QUEST TRIAL

I had to tell lies again, the receptionist who had registered Norihiko and Astrea thought.

“Daena…Deana… Deana, anyone in there?” Daena came back from her thoughts; her co-worker was resting on her table trying to get her attention. "What's up with you lately? You have been getting lost in your own thoughts way too much."

“Sorry”

“Don’t worry about it; I just want to tell you your shift has been over for, like, ten minutes now. Didn’t you say you have something to do at home?”

Daena packed up her things and waved goodbye to the receptionist before she left the guild hall.

“What do you think she is getting up to at home?” Another receptionist asked as she walked over.

“No idea”

“Do you think some guy could be threatening her?”

“I’m sure she would tell us if that’s the case.”

“Maybe he gave her some threat like, ‘If you tell anyone, I will kill all your loved ones,’” she said in a rugged voice, vocalising what the man might sound like. “Or something like that.”

“If that’s the case, then I ought to punch him in the face.” The receptionist raised her voice and made a fist. “How dare he do something like that to our Angel?”

“Yeah!!” the other shouted in agreement while also making a fist. “Punch him in the face.”

What are those two girls doing? A receptionist watching them from her post thought.

“Looks like she’s leaving.” Norihiko dropped his cup as he saw Daena leave through the windows. “That’s our cue.”

“You are not actually planning on following her, are you?” Astrea said as Norihiko stood up to leave, “I still don’t fully get what you said.”

“Then it will be faster to just show you.”

“Isn’t this an invasion of privacy?”

“Not when the victim is a suspect; this is just to confirm my suspicions.”

‘I just hope I don’t regret this., Astrea reluctantly stood up and followed Norihiko.

Daena arrived home; she changed into her casual clothes, which looked too tight for her. She then dispelled her magic, a magic skill called ‘makeover’ which lets her change her appearance.

She gradually became smaller, her hair changed from orange to white, her eyes from yellow to green and her face from that of a twenty-one-year-old to an eighteen-year-old; her ears also became pointy, as she is now an elf.

She went to her basement and put a bit of her mana into a door which blended perfectly with the wall; the door automatically opened to reveal a bed which a man was lying on.

“You are back,” he said before coughing.

“You don’t need to speak,” Deana said as she rushed over, helping him sit up and drink some water.

“You have your own life to live.” The man said, “If it’s my fate to die, then so be it. I would rather die than watch you suffer for my sake.”

“Don’t say stuff like that; you are my brother, and what kind of little sister leaves her brother to die?”

Her brother had the appearance of the wanted poster in the middle of the guild board; the only difference is he looked sickly.

“I swear I’m going to find the elf who framed you and clear your name.” Tears flowed from his sister’s eyes. “So please don’t die.”

Her brother touched her head gently. “You haven’t changed, not even a little. I’m sorry for what I said.” He hugged her with some effort. “Your brother isn’t going to get killed off by some weak unknown disease, so quit it with the waterworks; it isn’t a good look for you.”

“I’m sorry,” Daena said, wiping the tears from her face with her palm.

“No… I’m the one who should be sorry… I’m sorry for making you cry.”

“I’ll go make you something to eat.”

Astrea left, closing the door behind her. She stopped for a while and looked frightened as she chanted an attack spell.

Someone’s here, she thought, and she slowly moved up the stairs. She got to the sitting room and was ready to launch her spell but hesitated when she saw two familiar faces. The two adventurers she had just registered were seated opposite each other on her chairs, and they both looked clearly embarrassed about something.

She was about to speak when the boy spoke first. “I’m sorry,” he said abruptly.

“Yeah, you should be. I told you it was a bad idea to go poking around someone else’s business.”

“You have no right to talk, you know… you are here as well.”

“Yeah, but that’s only because you dragged me along.” Astrea turned to Daena. “I’m sorry too.”

Norihiko and Astrea had eavesdropped on Daena and her brother’s ‘personal’ conversation and now felt the need to apologise.

“What do you want?”Daena said she was still ready to cast her spell.

“Please calm down, we mean you no harm… “Well, I mean you no harm; I’m not too sure about this stalker here,” Astrea said.

“Could you drop it already? I’ve apologised, haven’t I?” Norihiko then turned to Daena. “To be honest, I suspected you of harbouring a criminal, but it seems I was w-wrong.” Norihiko had trouble saying the word wrong.

Astrea sensed no hostility from them, and they acted like they weren’t even serious, so she let her guard down a little. “M-my brother isn’t a criminal.”

“Mr. great detective, tell her the whole story,” Astrea said.

“Well… when I met you at the guild, I immediately realised from your voice that you are much younger than you appeared to be, so that registered in my mind. I then saw that wanted poster quest in the middle of the board, and then I thought, like, “No way, it’s that convenient,” but when I brought the poster to the desk, you tried your hardest to stop me from going on the quest. “Why would you try so hard to stop me from going on a quest but keep the quest in the middle of the board where anyone can see it?” was what went through my mind at that time. The quest had said the suspect had been spotted several times with multiple women, and so I suspected you to be harbouring the culprit.”

“You left out your conclusion.”

“I’m getting to that part. I figured you kept the wanted poster in the middle to take away suspicion from yourself. I then came to the conclusion that—” Norihiko's confidence slowly dissipated before he said his conclusion. “You were harbouring a lover who you knew is a criminal, but you are crazy enough to love him all the same, and he is manipulating you into thinking he loves you too only to sacrifice you in the end to regain his freedom,” he said quickly.

“…” Daena did not know how to reply.

“It happens, okay?”

“Are you planning on taking his bounty?” Daena said, “If so, then I will have to stop you.”

“I’m no monster; now that I know you are both innocent, I lost interest in that,” Norihiko said. “Also, as an apology and also to repair my pride, I want to help catch the guys who framed you, brother.” Norihiko paused for a while before he said, “You know what… Scratch that. He came to us.”

A man who looks exactly like Daena’s brother does entered the room through the front door. “You two could have lived, if only you didn’t go around poking your nose into other people’s business.”

Norihiko paid no attention to his threat; there was only one thought going through his mind: “You reek of blood.”