"Ughh . . ." Mikuo slowly opened his eyes. It seemed that he fell asleep, or maybe he lost his consciousness.
 He lifted his heavy body from the bed. His back ached a bit for some reason.
"Huh? Where am I?" he surveyed his surroundings with half-opened eyes.
 This room was familiar to him, it was the same room where he woke up before. It means he's still in the headquarters of the Arctic Knights. It was already the third time that he woke up from this room and he's kinda getting used to it. But he was not exactly happy about it because it's been happening a lot lately.
"Why am I here again?" he tried recalling what happened before he fell asleep. He still felt a little groggy from his sleep.
 He scratched his head and when he did so, a sharp pain assaulted his head. It seemed like he hit a lump.
"itatatata….. Huh? When did I get this?" he tried harder to remember what happened.
 Some seconds have passed since he started to try, then his eyes suddenly widened.
"Ohhh . . . ."
 He recalled the things that happened before he lost his consciousness. Yume made quite the suspicious reaction that made the others angry, and he was pinned down and because of that, his head hit the floor and lost his consciousness. Remembering it made his face frown.
"Geeez . . . It seems like losing my consciousness became mainstream this past few days." he said that in a self-mocking tone.
 He spent some seconds laughing at his own bad luck.
"Hmmmmmm . . . ." he once again surveyed the room.
 He then stretched up a bit, slowly got off the bed, tidied it up and headed to the door.
 He walked through a familiar hallway painted in white with some lampshades installed on the wall. There were also some doors along the way. All of it reminded him of a Western-style mansion he saw on TV.
  He's still walking when he heard a noise coming from one of the doors on the right side, it was a double-door to be precise. That piqued his interest and slowly, he walked towards that door.
 As he got closer, the noise became louder and louder.
 Now that he's closer, he can tell that the noise was coming from people. Around 20 of them he guessed.
 He stood there for quite some time wondering whether he should or should not open the door.
 He took a step away and decided to leave the place thinking that it would be the best; also, leaving early will save him from any further nuisances. He doesn't want to have any business with this guild and he preferred acting as a freelance adventurer.
 But when he was about to leave, the face of Yume suddenly crossed his mind. That clumsy girl who cannot be left alone or else she will run into trouble, that innocence akin to a 2 year old child and those honest smiles from her face. A feeling of wanting to protect her entered his chest but he blew it away with a sigh. His heart skipped a beat because of those thoughts.
 It seemed he became a bit attached to the girl for some reason.
"Ah geeez . . . ! I guess staying a little bit won't hurt." he took a step back and slowly reached towards the knob on the door.
 He swallowed his saliva before twisting the knob.
*click* the knob gave off such sound and he slowly pushed the double-door. The door made a creaking sound as he pushed it.
 He closed his eyes a bit because of the light coming from within the room.
 Maybe the people from the room noticed him because the room became suddenly quiet as if all the noise from before was just a lie.
 His eyes finally got used to the light and he was able to see what's inside the room.
 The room looked like some kind of cafeteria. The room is quite big and many tables and chairs were aligned next to each other. There was also some kind of bar at the end of the room where, in his guess, the food was being ordered from.
 As he guessed, the people were indeed looking at him. There were about 20 people inside and for some reason, some of them were staring daggers at him.
"For some reason, these stares are hurting me. Hehe." he made a wry laugh after the statement.
 He examined the room and sitting on one of the tables, he saw Yume and the others. It seemed the other party noticed him looking at them.
"Mikuo! Over here! Over here!" Yume waved towards him with a wide smile.
 He quickly but carefully passed through the other tables until he reached the table where they were sitting.
"Yow!" Leu greeted while raising a hand, but for some reason, Leu was giving him a knowing look, or more likely, a somewhat perverted grin.
 He just frowned at him and looked at the others.
 He slowly took a seat by Leu's side and remained silent.
 Yume was just their staring at him with a smile.
 Clerica (as usual) was somehow panicking over something.
 Leu was still giving him that perverted grin.
 And the rest was just there, saying nothing at all.
(What's with this awkward situation?) he thought.
 Some moments passed and the situation remained the same. Tension was starting to build up around them and the people from the other tables were starting to look at their direction.
 Sweat was starting to form on Mikuo's forehead because of the pressure.
 Then suddenly—
"Ehem . . ."
 The people sitting on their table, including him looked towards the source of that noise while the eavesdroppers from the other tables suddenly looked away as if they were scared of something.
