High-ranking officials led by three elders from the Castle of Lion guild and one elder from the Royal Crown guild swarmed the rundown manor of Elder Rosita, who was still reported missing. The Grand Abyss kept their mouths shut about the elder's true status until Solari could decide whether to reveal the truth or investigate further. They had already given their statements about what transpired at the site. Even the other hunters and survivors present when the chaos was unleashed gave identical accounts. Yet, seeing the whole place ruined without a single trace of evidence pointing back to the beasts, the elders still had the audacity to doubt those words. They refused to believe someone powerful enough could have obliterated the beasts using an ice ability, even though the surrounding temperature backed up the truth.
"They didn't even arrive on time, yet they have the audacity to make things worse for us," Glecy murmured.
She hated it most when the supposed help they were supposed to rely on wasn't actually reliable. It was always the opposite, and this was nothing new to them. This was how the higher-ups operated just to capture public attention and bask in praise built on effortless lies. Such useless fools.
Ryden lightly brushed Glecy with his elbow to warn her against being too reckless with her words. It wasn't that they were afraid of defaming the higher-ups, but they didn't want to create unnecessary trouble on top of their existing problems. They had far more critical matters to handle than dealing with pretentious mortals, so it was better to keep themselves grounded.
Glecy said nothing, though she pulled a face of pure irritation. How badly she wanted to return to their guild and finally rest. Support units had already arrived with the backup team, meaning her help was no longer needed.
Ryden leaned closer. Thinking he was just trying to annoy her further, Glecy shot him a piercing glare.
"So, she helped you break through back there?" he whispered.
That took her aback, her eyes widening before she blinked in confusion.
"How did you know?" Cana had explicitly told her not to mention her presence to anyone.
"I had the twin of my familiar keeping watch over you. So, how was it?"
"How was what? The experience of being watched? Totally not okay," Glecy blurted out.
Ryden didn't respond as Verna closed in. She looked utterly exhausted, ready to collapse the second anyone gave her permission. She yawned and draped her arm over Glecy's shoulder, using her as an anchor.
"Do you have anything to eat?" Verna asked.
Both Ryden and Glecy stared at her in total disbelief. If they had any food on them, they would have eaten it hours ago, right after the chaos with the beasts had finally ended.
"Do you have a hunger-healing spell?" Verna carried on.
"Nope. But I can give you a knockout spell."
Ryden laughed without a sound or even opening his lips, his shoulders shaking, while Verna simply closed her eyes without a word of argument. She was seriously tired and not used to the multiple castings of her holy shield while focusing on everyone's safety. Despite the sudden surge of mana, the physical burnout still weighed heavily on her. Plus, there was something still bothering her about Elder Rosita's mysterious cause of death. She had no idea how they would explain it properly to the other elders without them misunderstanding or interpreting it the wrong way. Those old fossils mastered bending words of truth in order to gain favor in any situation. They showed concern only when it was necessary for their own interests.
Verna sighed.
"Please, say my thanks to your ancestor. Without that help, we surely would have died today," she told Glecy.
Though that said ancestor was also clouding her mind. Glecy had not introduced any relative to them aside from her immediate family, so she was wondering which branch of Glecy's family that ancestor could belong to. Also, there was not a word from anyone, especially from the higher councils, that there was such a powerful person living in the Northland Kingdom.
"Is your ancestor an elder from another guild, or a retired one?" she added, offering the only possibility she could think of as of now.
Glecy side-glanced at Ryden. He had not mentioned Cana's name, but Glecy was sure Ryden knew exactly who had helped them defeat the beasts.
"Glecy's ancestor would have greeted us before leaving if he wanted us to know his personal matters," Ryden blatantly answered Verna.
"I'm just curious," Verna tried to reason.
"Let's just leave it at that, and it will show more respect for him. We also have an issue that needs to be dealt with, remember."
Verna chose to no longer argue. Ryden had a point, but why could she sense he was hiding something? It felt like he had deliberately stopped her from prying into Glecy's business. But instead of pushing her luck, she decided to go to Akiro, who was still sleeping. At least there she had a valid excuse to rest.
