Rebirth of the Phoenix God

"We will leave."

Bartel's face darkened when he realised that the situation was greatly different to what he expected. After all, he was the one to mention just who the owner of this house was and the mercenary already stated who he would side with if any conflict were to appear.

"Wait, what? Bartel, didn't you promise…"

For the very first time since he sat down within the house, Fen's eyes regained some of their usual energy. Watching as the bitch that betrayed him couldn't believe that her scheme was falling apart was truly honey on the psychical wounds that he sustained due to her betrayal. 

"Shut the hell up. We are leaving."

Following those words with a harsh slap to her face, the male invader clearly could gauge who was in the power position in the current situation. Yet, instead of praising the fellow arcanist for his wits and rationality, Fen couldn't help but enjoy the look of disbelief and devastation that continued to explode within Arla's eyes.

"Are you going to leave, or should I help you do so? I might be just a simple mercenary…"

Suddenly attracted to the burly man's words because of a strange vibe of his tone, Fen moved his eyes on top of the owner of the house's face. Even though no one would really want to fight inside the house as all parties were clearly interested in preserving it in the best state possible, the young man could tell that the strange fires that appeared in the mercenary's eyes indicated that if the fight were to break out, the fate of the invaders of this home would be already set in stone.

"Yes. We will leave right away."

Bartel only needed a single look into the mercenary's face for his entire body to shudder. Just like Fen, he seemed to understand that the advantage that he had by being an arcanist wouldn't be that much of a help if he were to come to fight with just this mercenary alone. And in the end, while his presence wasn't that huge, Fen was still keenly observing the ongoing events, ready to intervene if the fight would actually break out!

Thankfully, no further problems arose. As angry and disappointed as Arla was, it was already clear that this time, she put her bed on the wrong horse. Even though seeing her leave appeared as this mystical moment that would define the end of their relationship, rather than being sad or even angry at her or himself, Fen actually enjoyed this moment quite a bit.

Yet, even after only he, the mercenary and his daughter remained in the house, no one said a single word more for a while. Most likely, the burly man realised that the young arcanist needed some time to gather his thoughts as the situation that happened right in front of his eyes was quite obvious even though he missed its beginning, while his daughter seemed to be just way too shy to start the talks on her own.

"Okay then, let's talk business."

After finally gathering his thoughts and forcing his mind to drop the topic of his cheating former partner, Fen raised his eyes at the mercenary in front of him. With the table between the two of them, the young man suddenly realised that his throat was turning incredibly dry, as if his body itself signalled that right now wasn't the time to be serious but to be completely wasted and away in the world of liquor-produced dreams.

"Are you sure you don't want to put it off for a bit later? It's not like we are in a hurry or anything…"

The look in the mercenary's eyes was quite obvious. No one would want to talk business when their partner would be in such a foul mood. Sadly for him, Fen couldn't be bothered to push this matter for later. Given everything that happened in the last few hours, the young man wanted to put all those troublesome matters aside so that he could take his money and get wasted while celebrating the finalisation of his first quest along with his senior and the people that would finally acknowledge him as a part of their group.

"No. Let's hurry up and deal with everything right away."

Resting his forehead on his cupped eyes, Fen destroyed the hopes of the mercenary. Perfectly aware of the reasons behind the attempts of the burly man to put the talks for later, the young man couldn't care less for it. After all, this entire situation was going on only because of his kindness. Putting the talks for later just for the sake of the burly man potentially striking a better deal than he could right now would mean crossing the line of how far Fen was willing to let his kindness take him.

"Okay then. Cleo?"

Instead of bringing forth his own proposition, the mercenary only looked at his daughter. Prompted into action by the uttering of what appeared to be her name, the girl rose up from the chair only to move a few paces forward and stand right in front of the young arcanist.

And right in the very next moment, she fell down on her knees, before placing her forehead right before Fen's feet.

"I cannot thank you enough for what you did. If not for your help, I would still be no different from being dead. Your help allowed me to regain the life that I lost all the way back when my constitution started to act up…"

Contrary to the young man's expectations, this girl's voice wasn't frail. She was sobbing and her voice was breaking as she continued to utter entire litanies about how eternally thankful and indebted she was to Fen, yet the young man was quite positive that in terms of the strength within it, her words didn't mark her as someone who was sick or weakened after a long period of sickness. On the contrary, the young man could think of only a single being that ever came close to the power that seemed to be hidden under her sweet and soothing voice.

With his interest piqued, Fen' disregarded the fury that still silently coursed through his veins before casting his eyes on the lowered head of the girl. 

And this was when he saw it. 

Just like that, with a single look reinforced by the fires of his emotion flowing through his pupils, Fen realised one, groundbreaking and insanely important thing. In this single moment, hundreds of questions appeared in his mind, nearly making the young man collapse from the sudden excitement.

'How is that possible…'

Baffled by what he saw, the young man didn't really pay any attention to the rest of the teary thanks that this girl provided, before hesitatingly raising her head when even after she was done with her profuse thanking session Fen failed to react to her actions in any way or form.

"Ah, sorry. I just noticed something… interesting. As for you, my dear, there is no need to act like that. I just did… what I was hired for."

Deep in his thoughts, Fen answered without any real focus on the talking at all. The problematic nature and the situation that this girl was in was far more important right now than some silly and over-the-top social interactions.

"This girl… Cleo… If I'm not wrong about what I saw and how I understand it… Then forgive me the world, but you are a bastard."

Suddenly dropping a bomb like that, despite still being fully focused on the wonders that he saw within the girl, Fen could easily notice that his words managed to instantly rile up the mercenary.

"Before you will lash out at me, I didn't mean it in the way of her being born out of wedlock."

Fen said this not because he was scared of Cleo's father reaction, but because otherwise, neither of the two would understand the seriousness of the situation.

"What the heck do you mean?"

Already angered by Fen's word, the mercenary lowered his half-standing body back on the chair, looking at the young arcanist with a fury mixed with curiosity in his eyes.

"If I'm not wrong… Then she has something that I can only call a bastard bloodline. I think that I'm safe to assume that she was born out of an arcanist woman, am I right?"

Suddenly dropping yet another piece of information that he was in no way privy to, Fen managed to once again take the mercenary by surprise.

"Well… Yeah."

Not sure how to answer this kind of accusation, the burly man only hung his head down. If Fen's guess wasn't wrong, mentioning the mother of the girl brought some unpleasant memories to this man's mind.

"Okay then, this settles it. Today we were about to decide on my reward for… fulfiling your request. Outside of a new place to stay that you will owe me from now on…"

Taking a little break to save his breath, Fen closed his eyes while battling with his own thoughts over the decision that he was about to take. Raising his eyelids the next moment, he looked at the mercenary.

"Outside of the gold, I want her."