Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Cursed? She's cursed? What? When did that happen? And what's the deep-root? What does that mean?

Aldrich tried to focus his eyes on the curse to get an explanation but he only got question marks meaning that the current level of his skill was not high enough.

"What's wrong?" Yasbel asked and cut off his train of thought.

"Oh? Ah, nothing, nothing I was lost in thought for a moment." He could only change the subject.

As they ate Aldrich retold the story and he was beginning to grow a little tired of retelling it. Naturally the story he told her and most people did not include his encounter with the banshee and the blind oracle.

Neither did he mention anything related with the nightmare realm.

"Since you're a Crestmaster you have to go and change your status in the busses license we got." Yasbel suggested immediately after he finished.

"What for? I don't want to go back there unless I have to." Aldrich did not like his last visit to city hall.

"Because with that advantage we can do so much more, we no longer have to be too cautious with our moves. It's obvious that Crestmasters get preferential treatment."

Aldrich had no choice but to agree, if it was going to make his life easier then so be it.

"Don't worry, I promise this time your visit will be very different from before. You're a Crestmaster now. And a guild member of the most famous guild in Vorian you can walk sideways in there."

"Is that so…?" Aldrich pondered, and found that her words were indeed true. From here on he can solve most problems just by revealing his identity.

It was something that he didn't think about before. 𝘧𝑟𝘦𝒆w𝚎𝙗nov𝘦𝗹.𝐜o𝓶

"By the way, what are you going to do about your party members? You're not going to let them throw away the six gold coins in the air right?"

"What do mean? It's their right after completing the quest."

"Don't tell me you haven't thought about it. They will not resist the temptation to waste the money on things they don't need. They should buy suitable gear and ointments and whatever adventurers need."

They each had six gold coins after the profits were divided equally.

In fact Aldrich did think about that but he ultimately decided to leave it up to them to make the right decisions.

"But can you actually trust them? You're the leader right, aren't you? You know better. This is the best for them." Yasbel insisted.

"I don't know, I mean I know what you're trying to say but I can't force them to do that. I'm only the leader during active quests not all the time. Wouldn't that make me a tyrant?"

"Aren't you already a tyrant? What's there to think about. Just call them over and make the decision for them. If you don't, wouldn't that increase the danger during the next quest? You got lucky this time but luck won't be with you every time."

"No. I see where you're coming from, indeed you make a valid point. But I'm not a tyrant and won't give them commands on how to use their money." Aldrich made himself clear.

"but I can talk to them and explain my rational, and hope that works. Any more and their lives is their responsibility not mine."

"Fine, have it your way." Yasbel raised her hands in surrender, "I'm just saying you have to take charge all the time, during the quest and before and after."

"And you call me a tyrant…" Aldrich was speechless, this level of projection was unheard of.

"By the way can you give me your address?" Aldrich asked when they finished with desert, "I bought a messenger and it's better for us to communicate that way."

He didn't explain in detail but he was sure that she could put two and two together.

"Oh, ah, my address?" Yasbel asked looking taken back.

"Yeah, your address. You know it will make it easier for us to reach out, and it will be less suspicious than us meeting too many times in the bank."

"Oh, yeah. You know what? I actually don't know." Yasbel said with a straight face.

"You don't know? You don't know your own address?" Aldrich asked twice just to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

"Yeah, I don't. You know I'm too busy so I just don't pay attention to trivial things like that." Yasbel replied as if his question was absurd to begin with.

"Oh, really? Well, let's meet three days later at Dane's for breakfast and in that time you can memorize your own address, how about that?"

Aldrich just wasn't in the mood to argue so he didn't.

"What's up with you? Why the sudden obsession with where I live? You can send me letters like you did today. What's wrong with that?"

"You can't be serious. What's gotten into you?" Aldrich asked not believing the lengths she was going to.

"I'm busy Aldrich, see you later." Saying that she stormed off without another word.

Aldrich took a carriage to Ayemon's mansion at once. The rain had calmed down to a drizzle by now.

"I want you to look into the family called Ortarious." Aldrich said.

"Do I look like an information broker to you? Huh? Look at me." Ayemon was clearly annoyed this evening and he caught him at a bad time.

"Well, it—"

Before he could say anything he was cut off.

"Echo, ask Echo. It's an information guild, you want information get it yourself."

Aldrich was handed servant clothing folded neatly and told to put it on. It looked exactly like the rest of the servants clothes and standing among them he wouldn't stand out.

"Tomorrow you will be here in the afternoon at twelve, you can come in early but never late. Now do you have any questions."

"Yes, I do. When did I offend you? Let's call it quits. You've had your fun. How about I come in as a guest instead."

"Aldrich, what does a man's word mean to you? Is it something that you can casually back out of? Hm?"

"I got it, geez." Aldrich realized that this was something he couldn't escape.