Garden Of The Abyss

After finishing putting away all of her belongings into the closet and drawer, she left him in the room by himself as she took her turn using the bath.

A few minutes passed as he laid alone in the bed, trying to get some rest, though her words stuck with him.

Crap. I can't let myself get rusty, he thought.

Jumping to his feet, he grabbed his blade and scabbard, unsheathing his steel as he began practicing fundamental sword swings.

He had no problem with the sword skills ingrained into the fibers of his body, but rather, he wanted to wake his body up to its usual endurance levels.

After years of being accompanied by Belus, holding it between his fingers felt more natural than without; swinging it like this, in the comfort of his own home, was soothing in itself. If there was one aspect of himself he could trust, it was his partnership with his sword; one forged by focus and commitment.

"Swoo."

Each swing he carved through the air, using the free space of the rather sizable room afforded to the founder of the guild, he let out a swift, sharp breath to bolster his energy, accentuating his movements.

–Knock.

The sudden, light tap on the door jamb to his room brought him to a stop as he looked up to see Akshay standing in the doorway, holding up a bundle of papers.

"Looks like the quest went off without a hitch," Akshay said, stepping into the room.

He stopped, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he bent over to retrieve the crumbled paper from the pocket of his cloak, handing it to Akshay, "Yeah, about that: I'll leave it up to you to report to the receptionist for turning in our quests."

"Urr, okay…no problem, fair enough, I suppose," Akshay accepted wryly, pocketing the proof of completion as he handed the papers he held to him.

"What's this?" He asked, looking down at the batch of papers.

"Potential recruits," Akshay informed him with a smile, "--and not just people I've got my eye on, don't worry. These are people who've already agreed to join, if you accept them, that is."

He sat down on the side of the bed, returning the blade he held to its rightful scabbard as his eyes were sat on the papers.

"Wow, you found quite a few, didn't you?" He muttered, impressed, "I asked for ten, and you brought me…well, a lot more than that."

"I took into account your own preferences," Akshay replied, "not that I know them, but, I imagine this gives you enough room to be just a bit picky."

"I see," he smiled, returning his gaze to the multi-colored hair member as he set the papers on the stand by his bed, "I'll give them a look tonight. Thanks, Akshay."

Akshay seemed taken aback for a moment, as if not used to such utterances of gratitude, "...Of course," he smiled.

After the recruiter of the guild took his leave, it wasn't long after that Iris returned from her bath, returning in a simple, but elegant nightgown.

By now, he'd seen it dozens of times, but it never lost its beauty in the slightest. Even the usually meek woman found herself comfortable with him seeing her in her nighttime garments as she dried her wet, azure locks with the towel.

"Looks like you've discovered the greatness of this place's bath," he jokingly said with a smile.

Iris laughed softly, "Yeah, maybe. It was nice, I'll admit."

After sitting herself down on the lavish bed, her eyes moved towards the batch of papers set on the stand on the other side.

"What're those?"

"Potential new members," he answered with a smile, grabbing the papers as he laid in the bed beside her, "Akshay acquired all of these."

"Really? These are all people willing to join Gladiolus?" She asked, taking a few papers.

He nodded, "I thought we could look them over tonight, then get a second opinion from Sirius tomorrow."

"That sounds good," Iris smiled.

"Alright, then, let's see…" He said as he read over the current paper he held.

—Though they planned to look through each and every adventurer file, it wasn't long before they both fell to slumber from the combined aspects of their exhaustion and the comfortable bed.

"Achoo—!"

He woke up with a sudden sneeze, finding himself already sitting up as he sat there, blinking for a moment as he adjusted.

Through the windows, the orange rays of warm sunlight seeped through as if coaxing him out of slumber.

Looking to the side, Iris seemed to have woken up before him, though that wasn't surprising to him considering it looked to be noon already.

"...Damn, I really sleep in, huh?" He muttered groggily as he yawned out, ruffling his own locks.

After slipping out of bed, he lumbered through the main hall of Gladiolus, being guided by the morning fragrance of fresh-and-hot breakfast, trailing from the cafeteria.

"Good mornin'," he called out sleepily as he entered the cafeteria.

Already seated at one of the tables, Iris was sitting with a plate of eggs, ham, and bread that was laden with some sort of jelly.

Akshay was lounged at one of the other four tables, opting to each a sugar-coated pastry, to his surprise.

"Morning," Iris greeted him with a smile, having some jelly on the corner of her mouth.

He sat himself down across from her, still in the process of fully waking up as a plate was set directly in front of him a moment after.

"...?" He looked at the plate before looking up at who served it.

To his surprise, it was Sirius who served it to him, wearing an apron over his standard, militaristic uniform with a smile.

"You made this…?" He asked, looking at the delicious-seeming dish.

It was a bowl of wheat, carrying a sweet fragrance from the berries mixed in with the warm, fluffy dish.

"It's "Buckwheat Porridge", or at least, that's what it's supposed to be. I just used whichever wheat was stored back there," Sirius told him, sitting beside him with his back to the edge of the table.

After looking at it for a moment, his tiredness was swept away by the warm air that lifted from the fresh porridge.

"He spent the morning making breakfast for everyone," Iris told him, wiping the jelly from her mouth.

"Really?" He said, turning his gaze to the lounging, magenta-eyed man, "what's the occasion?"

"Is that a question?" Sirius laughed, "Gladiolus–that's the occasion."

After noticing the look Sirius gave him as if waiting for him to try the dish, he delved his spoon into the soft, cinnamon-scented porridge before bringing a taste to his tongue.

It met his tongue with a texture resembling cream, yet it had a slight crunch added to its texture, courtesy of the juicy berries.

"...This is pretty good!" He commented after swallowing the spoonful.

Sirius smiled as if expecting such an answer, though he seemed genuinely pleased, "Isn't it? Porridge was practically the regional food of my village."

"Really? I'd expect you to not be very fond of it if you ate it that much," he said, continuing to chow down.

"Well, I can't deny that," Sirius laughed, "that's why I'm not the one eating it."

After a few minutes, Akshay made his way over to the table, placing himself down, "Did you look over the recruits?"

Just finishing his breakfast, he replied, "...Well, most of them."

"Recruits?" Sirius asked."

He nodded, "Akshay found a lot of potential members. I was going to go over them with you, too."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, leading to all of them meeting in the main hall of the guild with all of the adventurer files placed on the center table.

"How many people are you looking to have, anyway?" Sirius asked, overlooking one of the forms he held up to his eyes.

He thought about it for a moment, but the answer was clear, "I'm not all that interested in running some sort of "mega-guild", no thank you. I'd say a tight-knit group of ten or so members would be good."

Akshay added in, "I didn't add them into the pile, but a couple of adventurers I reached out to specialize in other fields–sort of like me. One of them has connections to the Merchant's Guild; she'll be invaluable to us, and she isn't a half-bad mage, either."

"Right, that's what you meant before. I'll trust that to you, then," he answered, "is that alright?"

For a moment, Akshay seemed surprised at his trust, but smiled in assurance, "Leave it to me."