Chapter 209: Fraud

“Huh?” the twins opened their eyes to an affectionate leader as opposed to the stern man. The would-be sobbing halted, their emotions changed from threatened to confused. That change in persona from Staxius took everyone by surprise.

“Sister, sister,” with a runny nose, Emma called whilst breathing heavily.

“Y-yes sister, t-the m-man is l-less s-scary,” Emmy replied whilst trying to remove snot off her face

“Now, now,” Staxius intervened. Using his white sleeves, he wiped the twin’s messy and unbecoming faces. A spark in the girls’ eyes, one that showed a feeling of relief. “About the question,” now knelt with the sisters facing him, Staxius continued. “Is there a guild you belong to or a party that needs you to return?”

“Y-yes,” Emma answered.

“And no,” Emmy continued, conflicting statements to which they elaborated further.

“We don’t belong to a guild but do if that makes sense?” both voices in harmony, they spoke as if a single person.

.....

“I see,” he stood, “-you have no idea if the guild you belong to is alive or dead. Must have been months ago now, the day you arrived at Rosespire, Melisa said something about a third companion.” Afterward, silence befell the table, the companions watched as their leader sunk into another world. The twins were baffled, to which they moved their head from left to right as if a pendulum. Avon being the ball of joy, he watched till unconsciously the movement was repeated.

“Oh boy...” Deadeyes shook his head. Meanwhile, Undrar and Achilles focused on the steaming hot food that arrived.

“Got it,” a sudden burst, it took the table by surprise “-do you have the guild cards?” he asked courteously.

“Yes,” Emma spoke.

“They’re in our bag,” Emmy added then proceeded to hand over the objects.

Written on it was their name, rank of which had was Tier-Seven with a faint glow of green. A glow that indicated the eligibility to advance in rank after a visit to the main guild. Below, after a few lines describing their strength – [Guild: None] was displayed with a greyed-out box.

“I knew it,” to which the error was pointed out. “I’m afraid to say this...” a few seconds later, “-but you girls were fooled. The guild to which your supposed allegiance was is but a fraud. Look at the guild box, incidents like this have been happening around the kingdom lately. The guilds are there at first, they recruit as many low-tier adventurers as possible. Then, those inexperienced souls are sent to do dangerous quests under the premise of training. ” A quick look on the faces around displayed anguish and hate. “As figured, tis but bait for less than admirable parties.”

“W-wait...” Emma’s demeanor dropped.

“T-that’s not possible,” Emmy voiced with an opposite feeling.

“Our f-friends were there t-to p-protect us,” the elder sister by a mere few minutes sunk into a feeling of helplessness.

“F-fraud,” the second sister, Emmy’s mentality was of one hell-bent on revenge.

“You’re s-saying t-that w-we were s-sent here to act a-as bait for the other teams?” the sobbing that once stopped began again; Emma stared deeply into Staxius’s eyes. The tears had a shine. At that moment, Staxius stood and watched as the two little ladies had a breakdown.

“B-bait... we were bait, all the friends who died were expendable,” a raging fury lit, Emmy’s hand slowly reached for her weapon.

“We better do something, quick,” Achilles urged, they sensed the auras. One of killing intent and one of helplessness.

“Wait,” Undrar grabbed her arms, “-look,” she pointed forward.

“Is that it,” Staxius spoke at last, “-here I thought the Lymsey sisters were the only two other girls who survived countless battles with me,” the arms crossed and stare cold and piercing. “Wallowing in self-pity and getting devoured by anger, how pathetic,” the hand reached for Tharis. Emmy glared with the full intention of hurting anyone who stood in her way. Emma, on the other hand, stared at the ground, tears dropped as if mild showers.

“M-master,” Emmy gritted, “-t-thank you f-for everything. But I t-think i-it’s time for us t-to part ways,” amidst the anger, a tear flowed. “Let’s go, sister,” she grabbed on Emma’s hand and forced her to walk. The latter remained as if a statue stuck in place without the will to move.

“Listen closely,” Tharis unholster to which the gun was placed onto Emmy’s head. “Remember what I said the day before we set off on the quest?” monotonous and deadly, the voice echoed around the tavern. People were glued on the unfolding scene. From cheerful to now this tension that could be cut with a dagger, they watched. Xenos was as menacing as depicted from the countless stories.

“In no way am I responsible for your life, tier-seven should be able to fight on their own. Hold me back and I won’t blink twice before ending your life myself,” he repeated the sentence, killing intent oozed.

“Whatever,” Emmy snarled and faced away, her sister stood without moving. This, in turn, forced the little sister to stand by, her anger subsided for fear. The air cleared; the cold barrel now dug into her head.

“W-what a-are you doing,” Emma looked up, “DON’T KILL HER,” she yelled, the sobbing intensified to which unknowingly lashed out and wailed weakly. Each punch or slap didn’t have any power behind it. It was a desperate attempt to hide what went on inside her mind. Seeing this, Emmy’s head lowered. In the middle of this outburst, the leader stood with Tharis locked onto the second sister’s head, while the first tried to attack.

