21 CHAPTER 21 – Salamander.

Frank Michael was one of the several S-ranked Raiders that Orange Country had, and his nickname was 'Salamander' the same as his skill.

He is a strong S-ranked Raider and also the vice-president or officially the vice-guild master of the Crimson Lotus guild. He was handsome, undoubtedly so, even from the standard of Raider.

Well, almost every S-rank raider is handsome or beautiful in their own right. Let's not talk about him being handsome as he would never be able to compare to Alex's looks.

His age is 21 years, he has red hair that matches Alice's, much to his delight, Brown eyes, and clean shaved face. His height was not too much but not too short, he stood at 173cm which is a cm higher than Alice which he is proud of as he likes to compare himself with Alice.

He compares Alice not because he wants to compete with her but because he has feelings for her. He knows that he wouldn't be able to match her in power, so, he searches for other points where he would win.

He could have joined any guild because he is an S-ranked Raider, but he chose to join Crimson Lotus as he fell in love with Alice the moment he saw her and decided to follow her, maybe confess to her as well.

Yet, he only got rejected, he didn't mind though, as he knew the path of love is never easy.

But everything changed when he heard that there was some So-called most handsome man in the world as the ladies in the guild who saw him claimed, was declared as the Honorary guild master.

He also seemed to be the new S-ranked Raider who was all over the news even now. He decided to have a talk with Alice about this matter but when he went to her office to have a heart-to-heart talk, her phone started ringing and she picked it up.

He didn't mind that, but his relaxed and comfortable expression changed when he heard a male voice from the other side of the phone and the worry on Alice's face, his face started to contort, and he frowned.

Then he saw her smiling sweetly, if it was a smile directed at him then he would have been over the moon but it was very painful for him to see her smiling like that for someone else.

"Who was that?" He couldn't help but ask with a scowl on his face when he saw that she was done talking but in response, Alice's who was smiling sweetly till now turned into an impassive look.

"Do I have an obligation to tell you that?" Alice asked as she also knew the reason why he wanted to talk to her but she had never considered him someone who could make her change any decision.

He was a vice president just because he was an S-ranked Raider and the only S-ranked other than her in the guild. If possible, she never even wanted to see him, because of his persistently trying to chase after her.

"No." He growled on the inside since he knew he didn't have the right to say anything to her.

"…."

"What do you want to talk about?" Alice asked without beating around the bush as she didn't want her mood which had been elevated because of the talk with Alex to go down.

"You made someone an Honorary Guild master?" He also asked directly.

"Yes, what of it?" Alice asked and started looking at one of the files that Ann had given her only to stop when she heard Frank's question.

"Why wasn't I consulted about this?" Frank asked while directly staring at Alice who was now staring at him with a frown.

"As I said, do I have an obligation to-" Frank interrupted her before she could finish her words.

"Yes, as a vice-guild master, I have the right to know. I can't ask you any personnel questions but you will have to answer any question that I ask you regarding the guild."

He spoke as he looked at her more intently, showing that he was not going to back down till she gave him an appropriate answer.

"….."

"You weren't consulted because it was an instant decision and if I had not given him that position then we would still be someone with two S-ranked Raiders and not three." She answered after thinking carefully but she was again unable to answer Frank's next question.

"How strong is he? You can't just give such high authority to anyone; he needs to have the power to back it up." Frank asked with a frown when he heard confidence in her words when she spoke of him.

"…. Yes, he is strong. Stronger than me, if I were, to be honest." Alice was unable to answer for a while, it was not because she didn't have an answer, but because she knew what Frank was trying to do.

However, she didn't stop him as this chance could be used as a reality check for Frank, so, she answered truthfully knowing well that it would make Frank even firmer in whatever decision he was going to make.

"Then let me test his power," Frank said and Alice knew that she only needed to tell Alex not to go too hard on Frank since even if he was annoying, he was still a member of the guild.

"B-but…" Still, she needed to play her part in hesitating, or else he might realize something, though she didn't know she was just thinking too much as Frank had already decided to 'teach' Alex a lesson.

"Are you hesitating now? Is he not as strong as you show him to be?" Frank asked while looking at Alice with a taunting expression.

"…...Alright, I will talk to him. When do you want the duel to be?" Alice said while faking hesitation.

"Let's not waste any time and do it in the evening." Frank couldn't wait to teach this new S-ranked Raider a 'lesson', showing everyone that Alex was nothing in front of him.

"All right. The duel will be held in the training room." Alice said with a sigh, though inwardly she was smiling as she finally got a chance to teach this guy a lesson.

She couldn't challenge Frank to a duel to teach him a lesson because Frank was a guild member and Frank himself would never challenge her as he knows his limits. He would have never thought that even by challenging Alex, he was digging his own grave.

"You can go now," Alice said impatiently while looking at Frank who was still sitting there staring at her seemingly thinking about saying something.

"…" Frank didn't say anything just nodded and left the office; he didn't understand why but now he felt that he shouldn't have been hasty about his decision.

But he didn't think too much as to what would even go wrong, he was just going to teach that bastard a 'lesson' and be done with it… right?

As he left the office, he missed seeing Alice who chuckled a little and directly called Ann to talk about what had happened while she also sent Alex a message to come quickly.

Alex was cooking at the time he received the message, but he only replied with a thumbs up. He knew he didn't need to hurry as he would reach in time for whatever Alice wanted him to hurry for.

"You guys are not vegan, right?" Alex had other things to take care of right now, as he again sensed three D-ranked Raiders entering his house and he again asked the first question that came to his mind, he was making chicken sandwiches after all.

The events that followed after that were the same as the incident last night as these three people also had the same kind of pendant making him think just where did their leader get these many of them.

...................................

Leave a comment or review to let me know your thoughts about my book!!