People scream out of their wits and run at each other, bumping and hitting each other.

The sudden outburst of the top of the fountain causes a crack all throughout its body, causing the fountain to collapse and water to scatter from the ground and spray out like a hose, getting many people's clothes wet from top to bottom. Roswald was three meters away from the fountain when that happened.

The outburst calms down and Roswald heads there to find any evidence he could gather, passing through many people groveling on the ground, injured.

The healer mage of the guild comes to the scene and heals the people who were severely injured one by one, and carries the other people who were not severely injured to the other side away from the fountain, making sure of their safety in case another outburst occurs.

Roswald searched through every rock that was left by the fountain, seeing if he could find something, but sadly, he didn't find anything but just rocks and water scattered on the ground.

"Sir Roswald, you were here." Mage A.

"Yeah, something on the matter?"

"Sir Geld was asking for you urgently."

"I was about to head there,"

"Oh, then you must hurry, sir. Geld looks giddy somehow."

Roswald was about to head out to the guild when.

"Wait, sir, something's glowing on the ground." Mage C said, reaching out his hand on the ground.

"What is it?"

"It's a ring, sir,"

Mage C handed the ring to Roswald.

"A ring?" Roswald said, holding the ring.

After their conversation, Roswald finally headed to the guild without anything stopping him on the way.

"Sir Roswald, you are here." Receptionist A said, standing on her chair.

"Where's Geld?"

"The guild master is in the basement, right this way, sir."

He follows the receptionist, heading down through the basement where Geld was.

Geld and the other staff members of the guild ran a test on the woman's body; they cut a piece of skin and got blood from the body and put it in a vial, mixing it with other substances to get a result, as they were not that great at appraising bodies and other things, but just minimal.

"Roswald, you're finally here. Did you walk past the fountain on your way here?"

"Yes,"

"Did you find anything?"

"There was a dark aura in the air,"

"Dark aura?"

"Tha's right, and one of the healers found this on the ground,"

"A ring? What does it do? "

"I don't know. That's why I brought it here for appraisal."

"I see. Let's go up to the office and let my secretary appraise it."

"Hey you lot, call me if something happens."

"You can count on us, guild master."

He and Roswald head up to the office to appraise the ring he found on the ground near the broken fountain.

"What do you call a guild master?"Geld's secretary said.

"You're here. Come and appraise it."

"A ring? Please wait a minute. "

"What are you doing?" Roswald asks.

"I'm preparing to appraise the ring?"

As the secretary was done preparing, she then appraised the ring, but nothing came up. She appraised it again and again, but nothing was different.

"Guild master, it's just an ordinary ring,"

"What? Did you appraise it again?"

"Yes, I did, but it's still the same no matter what."

"Roswald, what do you say?"

"There might be magic in the ring, but she is unable to appraise it."

"If there really is, then it'll be useless for her to appraise it. We need a mage to appraise it for us, but who?"

"What about Derek?"

"Derek? Would he come? "

"Will try."

"Then, I'll leave that to you."

Geld then heads down to the basement, while Roswald writes a letter to send to Derek. After he finishes writing, he puts the letter in an envelope and stamps it, then puts magic on it to make it into the form of a bird and fly in the capital direction. He then heads down to the basement to see how the tests are going.

"How is it?" Roswald asks.

"There's nothing in the skin, but in the blood we found traces of black magic," researcher A replied.

"Does it have to do with black magic?" Geld asks.

"Yes, by the way is this woman have a family?" researcher A replied.

"No, this woman is living alone, no family..... Hm, Rosawald, did you sense anything last night?"

"No, I was asleep."

"You were sleeping," Geld said, in surprise.

"Yes, something wrong?"

"No, nothing."

"If you're talking about last night then, I saw a shadow, but it ran through the forest and I never saw it again."

"A shadow? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I just remember it."

"You and your head."

"So, you saw a shadow, huh?"

