh, that’s correct, my bad.”
“Leave him be, that’s not important today.” The guildmaster said she waved her hand when Thran attempted to stand back up. “To the topic today, Thran, why have you submitted a form to fiwo adventurers?” She inquired after he sat back down. “You’ve been with us for 29 years, this is the first fine you attempted to give out.”
Thran cleared his throat before expining himself. “One of the adventurers under my wing was abused by a temporary party member. I have her papers here, and her party member’s here.” He pulled out a sheet with Fei’s information on, and Lu’s . “They teamed up with a different party, the two were named Alex and Tim.”
“A demi-human, that is rather tough for oo be an adventurer. Paired with a human, a on pair.” The head receptionist mumbled after sing the information.
“That st name, I feel like I’ve heard it before.”
“Oh, you have?”
“Yes, but I ’t remember where I heard it.” The demi-human man squi Fei’s information for a moment before passing it off to the guildmaster. “Oh this boy, I’ve heard a lot about him just from the guards of this kingdom. It’s rather shog that he’s still around her.”
“What do you mean?”
“This boy has beeed to be living with her for 6 years, he has gotten into fights with many for bullying her verbally.” The rge man expined while poking at Lu’s paper. “It’s an odd sight.”
Their talks ended as the guildmaster took in the information, moments ter she sat each paper down in front of her.
“As you already assume, that’s a serious issue if it happened. Do you have any physical proof that it occurred? We don’t take half truth reports, Thran.”
“Y-Yes, I have pictures, this one is on her shoulder. And this is on her arm. Lu also gave his ret on what happened.” He slid two medium-sized slips to them, the first icture of Fei’s shoulder that had purple marks in the shape of a hand. The other icture of her forearm, with a massive welt as if someone grabbed her with immerength.
The guildmaster looked at it with a frown, her eyebrows furrowed as if she was thinking.
“Ah, right, Lu mentioned after he killed his st attag goblin, he heard shouting and looked back at them. He saw Tim shove Fei to the ground before casting a golden wall to protect them from arrows being shot at them. Although I have-”
“He must have moved her to protect her, or his spell must have he area in front to be cleared.”
“No spell in history has that dition, or as far as our information has dated.”
“Your intelligence department isn’t all knowing, it might be true that he he space to be cleared.”
“What Evan is saying is true, that wall didn’t o have a clear area.”
Again, silence washed over them as they stared at the pictures in silenbsp;
“What about Fei, did she give a ret on it? And what about Alex and Tim?”
“Yes, err.. Sort of from Fei, she was hard to talk to. Tim only gave his, he said it was to protect her from the arrows. That is all that he said. But, I don’t uand why he would o use excessive force.”
“We demi-humans are far more fragile than you think, Thran. While I do believe that he might’ve pushed her to protect her, I find his amount of force to be ing.”
“Agreed, we also ’t take his words as truth. There isn’t any evidence of him needing to shove her, that would only waste time in a fight. Little Noelle, what do you say? And Evan what about you? Indulge us.”
“His words are false, I believe. Iabase, those two never got along with others; every temporary member they had, left with some form of injury even in the simplest requests.”
“I see, that certainly ges things, doesn’t it?” The head receptionist said, she leaned forward with her in her palm. “What is the verdict?” Her eyes turo Noelle
Thran’s shoulders slumped upon hearing her verdict, a mixture of emotions wisped away from his body. That wasn’t for long, as a voice caused his body to stiffen up.
“Make sure to write your report on this, okay?”
“Yes…”
—---------------
“Fei, is everything okay in there?” Lu asked as he knocked on their bedroom door. He got no response even after waiting for a few minutes. ‘She’s been so quiet ever since…’ After a moment, he opehe door. “What’s wrong?”
Fei who was in her nightgown still sat on their bed, her shoulders slumped. She didn’t aowledge Lu’s words, nor did she raise her head when he walked in. The two words of the meeamed up with ran inside her head.
‘They’re right… I am so useless, I’m not worthy to be in a party with Lu… I ’t do anything right.’
She ched her hands, she believed every insult they threw at her. Every jab felt like a needle pierg her heart. Her vision started to blur as tears formed in her eyes.
“Fei, talk to me, please.” Lu sat o her and quietly pleaded to her. “You’ve been so quiet, I’m worried about you.” His body shivered as the air around them got colder. “If it was those guys from the other day, ignore what they said; they were trying to make you feel bad.”
