Three months.
It was both a blink and a crawl. Time in the town Little Forest passed in a strange cadence with days being filled with missions and training. Our nights were in Syrelle's Realm. I would wake each morning to hear the adventurers' bells pealing from the guild hall, and each night I would be back in that secret realm where the laws bent to my advantage.
Alenya's skeleton crew had grown used to me. Well, almost all of them.
We were running low-level quests our first month. That meant supply runs to villages, clearing packs of goblins from the forest, and caravan guards on the dwarven roads. Easy work, nothing to chisel onto a stone tablet. But those quests were paying in bronzes, silvers and gold's. We needed every bit of it if we were going to get our guild registered.
I'd watch as Torren took the forefront every time. Shield up, barking orders around like he owned the party. He was decent enough, steady even, but I could feel how his eyes cut in my direction every time Alenya came to me for advice instead of him. He resented it, I reckon.
Sela was a different tale. Brooding, withdrawing and forever observing. Her arrows hit their target, and she moved with the gait of one who did not wish to waste words. I approved of that. Bram would not shut up. He'd cast his healing light onto the battlefield and top it with a joke.
Occasionally it was funny, most times it was not, but his heart was in the right place.
And Alenya… She was improving day by day.
We trained a lot. She'd come at me with that sword of hers, stubborn eyes ablaze, pushing herself until sweat beaded at her temples. I never took her seriously. If I did, she'd be on the ground with a single strike.
And yet I taught her every step. A step forward, a turn of the wrist, the rhythm of her swing. She'd curse under her breath when I disarmed her for the tenth time in a row, then storm off, only to come back the next day to try again.
"I'll kill you one day," she'd promise.
I'd only smile and say, "Then keep trying."
Every night, after the city had fallen asleep, I pulled her into Syrelle's Realm. She didn't understand the entirety of that location's reality, just that time flowed differently and the air reeked of raw magic. Alenya bathed in it, practicing more than anyone. I taught her the fundamentals of formations, how to draw them in the air with mana threads, and how to anchor her swings with a Swordmaster's rhythm.
As for Torren, no matter what, his eyes never gentled when they fell on me. One day, when Alenya wasn't looking, he snarled, "I don't know who you really are, but you're not some A-rank stray. One day, I'll unmask you."
I didn't say anything. There was no point in speaking to a man who could not look past his own pride.
The days all blended together after that. Hunt.
Three months of subtle advancement, of blade-whetting and increasing. Yet underneath it, we were all waiting for something. That legendary moment every adventurer dreams of. The one that would make our names echo through the kingdom. The kind of chance that would give us the contribution we had been missing to form a guild finally.
It had not come. Not yet.
I was on the rooftop of an inn we were spending the night at, one evening, after another day of missions. Below us, the city lights sparkled, torches lining the streets, laughter from tavern windows. The air was cool, and for the first time in weeks, I allowed myself to take a deep breath.
Then the system stirred.
There was a faint glow that traced across my sight, and letters of light wrote themselves before me:
[Message Received]
[Sender: Seris]
The words tumbled out tentatively, and I could feel her voice singing through them
["You didn't even have trouble visiting me, did you? After everything, you just took off like some kind of heartless man. I'm not waiting any more. Return , now."]
Nagging, demanding, but underlying it all. concerned.
I leaned back against the tiles, lips twisting into a dry smile. So, she'd finally phoned me.
"Seris… " I sighed, closing my eyes. "Looks like I've kept you waiting too long." Though I regret it, if I hadn't, fate would have made it harder for me to accomplish some things.