yemalu

Since Henri was not really in top form, we ended our Dungeon dive after we beat that Rock Spider.

We returned to the Guild counter set up outside the Dungeon below the school for Tika to report her progress.

The Guild receptionist smiled when she received Tika\'s report, "Oh, that\'s the fortieth floor cleared. Well done. Even if you stop here, you\'ll be sure to get a good grade, student Tika."

"Thank you, but I did not achieve all that on my own. It is thanks to my party supporting me."

"Fufu~ But of course. My praise is extended to your party too. Well done everyone."

All of us accepted the praise gracefully.

Tika then turned to me and Odeta, "And thank you for your help so far, Aster. You have been an exceptional support for us!"

I waved my hands, "Oh, don\'t worry about it! All of you were great teammates too! I barely did anything."

"Aster really is humble, but thank you nevertheless. I would still like to depend on you for the further floors if you don\'t mind? I think things would only get even harder… But it sort of feels like cheating…"

I giggled, "Ehehe~ Well you were supposed to have me as part of your party in the first place so this much is nothing~ So just let me know whenever you need my help!"

Tika thanked me again before she left with Henri and Jules, leaving me with Odeta.

The two of us then exited the Dungeon chamber underneath the school and stepped back out into the school grounds. I was just about to suggest that we go home when I felt a tug on my arm.

Turning back, I found Odeta holding on to my sleeve hesitatingly.

"Hmm? What is it, Odeta?" I asked.

"Umm… Could we… Could we go fight something, Sister Aster?"

I tilted my head at her, "You got frustrated that you didn\'t get to do anything, didn\'t you?"

"... Yes…"

I thought so… Both times where we were called to support Tika, she basically did nothing except stand at the side and watch the fight. For someone like Odeta, it must have been especially boring and frustrating to not be able to participate in the fight.

I tapped my chin, "Hmm… I doubt this Dungeon would offer us a challenge so we might need to find somewhere else to go… Must we go today though?"

"Nnnggghh… I don\'t want to wait but if Big Sister Aster insists…"

"Oh no, if you want to go now, we can. We ended the Dungeon dive with Tika earlier than we expected anyway and we\'re already fully geared too. Shall we go to the Guild and see if there\'s any nice quests for us?"

Odeta\'s face broke into a grin and she pulled me into a big hug, "Sister Aster is the best!! Let\'s go, let\'s go!!"

We left school to head for the Guild located in the Commoner\'s District, figuring that it would be more convenient since we would be heading outside the city anyway and the branch there was closer to the gates compared to the one in the Noble\'s District.

As expected, the Guild was quite crowded at this point of time.

Just like usual, the people here were quite rowdy with various Mercenaries, Adventurers and Dungeoneers all doing their own things inside the Guild.

Some of them were here to turn in their quests while some were looking for new quests to take up. Then the others were just relaxing in the bar section of the Guild with several of them having public sex openly.

Both Odeta and I ignored them and headed straight for the request board to look for something that we could do. Maybe a monster subjugation quest would be nice.

We first went to the Mercenary side of the board to look at the E ranked quests.

Hmm… Escort quests are definitely out… We need something that could be completed by today.

Gathering quests are also out since Odeta would definitely not want those…

And there\'s quite a number of subjugation quests that are targeting weak monsters… I really doubt Odeta would be satisfied from just fighting a small group of goblins or even wolves…

I decided to ask the Amrap herself, "Do you see anything good, Odeta?"

"Wahaha! How about we just take all the subjugation quests and do them all?!"

"Err… No, let\'s not do that… Other Mercenaries are also relying on this to earn their living after all. We only have today to do the quest so let\'s just pick one."

"Ehhh… But they\'re all so weak though! Oh! Look, there\'s a quest that is asking for the subjugation of an orc village! Let\'s do that!"

Huh… I thought the Orcs of this World were known as the Wrunch? Maybe they\'re different? And also…

"Odeta… That\'s a C rank quest… We can only take quests up to D rank…"

"Ehhhh? Who cares! Let\'s just go and fight them without taking the quest! We don\'t need the rewards anyway!"

