Chapter 2: Guild

Chapter 2: Guild

Talking about uncomfortable situations.

Not only that, I ignored all her messages and shut the door in front of her face… no, right now, she is sitting on my bed, checking out my room, looking somewhat disappointed.

I wasn't sure if her mood was my or my room's fault. Don't worry; it's not messy or dirty at all. If I had to describe this room in one word, it would be boring. I never cared about furniture or decoration. I got my bed, an office desk, bookshelves, and a computer. It is very easy to clean, but yes, even hotel rooms have more character than that.

So, Miko, still silently sitting across from me, starts staring in my direction, audibly breathing through her nose. I really wanted to talk to her; in my head, I started talking several times, but in reality, I didn't manage to get a single word out.

By the way, now that I see her in the light of the day that shines through my windows, I can confirm what I already suspected last night. She should be around my age and is straight-up gorgeous; her black hair, blue eyes, and long lashes are on another level. It is not like I am into women, but I admit I would be fine with her.

I am joking, by the way.

Suddenly, the silence was disturbed by a loud clap created by Miko's hands. I visibly flinched and laughed it off like I did not get scared at all... heh heh.

"Okay, let's talk! As I mentioned at the door, I wanted to apologize; the way I approached you last night was, let's call it… unprofessional? I simply could not gather enough courage to start a normal conversation with you, asking if you are interested in working as a mage."

She talked fast but very precisely, almost like she was reading a script, but with such a mesmerizing tone to her voice that it was super easy to listen to her, almost calming.

Maybe she was thinking about her words all along; that would at least explain her earlier silence.

"It's fine, and I think you did great." I chuckled slightly. "If you straight up asked me if I wanted to join your guild, I would have certainly said no."

"Figures." Miko smiled, and I could see her body relax. With that, the tense atmosphere also vanished, and as if the floodgates had opened, I continued the conversation without hesitation.

"But if you ask me now, I'm in. I want to know how it is to work with you." I don't know why I added that last part; maybe I wanted to emphasize my interest in her.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I wasn't brave enough to look her in the face during the conversation because my face turned red when I realized how cheesy and awkward my choice of words was, so I decided that looking at my feet was the only option.

"Thank you. I appreciate it a lot, and I'm sure everyone else will be happy too."

I simply smiled. The feeling of being needed... to make someone happy was something great for sure.

"Do you mind if we visit the office right now?" she asked, jumping off the bed.

Hello? Did she look at me at any point? No offense, but I rocked the homeless style right now… my hair was a mess, my make-up was nonexistent, and I was still in my pajamas.

Now that I think about it, I feel pretty embarrassed that she sees me like that.

"Ah, yeah, but I would love to shower and change first," I exclaimed quietly. I scratched my head, looking at her while she checked me out from head to toe.

"Sad, I think you look pretty cute right now. But, of course, I will allow you to change." She said, winking and grinning.

I bowed my head in gratitude, opened the drawer where I stored my clothes, and disappeared into the bathroom with a fresh set in my hands.

Wait, did she just call me cute? With a straight face? Never mind, let's forget that for now.

Why was I so happy right now? Maybe my brain was playing tricks so I would not start thinking about the consequences that would follow after joining a guild.

My smiling face that I saw in the bathroom mirror was also a pleasant surprise, assuring me that I was doing the right thing.... for the moment.

Normally, I would hear loud music while I embraced the warm water from the shower, but right now, it was awkward enough to know that Miko was waiting for me, only separated from me by a door; this thought alone let me blush red like a tomato.

That was the reason I rushed everything. After I jumped out of the shower, I rubbed myself with a towel and dried my hair with a blow dryer.

I quickly put on the clothes I picked up earlier and checked myself in the mirror again; good enough for a job interview, which I already passed, I guess.

Feeling like a new person, I left the bathroom and caught Miko playing around with my Switch, sitting in my chair. Her glance wandered to me as she smiled. "I just knew that you like such games. Visual Novels, RPGs and Life-Simulations, the Go-To's for introverted, lonely single girls."

"Hey…" not like she was wrong; the most exciting things I experienced lately were virtual. Good that she can't see all those Otome games I got on my phone.

"I also love RPGs." Perfect if you want to forget reality for some time," Miko admitted. She seemed to have no problems voicing her thoughts. Something I already envied her for. But it was still embarrassing and a bit hurtful to get told that I'm a nerd… lonely… and single.

