CH744

“No one,” Ben repeated, already going through their mind to try and see more context. “If you’d seen how much I’ve been offering, you should know pretty damn well that’s impossible.”

“Ah, it’s unfortunate but sometimes things turn out this way,” They tried to say, sounding stiff while Ben managed to see in their memories exactly what had caused it while he tried to keep himself contained.

It seemed the paper they’d read hadn’t shown that he hadn’t received any takers but instead had a note telling whatever employee ended up reading it to tell him as much, meaning for whatever reason, the adventurers guild had made the intentional choice to not help one of their first ranks.

He clenched his fists and took a deep breath before unclenching, already feeling like whatever was happening was going to be a pain to deal with as he spoke again.

“Alright, listen, I know this isn’t your fault but I also know you’re lying so is your guild master in so I can deal with them or do I have to track down wherever they live to demand answers on their doorstep?”

“…Just one moment, I’ll get them for you.”

“Oh, I think I’ll follow along, thanks.”

He didn’t want to give them any time to be warned about who he was or why he was there and much to the employee’s discomfort he walked behind them, through a hallway and up some stairs until ending up in front of another door that the employee tried to knock on, failing entirely as Ben just let himself in.

“Hello there,” He said in forced cheer. “I’ve come for answers and I’m hoping you wanna do this the easy way.”

The man on the other side didn’t immediately respond, at first looking more surprised than anything before their attention turned to the employee Ben had come with, waiting for some context while they tried to shrink into themself.

“Ahem, first-rank adventurer, Ben Heph, here with concerns about his recently submitted quest.”

While that didn’t get any visible reaction, Ben was already in his mind and could feel the worry such a statement brought while he continued on with his false cheer.

“Yep, that’s me and while I’ll at least say for your poor employee’s benefit that they didn’t let on that you lot had decided to suppress my quest for some reason, let’s be real, it was obvious. Who would believe I wouldn’t get a single taker when I was offering so much? Honestly, get better at lying. So now the only question is why.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to say.”

Ben could feel the fear in the other man even as he said it. Since Ben was at the first rank that meant he had at least two awakened skills, more than enough to tear the place apart if they were combat-oriented if he was angry enough and despite the feelings of good cheer he was trying to project, it was plenty clear he was seething inside.

He might have even given in to those feelings too, if not for the fact that he’d gotten the answer he wanted from the other man’s mind, telling him all he needed to know. The quest hadn’t been denied at his discretion but had come from the very top, with that guild not even getting a reason as to why, giving Ben somewhere else to direct his rage as he asked only one thing more.

“Where can I find the head guild location?”

Returning to a city Ben had been to twice before, he was once more at warriors’ tower, walking the streets he’d once rioted through to end up at a grand building that made up the home of the main branch of the adventurers’ guild and let himself in, finding the place swarmed.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise, as the biggest branch he’d seen by far in a city that was wholly devoted to developing one’s combat skills, there were plenty who would take the job, both to prove themselves and as a form of practice in whatever spare time they had so it was bound to be busy but at least it was staffed well, with the line he went in moving smoothly as he got to the front while he tried to keep his feelings under control.

It was hard though. He’d been working so hard and now it looked like someone had decided to get in his way without so much of an explanation. It couldn’t help but enrage him when the entire reason he was doing it was for the sake of growing to help the planet as a whole. He was constantly forcing himself to keep calm as he made his way to the front, a guild receptionist greeting him politely once he got there.

“Hello, how can I help you today?” They asked, with Ben’s card already out and at the ready, showing his status as both an apostle and a rank one adventurer.

“I’m here to talk to the guild leader, they should be expecting me.”

“Uh, just one moment, I haven’t heard about him having any meetings set up today.”

“Oh, we don’t have one but seeing as how he intentionally suppressed a quest from a rank one adventurer without any sort of explanation and tried to keep the entire thing a secret, he absolutely should have known I was coming to see him.”

He said it loudly, wanting others to hear and it got some murmurs around him. The guild generally wouldn’t reject a quest from such a high-ranked individual but to do it without so much as an explanation as to why was unreasonable.

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Stating that so clearly made the employee look uncomfortable as well but they tried to keep in control of the situation given they only had his side of the explanation.

“I’m sorry to hear you’ve had problems, if you’d just take a seat for a moment I’ll get someone to you as soon as I can find one who might be able to tell you what happened.”

“Oh, thanks but I’m not really one to wait around.”

Without waiting for a response he left the line and started walking towards the office he wanted. He’d already seen in their head where it was and that the guild leader was in, he wasn’t going to wait for them to give him the runaround, even as different employees caught on to what he was doing and followed to try and stop him.