“I-It’s t-true… I-I’m useless… I, I didn’t do anything…”
“You aren’t useless. I would’ve gotten hurt even worse if you didn’t stop that one goblin.”
Lu moved his arm forward, showing the cut on his forearm. While it looked pretty bad at first, it healed nicely as scabs formed over the broken tissue.
“See? If you weren’t there I could be in a worse dition. Don’t call yourself useless when you did help out.” He said, smilie Fei not looking at him. “Heck, you shouldn’t be hard on yourself when you just learned how to use your staff.”
“Y-Y-You still got, got hurt…”
“They’re healing, and I didn’t get hurt because of you.” Lu expined, he chuckled for a moment. Fei turned her head to look at him. Warm tears still streamed down her face, Lu fought the urge to pat her head. Last time he tried that, Fei began to have a panic attack. “Why don’t we do something else today?”
“What, what do you m-mean?” Fei questioned. She wiped her eyes, and her ears slightly perked up.
“Let’s go somewhere secluded so you practice with your staff.” Lu suggested, he stuck his pointer finger up. “Theime you won’t have to worry about jerks trying t you down.”
“A-A-Are you sure you, you want to do that…?”
Fei furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head slightly.
‘Would he be okay?’ Fei thought as her heart felt a little ache. Lu didn’t answer verbally, he simply nodded his head.
After talking a bit longer, Fei started to return to her normal self. Lu left the room so she could get dressed for the day. They met up again, outside their house like usual.
Before leaving for their destination, they stopped at Aiko’s workpce to grab breakfast. Like st time, she served them a whole helping of eggs. Lu barely ate his as, somehow Aiko in her excitement mao burn them; however Fei ate more than st time, but stopped after Lu told her to.
“T-Thank you for the meal, Aiko.” Lu thanked her with a stiff smile. ‘I still taste the burnt egg.’ The fvor of burned eggs g to his entire mouth. Aiko frowned upon hearing his thanks, her tail swiped bad forth.
“I’ll do better ime! You won’t have burned food I promise!” She excimed, her inteone made Lu aake a step backwards.
“W-We know, but thank you.”
“Mhm! Now, e here!” She lu them and pulled them into a ginormous hug. “Have a safe jouroday, don’t you dare get hurt again.” She mumbled into both their ears.
“Don’t worry we won’t.” Lu returned her hug with his free arm.
“Good! Now, shoo, shoo go!”
With her insistehey left the premises, Lu waved back at her when they got further away. Fei simply raised her hand before they lost sight of her.
For the half hour, they ventured forth from the walls and made it to a grassy field.
“This looks to be a good spot.” Lu said after they made a distance from the dirt road. Ohey khey were a safe distance away from people watg them, Lu took a few steps away from Fei.
Fei turo Lu, giving her a nod of reassurance she began to funnel mana into her staff. Whilst it was quicker than her first attempt, it was still impractical in a bat situation. O reached the crystal on top, Fei looked at a random spot.
A cold air swept the area around them, and a singur slowly rose from the spot. It took nearly a minute for it to reach its desired length. Its final height reached thirty timeters, while its diameter was less than half of that.
“Wow, that’s not bad.” Lu remarked. Although he would admit it retty slow, he refrained from making any ents about it. “What? It isn’t.”
“O-Okay..” Fei muttered before turning her focus back to the staff. Refunneling her mana into the staff, this time she felt the ma to her ands slightly more. Once again, she cast another ice . Twenty-niimeters was its length, with its width more than half its length.
‘It’s really slow…’ Fei thought. The started to crack when she lightly poked it. ‘It’s so weak… He’ll only get hurt even more if I don’t work with this…’ She stood up once again.
Lu watched as she created more s out of the ground. the amount at a time multiplied as Fei began to exhibit more trol over her mana. For her first time, it took a few minutes before she could cast her first spell with it.
With a suggestion from him, Fei began to create different shapes. Starting with a wall, the procedure took much more. P a rge amount of her mana into the crystal, it started to form frost. Like a snail, a cube of ice began to rise, fully f into a massive wall- at least for fei as it matched her height, only her ears were visible over it.
Over the course of an hour, the area around them turned into a muddy pit, with only a few melted walls standing. From an outsider's perspective it looked like a poorly made replica of the stonehenge.
