A man in his thirties ran towards Layla as fast as he could. He had brown eyes and brown hair. He was obviously an adventurer, judging by the fact that he was wearing leather armor and had a sword on his back.
Layla was confused and wanted to lean away from him, thinking he was some creep, but she leaned away too far and fell over the curb, hitting the stone behind with her head.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" She groaned, rubbing the back of her head.
The adventurer smiled awkwardly, not expecting her to fall like that.
Layla sat down on the curb, grimacing.
She looked up at the man, her stare judging and cold. "What do you want from me?" She asked coldly.
"Woah, woah!" The man waved his hands before her face. "Calm down, young fella! I am not here to argue or engage in bad activities, haha~!" The man chuckled.
Layla noticed the man staring at her chest, and she wrapped her arms above it, scowling. "My eyes are up here, creep." She said in disdain.
"Oh yeah, sorry, sorry." The man scratched his shaved chin.
"So what do you want from me? Are you a creep? Are you planning to somehow overpower and use me? If that's what you want, then I have very bad news. My body is not for you, and not for anyone other than the one I love."
"I'm not here to do anything to you, okay?!" The man shook his head, annoyed. "For the love of God, these kids nowadays..." He sighed.
"Then what?!" Layla roared.
The man smirked, looking straight into her eyes. "I saw you running on the roofs, but that's not the thing I want to talk about." He raised a brow. "I was following you and saw you open up a few portals, but you don't look like the adventurer who's known for her ability to open portals."
"Are you talking about Ellie?"
The man nodded. "I'm talking about Electra, or Summoner, the same thing."
Layla stood up, leaning in closer to the man in suspicion. "Do you know Ellie?"
"Yep." The man nodded.
"What do you want from her?" Layla asked coldly.
The man chuckled. "I'm an old friend of hers! It's been a long time since she was in the capital, so when I saw someone opening up portals, I thought that she might be here, somewhere."
"I'm not stupid, I need to tell him that I'm Ellie's family or else he'll suspect that I copied her Special Magic, and that rumor would spread and the authorities will list me as a weapon and I don't want that, not before I become the strongest at least."
Layla sighed deeply. "Ellie is my older sister. I, and my lover Orion, are both in her team, but we were split around and I'm searching for them right now."
"Oh~?" His smirk widened. "Your lover is all alone with Electra?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with it, scum?" She spat.
He smiled awkwardly. "Okay, that was mean, kiddo, but if you want to know what's wrong with it, then I'll make it simple for you. Electra likes to play around when she's drunk~"
Layla stepped closer to him and grabbed his collar. "My Orion would never, and I repeat, never even think about cheating on me. Dare to say something so stupid again and I'll rip your dick off and feed it to you, understand, you piece of shit?!" She roared in fury.
He laughed. "Okay, calm down, kiddo. Name's Fenric, what about you?"
Layla backed away from him. "Why would I tell a dirty, old, probably perverted, male adventurer my name?! Are you stupid?"
"First of all, don't be so sensitive, you're still a kid. Second of all, I may know where Electra and that 'lover' of yours are." He shrugged. "But, if you don't want to find them, then it's okay." He turned around and started walking away. "Remember, the capital is massive. The chances of you finding them are almost zero."
Layla clenched her fist and groaned under her nose. Then she ran after him.
Fenric looked at her, his smirk not slightly faltering. "Then? What's your name?"
"Hmph!" She scowled and looked away. "Layla."
Fenric chuckled. "That's a weird name, but it suits you, I guess."
As they were walking down the streets, Layla stared at the adventure, thinking to herself. "He doesn't seem to be a liar, nor have any bad intentions. If he had, he would have tried doing something stupid a long time ago. Besides, in a way, he's similar to Ellie."
Fenric looked at her. "Hey, how old are you, kiddo?" He asked softly.
"Me?" Layla looked around.
"No, me." He rolled his eyes.
"I'm fifteen, or at least that's how Orion counted the days." She smiled softly to herself.
"Really?!" The man laughed.
"What's so funny, huh?!" She scowled.
"I guess it's in your blood, after all, Electra also became an adventurer when she was fifteen."
"Huh?" She looked up at him. "You have known Ellie since she was so young?"
He smiled smugly. "Yep. I am the only one who knows how much she sucked at this job back then. To think that she stayed a Tier 2 adventurer, when she is much stronger than this, annoys me so much."
