Chapter 52 - Guild Card
"Interesting!" A female knight entered the guild and stood in front of Nero. "Would you mind telling me more about that 'it depends' of yours?"
The female knight had golden hair and green eyes, and she was wearing half-body silver armor.
Nero stared at the knight for a while, then squinted his eyes and gestured to Emilia and Sophia, "We are done here, so we are leaving. Let's go!"
Nero turned around and faced the door— but the knight grabbed Nero's shoulder, "Wait! Why are you ignoring me?!"
"I have nothing to say to you," Nero answered without turning around.
"Wait!" the knight forcefully tried to turn Nero around.
Nero didn't budge and glared at the knight from the corner of his eye, "Don't talk to me so casually."
The knight's hand let go of Nero's shoulder— as though her body acted on its own because of the fear.
Emilia rushed to Nero and whispered, "We still have to get the guild card."
Nero exhaled sharply and looked at the knight, "Very well, I will tell you what I meant, but I want something in return."
"If it's money, then I can't give."
"I need information about the strongest person alive in this world," Nero asked nonchalantly.
The knight pondered for a while, then nodded— as though she was talking to herself, "As far as I know, the kingdoms in the other continents are strong."
"I don't want to know about the kingdom; I am asking for a single person. Who is the strongest in this world?"
"I have heard rumors about a hooded figure. It shows up at random places and said to be the strongest."
"Oh?" Nero's interest piqued, "Tell me more."
"I personally haven't seen that person, but that hooded figure is rumored to be traveling with a wolf. But these are old rumors."
"How old?"
"No idea. But more than centuries as my ancestors were one of the few who had seen that hooded figure. And I think almost everyone knows about that hodded figure. Even parents nowadays scare their children by mentioning the hooded figure."
"I see," Nero looked delighted after hearing something interesting. "Now, the most important question; is that person evil?"
The knight started talking of her armor off as she struggled, "Some say it's evil, some say it's not evil."
She removed the armor from her chest and thighs and placed it on the nearest table, "But it did wipe out an entire continent in one night."
Nero couldn't hold himself from smirking, "Interesting. Let's see how strong is this so-called hooded figure."
Nero then turned around and tried to leave, but the knight stopped him. "Excuse me! You can't just walk away without repaying my favor."
"Oh! Right," He walked, then looked at the crystal on the counter, and said, "How do you think that works?"
"Uhh… it measures the mana and gives you stats."
"Yeah, but how does that work? Crystals themselves were once a form of power, so why do you think there are capacitors on the crystals? How do you think this all mechanism works?"
The knight pondered for a while, then shook her head, "I don't know."
"My point is, why would you rely on the crystal to limit and acknowledge your power?"
The knight's eyes widened in surprise as she nodded in agreement, "That's true."
"Please stop feeding non-sense to our guild master." the woman at the counter commented.
"Hmm?" Nero glanced around in the guild to look for the guild master, "Who is the guild master?"
"Ahem!" the knight cleared her throat— seemingly trying to tell she was the guild master.
Nero squinted his eyes, "You are the guild master?"
The knight nodded and puffed her chest, "My name is Elise, and I am the guild master of this town."
"I don't sense any magic from you, though."
Elise bit her lips then smiled wryly, "Still, I am the guild master."
'So that's why she was interested when I talked about the 'it depends' thingy,' Nero thought.
"Anyway, we need guild cards. Can you provide guild cards for my two companions?"
Elise looked at the woman on the counter and nodded.
The woman on the counter pointed her gaze at the crystal, "Please place your hand on the crystal."
Nero had no plan to do that, so he asked Emilia to do it. Emilia was strong, but her human body was her weakness.
Emilia placed her hand on the crystal, and it shined blue. Soon, a letter appeared on the crystal.
"You are B rank," stated the woman.
'B rank with a human body? I was expecting her to be a C rank.' Nero then asked Sophia to do it.
Sophia placed her hand on the crystal, and it shined silver. "You are also B rank."
Sophia knew how to control her powers and trick the crystal. In truth, she hadn't even used 0.01% percent of her power— that was almost nonexistent and unnoticeable by the heavens.
Now it was Nero's turn to do it. Unlike Sophia, Nero had no control over his powers. All this time, he was using triggers to use his powers, and if he had placed his hand on the crystal, it would have shattered in seconds.
It wasn't as if Nero was trying to avoid attention, but he was used to the crystals, and it always gave out his identity as a monster— since the mana of humans and other races are different.
Emilia was half-human, so she was safe, and Sophia was an expert in channeling her mana and turning it to different mana. But Nero knew none of that.
If he only belonged to one race, he would have done it, but since he was a hybrid, he already had different types of mana he needed to control.
"Just give me the lowest rank card. I don't care." Nero shrugged his shoulders.
The only reason they were getting the guild cards was so that they could travel freely between towns— they had no intention of completing the quest.
Emilia and Sophia got a B rank guild card with their name on it. While Nero got an F rank guild card.