Karen’s face instantly turned a light, brilliant shade of red after being complimented, her hands flying to her burning cheeks.
“Step up first, dear.
Let’s get this over with.” Helios said in a soft voice
Kaelen slowly revived from his despair, narrowing his eyes as he watched Karen take her position.
He leaned toward Flair, muttering a tense, highly defensive question.
“Do you know why he called her first?
What’s the strategic metrics behind that baseline choice?”
Flair instantly seized the golden opportunity to completely shatter the boy’s remaining sanity and roast him into oblivion.
She leaned forward, her eyes gleaming with absolute, malicious joy.
“Because she’s clearly prettier than you are, Mr.
Beast tamer,” Flair smirked, her voice dripping with a thick coat of sarcasm.
“He obviously didn’t want to jeopardize his expensive magical camera by taking your shots first.
And seriously, I don’t blame the old man—with a face like yours, you could easily scare the camera’s lens and shatter it instantly!”
Kaelen recoiled as if struck by a physical wave, his hands flying to his chest in profound, agonizing pain as Flair’s high-velocity insults cut straight through his final layers of defense.
Old Man Helios gestured with a gnarled finger toward the far side of the dimly lit room.
“Step in front of that white cloth over there, dear.
That’s where we take the shots.”
Karen nodded nervously, her boots clicking softly against the stone floor as she stepped in front of the lens and positioned herself against the plain background.
Her head was held straight just as Helios instructed.
She tried her absolute best to maintain a beautiful, professional smile, but her shoulders were shaking a bit out of pure shyness.
Sensing her nerves, Flair suddenly popped out from behind the camera, pulling a hideous, crossed-eyed face to make her laugh.
It worked too well—Karen let out a startled gasp, her cheeks flushing a bright pink as the camera flashed with a loud crack of blue light, perfectly capturing an incredibly cute, entirely flustered photo.
“Nicely done, dear,” Old Man Helios muttered softly, his grumpy demeanor melting away into a gentle smile.
“She looks perfect.”
Karen exhaled a massive sigh of relief, her face still burning a light red as she walked over to show Lisa and Flair her shot on the magical display.
Seeing the commotion, Kaelen stepped in to catch a glimpse of the photo over their shoulders, but the moment his boots crossed into the booth, the old man snapped.
Helios aggressively gestured at him, his bushy beard shaking with annoyance.
“Quick!
You’re next!” Helios shouted at him, waving his gnarled hands frantically.
“What are you doing over here?
Go over there by the cloth!”
Kaelen recoiled slightly, raising his hands in a defensive, high-status architectural posture as his executive branding took another immediate hit.
“Okay, okay!
You didn’t have to shout like that,” Kaelen muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes as he aggressively adjusted his dark cloak.
“Talk about zero customer care”
When Kaelen stepped into the booth, Old Man Helios’s pleasant demeanor vanished instantly.
He gestured aggressively with a gnarled hand.
“Alright, you.
Look straight at the camera and give me a friendly smile.
Try not to look like you’re plotting a municipal coup.”
Kaelen quickly pivoted his posture, turning his face sharply to the side to strike what he believed was a high-tier, dramatic side-profile pose.
He forced an incredibly wide, aggressive smile, flashing all of his teeth directly toward the wall.
Old Man Helios’s jaw dropped before his face contorted in pure rage.
He slammed his fist against the side of the wooden contraption, yelling at the top of his lungs.
“Boy, what the hell is that?!
What are you doing?! The source of this chapter is g.com.
You came to a photo shoot, not a dentist clinic!
Why are you showing all your teeth like that to empty space?!”
Kaelen froze, his face instantaneously turning a bright, burning shade of crimson.
He felt profoundly embarrassed and flustered, his grand executive metrics crumbling in a split second.
From behind the counter, Lisa and Flair immediately burst into a synchronized wave of loud chuckles.
Even Karen, who adored him so much, clamped both hands over her mouth, her shoulders shaking violently as she tried her absolute best to suppress it, but she ultimately couldn’t help letting out a soft, giggling snort.
Swallowing his pride, Kaelen choked down his embarrassment, rapidly dropping the side-look protocol.
