“This guy’s a Griever? I don’t see it. He’s too busy mopping the floor with his own ass.”
“Where was he when we had ourselves a fight?”
“Huh, he was behind me in the line outside.”
People were talking about me. I had it coming; if I were in their shoes, I would have done the same thing.
Sprawled out on the table assigned to Grieving Souls, I let my gaze wander. The other members in the party rarely showed up to these events, so I had the table all to myself. Currently, they were out of town, taking on a treasure vault beyond the capital. Honestly, though, even if they had been here, I would never have brought them to this.
All eyes in the room were on me, but no one dared approach. What did I do to deserve this? I thought. I just overslept a little. I’d done my part, so I was trying to get out of here! What was the point of me being here at all?!
“So this is solitude,” I said with a sardonic smile.
My stomach was in knots. No doubt about it, I was by far the most fragile hunter in the room. I hadn’t been trying to get away from the fight as a gag or out of pure laziness. I’d been genuinely terrified. I wondered how all these people eyeing me would react if they discovered I wasn’t just a member of the Grievers, but their leader.
Tino, the one who’d dragged me to the table, puffed out her cheeks while shooting daggers at any gossipers. “Don’t worry, master. I know how amazing you are.”
“Because of you, I’m suffering a great deal of psychological anguish.”
Tino Shade was apprenticed to one of my childhood friends, Liz Smart, the Stifled Shadow—a genocidal freak who killed first and asked questions later. We’d met Tino back when we had first arrived in the capital, and she’d been under Liz’s wing ever since. Even when I, Ark Brave, and a few other parties had founded First Steps, Tino hadn’t been far behind.
Tino loved Liz like a sister, calling her “Lizzy” for short, and even looked up to me as a leader. By now, she was practically the mascot of Grieving Souls, even though she grew as quickly as the rest of the Griever freaks.
Incidentally, her justification for calling me “master” was that I was the leader of Grieving Souls and clan master of First Steps. In other words, I was the ringleader of the freak show. When we first set up the clan, I had nodded along to this and that, and found myself stuck with the role. Just thinking back on it made me wanna barf.
“Why are you here? Don’t you have a hunt to go on?” I asked.
Tino clutched one of her elbows and shrank down with a puppylike gaze. Her entreating demeanor and short temper were byproducts courtesy of her mentor’s teachings.
“But I, um... I heard that Grieving Souls was looking for new members today.”
“I didn’t say that. I just said I’d stop by.”
Even then, that was only because the vice clan master had scolded me for never showing up to the event of my own conception. I had observed the goings-on every time, but that was always when disguised as an applicant.
That aside, it wasn’t right to put stock in a hazy rumor like that. I’d never understand hunters. But if that was all it took for more applicants to show up, I’d make sure to spread rumors next time. Grieving Souls aside, there were plenty of parties looking for promising new members. Not that I’d show up next time, or ever again after today. Couldn’t everyone just behave themselves?
As I chatted with Tino, taking full advantage of the room being stunned by my dramatic entrance, a frustratingly good-looking guy approached me from the next table over. The crowd that had formed a respectful distance away from us parted to clear a path.
This man, with his silky blond locks and friendly blue eyes, looked better than anyone else in the Steps’ white uniform, which paid homage to that of the imperial army. Born and raised in the empire, he was now one of the strongest hunters in it—one of only five Level 7 hunters in the vicinity. He was the paragon of our kind, a hero, and the leader of Ark Brave. Yes, the man standing before us was none other than Ark Rodin, the Argent Thunderstorm. What a douche.
This guy just so happened to be the rival of my childhood friends. He hung around in a party composed of himself and a bunch of cute girls. What made him really get on my nerves was that not only was he unbelievably strong, he was actually a humble and genuinely nice guy. Just thinking about how shallow I was to find him so insufferable only served to grind my gears even further. It was a truly terrible cycle.
“Yo, Krai, what took you so long?”
“Nothing. I overslept.”
Ark let out a hearty laugh. “Ha! Your jokes always crack me up.”
That wasn’t a joke.
“Stay away from master, philanderer,” Tino snapped.
Ark laughed even harder, slapping the table with his palm. What a scary guy.