"No, no… That\'s just rude to the other Mercenaries, Odeta… You can\'t just steal someone else\'s job…"I think you should take a look at

"Arghhh! Why does this need to be so complicated!"

"Erm… Excuse me? I can\'t help but overhear your conversation and thought you might be interested to join us?" A voice spoke up from behind.

Both Odeta and I turned around to see three young women looking back at us.

Hmm? They seem familiar… But where have I seen them before?

The one in the middle suddenly gasped, "La… I mean… Miss Aster?!"

I tilted my head at her, "Umm… Do I know you?"

"Ah… Umm… I\'m… I\'m Viera? My party escorted you and your mother some time ago?"

I clapped my hands together, "Oh!! You\'re part of the Free Wind Mercenary group right?! And you\'re Melissa and Sabrina! Viera\'s girlfriends!"

"I\'m… I\'m surprised you still remember us," The mage, Melissa, gasped.

Well, kind of hard to forget when you were one of the first ones I saw having sex out in public… I guess you were all doing it behind some bushes but it still counts.

Sabrina gasped, "Oh what a coincidence this is, La… I… I mean Miss Aster! How many years has it been? It seems you are doing well!"

They\'re still conscious of me being Mother\'s child huh.

Viera seems to be one of the really few people who knows what Mother looks like. Back then I remember she said that she had gone to a school in the capital and I thought she was referring to Aerialla Academy. Maybe she was actually a trainee at Mother\'s school instead?

Though that brings up the question of what happened with her since she\'s clearly not serving as a maid now? Maybe she dropped out? Or was she expelled?

Well, I\'m not shameless enough to ask her and it\'s none of my business anyway.

I felt a poke on my side and turned to see Odeta looking at me with concern.

"Er… Who are they, Sister Aster?"

Oh right, Odeta has never met them before.

Before I could answer though, Viera\'s eyes widened at me, "E… Eh?! Si… Sister?! There\'s more?!"

I raised my hand, "Erm… No, this is kind of complicated… But she is not Mother\'s child. And err… Let\'s just start over… Odeta, this is Viera, Melissa and Sabrina. They\'re part of the Free Wind Mercenary group and they escorted Mother, Katsuki and I to the capital city when we were still travelling. Everyone, this is Odeta, my adopted sister as you could say."

Is that right? I don\'t really know how the Amrap tradition goes but I was technically adopted to their family right? Or should I have just gone with \'honorary sister\' instead? This is so complicated.

Odeta placed her hands on her hips, "Oh! So you three protected sister Aster back then huh?! Wahahaha! Then you guys are good too!"

She bases if someone is \'good\' or \'bad\' on whether those people have protected me huh… I\'m going to refrain from commenting on that.

The three of them seemed quite confused so I continued by bringing up their earlier question, "You said something about joining you?"

Viera recovered, "Oh, right! We were planning to take on that orc subjugation quest as well but we\'re short on members at the moment you see…"

Oh that\'s right, I don\'t see the guys anywhere.

"What happened to… Umm… Was it Jack?"

She giggled, "Yes, it was Jack. The one who was completely smitten by you if you remember. Ugh… Just remembering how he was acting is enough to make my head hurt… He\'s still single by the way. Oh, the other two, Markus and Loyd are also not here either."

Melissa sighed, "Those three idiots drank so much last night that they got into some trouble… So the guards are keeping them in the holding cells for the next three days as punishment…"

Sabrina also shook her head in disappointment, "They\'ll be acting as temporary slaves to do some work around the city so we\'re on our own for now…"

Oof, that\'s rough buddy.

Viera then gestured to themselves, "That\'s why we\'re kind of looking for people to party up to fill in the missing roles for now… If you don\'t mind that is, La… Miss Aster?"

I tilted my head, "Could we join? We\'re only E ranked right now though."

"Oh, that\'s fine since with the three of us, our party\'s rank would be considered a D rank so we can do that quest, no problem," Viera assured me.

I turned to Odeta and the Amrap was already looking back at me with barely contained excitement.

Well… I guess since we\'ve already reached this point, there\'s no reason to reject their offer.

"Alright! Let\'s go kill some orcs!"