Loraline left her old party to deal with both the criminals and the city guards. As they hadn’t informed the city’s ruling house of the raid that took place, a lot of guards had gathered because of the explosion. Their response time was slow because it was in the slums, a place where the guards turned a blind eye to, but when the commotion became big enough they were forced to intervene.
Luckily, Loraline could use her position as Guildmaster to guarantee the arrest of all the criminals, and she doubted the nobles would intervene to protect them. At most, they might try to save Cane. Which was why she left her party to keep an eye on everyone, especially Cane, to make sure he didn’t mysteriously disappear.
Back in the Guildmaster’s personal office in the Adventurers Guild, an assistant poured Sol and Rebecca tea before leaving them to their discussion.
"First, I would like to apologize to both of you for what had happened. While the guild isn’t responsible for the safety of adventurers, as part of the job requires taking risks. They kidnapped you because of our lack of ability to safeguard your information."
Sol already knew this so he simply nodded his head, but Rebecca was shocked at the information.
"So they only went after me because information leaked from the guild?"
"Essentially yes. From the diary we recovered, they also decided based on a few other factors like age and word of mouth, but the main component was the report on the latest adventurers that ranked up. We were finally able to locate where they held the kidnapped adventurers and obtained evidence that we can submit to the crown so that we can punish the nobles involved. Even so, it was our fault you both were involved so if there is anything the guild can do for you, let me know."
Rebecca sighed and shook her head, "I’m just glad it’s over, but if you can get me new leather armor since mine was damaged from their attack, I would appreciate it."
"Of course, that’s a simple matter." Loraline called in her secretary.
"Yes, Guildmaster?"
"Can you please escort Rebecca to the guild storage and let her pick out a suitable set of leather armor? It can be of rare rarity."
Rebecca’s eyes lit up, "Rare?! Really?!"
Her old set of armor was common and she honestly just expected to get a similar set, but for it to be rare was a pleasant surprise. A set of armor normally costs more than weapons so a rare one could sell for around 100 gold.
Loraline shook her head, "It’s nothing, just make sure to put it to good use."
"Thank you, Guildmaster!"
After thanking Loraline, Rebecca stood up and left with the secretary to pick out her new gear.
Now it was just Sol and Guildmaster Loraline alone in the room. Loraline took out a ring from under her desk and handed it over to Sol.
"Here. Your ring and everything you told us you had is in there as well."
Sol accepted the ring and gave it a quick scan to find everything was indeed inside. His Warhawk’s Talon, Pollen Bow, Immunizing Belt among the most important of them. After receiving his ring, Sol also returned the one lent to him by the guild.
"Thank you."
"No problem, but that was only part of the deal. I mentioned back then I would also reward you with an A-Rank reward. After looking through our storage, I believe I found something appropriate for you."
Loraline took out from her spatial ring a pair of leather boots that ran up to his knees. Just before Sol could use [Analysis] on them, Loraline handed Sol a magnifying glass. Sol had used [Analysis] so frequently he forgot most people didn’t actually have [Analysis] so he accepted the identification tool and used it on the boots.
Blessed Boots of the Sky
Unique
Defense: 50
Durability: 1500/1500
Skills:
[Magic Flight] Lv 8, [Wind Barrier] Lv 8, [Thunder Step] Lv 8
[Magic Flight] Lv 8: Magical winds carry the wearer allowing them to fly. Duration: 15 minutes. Cooldown: 4 hours.
[Wind Barrier] Lv 8: Activate to create a temporary barrier of wind that blocks attacks, durability increases with skill level. Cooldown: 1 hour.
[Thunder Step] Lv 8: Once activated, the user’s next step will create a thunderous boom, shocking and stunning nearby beings. Cooldown: 5 hours.
The boots had great effects. One for offense, defense, and support, overall a fantastic item.
But Sol had never seen a blessed item before, "Does blessed mean anything?"
Loraline nodded, "It means the item has been personally blessed by a god, which improves the item. The enhancements vary depending on how much effort the god involved puts in so it’s hard to tell how much they actually improve the original item by. What we could tell was that it was blessed by Caela herself."
"Didn’t this cause problems with the Church of Caela?"
Loraline chuckled, "It sure did. Those fanatics believed we should have handed it over without any compensation. They even tried to pressure us when we denied them, though their influence here is weaker than in the Holy Kingdom, they can still cause some damage to the economy and the guild. To appease them before they did anything drastic we had come to the accord that we will only give the boots to someone both parties agree is worthy."
She flicked the boots, "Honestly, I don’t care who gets them I just didn’t want to give it to the church for free. Since they didn’t want to pay for it I would send a request every so often asking if it could be used as a reward. They have always denied me before until today. I don’t know if they got tired of leaving the boots to deteriorate in our storage or they think for some reason you’re worthy but these are now yours."
’Diana definitely had something to do with it. The question is, what does she gain from doing this?’
Sol had a few theories but didn’t voice them aloud. Either way, he had no solid theory and even if they planned something he wouldn’t turn down a great pair of boots.
"That should be everything Sol. Thank you for your help in finding those responsible. I made sure to keep your name out of it so it shouldn’t cause any problems for you."
"Thank you, but there is one more thing I want to ask. What about those already brainwashed adventurers? Can we find and restore their memories?"
To this question, Loraline made a hard face, "Honestly, I don’t know. From the diary you gave me we can identify where some of them were sold to but not everyone. Even if we do find them, our guild branch or any other branch I know of doesn’t have anyone with the capabilities to restore the minds of these people. The most I can do is contact a mind reader but they don’t have the ability to affect memories."
"What about the kingdom? Surely they must have someone who can help."
She shook her head, "Maybe, but people with mind altering abilities are extremely rare. Most who are able to do so can only alter the mind temporarily. Those who are able to do it more permanently are extremely rare and as far as I know nobody in this kingdom is able to do so. Maybe there is someone that managed to hide it like that grunt for Cane but I wouldn’t know where to begin searching."
"I see… Can you at least find them and explain to them what has been done to them?"
"Yes, I already planned to do that. We can’t punish every noble who bought them as their collective power is too strong but we can free them from their service. Sadly because of the brainwashing they might choose to stay with them in the end."
Sol understood the Guildmaster was unable or maybe even unwilling to expend any more effort on the victims. He decided not to push any further.
"I understand, thank you for all your help so far."
"I’m just doing my job. Have a good day, Sol."
"Thanks, you too."