The heavy oak door of a large manor creaked open as a young man in a dark tunic stepped inside. He paused just long enough to glance back at the three adventurers waiting outside. "Wait here," he said, with a flat voice. "Don't go anywhere until I call for you."
The three adventurers, two men and one woman, nodded without argument. They looked tired, their gear dusty from the road, faces showing the strain of tiredness.
The young man closed the door firmly behind him and walked down the short hallway. His boots clicked against the polished stone floor.
The manor itself smelled of rich wood, aged wine, and faint incense drifting from somewhere deeper inside. He pushed open the door to the main sitting room and stepped in.
Inside the room, Madam Ines and Liraya sat across from each other on two ornate chairs near the window. A low table between them held a half-empty bottle of dark red wine and two glasses. They had been talking quietly, but both women looked up as the young man entered the room.
Madam Ines leaned back in her seat, one hand resting on the arm of the chair. Her long fingers tapped lightly against the carved wood. Liraya, on the other hand, sat with a perfect posture, her expression calm and unreadable as always.
The young man cleared his throat. "Kghh, kghh….Madam Ines. The three adventurers you placed in Buena village just returned. They brought a report."
He glanced sideways at Liraya and hesitated, his mouth half open like he wasn't sure if he should continue in front of her.
Madam Ines noticed immediately. She waved her hand lazily. "Speak freely. Liraya is not an outsider anymore."
The young man nodded once, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "Yes, Madam. The adventurers confirmed the rumours we've been hearing. It is now confirmed that a young male fighter took down a hobgoblin in Gaiya Forest all by himself. He had no serious injuries. Word is he handled it cleanly despite being a rookie adventurer himself."
He paused for a second, then kept going. "And the report also says, before that incident happened, the same man entered the forest alongside the vice guild master, Vessa. It seems to me that they were doing some kind of inspection."
Madam Ines listened without interrupting. As the report finished, a slow smile spread across her face.
It wasn't a warm smile. Her lips curved in a way that made the corners of her eyes crinkle with clear satisfaction. She picked up her wine glass, swirling the liquid inside once before taking a small sip.
"So my suspicion was right," she said simply, her voice smooth and low. "It seems a dungeon is really forming in our Gaiya Forest, heh. And not just any dungeon. Most likely a great one."
The room fell quiet after she spoke. The young man stood there for a moment, waiting to see if she needed anything else. When she didn't say more, he gave a small bow and backed out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.
Madam Ines set her glass down on the table. That satisfied smile stayed on her face, growing sharper at the edges. She looked almost pleased, as if the report just confirmed that everything was falling into place exactly how she thought it would be.
Liraya sat still in her chair, her fingers resting lightly on her lap. She didn't speak right away. Her mind turned over the new information slowly.
'A young male fighter... handling a hobgoblin alone?!' She wondered if it was somehow linked to Lys in any way.
Though thoughts were running in her head, she kept her face neutral. This new information changed things. If a great dungeon was truly waking up under Gaiya Forest, then the village she sent Alex to was about to become a lot more dangerous. And if that boy was already moving around in the middle of it, getting involved with the new guild...then wouldn't he be the next target for Madam Ines?
Questions kept coming to her mind one by one, without any answer. She needed an answer, and the only person right now who could provide it was the woman right in front of her. The same woman who has been looking at her body in a weird way from the moment they met.
It's not like she didn't knew what was going on with this woman's dirty mind, but still she knew she had to play along with her, if she wanted to gain what she herself desired from her.
Liraya glanced at Madam Ines. The woman was still smiling that same cold, calculating smile, staring out the window toward the distant direction of Buena village like she could see straight through the walls and trees.
After a minute passed by like that, the woman slowly got up on her own, "Oh, silly me. I haven't introduced you to my daughters yet. Let's go to their quarters right away. I wonder what they are up to now."
"Yes, Madam Ines. Let's go," said Liraya with a small smile on her face, already knowing what those so-called daughters of this woman were up to in their chambers.
Both women walked out of the room toward the upper floor of this huge mansion, where the daughters of Ines reside.