The place turned completely silent as a man wearing a one eyed patch on his face stood calmly at the door.
"B-Boss! You're right on time!"
The bartender jumped over the broken counter and made his way to the man with excitement as the crowd hushed among themselves.
When he arrived beside the man, he made a pitiful face and pointed his finger at Felix and Falcon.
"Boss, It's those guys! They were the ones who made trouble and almost destroyed the whole ba- I mean...the training hall."
Falcon hurriedly left the fallen man's collar and stood up with his hands raised up innocently.
"Ahaha....this you know....we were just doing what you would normally do in a training hall, yeah."
He tried to come up with a reason but the man with the eye patch remained expressionless as he looked at the bartender.
"You. Tell me what happened here without hiding anything."
The man asked with a cold voice that sent a chill down the spine of everyone present in the room.
The bartender gulped in fear as he answered honestly with rapid nods.
"Y-Yes...So what happened was, I was just cleaning the glasses as usual..."
The bartender told him the story, which was correct to the point of perfection as he didn't leave anything behind.
He even included the crowd's reaction to the scene which made them curse him under their breaths.
After he learnt about the truth, the man nodded and then narrowed his eyes on the bartender.
"Alright, I've got the general idea of what happened. But before I deal with the troublemakers, shouldn't there be something you wanna tell me regarding this...bar?"
His words made the bartender jerk up in agitation as he started sweating with his eyes moving around in panic.
"Umm, boss. This....this wasn't m-my idea..."
The man glared at his subordinate in dissatisfaction, thinking he would have to punish all of his men for going against the council's rules.
'...hmm but this was supposed to be my job.'
He sighed and shook his head, realising maybe it was his own fault for not giving them proper instructions and instead leaving the city for hunting strong foes.
The man then turned and started walking towards the middle of the bar.
'Let's deal with the two troublemakers first.'
Though his subordinates made a terrible mistake, that didn't mean he liked them getting hurt by someone other than himself.
As the man walked in their direction, Falcon moved toward Felix in panic as he whispered.
"Oh shit, what are we going to do down. This guy looks super strong..."
Felix on the other hand had his eyes locked on the man from the beginning as he remembered meeting him a few days ago.
He narrowed his eyes in contemplation and arrived at a decision after deciding to give it a shot.
"Don't worry, I've got this.", he replied to Falcon who raised his brows in concern.
He was about to say something to warn him but Felix walked forward and calmly smiled at the man.
"Hello there, Sir Graham. I'm Phantom, we met the other day along with Mr.Dealer. Do you remember me?"
He walked back, pushing Falcon with his shoulder on the way, but he was the one who tripped instead as he was weaker.
".....life is so cruel.", he sighed as he forcibly woke up the injured guys with slaps.
Meanwhile, Felix drank a sip of his juice and turned to Graham as he arrived to a conclusion.
"I've decided, Sir Graham. I would like to come along with you to explore the forests."
A smile slowly inched at his lips without his knowledge, but he had said so only after careful thinking.
Even though he had reached Rank 1, he wasn't arrogant into thinking he could now face stronger foes as there was always someone more stronger than him somewhere out there.
He also didn't want any dangerous incidents happening again like when he had encountered the Rank 4 man from the dark guilds.
So going along with Sir Graham to hunt in the deep forest seems to be the most suitable option for him considering there was just a week left for the guild wars to begin.
A delightful smile emerged on Graham's face as he emptied his glass and heard the boy agree.
"That's great! I knew you would be interested in following me into the forests. Come on let's go, what're we waiting for then?"
He quickly stood up from the chair and grabbed Felix's arm, making his way over to the door.
Words couldn't describe how excited he was right now as there was nobody before Felix who had willingly agreed to come along with him deep into the monstrous forests.
"Huh? W-We're going there right now?", Felix asked weirdly.
Graham nodded with a wide smile because his mood was starting to get better as he was also running away from the busy meetings of the council.
"Of course, we are. This place is boring as hell.", he expressed like a child who was bunking the school.
Felix had nothing to say to him as he let himself get pulled by Graham, but then he turned around and shouted at his teammate.
"Falcon! I'll be back after a few days, can you please inform my friend who's wearing a green mask in Mr.Dealer's hideout about it? Thank you.!"
Those were his last words heard inside the room as Sir Graham pulled him out of there in a hurry and escaped out of the chaotic underworld.
Falcon stood confused in the ruined 'bar' as he rubbed his head.
"What the hell just happened...."
He didn't know what was the deal between the two of them and wondered what they were going to do in the forests.
Suddenly, he heard a devious giggle behind him which made him turn around curiously.
There, the bartender had an evil smile on his face as he muttered under his breath.
"Hehehe, that bastard is going to die now. Following our boss into the forests? That's completely suicidal...but why do I care kekeke..."
A shadow slowly loomed over the man as he turned to look up, and the twisted face of Falcon made him widen his eyes in shock.
"So you were saying my friend's going to die, huh?"
The bartender dropped his butt onto the floor, moving backwards as his previous attitude was nowhere to be seen.
"I...I didn't s-say anything...p-please let me go...", he cried real tears this time in submission.
"Well, I'll let you go...."
Falcon rubbed his fists as a crazy grin widened on his face.
"....after you pay for what you said that is."