"Thanks," Glecy muttered softly after Verna left them.
Ryden looked at her, smirked, then looked away. "Who knows if Cana would freeze us to death or burn us to hell. Better stay on her good side since Solari trusts her, too."
Glecy timidly nodded. She agreed with Ryden on that. They had no idea she could wield not just two, but exact opposite elemental abilities—flame and ice. And the way she helped them restore their mana... only support types could do that, so how come Cana pulled it off so perfectly, and stronger than any support they had ever known in history books? There was no doubt now why she could stand side by side with Solari without flinching, and why their Captain respected her more than anyone, tolerating everything she did even if she broke his own rules.
After nearly two hours of draining every ounce of Kyla's physical and mental energy following the elders while they investigated the whole manor, she finally had the chance to escape and join her team again. Spending that entire time with those pretentious, cracking tree barks felt like roasting herself in hell, cursing them in her mind while guiding them around. Repeating the exact same explanations. Answering different styles of questions that all boiled down to the same thing—she wasn't born yesterday not to know they were hunting for loopholes to suit their own selfish interests. It would have been deeply satisfying to punch just one of those old bastards right in the jaw.
And that elder from the Royal Crown guild was even trying his luck to fish for her hand, pushing her to marry into his family. The sheer nerve of him, saying straight to her face that only his grandson was deserving of her as a wife. Had she not known that the grandson he was boasting about was famous in every brothel, she might have actually hesitated for a second. They had flesh rotten to the core, yet they still dared to try and taint her family. Fortunately, she remembered their Captain's words and threw them right back into that elder's face. She knew Solari would never go back on his word.
They might throw slanderous gossip against Solari behind his back, but not a single one of them dared face him in a fight. Only total fools would try.
"You sounded really happy, Vice," Akiro rasped out after waking up and hearing his sister's familiar voice venting to Glecy.
Both Kyla and Glecy whipped their heads toward him, startled by how fast he had bounced back from passing out.
"Yeah, thrilled... Why don't you host a welcome-back party for me?" Throwing the sarcastic jab at Akiro eased a fraction of Kyla's lingering irritation. "How do you feel?" Her tone softened, genuinely concerned if her brother was suffering from a backlash after burning through his familiar while adapting to the sudden, massive mana surge Glecy's enhancement had forced into their systems.
Akiro sat up, testing his limbs by stretching his arms and cracking the stiff joints in his neck.
"I feel... recharged. It's weird," he said, his brows furrowing in confusion. "There's zero pain. Was that your healing work, Glecy?"
Glecy shook her head. "I don't think so. I cast the exact same healing on all of you, but the others are still physically exhausted. Maybe what you hit wasn't just physical strain, but a backlash from pushing your mana to absolute zero."
Because her healing ability did not cover the natural physical strain of the body due to sheer exerted force—just like she could not heal sadness in anyone's heart using magic. She could only heal wounds and magic-related injuries—the inherent weakness and reasonable flaw of being a support.
"Your healing ability got a huge upgrade this time. Did you break through?" Akiro asked as straightforwardly as he always had been.
Glecy did not deny it and simply nodded. They all knew this was what she had been trying to achieve for years. It was also the reason why she had immersed herself in learning everything she could, a pursuit that later turned into her obsessive habit.
Akiro smiled genuinely. "Wow! Congratulations! Despite all the exhausting chaos today, we actually have a reason to celebrate as a team. Drinks are on me."
"You literally just woke up from passing out," Kyla countered, shooting him a look. "But yeah, congratulations, Glecy. Your power is really awesome. I can't wait to tell Captain about it," Kyla added, pulling Glecy into a cheerful hug.
As happy as she was, Glecy still couldn't entirely shake off a lingering sense of shyness. For years, she had secretly felt like she was dragging her team down. She couldn't always keep up with their pace, yet they had never given up on her, constantly affirming her place ever since they became a unit—the only family she would never abandon and would forever treasure.
"Thank you, guys, for always believing in me. I think I'll be needing help to figure out how to control this new level of power, though."
