Since the Grand Duchy of Halinas has a new heiress, the late Princess Fiona's mourning has also proceeded smoothly. For a month, all members living or serving in the palace, including the grand duchess, have worn black for her loss. The curtains are hung black, and all the decorations are taken down.
The mourning month has given Lemuel time to fully accept his sister's death before joining the phantom guild. Kyrie and Laurel have left in advance to the guild, leaving Federline to bring Lemuel after the month of mourning. Once in the guild, Kyrie collapses from the aftermath of ingesting too many mana stones to stabilize Laurel's dangerous state. The fool has been holding in until he has gone past the doors of his own territory to pass out. Kyrie has stayed in a coma for a little bit more than a week, almost causing Laurel to pull out all her hair from the stress.
Around that time, Laurel also has a lot of things in her mind. Her near-death experience has made her aware of just how much Imogen's lack of presence affects her, not to mention Kyrie. After Ian has left, Kyrie only immerses himself in work as if he is trying to get his mind off. Their dependency on their lovers is becoming their own shackles. The negligence on their own feelings is opening wounds that are not needed. They are slowly losing themselves.
When Kyrie has opened his eyes, Laurel enters his room to witness Kyrie taking off his shining diamond-shaped pendant and putting it inside his dimensional pouch. He looks at his hands stained in black and leaves the room after saying that he needs to wash his hands and get some fresh air. Laurel has letters from the Grand Duchy of Halinas, so she walks to Kyrie's desk to put them.
On the desk, her pupils shiver when she sees Kyrie's desk in a mess, opposed to his usual clean desk. Kyrie has toppled over a bottle of ink on a half-written letter.
The only part of the letter visible is the last sentence. Those words written in ink are not his usual thin, elegant, and flowy letters, but instead, the lines of the letters are thick and choppy, like he has placed too much force on the nib of his fountain pen.
'Ian, are you safe?'
Those words have haunted them for the entire year—their safety. Even with the pendant, they cannot calm their hearts without a single word in return. Yet, in their letters, they try to sound that they are okay to spare Ian and Imogen additional pressure since the gates have dangers beyond their own imagination.
Laurel turns quickly to chase after Kyrie. She looks all over the guild building to find him, and she finds him in his usual spot. Laurel has watched Kyrie for the past year, always daydreaming on the same spot. Kyrie would go to the back of the guild building where an old hickory tree stands and stare at the tree and the sky. She has watched that same lonely back with different states of the trees throughout the seasons of the year - bare, luscious green, beautiful flaming yellow, under a blanket of snow.
Kyrie has chosen this place for his guild because of this tree. Even though he will say that he chose this spot because it was away from the public's eyes, Laurel knows how bright Kyrie's eyes sparkled when he saw this tree. She can guess it has something to do with Ian.
Kyrie lets out a deep sigh, "Laurel… I know you are there…"
Laurel nervously chuckles and whispers to herself, "How is it that he can always sense my presence?"
Laurel hands him the letter of invitation that she got from Federline after returning to the guild with Lemuel.
'His eyes are red.'
Kyrie opens the letter to find the promised agreement from the grand duchess.
He lets out a smile while reading over the contract, "I told her that we could make it fair for both… It seems like the duchess wants me to take extra good care of her adopted son in exchange."
Kyrie quickly finishes reading the letter attached to the agreement and looks over to Laurel.
"Geez… don't look at me like that…" Kyrie gets a bit embarrassed with Laurel's eyes filled with pity.
Laurel is about to speak to Kyrie but suddenly gets interrupted.
"Boss!!! The welcome party is ready! Oh… Did I interrupt? You… you guys keep going… Pretend I have not been here!!"
A man whose height seems close to being called a giant opens the door to announce Lemuel's welcome party. The clothes that he wears can barely hold onto the muscles.
"No… Thank you for telling us, Sulfrid. Let's go, Laurel."
Kyrie follows Sulfrid, the giant, to the cafeteria. The wooden floors creak as they walk through the corridors. Once he goes in, the guild members greet Kyrie as 'boss' or 'headmaster.' Some are setting up the long tables with plates and cutleries while others engage in conversation while surrounding Lemuel and Federline. On the table, all kinds of food are laid out for people to grab for themselves.
Once the children get to see Kyrie, they run to him and hug his legs.
"Headmaster!!!"
"Mommy made tons of yummy food for the new big brother!"
