The Last Primal

Sir Michael was in a trance as he looked at the fluttering golden tinges as Lily defended her brother's honor with a heated passion. He knew he had to be patient if he wanted to obtain this angel, but it was hard to calm his rapidly thumping heart.

Bowing deeper and focusing his gaze to the ground, he respectfully spoke as he slowly extended his right hand while his left was resting on his chest. This was the standard form of apology amongst the nobility across the nation. It was considered a humble and honest gesture and was the highest form of respect one could show to the other in the social etiquette.

"Please, excuse me for my rudeness Miss Lily. I truly meant no offense to you or your brother. It's just strange for me that such an angel as yourself was forced to travel alone, while there's a big brother at your residence. May I inquire why is he not accompanying you at the moment?"

Pulling the hood back onto his head Lily took a good minute before she sighed and answered the question.

"It's okay Sir Michael, you didn't know. My brother was injured recently and is currently recovering at home. He should recover soon!" 

Then, she strolled past Sir Michael who was still bowing with his head held down. 

"Now, let's go, I really want to pick a quest and see if I could do it today!" 

'Injured, eh? Interesting…' his lips twisted into a cruel smile as he thought about Miss Lily's words, but as he straightened himself up, it quickly turned back into the same polite one and followed behind the girl.

Mary who was sitting in her seat was stunned to see that the first group to come down was Lily closely followed by the famous Sir Michael, the only 3-star adventurer in the city. As they arrived in front of her, she glanced at the lord behind the girl she met and registered just yesterday and respectfully asked him.

"Sir Michael, what a pleasant surprise to see you come down so early. Is there a problem, how may I help you?"

Sir Michael gave the attendee the same polite smile he usually wears and looking at the cloaked beauty next to him, he answered.

"This new adventurer here is Lily, and she would like to pick a quest. Please let the others know that I have authorized this and will be accompanying her today, so I will be unavailable for the rest of the day."

Mary nodded in acknowledgment as she replied. Standing up, she walked around the desk and looked towards the Quest Board on the eastern end of the wall.

"Certainly, Sir Michael, Lily, come with me!"

Arriving in front of the Large Board that was separated into columns taking up large sections of the wall, Mary looked at the 1-star quests section as she spoke again.

"What type of quests would you like to do? We have a lot of elimination quests mostly to gather various parts from monsters and animals, as well as herb gathering quests."

"Hmm… give us a few minutes to look it through." Sir Michael answered while Lily was eagerly looking at the wall with papers of different sizes pinned on it. As her eyes passed over the papers, she noticed one at the top which caught her attention. Pointing towards it, she asked.

"Mary, can you tell me about that one? It looks like this is a quest that could be done inside the city?"

Following where Lily was pointing at, Mary picked up the quest paper and showed it to them.

"Invitation: Marketplace Vigilante

Difficulty: ★

Description: A night ago, a mysterious vigilante destroyed a group of thugs that had been extorting and terrorizing the local Marketplace residents. We, the residents would like to invite the hero and offer our thanks. This quest is posted in hopes that he or she would read it in the Adventurer's Guild.

Rewards: -"

"Marketplace Vigilante? What happened at the marketplace?" Sir Michael asked out loud.

"A shop owner that lives in that area came yesterday and asked us to post this note on the wall. He paid for 7 days and left. There are no objectives for that quest and there are no rewards either." Mary answered helplessly. She was just as clueless as to the others on the matter. 

Luckily her face was covered under the hood, as Lily was shocked as she read through the description. She was absolutely certain that they were talking about her and her actions last night. Her thoughts were racing, she didn't really think that such a small thing would earn her such a reputation. 

However, seeing that she helped out others and not just the Norton's, she couldn't help but smile happily.

She was pulled back from her happy thoughts with Sir Michael's voice.

"Hmm… Anyway, this is unfortunately not something we can work on. Let's see… How about one of these two Miss Lily?" He grabbed two smaller and crumbled pieces of paper from the wall and presented it to the hooded ranger.

Both quests were elimination quests that were requested by some alchemists. 

The first one showed a picture of a frog that had several protrusions all over its body.

"Gather Thorny Forest Frog Gall Bladders

Difficulty:★

Description: We would require Thorny Forest Frog's intact Gall Bladders. We require to bring back at least 6 intact Gall Bladders in pristine condition for the completion of this request.

Reward: 10 Draquilean Bronze Coin / piece"

The second paper had a picture of a rat that stood on its large back legs. It had a long tail, longer than its entire body that ended with a large tuft It's frontal legs that looked like tiny stagnant hands were short and small. It had 2 pairs of long whiskers on its face. Looking at the picture, Lily found the animal adorable and made a mental note to ask about it from Granny when she got back later.

"Gather Jumper Rat Tails

Difficulty: ★★

Difficulty: We need exactly 10 Jumper Rat Tails. The tails need to be in perfect condition with its tufted ends. This request is urgent!

Reward: 1 Draquilean Silver Coin"

"If I may provide some advice, while the reward for the Jumper Rat Tails is high, I would advise against it, as finding and hunting them down could provide challenging. The request is marked as urgent. While the reward seems higher, in fact almost double then what you could get from the other one, that has no upper limit, and you could spend all day farming the Frogs just outside the city alongside the riverbed, and bring back as many of their Gall Bladders as you can carry." Sir Michael offered his advice.

Although Lily agreed to his words, it wasn't for the reason that Sir Michael stated. She simply found the Jumper Rats too adorable to hunt them!

Turning towards Mary, Lily pointed to the first paper.

"Mary, I would like to take this request. Can you register it to my name?"

"Right away Lily!" Mary answered smilingly and turned around to head back to her desk. 

Lily then faced Sir Michael, who was still standing beside her, with that same stupid smile on his face. 

"Thank you for your help Sir Michael, I have my quest now, and I will be heading out. I don't want to take more of your time, so if you want you could go…" 

Lily wanted to mention that he could go back to the meeting and attend the other adventurers, but she was interrupted as Sir Michael shook his head and raised his hand.

"No Miss Lily, I would bring shame to the Sonovan household if I would let you head out alone on your very first quest. It is my duty as a Knight and a 3-star adventurer of this city to accompany you and help you in any way I can!" 

"This..." Lily was stunned to see the persistence of this man. Why is he so adamant to join up and assist her? Shouldn't he be at the meeting, helping others? Why is he so persistent? 

"Sir Michael, the quest is to eliminate a couple of frogs, it is not that difficult of a quest, you don't need to waste your precious time. I'm sure that there's a lot of people that are waiting for a chance to talk with you upstairs."

Shaking his head in denial, Sir Michael once again bowed and faced the ground. Not caring if others would be coming to the building, he exclaimed loudly.

"Please don't deny this wish of mine and allow me to complete my duty and accompany you!"

Just like Lily, Mary was also looking at the scene with a shocked expression. She has never seen Sir Michael behave like this in all her years as a Guild Attendant. His current behavior was so out of character, that it was shocking to see. To bow, and beg for an unknown girl like this? Her female instincts were telling him something so out-of-the-world, that she couldn't believe it. 

However, as she continued to look at his display, she couldn't shake the thought.

'Is he trying to court her?'

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