Chapter 300: New Member
"Are you two done eating?" Lake had been sitting here watching the two of them eat for a while now and he didn't want to anymore. "Yeah just let us clean up and we'll show you to a room you can use." Lake didn't need to sleep yet but getting a room sounded nice since the last time he had slept he had been in a public room so he didn't say this.
A few seconds later they were walking towards an empty part of the temple where there were plenty of empty rooms that had beds in them. "Mark one of them as yours so no one else tries to move in while you're here." Seeing Tiff was pointing at the door to the room that was closest, Lake got closer and saw there was a place for him to write his name with chalk.
Getting his name onto the door Lake didn't go into the room and said. "What are you two doing for the rest of the day?" Lake was fine with doing things on his own but it was always nice to have people around who knew stuff about the place you were. "Well I'm going to go to bed, I need to sleep."
Hearing Tiff's answer Lake looked at Dawn who didn't seem like she was tired at all. "I'm going back to training. I would like to invite you but I can't." Hearing he couldn't go with either of them, Lake understood why they had shown him to a room; they had been hoping to get rid of him without what was happening right now.
If he had been tired neither of them would have had to turn him down like this. "Well in that case I guess I'll be going back to the library." Lake wasn't going to make it hard for them and just walked away to go read the book he had kind of started the last time he was in the library.
...
Watching Lake walk away Tiff looked at Dawn who was already looking at her. "Should I ask the Temple Head if he can go to train with the 23?" Tiff understood why Dawn felt guilty with the fact Lake had saved their lives but he wasn't a member of the Temple or someone they could completely trust just yet.
"No, he's probably safe to let near everyone but I don't think it's worth it to take the risk." All they would gain was Lake wouldn't feel left out but he seemed fine when he walked away like he didn't care if they were around or not. "Alright, I have to go to train. I'll see you later after you wake up." Seeing Dawn start to walk away, Tiff headed for her room.
...
Entering the library Lake saw the room was a lot more full this time so he took one of the only floor pads that was empty and sat down after grabbing the book. Sadly it wasn't the one he had sat in last time but he decided to ignore the fact they took his seat and would just focus on reading.
"Hello again." Looking up to see who talked to him before he could even open his book, Lake said. "Hello." It was the man from the cafeteria that had asked him if he was hungry earlier. "I was about to leave to train when you walked in and wanted to take the chance to talk to you. I'm Greg, I'm friends with Tiff and Dawn and I wanted to thank you for saving them."
Lake had expected some people to say thank you like this but it had actually taken longer than he had expected. "No problem. I've been planning to join the temple for a while so I wouldn't say no to the Temple Head if she needed something." Greg didn't react to what he said like Lake expected but that was fine because not everyone reacted with their face.
It made them harder to read but he wasn't too worried about getting to know this person or figuring out how they thought. "In that case I hope we get to do something together once you're a member." Lake saw this interaction as a bit odd but decided he didn't need to worry like he would normally if someone was being overly friendly. He had just realized this was one of the people that had been in Davin's office when he had looked for traitors so whoever Greg was in the Temple they were probably just a nice person he didn't need to keep an eye on.
"Sounds good." This was the end of their conversation so after a wave goodbye Lake looked back down to his book and started to actually read. It didn't take long for Lake to realize this book was worded in a way that you needed to be more knowledgeable than him in magic to understand it but he decided to just keep reading on the off chance something stuck.
Twenty or so minutes after he started reading someone tapped him on the shoulder and whispered. "The Temple Head wants to see you. She's in her office." Seeing this as a chance to get becoming a member out of the way, Lake put the book down and walked out of the reading room and towards the Temple Heads office.
Seeing the door open, Lake walked in and saw the Temple Head alone. "Hello." Lake threw out his go to greeting as he sat down in front of the Temple Heads desk. "Hello Lake I saw you walk off to lunch with Tiff and dawn and figured our business could wait. Did you enjoy the food?"
"I didn't eat, I keep food in my bag at all times." Lake knew it would have been easier to lie in this situation but plenty of people had seen him not eating and while there would be no reason for the Temple Head to double check if he had eaten Lake didn't think making such an obvious lie was necessary.
"Are you worried about poison? Wait, no that wouldn't make sense." Lake couldn't remember if he had ever mentioned what his skill did to the Temple Head when he had been kept safe inside of one of the Temples of Light but he felt like he did. "Did I tell you about my skill that reverses the effects of poison the first time we met?"
"I think it was you who told me but either way I did know about it. So why do you carry your own food if it's not a safety thing?" It seemed Lake wasn't the only one who didn't remember their conversation very well. "Quality. There's someone in the Alchemist guild that makes food that's much better than the norm."
Lake didn't think Lucas would mind if this was all he said about Millie's food so he didn't feel bad about telling someone who wasn't a member of the Alchemist guild. "Oh, sounds nice. Do they plan on selling it?" Lake felt like this was where he needed to stop the conversation so Lucas didn't get mad at him in the future so he said. "If they do it would be successful."
It seemed the Temple Head understood the fact he wasn't supposed to talk about what she had just asked and she quickly changed the subject. "So Dawn stopped by a second ago and asked if you could join them in training and while I said no it did make me want to ask if you would want to become a member now. I remember you promising when you were leaving in the past saying you wanted to become stronger first and I think we both know whatever it was you did while in the Alchemist guild you're more than ready."
"I was planning on asking actually. Tiff said something about you being able to make this happen if you wanted so I figured skipping the normal procedure would make it easier on me and faster for all of us."
"I already know you can use Light magic so there's not really a point in giving you the normal tests. There is a question I need to ask you though. What type of member do you want to be?" Lake didn't know what his options were so he asked. "What are my choices?"
"Well there are members that are part of the Temple and there are others that are in the temple's army. While it's possible to be both, I don't think you're the type to devote your life to the God of Light." Lake understood what she was saying. "Yeah I just want to join the fight against the Demon Lord. I'm really not certain on which god I'll be devoted to yet."
"Alright if you just want to be a member of the army usually I would be sending you off to one of the places our troops are but you're too useful so you'll be living here for now." Lake nodded slightly when he heard he would be living here for the time being. His situation in the Alchemist guild was much better but the Insider wanted him here for some reason so he would just listen to what it thought. "So am I a member now?"
"Not quite yet, come with me we need to get you a way to show that you're one of us and you need to pick it out." Getting up and following behind the Temple Head, Lake thought back to the ring Helain had used to show she was a member of the Metal Temple and wondered if he was about to get something like that.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel