The Princess And The Lord

Zhao Li Xin watched their every move, every expression therefore he could already guess what happened so all he needed was confirmation from the parties involved. What worried him was that many enemies were surrounding his wife and he didn't know their strengths or how they worked clearly.

Not long after, Garrof walked towards them and then spoke to Lory in a hushed tone.

"The manager said the Guild leader wants to speak to us, do you mind?"

"No, I have a few things to ask too, besides that is the child like I thought?" Lory glanced at the young man whose face was filled with anxiety.

Garrof nodded "Yes, he is one of the families of the group of hunters who disappeared."

Lory sighed sympathetically "I hope he's not the son of the hunter group I met."

Garrof felt that the possibility of that was very small but he could only feel sorry for the child's misfortune "I hope so..."

"Let's meet them then" Zhao Li Xin stretches out his hand in front of Lory.

Lory took his hand and stood up while Lloyd and Garrof waited for Lory to enter first with Zhao Li Xin. What they didn't realize, their actions received a lot of attention including the Guild Manager who looked at Lory and Zhao Li Xin with curiosity about their identities.

It didn't take a genius to guess that they weren't ordinary people just judging by the way they moved and carried themselves even though they seemed to be trying to hide it but for someone like him who had seen a lot of things in the world, the differences between them and ordinary people around were like night and day.

The moment Zhao Li Xin walked hand in hand with Lory the crowd before them suddenly parted like a red sea, before they realized their bodies had moved on their own. Meanwhile, Lory was not aware of the reactions of the people around her because her mind was busy thinking about what was happening.

Apart from that, this scene was not strange because when she was still a royal princess and later became Zhao Li Xin's wife, Lory was used to people keeping their distance from her for whatever reason, so Lory wasn't aware anything strange around her.

Only Garrof and Lloyd exchange bewildered eyes. 'Talk about trying to be low-key, huh'

"This is my friends, Raven Jane and her husband Zhao Li Xin" Garrof introduced them to the Guild manager.

Lory nodded slightly, meanwhile, the young man approached Lory in a hurry, "Did...you see my father!"

Because he was too panicked, his movements became rough, he almost grabbed Lory's arm, but Zhao Li Xin quickly grabbed the young man's wrist.

"Calm yourself." Zhao Li Xin's deep voice hints with warning and the young man's movements instantly stop.

"Hold your horses, boy! let's talk about this, okay!" Garrof also tried to calm the young man but in reality, he was worried about the young man's safety.

As a former soldier and hunter, Garrof has met many people, especially during the Dark Age war, it was the time when humans showed their worst nature and at that time Garrof met many awful people, some of them were sadistic, some were cruel and brutal and the worst of them was a cold-blooded killer who had no regard for human life at all whether it was young or old, man or woman it doesn't matter, they were means nothing to those people however, during his interactions with Zhao Li Xin, his instincts told him that Zhao Li Xin was much more dangerous than any of them.

His guts told him there was something dark lying beneath this handsome and elegant appearance. Lory was unfazed, she put her hand on Zhao Li Xin's arms and then said to the young man "I'm not sure if the man I met was your father or not but I sincerely hope he was not your father"

Lory's kind words eased the young man's stressed emotions a little, once he managed to calm down ZhaoLi Xin let go of his hand. However, there is a red mark left on the young man's wrist. Everyone thought Zhao Li Xin was overreacting but for anyone who knew Zhao Li Xin well, they would say that the young man was very lucky, because if it was in the old days that young man would have lost his hand.

Lloyd also noticed the slight bruise on the young man's hands and glanced at the oblivious young man who didn't know he just escaped death. Llyod exchanged another secret glance with Garrof then simultaneously they took a heavy heave.

"Let's go to the office" the manager broke the tense atmosphere.

They followed the manager to the second floor to the room at the very end, when they got there the manager knocked on the wooden door immediately from inside the door was opened by a beautiful woman with brown skin and long black hair that draped over her shoulders, a woman wearing a white shirt and a tight black skirt that accentuated her curves and long legs.

"Come on in" The beauty mark at the corner of her lips makes her smile even more mesmerizing. 

Once they entered the room, The woman was momentarily stunned when she saw Zhao Li Xin's face but because she's a professional she immediately collected herself after that she slowly closed the door behind her.

