"Here," when Damien arrived at the guild, Master Godric seemed to be waiting for him. He pushed a pouch which jingled and Damien looked down at the purple fabric tied with a golden string.
"What is it?" He asked Lord Godric.
Lord Godric placed the pipe between his teeth, before picking up a small wooden bowl which consisted of small chunks of salt.
That was what Damien thought it was but then Lord Godric poured a few chunks inside the smoke pipe and then lit it up with a small flame.
"The money for finishing the mission," Lord Godric leaned back and then from inside a wooden drawer, he took out a sheet of paper. He pushed it toward Damien who read the content of the mission along with the reward amount.
His eyes widened as he looked at the amount and exclaimed, "200,00 gold coins!?" his shriek attracted the attention of the entire guild but Damien did not care about them. If he was to get this much money then half of his problems might get solved.
"100,000 gold coins," corrected Master Godric. "I have let Samuel have half of it, even though he did not complete the mission, he did risk his life for it."
"I should have received nothing," another voice joined them and Damien turned to look at Samuel who was walking over to where he was standing.
With a heavy sigh, Samuel said, "I truly did not deserve this sum of money." he glanced at Damien before saying, "You should have taken it all."
"Yeah, I am talking to you," Damien replied as he took a step forward. He heard Xavier tell him that he shouldn't do it but Damien didn't listen to him. He had once been in the same position as Samuel and knew how the words of a few people could bring a serious blow to one's confidence.
"I don't know what your problem is, it could be Stuck up Midget syndrome for all I care but you need to be nicer to someone who nearly showed twice as much courage as you," Damien told Levi. "I mean if you cannot show the courage to face a challenge like him then you can at least show him some fucking respect!"
It was only when he finished talking did Damien realised that the entire guild had gone quiet. All of them were listening to what he was saying to Levi, at first he went slightly disconcerted but then shrugged and turned to look away from Levi.
He didn't believe that he had said anything wrong. And if anyone wanted to fit the shoe that he had had put on Levi's feet then they were more than welcome to do so.
"Don't go around talking about something that you have no idea about," snarled Levi as he slid from the stool, and with the bottle of liquor swinging on the side of his waist, he turned on his feet and walked away.
Damien watched him leave and then turned to look at the rest. "What was that about?" He asked Master Godric and Gina.
"It's nothing," Gina replied as she pushed a wooden flask filled with iced whisky towards Damien. "He is just not —over something he should have been ages ago. Anyway, don't take what he said to heart, Samuel, Damien. Levi doesn't mean no harm, he is just ... trying to care about his guild members in his own way."
How he was taking care of his guild members by taking huge chunks of their confidence, Damien had no idea about. And before he could ask, there was a loud bang followed by —
"GET OUT OF HERE!"