A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 318: Stories (2/4)

Chapter 318: Stories (2/4)

"Alright, how about this then. Let’s get out of this stuffy room and go somewhere nice. I happen to know a good place to get some food also while we’re there, but I’m open to suggestions." Ba’arhim suggested out of nowhere.

But I liked the idea, as did everybody else. Plus, it was getting close to lunch anyways, since that first story had taken a while to get through.

Thankfully, I was able to get out of bed, which was nice. I was now once again in control of my body, but there was still something gnawing at the back of my mind, like I hadn’t fully eaten yet.

I brushed it off as just not having eaten enough as the seven of us went over to the restaurant that Ba’arhim had suggested we go to.

When we arrived, we got a private booth rather easily which had enough space to fit a few more people in here even with the lot of us.

Shortly after we came in, we were all given menus by one of the waitresses. As we chose what we all wanted to eat, Asty pestered Ba’arhim to continue the story, but he said to wait until the food arrived.

So instead, she asked if Morrigan had any stories to share. To which she replied by telling us about a few mundane but mildly interesting facts about things that happened whilst she was teaching in the academy.

She spoke about a few of the students that she saw potential in, a few that were annoyances and a few that just seemed interesting.

Everyone had ordered by now, mostly just snack foods so that we could pick and eat whatever we wanted as Ba’arhim continued his story once it arrived. Which it did just after Morrigan finished her piece also.

"Right then, where did I leave off? Ah yes, preparations..."

(Umbryal, Aquoril 37th, Past)

(Ba’arhim POV)

The last two days had been rather hectic for the guild, not only because people were unhappy with my excuse, some not believing me whilst most did, but also because in this time, I had forcefully postponed numerous quests on the quest board.

Specifically for Platinum level and up, as well as any that required going into the Dungeon itself.

The reason for this was because I didn’t want any of them to go away for when the time came to actually make our move. For now, they still think that all we’re doing is going to raid the dungeon.

And of course the Duchess came in again, asking me to organise everyone into two teams with certain parameters.

There would be two groups, one for the dungeon, and the other to exterminate the cult. I would be in charge of the former, whilst the other would be led by whomever came from the capital.

Apparently, they would arrive tomorrow at the earliest, and the day after at the latest, meaning I had to somehow stall for more time.

"Ughhh... How am I supposed to postpone this even longer without upsetting anyone? Everyone’s already getting restless. At this rate, they’ll dip out of this raid. Hahhh..."

’This is the part that I hate most about this job.’ Whenever something like this comes up and I’m forced to take the brunt of it all is when I consider retiring from the position of guild master.

Even now I had such thoughts. ’Maybe I should just become a part of the city guard. I could become a captain there easily. Then again that would just be another leading role. Hell of a lot less stressful than this though.’

*Knock* *Knock*

’Ugh, what now?’

"Come in."

Entering the door was one of the Gold ranked adventurers who was working for me temporarily as an informant.

"Sir, I’m afraid to inform you that the Naga girl you were looking for likely won’t be coming back for a while I’m afraid."

"Hahh... I understand, you can go back to doing your normal quests then." I dismissed him and was left at my desk once again to mull over the conundrum that was this mess of a situation.

I still had to sort everyone that was involved out, as I’d only managed to sort half of them out. And I couldn’t ask for help either as it would risk exposing the entire operation to the cultists.

Still, I persisted and pushed through, and continued planning and organising everyone into two groups.

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Later that evening, just as I was about to finish up for the night, I heard some movement from outside.

The moon was hanging high so I knew that nearly everyone else would have gone home by now, only a few of the indigenous serpentine would still be here. But I heard footsteps from outside my door.

I quietly got out of my chair and tip toed my way over to my battle axe which was at the side of the room.

Once my axe was in hand, I made my way back to my desk and crouched down behind it. Fortunately, I had it custom made to my size, with many drawers on the sides so that it could hide my large body.

I then lay there, waiting for the assailant to enter the room.

For several minutes there was silence. I heard the footsteps stop outside the door as soon as I got to my axe.

But since they stopped, there had been no signs of any movement between that moment and the moment I got back to hide behind my desk.

’Just who is this? And what do they want? What exactly are they trying to achieve here? Wait... Are they part of that cult? Have they come to end me to stop their plans? Oh dear lord, I hope those girls downstairs are okay.’

This silent standoff lasted into the late hours of the night until I heard the footsteps again, but this time, it sounded like they were walking away.

Even then though, I still held my ground and stayed silent, just in case this was some sort of trick to let my guard down.

So I waited for another hour or so until I slowly got up, peeking my head over the edge of my desk to see the room still empty.

I was still caution because even though I had the door to my office intentionally squeaky, that didn’t mean that they couldn’t silence the noise if they knew it was there and then quietly waltz in after.

Fortunately, such a thing didn’t seem to have occurred as the room was still empty. But I couldn’t let my guard down just because of that, I had to stay vigilant in case they had some other things planned for me.

Like a trap for when I opened the door to get out of here, or even an ambush.

Cautiously, I made my way over to the door and pulled it open, hiding behind it, but nothing happened.

I peeked out from behind to see nothing was set up outside, or anywhere down the hall. It was completely empty. No lights were on either, all of the lanterns having been put out ages ago.

I had a candle in my office, but that ran dry yesterday, meaning the only light I had was the natural light of the moon.

That was when the smell of something with a metallic tang to it hit me.

"Oh no..."

Without caring about stealth anymore, I rushed my way down to the reception, only to find three serpentine corpses strung up with ropes from the ceiling.

It was a hallowing sight to behold. The three receptionists where here working late into the night, but because of this whole debacle, they were killed silently in the dead of night.

’Why... Just why did it have to be this way?’ My arms trembled as tears threatened to escape my eyes, my mind recalling their lively attitudes, now suddenly torn from the world.

’Vishyraa... Zyshoraa... Rakzaa...’

My face hardened as I raised my axe, cutting the ropes that hung them from the ceiling from their necks, catching their bodies and laying them out on the floor.

After that I just kneeled there, thinking about the cheery personalities that each girl had, their boisterous laughter, their radiant smiles.

All of that was taken from me, from the guild.

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_

After laying the three girls out in resting positions and fixing up their wounds so they would stop bleeding, I just sat there the rest of the night until the morning shift came in.

The moment they saw the three dead bodies on the floor, they all gasped in shock, rushing to my side and asking what had happened.

All the staff that helped run this place had a pretty good repour with one another, and seeing one of their own dead like this must be heart wrenching.

I don’t blame them, because I’m included in that repour. But I could’ve maybe done something to stop it, which just made the guilt worse.

Then, the adventurers started coming.