Chapter 26: Interlude I: A troubled Grandmaster…

Echoes of Fire and Shadows

Interlude I: A troubled Grandmaster…

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Somewhere in Sutri, the capital of the Kingdom of Valciar…

I was in my office, sitting in my very comfortable chair while absentmindedly looking outside through my window.

“...” I was trying to silently ignore the reality of the current situation I was in…

But even the calm and blue skies would not allow me to ignore the current problem I had on my hands.

After being harassed by a cloud with the shape of a coin for the last ten minutes, I finally had enough and stood up angrily, hitting my desk repeatedly with all of my strength… As a result, the wooden desk was quickly turned into mere splinters.

“Five fucking thousand Des… Dear gods, why can’t I have a normal family…?” I asked the heavens with disappointment while clenching my fists due to my wrath and desperation.

About four or five days ago, I received a call from a certain someone in the Guild’s branch of the Marcelian Empire. That certain someone was no one other than one of my seniors… Tiria Feru, the Guild’s Grandmaster in charge of the Marcelian Empire, in other words, my counterpart in my country’s neighbor to the south.

“Lena, after graduating from the National School of Magic, how can you be so fucking dumb!?” I was, unfortunately, taken over by my unyielding rage again…

Just remembering that call I received makes my blood boil and makes me disappointed in my much older cousin.

“Sigh… When she returns, I will have a real talk with my aunt. That girl just doesn’t know the number of problems she just shoved into me…” I let out a heavy sigh as I remembered the face of the troublemaker that is my cousin…

This particular cousin of mine decided that it was apparently fine to attack a bunch of children just because of that asshole of a boyfriend that she and her friend are sharing, thought it would be fun to harass a rabbitfolk girl about her ears and then punch another girl who tried to defend her…

Only to then be defeated by a seven-year-old boy with black hair, to whom they also insulted by using an old slur used to insinuate that he was the child of a demon… Well, it turns out he is not the child of the demon, but he is the adoptive child of who is probably the strongest human in the world, Fred Armanz, who is universally known as the Skull Crusher. But not only that, the girl that was hit by the asshole boyfriend of my cousin Lena is also a daughter of the Skull Crusher…

When Tiria told me that her nieces and nephew had been attacked by this bunch of idiots, I was quite literally about to rip off every single hair strand from my head due to the sudden stress and the panic attack I almost had…

It was one thing pissing off my senior, but they also had to become enemies of the strongest guy alive? There was simply no way that they were walking out alive of the Empire…

It was already clear in my mind that I would go visit my aunt and uncle and explain to them how their dumbass of a daughter basically committed suicide after pissing off two people she shouldn’t have pissed off.

But, much to my relief (and surprise), I wouldn’t have to go visit my aunt and uncle since their daughter, her friend, and their asshole boyfriend were all alive and relatively well.

The three of them were currently being escorted back to this city by some of my subordinates stationed at the border between this country and the Empire. The three of them had been healed from their wounds, just enough so they wouldn’t bleed to death on the way here. My cousin will now have a scar on her arm to remind her not to try to harass children ever again, which I think she deserves for being an idiot.

Anyway, I couldn’t believe that they hadn't been beaten to death by Tiria or the Skull Crusher, who is said to have an explosive temper… However, my relief didn’t last long as I was told about the conditions of the release of that trio of idiots by my counterpart in the Empire.

First, she demanded quite an important amount of money as reparations… Fifteen Marcelian Gold Coins, or rather five thousand Des, which is quite the larger amount converted to my country’s currency considering that our current economy is not at its best after the famine and the plague from last year…

Basically, I have to pay a ransom of almost two months of my normal salary… 

“Sigh… I’m so lucky that I have some savings for a rainy day like this one…” I let out a heavy sigh due to the loss of my hard-earned money…

At least I wouldn’t go hungry due to my idiot cousin… Of course, losing so much money and the fact that Tiria will probably bring up this incident next time we see each other is what has angered me the most about this whole ordeal.

The rest of the conditions she imposed on that trio of idiots is fine in my opinion and quite frankly it is a fair punishment.

As a result of this incident, the three of them will be unable to work as adventurers in the Empire for the next twenty years or so, which is pretty bad for them considering that we are currently in a season where monster activity is at its lowest.

Low monster activity is obviously good for remote farming villages but not so much for adventurers who make a living by killing said monsters. Normally, most adventurers go to work in other countries during this season and then they return when monster activity starts to rise in the winter.

These three idiots screw themselves over this since the Empire has the highest amount of jobs and pay for those jobs during this season. As a result, they will have to go to Arion or Semdal to the west, where they will probably have less work than here since those countries also are in a similar season of low monster activity. 

So that leaves them with the option of going to the western continent or trying their luck in a dungeon. Both options which I consider foolish since they are low-ranking adventurers and their levels are probably not that high either.

