Justyn had traveled long and far. He had traversed perilous landscapes filled with monsters and magical dangers. He survived it all, and it was to accomplish a singular goal he had in mind.
A goal that had been bestowed upon him by Guildmaster Evan.
To find Alia the Unranked Adventurer.
Justyn hadn’t even known where he could find her. All he knew was that she had left Windrip months ago to find a place to settle and relax, which only ant that she was going to be incredibly hard to track. Knowing this, the [Receptionist] still set out on this journey anyway. Because he had to tell her two things.
Firstly, he had to warn her of the [Hero King]’s pursuit of her life. Kallistus Kal had burned down half of Windrip to find Alia, so she was in danger.
But more importantly, Justyn needed to get Alia to save Evan and Windrip too. After all, the only reason Kallistus Kal had captured the Guildmaster and gone after the city was because of Alia. And there was no telling what kind of torture a prisoner of the Kingdom of Kal would be forced to undergo.
That was why Justyn had gone through all this effort to get to Alia— to track her down so he could deliver both these ssages to her. And it wasn’t easy to find her. She was hard to find because of the aforentioned reasons. But he did everything he could to get to her.
He used all his connections he could. He spoke to everyone he knew. Other [Receptionists] and Guildmasters he had known from his past experiences and jobs. However, despite that, he still found very little of a trail to follow. There were only specks of breadcrumbs left behind by her.
So he ventured to every past known location Alia had visited. Justyn spoke to anyone who could have encountered her. And while this proved to provide better results, it was also far more dangerous. He nearly lost his life nurous tis to the various beasts and monsters lurking in the wilderness between cities. He hired adventurers to escort him until he was out of coin; he hitchhiked on the back of the carriages of rich nobles and the wagons of humble rchants; he even once stole a horse because he needed to get to another city and he couldn’t find any other thod of transportation to get there, despite his best efforts.
Justyn wasn’t proud of everything he did. But he did it all to get to Alia. When he finally found her, he felt an overwhelming wave of relief wash over him. It nearly knocked him off his feet. He had wanted to just collapse and cry on the spot, knowing all his efforts were finally paying off.
Unfortunately, after he delivered both his ssages to her, she revealed to him that she was already aware of it all. Not only that, but she had gone out of her way to save Guildmaster Evan while Justyn was on his long trek to find her. Justyn… wanted to cry. And this ti, he wanted to cry because he realized all his efforts were for naught.
He could hardly process it. None of it made sense to him. He didn’t understand what was the point of everything he went through— from stealing to bankrupting himself— if Alia already knew of Kallistus Kal’s intentions to hunt her down, and Guildmaster Evan was already saved.
Taking in this fact was too much for Justyn. So he just passed out.
—--
I felt bad for Justyn. I really did. I could tell he went through quite a lot to get here— to trace my journey out of Windrip and to Wolfwater. And it took him months to finally find . But when he did, he was told he just wasted his ti and energy.
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So I couldn’t help but empathize with his situation.
Honestly, part of the reason why it took so long for him to get to was because I didn’t leave much of a trail behind. I could leap between cities with ease, so that was exactly what I did to get here. That didn’t leave much of a clue for anyone who was attempting to track down. And that was kind of the point.
But Justyn wasn’t here to bring trouble… well, maybe he was sort of bringing trouble in a sense. However, it was all to help and my friends. So I would’ve been fine with excusing it if he arrived earlier.
Unfortunately for him, Jax arrived first a long ti ago, and everything was already resolved. So now there was no reason for Justyn to be here. And he passed out at my feet.
While I certainly felt bad for him, I didn’t know how to deal with this either. So I tossed him into Arthur’s room and told the forr Lich King to look after our now ‘guest’.
“Wait, what do I even do?” Arthur asked, staring at with a raised brow.
I shrugged back at him. “Make sure Justyn gets whatever he wants until he’s fully recovered? Although… I don’t even know what he’s recovering from…”
Arthur blinked, looking like he was about to protest. But then he caught himself. It looked like an idea crossed his mind, and he nodded to himself.
“Alright, I will do just that,” he said as he took a seat.
I gave him a curious look, but didn’t question him any further. Instead, I just closed the door behind and left him to his own devices. For a mont, I sensed a small hint of Void essence perating from the room, so I glanced back through the crack of the door.
And I saw Arthur sitting there, staring into the palm of his hand as a crackle of purple electricity passed over his fingertips. I saw this scene, then I turned around without a care.
I already knew he was practicing his Void powers in secret. He might’ve tried to keep it hidden from , but I sensed what he was doing every single ti. I didn’t actually mind what he did outside of his work, as long as he did a good job as a bartender. I also had things I needed to do anyways. So I stepped out back into the common room and placed my hands on my hips.
“Well…” I said as I swept my gaze over the magically expanded hall. It was far more massive than before, but there was a distinct lack of tables and chairs for more custors. I stretched my shoulder as I nodded to myself. “I guess I better start redecorating before we reopen.”
And with that, I raced out into the forest around Wolfwater, cutting down trees and turning them into furniture for more seating.
—--
As Alia got to work, refurnishing her newly-improved restaurant, she forgot about what of her most crucial duties she was responsible for. A colony of baby bastion bees waited in anticipation for her return after her sudden departure. They hid within the confines of their rocky hive’s walls, buzzing their wings antsily as they stared out the exit.
The baby queen bastion bee feared the worst might have happened. She didn’t know what it was, but their Protector must have fallen. Otherwise, why was the hive left abandoned for so long?
There was no other explanation to the baby queen bastion bee. She wanted to venture out and investigate what happened. However, each ti she drew closer to the edge of the hive, the nursing bees stopped her, ushering her back into safety.
The nursing bees tried to reassure the baby bastion bees— however, these efforts were mostly in vain, because even the nursing bees seed to be nervous about what was happening outside. So all of them waited for a sign that they could co out. That whatever ss was going on outside was resolved.
They waited and they waited and they’re waited. Until—
The baby queen bastion bee perked up when she heard the soft echoing of footsteps approach the hive. At first, she thought this might have been the Protector, making a triumphant return. However, she quickly realized that the sounds of the footfalls were too soft.
Like whatever it was that was approaching was far smaller than the Protector could have possibly been. So the bastion bees— including the nursing bees— looked up warily, waiting for whatever was approaching them to reach the entrance. And then it did, their wings flared up like they were all ready for battle.
Only for them all to freeze when they saw what was waiting for them outside their hive.
“Bawk?” A chicken tilted its head curious at them, and they stared back.
And the baby queen bastion bee couldn’t help but wonder if this was the foul beast who was responsible for the Protector’s disappearance— who vanquished the Protector in battle.
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