Chapter 389 Monthly Meeting
"No," Lyrian stated without any hesitation.
The kid's expression immediately turned disappointed. "Please! I beg you to do me this favor!"
"I already said no kid. I'm doing this mission alone," Lyrian exclaimed. It didn't feel odd for him to call the kid a kid even though he was technically younger, since in mental age he was a bit older.
"I want you to trust me. I won't let you down. I need to have some sort of direction to where I'm going, instead of wandering around without a clue."
The kid paused, desperately speaking.
"If you do this for me, I promise to not fall below your expectations." He had genuineness in his eyes as he spoke.
Lyrian also paused for a moment before retorting. "I understand your frustration, kid. However... I can't allow you to come on different investigation quests and things like that."
At that moment, Lyrian's gaze suddenly shifted to a more serious one.
"No matter how great your determination is, what you lack is sheer power. In the end, you inevitably slow me down. I can't have that, especially not when I'm trying to clear this mission as soon as possible."
He spoke with a stern tone, disheartening the boy.
"I see... if that's the case, then please allow me to be in your company at the very least. I won't join you in missions, but as long as I can stay near you and know what is the most current information, I can use that to forge my own quests."
The boy spoke as if he was a grown man. Lyrian sighed slightly.
'It wouldn't hurt me to have a small subordinate doing his own quests I suppose... but it might be a bad choice in the future. Well, whatever. It won't hurt to have him simply stay near me I suppose.'
He thought to himself before reluctantly saying.
"Fine... you can stay near me I guess. Plus, I can't really stop you from doing that anyways. You are your own person."
Lyrian said, turning around and beginning to walk the way that he initially had come in.
The kid's face lit up as he jumped up in glee.
"Yes! Thank you!" He exclaimed ecstatically, quickly following behind Lyrian.
Ounis was the last to leave. He didn't know what to think at this moment.
He didn't understand the kid, nor Lyrian. Most of all, he just wished that he never got involved with Lyrian in the first place.
'Damn it... sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut and be humble. If I had done that, none of this would have happened. Plus, my wallet... it's still gone!'
He cried tears of agony inwardly, feeling his pockets and not clutching onto any wallet within.
The three soon made it out of the black market, using the same spherical elevator from before.
They popped up back in Rocks Adventurer's Tavern and Ounis went on his way.
He looked for his wallet for a while through the streets and eventually fought some random bandit to retrieve it later down the road.
Lyrian, on the other hand, decided it was time to sleep, and the kid, who introduced himself as 'Ranthor Crysalis', booked a room beside Lyrian's.
The next morning, Lyrian headed to the Von Haven house as soon as the sun arose.
'That baldy said that this Third Head appeared in monthly meetings in the adventurer's guild. I should learn about them and see if I can get into one. If I can, then I will capture and interrogate that son of a bitch.'
He nonchalantly thought to himself as he arrived at the Von Haven estate not long after.
He had his normal interaction with Sebastion and arranged a meeting.
It was only 6 in the morning, so everyone was still slightly drowsy when they arrived at the top-floor meeting room.
However, Lyrian didn't care much about that, as lives were at stake, and so was his mission.
He wasn't getting much time to train or meditate due to this mission being so in his face currently, so he wanted to finish it as soon as possible for that reason as well.
Everyone had arrived at the meeting room except for Kepler again. No one knew where he was, or at least that's what the rest of the family insinuated.
However, it seemed to Lyrian that they were hiding something as if it brought them some sort of humiliation.
He addressed Hyst's father, Ounz Von Haven, first about the monthly meeting.
"Do you know of the monthly meeting held at the Adventurer's Guild?"
"Ah yes, that. It is indeed held every month, and I know this because I am also invited. Several figureheads representing the tops of different parts of the nearby cities are invited there to talk about what should happen next. It's quite cordial."
Ounz replied, not seeing where Lyrian was going with this question or why he was asking it.
"I see... if I want to join this meeting, would I be able to? It piques my interest."
Lyrian didn't want to reveal his full intentions with the meeting. Just to be safe, he wanted to keep his motives under the water for now.
"Well... it is a very formal meeting of important figures, but seeing as you are from Anaviotis, and an MVP no less sent to solve this very mission, I am sure you would be allowed to participate."
Ounz paused before saying.
"No matter what, I will try my best to book a spot for you tomorrow."
Lyrian was slightly taken aback to hear this.
"Tomorrow?" He questioned,
"Ah, yes, I forgot to tell you. The next monthly meeting is tomorrow, as it is the end of the month."
"I see... then that's perfect. It's better to get it over with as soon as possible."
He said, but also thought to himself, 'I thought I would get some time to cultivate while waiting for this meeting, but I guess that will have to wait...'