Twilight of Shepherd and Calamity

Ch15 We fight

Sorey pov

Everyone here has done a lot of wrong things for survival, but they don't think it is wrong, even if it is not right either. thanks to this, the Seraphim can barely live here.

It is a place in darkness, darker than what I have encountered in my previous travels. There is a moment when I suspect that everything I have done is meaningless. Why would such a place exist? Why would it sustain? It is obviously such a painful place.....

The world has indeed improved compared with the previous ones, but humans have stopped at this point. Is there any change at all? Still, I believe in human, like how Maotelus has believed.

We have just been rescued from Beta and we were taken to their guild. Although it was not the first time we come, it is now the time we are officially invited. I haven't noticed before that their guild is more home-like than anywhere else. From the outside, it is a three-storey big house. The roof is covered by classic tiles, the whole building is basically a combination of red, white and yellow colors, giving a warm feeling. Inside is the big bar lobby that we met Ophelia, all of them are warm wooden finishing. Everyone should be here to meet and pick up the task, but I can't imagine what kind of tasks are there. Velvet seems to not let me get any closer to have a look every time and we didn't go up the stairs to the upper floor, so I don't know what's on it.

Zaveid took us to the upper reception room. Beta said everything. After hearing about everything, I was worried about her mental condition. Zaveid let her leave for a while and told us about his recent activities, including how did he get to be with the girl that with the nearly identical face as Velvet.

I can't imagine how he would have a family. When I met him, he was a man who was unconstrained like wind, only worked for his own goals, and he was always alone. He was like a big brother, but I couldn't imagine how he taught children. Though Beta seems very obedient in front of him.

If Zaveid has spent so much effort into finding her, I can be sure that he has kept her in his mind. Then he must have his consideration in arranging for her to explain the weapons to us.
Beta and Velvet are two different people, but maybe she is a workaholic like Velvet, so Zaveid decided to treat her like usual.
Going down the stairs, walking down the narrow corridor, we are following Beta to the warehouse of their guild.

"Hey, are you really okay?" Although she looks fine, I still worry about her and I decided to ask.

".....I am fine. Zaveid didn't ask anything, why would you ask?"

"But..... that kind of thing happened......." Hard to believe that she saw such horrible things but didn't turn into a hellion.

"Something must be done for the people here when compared to this. Will you two help us?"

Perhaps it is because of the existence of such a person that the people here have the courage to live in extreme circumstances. Even if this place is worse, there is not just pain and darkness, hope also exists here. And because it is dark, let people see the light more clearly, even if there is only a little hope, they will try hard to catch up. That's perhaps what Ophelia think to be interesting in this place and Zaveid does not seem to hate this place too.

"Yes, but You trust us?" Velvet is silent until now.

"Not really, especially for a suspicious person like you."

"Very honest, what are you going to do?"

"Honestly explain the weapon to you guys as I was told to do so. Although you look dangerous, I'll use whatever means are available to me."

"Oh?" Velvet smirked.

" Zaveid believes in you guys, then I will try to trust."

"You really believe in Zaveid." I stated.

"He is like a father figure to me, a dump dad sometimes though."

Beta brought us to a room full of weapons, unlike the ancient time, the weapons here are almost blunt, the one with the blade is usually small.

"Here is the warehouse in the guild, just choose a weapon and I will talk about it."

"Before this, may I have my blade repair?" Velvet asked and gave her Broken Gauntlet Blade to Beta. Fighting with a fruit knife is just horrible.

"That's the first time I see someone using a blade to fight. It is not common nowadays, how did you get that blade?" Beta takes the Gauntlet Blade from Velvet and asked.

"It is from my parent. I use to fight with it." Velvet explained. It may be a lie, maybe she just bought from the ancient weapon shop but I bet she can't just tell the truth as it is ridiculous to people nowadays.

"Got it, I will try to find someone to fix it, I have seen a similar design before." Beta answered after checking the retractable part in the Gauntlet Blade.
"So....I want to ask about this weapon." When Velvet is talking about her weapon, I discovered a weapon similar to what we saw in the room but a smaller one. It is a black cold metal weapon with a trigger.

"Surprised me, you guys don't know about it? It is a thing called gun, quite used to show in some TV programme, isn't it?" Beta said in an annoyed tone.

"Umm, what is TV programme?" I asked with a helpless smile.

"Come on! What time are you guys live in?" Beta shocked by my question.

"Well......500 years ago....."

"......Huh? Fine, whatever.....a gun can shoot out the bullet with quick shocking force caused by the Gunpowder explosion." Beta took the gun and hold it in a downward direction. She installs a back chamber with a shining bullet in the gun. She loaded the gun by pulling the upper part slide back, the upper part is retracted into its original position while we hear a sound.

"If you target the important part of the body, it can be a deadly weapon. We got quite of them but we don't usually use it. We aim to win without dying." Beta targeted the human-figure cardboard with a certain distance from here and pressing the trigger to shoot. Her body sightly fell backward by the force but she managed to fix herself by the standing position. A hole with smoke created on the heart position just after the shoot.

"That's a naive thought." Velvet commended.

"Yes, it is. Since death may induce malevolence, we don't want our dear leader to be affected, but we just minimize kill as much as possible." Beta agreed and explained.

"Zaveid is the leader?!" I shocked.

"Yes, kind of, although he is not doing many things, and I am the one talk for him."

"By the way, why would you guys have such an amount of guns when you don't use it." Velvet asked.
"We stole them from the Mafia. We don't use it, and we don't want to let them use it too."

"........You mentioned the word Mafia before, what is it exactly?" I asked and then Beta sighed. Probably lamenting our ignorance, this is also a helpless thing. Now is an era farther away from us. There are many new things, but the whole essence of society has not changed.

"The Mafia is an organized criminal group that everyone is afraid of, and no one knows their true scale. Like the Mafia-Family that protects(governs) here, their territory is not only here, but there is also a strong backstage supporter. Their main way to make money is through illegal means, including prostitution, drug sales, extortion protection fees, and human trafficking as I mentioned. I may turn a blind eye on other things, but only human trafficking is unacceptable."