“Idiots,” a sigh later, in a single motion, he knelt, pulled Emmy and Emma into his arms. They both gave and knelt in turn. “Unbelievable,” using his palms, he rested both their heads on either side of his shoulder, Adete had to hover and take a seat on the head instead. “Let it out,” he whispered, “-I’m here to help,” the voice affectionate and fatherly, the twins gave and cried their heart out. A scene that turned emotional in less than a few minutes. Oblivious to the greyed-out guild – it was to be expected for such a reaction. Seeing friends die during a fight was tough. Knowing that their death wasn’t in vain made bearing that grief a little better. Now, however, after the news about those countless death being nothing but expendable life stock – the pent-up sadness rushed out. Similar to a dying flame, only a slight bit of fuel is needed to rekindle that fire. In this case, the dying flame was the acceptance of their friends dying for a good cause. The fuel was the news delivered by Staxius, and the rest is history.

“Don’t cry,” Undrar voiced strongly then rushed over. Everyone followed her lead, rather than watch and do nothing, Kniq embraced the two girls who cried whole-heartedly.

“Kniq will always be a place you can call home if the time ever comes,” the sentence came straight from the vice leader’s mouth.

“Yes, what the vice-leader said,” Deadeyes added for even he felt bad for the girls. Achilles and Avon remained quiet; their focus was on embracing the twins with their might. All that sadness transferred over to the other tables. The adventurers could but bow their heads. Many of the ladies including the waitresses cried.

“Everything will be okay,” after a few minutes, the leader spoke reassuringly. “Standing still and not moving will be disrespectful to the comrades lost. I don’t care if it takes a day, a week or even a month, I’ll wait. Take however long you need – but I promise, the people who did you wrong will pay. Getting those small hands,” from patting their head to now caressing their palms, “-dirty, isn’t worth it. Leave the killing to me – that’s what I’m good for.” Those words hit home, the cries stopped, to which it turned into faint whimpering. After this, they fell asleep. This gave the sign for Kniq to let go.

“What do we do now?” Undrar asked with a fatigued voice.

“What else,” Staxius stood and held both girls in each arm, “-as people say, time is the best healer. I should have been tactful when saying what I said, but what is done is done. There’s only one thing to do, and that is to take care of them,” he stepped out and headed for the dormitories.

“Is it just me or?” Achilles asked.

“Yeah, that’s him, Staxius is definitely a father,” Undrar added with pride.

“Guess even a demon has feelings, doesn’t he?” Avon asked rhetorically with tears.

“A true gentleman, I’m so glad I joined this guild,” Deadeyes watched in awe. The display of compassion shown was new, a breath of fresh air. A feeling that they could relate too. All this rendered the trust between party members stronger.

Now sat between two beds in the middle of a dimly lit room, he waited. On each side, Emma and Emmy slept, the murmuring waned. The reason why he was seated in such a peculiar fashion was that each girl had grabbed onto his hand.

“Didn’t expect this change,” Adete voiced.

“I know,” he said softly, “-neither did I.”

“I don’t mean to say it’s a bad thing.” Adete hovered, “I’m curious, so give me the reason why?”

“Simple,” he looked up and smiled, “-They remind me of myself when I was a kid, and Eira.”

“Should have expected as much, father,” she pulled out her tongue.

“Yeah, yeah,” he dismissed the claims and closed eyes for a few minutes. The minutes eventually turned into hours, news about what happened spread throughout the outpost. Nothing majorly harmful – it was told as a sad story. A story in which Staxius was portraited as the father and girls as the daughters. Over exaggeration and rumors that the two got news about them losing their mother in war. Obviously, all this was for theatrics, the reason was told by Achilles. Losing comrades and breaking down in such a fashion was common. The rest sympathized and decided to find the good out of the bad.

“M-master...” two faint touches on either side was felt.

‘I must have dozed off,’ the nap broke. “oh...” puffy eyes with a reddish color around. “How do you both feel?” the relaxed posture straightened, the twins sat on each bed’s edge.

“M-much better,” Emma replied, still dazed from the shock earlier.

“Thank you for holding our hands when sleeping,” Emmy’s anger swapped for one remorseful. “It helped knowing that there was someone out there waiting,” despite the swollen eyes, she managed to pull out a smile.

“Yes, I agree with sister,” Emma tried to smile as well.

“I apologize for breaking the news like that earlier,” the head lowered in shame, “-I thought you knew. Clearly, I assumed wrong, forgive my tactlessness,” the tone genuinely concerned, it was the last thing he wanted to do.

“No, we apologize,” they spoke, “-knowing you care is more than enough,” they leaped to embrace their leader. “It was hard,” Emma’s voice felt sadder than ever before, almost to the point of breaking into a sob with each word pronounced.

“We thought our friends died for the sake of a better future,” Emmy added, her voice felt the same as the other.

“There’s a single reason why,” Emma felt it best to tell the truth.

“We lost both our elder brother and younger sister in that supposed fight for justice,” the speech harmonious again.

“Elder brother was back-stabbed by a hobgoblin while trying to defend us,” Emma added.

historical

“Our sister was clawed and devoured by a wolf,” the sorrow that emanated from the words that painfully rolled off their tongue could not be described. Staxius was at a loss for words, the girls had suffered a ton.

Rather than think rationally, he decided it best to support the twins. Their one-sided hug soon changed into another group embrace, he tightly held onto them.

“Those memories...”

“I-its haunts u-us...”