After the long conversation, Roswald stayed in the guild to run an investigation and guard the village to protect the people. At the same time, the healers heal all the people that were injured by the outburst and clean the area surrounding the fountain, while Mario calms the people by ensuring their safety.

After a few days, the letter arrives in the capital city. Derek was out roaming in town when suddenly a paper bird flew right at his face, making him sit flat on the ground.

The children saw him fall and laughed. He felt embarrassed and ran through the back street, bringing the paper bird.

"What the hell is this?" he thought while rubbing his nose and checking to see if it was alright. Because the paper bird landed right on his nose, it left a sting. That's why he was checking.

Derek looked at the paper bird and saw it was a message sent to him. He took caution and headed back to his tower.

He arrives, closes the door of his office, disables the magic on the paper, and reads the message.

As soon as he read the letter, he packed up his things and headed to the village cheerfully. Roswald was back at the inn, resting after three days of guarding the village. The child was looking out the window at the busy street.

The guild was busier than usual as there were many quests for the hunters to take. His face was haggard and he had many more wrinkles than usual as he was awake for three days without resting, gobbling all of his paper work and falling asleep on his office table.

Derek ran fast to the village with magic and arrived with a bang, alerting the soldiers and hunters and disturbing Roswald and Geld in their sleep.

They ran outside, where the soldiers and hunters were preparing for a fight. There was a lot of smoke. That's why they couldn't see who was inside.

Roswald is awoken but goes back to sleep as he senses Derek's aura, while Geld gets up from his office table and heads down to see what the ruckus was.

"What's going on?" Geld asks, as he walks faster than normal, with his face full of malice as he was awoken.

"Ahhh.... What an entrance I made."

"Who?" Geld spoke up and alerted.

"Oh, why isn't it the guild master and what? Soldiers? Hunters? Why have you gathered here?"

"Wait, this voice."

"Guild master, you mustn't go near." Soldier A said, worried.

The smoke begins to go away little by little, allowing the figure of a man to come into view. As the smoke goes away, Derek steps forward and greets the people.

"Why, hello there, everyone. Can you all put all your weapons down?"

"Sir Derek?" All the soldiers and hunters said it in unison.

"Derek-"

"Derek? Are you my friend that you're calling me familiarly? "

"Sir Derek, you're here." Geld said, suppressing his anger.

"Now I look at you, you age more so than I saw you previously."

"I'm not old, I'm just lacking sleep." Geld said angrily, in a louder voice.

"Is that so?"

"Anyway, let's go to the guild."

"Hm… Alright."

Geld dispersed the crowd of people, and together with Derek, they headed back to the guild to not attract more people and send someone to bring Roswald to the guild.

*Village Inn*

"Mister, are you asleep?" Della asks.

She approached the sleeping Roswald and whispered.

"I want to go out."

As she said, Roswald woke up and quickly replied.

"You can go out if you want."

Della was surprised by the sudden reply and saw Roswald waking up by only her saying that.

"Can you accompany me, mister?" Della suggested and blushed as she was embarrassed by what she said.

"Uhm.... Are you tired? How about tomorrow? "

"No, let's go." Roswald says as he gets out of bed, quickly dressing and getting ready to leave.

The two of them headed down. Della was hiding on his back, afraid of meeting other people.

"Oh, Roswald, are you heading out?" The inn owner said

"Yes, she said, she wants to go outside."

"Who? Oh, I see, Della was it? "

"My name," Della said in a low voice.

"What?"

"I never tell you my name. How do you know it?"

"Oh, this old man knows everything, hoho." The inn owner said happily.

Della's eyes glowed with curiosity, and by that moment, they were shattered.

"Ramy told me," Roswald said.

"Oh."

"How can you say that?"

"We're going now. Let's go."

"Have a safe trip, child. Enjoy it." The inn owner said and gave a thumbs up to Della.

*Street*

They walk silently as they pass every store and houses.

