Hearing Beatrice’s story, Alister raised an eyebrow. “You must be an old member if you were going on missions with Aiko.”
Beatrice chuckled. “I may not look it, but I used to be a member of one of the guild’s elite raid teams.”
Alister was a bit shocked. “Really? How long have you been a member of the guild?”
Beatrice blushed slightly. “Seven years.”
Alister’s eyes widened in surprise. “But you don’t look that old. Heck, I thought you were around my age.”
Beatrice laughed softly. “Well, thank you. I get that a lot. It’s usually the case for physical enhancement talents.”
Axel leaned back in his chair, grinning. “See, Alister? Bea is full of surprises.”
Blitz nodded in agreement. “Yeah, she’s pretty amazing.”
Alister smiled. “I guess so.”
Axel and his sister turned to Lila, their eyes gleaming with mischief.
“Now, on to the main course,” Axel said with a grin.
“Lila, you’ve been awfully quiet since Alister got here. You don’t have a thing for him now, do you?” Blitz teased.
Lila turned red, her face flushing deeply. “It’s not like that,” she stammered. “H-he just saved my life, that’s all.”
Blitz leaned back, a sly smile on her face. “Oh, saved your life, did he? I didn’t know Mr. Alister over here was such a charmer.”
Alister, caught off guard, raised his hands in defense. “It wasn’t anything like that,” he said, trying to defuse the situation. “It was just a dungeon raid.”
Lila shot Blitz a look, half-annoyed and half-embarrassed.
Axel chuckled, clearly enjoying the teasing. “Still, it’s not every day someone gets their life saved. Must have been pretty dramatic.”
Beatrice chimed in, “Come on, Lila, you haven’t told us your story yet. We all want to hear it.”
“In fact, why don’t you tell us about how Alister saved you?”
“Yeah, yeah, tell us,” Blitz urged as she leaned close to Lila.
Lila tensed up slightly, her eyes darting around the room. Alister noticed her discomfort and his gaze narrowed, a look of concern passing through his eyes.
‘I’m sure it still gets to her,’ he thought.
“Lila, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to,” Alister said gently.
Blitz, unable to hold back her curiosity, interjected, “Why shouldn’t she want to tell the story
“It’s fine. I can tell it.” Before Blitz could finish, Lila interrupted her.
Her voice was steady, but a slight tremor could be detected.
She began, “It was a low F-rank dungeon. My friends and I wanted to raid it, but we didn’t meet the required number. So a friend of mine, Amelia, found Alister in the crowd of people wanting to participate in a dungeon raid and offered for him to join us. It was just a goblin cave. We killed the waves of goblins that came; for the most part, it was easy, a bit fun even.’ She paused shortly, catching her breath.
“But something was off. The goblins were… getting stronger, much stronger than they should have been. We tried our best, but we were slowly overwhelmed. We all sustained… serious injuries…” Her voice began to shake as tears welled up in her eyes.
Beatrice, Axel, and Blitz exchanged worried looks. “Um… Lila, you don’t have to continue if it’s too painful,” Beatrice offered softly.
“From the way you look, it seems… something truly sad happened.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have asked you to tell if I knew you’d end up like this,” Blitz said, sounding a bit guilty.
Lila shook her head. “No, I need to tell this. I tried to keep everyone’s injuries to a minimum, but it wasn’t enough. My friends fought as hard as they could, with everything they had, but things only got worse. Under all that pressure, we were caught off guard by a massive goblin that sent us flying with its massive club. Our wounds were severe. Amelia was already bleeding and unconscious.” Her voice broke, and tears streamed down her face.
A heavy silence fell over the group. Axel reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Gathering her strength, Lila continued, “We were scared. We had all given up hope. We thought we would meet our end there.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Then, she looked at Alister, her eyes filled with a mixture of hope and sadness. “And then, Alister… he got up from the rubble. He was covered in wounds, but his eyes burned intensely. He started killing the goblins one by one. With each goblin he defeated, he seemed to get stronger and faster.”
Blitz’s eyes widened in shock. “Wait, I thought he was a summoner?” she questioned.
Blitz leaned towards Alister, her eyes wide with excitement. “Is what she said true?” she asked.
Alister, wearing a nonchalant expression, said. “It is.”
Axel then asked, “How did you do it?”
Alister took a sip from his cup then said. “That part’s a secret.”
Blitz pouted. “Boo, it’s no fun if you don’t tell.”
Beatrice cut in, “Anyway, what happened next?”
Lila took a deep breath. “I wasn’t so sure. All I know is that he killed all the goblins and headed deeper into the dungeon. Once there were no goblins in the area, I crawled over to Amelia.”
“I called out to her, but she didn’t respond. I tried healing her, but it didn’t seem to work.” Beatrice shifted her chair closer and patted Lila’s head gently. “It’s okay,” she said softly. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
Lila nodded. “I’m alright.”
She wiped her tears.
“Alister came back a couple of minutes later and wanted the rest of us to leave. I was a bit reluctant to leave Amelia like that, so he knocked me out and carried me along with the
others.”
Her expression began to look a bit more hopeful. “Although I’m sad I couldn’t save Amelia, I’m grateful that Alister saved all of us.”
Gazing at Alister, she said, “So thank you, Alister. I told this story because I wanted to let you know I’m truly grateful for what you did and I’m not petty enough to blame you for leaving
Amelia behind.”
Axel nodded, impressed. “Damn, that was a real hero story alright.”
Beatrice clasped her hands together and said, “Alright, since we’ve all eaten and shared our stories, why don’t we call it a night and head to our rooms?”
Blitz nodded in agreement. “Sounds nice, been itching to get some rest after what Miss Aiko
put me and Axel through.”
Axel got up first and said, “Alright, we’ll be heading back now.”
Before he left, Axel paused, turned around to face Alister, and said, “Come to think of it, we
haven’t really introduced ourselves.”
Blitz chimed in, “Yeah, you’re right.” She said with a smile.
“Oh, go ahead then.” Alister said.
Axel and Blitz grinned at each other. Axel began, “I’m Axel Morgan, the daring, grenade- juggling maniac, proud prankster and a guy who loves to live in the moment, I like to keep things interesting around here.”
Blitz followed with a mischievous grin, “And I’m Blitz Morgan, the fearless and mischievous partner-in-crime who catches those grenades and makes sure we don’t blow ourselves up, I’d gladly follow my brother through everything, including miss Aiko’s intense punishments.” Alister chuckled. “Alister Hazenworth, a hard worker I guess,” he introduced himself.
