Organ seemed surprised by Flam’s conversation with Rosellis.

"Do you two know each other?" he asked.

Flam and Rosellis turned their heads in opposite directions.

“Haha, we know each other a little.” 

“Tch, it's a bothersome relationship.”

Flam laughed subtly and Rosellis clicked her tongue.

No matter how I looked at it, although they looked different, their behavior seemed just like a real brother and sister.

When Organ looked at me as if I knew of their relationship, I shook my head.

"I don't know of their relationship very well."

Organ nodded, then looked around.

"But where is the Guild Director?"

Rosellis sighed and pointed to the door next to the Guild Director's office.

"He's baking cookies for the newcomers. I didn't expect you guys to come this early," Rosellis said as she lowered her legs that she had put on the table.

"Sit down. It's going to take a while anyway, so are you going to keep waiting while you stand?”

Flam and I followed her suggestion and took seats from across from her.

"I'll let Guild Director know that the newcomers are here." Saying so, Organ disappeared through the door. 

It didn’t really seem necessary to me. The Adventurers' Guild Director probably knew that we had arrived from the moment Flam and I came up to the fifth floor.

As soon as I landed on the fifth floor, I could feel a subtle mana spread out everywhere. With this level of subtle mana, the mana of the entire fifth floor was probably under his control.

At first, it felt similar to the mana that Rosellis wielded during the martial arts competition, so I had thought for a moment that it was her in control of this area. However, I couldn’t smell the scent of mana from her.

I thought it might have been the other platinum plate adventurer’s mana, but given that I could only feel the presence of a quintet, it was likely the mana of the Adventurers' Guild Director.

Thinking about the most likely reason for doing this, it was probably training.

Spreading out such fine strands of mana like a spider web to detect the surroundings like this was one of the most difficult techniques. I only felt a little bit, but this level of skill was enough to be acceptable in my hometown.

Considering that only a few could handle mana so delicately even in my hometown, even the warrior or guard divisions wouldn’t be able to ignore it.

If I had not known that Adventurers' Guild Director was an ordinary person, I would have been able to believe that he was a battle race. Even at the minimum, he was likely skilled enough to use aura blade freely.

After Organ disappeared, there was an awkward silence. It was different for someone who was close, but with a person who was indifferent, the silence was somehow burdensome.

I spoke first to try to break the silence.

"So how did you two get to know each other?”

Rosellis looked at Flam and clicked her tongue. So Flam answered.

"I've told you before that I have a teacher, so you probably know."

“You’re talking about what you said when we went to the play?” 

Flam nodded at me.

"Yes, I've had exchanges with her since childhood because my teacher and Noonim’s father knew each other."

Speaking of Flam’s childhood, for some reason, I couldn’t imagine it. If it were Flam, rather than cry when he was born, he would probably be more like, "Are you well? I am well".

"So you two are childhood friends?”

Rosellis looked disgusted by my words.

"Who said I was childhood friends with that old man?! I'm seven years older than him."

Flam was seventeen, so she was twenty-four... Soon to be halfway to 50.

If it’s seven years apart, it would probably feel more like an older neighborhood sister than a childhood friend.

By the way, twenty-four was younger than I thought. Considering her performance in the martial arts competition, I thought she would have been almost forty.

If one possessed a lot of mana, like a Ripple Warrior, aging was slower and there was even a propensity to becoming younger.[1] Therefore, if a knight could at least use sword aura, it was normal for them to be older than her.

From my observations, Rosellis's skills were higher than Burden, no, the vice-captain of the White Deer Knight Division, so I thought she was about that age. But I reckon she must be one of those people who are called a genius.

I smiled and said to Rosellis, "You look younger than I thought. I thought you were around my age."

I've never seen a woman who didn’t like to be told that she looked young. I didn't know how often I would run into her in the future, but there was nothing to lose from becoming close with a platinum plate adventurer, of which there were only five in the entire empire.

"Hmhm! Mmm, yeah?"

Rosellis didn’t seem to be good at hiding her feelings as she slightly blushed and avoided my gaze.

"Ayy, that's not true. You always hear that they thought you were older.” Flam smiled and shook his head like it was absurd.

It seemed to me that the reason Rosellis was told that they thought she was older was because of her abilities, not because of her looking old. However, Flam didn't think about that and spoke out.

Rosellis quickly pulled out a dagger from her waist and flung it at Flam.

At the sight of the suddenly flying dagger, Flam panicked and quickly dodged.

"Uuh-ak! What are you doing!?"

"Shut up! Who's telling who that they look old!"