It is most probable that the three idiots will be out of work until the winter starts. But, right now, I do not give a single flying fuck about them! Well, maybe I do care about my cousin, but I do not want to see her right now, because I know I might rip her a new one as soon as I see her…

“Gosh! I have never been so mad at someone in my life!” I started trying to kick the floor furiously.

Unfortunately, the cobblestone beneath my feet was not strong enough to endure my relentless assault. A crater was quickly formed due to the sheer strength of my kicks…

It was probably for the best that I chose an office on the ground floor instead of the second floor like I originally wanted…

After looking at the crater I had just made, I let out another heavy sigh and started to touch the soft wool of the white scarf around my neck… Something that I usually do after a stressful day at the guild.

“Mom… Is this what you had to deal with when you were the Grandmaster?” I said with nostalgia as I tightly grasped the last gift my mother gave me…

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It has been two and a half years since we lost her… Things have been quite lonely and difficult without her…

She was my inspiration and the person I admire the most. She taught me everything I know and the person who motivated me to follow in her footsteps.

“But… Even the strong aren’t immune to disease…”  I muttered as I started feeling depressed as I remembered the last moments of my mother.

She was a strong woman, both physically and mentally. Her fame is probably equal to that of the Skull Crusher and the sole mention of her name inspires courage to the adventurers of this realm.

But, like I just said, even the strong aren’t immune to disease… She got sick after she went to explore a new dungeon that had appeared. She and the individuals that went to explore the new dungeon were affected by this disease when they returned triumphant from their expedition.

They all suffered from irritability, abdominal pain, headaches, and even memory loss and anemia in the most severe cases.

My mother was one of those severe cases. She spent weeks being visited by doctors and healers but nothing they did was able to cure her or even help her with her pain… 

I was there with her, holding her hand the entire time while all of the people who have come to know her struggled to find methods to cure her… Even the King himself came to visit her with the royal physician and the royal healer, and it was the same result…

Despite everyone’s efforts, my mother died without any hope of recovery.

“...” I felt that my eyes were about to get watery as I remembered the smile she showed me moments before dying.

Although the final moments of her life might seem sad, she was not. She simply smiled the whole time and was even glad to be sick… She said that she could finally spend some quality time with her family and friends without her job as the Grandmaster of the Guild getting in the way.

The entire time she was bedridden, I only ever saw her with a smile on her face. She smiled even when the Goddess of Death came to claim her soul…

In her final moments, with that very same smile, she gave me this white scarf she had made herself when I wasn’t looking… She told me that she was proud of everything that I had accomplished and that she was sure that I was going to surpass her in no time… She forbade me from crying about her death and told me to smile instead because she couldn’t leave until she saw me smiling.

“Sheesh… Even though you were at death's door, you were always thinking of other people…” I immediately stopped myself from crying and smiled, trying to fulfill her last wishes.

As I muttered those words, someone started knocking on my door… The person on the other side didn’t even wait for my answer and quickly rushed into the room.

“Sis!” A young kid came running towards me with a smile on his face. As soon as he reached me, he hugged me as tightly as he could with his small arms.

“Eric! What are you doing here, you little troublemaker?” I asked him with a big and warm big sister smile.

Eric is my younger brother. He’s currently nine years old and the sweetest cinnamon roll in my life. Just like me and our mother, he has short grey hair, but unlike the two of us, he has amber-colored eyes which is something he inherited from our dad. He’s pretty short compared to other kids his age, but I couldn’t care one bit about that. What he doesn’t have in height, he has it in heart!

Just like me, he also has a white scarf that was made by my mother.

“I heard an explosion! Were you playing a fun game?” He asked with the most innocent of smiles. 

I looked at my ruined floor and the few remains of my desk… There were papers and important documents scattered across the floor due to my previous rampage.

“Hahaha! You caught me!” I had to lie since I didn’t want my brother to think I was a violent and wrathful person.

Before he even had the chance to react, I quickly crouched and grabbed my little brother from the ground in order to carry him back home.

“Why don’t we go home and play the game there, after we have some lunch? I’m already done with my work for the day and it’ll be nice to spend some time together.” I lied again, I still had to repair the damage I had done to my own office…

“Yay! Let’s play a lot!” Eric showed me an innocent smile.

“Alright, hold on tightly! We are going to make a run for home! Perhaps we might be able to give dad a little scare!” I nodded to myself as my little brother awakened my mischievous side.

“Hehehe!” My brother simply laughed and hugged me in order not to fall.

The moment I noticed that he was ready, I ran out of my office with my little brother in my arms. The things that were troubling me before had completely slipped from my mind due to the appearance of my little brother.

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Interlude I: A troubled Grandmaster…

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