She turned off the console, put it back in place, and stood up from the chair. "You are ready to go?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I guess?"

"That's enough for me. Let's go."

And so, we set off without any more talking, heading straight to the guild office. Miko explained that she came here by an E-Scooter, but I preferred to avoid doing the same since I would most certainly die when I tried to ride one of these machines.

I felt a bit uncomfortable running around the city during the day. Most of the time, I leave my home after or before sunset. I always manage to do things like grocery shopping super early or very late in the day so that I can avoid other people.

It is not that I dislike people in general. My biggest concern is encountering someone from my school time or even worse childhood; not like I dealt with bullies or anything in the past, but I'm constantly afraid that someone will ask me how I'm or how my family is doing... I just don't want to discuss these things.

On the other hand, Miko was smiling all the time, looking around, seemingly free of care, and almost waiting for someone to recognize her to start talking to her. If that was a façade, she definitely needed to try out acting.

It took us around twenty minutes until Miko stopped before a two-story building. "It's here," she proclaimed. Just the moment we arrived, I remembered that we originally planned to eat lunch, but it seemed like both of us totally forgot that.

"Hey, take a deep breath. Everyone is super chill, and the leader is one of the nicest people I know; everything will be fine, I promise." She said while patting my back. She instinctively knew how to calm me, so I started following her to the entrance.

Right next to the door, there was a sign saying

– Magical Support Ltd. –

Pretty straightforward, but I don't know the regularities for naming a guild, so maybe they had little freedom in that regard.

After entering the building, we stood in a stairwell; on the right side was the door leading to the office, and on the left was a staircase leading upstairs.

"You can go on; I must do something quickly," Miko said, already running up the stairs.

Hey! I was starting to feel a bit safe, and now I get abandoned. Come on, give me a break… my palms are already sweaty.

"Okay, sure," I whispered to myself. My words and my actions sadly did not match at all. I was standing before the door, waiting for the right moment to open it. After some time, I actually managed to grab the handle and entered the room.

Before I could see anyone, I heard a cheerful voice saying, "Welcome."

I was greeted by someone sitting behind the desk in front of the door. The room was small and looked a little bit like the reception of a doctor’s office, just a bit more colorful.

The person behind the desk looked like a young girl, but her elegant black blouse and her long white wavy hair gave her a very mature presence, so I wasn't sure about her age. But the most interesting part was the face tattoo right under her left eye, which looked like a horizontal hourglass.

I ended up staring at her too much, forgetting to talk.

"You must be our new healer, aren't you?" she asked with a smug face.

It seemed like Miko had told her that we were coming.

"Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you; I am Kayla," I said, laughing awkwardly.

"No, the pleasure is all mine. My name is Lilith, and I am this guild's leader, boss, or whatever you want to call it."

She held out her hand to me, waiting for me to shake it.

But I was in shock; she definitely was a witch. How could she look so young and be the boss?

"Oh no, she froze," said a laughing voice behind me; it was Miko who also entered the room. "I told you she would be stunned by you," I turned and looked at Miko, shock still plastered on my face.

Lilith was shrugging. "I don't know what's so special about me. "

"You look like a 12-year-old with white hair and red eyes, similar to an albino rat." Why was Miko so mean to her? However, Lilith seemed to tolerate that.

"Shut up, you both are just old-looking giants! How tall are you, Kayla? 1.80m? 1.85m?" Lilith was bewildered.

"Around 1.70m… a bit smaller, I guess," What was that? A height-contest? And who is looking old? Is she insulting me?

Lilith walked around the desk and stood right before me, resting her chin in one hand, checking me out from head to toe. Both Lilith and Miko had problems with respecting my personal space and with checking me out, too.

But I was not any better; looking at her closely, she was actually not that small, maybe around 1.55m-1.60m. And she had other features, two to be precise, that were the opposite of small... Again, I stared too long.

What the fuck was wrong with this guild? I met two members, and both are super gorgeous. I'm not super focused on appearances, but they could easily appear on magazine covers.

"Miko, you take over the counter, and I take Kayla into my office." Lilith proclaimed, grinning.

"Good luck!" Miko said, again patting me softly on my back. Should I be afraid? Why is she wishing me luck? I felt like I was before some kind of surprise exam in school.

But I gave it my best to follow Lilith without panicking. My sweaty hands and forehead told me that I was failing in that regard, but I'm optimistic that I will leave this office alive.

