"What are you doing here?" I sneer with a foul expression.
Myleane's further widens as she goes through her long red hair swaying over her open leather jacket, reaching down to her exposed knees as she is wearing a short jeans. "I was invited, by him."
I eyed Mr. Red but he ignores me and leads Myleane behind the counter.
People who were eating, minding their own business were now drooling over the red beast like she was a celebrity, she was.
"I see that you have some history with her." Marie asks me from the other side of the pass counter.
I watch Mr. Red leading Myleane upstairs at the last I made eye contact with him. "She stole my sword."
"Who? Her?" Marie asks with mild curiosity, dismissing it as children quarrelling but Alexia showed a strong reaction. "She stole brother Melsier's sword? How could you let her take it?"
I glance at her, debating myself whether I should confront Myleane or not. "She didn't take it, she stole it."
"Mel intrusted it to you! You should take it back!" Seeing me not react in any way, Alexia becomes more aggrieved. "Fine, I bring it back." She strides past me to follow Myleane.
Fearing that the red beast might hurt children, I had to step in to protect Alexia. 'No. She might do it afterall.'
"Kids? Where are you going? The food is ready to serve." Marie yelled behind me as I ran upstairs, in the hallway I saw Alexia entering a room.
I slam open the door and to find Myleane elegantly sipping tea with an anticipatory look. She puts the cup down and turns to Mr. Red who is opposite of her. "See? I told you."
Mr. Red frowns for a second before tossing a bronze coin at Myleane. "You win."
Alexia and I both cast confused gazes at each other.
"Now that you are here, sit down." Mr. Red says in a hoarse voice, his eyes glued at me.
I get a creepy feeling on my back as my mind tries to figure out what lead to current situation.
"Before that! Hand me brother Mel's sword!!!" Alexia slams her hands on the table, spilling tea all over.
'This idiot!' I quickly pump mana to all my limbs, ready to fight if needed. I did try to summon my magic circle but my body is too tired for that.
To my surprise, Myleane only smiled at Alexia. "Girl, are you Melsier's adoptive sister? If yes, please sit down."
Alexia crosses her arms and refuses. "No! Hand me the sword! It belongs to Altaris!"
Myleane slightly tilts her head. "Is that so? But I deem him unworthy of Melsier's blade."
'What?'
Alexia was already resolved on this matter. "Your opinion does not matter! Brother Mel handed this blade to Altaris, hence it's his."
"If you want me to hand Melsier's sword over, then he has to prove himself that he is worthy to carry his legacy."
'Legacy? Who's?'
"Listen here-"
As the argument was about to become more heated, Mr. Red decided to push the bucket. "THAT ENOUGH!"
His voice shook everyone's eardrums, I got nearly stunned as my mana field overwhelmed my mind with all the different sensations.
Mr. Red slowly exhaled and spoke in a calm voice. "Please have seat." This time Alexia obeyed and I quickly followed too.
He closed his index fingers together and leaned forward. "Currently everyone in this room share the same goal of helping the SliverTusk couple."
'SilverTusk? Oh. Helen and Melsier's given surname.'
"The couple has found themselves in a very grave situation. Ja, very grave indeed. To help them, we are going to need a lot of gold, right Altaris?"
I nod slowly.
"For that, you, me and along with these two are going dungeon diving to find the ore that Altaris mentioned. The possible cure of my daughter."
My face turns bit foul as I guess Mr. Red's intentions.
"I already contact with few clients who are in a dire need of this ore. We are going to possibly find a handful of the ore and sell it for gold."
I think for a solid second and decide to raise a question. "And why do we need these two for this? I mean we alone are enough."
Mr. Red narrows his eyes at me. "The guild will not permit us to dive together and as explorers we are forbidden from helping each other. They could suspend your exploration license."
Stella's warning flashes in front of my eyes.
"That doesn't mean we can't dive together, we need few members to balance the party."
I raise my eyebrow while looking at Alexia and Myleane. "Balance? How?"
Mr. Red points at himself. "A top rated veteran, a well known troublemaker, a talented rookie and a newbie." He lastly points at Alexia. "It's a perfectly balanced party."
I roll my eyes, still not convinced.
This time Myleane spoke up, she began by rudely putting her legs on the table. "Let me be clear, I do not care of this couple. I only care about Melsier alone. If you provide me with a guarantee that he will return to the guild."
Mr. Red glances at Alexia for a second, hoping to answer this one but the girl had no clue. "That totally depends him, if he wishes to continue pursuing his dream or not. But mind you I trained him all his life for this dream so I doubt my student would abandon it."
I smirk as I notice how the old man twisted his words.
"Fine. Makes sense." Myleane puts her hands on the back of her head and leans back.
Meanwhile, Mr. Red is considering a rather indirect approach. "Myleane."
"Hmm?"
"Can't you just ask money from your father? Pretend that you lost all of it in a night gambling session."
I faintly remember Stella informing about Myleane's father being some big shot in the guild.
Myleane had her worries already addressed so she couldn't care less about the discussion anymore. She barely opened her and responded in a lazy way. "Heehhh? Daddy is already super angry with my last night's outing. He gave me an 2 hour lecture about how he had to manage all my mistakes from bribing the locals to fabricating deaths as accidents while lying in his reports to hide the knights disappearances."
I sympathize for Myleane's father, having such problematic daughter is mentally draining.
"I don't think daddy will spare me any cash, especially not after he put on house arrest."
"Arrest? How did you come here?" Alexia asked in curiosity.
"I escaped of course." Myleane answered with a straight face.
"Now. That clears one of our routes to obtain gold, then dungeon diving it is." Mr. Red directs the flow of the discussion before getting interrupted.
"Also I was dying to ask, who are these clients? I mean, I want to make you won't run away with most of the ore after we gathered so much."
Mr. Red glares at Myleane, clearly not pleased with the question. Well, it was not a polite question to begin with, she really meant to ask Mr. Red not to betray us.
"3 nobles. Mid ranked, not much influence in the capital. But own quite property in the kingdom outskirts. All three of their heirs caught the similar strain of plague as Maddy."
Myleane flashes her tongue. "You evil man. Scamming nobles is one thing but scamming parents to sell fake cures to use on their children. Aren't you ashamed as a father?"
I silently agree with Myleane here, there is no way to confirm that the strain is exact same or this ore even cures the plague, I only suggested this to improve Madison's body not to lift the curse.
Alexia decides to speak up. "I do not think this a scam. I b-believe Altaris. If he said it is the cure then it must be."
I glance at her, resisting the urge to rub my forehead in tension. 'Girl. Where do you get so much confidence from?'
"I do want to believe in the kid too." Mr. Red expresses his thoughts.
This made Myleane laugh uncontrollably. "Every member of this party is on crack. The cure to the deathliest plague in the world is a stone. Why? Because a brat said so! How funny. Hahaha."
"Your opinion on this does not matter, I have already talked with the nobles. They are more than happy to buy millions of stone to help their children but such emotion is foreign to you." Mr. Red's words for some reason hit Myleane deep, halting her chuckles. "What matters is you. Are you part of this or not?"
Myleane sits straight up and glances at me before smiling widely. "Heck yeah."
Alexia and Mr. Red appears relieved for some reason now that Myleane has agreed. I notice Alexia particularly being happy.
Then it clicked me. "I am out."