Holo gave Shun a quick nervous glance and frantically spoke for him, "Ah! He can’t speak...his name is...S-Shuros! That’s right...Shuros Ruphelt! Yep, that’s his name." He hesitantly told the guard, who grew a little suspicious. Holo couldn’t help but feel a little proud of the name he made up for Shun even though ’Shuros’ and ’Shun’ sound somewhat alike. Holo believed it would cause nothing but trouble if people knew Shun’s name.

"...Right. Ahem!Well, how old are you Shuros?...Ah!" The guard handed the paper and pointed at a specific section, "Just write your age down here for me please." Shun grabbed the pen and wrote the number twenty. He happened to overhear his age being talked about by the people who experimented on him.

"Twenty, huh...you’re planning on becoming an adventurer as well, right? I assume you also have no job."

Shun nodded his head in response.

The guard then started to write on Shun’s identification paper and then stamped inside the black box, "Approved". He then looked over the paper one final time before handing it to Shun, "Same goes for you, make sure you don’t lose it either, alright?" The guard then directed Shun to a wooden exit door. Shun and Holo held hands as they left the room and entered the great city that is Tilapia.

A gust of wind hit their face and Holo’s hood came off, making his wolf ears apparent. The guard stood in the doorway, watching them walk off into the distance with both of his hands behind his back. His eye narrowed and then widened, "...Is that?" He reached out his hand a little and stood there with his mouth open. "No, I’m probably just seeing things..." He rubbed his eyes and walked back inside the room while thinking to himself, "I should’ve asked them boy to remove their hoods. Oh well..." The guard wasn’t very serious about his job and didn’t feel it was worth following up on.

"Hey! Hey! Shun! Ack!" Holo then looked up at Shun, thinking for a moment, "...Maybe I should use the made-up name I gave you?" Holo beamed with excitement as he asked while wagging his tail, indicating a sense of pride from making up a name. From the perspective of passersbyers, it seemed that the kid’s brown hooded cloak was moving on its own, making Holo a target of curious stares. Shun looked at him and thought that he might be a little too keen in using the name, Shuros. Shun thought for a moment and looked at him with a blank expression. He gave a thumbs up, also agreeing that his name may cause unwanted problems.

They walked through the clean and bustling street that was paved with stone as well as a variety of buildings. One sold clothes, another sold pastries, which Holo couldn’t help but drool at while walking by once an aromatic whiff entered his nose. However, Shun dragged the reluctant Holo along, completely focused on first signing up to be an adventurer to gather money.

Holo asked a lady with dark blue hair for directions on where the adventurer’s guild was located. She leant forward and pinched Holo’s cheek, "My~aren’t you cute." A pout grew on his face.

"I’m not cute!" Holo’s face turned red out of embarrassment, and his cloak started to move about, showing he was very happy at being called cute.

"Oh my~how are you doing that?" The lady tilted her head to the side while resting her cheek in her palm, with the other hand she pointed to his moving cloak.

"Ah! It’s nothing you have to concern yourself about lady. Bleh!" He stuck his tongue rudely out at the lady while folding his arms.

"Haha! Sorry for asking." She said while smiling and then gave directions to the adventurer’s guild, "If you just walk ahead, take a right and keep walking forward until the second left, you’ll be at the adventurer’s guild." She then looked at Shun, "Make sure this one doesn’t get lost, ok? You are with him, right?"

Shun nodded, grabbed a hold of Holo and set off. Holo turned back to see the woman standing there waving and smiling, he responded by giving a little wave back and speaking quietly, "Thank you, lady."

The woman caught the gratitude by reading Holo’s lips and exclaimed, "You’re welcome!"

The wolf boy couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed and looked down while blushing. He thought to himself, "She was kind like the guard."

They both were able to find their way to the adventurers’ guild, a huge and decorated building with concrete steps leading up to the entrance. It stood out compared to the surrounding buildings as it towered in size and looked much fancier than any other building they’ve seen since entering Tilapia. A sign above the entrance read, "Welcome adventurers to Stasis!" Similar to Vastos’s adventurer’s guild, Voyage, Coldera also had its own adventurer’s guild, Stasis. Tension was at an all-time high between the two guilds as their respective countries had been battling with one another and it was clear as day that a massive war would eventually break out.

This did not mean that the guild ’Stasis’ belonged to the country of Coldera, they were a completely independent group that was not fully controlled by the official bodies of the country yet still served the country to some extent along with the adventurers in the guild. If aid were requested by the king to the leader of Stasis, he would most likely help as it was his country as well and the same could be said for Voyage.

"Let’s go become adventurers Shuros!" Holo excitedly jumped into the air after seeing the grand building from the outside. They entered and made their way in. One section of the room was furnished with chairs and a table, and a few rough-looking adventurers were laughing, eating and drinking together. There was one adventurer in the corner who caught Holo’s eye.

He pointed while tugging on Shun’s robe, "Look! He’s like me." His hood came down because of his movement making his ears completely out in the open. The adventurer he was pointing at had grey furry wolf ears along with spiky grey hair. His left ear had a clean vertical slit that wasn’t too deep. He had fierce eyes, and a tanned body. The man was strangely dressed very lightly, considering the freezing weather of Coldera. Strapped to his waist was a sword and he was also equipped with a knife that was attached to a strange-looking jacket, as it only covered the upper half of his body, leaving his waist and abs completely exposed.

He gulped down the mug of beer he was holding and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. This drunk-looking man replied in a rough and rude-souding voice, "Haaaah?!" He had a vicious glare to him and a scar across his eye. The wolf-man intimidated Holo, making him jump back a little. He got up and walked up to Holo with his hands in his pockets, his posture a little slouched, "I’m like you? Hah! A snivelling brat like you ain’t nothing like me." He leaned forward towards Holo.

Holo stepped back, "All I meant was that we have the same ea-"

"-I know what you meant! What’s a kid like you doing here?" He scratched the back of his head while straightening up.

"I’m becoming an adventurer!" Holo exclaimed while hiding behind Shun’s leg, on guard against the wolf man.

"That’s a nasty glare you have on you kid." He reached out to Holo but was stopped by Shun’s hand, who tightly clutched the brazen man’s forearm.

"Oi...who are you?" He glared at Shun, "Tch! Wanna fight or something?" The man looked irritated while he smiled, showing his sharp canines. "I’ve been itching for a fight!"

Shun’s blank expression changed, he also looked annoyed. The rude man then tossed his arm as Shun let go, they both stared, glaring at one another and the tension made all the adventurers stop speaking, they all diverted their gazes to the three of them. It looked like a fight was about to break out!

Just then a lady wearing glasses with black hair went up to them, dressed in a smart-looking uniform with a symbol of a snowflake on her right breast. "Ahem! There will be no fighting in this establishment."

Both of them turned to the girl with angry faces, who now looked to be shaking in fear.

"Haaah!" The wolf-man scowled at the woman.

"O-Or e-else I’ll have your licenses revoked!" She exclaimed despite her fear.

The wolf-man then calmed down a little and turned his back, "Fine, this guy looks like a wimp anyway. Tch!" As he was walking back to the table, again with his hands in his pocket, he turned his head over his shoulder and asked, "What’s your name?" His vicious-looking glare wasn’t directed at Shun but Holo, who was still clutching onto Sedah’s leg.

"M-My name’s Holo! H-Holo Ruphelt!"

"I see. Call me Zenith." The wolf man waved his hand and scratched the back of his head and grumbled under his breath with an annoyed look, "Thats the name bestowed onto me by her Empress after all...Valentina Drakov Vladimir." His eyes narrowed as he uttered her name, Zenith then sat down and continued to drink.