I took a deep breath before I sat down on the only chair across from Lilith.

Her office was pretty small but cute, just like herself, and most of the furniture was straight out of a catalog. I bet every single one got a Swedish name to it, but she certainly tried to touch it up with several kinds of flowers and some decorative items. My favorite piece was the framed drawing of probably herself with another person in it.

The room also had a lot of natural light coming in; since there was a huge window front behind her, I could see right into the garden behind the building.

"Sorry that it is so tight in here." she apologized, maybe because I looked so stressed, but this room was definitely not the reason.

"Ah, don't mention it; I think it's pretty comfy." I wasn't necessarily lying; the room just did not care that much for me at all.

"Thank you, so where do I start?" she scratched her cheek and fetched some documents from her desk drawer.

"This is the contract; would you like to go through it with me? Or do you want to read it alone first?"

"Together with you, if that's OK." not like she offered me to go through it together a second ago.

"Of course," she grabbed another copy of the contract and handed me one.

"Since we are a magical business, we do not have that many regulations like you would find in the regular job market; we are pretty free to decide how much and for what tasks we pay our employees."

The first sentence already sounded like some kind of scam, but for now, I had to believe her.

"The basic pay you get every month is pretty low, but the bonuses for completing a mission are comparatively high, so you can get up to a salary of around 4.000€ after taxes," she inhaled sharply and sighed. "But sometimes the situation concerning missions can be very frustrating, meaning that the pay stays low and you got nothing to do."

She immediately blurted out the payment, perhaps to motivate me for the rest...

"Mhm, and what are we doing without any missions? Like, do I still need to come here every day?"

She shook her head. "No, no, you're pretty much on standby all the time. If we have an incoming job, me, Miko or our secretary will just call you. We may need you right away, so we'd appreciate it if you kept that in mind."

Right until now, everything she told me was pretty easy to follow. Still, I had that one question ever since Miko invited me into this guild last night.

"And what will be my tasks on a mission? Is it dangerous?"

She sighed again. "Good question, yes and no. I want you to join us because you can use healing magic, so, of course, I want you to use it; plus, we're trying to avoid sending you straight into any dungeon. If, with emphasis on if, everything works out as I have planned, all you have to do is help build the barrier around the dungeon entrance and patch up the injured after they leave the dungeon."

I was listening closely and saw her facial expression shifting into a more serious tone. "However, there is always the possibility of a monster breaking out or the chance that you need to enter a dungeon. I know that you did not live as a mage until now, so I was already thinking about ways to get you accustomed to everything slowly."

The most dangerous situation I have had to get through on a daily basis in my life up until now was crossing the street. The possibility of facing a monster sounded absolutely unreal, and honestly, I am not sure if I ever want to make that experience.

But I trust her, and I trust Miko. I want to take this chance; I don't want to regret my decision, so I stopped thinking for the moment.

"Where do I sign?"

MIKO

I am not exaggerating when I say their conversation took no longer than five minutes. Kayla left the office alone, smiling but visibly shaking. I was pretty certain that she had just joined the guild because I never witnessed anyone declining an offer by Lilith before.

"And?" I asked cautiously. Kayla, on the other hand, was more focused on calming her breathing.

"I start next month." she finally proclaimed with a soft voice.

"Congrats, and welcome to our guild!" I walked towards her and gave her a hug; I don't know why I did it, maybe because she looked so lost and helpless. First, she stood there, not moving an inch. Moments later, her arms also enclosed my back. I felt her restless breathing on my chest, but she relaxed steadily.

"Wow, that's rare," Lilith said in a badly acted shocked voice after leaving her office. I just glanced at her for a moment before I focused on Kayla again. "Everything's fine now?"

"Yes," she whispered, "thank you." She ended the hug and stepped back. Her cheeks flushed pink, her gaze fixed on the ground. I could not deny that I also felt some degree of… I actually don't know which kind of feeling that was.

And I can't remember when the last time was that I got physically close to someone like that. Maybe it was because I rarely meet someone so vulnerable as Kayla. I was certain that I acted on instincts, not on goodwill.

"Since you two get on like that, I decided that Miko will be responsible for Kayla's training. She will need assistance in getting the license." Lilith explained.

She spoke as if there was another option.

Normally, the thought of helping someone annoys me a lot, but to be honest, I looked forward to raising this little puppy to become a full-fledged witch.