Noah huffed on his favorite pipe, thinking about recent reports and his own life in general. Smacking his lips, inhale, and lean back into the chair. The office, his office, has been nearly the same for the past forty years or so, with the only real change being the desk he broke once during a small shouting match with some royal messenger. He couldn't give less of a shit if your boss works for a royal, Noah works only for himself. And the Crown, of course, wouldn't want anyone accusing him of being a criminal.

  By the time he hit 20 years of straight work, he was aware that the royals loved putting the noses of their servants in other peoples business. And when something goes kaboom out in the Worlds Tongue, suddenly started getting real interested in what he knew. The nerve of them to assume he doesn't report and send back everything he knows to the capital Crownfield like any good citizen. Hell, he even made reports on the embarrassing nonsense the adventurers get up to now and then. Like bringing live monsters into the city to try to impress their friends, or trying to impress someone they fancy.

  And then there was the mess that happened because something exploded in the Worlds Tongue, because of course it had to spook just about everything in that ancient forest. And make both beasts and monsters get too close to the Kingdoms borders. The increase in activity hasn't been catastrophic, but the fact this wave of creatures hasn't seen any decrease could only mean that whatever is scaring them all is still there. And whatever that thing or things might be, it seems to be moving towards the kingdom as well. If only the idiots downstairs would stop fucking around and actually do the important jobs instead of the cool ones to, again, try to impress someone else.

  Hopefully the students from Magi-milian aren't completely useless. It was bad enough with that fiasco still being used to criticize his, even if he wasn't present when that happened. As if his day couldn't be any more annoying, and just as Noah had decided to grab some slightly illegal liquor, the door opened up. He had just enough time to put back the wonderful nectar and pretend to pick up some old documents he had forgotten about. He lifted a hand to stop whoever that stepped in from speaking, as he read through the document. And as he expected, it was nothing critical. Just something about more goblins being spotted.

  He looked up and examined the people. They were most likely the students from the university, with how young they looked, and started looking at them with a scrutinizing gaze.

  Diana was easy enough to recognize, silvery or white hair depending on who you asked and incredibly short for her age. There is also the fact she looks dumber than most people as well, but in an endearing way instead of a rude one. If you took candy from her, she would look at you with puppy dog eyes and ask for it back instead of actually doing something about it.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  The girl next to her looked pretty unremarkable, with the only exception being the single flower she has resting behind her ear and that she is a beastfolk. Beastkin? Noah was too old to know what was considered the right word for them now, or what was a slur. He decided to not mention it to her if they ever spoke.

  Red hair wasn't the strangest sight in the Kingdom, it was rare, but not to the point of being magical or marking that individual as 'special'. But to Noah it reminded him of the Firebrand family, and they were the most recent group of people to piss him off. He wore clothes that, while somewhat expensive to the common man, were clearly old and well taken clear off. Which would've angered Noah less, but he had a natural dislike of anyone wearing glasses and decided that being slightly mean to him would be appropriate. And it was also with the redhead that the normalcy ended.

  That might be the biggest teenager he had ever seen, the kid looked like a fully grown man with all that muscle on him and that height. Yet that baby face of his made Noah unreasonably annoyed, an annoyance that increased with the fact that the teen tried to look serious as Noah looked him over. And where the hell were his clothes? By the crown, why doesn't he wear a shirt or jacket when it's cold outside. This was probably the one human that he liked the least of the group.

  Then there is the wendigo.

  Wendigo…

  WENDIGO.

  Going to jail or being punished or whatever the crown may strike him down with, Noah needed a drink and couldn't care less about the rules. A strong and illegal wine that was probably made with some questionable plants or monsters. The wendigo was hunched over as its sheer height forced it to bend over. And doing so placed the head of the thing closer to Noah's desk, letting him get a good eyeful of the multiple eyes the thing had on its head. It also didn't help that the muzzle of the ugly thing was all bone, giving him a just as good look at what the inside of its nose looked like.

  Noah reached down to get the bottle, pulled the cork on it and took a swing. No need to bother getting a glass this time, he was already stressed out enough having to deal with a legendary beast and would need all the liquid courage he could get. The liquid burned the back of his throat and all the way down to his gut. The alcohol was getting to him way faster than what he expected. To avoid passing out in front of a bunch of kids, he reached out for the quest one of his employees handed him for this specific meeting and grabbed it with drunken purpose.

  With a throw aimed at the redhead, he shouted one line for them.

  “Get the fuck out there and do the quest!”