Chapter 96 - Go To HQ

"Miss Noelle, are you okay?" A middle-aged man in battle gear arrived, seemingly not hostile towards Ellena.

Because of it, Ellena's eyebrows raised in confusion. 'He's asking me if I was okay? Is he not here to kill me too?'

"You're not here for the reward?" Ellena asked as she sheathed her sword back into her scabbard.

The guy shook his head. "No, I am a ranker from the guild. I came here as a reinforcement," he said with a calm tone in his voice.

Now, looking at him for a second time, his claim as a ranker points to his gears. He was wearing not-average and seemed to be custom-made gear. Because of this, Ellena didn't suspect any longer.

"I see... So what happened? This..." she pointed at the corpses and continued, "Why was there a massacre?" she asked.

"From the initial report, there were hijackers that caused a ruckus inside the forest and targeted you. For some reason, we don't know."

Then, he continued more about the incident. As someone was targeting Ellena, the operation of the test was hijacked, making them fight with the system control of the forest. For a moment, the system was recovered. However, there was a small part of the mechanism that was in the hands of the hijackers.

After that, they finally defeated some of the hijackers, but casualties still resulted on their side. So, they requested reinforcements from the Head Quarters of the guild, and they arrived just a minute ago.

Listening to this, Ellena felt agitated at the beginning. Such a group that wanted to kill her does not show any reason. Perhaps they were just hired, but still, the question emerged: why inside the forest?

With this, Aaron suspected that they at least wanted to hurt Ellena's reputation and use the people to control the wave of their plan.

Ellena sighed and looked at the corpse with pity in her eyes. They were just victims and innocent individuals who caught up with the incident. However, she could not even repent or feel guilty about it since even she didn't know the reason behind it.

"Can you come with me to the HQ? We have some questions for you." The ranker said.

Ellena nodded and the ranker led the way outside the forest.

Finally, Aaron discovered why the forest was almost bald. It was because the area was as if run by a cyclone or some strong wind. There wasn't anything weird about it in the first place. It just made them overthink the situation.

However, it doesn't remove the fact that this was the fault of Uno's mysterious group who wanted Ellena dead.

After following the ranker, Ellena and Aaron saw themselves outside the forest, and the place was a mess.

There are small numbers of reinforcements, but they are almost always strong ones. The situation wasn't at its best as there were crying people in the area.

When both of them finally stepped down the stairs, attention shifted to them. Others who were crying saw Ellena and turned their eyes into fury.

"YOU!!! YOU'RE THE REASON WHY HAZEL DIED!!!"

"HE WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE! BUT BECAUSE OF YOU, HE BECAME A CASUALTY OF YOUR MESS!"

"DIE! DIE! DIE!"

Several people bombarded Ellena. They were not participants in the test, but they have relatives who were sent as the first group to secure the participants and her.

Ellena's eyes were covered with shock. She did not expect that she'd hear another curse in her new life. Why does she always have to hear a few curses? It hurts her heart.

Aaron noticed it, just took her attention to avert the situation and not attack her mentally. The situation was sensitive to her, thus, Aaron was dodging the outcome of her remembering some trauma.

"Ellena. Don't listen to them. They don't know what happened."

Ellena remained silent, only looking at the people who had been interjected by some of the guards stationed around the area. She was... overwhelmed somehow. Despite hearing Aaron's words, she still can't remove the fact that they are angry at her.

Ellena was led by a ranker outside the area. They moved to the outside of the borders of the forest and halted on the plains.

"Please, let me take you into the HQ," he said one more time and hovered his hand in the direction of a huge ship on land.

It was a flying ship, fueled by mage operators inside it.

Aaron could only dart his eyes in admiration. The ship was well built and had sails different from the normal ones he saw back on Earth. It was seemingly built as wings to hover in the air.

The ship was built with wood, but it was not a common wood. It was also painted with a special liquid to make the weight lighter.

"This is a ship?" Ellena was perplexed when she noticed a massive ship to her east.

The ranker nodded.

"Yes, this will bring us to the HQ, but for now, during our venture, we don't permit you to see the outside. Because we respect your privacy by not demanding you to remove your mask, we also wanted to secure the location of HQ."

"I get it. I will go to your HQ."

Inside Aaron's head, he ponders why the headquarters of the guild are hidden. Was it for security purposes? He can't conclude.

Nevertheless, he was still excited about seeing the ship up close.

Ellena followed the ranker, climbing the ship. When they got inside, a normal picture reached their eyes. It was as if a normal ship was the inspiration of the interior.

The walls were not decorated, even the floor was normal. Thus, Ellena could just ponder as she looks at Aaron from time to time.

'Do you like it here? Your smile is reaching your ears.' Ellena said to Aaron through her mind.

Aaron smiled at her. "Of course. These kinds of ships are considered archaic in my world. Also, there's a unique feature to this ship that I'm quite intrigued by."

Ellena just shrugged and didn't bother Aaron again as he left Ellena to explore the place.

Ellena, on the other hand, has no emotional attachment to the flying ship. Her mind and heart were still behind the incident that happened earlier.

"They died because 'they' targeted me," she mumbled, still left in confusion about the mysterious group's intentions.