Indeed, Flam, the ultimate king of looking old, was not in a position to point out anyone's appearance.

When Rosellis flicked her middle finger at Flam, he took out a hand mirror from his chest and pointed it at her.

Rosellis, who ended up swearing at herself, rose from her seat and fired a knee kick at Flam, he flew himself to the side and dodged.

Are they really not real siblings? It looks like common brother-sister fighting.

The scene of Rosellis throwing a dagger at Flam was like seeing my small sister shooting magic at my big brother in my hometown.

Come to think of it, I wonder if my family is doing well. Well, my family were people who would be doing better than anyone else, but I still thought I should think of ways to send my regards.

By the way, Flam's ability to escape was no joke. Seeing that from time to time, Flam picked up Rosellis's dagger from the floor and fought back, he was of no ordinary skill, as I had thought.

I didn’t know why such a skilled person was working as a civil servant. I should be watching this knife fight while eating popcorn, but unfortunately, there was no popcorn.

When I was being sullen that I didn't have popcorn, I heard a sound from the door where Organ had gone in... the door opened.

A slightly bald man in an impressionable feminine v-neck appeared with cookies.

"Hohoho, you've been waiting a long time, haven't you? I didn't know you'd be coming this early."

I thought I'd seen that ahjussi somewhere, but he was the one who was in the stands during Lisbon’s entrance examination for the middle-rank knight school. There was a scent of mana filling the fifth floor from that ahjussi.

I had felt during the entrance exam that he was not an ordinary person, but I guess he was the director of the Adventurers' Guild.

"Oh my, kids! Are you fighting again?"

The Adventurers' Guild Director put the cookies in his hand on the table and stopped them. 

Rosellis shouted resentfully at the Adventurers' Guild Director.

"No, Dad! He called me old first!"

Dad? Wait, who's calling him Dad?

Flam said, looking resentful at Rosellis's cry.

"Who said old person!? I never said that! I just said that people around her think she looks older!"

"That's the same thing!"

Emitting a martial aura, the director forced the two, who had started throwing the dagger at each other again, to stop the fight.

Wow, when was the last time I felt such a strong martial aura?

At the least, it seemed to be the first time since leaving my hometown. Even when I met Uncle Bloody at the princess’s birthday ball, he didn’t release such a strong martial aura. 

Well, the ballroom was right below at the time, so Uncle probably held back.

"Hohoho, how many times have I told you two to not fight?”

When the director tightened his big fist, a bluish mana formed around it.

The soft voice and the contrastingly threatening fist, stopped them.

"And how awkward would it be for Den for you two to be suddenly fighting like that?”

Flam and Rosellis immediately apologized to me.

"I see. I became crazy and did not consider that. I apologize."

"Ku-hmph! Sorry."

I wonder if they were apologizing because they were actually sorry, or because their lives were in danger. I'd like to send a vote for the latter. 

I smiled and shook my head. "No, it’s ok. They are just fighting because they are very close.”

Honestly, it reminded me of my family and it felt nice.

Sometimes, when my small sister was angry with me, she would throw a mana-infused mithril dagger at me when magic didn't work.

But I didn’t want to go back to my hometown...

"Thanks for understanding. Those two always fight when they're together. Ah, do you want some cookies?”

The director picked the cute cookies with his rough, callused hand and handed them to me.

I introduced myself as I accepted the cookies, “It is my first time meeting you. My name is Den von Mark and I have just been appointed to the Adventurers' Guild headquarters."

The director gave a caring smile and introduced himself.

"Yes. Nice to meet you. I'm Glont von Asilante, the director of the Adventurers' Guild."

Glont von Asilante, I think I’ve heard it somewhere. I searched the other side of my memory for the familiar name.

Come to think of it, I saw it in Uncle's letter about 10 years ago. At that time, I thought it said he was learning strategic tactics under a general named Glont, but I didn’t delve into it because I didn’t think that they were the same person.

It probably wasn’t. It surely wouldn’t be.

Organ, who came in late, brought a kettle of black tea.

"Thank you."

The guild director took the kettle from Organ and distributed warm black tea to everyone.

Then, little by little, he explained to Flam and me what we were going to do in the future.

I drank tea and listened to his explanation while observing his actions. The eyes, gestures, accents, and even the wrinkles on the clothes could reveal many things about a person.

After talking to him in person, I wondered if I had judged him too much by his appearance. Of course, it was not possible to completely grasp a person's personality from a brief conversation especially since I was quite different on the inside from what I objectively looked like.

Even still, I thought it would be hard to get used to the v-neck with girly frills on that exploding muscular body.