Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

"The new owner?" Aldrich asked in confusion and then he remembered telling Yasbel to use his share of the profits to redecorate the place and since more than a month passed the money must have come in.

Yasbel was really quick to work, the money was put to use almost immediately.

Aldrich wasn't bothered by the costs since it wasn't all that much anyway. Besides it also improved the look of the place, looks were always the focus of people.

As evidence he saw many more customers in the coffee house. This improved his mood if only a little.

To be honest Aldrich wasn't in the mood for coffee but for beer. He didn't know what to with himself after that conversation.

He had never seen Ayemon that emotional before, in fact Ayemon was always the picture of composure and calmness. And even when he heard about Orven he wasn't like this.

He had the feeling that he learned something that he shouldn't have, like a taboo. It was not a hard question to arrive at, but it was hard to ask.

Anyone who had a small amount of common sense would get to the same question but most people didn't think that way.

It was an unquestioned mentality, to the mind, there was no connection between the five crests by which the emperor could have proven his identity and a pretender who opposed the claim.

At the end of the day, the False Saint lost, the False Saint was always going to lose. It's just that no one knew who the False Saint was until a victor and a loser were decided.

This line of thought was dangerous and Aldrich had no business thinking of such dark things, he must school his thoughts and never give voice to these thoughts.

It had nothing to do with him but it was difficult to not be curious. However, it was foolish of him to butt in where he didn't belong.

Aldrich sat down feeling down and waited, he just asked for a glass of cold water. He decided to do what he did best, ignore that which he couldn't do anything about and put his head where he could do something.

Fortunately his friends arrived in time to stop him from thinking of any stupid things.

"Morning, Aldrich, up early as usual." Cole greeted as he took a seat.

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"It's almost after noon," Aldrich replied, exasperated, "I wouldn't really call it early."

"Yeah, but I would." Cole yawned, "why do you humans have to be in hurry for everything? Sometimes you gotta sleep in."

"Well, you might actually have a point. How's Tarzin and your father, everything is okay?" Aldrich asked, he could never forget to ask about his friend Tarzin.

"Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. Fine, stout as dwarves I would say." Cole looked under the table for some reason, "don't they have taller chair for halflings?"

"I'm sure they do." Aldrich motioned for one of the servers to come over, "as you can see my friend needs a suitable chair."

"Yes, sir. Just a moment, sir." And with that he went off.

"Oh, yeah. They do seem to be plotting something these days." Cole added.

"What?" Aldrich wasn't sure what he was talking about, "who was plotting what?"

"Father and uncle, they were whispering a lot and hiding paperwork." Cole answered lazily.

"They wouldn't be in any trouble now would they?" Aldrich asked in concern. If they needed some kind of help he wouldn't hesitate to lend a hand so long as he could.

"Nahh, it's seems like it's actually good news. I could have found out but I didn't want to ruin their surprise. Oh, and Tarzin wanted me to call you over to celebrate everything."

"Jeez, that guy just wants an excuse to party all night." Aldrich laughed.

"Hey, you enjoy that too."

As they were talking the rest of the party members came up in quick succession. Unlike Aldrich they were very much interested in coffee and some pastry.

"Where's Emma? She still tired?" Aldrich noticed her absence and asked Frank. He thought that she looked back to normal last time when they split up.

"Oh, she's fine but her father is very worried about her and he forced her to stay in bed. He called all kinds of clerics and physicians to check up on her."

"Well, he's in the right, it's better for her to take a few days to actually rest and recuperate." Hellen agreed, "since we won't be going on another quest so soon, right?"

The question was directed at him so he answered, "no, not until you've all advanced and became Crestmasters at least. I'm sure you all have some loose ends to wrap up right? So I think two, three weeks."

"I wonder if we'll get to meet the vice guild master." Nathan said out loud, "I mean we did some great feats this time."

"It was a lucky feat, and I don't think someone like that would have the time to meet the likes of us." Frank replied.

Aldrich knew why Nathan mentioned the vice guild master and not the master himself. It is said that the guild master was not bothered by managing the guild and instead he spends most of his time roaming the world.

As for why? No one really knew, the most common answer was that he was simply a free and unfettered man who loved to explore the world, wandering around with no real purpose.

Some others came up with their own speculations. They said he was looking foe his missing son, some said he was hunting a certain monster for revenge, others said he was looking for a certain artifact.

Aldrich was not sure which one of these reasons was true, he could see any one of them being the true reason. None of them was farfetched.

"You guys go on to the guild, these are my papers if they ask." Nathan handed Aldrich a folder.

"What you're not coming with? Then why did you even bother showing up?" Aldrich was dumbfounded.

"I only had this little bit of time to spare before going back to the lab. I have so many new experiments I can perform now that I advanced. Just go on with the formalities and get me my guild badge."

"Fine, but you're wasting a chance to meet some of the higher-ups. You might not get a chance like this later." Aldrich warned.

"He's right you can work later it's better to come with us for now, it shouldn't take long anyway." Frank too tried to persuade him.

"I already thought about all of that, it's not my thing so I will take my leave." Nathan didn't even consider their words and just stormed off.

Aldrich and company took a carriage to the guild headquarters. Even though he saw it and been in it before he was always awed by the size of the compound.

He and the examinees were only allowed into one of the smaller buildings in the front. It loked like it was meant to host outsiders to the guild, it looked like a hotel.

Aldrich and company were expected so they were guided to an office, there they found Varth Elmer waiting for them.

The White Blaze Spear, one of the Ringed knights of the guild. A man at the inner circle of authority and influence.

"Take a seat." Varth motioned for them to sit and an employee served snacks and tea. "Aldrich, Frank, Hellen, Cole. Where are the other two?"

"Ah, Emma and Nathan got busy with something," Aldrich cleared his throat nervously, "so… they couldn't be here today."

Varth locked eyes with him for a moment, "well, no matter. I have seen the report and understood what happened. It's great that you managed to avert fanger and emerged victorious our guild is lucky to have such an accomplished members."

"So… we passed?" Cole asked expectantly.

"Yes," Varth smiled broadly "you passed, if not you then who could pass this exam?"

"Yes!"

"We did it!"

"Look at me now dad!"

Hellen and Cole jumped up and hugged each other and started dancing while shouting embarrassing things.

Aldrich coughed hurriedly to remind the two idiots where they were. Although he expected this results Aldrich was still happy that things played out as expected.

"Is that all?" In that jubilant atmosphere Frank suddenly asked.

"Is that all you have to say? We passed? What about the guild that included a grade one quest in the exam?"

'Idiot why did you ask that right now?'

"You expect an apology? I heard you didn't have any casualties." Varth replied.

"Is an apology too much to ask?" Frank snorted, "at least have the decency to look regretful?!"

'Fuck me!'

Aldrich couldn't believe his ears, to think he would reprimand a Ringed knight and with that tone too.

'I am never taking you with me anywhere'

Varth unexpectedly chuckled and then laughed out loud, anyone hearing it would know he was truly laughing from the bottom of his heart.