That old man was funny. Uhm.... Where are we going? "

Roswald stopped for a while and replied, "The market."

"Market?"

"That's right."

The two again walk in silence, heading to the market place. As they got nearer, the child was trembling in fear as many people were in sight. Roswald noticed and stopped, carrying her to a place where there were no people in sight.

He took her to the little flower field behind the village farm. She calmed down and saw the scenery full of flowers, so wide and in full bloom. The colors were beautiful, and the fragrance calmed her mind and body.

"I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"I've troubled you, even though I said that."

"It's no problem at all. You alright?"

"Yes, thank you very much, mister." Della said, bowing her head.

"No need, just call me Roswald, not mister."

"Yes," Della said cheerfully.

After the short conversation, the two went into silence as they calmed their minds and enjoyed the scenery of flowers. After a while, Della falls asleep, and Roswald sits down and guards her.

The two of them stayed until dawn. Della awakens to find Roswald peacefully sleeping beside her, her stomach grumbling, and she realizes it is nearly sundown. Roswald was awakened by her.

"Mister, no, Roswald, wake up." Della said, shaking Roswald.

"Did I fall asleep?" Roswald asks as he gets up.

"Yes."

As Della replied, Roswald was conflicted by how he was sleeping peacefully without his guard, and in a second, Della's stomach grumbled and brought him back to reality.

"You're hungry?"

"Uh... yes," Della said, embarrassingly.

"Let's go back to the inn to eat." Roswald said as he reached out his hand.

"Yes." Della replied, and grabbed the hand of Roswald.

Roswald carried Della on his arm and sprinted back to the inn using his high agility skills. Della was scared and screamed as he ran at a fast speed, but by the time she got used to it, the two quickly came back to the inn, bringing a shock to the inn owner and the other customer.

The two went inside the inn and were greeted with a warm welcome. Della was flustered and scared at the same time, but as she didn't sense any malice in them, she calmed down a bit.

"Welcome back, you two. So how was the outing?" The inn owner's wife asks

"It was fine." Roswald replied, as the child held his shirt tightly.

"Oh, I see. You two must be hungry. What would you like to eat?"

"Anything will do."

"How about you, child?"

"Uhm... egg. I want an egg. The one that is sweet and soft."

"Oh, see. It will be done in a minute. Just sit and wait.

The two sat on the chair in silence, and the other people at the other table began to talk to them.

"Hey there, want a drink?" person A said.

"No." Roswald replied, as the child hid behind him, trembling.

"Don't be stingy now. Why don't you drink?" The three people at the other table said

"No." Rosawld replied with a menacing aura and scared them off.

The atmosphere of the inn becomes gloomy, and the inn owner comes to the scene to liven up the atmosphere by making up stories and jokes.

"Sorry if they offend you. Were you scared, child? They're not bad people. Please forgive them." The inn owner's wife said, and saw the child tremble as she approached and felt pity for her, then went on a pause for a while.

"Here is the food to enjoy." The inn owner's wife said and left, so as to not bother the both of them any further.

Della saw the food on the table and began eating, as did Roswald. The two ate in silence as the surroundings were cheerful and bright. People were drinking and partying. As soon as they finished the food, the two of them headed up and rested for the night.

For a while, Geld was in a troubling situation as Roswald was not found and brought to the guild. Derek was furious and fidgety as he could not wait for tomorrow, but he calmed down. The two stayed in silence from morning until night.

"Hey!" Derek shouted, and Geld flinched.

"What is it?"

"Get me a room."

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious? I will stay here for tonight and also tomorrow. "

"G-get someone to prepare a room."

"Yes, guild master, right away." the receptionist said.

The receptionist, together with the guild staff, hurried to prepare to clean the other room that had not been used for decades. The guild was busy, all the staff going in and out of the guild buying new sheets and pillows for Derek to use. Derek was quiet all the way, and as the room was done, he went in and fell asleep without a fuss.

To be continue…