CHAPTER 61: BIRTH OF HEAVEN BENDERS

Luke came out of his room and was about to get down the stairs when he saw that both his sisters were on the ground floor. They were in their armors and fully equipped. Luke felt quite glad, as he could guess that they were finally about to leave after a torturous week of persuasion on him.

He hurriedly moved down the stairs, hiding his emotions and with a confused expression he asked.

"Are you going somewhere elder sister?"

"Oh, Luke! I’m sorry baby brother, but we have to leave today! An urgent message came from Frostbane! Our presence is required immediately!"

Luke was ecstatic, but he spoke with a sad expression. "It’s unfortunate, but what can be done when duty calls!"

"Will you really not come back with us Luke?" Layla asked, with hopeful eyes.

"I told you sister! I’m good here! I’ll try to visit both of you in the future, but in regards to coming back home, that won’t be possible!"

Anna was about to say something when Bren called for them.

"It’s time lady Anna!"

She nodded and looked at Luke with a soft expression. "Take care of yourself baby brother! We’ll come back immediately after finishing our work! Tell uncle we said goodbye." She then moved out with Bren following behind.

"You take care too elder sister!"

"Take care Luke!" Layla smiled warmly at Luke as he nodded in response.

She then followed Anna out as the door closed behind her.

A wide smile spread on Luke’s face as he punched the air, jumping in excitement. He was finally free. There wasn’t a single minute during the whole week when Anna had not tried convincing him to come back home. It was getting unbearable for him, but finally he felt relief.

With a gleeful smile on his face, he excitedly moved up the stairs, going to his room when he came face to face with Noah, who had just woken up and was coming out of the room.

"Why are you in such a good mood? Found some treasure or what?" Noah asked in his morning voice, rubbing his eyes, still not fully awake.

"Haha! Why wouldn’t I be in a good mood! My sisters have finally left!"

"WHAT!!?" Noah yelled out, his sleepy eyes opened wide in shock, fully awake now.

Luke’s eyebrows twitched. He was surprised at Noah’s intense reaction. He side eyed Noah as if asking why the hell are you so disappointed in that.

He scoffed at Noah and without replying back went ahead to his room.

"When did they leave?" Noah asked out loud.

"Just a few minutes back."

"You bastard! Why didn’t you wake me up!" Noah yelled at Luke.

Luke just disappointedly shook his head and closed the door on Noah’s face.

"Traitor! You’ll pay for this Luke! YOU’LL FUCKING PAY FOR THIS!!"

******

Luke and Noah were standing near the guild entrance, waiting for the other two to arrive. With his arms folded over his chest, Noah was not speaking to Luke and was avoiding looking at him.

Just then Ruby and Shane arrived.

"What’s with him?" Shane asked Luke, seeing Noah’s grumpy expression.

"Don’t know! He’s been angry and avoiding me from the morning."

"What’s the matter Noah?" Ruby asked with concern.

"Ignore him! I asked a million times, but he won’t answer. Let’s register our team and go on a mission as soon as we can!" Luke said excitedly and started walking towards the reception.

The others followed Luke, and Noah still with a grumpy face, followed silently.

"Welcome heroes! I see the squad has grown!" Mia greeted with a wide smile, as Luke and the others approached. "How can I be of help today?"

"We want to register our team miss Mia!" Luke said.

"Oh! Great! I’ll need your adventurer ID’s for the registration and also, a fee of hundred gold coins."

"Hundred? Isn’t this too much?" Shane asked, surprised.

"The fee is high so that not anyone can form teams! Or else every other day new teams will form and after a few days break off because of dissatisfaction among the members!"

"That in return increases our workload as we have to update the information on the records! That’s why the fee bracket is raised higher to prevent this from happening. Also, let me remind you, the team dissolution fee is five hundred gold coins!"

Luke and the others nodded in understanding. Noah kept his silence as he already knew about this.

Luke took out his ID and also collected other’s. Noah handed his ID without a word, his face stoic, avoiding eye contact with Luke.

Luke completely ignored him and handed the ID’s to Mia. She quickly inputted the data in a form and then looked up at Luke.

"There are three E rank members and a D rank so though your team should start from the E rank, I’m alleviating your team to the D rank considering your previous mission record."

"Also, what is the name for your team?" Mia asked.

"Heaven Benders!" Luke stated with pride.

Surprise flashed through Mia’s face; it was quite the aspirational name. She smiled and jotted the name down on the form.

"And the leader is?" she asked.

Luke turned back hoping to discuss it with his team. But what he got was intense refusal from Ruby and Shane.

"I don’t want such titles!" Noah rejected without even looking at Luke, asking him to be the leader even though he wasn’t saying it clearly.

Luke sighed and helplessly turned towards Mia. "It’s me!"

Mia smiled, she was fascinated seeing such a collective approval for Luke, as most of the time, the team fought among each other to be the leader.

Taking the form and their ID’s, she moved inside and after a few minutes she came out and handed their ID’s back.

Luke looked at his ID plate, it was same as before with a new line added below, ’TEAM AFFILIATION- HEAVEN BENDERS (D)’.

Excitement rushed inside him as a smile spread on his face. Another step forward in his adventuring life.

Though Noah acted indifferent, unknowingly his lips parted into a smile. But he immediately brushed it away, remembering that he was furious with Luke.

Ruby chuckled seeing Noah. Shane was ecstatic, he rubbed the name engraved on the ID plate, caressing it with pride and emotion.

Just then a guild employee came to Mia and whispered something in her ears. Mia nodded and then turned towards Luke.

"The Guildmaster has called for you! He said he wants to discuss about a special mission!"

Luke and the others were surprised. But there was also excitement as whenever the guildmaster has called for them, the mission and rewards they received were never disappointing.

"Let’s go team!"