Without a mbership, one couldn’t even access the website—and Talon’s mbership wasn’t sothing that could be bought with money alone. Influence, approval, recomndation, Talon picked who was worthy, not the other way around. And even with a mbership, each rcenary’s profile required separate paynt. A lot of paynt.
Royal Dominion, despite being a top-tier guild, only purchased the base mbership. Because they hadn’t paid for the "individual information listing," all detailed identity and ability breakdowns were blocked behind personal fees.
So unless soone paid 50 million Glacium out of their own pocket...
Whitney quietly slipped away from the crowd.
She reached the back corner of the lounge, turned her back to the others, and tapped on her smartwatch with controlled urgency.
————————————
Log in.
Talon Website.
Authorization check—passed.
Purchase "Tigris – Extended Information."
Confirm paynt: 50,000,000 Glacium.
————————————
Her heart clenched, but she pressed confirm anyway.
The introductory cinematic trailer was conceptually simple—yet overwhelmingly dramatic.
Darkness.
A faint tallic glint.
Then—
Shfftt—shfftt—shfftt!
A breathtaking rain of daggers spiraled through the air in a pattern so elegant it almost looked choreographed then a circle of dummies fell before the blades even touched the ground.
Whitney’s eyes widened.
"...Is it really her?" she whispered, breath catching in her throat.
Next the scene shifted.
With heavy, imposing music swelling in the background, a desolate wasteland stretched across the screen. Sandstorms raged in the distance, lightning cracked in the sky, and everything in the fra seed to bow beneath an unseen pressure.
Footsteps echoed.
A lone woman erged atop a desert hill. Her lower face was concealed beneath a dark mask, but even so—her silhouette radiated a presence impossible to ignore.
The cara zood in just slightly, letting the audience catch the faint twitch of her fingers against the hilt of her dagger.
Then the angle shifted again.
From below the hill, several hundred monsters of mixed ranks burst forth—Fangbeasts, Burrowers, humanoid monsters, winged monsters, all roaring as they charged at her in a terrifying tide of claws and teeth.
She didn’t flinch.
Instead, she tilted her head back and silently flung her dagger into the sky.
It spun upward—once, twice—glinting gold against the storm.
And then—
FWIP—FWIP—FWIP—FWIP!
One dagger beca ten. Ten beca hundreds. Hundreds beca thousands, forming a vast storm of spectral blades rippling behind her like wings of death.
The woman sprinted straight toward the horde, eyes blazing, as the sea of daggers followed her command like a living army.
The screen faded to black, and when it reappeared, the woman was perched atop a mountain of monster corpses, twirling her dagger with one hand, staring straight into the cara.
Seeing the powerful ending of the video, Whitney felt goosebumps rise along her arms. As expected of the world’s greatest rcenary group—their marketing tactics were just as spectacular.
And of course... she had to admit it was cringy. Painfully cringy. But when it ca to teaser videos, being cringy was often better than being forgettable.
There was only one person she knew who moved like that.
"Remillia? That’s Remillia, right?"
Whitney nearly scread when Rex suddenly appeared behind her. She hastily shut off her smartwatch. "No—and how did you even get here so fast?" She stared at him, eyes dropping to the VR headset cords still dangling around his neck. "Do you know how much that cost ?"
Rex blinked at her, unfazed. "Relax, I didn’t break anything. Yet." He leaned closer, lowering his voice. "But seriously... that was totally her."
Whitney rolled her eyes. "It wasn’t."
He smirked. "Okay, then why’d you turn it off like you were hiding state secrets?"
"Because you almost made drop it, idiot!"
Rex only grinned wider as he reached for her smartwatch again. "Then let watch what you’re watching!"
They bickered back and forth, Rex poking at her wrist while Whitney kept smacking his hands away like he was so feral animal trying to snatch food. Finally, exhausted, she slapped his knuckles with a sharp thwack.
"Fine! It is Remillia. But I paid for this, so go to their website and watch it yourself."
"Cheapskate," Rex snorted, already flicking open his own smartwatch. "Wait—what’s the na?"
"Talon rcenary."
Rex typed it in, paid without hesitation, and the cinematic began to play on his screen. For a while, they both stood quietly, the only sound being the dramatic music echoing faintly from Rex’s wrist.
When the trailer ended, Rex let out a low whistle. "I can’t believe it. That witch really beca a rcenary," he mumbled.
