Rowan leaped from the front yard up to his room.
With [Sneak] he barely made a sound.
He dropped his backpack on the bed but took the Mountain Eagle with him and dropped back down, pretending he had just arrived home.
At the last second he paused and ran through the possibilities.
’This woman must be connected to Cordelia. But what are her intentions? Or is this about the two I killed?’ Before Rowan could answer his own question, the woman inside came to the door and opened it.
A staggeringly tall woman, almost the same height as him, filled the doorway in a loosened suit and tie.
"Oh hi, who thought handsome maybe?" Her voice was deep and alluring.
"Rowan! You came back late." Helen called from the stove, smiling.
Rowan read her in one glance.
"And you are?" He walked inside calmly as the tall woman stepped aside and closed the door behind him before sitting back down at the table.
"Honey, come here." His mother waved him over.
"This is Cassandra. We met at the single mums group a few years back. She said she was passing by, so she stopped in!" Helen was bright and bubbly as she made the introduction, apparently unaware of any connection between this woman and her son.
"Hi, Miss Cassandra. I’m Rowan." Rowan introduced himself politely.
"Hello, Rowan." Cassandra’s voice was low and warm. "I’ve heard so much about you."
He sensed no immediate danger, so he tried to excuse himself and head upstairs.
Whatever this woman had planned involved him, he could see the eagerness barely contained behind her eyes the moment she laid them on him.
But she did not seem ill-intentioned. It’s best to leave her be.
Helen set a mug in front of him and squeezed his shoulder.
"Cassandra said she wanted to chat with you. Keep her company for a bit, okay?"
"Yes, Mom..." His plan to leave had failed. He sat down across from her.
"Very sweet." Cassandra watched him over the rim of her teacup.
"I also wanted to thank you," she said casually. "For saving my stupid daughter a few days ago."
Rowan picked up his tea. "I’m not sure I follow."
"You saved my precious Cordelia and her cute little puppy from getting killed. Does that ring a bell?" Her words were direct and deliberate.
"No..." Rowan kept his expression flat. This woman had clearly read some files on him.
At the stove, his mother laughed without turning around. "Rowan, sweetheart, she’s a hunter. And the master of a big guild! Maybe you can learn something from her."
"Hm." Helen chuckled and went back to cooking, humming softly to herself.
"You didn’t tell your mother, did you? Bad boy. I like that." Cassandra’s smile widened.
"That is not your concern, madam." Rowan’s voice was cold and without hesitation.
Cassandra’s mouth twitched.
"It’s cute," she said. "In just two days you managed to outwork half my guild and you didn’t breathe a word of it."
Rowan’s hand tightened around the Mountain Eagle’s handle.
"My my. Quite a toy you have there."
Cassandra set her cup down. Then, without any emphasis, she lifted one hand off the table and made a small gesture.
The gun floated out of Rowan’s hand and into hers.
Cassandra caught it and turned it over with the trigger discipline.
"Not something a beginner should be carrying around, don’t you think?" She smiled.
Rowan smiled back, a cold one.
’As expected of a B-rank hunter.’
B-rank was the upper echelon of hunters. At that point you stopped being an extraordinary human and started becoming something closer to the beings found in fantasy or science fiction.
"Anything to say now?"
She kept her eyes on him.
Rowan exhaled slowly through his nose.
"Yes. I’m the one who saved your daughter. What do you want?"
He was not in a position to do anything, not with his mother standing nearby.
Cassandra laughed and spun the gun in her hand like a professional. "I just came to visit an old friend and thank the boy who saved my daughter. And maybe give a little reward to a good boy."
"Is my mother going to be part of this conversation?" Rowan glanced sideways at his mother setting the table for dinner.
"I already know you’re a hunter, baby." Helen said, placing a steak with garlic cloves and salad in front of him and Cassandra.
Rowan looked at his mom and saw the silliest smile on her face.
"Come on, your dad was a hunter too. I know one when I see one." Helen kissed him on the forehead before sitting down in the last chair. "Listen to what Aunty Cassandra has to say. She helped me a lot when I was raising you alone."
Helen was not strong, but Cassandra was. Both were single mothers, one by calamity and one by choice, and Cassandra had helped her more than most knew.
’I never knew this.’ In the past Rowan had never bothered to talk much with his mother about her life before she died.
Cassandra tapped the top of the gun. "I’ve seen these before, by the way. Salesmen came through the guild twice last quarter. Nice weapon but too expensive."
She pushed it back to Rowan.
"A gun like this and you’d need to clear almost twice as many gates just to break even on ammo costs alone."
"Sure." Rowan nodded. "If you’re looking at profit per gate."
"What else would you look at?" Cassandra was intrigued.
"Gates cleared per day." Rowan said it simply.
Cassandra paused and frowned.
"That is an interesting way to look at things," she said.
"Is that why you have been running around soloing twenty gates in two days like a maniac?"
"You did your homework." He spoke.
"And no. Whether or not I have this gun, I’m going to clear as many gates as I can anyway. Because I don’t care about money."
His view was the opposite of Cassandra’s, and of the entire current hunter market.
He wanted to eliminate every gate at any cost, while Cassandra as guild master had to justify every expense with profit.
"Interesting boy you are." Cassandra reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and slid a cream-colored envelope across the table toward him.
Her name was embossed on the front; her signature already signed across the seal.
"My guild, Silver Claw. A personal invitation from the guild master."
Rowan looked at the envelope without touching it.
"Silver Claw is the number three guild in town."
"You know me." Cassandra was proud of what she had built. After her divorce she had used the settlement money to fund a local guild and grown it into the town’s protector.
"I don’t like guild politics."
He pushed the envelope back across the table with one finger.
Cassandra’s smile dropped. It was not a reassuring thing to see.
"You say that," she murmured. "But you never know until you try, do you."
She slid the envelope back toward him. "One raid. Just one. A party run with one of our teams."
Rowan looked at the envelope. But before he could refuse again, she added.
"I know you’re stuck at level 8. Without a guild it would be very hard to get access to D-rank gates." Her words landed precisely.
Rowan felt the defeat settle in. He had cleared almost ten gates today.
Even with Lee alongside him, his level had not moved once.
He had hit the ceiling of E-rank. To move forward, he needed D-rank gates.
"Just one?" Rowan asked, picking up the envelope.
"One. The earliest slot is in three days if you accept now." Cassandra confirmed.
One D-rank party ran with a real team.
He had not tested himself in a competent group since coming back.
And she was his mother’s friend.
"Fine," he said. "One."
Cassandra’s smile widened.
"Wonderful~"