“Good work, why don’t we take a little break?” Lu called out to her, he made some distance before she made her replica. He sat in a dried area not far from her. Even from his view, she anting and her body was hunched over slightly. “You don’t o exert yourself so much.”
“I-I’ll be, be, okay.”
“You obviously won’t be okay.” Lu said in a stern voice. “Please, Fei-” Just as he began to walk towards her, she raised her staff in the air. His pacreased when he felt like something would happen.
‘I have to..’ Fei’s thoughts were cut short when a terrible pain pulsated from her heart. It was so great her staff tumbled from her hands. She clutched at her chest.
“FEI!”
He bolted towards her. Catg her just before she toppled over.
“Fei?! Are you okay?! What’s wrong?!” Lu excimed. Fei kept gasping for air as she clutched heart tightly. Her body shook violently with every basp, as if she was a fish out of water. “FEI! FEI! WHAT’S WRONG?!”
Her gasping stopped suddenly, followed by her eyes rolling into the back of her head.
“Fei?! No no no no no, please wake up! Fei?! Please, please please, wake up!” Lu shook her violently. Seeing her eyes staying snapped shut. “Please…. No, what happened?!” His voice broke. He held his breath while clutg her tightly. “Please… please be okay, please, please…” He muttered stantly, somehow he mustered the strength to get up. With her ying limp in his arms, he ran back to the city.
No oted an eye when he sprihrough the gates, nor ihe city. Weaving through the slightly busy streets, he mao get to Aiko’s tavern.
“Aiko… please, fei, i- i don’t know w- Please…” Lu yelled in a blubbering mess when he rushed through the door. Aiko and the middle aged dy stared in utter fusion the instant they heard him. That switched instantly when they noticed Fei in his arms.
“WHAT HAPPENED?!” Aiko yelled as she instantly closed the distaween them. She lowered her head near Fei’s mouth. “Lu, what happeell me!”
“Aiko… I- She- and- then…”
“Lu, brio the sed floor. Aiko go get a medic, pronto.” The middle aged dy anded.
Following her orders without sed, Lu rushed up the stairs, with her in heel. She showed them to ay room and helped him set Fei in a bed. Then, she had him relutly sit in a nearby chair.
“She’ll be alright, don’t freak out too much.” She reassured him in a geone. “See? She’s breathing. Take a deep breath, a out.”
“I-I’m okay…I’m okay…” Lu mao let out, his heartbeat still raced a mile a minute and his entire body trembled.
“Good, good.” She said, a gentle smile formed on her face. “What happened, what caused this?”
“I-I took her out to practice with her staff… After… a bit… she just…” Lu smothered his face with his hands. “Just… I told her to take a break, she… suddenly stopped and- colpsed.”
“Colpsed?”
“I- I don’t know. She just did.”
She took the time to calm him down. As he began to calm down, Aiko rushed ihe room with a man behihey directed him to che Fei.
He checked her pulse, albeit with a little trouble, then checked her breathing.
“Her heartbeat seems to be a little slow, and her breathing sounds bored.” He expio everyone. “ aell me what happened? I might be able to help clear up what’s happening.”
“I, I took her out to practice with the staff we bought retly… After a while… I told her to take a break- I don’t know what happened but she suddenly colpsed.”
“Staff and suddenly colpsing, huh.” He looked back at Fei then turned back to them. “I don’t know the exact reason, this is the first time I heard about this. But it sounds like mana fatigue, every individual who uses magi experie if they use their mana for extended periods of time.”
“Mana fatigue?”
“Yes, I don’t have much experien it. But, that’s what I think happened.” Seeing the fusion and on their faces he eborated, “Normally, mana fatigue… If I recall correctly; causes the victim to feel exhausted and sluggish. That’s about it, this however is different from the cases of it. Did she show any ns than fainting?”
“Y-Yes… She was struggling to breathe, and clutg her chest…”
Hearing that, the medic looked dout his finger on his . A short time ter, he shrugged his shoulders and sighed.
“I ’t tell you, but she’ll be okay. Just keep an eye on her.”
“Thank you sir, I’ll give you your payment downstairs.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The middle aged dy and him left downstairs, leaving Aiko and Lu aloh the unscious Fei.
“Do you think she'll be okay?”
“Yes…” Aiko quietly answered his question. “She’s not as fragile as you think she is.” She looked at him with a small smile.
“I’m sorry… I should’ve been more careful.”
“Don’t bme yourself for this, look at the brighter side, she'll be okay.”
“... Okay…”
