Miri and Anne soon returned to the guild hall, hoping for Miri to receive her solo license. However, when they arrived at the counter, the receptionist told them this: “You have failed the solo license test.”

  Both Miri and Anne gaped at the short, curly-mustached man as if not believing what they’d just heard. After taking a brief moment to process the news, Miri slammed her palms onto the counter in pure outrage.

  “What?! What do you mean I just failed the solo license test?!” Miri asked angrily. “You just saw me pass it. I went through the entire test with my armor plate still in one piece and under the time limit! What gives, man?! What did I do wrong?!”

  “There’s got to be a mistake,” Anne added with slight panic in her tone. “I have witnessed her passing of the test as well. There’s no way she could have failed. There’s got to be an error.”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to tell you what you did wrong on your test,” the receptionist said with as stoic and professional of a tone as possible as though that would somehow make the news better to accept. “All I can tell you is that you’ve failed the test. Simple as that. Now, if you’d like to take the test again, you’re welcome to try. You’re just going to have to pay the application fee again.”

  “To hell with this bullshit!” Miri bellowed, slamming her palms onto the counter out of anger.

  Then, turning around, she saw three people sitting at the lounge of the guild hall that seemed awfully familiar. Three young men, donned in extravagantly designed knightly armor, each of a different color: red, blue, and green. As they sat at their seats, they turned their gazes towards Miri, wearing conceited grins on their faces.

  Oh no, Miri thought, suddenly coming to a realization. I see what’s going on here. I see what this is about.

  While Miri gazed at the three douchebag knights of the Golden Lion guild with a murderous aura, Anne instead looked at them with anxious worry. Carrying that intense indignance in her heart, Miri stomped towards the trio of knights in order to confront them, with Anne skittishly trailing behind her.

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  “You!” Miri growled, almost like a savage animal ready to rip them to shreds. “You three must have something to do with this, didn’t you?!”

  “I haven't the slightest idea what you mean, Miriam Caldwell,” the red knight said, feigning innocence while maintaining his detestable, arrogant smirk.

  “Don’t you play dumb with me!” Miri snapped. “I just failed my solo license test despite clearly passing it! You three must have been the ones behind it! You must have bribed the receptionist or something into giving me a failing grade! That’s got to be it!”

  “Woah, those are some vile accusations you are tossing at us,” the blue knight said.

  “Yeah, you shouldn’t accuse someone of a crime when you have no evidence,” the green knight said.

  “Not that we would ever admit to such an act, but, hypothetically speaking, if a person was to offend me in any sort of way…” the red knight said, standing up to meet Miri’s gaze with an egotistical glare. “...that would be exactly how I’d punish them. Bar them from passing the solo license test. Bar them from finding any decent guild through the public guild halls. Bar them from achieving any kind of success within this city for as long as they live and breathe.”

  Miri clenched her fists as she stared daggers back at the knight, her rage reaching to almost the boiling point. “Why you…”

  “I did warn you, didn’t I?” the red knight said. “I’ve told you before that it would not be wise to offend us, that we are part of noble families with a great deal of power within this city, that we are capable of making sure you never get another decent-paying job in this city ever again. And we are nothing if not men of our word.” Right as she lifted her fist to try to punch him in his smug face, he held up a waving finger to halt her. “Nuh-uh-uh, I don’t recommend getting physical around here. This is a public place after all. There are a lot of witnesses around. You might very well cause a scene and end up getting arrested for it. You don’t want to make things worse for yourself, now do you?”

  As much as Miri wanted to punch him in the face, she had to hold herself back, realizing the truth behind his words. She gritted her teeth as she was forced to watch the three knights casually walking away and leaving the guild, laughing mockingly as they did so.

  “Oh, and just so you’d remember, let us tell you our names. I’m Richard Robertson, part of the Robertson family,” the red knight said, shouting back at the mage.

  “And I’m Brian Bradford, part of the Bradford family,” the blue knight said.

  “And I’m Gregory Gilbert, part of the Gilbert family,” the green knight said.

  Together, the knights walked out the guild hall as they continued to laugh with a mocking sneer along the way, leaving Miri fuming with immense anger.