Chapter 26: A wolf’s pride

The people all around gave Edward as few weird glances, mostly because of the wolf pet he had, but shortly back to minding their own business.

Half an hour later, just as Edward was about to try and wake up Mya, he noticed a couple approaching him from the corner of his eye. They were the two magicians that he happened to pass by when he came here.

“Hello, friend. How are you?” asked Travis in a soft tone as he got near.

Edward didn’t really understand what they wanted from him, but noticed a trace of unfriendliness hidden behind his soft tone and forced smile. Edward still replied to his question, albeit in a slightly colder tone: “I’m fine. Is there anything I can help you with?”

Travis’ expression became a bit awkward, not knowing what to say since he only approached Edward at Elena’s insistence. Elena didn’t seem to care and asked directly: “Nothing much, we wanted to ask what are you plan on doing with this unconscious little girl?”

Edward turned to look at Mya who was sleeping at the side for the moment before turning towards Elena and asking with a frown: “And how is that any of your business?”

Elena didn’t back down when she heard his tone and said: “Of course is our business. What if you kidnapped her? There is also blood all over your clothes. How do you explain that?”

Being branded as a kidnapper served to piss Edward's off. It was a long day and the girl’s accusations combined with his bad mood made him give Elena a mocking look as he asked back: “And what if I did? I still don’t understand how that’s any of your business? Or maybe, do you think on joining us to find out for yourself? Your lover here probably won’t be too happy about that.”

Elena’s face turned red and even Travis’ awkward expression turned cold as he said: “Hey, be careful how you speak with my fiancée if you know what’s best for you. We just wanted to make sure that the girl is fine.”

“She’s fine. Case closed. Now piss off.” Said Edward and Minx responded by opening her eyes and growling slightly towards the pair of Elena and Travis.

As the four of them were stuck in a stare down, Elena was the first to take action and suddenly, the ground around her feet started trembling slightly before spikes started extending from her feet while she stared menacingly at Edward.

Seeing the spikes that appeared, Edward expression turned dark and he jumped to his feet while forming three water blades around his body. Minx also quickly increased her size to just a bit under seven feet and stared at Elena and Travis with a predatory look, ready to pounce on them at a moment’s notice.

“I’ve had a bad day and if you don’t cancel your spell right now, things will turn ugly.” Said Edward towards Elena. He was not scared since, while the two were quite strong, they were still the same level as him and if he fought together with Minx, he might be able to take them on.

The commotion also brought the attention of all the adventurers around, including the other two members of Travis’ party who started to also come closer.

Elena didn’t seem to be willing to give up and was about to launch the earth spikes at Edward, when a sudden pressure came from the side, disrupting both her earth spikes and Edward’s water blades.

Seeing both their spells being broken so easily, they both turned at the same time in the direction the pressure was coming from, only to notice a kind looking middle aged man making his way through the crowd of adventurers towards them.

As he got nearer and nearer, the pressure became so strong that both Edward and Elena were having trouble standing and fell to one knee with sweat flowing down their foreheads. It felt like the entire area was filled with an extremely concentrated amount of mana.

“What do we have here? Don’t you know fighting between the adventurers inside the safe zone is not allowed? Guild rules.” said the middle aged man as his eyes moved between Edward and Elena.

Edward didn’t say anything in response, but Elena replied with indignation: “This bastard kidnapped a little girl and who knows what he plans on doing to her. Was I supposed to just sit by and watch?”

The middle aged man nodded with a smile before looking at Edward and then at Mya who was being protected behind Minx’s huge body.

“Is that true young man?” he asked after fixing his eyes back on Edward.

Edward figured that he couldn’t really afford to mess with this guy who could nullify his spell so easily so he shook his head and said: “She’s a member of my party. I’m not kidnapping anyone.”

“Hmm… you don’t seem to be lying. Do you have any proof of this kidnapping, miss?” said the middle aged man as he turned back toward Elena.

Elena shook her head and said: “Then how does he explain the blood on his clothes? He must have killed the real party of the girl before kidnapping her.”

‘Such a strong headed woman…’ curse Edward in his mind.

The middle aged man released the pressure he was applying on both of them and said: “It might not be so. A lot of things can happen inside a dungeon…”

“Like what?” asked Elena as she sat back up now that the pressure was gone.

The middle aged man shrugged his shoulders before saying: “Who knows, but he doesn’t look like he’s lying. How about this, why don’t we wake up the girl and ask her? She appears to have recovered enough mana.”

Elena nodded right away and turned to look at Edward with a smug smile, being sure he would disagree, only to be surprised when she noticed that he nodded as well while saying: “I have no problem with it. I planned on waking her up anyway before they came to bother me.”