Layla's voice softened. She was curious. "H-Hey... Mister... I want to hear about Ellie, back when she was young..."
Fenric laughed again. "Oh? What's with that voice? Lost your fangs, you little demon~?"
"Shut up! Just tell me about Ellie!" She roared.
"Sure, I can tell you inside."
Layla looked around in confusion. "Inside? Where?"
He pointed at the same tavern that Electra and Orion were drinking in. "In Alisford's best tavern, of course!"
After a moment, they were already seated inside the tavern. It was as loud and crowded as when Orion and Electra were there.
"Do you want anything?" Fenric asked smugly.
"Yes. I want to hear the story, you fool!" She yelled at him.
He sighed, patting the table. "Okay, okay, calm down."
He scratched his chin, trying to remember those days.
"It was a beautiful day during the spring..."
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A younger version of the Electra we know today walked into the guild, here, in Alisford.
She looked around, not knowing how everything worked.
She was afraid of all the mean-looking adventurers who were staring at her as if she were prey.
She knew that the Guild accepted murderers, slaves, psychopaths, literally anyone.
A younger version of Fenric walked up to her and pulled her ear softly. "Yo! Aren't you a little bit too young for such a place?" He chuckled. "If you mistook it for a restaurant, then you should leave, or else something bad might happen to you." He said with a cheeky smile on his face.
Electra's shoulders slumped in shame. "I came here to sign up..." She muttered under her nose as she looked down at the floor.
"Are you sure? I will repeat myself, you look quite young." He nudged her softly.
She looked up at him, her eyes empty. "Shut the fuck up and take me to the register, understand, you filthy scumbag?!" She yelled at him.
Some other adventurers turned their attention towards them.
Fenric smiled, trying to hold himself in place after being insulted by a kid.
A vein popped out on his forehead. "You little..."
Then, before he was about to punch Electra, no one other than a younger version of Maeryn smacked his head with the flat side of her sword. "Leave the kid alone, besides she is right, you can sometimes be a scumbag." She said calmly.
She then walked up to Electra, taking her hand into hers softly. "You want to sign up? What's your name?"
Electra looked at her, the rage from her eyes slowly fading away, replaced by a subtle hint of fear. "Electra... Just Electra..."
Maeryn clapped her hands together, smiling softly. "Electra! That's a sweet name! I am Maeryn," She gestured her hand towards Fenric. "And this annoying guy right here is Fenric."
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Layla looked at him in disbelief. "Don't tell me that Ellie was in the same team as Lady Maeryn!"
Fenric nodded softly and shrugged. "Well, yeah, she was, actually the three of us formed a party for a long time, if you care."
"Okay! Continue!" Layla said, a small smile on her face as she listened carefully.
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After signing up for the guild, Electra was given the Crystal Ball.
Every time someone new was about to touch the ball, it was almost always the same. The whole guild was watching in anticipation because if the newbie turns out to be good, then it's easy to take them in.
Electra placed her hand on the ball. Suddenly, the ball was surrounded by a couple of purple flames. They weren't big, but there were tons of them.
"OOOH! A SPECIAL MAGIC USER!" The whole guild started screaming in amazement, many people trying to get past Maeryn and Fenric to kidnap Electra.
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"So it's always like that?" Layla asked. "I remember when the crystal shattered when it was my turn!" She giggled.
Fenric nodded. "Exactly! Every time someone with a lot of mana, or a special magic, arrives-" He paused, his eyes widening. "Wait, what do you mean the crystal shattered? You aren't joking, right?!"
Layla shook her head, smirking proudly. "Jealous? Ellie herself called me a 'prodigy', haha!"
"Ugh! Another overpowered kid, how does that even work?!" He groaned.
"So will you continue the story?" She asked, almost pleading.
Fenric sighed and took a sip of the beer he had. "Well, there is not much to tell you. I mean, I won't describe every job we took as a team to you, because it was so long ago that I don't remember it, but..." He paused.
"But?" She raised a brow.
"I can tell you one thing that neither I nor Maeryn have ever figured out about Electra," Fenric said, his voice low.
"And what is it?" She asked softly.
"Well, you are her little sister, so you might know the answer... But the truth is that she was always chasing after someone. We didn't want to ask her about her past, that's one of the unwritten rules that every adventurer follows... So... Do you know?" He asked, his curiosity piqued to know the answer.
Layla shook her head. "Not at all!" She chuckled.
The doors opened following Electra dragging Orion inside.