Inside the room, a middle-aged man in sixty with dark gray hair and with full beard sits behind a large desk. The manager then announces their arrival "Sir, they are here"

The middle-aged man took off his glasses and then lifted his head, he consecutively stared at them one by one but suddenly his eyes stopped on Lory for a few seconds before he stood up from his chair and with a kind smile he greeted them "Thank you for coming, let's seat over there" he invited to move to the lounge.

As they all sat down, the man began to introduce himself, "Good afternoon everyone, my name is Lawrence Covington, master of this Black Crow Guild" He said politely then continued, "I've heard about the missing group, Nathalie!" He called his secretary and the sexy woman came first with a stack of papers and she arranged them on the coffee table in front of them.

The papers contain photos and biodata of the missing group of hunters. Lory immediately recognized one of the people in the photo.

Lory took the paper and examined it carefully while everyone was waiting in silence the same way as the young man who now stared at Lory anxiously.

After a while, Lory took a deep breath with a face full of regret, she said as she put the paper on the table, "Yes, this is the man I met at George's Diner."

The young man's shoulders immediately dropped soon after color drained from his face, the young man lowered his head and covered his face trying to hold back his sobbing.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Lawrence asked.

"Of course," Lory nodded Afterward she told everyone the story of how she first arrived at the rest stop where George's diner was and then she met the the group of injured hunters.

The hunter leader who spoke with Lory is known to be Maurice Fisher and his son, who is currently grieving the loss of his beloved father, is named Ben Fisher.

Lory then made the excuse that he wanted to look for Cantrapera out of curiosity but unfortunately, the cave where Cantrapera was had been blown up by something, and the entrance was covered in rubble so nothing they could do later on they decided to return to George's Diner to ask further about Cantrapera but all of a sudden the entire Rest stop was blown away.

Lloyd and the manager also said that initially Maurice and his group were only assigned to hunt Zalpein, but perhaps because Maurice thought at that time the task was too easy. It would take too much time hence, he took on another more profitable task, which is hunting Cantrapera. However, from Lory's explanation, it seems that what Maurice and his group were facing was not normal Cantapera.

"Can you check who put the Cantrapera request?" Larence asked his secretary Nathalie.

Nathalie immediately checked her tablet but after a while her brows began to furrow she looked at the manager and Lawrence with confused expressions.

"This is weird, there's no such request in the guild request board not even in the history, this is impossible!" her long fingers dancing on the tablet surface but her expression only got uglier "This....could it be someone had deleted it but that means someone has breached our server?!" Nathalie's smokey eyes widened in shock.

Lawrence and the Manager's expressions also darkened, one should know how dangerous and embarrassing it would be to have their security system breached. If this news were to be known then their Guild would lose its prestige in the eyes of the Hunters and Guild associations of the world and there are possibility no one would want to work with them anymore. Knowing how serious this problem was, Tampa was told by the manager to immediately excuse himself and leave the room with wide strides

Based on their reactions, Lory knew this was the first time they had encountered something like this.

"What…what happened to my father?" the young man muttered weakly.

Lawrence rubbed his forehead with a terrible look. He was confused about what he was going to say, nevertheless, he needed to give this poor young man an explanation. He changed his position then leaned forward, he looked at the grieving boy, and then he spoke in a heavy tone, "My explanation will not make you comfortable..."

The young man turned around raising his head, he looked at Lawrence stubbornly, "I want to know" There was a hint of desperation in the young man's voice.

Lawrence put his hands together and pondered for a moment thinking about how he would convey this terrible news after a while he began to speak in a careful tone, "It seems like your father came to the wrong place, at the wrong time..."

The young man is baffled he doesn't understand what's that supposed to mean "What...what do you mean, sir?"

"Your father was just a random victim of someone's plan, which means the victim could have been anyone...unfortunately the victim happened to be your father," Lawrence said with a sorry look.

The young man's eyes widened, his lips trembled without being able to speak, there's only sadness mixed with anger was visible in his teary eyes. Everyone was silent knowing that there were no words that could comfort this young man.

"Who...who did this?" his voice was choked with tears.

Lawrence glanced at Lory and Lory shook his head regretfully. Lawrence took a deep breath then said "We don't know, but we will find out what happened..."

Ben still couldn't accept this news, he clenched his fist tightly until his knuckles became white after a while he slowly turned his gaze back to Lawrence "...Then what should I say to my mother and little sister?"

"That..." Lawrence's next words stuck in his throat as the young man stared at him with teary eyes. Lawrence lost his words he could only let out a long helpless sigh.