He faced forward and forced his stiff facial muscles into a completely standard, appropriate pose.
At least Pixel stayed over with the bags for this part, he thought to himself in a desperate bid for comfort.
If that chaotic furball were standing right here, she would have doubled down on the laugh and made me feel ten times worse.
With his teeth safely tucked away, Kaelen locked his eyes onto the lens.
But the moment the camera gears began to whir, he completely failed to maintain a normal look.
Ignoring the instructions yet again, his muscle memory took over as he instinctively channeled his inner undercover boss persona, leveling his shoulders with absolute architectural authority.
He narrowed his eyes into a sharp gaze and delivered a dark, highly menacing, villainous smirk that practically screamed top-tier criminal mastermind.
To make matters worse, right as Helios clicked the shutter, Pixel silently sneaked into the frame.
Having escaped the bags unnoticed, the chaotic cat suddenly popped up right beside Kaelen’s shoulder, flashing a wide, highly smug grin that perfectly ruined his calculated, high-status pose in a single shot.
“And…
done!” the camera guy grunted, abruptly closing the wooden shutter of his lens with a heavy snap.
“Wait, let me see that—” Kaelen started, leaning forward with an immediate, deep frown.
“I need an executive-grade retake.
You see, that baseline parameter was completely compromised by unauthorized feline interference.
I require a professional, high-fidelity corporate shot to establish my international-grade talent—”
But the old guy wouldn’t listen to a single word of his logistical explanation.
“I don’t have all day here, boy,” Old Man Helios grunted, completely refusing as he slapped a heavy palm onto the top of the magical camera.
“Perfect.
Done.
Get out.” He waved his gnarled hands aggressively, shooing them away before Kaelen could argue any further to salvage his ruined branding.
“Thank you, Old Man Helios!” the girls called out cheerfully as they turned to leave.
Kaelen was the only one who remained silent, his hood pulled incredibly low as he marched alongside them, muttering low-grade administrative threats under his breath.
They grouped back up with Flair, ascending the cellar stairs and heading straight toward the main lobby.
Flair slapped Karen’s finalized paperwork into her hands with a crisp, dramatic snap.
“Alright squad, listen up.”
Everyone immediately turned to hear what she was saying, except for Kaelen, who stayed looking away, his arms tightly crossed as he remained deeply pissed about the disastrous ID photo the old man had just taken.
“Wait about forty eight hours and your official adventurer IDs will be completely done processing—except for Kaelen’s, since his exact ranking class is currently completely unknown to our database.”
Kaelen immediately stormed out from his corner, his eyes wide in absolute disbelief.
“Whattt?!
What do you mean still unfinished?!
How come Karen will get hers but not me?!”
A single drop of sweat rolled down Flair’s temple, but she rapidly adjusted her posture, forcing a bright, comforting smile to try and pacify the boy before he completely blew a fuse.
“Look, I’m not really against you or anything, Kaelen, but…
as you saw, the globe literally cracked and shattered into pieces before we could officially log your class.
The system physically cannot process an adventurer ID without a verified rank status.”
She beamed at him with her absolute highest tier of professional customer care, trying to soothe his ego as he stood there looking like a volcano about to erupt.
“Just come back tomorrow morning for a re-test when we have a fresh globe deployed from the vault so we can officially finish your registration process Kaelen, okay?”
Kaelen leaned heavily against the counter, cutting his eyes away as he muttered silently in deep annoyance, his lips barely moving as he cursed the fragile, low-grade guild tech under his breath.
Flair completely ignored his silent tantrum, keeping her bright, high-energy customer service smile locked onto Karen and Lisa instead as she waved them off and added, “Come back after two days , okay?”
“Understood,” Lisa nodded, already mentally preparing for another chaotic field trip.
As they turned to leave, marching out of the massive oak double doors, Flair leaned half her body over the reception counter, waving a cheerful, wildly animated goodbye.
“See ya tomorrow, Class E-Minus!
Don’t break any more furniture on your way out!”
Kaelen didn’t even look back.
He just kept moving forward in a thoroughly angry, rigid manner, his boots slamming against the floorboards.
Flair kept waving goodbye at them until the heavy doors slammed shut, cutting off the noise of the lobby.