"Count me in first," Kyla said.
"For sure Captain will be more than willing to train you," Akiro teased.
Kyla pursed her lips, trying her hardest not to laugh, while Glecy's face turned literally pale at the thought.
"Can we not tell him yet until I've actually mastered it?" she pleaded with the siblings.
"Even if you turned into a slime, Solari would still smell your power," Ryden noted casually from across the room.
Glecy did not comment and simply pursed her lips into a lopsided pout. Why state the obvious? Of course she knew it very well, too. She was just trying to soothe her own nerves because right now, she didn't really feel that excitement anymore about breaking through. What she needed was to master it as soon as possible, or it would be completely useless.
She believed it was Cana supporting their team throughout that was the reason she had actually managed to handle such a sudden breakthrough. And she felt the energy she used wasn't entirely hers. If Cana hadn't been there, would she have even had the chance to break through, or would their team even be able to stand right now? It was all because of Cana's help.
The team's little banter ended when someone popped his head inside the room, scanning all of them before stepping in. Relieved, he sighed to see his favorite squad all in one piece and on their own two feet. But the Grand Abyss did not look quite as happy to see him.
"What kind of looks are you giving me? I escaped the King's knights just to get here as fast as possible," Nick gave his excuse without anyone even asking. "I sent the backup hunters to help just minutes after you left."
At that, Kyla's brows furrowed as she mentally calculated whether Nick was telling the truth. But why would he dare joke in a situation like this? Even the other members exchanged glances before turning uniform, questioning glares at Nick.
"The backup you're talking about arrived an hour after we dealt with those beasts. They came with those three slow-grinding fuckers," Akiro said straight to his face, utterly annoyed, without a single hint of backing down from his words.
Kyla, on the other hand, felt a sharp spike of regret for not quickly covering her brother's mouth. She instinctively clenched her fist, though not too tight, and side-glanced at Nick. It wasn't just because he was their guild master, but because someone outside might overhear Akiro trash-talking those old, cracking tree barks.
Nick went dead silent after hearing Akiro. Veins began to bulge on his temples, his breathing turning rigid as his hand clenched tightly around the sheath of his sword. His eyes flickered with a frenzied glare, ready to kill, while the entire squad just watched and waited to see what he would do.
Instead, Nick only took a deep breath, pursing his lips to force down his spiking anger.
"Wait—where is Nikolas?" he suddenly remembered to ask after realizing Solari was nowhere in the room. He grew visibly agitated at whatever Solari might do if he found out how foolishly the alleged backup hunters had acted just now.
"Don't worry, he's not here. No one's slicing throats today," Kyla said.
Only then did Nick let out another heavy sigh of relief. It would have been an absolute disaster if that kid had been around when this happened. Someone would definitely have been bathing in their own blood if Solari had been present.
"Better not tell him about this. He's already been getting warnings from the council, and he definitely shouldn't pull any reckless moves right now," Nick told them.
On the other side of the room, a dark smirk tugged Ryden's lips to the side with a rough exhale of air. Cana had been right there helping them a while ago—how could Erus possibly not know exactly what happened here by now?
Those fools were still lucky Solari had Cana by his side. Otherwise, who knew if he would have even bothered to spare such entitled, useless mortals today?
Then, at the worst possible moment, Nick pulled a letter from his dimensional storage and handed it to Kyla.
The poor woman's brows remained furrowed as she tried to make sense of what the letter could possibly be about. Better not be from another annoying fool trying to get their hands on her—someone who suddenly had the balls to pick a fight with their Captain.
"The palace is requesting your squad's service for tomorrow's event. They want extra security around the perimeter during the execution of the Teumessian fox," Nick explained, not even waiting for Kyla to waste her energy opening the seal.
"What the fuck! Why us?"
They all jumped, startled as Verna suddenly piped up from the corner—the same Verna who had looked half-asleep on her chair a moment ago.
"Are the palace knights really that useless nowadays? And why not pull some grunts from the Royal Crown guild instead? I'm so fucking exhausted for this bullshit."