The Runic Alchemist - Chapter 751: Lost Bonds & New Recruits

Chapter 751: Lost Bonds & New Recruits

Damian asked her to take a seat. He knew her—well, the old Damian did. All memories of this person were filled with warmth and care. She was one of the last few loyal staff of the Sunblade family. Damian had assumed she was long gone from the broken household, but she was still here.

Maybe because of the timeline change experienced by Einar and Evrin—her path in life had diverted slightly somehow.

That was a terrifying thing, to be honest—not remembering your timeline had changed. Not even a transcendent or a fourth ranker like Sea Snake remembers that this is not their original timeline. But then again, if something had been changed by the dungeon before they entered Highsword Dungeon.. would Damian himself even remember that? Most likely, the answer was no. So was his timeline truly the original one to begin with?

Damian cleared his mind of the weird existential thoughts and focused on the beastman woman seated in front of him.

A perfect cosplayer was the only thing that came to his mind when he looked at her angular face with orange and dark fluffy ears. She was 37 years old and had quite an athletic build. And a pugilist by class. Her rank was still First Ranker, but she was on her third job and was very near ascending again. For normal civilians, the biggest issue was leveling. They could hunt the beasts and monsters roaming in the forest, but those were few and far between—not really ideal for leveling unless an exceptionally strong monster or mana beast showed up.

But then again, normal first and second rankers wouldn’t stand a chance against such a monster or beast in the wild.

“Hester,” Damian said, “how are you?”

The beastwoman seemed tense for a second, but his easygoing question made her smile.

“You remember me?”

“Yes, I do. When did you come here?” Damian asked.

“When Lord Sunblade left to join the war with your older brother—only Lady Tessa had remained behind, so when the word of Dawnstar’s defeat reached us, some of us decided to leave Dawnstar, and I brought Lady Tessa with me. She was barely functioning at the time, after losing all her sons and her husband. It took a lot of time for me to convince her to live again. I wouldn’t have been able to succeed if your two sisters had not tried their best along with me. I lied and told her there was a chance you might come back from the dungeon and that you would protect little Elias.

The main reason for me to come here today was that I wanted to properly thank you. You made my words come true. You protected little Elias—he told us all that happened. It is a miracle you all are still alive.”

“No, it should be me thanking you for looking out for her. I shouldn’t have taken him along. You have gone above and beyond for them,” Damian replied.

According to Baron Goldilock, there were only 3–4 thousand war prisoners taken by the Empire once the war had ended. Most people had died fighting; some were given a chance to retreat by their king and Maelor’s grandfather. There was a very low possibility of his birth father and other relatives having survived and been imprisoned.

Einar and Evrin had already told him about his mother and sisters living in the Sanctuary. His two elder sisters were married to two Dawnstar nobles’ second sons or lower-rank nobles like a titled knight. Both had their own houses. They weren’t exactly big and fancy, but they were living a relatively good life. Both even had multiple children.

Einar had given a good house to his mother. She had not mentioned the beastman woman living with her. Elias was currently living with her—that he knew.

“I should probably leave,” Hester said. “Once again, thank you so much for bringing him back.”

“Ah, you don’t want the job?” Damian asked.

“I wasn’t..”

“You cleared all the tests. And I would love to have someone I can trust. You are exactly the kind of person I am looking for,” Damian said with a smile. “Besides, the pay is 75 gold per month.”

“75!?” Hester’s eyes went wide.

That was triple what most Sanctum officials made. Her pay was going to be managed by Damian himself though, since it was for his five assistants. He just gave what government officials would make in his old world, if converted to this world’s currency.

Damian continued, “There would be too many applications if I mentioned that in the notice.”

Hester nodded mechanically. “That’s what high-level knights receive per month.”

“Trust is not easy to gain—I would not want anyone leaving afterwards.”

Hester came out of her daze, showing slight panic—though she looked mature and very sharp, her sentimental personality was in stark contrast to that. She was very reliable when one needed her, though. Perfect person to raise a child.

“I can read and write but I don’t know much about laws and Sanctum official duties. Maybe I am not—”

Damian cut her off mid-sentence. “If it’s convenient, please come to Sanctum tomorrow at 8 o’clock. You are hired.”

“But.. but..”

“If you have other duties, I will understand if you decide to not take this job.” Damian pointed to the side door and said, “Behind that are the people who I already interviewed. Can you wait there with the others so I can finish talking to the last two candidates?”

“Ah, yes. Of course,” Hester replied and got up, walking toward the door in a hurry.

“Think about it—you will indeed be a great help for me.”

Hester nodded, her eyes showed a slight surprise—her emotions were about to show, but she hastily controlled them and turned around.

Damian already had his five, but he still listened to the last two candidates, placed comments on their profile documents, and told them to wait in the other room too. His choice was unchanged. The last two were good, but the others were simply better for his needs. Damian took the profiles of five individuals after a minute and opened the door of the side room he had made just for the interviews in his office space.

“Dame Seraphina Duskvale, Celestine Grayspire, Agatha, Valen Highmarsh, Hester—for the rest, thank you for your time. Your profiles are with us, and we will contact you when a job suitable to you becomes available,” Damian said.