Moments prior.
"...That should be it from me."
Stepping back and letting the Section Chief take over as he dismissed everyone in the room, Clara folded her arms while staring at the departing members.
There were a lot more people than she had originally expected.
As one of the first few recruits of the Guild, she recalled a time when the number of members of the Guild was hardly a hundred.
Now...
It looked like they had more than ten times that.
'It's good to see that the Guild is doing well.'
For a moment, she almost smiled. However, that smile merely lasted a couple of seconds until she saw the Section Chief turn his attention back towards her.
"I'm sorry to have called you back here. However, the situation made it impossible for me not to call you here."
"I understand."
Clara nodded in understanding.
Just not long ago, she was preparing to enter a <B> ranked Anomalous Gate. Preparations for such gates usually took between weeks to months. From analyzing scouting reports to making sure all the right equipment was brought, and so on.
<B> Ranked gates were extremely hard to conquer.
To make matters worse, they were also quite rare.
Malovia was only so big. The rate at which <C> ranked gates and above appeared was extremely low. It was for that reason that she had actually gone to a different island to clear the gate.
"I'm sure you understand, but I'm still reeling..."
The Section Chief sighed while scratching the side of his face.
"We bought the First-Clearance right of that gate. If this situation doesn't get resolved soon, we'll have no choice but to renounce the rights."
The Section Chief's face turned pained.
Clara looked at him helplessly.
First-Clearance was the right to dive through a gate first. They were generally extremely expensive and held both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that if they did manage to clear the gate, the gate would become theirs. The disadvantage was their lack of information regarding the gate due to being first.
Nonetheless, they had no choice but to do this.
This was their only way to compete against the Guilds in the main islands, which were filled with high-ranked gates.
Put simply, the sheer size difference between the two islands gave those from the main island a clear advantage.
"...I hope we can resolve this situation quickly. The only way I see things going well for us would be if the gate here advances a grade so that everyone would drop whatever they're doing and come here, but I don't know if that will be a good thing."
With a laugh, the Section Chief waved his hand.
"Whatever. What is done is done. You do as you please. Be on standby. If anything happens, I'll make sure to call you. You're one of the few dependable people in the Guild."
"Understood."
The Section Chief proceeded to leave after that.
Clara stood in the same spot while sighing to herself.
'What a pity.'
Raising her head, she was just about to leave when her eyes caught sight of a certain pale figure. He had just stood up from his seat and was leaving the area. However, catching sight of him, Clara couldn't help but feel something was off about his back.
She felt... his image overlap with a certain 'something' and her legs moved on their own.
After diving through thousands of gates in her life, Clara's instincts had become razor-sharp. She could tell when something felt off.
...And someone who had been in this business for so long, she knew that all instincts had to be trusted, even if they were wrong.
Following him from behind, she saw him stop before a certain door as he reached for it.
Right as he pushed the door open, she picked up her pace and pressed her hand forward, blocking him from entering.
"Wait a moment."
The man froze, and his head slowly lowered to face her.
"You..."
Clara's voice lowered as she stared at him.
"...Have we met before?"
And her gaze met his. The moment it did, Clara's gaze sharpened as an invisible pressure spread out from her eyes.
And yet—
"Met before?"
Seth's voice came out low, seemingly detached.
In that moment, Clara felt that something was off with him.
His gaze...
The way he looked at her.
...It was almost as if he wasn't looking at her at all.
His eyes seemed dead, and his expression showed no signs of being affected by her gaze.
'Does this even make sense?'
Her 'gaze' wasn't anything normal. It was just the 'pressure' that came out of her eyes as a result of all her exposure to the 'mist' and 'gates'. The higher one climbed, and the more they witnessed, the more powerful their 'gaze' would become.
Normal recruits wouldn't be able to look her in the eye for that specific reason.
And yet, the recruit before her looked completely unbothered.
In fact, his gaze seemed to turn even more hollow.
Clara's lip twitched as she looked at the man in front of her.
She looked at his features and everything; however, she couldn't recall him at all. Without waiting for him to react, she reached for his hand and tried to see if he had any nodes.
But...
'Nothing?'
Her eyes widened in surprise when she realized that he was just a regular person.
Looking at him, she saw the weird expression on his face as he looked at her, and Clara let go of his hand.
"I'm sorry... I just never saw you here."
"...There's been a lot of recruits entering the Guild. It shouldn't be a surprise that you don't recognize me."
He replied, his voice even.
Clara smiled.
"There indeed have been."
She then turned her attention towards the door where a certain sign hung.
[Seth Thorne - Trauma Counsellor]
"Trauma Counsellor?"
"Yes."
Seth replied while stepping into his office, the darkness that hid behind it slowly swallowing his body.
"...Feel free to make an appointment in advance if you wish to have some counselling."
Clank—!
He closed the door right after that, leaving Clara standing by the door, stunned.
"....."
She stood like that for the next several minutes before turning around.
"Make an appointment?"
As she turned to look at the sign on the door, she pursed her lips.
Maybe I will...
***
The moment the door closed, I was engulfed in darkness.
It was quiet.
I couldn't see a thing.
And yet...
I felt absolutely nothing as I stood in the darkness.
I knew that this came all as a result of the 'side-effect' that I had been experiencing after the fractures I had experienced not too long ago.
'This is quite troublesome.'
I thought back to the interaction I just had outside.
My attitude...
It had certainly aroused some suspicion. In fact, it was already surprising that she had noticed that something was off with me. Thankfully, I somehow managed to get her off my back for now; however, I knew that this wasn't going to be the last time that I saw her.
Perhaps it was better that I was in this state when she met me.
Otherwise, with how I was handling things, I could've given myself away.
I took a deep breath, feeling the emotions slowly starting to return to me.
Turning my head in the darkness, I reached for the light switch and turned on the lights.
Flick!
A sudden brightness engulfed me from above as I squinted my eyes momentarily before heading for my desk.
But right as I moved, I saw something.
'A package?'
It was long and sat in the corner of the room.
I slowly walked towards it before extending my finger and cutting the tape, using my finger as a black film appeared.
Riiiip!
Ripping the tape off and opening the package, I stopped.
"....."
Standing before me was a keyboard.
The one I had ordered.
But alongside it was a note.
One that read...
'The stage has been set.'
'Your turn.'