She then put her hand down slowly, the chaotic customer service persona completely fading away.
Looking down at the scattered crystal shards remaining on the floor, she said in a faint, thoughtful voice, “So his name is Kaelen…
he’s rather an interesting guy.
I look forward to seeing you again.”
Kaelen stormed down the bustling street, his arms crossed so tightly over his chest it looked like he was trying to hold his remaining executive dignity together by force.
He marched with aggressive, stiff-legged strides, muttering in a deeply annoyed, high-velocity whisper that cut through the midday noise.
“Stupid, fragile, low-grade, bargain-bin shattering globe…
can’t even process a standard baseline registration without a total system meltdown…
completely halting my executive deployment metrics on day one…” He paused, his jaw twitching violently as his mind drifted back to the subterranean studio below.
“And that ancient, senile cameraman!
Refusing a corporate-level retake?!”
He gritted his teeth, his inner analytical clock spinning in pure despair.
Now when that photo is processed and permanently plastered onto my ID, I’ll look like a rogue demon king in my official documentation!
And to make matters worse, my right hand man will be a furball posing right next to me with a flashing smug grin!
On his shoulder, Pixel didn’t care about the branding crisis at all.
She simply shifted her weight, curling up tighter on his tactical bag and letting out a soft, immensely satisfied purr that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle.
Kaelen immediately picked up on the auditory cue, his eyes narrowing into frosty slits as he shot a sideways glance at his shoulder.
“You better not be laughing at me, Pixel.
You caused this pain to me…
you are a hundred reasons why I’m in this administrative mess right now.
So I dare you, just one more laugh and I’ll put you down right here, and you’ll walk the rest of the distance to the tavern on your own four paws!”
He let out a sharp, heavy breath, air blowing furiously from his nose like an angry bull.
His hands clenched into tight fists inside his jacket pockets, the fabric straining against his knuckles as he tried—and failed—to stabilize his crashing emotional parameters.
Karen stopped walking, her shoulders hitching upward as she stepped directly into his path to cut off his blind, angry momentum.
Her body language was an absolute study in nervous hesitation; she hovered half a step back, her fingers fidgeting aggressively as she twisted the hem of her cloak into tight, frantic knots.
She looked up at him through her eyelashes, her wide, starry eyes radiating a deep, protective concern that completely broke through her usual shyness.
“Kae, are you alright?” she asked softly, her voice trembling slightly with genuine anxiety as she scanned his locked jaw.
“You—you really need to calm down or you’re going to pop a vein.
Your baseline stress levels are completely off the charts right now.”
Lisa, walking on his other side, was just chuckling quietly to herself.
Her spine remained perfectly erect to project her standard elite status, but she kept one hand pressed firmly over her mouth, her shoulders shaking violently as her analytical mind ran endless loops of his absolute structural collapse.
But Pixel didn’t mind his high-velocity threats in the slightest; she completely ignored the warning and just kept right on chuckling telepathically in his mind, intentionally sending high-frequency, mocking mental waves straight into his cognitive grid.
Kaelen’s jaw clenched so tightly the muscle visibly twitched.
He let out a sharp, dismissive scoff, completely cutting off all visual and verbal contact with his team.
Pivoting his posture forward with aggressive, rigid momentum, he yanked the fabric of his dark cloak tightly around his face, throwing his hood up to block out the world entirely.
Ignoring Karen’s worried glances and completely bypassing Lisa’s muffled laughter, he stormed ahead down the cobblestone road.
His boots delivered a furious, rhythmic cadence against the pavement as he left the vanguard half a pace behind, his eyes fixed immovably on the dirt path forward, thoroughly determined to retrograde back to the tavern in absolute, simmering isolation.
With Kaelen’s executive ego thoroughly audited and reduced to absolute monochrome despair, his magical rank hovering precariously in an undocumented legal void, and his official ID photo permanently ruined by a smug feline intervention, their hilarious, chaotic first day at the Silver Sieve Guild officially came to a close.
Little did our unranked vanguard know, a far more lethal operational crisis was already spinning its gears in the dark, waiting to completely shatter their baseline security parameters.