Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Once Aldrich returned to real world he opted to sleep right away. He opened his eyes thinking that morning had come but it was still night and he was woken up by the loud noise coming from his neighbors.

Shouting, it was an argument.

Aldrich tried to go back to sleep but the noise persisted, it sounded like an argument that went bad. Soon Aldrich couldn't take it any more, he decided to go have a word with his neighbors.

This was not acceptable, it was the middle of the night and he was trying to sleep. He opened the door and followed the noise until he got to apartment number twenty five on the opposite end of the hallway.

Aldrich knocked roughly on the door.

Suddenly the voices stopped and footsteps approached the door and it was opened. It was the girl that helped him out before, Irene. Right now her blonde hair was disheveled and her face was sickly pale with dark circles under her eyes.

"Oh, hey, it's you..." Aldrich who was ready to blow up, held himself back after he saw her.

Irene had helped him out before so he didn't feel like yelling at her besides she didn't look right at all.

She was most likely sick, moreover she was definitely sleep deprived, he knew this because he suffered from it not long ago.

He also recalled that he once saw her returning to the apartment building while looking around suspiciously and murmuring to herself.

"Oh, ah! It's you Aldrich right? Ah, I'm sorry the yelling must've bothered you..." Irene apologized while rubbing her tired looking eyes.

"It's alright, the noise was just a little too loud so I came to see if there was any problem? Anything I can help with?" Aldrich made sure to extend a helping hand.

"I'm sorry about the noise, I was just arguing with my old and stubborn grandfather, he's a piece of work I tell ya." Irene explained and tried to play it off like a joke but Aldrich could hear the indignation in her voice.

"Ah, so that's how it. If you could just keep it down, it must be hard on you. Listen I won't bother you anymore. If you need any help or something I live in twenty one."

"I'm not sure if this is something that you can help me with, it's really just a family matter nothing too big."

"That's true. I'm an adventurer but I guess these things aren't part of my specialty. Anyway good luck and good night."

Irene looked at him in surprise, "an adventurer you say?" Aldrich nodded, "like a-a Crestmaster?" She asked in anticipation.

But Aldrich shook his head, "soon to be one, but no, not a Crestmaster yet."

"Oh."

"Yeah, but I suppose even a Crestmaster can't interfere in a family dispute, right?"

Irene looked taken aback, although she shouldn't have been, "ah, yeah, yeah of course. Of course."

Aldrich felt a little awkward so he bid her a good night and took his leave.

Aldrich returned back to his apartment and listened for a while but the noises had disappeared, fortunately.

Indeed Aldrich could slay level three monsters but he couldn't solve a family related dispute nor did he intend to interfere in something like that.

In the end he could only hope the Irene would take care of the problem without issues. If the noise problem kept repeating then he might really loose his temper.

Sleep was always something he lacked because of the dammed nightmare specter so he always cherished the time when he could sleep soundly.

Aldrich woke up in the morning as usual, feeling quite refreshed. Looking at the sixty essence orbs in the panel made him happy and relaxed, he nodded to himself when he remembered that he had close to a gold coin in his bank account.

When one was rich waking up early in the morning wasn't so tiring anymore! Aldrich opened the wide windows of the common room after his bath and smelled the beautiful air of early spring.

Before he could get to cooking breakfast however he noticed that a letter was slipped under his door. When he went to complain to Irene about the noise it wasn't there so it must've been slipped after that.

Aldrich picked it up casually and opened it, as expected it was from Ayemon. There were very few people that knew him here in Voryhrm so the options were limited. Apparently Ayemon invited him to breakfast in his mansion today.

Aldrich was glad that he found it before he started cooking else he might have had wasted some food. Aldrich picked up his bag and took it with him, he had a class and he might not get the time to get back here to pick it up.

When he was out of the apartment he bumped into Irene who happened to be exiting her own apartment.

"Ah, Aldrich!" Irene noticed him and waved her hand cheerfully.

"Yeah, good morning. By the way I want to say that I hope I wasn't rude yesterday. If I was I really didn't mean to."

Aldrich wanted to smooth things over, they were neighbors so he didn't want any friction to be between them.

"What? No, no, don't say that, you'll make me feel even worse."

Aldrich looked at Irene and noticed that she looked a little better than last night. At least the dark circles around her eyes had decreased.

"You look much better than before. I don't know what the issue with your grandfather is, but you should not over do it to the point of affecting your health."

"I know, ah, this matter is just not easy to resolve. Anyway I won't delay you any further. Are you going to class?"

"Yeah, well first I'm going to get myself some breakfast though."

"What do you study? Language and grammar? History? Law?" Irene asked casually.

"Actually I'm studying at the crest academy." Aldrich replied honestly.

"Really?" Irene asked excitedly, "so you're going to become a Crestmaster? That's so awesome."

Aldrich was flattered by the praise, "its not a big deal though. I'm not going to work for a noble or anything like that, I will become an adventurer. What about you, what do you do?"