The four set off down the hill to find the Sea Mercenary Guild.
Zarka was a humble port city, closer to a rural village.
The harbor was bustling with fishermen in the midst of their work.
Amid this chaotic scene, Rita and her group, walking along the coastal path, stood out starkly.
The fishermen paused their tasks, staring at the unfamiliar group.
A refined group of young men and women, out of place in a rural port.
And three of them wore white cloaks.
It didn’t take long for someone to recognize the attire.
“The Mage Tower,” someone growled.
The surroundings erupted into noise, and hostile glares turned toward Rita’s group.
“As expected, they don’t look kindly on the Mage Tower,”
Seth muttered under his breath, unsurprised.
It was only natural in Karina’s domain.
She was a hero from her days with Talos, and now, settled in Zarka, she helped people selflessly.
Having spent years here, most locals likely knew her story.
Since they held Karina in high regard, it was only natural they’d see her enemies as their own.
“But they don’t seem to recognize Rita,” Blena said, glancing at Rita’s golden eyes with a hint of disappointment.
“It’s a rural area,” Alois explained.
“Many admire Karina as a mage, but nine out of ten don’t know much about magic. They probably think Rita is from the south.”
“Even if they did recognize her, it wouldn’t matter,” Seth said sharply.
“No matter how supreme-rank Rita is, Karina’s the one putting food on their tables. They might even throw stones at us for representing the Mage Tower.”
At Seth’s biting remark, Alois broke into a sweat.
But Rita walked on calmly, unfazed.
“The atmosphere’s too tense. I feel like we might actually get stoned!”
Blena’s anxiety grew under the piercing stares from all directions.
Alois, similarly unnerved, looked terrified.
“W-What do we do? Should we cast a defensive spell?”
“Then you take the rear, I’ll take the front, and Seth handles the sides?”
Seth sighed at their quick back-and-forth.
“You guys are having fun,” he said sarcastically.
Even at Seth’s blunt words, Alois just grinned foolishly.
Just before descending the hill, Seth had decided to drop formalities with Alois.
In truth, he’d already started speaking casually since Alois’s teleportation magic revelation, though that was out of shock.
“I’ll just speak casually,” Seth had proposed, feeling it would be awkward to apologize and revert to formal speech.
Surprisingly, Alois agreed readily, even declaring he’d use formal speech as the junior.
“Even so…”
The same applied to Blena, but she insisted on maintaining formalities, citing Alois’s noble status.
So, they settled on mutual respect.
Yet their conversations made them seem like close friends, which Rita found oddly fascinating.
Noticing her gaze, Alois smiled brightly and said, “Rita, you can speak casually with me too.”
“…I’m fine,” Rita replied, subtly averting her eyes.
Speaking casually to Alois might be amusing, but she wasn’t ready for it yet.
***
“So, we just keep going this way?”
“Yes. I came down here often while staying at the villa. The Sea Mercenary Guild is well-known here; you can’t miss it,” Alois replied.
Finding the Sea Mercenary Guild’s building was easy with Alois’s memory guiding them.
Rita’s group navigated the alleys and reached the harbor effortlessly.
“A mercenary guild by the sea? That’s kind of charming, right, Seth?”
“I don’t know… I can’t believe a mercenary guild would be in a place like this,” Seth replied skeptically.
Being near the harbor, the streets were filled with traces of fishing—rods and nets scattered about, and wooden crates with fish scraps emitting a foul stench.
The area in front of the Sea Mercenary Guild’s headquarters was no different.
The group exchanged bewildered looks at the pile of fish crates by the entrance.
Without Alois’s confirmation, they might’ve mistaken it for a fish market.
“Ugh… the smell,” Blena groaned, swatting at clinging flies as they entered.
The interior of the low-ceilinged two-story building was empty.
The spacious first floor, likely used as an office, was cluttered with desks and chairs, strewn with dust and papers.
The air was musty.
Seth, a stickler for organization with a touch of cleanliness, grimaced.
“How do they manage this place?”
Unable to hold back, Seth flung open a window, only for the stench of rotting garbage from behind the building to flood in.
He promptly shut it, his face stiff.
Alois hurriedly opened a front window, though it only let in hot, fishy air, making little difference.
“Is anyone here?!” Blena shouted, frustrated.
After a couple of shouts, footsteps came from upstairs.
A man’s voice followed.
“What? Who’s here?”
A young man in his twenties descended from the far-right staircase, his eyes half-closed as if just woken, his clothes disheveled.
Rubbing his eyes at the unannounced visitors, he narrowed them upon spotting the group.
“The Mage Tower?”
His gaze lingered on the white Mage Tower uniforms, then shifted curiously to the young woman in a blue cloak.
His mouth slowly dropped open.
Blena’s blue eyes and Seth and Alois’s green eyes were common enough.
But Rita’s golden eyes were different.