The middle aged man just released a small stream of water before moving it towards the sleeping Mya. Minx moved to block the stream of water, but stopped when she saw Edward signaling her to stand down.

As the stream of water touched Mya’s face, she frowned with her eyelids trembled slightly before opening her eyes with a confused look on her face.

Looking around and seeing a lot of unknown faces, she eventually turned towards Edward and was about to ask what was going on, when memories of Aidan and Steven deaths came back to her.

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Freezing with her mouth open as she was about to speak to Edward, she suddenly broke into a loud wail, startling all the parties involved except Edward who looked at her with a trace of pity.

Elena quickly went on to hug Mya before turning towards Edward and saying in an accusatory tone: “You bastard, what did you do to her?”

Edward sighed and threw her a disgusted look while saying: “What a moronic idiot you must be. Can’t you see she’s grieving? Do you think she should be laughing after witnessing two members of her party dying in front of her eyes…”

His words stunned Elena and she turned to look at Mya who was bawling her eyes out in her arms. Elena wanted to ask her if it was the truth, only to be stopped by Travis who grabbed one of her arms and said: “You can ask her after she calms down. I think we should leave for now…”

“But, what if he…” Elena wanted to argue, only to be interrupted by Travis’: “Elena!! That’s enough!”

Elena seemed unwilling and threw Edward an unfriendly look before getting dragged by Travis towards the rest of their party.

Minx decreased her size and laid down next to Mya, followed by Edward also coming close to them.

Mya, seeing Edward and Minx near her, hugged them both and continued crying her eyes out.

Seeing the scene, all the other adventurers also turned away, not willing to bother them anymore, leaving only Edward, Mya, Minx and the middle aged man in the area.

“I’m sorry for your loss kid.” Said the middle aged man as he also turned around to leave. Edward nodded and patted Mya on the back, letting her vent her sorrows without saying a single word.

Mya kept crying for more than ten minutes, until she finally seemed to have used all the strength she had left and fell asleep once more. Seeing that, Edward sighed and placed her resting with her head on Minx’s soft fur so she can sleep comfortably.

He was not that affected since he didn’t really know them for so long, but still felt bad for Mya. As he was patting Minx’s head while thinking about everything that happened, the middle aged man from before made his way back towards him.

“Has she calmed down?”

Edward shook his head and said: “She just cried herself to sleep.”

“Sigh… What about you kid? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I actually just joined their party and didn’t have the time to get close to them. It still brings a bad taste to my mouth, tho.”

The middle aged man nodded before taking a seat down close to Edward under his questioning look.

“Haha, don’t worry. I just wanted to speak to you about something.”

“What is it, sir?” asked Edward with a suspicious look. The old man didn’t give him a bad feeling, quite the opposite since he really helped him with Elena and her party before, but he couldn’t say he actually trusted him.

“You can call me Ermes, and don’t worry, I don’t have any bad intentions. I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to become my apprentice. I noticed that, while your level is still low, your control over your mana is quite good.”

‘A poaching attempt?’ though Edward before shaking his head and replying: “I’m sorry, but I already have a master so I’m not interested.”

The middle aged man nodded and said: “Who’s that master of yours? My word weighs quite a lot in the guild and I’m sure I’ll be able to convince your master to let you go as long as you are willing to become my apprentice.”

“Circe Winterhope.” Replied Edward while carefully watching the middle aged man expression. He didn’t really know that much about his master and this was a good chance to fish for some information.

What Edward didn’t expect was that, as soon as he heard Circe’s name, the middle aged man expression contorted in one of pure terror and he quickly said with a stiff laughter: “Haha, you know what? Forget what is said before. It was just a joke, a joke. Well, good luck kid and please don’t mention anything to your master about this..”

The middle aged man then, lost all semblance of a respectable mentor from before and scurried away like a rat with his tail between his legs, leaving Edward sitting there and watching him with a stunned expression.

“What the hell is wrong with Circe? Why is everyone so terrified of her?…” muttered Edward, a bit disappointed that the man left before he had the chance to ask more about her.

Seeing that he was once more left alone with only Minx and Mya who was sleeping, Edward also laid down with his head resting on Minx.

“Oh, how I wish I could sleep as well. This god damn curse will end up being the death of me…”

Since he couldn’t really sleep and he had plenty of mana left, he decided to keep practicing his water barrier spell to pass the time while using Fenrir as a proxy to communicate with Azure.

He didn’t make that much progress since he still wanted to keep around half of his mana for his travel back in the first floor, but it wasn’t a totally unproductive night.

As the dungeon started brightening once more, Edward knew that it was already morning and turned to look at the sleeping Mya. After some consideration, he decided to let her sleep and, after placing her on Minx’s back, he started heading up the stairs.

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