Kyrie smiles and pats on their heads before their mothers pull them away after greeting him.
"Sorry, headmaster…"
"It's fine. Thank you for your hard work, ladies."
Kyrie welcomes Lemuel to the guild and gives out a short speech. The guild members roar after the speech, and they gather to pour their beer pints to the brim! They energetically converse and stuff food into their mouths. Some even start drinking challenges.
"How do you find it here, Lemuel?" asks Kyrie as he takes a sip off his pint.
Lemuel looks at the energetic group again, "They are all so energetic! It is different from what I am used to, but it is also something nice to see…"
"Well… Kyrie likes to collect the weirdest ones out there. He even picked up an entire village before I joined," Laurel laughs.
"An entire village?" Lemuel lets out a gasp of surprise.
"My village," Federline sits beside Lemuel.
Lemuel goes quiet when Federline joins, but he is feeling an itch inside from curiosity. So, he stares at Federline unknowingly when he is submerged inside his deep thoughts.
"Are you curious?" asks Laurel when looking at Lemuel, gazing at Federline with his eyes sparkling.
Lemuel breaks out of his trance and nervous nods, giving Federline glances to see if he is intruding too much on Federline's private life.
Federline looks back at Lemuel while drinking from the pint, "It's not that interesting… I was a mountain thief that stole from merchants and nobles to feed my village. Then, I got caught by a cruel noble, and my village became subject to his sickly game. We were made prey for their hunting game until the headmaster intervened and saved us. We lost our main income source and have to leave our village to prevent that sicko from coming back to hurt us. The headmaster decided to take us in and gave us jobs. He trained us and fed us. Then, he invented numerous artifacts and brought in more people. Eventually, guilds and merchants whom we traded with began distinguishing us as a guild."
"How can that not be interesting?" Lemuel breathes in deeply in amazement, "Your lives sound more eventful than mine at least! Many things happened to bring all of the members together! So, that is how Kyrie created the phantom guild!"
Kyrie smiles and leans back on his chair. Both adults and children are blasting the cafeteria with their laughter, conversations, and fooling around.
[I have forgotten what I have and entered into depression for situations I cannot control.]
Kyrie gulps the entire pint down and lets out a sigh. Then, he fills up the pint, clinking the pint with Laurel's to take down another pint of beer. The cafeteria turns silent. Sulfrid goes to their table and locks his arms around Lemuel's neck.
"Headmaster, chief, captain… I will take our newbie to introduce himself to everyone!" Sulfrid drags the poor suffocating Lemuel away.
Kyrie waves his hand to let Sulfrid take Lemuel to the others and continues drinking.
"Federline!" One of the chefs called, "Could you help us fix something in the kitchen?"
"Alright…" Federline stands and moves to the kitchen.
Sulfrid gives thumbs up to the chef for her quick wit.
Lemuel sees that exchange and asks, "Why are you taking me away?"
Sulfrid pushes Lemuel's shoulder to make him sit on the center where all the guild members are gathering in a circle, "Can't you see? This is the only time that our chief could talk her heart out to our boss!"
Lemuel blankly blinks at Sulfrid, "Ah? I thought Kyrie has… a lover!!!"
"Sssshhhh!" Sulfrid puts his finger on Lemuel's lips to quiet down.
Lemuel closes his mouth immediately and looks around at all the guild members putting up an expression of agony.
"We have never seen that lover… Our boss is foolish to keep on waiting when there is a perfect lady beside him… Silently protecting him and helping him… As subordinates… no… as human beings, how can we just let our boss stay blind to this fact!!!"
All the guild members nod ferociously.
"Boss should understand our lady chief's feelings… Plus, she is the perfect partner to our aloof boss… She always saves us from getting tortured- I mean- trained to death…"
All the guild members nod ferociously.
"She is like the goddess… One that would look after us and help us with the finances. However… She is also waiting for her lover… This tragedy… We shall end it! Our boss and the chief will see that they actually have feelings for each other!"
All the guild members nod ferociously.
"Plus… When I called them for the party… You should have seen the sadness on our lady chief's face. I was a fool to go at the wrong time!!!"
The guild members slap on Sulfrid's back as punishment.
"I deserve death for interrupting the chance for our chief to confess her feelings! How dare I do such a heartless thing!"
The guild members slap at Sulfrid again.
"Okay, okay… Don't hit me so hard! I am already heartbroken…"