As if rembering sothing urgent, Whitney suddenly grabbed Rex’s wrist and turned to him with full seriousness. "Promise you won’t tell this to anyone else."
"What? Why? The others definitely miss her—"
She cut him off sharply. "Just promise ."
Rex stared at her for a mont before sighing. "Fine, fine. I promise not to tell anyone."
Whitney leaned in, voice cold. "If you ever tell this to anyone, say goodbye to your family jewels."
Rex winced and covered himself instinctively. "That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?"
"It won’t be harsh if you don’t tell anyone," she replied bluntly.
Rex let out a nervous laugh—then stopped mid-chuckle as sothing clicked in his head. His grin faded. "By the way you’re keeping Remillia’s identity a secret... I can’t help but think you know sothing more about her."
Whitney imdiately looked away, eyes darting anywhere but his. "W-What are you talking about? You must be hallucinating."
Rex narrowed his eyes. "I’m guessing you and Remillia must still be in contact?"
Whitney felt sweat prick at the back of her neck. ’Damn it.’ Even though Rex acted like a clown 90% of the ti, his intuition was annoyingly sharp when he actually focused.
Before he could press further, a voice cut through their quiet corner.
"There you are!" Kian appeared right in front of them, hands on his hips. "The two of you were here all along! Co on, everyone’s starting to wonder where you disappeared to."
Whitney exhaled in relief. Rex, however, gave her a suspicious side glance as they followed Kian back to the group.
"So uh... where were we? Oh right—guys!" Kian spun around and shouted up toward the open balcony of the third floor. "Say hi to our new apprentices!"
At once, the lounging Heroes peered over the railing.
"Oh~? They’re pretty cute."
"Good luck, kids!"
"Haha, seeing them makes rember when I was still a Trainee Hero."
"Hit us up if you need help!"
"You know we’re Rank 1, right? You’ll have to work hard if you want to survive here~!"
They sent down waves of teasing encouragent. And, of course, each one subtly straightened and gave a discreet bow the mont they locked eyes with Whitney.
"Alright, let’s head out," Kian said, clapping his hands once. "Looks like the third floor’s going to be packed today. No point staying here."
He turned toward the elevator and gestured. "Let’s go to my office next."
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Sovereign Legion
Cypher and Christian stood before the towering gates of Sovereign Legion’s guild.
A cold wind swept past them, scattering dried leaves across the stone entrance like brittle confetti.
"You should really treat well," Christian muttered, elbowing Cypher in the ribs.
Cypher scoffed. "When do I not treat you well? You only got rank 20 because of . I literally helped you train."
"Oh, please," Christian snorted. "You disappeared to Brimstone Mountain for the entire sumr break. What part of that was helping ?"
Cypher clicked his tongue but didn’t counter.
Sovereign Legion had once plumted all the way down to Rank 20. But under Annabelle Finley’s brutal reformations and her string of victorious dungeon campaigns, they clawed their way back to Rank 15.
Even so... no students chose them.
Despite lowering their pride and picking students under rank 100, not a single one accepted their offer.
Except these two.
The massive doors creaked open.
"Well," Christian sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Here we go. The guild no one wanted."
Cypher shot him a look. "Correction. You didn’t want it. I’m here because I chose this."
"Yeah," Christian said dryly. "Because Remi once suggested that you should join this guild."
Cypher didn’t deny it.
"Let’s just go in," Cypher said.
"Urghh! My future is going to be ruined because of you," Christian groaned.
"Oh please. What matters is the kind of Hero you beco. Is it really that important what guild you’re in?"
"Of course it is, you bastard..." Christian snapped.
And like always, they started arguing—loudly, pointlessly, and with absolutely no self-awareness.
"Cypher Knoxx. Christian George."
The argunt cut off instantly as they both turned toward the voice.
Annabelle Finley stood before them.
"Thank you for choosing Sovereign Legion," she said.
Even as the guild leader, she had personally co to welco Trainee Heroes—sothing most guild leaders would never bother doing.
A soft breeze drifted past. Annabelle’s long hair flowed elegantly behind her, carrying a light, sweet fragrance.
Her lips curved into a gentle, blooming smile that made the dull entrance suddenly feel less abandoned. The two n were instantly captivated. Christian swallowed and Cypher straightened his posture, feeling a weird flutter in his chest.
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