15 CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 15

The evening had just passed, giving way to the night that had fallen over the city of Andris.

Despite the late hour, the city bustled with activity. Its streets were illuminated by lanterns and lamps powered by magic stones, with the surrounding buildings shimmering even in the darkness of the night.

Many stalls were preparing to close, while new ones replaced the old ones and opened, lining up with those still open. In this city that never slept, the true focal points of this time of day were the taverns.

Here, adventurers, workers, and others gathered to relax, share stories, and relieve the fatigue of daily work. Amidst the laughter and chatter, the taverns offered a refuge for those seeking relief from the struggles of life.

However, in this lively atmosphere, there was another place that remained open even at night: the Adventurer's Guild.

Inside the guild hall, only a few attendants worked the night shift. The monotony of the late hours weighed heavily on them as they went about their tasks.

The clerk, who had just replaced his companion to start the night shift, sat down, preparing to face another boring night. The Adventurer's Guild always remained open, ready to intervene in case of need, due to the fact that in the early years of the city's founding, it was very common to face attacks from beasts at night.

Being a new city, recently established, albeit close to the Forest of Spirits, famous not only for its rich vegetation but also for the great variety of beasts that teemed there both day and night, there was always the danger of nocturnal attacks by monsters.

The high vigilance was not only due to this but also to attacks by certain species in particular. The night hunters, better known as nightmares, beings that for almost three centuries had given everyone on the continent a hard time.

No one knew where they came from or where they went during the day. These creatures were cruel and evil, and they did not hesitate to kill any living being they encountered.

Precisely because they were terrifying beings that hunted at night, people began to refer to them as nightmares, appearing at night and spreading terror in their victims.

However, in recent years, not many of these beings had been seen near the city of Andris, so the attendant, who had not yet seen one of them alive but only heard of them, did not understand the reason for keeping the guild open even at night.

Certainly, the guild had other functions besides maintaining the city's security, but for the clerk, who was still new, it was still pointless to work at night.

As the clerk reflected on the boredom of the night shift, two figures hurried into the guild hall. The sudden arrival caught the attention of the attendant, who prepared to see what was making all this noise at this hour.

At the entrance, he saw two boys, clearly still young, who looked battered and tired. One of them carried a girl unconscious on his shoulder, who appeared to be injured.

It didn't take the clerk long to understand the situation, and he immediately called some of his colleagues who were specialized in providing first aid.

***

In the guild clinic, the healer who had been called hastily finished treating the girl lying on the bed. For him, it was not unusual to receive young patients who had been injured during their hunt.

Indeed, it was commonplace to receive similar patients, but in this case, it was a bit different. The girl's wounds were very serious, enough to make the healer wonder what these boys had done to end up in this state.

After finishing the treatment, he got up, left the clinic, and went to the waiting room to meet the boys who had accompanied the girl.

In the waiting room, Reily and Clarisse waited impatiently. Reily, after bringing Jenna to the guild, was preparing to leave to finish his daily mission, but he was stopped by an attendant, who had asked him and Clarisse to wait and explain what had happened.

He didn't want to waste any more time, as he had less than 5 hours left to complete the daily mission, and if he delayed any further, he wouldn't be able to go to the forest as it would be more dangerous than during the day.

In the end, albeit reluctantly, he stayed to wait with the mage girl.

The two were sitting on opposite sides of the room waiting silently. They hadn't spoken since they arrived, and this silence was starting to be felt, especially by Clarisse, who now that she had calmed down, realized that she hadn't thanked the boy in front of her.

She decided that this was a good time to do so, and just as she was about to speak, the clinic door opened with a creak, and the healer came out. 

The healer, upon leaving, quietly closed the door behind him and turned to the two people in front of him.

"Your friend is out of danger now. She should wake up by tomorrow morning. The wounds were quite serious, and if she hadn't been treated in time, she wouldn't have made it. I would advise her to rest for the next week, as it will take some time for the wounds to heal completely," he said calmly, and then continued.

"You can stay by her side if you want, but be careful not to make noise. There are other patients in there. And one more thing, before you leave, you need to give the details of what happened at the reception, and the attendant will take care of the rest," he said, then turned and left.

Clarisse, relieved to hear this, let out a sigh and turned to look at Reily.

"I didn't have the chance to thank you for your help earlier. Thank you, without you, my friend and I would almost certainly be dead," she said, bending her torso forward toward Reily, making a half-bow as a sign of her gratitude.

Reily, seeing her, hurried to stop her.

"There's no need to thank me. I'm sure if it were someone else in my place, they would have done the same thing. And besides, after all, I ended up there by chance, and in a way, I also saved myself thanks to this, so there's really no need to thank me,"

Clarisse, hearing him, had an even better impression of this boy who had saved them by putting himself in danger.

"And anyway, it's only right that I thank you. We didn't have a chance to meet before. My name is Clarisse," she said, raising her right hand forward.

Reily, seeing her, calmly took her hand and shook it, responding,

"Reily, nice to meet you," he said, but then suddenly remembered something.

'Wait, Clarisse?!'

Reily looked carefully at the girl in front of him.

'Yellow hair, green eyes, a mage, and moreover, she seems to be my age, maybe a little older, no, it can't be, is it really her?'

He thought shocked, suddenly remembering who the girl in front of him was.