That day, I had shown Seraphina the world through my eyes. In the end, she dropped me off at the front door of my apartment (I was renting the top room of a two-story building on the incline of the Curmor Hills). Seraphina had parked her car on the road right in front of my house.

  Before leaving, Seraphina had shown me a bright smile. When I woke up the next morning, I groggily got off my bed, tossing away Mr. Cuddles—a small cuddly sheep with very nicely shaped horns that coiled around the head—and got to brushing my teeth.

  Yawns left me over and over. It felt lovely to sleep in, but well, I woke up just an hour after my usual alarm. I was still sleepy.

  “Mm… What should I do today?” I looked into the mirror, and a kettle whistled on the stove in the kitchen was just two steps away from my bathroom. “Seraphina… what even are we?”

  It was a good question.

  What indeed were we? Were we friends? For some reason, I didn’t quite like that idea. I finished brushing and put on some different clothes when I went out. Next in my routine was coffee and watering the plants with some Miles Davis in the background. When the curtains fell to the side, so did my eyes fall on the black sedan parked outside my home.

  “Hmm?”

  There was a man in a suit standing outside it. He looked around nervously, checking his watch over and over. The man finally turned his gaze up to my apartment.

  “HAH!”

  I yelled almost instinctively.

  “HEIN!?”

  The man yelled back. I couldn’t hear him, but he was just as shocked.

  It was that motherfucker whose balls I had just kicked in a few days ago. Roonie or whatever his name was! I quickly snapped the window open and peered out. “What do you want, stalker asshole!?”

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  “Me!? You are the—” Roonie covered his mouth and shook his head. He looked down with some defeat and looked back up at me. “Elara Klein… I didn’t think it would be you…”

  “What was that?”

  “Tsk. I was sent by Hunter Seraphina to pick you up! You start working in the Ice Division of Ashen Gryphon as the Vice-Leader from today.”

  “What? I missed some of that.”

  “ARGH!”

  “YOU. ASHEN GRYPHON’S NEW DIVISION!”

  “Me???”

  I had heard all of that loud and clear, I was just a story up. BUT. ME? An F-Ranked Hunter being made the vice captain of a new division? An entirely new division??

  “Yes! And you have your first meeting with the guild-leader in 2 hours, so would you mind coming down?!”

  “S-sure! Just wait there, okay!?” I yelled and turned back. Then I turned again out the window. “Please wait! I don’t have any other ride.”

  “I’ve been waiting an hour already! Quick!”

  This guy sure spoke a lot!

  ***

  After changing into a suit, which was the only thing I thought was appropriate for such a time, I got into the car, and Roonie drove me to the office. I wanted to text Seraphina in the middle of this thing, but remembered I had never taken her number, and she wasn’t messaging me first.

  Of course, she would have mine. She sent a car to my address, after all. I hadn’t even signed that thing yesterday, so why in the world was this already happening?

  Roonie opened the door for me, almost like an assistant, and frowned with every move.

  “Can’t you make a pleasant face if you’re working anyway?”

  “I am doing my job, not bootlicking.” The security and the other staff watching us were very confused, seeing Roonie attend to me as we entered the building. “I don’t know why exactly you’re being elevated to the position you are, but I do know how to know my place when I need to. Don’t go for the normal lifts.”

  He was very smooth and timely with reminding me about the lifts. I was almost about to go into those, but it seemed I was supposed to take the VIP lifts now. The normal ones didn’t go above the 27th floor anyway.

  “Thanks,” I said. “And also thanks for not being creepy with your accommodation.”

  “Again. I am doing my job. Not bootlicking.” Roonie held the lift door open and asked me to step in. He entered second and pressed a button. He was not too subservient, and not too brazen, a very central level of whatever was the case.

  Roonie turned to face me then. He looked into my eyes and smiled softly.

  “I am thankful,” he said. “I don’t know what happened, but Hunter Seraphina looks a lot more spirited since yesterday.”

  I pursed my lips. The lift stopped at the 37th floor, and the doors opened.

  Roonie waited for me to step out and pressed the button for another floor. He was going to go down and wait, it seemed.

  I stepped out, and the lift doors started to close behind me.

  “All the best, Hunter Elara Klein. Congratulations on your new role.”