Chapter 192: Naybeah

Walking through the halls of the Guild's office didn't take too long for Aiden, he was already quite acquainted with the area after all. In just a span of a few minutes, he arrived in front of the door separating the front from the back, pushed down on the handle, and slowly creaked it open.

As his figure appeared in the doorway, the already nervously fidgeting Cole sprung up from his seat and walked back to the receptionist's desk, at the side as Mary was currently dealing with another adventurer. He looked at Aiden who looked just as calm as usual, with the same expressionless look on his face when he was scanning his environment.

As his golden, exotic eyes found the brown-haired boy, he gave him a friendly, kind smile and made his way towards him. Arriving in front, he crossed the desk and patted Cole's back as he seemed to be lost in his thoughts once more.

"Hey man, what are you dreaming about?" Aiden greeted with a cheeky undertone.

Jolted by the sudden slap on his back and his friend's words, Cole jumped up in fright, yelping a few octaves higher than his usual voice. A few moments later, amidst the low, barely audible but still incredibly embarrassing snickering of the few close-by people, he turned around and looked at Aiden with accusing eyes but with uneasy, heated cheeks.

"S-stop that! You know I am already on edge because of the test! Don't tease me like that!" He lightly berated his friend, which in turn, he only received a light, chuckling response from Aiden.

"Hehe, don't take it to heart, I was just playing! Anyway, I got back from my meeting, and I have some good news for you!" Aiden responded, whilst also slightly diverting the topic, trying to cheer his mood.

The trick seemed to work, as Cole's eyes sprung wider with a curios glint shining in them. He looked at his friend with an honest, inquiring expression.

"What is it?" 

Instead of answering right away, Aiden glanced at Mary, who was already in the last stages of providing support to the blonde-haired female warrior-esque woman. 

"I will tell you in a bit, but let's wait for Mary to finish up as well! She would also like to hear it." 

Although quite curious, Cole nodded at his friend's proposal, and turned to look at the woman Mary was currently dealing with.

Just like Aiden, he was also quite surprised, wondering how he did not notice such a sight before. 

'Heh, I must be quite stressed I guess…' He thought to himself, as he looked over the warrior. 

The warrior was much taller than the both of them, with almost a full head above Aiden, literally dwarfing over them like a tower, a literal giantess. As she looked over her naturally strong build, wide hips, and healthy, fit toned body, the first thought that came to Cole was that she was probably an amazon, or something quite similar. The size, the frame, the rough, but also vaguely feminine outlook… were all qualities of the mysterious group of warrior women living somewhere far off to the south, away from the continent in an island surrounded by the great ocean water.

She had long, blonde hair, tied up in a single ponytail at the back of her head, giving a very exotic contrast to her tanned skin. Looking at the desk, she was probably handing in some items for either crediting a quest she completed or just simply trading them for some guild credit.

Noticing the stares from the two, the woman looked at them, but instead of getting angry or nervous, she gave a goofy grin with a thumbs up. 

"What is up boys? Did you never see an amazon before?" Her tone was pert, playful as she addressed them, whilst also confirming Cole's earlier suspicion.

Aiden did not answer immediately but kept focusing on the girl. His eyes seemed to try to pierce into the very depth of her soul, by the looks of how hard he was staring.

It was Cole who snapped out of his daze first and decided to speak up.

"Sorry… miss, I… *khm* we didn't mean to be rude, it's just like what you said… You are quite a rare sight here in our small town. May I ask what brings you here?" He asked respectfully, as it was a known fact that amazons were a very unpredictable and fierce bunch with much higher, almost inhuman strength. 

Listening to his words, the giantess slapped the boy's left shoulder while she gave a burst of bellowing laughter.

"Ahahaha, I bet you that's true! Ever since I arrived I kept getting stares from all directions, like I'm some new type of animal!" Glancing at the other boy, who hasn't spoken a word nor did his face flinch at all in the last minute, she asked, not minding his stare. "What's up with him? Is he frightened?" 

Coming to this realization, the smile on her face widened into a grin, she leaned closer matching the boy's gaze.

"Come to think of it… Boy, you have some strange eyes… Huh, incredible!" 

"You… are strong…" Finally, Aiden's focused gaze, eased up a little, he returned a smile, as he admitted the obvious.

"You betcha!" Satisfied by his words, the amazon woman flexed her arms with pride. Her words were haughty as she enjoyed herself to the fullest. 

The light coughing of Mary from the back brought the group back to reality. She gave an accusing stare at Aiden for his misdemeanor and looked at the giantess once more.

"Okay, so Miss Naybeah, I registered all the items you brought to me. I will take them to the back, and you should be good to go." Her words were cold, as she spoke, nothing like what it was previously as they spoke. Without as much as a 'humph!' she turned around and left the group to themselves as she quickly vanished through the back office door with a large tray of black, familiar damaged orbs in it. 

Noticing the items, both Cole and Aiden looked at the contents of the tray with surprise.

"Sea Devils? You killed Sea Devils?" Cole exclaimed with a shocked stare. Sizing up the amazon once more, he still couldn't come to terms with how she managed to do such a feat all by her lonesome. "D-did you… did you... " he stuttered, unable to voice his thoughts properly in front of such an incredible feat.

Seeing his friends blabbering, Aiden shook his head, and joined in, helping Cole out.

"...He was trying to ask, did you do it all by yourself? Sahuagin, or Sea Devils are quite a feral bunch, a challenge that a woman such as yourself would find quite hard to overcome."

"Oh, you guys recognized those? Huh… I thought this place doesn't have any capable people at all… Mary told me that even Rank 2's are a rare sight... " The amazonian woman, Neybeah was quite surprised by the fact both boys could recognize the Monster Orbs at all. After all, Monster Orbs were not something every creature had, and it required some decent strength to overcome such a being. Not a feat that such a backwater town like Higrove should be capable of producing.

"Yeah… We dealt with a group before ourselves." Aiden revealed the shocking truth with a nonchalant attitude, stating it as if it was just a small feat, nothing to be too proud of. To be honest, he was right, to him, these bipedal fish-monsters were nothing better than those goblins he faced in the jungle with his sister. Whilst they provided some good exercise, they were far from a good challenge.

"Still… How did you know the orbs were from them? Black isn't a unique color, many creatures had the same looking orbs. Sahuagin, Most of the Imp and Low-level Demonkins… How did you guess?" The woman inquired further with a still surprised look on her face.

"We didn't know. We just handed in the very same looking orbs, albeit in not such a demolished state roughly a week ago, so the memory is still fresh in our minds. We or at least myself, had no idea there are other creatures with similar-looking orbs residing in them." Aiden answered honestly, as Cole was still in the process of regaining his composure.

"Anyway, your name was Naybeah, right? Where are you from? May I ask for what reason did you come to this city?" Aiden asked his friend's earlier question again, quite interested in her story.

The blonde giantess, Naybeah, gave a wry smile at his inquiry, not giving an answer immediately. A few moments later, as the door to the back office door opened, and the curly-haired Mary returned with the now empty tray in her hands, did she bother to speak up, although not giving much of an answer to the questions.

"Yeah, I'm called Naybeah, nice to meetcha boys!" She responded, not asking or caring about their names. Still, her attitude was honest and kind, so Aiden didn't really mind.

As Mary arrived back, they finished some quick paperwork, before Naybeah turned around towards the exit. Before, she left, however, she looked at Aiden once more, and whilst winking her right eye, she gave her a bright, playful smile.

"If Naone wills it, we will meet again. If you want an answer to your questions, you have to ask it the right way!"