“Wait, those…”
Even if he couldn’t read mana as a mere clerk, he knew Rita’s golden eyes weren’t from the south.
Working for a mercenary guild, he was familiar with mana rankings and instantly recognized the mark of a supreme-rank mage.
“Oh… my god…”
Scratching his stomach through his disheveled shirt, the man’s legs gave out, and he tumbled down the stairs with a crash.
“Are you okay?” Alois asked, concerned.
The man scrambled to his feet, unharmed but dazed.
Hiccupping in shock, he pointed at Rita for confirmation, asking Alois with his eyes.
The naive Alois answered proudly,
“We’re from the Mage Tower. This is Rita, a great mage who recently reached supreme-rank.”
Rita instinctively bowed her head at the slightly embarrassing introduction.
Blena giggled, while Seth clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“W-Welcome! It’s a humble place, but…!”
The man, still on the floor with hands braced against it, shouted in a panic.
Had they been ordinary Mage Tower mages, he might’ve turned them away.
But a supreme-rank mage was different.
Like Smilky, the blacksmith of Sevieth Sanctuary, he didn’t want to incur a supreme-rank mage’s wrath and was flustered.
“No need for that. Are you the one I spoke with an hour ago via communication orb?”
The man’s pale face stiffened as he recalled Rita’s voice from their earlier conversation.
His eyes spun as he remembered grumbling about Talos’s persistent calls.
“S-Sorry…”
He fainted, foaming at the mouth.
“What’s with him?”
Seth, Alois, and Rita tilted their heads in turn.
Unfortunately, Rita felt nothing about their exchange.
The man came to an hour later.
“Wow, you’re awake! Here’s some water,” Blena said.
“T-Thanks…”
“This place seems really quiet, huh? No customers at all,” Blena chattered.
The man blinked dazedly, trying to process the situation.
“Right… the Mage Tower…”
His gaze cleared, landing on Rita across from him.
Confirming her golden eyes again, he began to convulse.
Blena quickly grabbed his shoulders.
“Calm down! We’re not here to harm you. We just came to meet Karina.”
The man stopped convulsing but hiccupped again, his eyes asking why a great mage would seek Karina.
Then he frowned.
“Don’t tell me… you’re here to bind Karina with your supreme-rank authority as a great mage?”
Gone was his earlier trembling.
The moment Karina’s name came up, he grew serious, and a spark of intrigue flickered in Rita’s eyes.
It showed how much he trusted and followed her.
“Not to bind her, but to make a request,” Rita clarified.
“What…?”
Like Blena, Seth, and Alois, whose eyes widened, the man blinked in confusion.
That wasn’t something he expected from a Mage Tower mage.
“If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to wait here.”
Caught off guard, the man nodded, and Rita settled into a worn chair to wait.
“I’ll wait until seven. The main camp’s in disarray, and we don’t know when Satan might appear again, so as long as I return before dark, it should be fine,” Rita decided.
As she set her plan, Blena sat beside her, deep in thought.
“Hey, Rita. I’m asking just in case, but are you really here to ‘request’ something from Karina?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Why so suddenly? Did you discuss it with your master? It doesn’t seem like it, but… is it okay to do this out of the blue?”
Seth stepped in front of Blena.
“Let’s just watch. She must have a plan.”
Uncharacteristically, Seth took Rita’s side.
But it made sense.
Just yesterday, Seth had heard his respected master belittle him to his face, and Rita had stood up for him.
He’d also seen a new, unsettling side of his master, sparking small doubts.
Seth had followed Rita to confirm something.
Blena, sharing similar feelings, nodded after a moment of thought.
***
While Rita dozed to catch up on sleep, time passed quickly, and dusk settled in.
“Hey, wake up. The sun’s down,” Seth said, tapping Rita’s arm.
Recently, rumors had spread that beasts had superior night vision compared to humans, and scholars speculated some were nocturnal.
Growing worried about the main camp, Seth said, “Is she really coming today?”
Blena looked at the guild worker, but he couldn’t be sure.
Karina was like the wind, often veering off on her own.
Whether she’d return with the mercenaries today was uncertain.
Shaking his head, the worker prompted Seth to stand.
“Let’s just go back. If we get attacked again…”
Before he could finish, the outside grew noisy.
Boisterous laughter drew closer, and a group entered the guild building.
They were rough-looking, each armed with weapons, their attire similar to the mercenaries in the beast-slaying expedition.
“The Sea Mercenary Guild,” Alois whispered.
Everyone stood, but the laughing mercenaries froze upon seeing the strangers.
“What? The Mage Tower?”
“What are they doing here? Don’t tell me…”
Their sarcastic remarks halted the moment Rita stepped out from behind Seth.
Her distinct cloak, dark hair, and mysterious aura stood out, but it was her eye color that drew their attention.
“Golden eyes?”
Recognizing the mark of a supreme-rank mage, the mercenaries paled in unison.