Venus Rouge

Silver Hawk

May 1, 515IE, Onyx House, Northern Verne Fief, Gestalt Kingdom

Yuan had seen many a noble home from afar, mostly during requests to subjugate monsters in the area, but he could say with confidence that this was one of the grander ones he'd seen. Then again, this was the first one whose gate he'd ever set foot behind.

The fact still stood that Verne Manor was truly a grand building, both in architecture and size.

Or at least he thought it was called Verne Manor. The iron sign on the massive wrought iron gate read "Onyx House".

Why was it called Onyx "House"? what part of this is a house?

Yuan has seen his fair share of houses and they were all a sight smaller than this endless sprawling affair. He swore it took them forever and a day just to get from the front gate to the front steps of the place! Who needs a driveway that long?!

He has to distract himself with the absurdities of rich folk, or he'd end up a jittery mess like all but one of the rest of his teammates over their highest profile client to date.

It's not every day a fresh C class party like Silver Hawk get a request from a Ducal household like this one.

Yuan might still be in disbelief at how Alex managed to bag a client like the famed Kaoru Onyx.

They'd been thrown off from before they came here and hadn't really been given chance to recover even after about a week and a half to prepare.

They'd never been in contact with someone of the higher aristocracy before, and just walking down the neatly paved yellow brick driveway felt like they were going to be arrested and thrown into jail on principle, but they dared not stray from the middle.

Every bush, tree and hedge was trimmed to perfection, every blade of grass even with its brethren and every blossom was vibrant and well ordered. They were kind of scared of mucking something up and earning the ire of their client.

In fact, they'd come here vaguely expecting at least some form of disdain for being of a lower class as interactions with affluent clients usually went—which is exactly why most of these quests are managed through the guild, but there wasn't any of that to be seen yet, not from the gate guards nor the butler that came to greet them and lead them down the driveway to where two carriages were being methodically loaded with luggage and readied for departure.

The footmen doing said readying politely acknowledged them before getting on with their work.

Huh... The amicability was unexpected, but certainly not unappreciated.

A young maid scurried forward and whispered something into the ear of the butler who nodded and turned to them with an apologetic smile.

"Gentlemen, I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but it seems there might be a slight delay in departure time due to some... last minute problems. The Lord will not be down in a few more minutes, I'm afraid," the footman spoke in a smooth, even tone.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all, my good man." Grant was the one who replied. Thank the gods. This was why he was the leader, and the one to deal with the wordy people that they can't afford to offend. "There's no rush at all. We could stand a short wait quite well."

The footman nodded in thanks before turning and walking swiftly up the steps to disappear behind the huge carved doors of the manor.

No, they certainly didn't mind the wait if it gave them more time to look around and pull their nerves together for the eventual meeting with "the Lord".