 The person they are looking at now as a lavender-haired beauty with an intimidating attitude, Yuri.
"Mikuo." she silently said.
"Y-y-yes?" he replied in a panic because he wasn't expecting that.
"Sorry about what we did earlier."
"Ahm . . . I don't really mind it though. Hehe."
 They once again remained silent after that.
(Geeeeeeez!) Mikuo was beginning to feel very awkward because of the repeating silence.
 He tried to think of something to use as a topic between them until he remembered something that he wanted to talk about with Yuri.
"Ahm . . . Ee . . . Yuri-san?"
"Y-y-yes?" he didn't expect that panicked way of answering from her. It made her look cute because of the usual serious expression she was wearing. It seemed she was feeling awkward as well.
"I need to tell you something important." he said that with a straight face.
"Hmmmm . . . What is it?" she tilted her head in wonder.
"It is about your guild invitation to me."
"Ah . . . Oh . . . Yeah . . . It seems you have already arrived to your decision."
"Yes."
 The others sharing the table with them became curious to his answer so they all looked towards him.
 Their faces were clearly suggesting that they were looking forward for a Yes as an answer except for one who was staring daggers at him (needless to say that it was Lan Lei).
"Uhm . . . It seems like I….."
"unnn unnnn unnnnnnnn!" the others just nodded as if urging him to continue.
"I guess I won't join your guild after all." he just said it with a nonchalant voice.
"Huh?" it's like the others didn't hear him, or to be more specific, didn't understand him. The others looked at him with shock on their faces.
"I can't join this guild, I'm not suited for groups, I'm better off alone."
"But….but…..but….." Yuri was in a loss for words.
"Sorry." he just gave a slight bow.
"But…but…but…." Leu also tried to complain.
"No buts. If you really know me, you'll also know that this is going to be my answer." But he immediately blocked his attempt.
"*kusu kusu kusu*" a girl with the same appearance as Yuri suddenly started sniveling, it was Yume who looked like she was about to cry.
"Hey . . . ." Mikuo tried to calm her down. But…..
"Yes! Hahahaha." one of them suddenly cheered and laughed.
 It was Lan Lei, she was laughing on her own at the end of their table as if she was crazy. That made Yume burst to tears.
"Gaaaaah!" she started to cry like a baby.
 The others on the table were just giving out a gloomy aura while looking down. The people from the other tables were once again starting to look at them.
"Hey hey hey. What's happening over there?"
"Yume-sama is crying?"
"What did that jerk told them?"
"Seriously? Yuri-sama is acting depressed?"
 They were just murmuring to each other, but for some reason, those murmurs were reaching his ears pretty well.
 He tried to calm them.
"Hey hey hey. I'm not done talking yet." she patted Yume's head.
"....." she stopped crying and slowly looked at him with tear-streaked eyes.
"I said that I won't join, but…." he intentionally stopped in the middle of his sentence.
"But?" Yume asked.
"That doesn't mean that I'm leaving already." he just smiled.
"Huh?" Yume's eyed widened because of that. The others who were being gloomy just now raised their faces toward him, even the laughing girl.
"What do you mean by that?" it was Yuri who asked.
"I just came to this city yesterday, so there are still a lot of things that I need to do, and I also need a place to stay while I'm here. So….. " he scratched his cheek before looking to another direction as if he was shy or something.
"So . . . ." light was slowly shining on Yume's eyes.
"Even if I don't join, can I stay here for a bit? I promise I'll help as long as I am here. I won't cause any problems either." he joined his hands together as if he was pleading.
 They became silent all of a sudden. It was obvious that they were thinking about the situation.
"Hmmmmm. Honestly, I do prefer if you joined instead." Yuri said that with her arms folded to each other.
"Sorry about that. I'll leave now." Mikuo stood up and was ready to leave.
"Hey, I'm not done yet."
"Huh?" Mikuo tilted his head.
"I do prefer it if you will join instead, but I didn't say that you cannot stay. Honestly, I will need some extra hands in here, especially those who has some potential."
"So that means . . . ." Mikuo was already guessing the next situation.
"Yup . . . actually, you can stay here as long as you want to. But…" Yuri gave him a smile after that.
"But?" Mikuo made a puzzled expression.
"I'll make sure that you will change your decision and make you stay here permanently, Yuoh Mikuo," Yuri declared that wearing a confident smile while pointing at him.