Boss' office was pretty close to the main hall. We didn't have to navigate the mansion's hallways to get there, unlike every other important room I had been to so far.
After only a left turn, we were in front of something that looked like a simple office door. I was confused as to why the leader would have the least fancy door, since all the other doors I had seen were big, double doors.
We knocked. We heard a voice telling us to come in. To my surprise, I wasn't feeling much. I had expected to be nervous or excited.
The inside of the room was pretty small. There was a desk in the middle, with a small table in front of it and two chairs. Behind the desk, there was an empty wall. On the left, there was a small bookshelf, and on the right, another door, which I assumed led to his actual room. The wooden walls were painted black, and for some reason, it made me feel uneasy.
Boss was standing at the desk, relaxed in his chair. Initially, I wanted to take a seat at the small table, but I decided against it when I saw that both Hboy and Juta were standing there as if frozen in place. I couldn't understand why they were so scared. Boss seemed like a chill and nice guy.
My thoughts were interrupted by the leader.
"Eh, so you were supposed to be assigned your first mission a bit later, but something came up, and I thought this would be a nice opportunity for you to get used to working together."
"So what is our mission?" I asked.
"You will go to the nearby town to find a bunch of cats."
I couldn't believe my ears. What sort of mission was that? Why did I have to do it? I had a few questions, but I decided not to object. Deep down, I was scared that I could be thrown back on the streets with no chance of a nice future.
"Why do they need a guild from another town for such a simple mission?" asked Hboy, obviously frustrated as well.
"Because we are the closest available guild to that location. On top of that, the town doesn't have a single guild, and I thought this would be a perfect first mission for Akira. If you do well, I will send you on more serious quests, as you are finally a complete team."
We left the room shortly after. We would leave the next day, so we had to get prepared and have a good rest, as there was a high chance that it would take more than a day.
We had just finished eating our breakfast. The dining hall was filled with people, except this time they didn't seem to enjoy the meal like usual. It looked like they were in a rush since most of them needed to head out for a mission. Neither Hana nor Rover had been assigned a mission, but despite that, I hadn't seen them at all.
My teammates and I had brought our bags with us to the dining room, as we were planning to leave immediately after.
We didn't take much with us—just a few clothes, food, water, and money. We had in mind to spend our nights at an inn or something.
Just when we were about to leave the mansion, we were greeted by the boy with long hair that everyone called a prodigy.
"Good morning! Are you leaving already?" said Rover, who was obviously in a good mood.
"Yes," I replied shortly, since I didn't feel like talking with him.
"Alright, take care!" he said, grinning.
I sighed. "Why is he like this? It's sometimes annoying," I asked my teammates.
"He tries to be friends with everyone," replied Hboy.
We were already out of the mansion.
"He hasn't told anyone about his past, but he has proved to everyone countless times that he sees us as his true family. He says that he trains in order to protect his family and change the world," he continued. I nodded. I had heard the same thing from him.
"He's really strong, isn't he?" I mumbled.
"Yes, apparently he is in the second team because he doesn't have enough experience. But he is super strong. He hasn't shown any of us his full strength, and the other guys from Team Two who are his partners won't talk about it," said Hboy.
"The guy is also said to have two extra elements," added Juta, then sighed. It felt like he was comparing himself to Rover, probably because of Hana again. I was thinking of saying something to cheer him up, but ended up telling him that Rover was an interesting guy, which he seemed to ignore.
The town we were headed to wasn't that far, so we arrived there at noon. We were told that we had to meet a man in a park, and that he would tell us more details.
We had no idea which park Boss was talking about, so we sat down on a bench a little farther from the main road. After we ate and rested for a bit, we decided to ask citizens if they knew something about a man who had lost his cats and requested the help of a guild from another town. It turned out to be a bad decision, as we were called incompetent and irresponsible by a few people.
Eventually, we asked someone to tell us where the closest park was, as that seemed to be the best option we had, since Boss had told us that the mission would be pretty close to our town.
We ended up finding the man as it was getting dark outside. He was about as tall as me and definitely over 40 years old.
"Took your time," he said, sounding tired.
"We're sorry, something happened on the way," I replied quickly before any of my partners could say anything.
"Here's the thing. I had a few cats, and they disappeared a few days ago. I feel like this is more than them just running away, as there have been similar cases in the last month," the man said, looking straight into my eyes. "Please help them."
I nodded as the man turned to leave.
That night, we found an inn nearby, as
planned, and paid for a room for three days. I didn't know it was possible to rent a room for multiple days, but my partners thought of it as normal. That was probably due to the lack of experience between us.
The evening went by fast. We didn't even talk about our mission. While we were getting ready for bed, I figured that there was a reason why the cats had disappeared like that.
"Someone must have stolen them," I said while lying in my bed.
"Obviously," replied Hboy casually, without looking at me.
I was surprised. It seemed like it was natural for him that someone was stealing the cats, but I blamed the experience gap again.