Somewhere in Whitebridge City…
"How are the other members?" a middle-aged Dwarf asked his subordinate who had just returned from his mission.
"Not good," the subordinate reported. "Most of our members are currently on the run and have left the city. Mara has been captured by a high-ranking Interrogator. She is currently being subjected to torture and has been fed with truth serums. It's quite fortunate that none of the Guild's members in the city know of our true identities. Using a third party to relay orders to them was a great decision on our Guild Leader's part."
"This is not something to celebrate about," the middle-aged man commented. "Now that everyone is either captured, on the run, or, even worse, dead, our operations in Whitebridge City have to be in a complete halt. Did you find out any information about who is responsible for this mess?"
The subordinate nodded.
"Although it isn't confirmed yet, one of Mara's subordinates managed to escape from capture and relayed the latest information he had to our branch here in Whitebridge City," the subordinate replied. "According to his report, none of the serums were preserved, and Mara had no choice but to destroy the records of the experiments before she got captured. However, he did mention that it was a Half-Elf who foiled their plans in Oakwood Town."
The middle-aged man sighed. Mara was a promising researcher who was loyal to their cause. Losing her to the authorities was a heavy blow to their Guild, and thinking of it made the Branch Leader of Twilight Rain clench his fist in anger.
"There is only one Half-Elf in the Kingdom of Gweliven, so it is safe to assume that he is the same person that destroyed the abomination in the Territory of Norria, right?"
"If the reports that we received are true then it is definitely him."
The middle-aged man sighed a second time before giving his order to his subordinate.
"Send word to the Main Branch and inform the Guild Master that the Half-Elf is starting to become a nuisance," the middle-aged man ordered. "Tell them that our hands are tied at the moment, and they should send one of the Reapers to deal with him."
"Sir, having one of the Reapers to deal with him is quite wasteful, no?"
"Fool! It is best to nip the problem in the bud before it grows up enough to threaten us. Just follow my orders. Let the Main Branch decide whether a Reaper would be sent or not."
The subordinate nodded before leaving the room. Although he felt that having one of the Initiates of the Guild deal with the Half-Elf was an overkill, he still decided to follow his Leader's orders.
The Twilight Guild had two Assasination Groups, the Reapers and the Slayers. The Reapers were the assassins who had the Rank of Initiates. They were responsible for the assasination of people who had the rank of Initiate and below.
They were often called the Rookie Killers, because countless Apostles had already died in their hands.
Slayers, on the other hand, was a specialized team of Rankers, who dealt with the Assasination of high profile targets, such as high-ranking nobles and politicians, but not Royals.
It was almost impossible to assassinate members of the Royal Family since all of them were guarded by the best High-Rankers within the kingdom.
The Branch Leader of Twilight Rain believed that as long as one of the Reapers took action, the annoying Half-Elf, who kept on getting in their way, would finally meet his end.
—-
Meanwhile, on the road that led to Whitebridge City…
"Big Brother, it will take us at least five more hours to arrive at the city," Colette said.
She was currently seated beside Lux inside the carriage, which was arranged by the Guild Leader of the Adventurer's Guild, to take them to Whitebridge City. He had even hired Grade A Apostles as guards to ensure that they would reach the city safely.
In truth, Lux felt that it would have been faster if they all just traveled riding their Wargs instead of a carriage. However, since the Guild Master, Colton, had already dealt with their means of transport, he felt that it would be impolite to reject his kind offer.
"That means that we will arrive just before sunset," Lux replied as he looked outside the window of the carriage. "Colette, you and your friends can head to your sister's headquarters when we arrive in the city. I need to deal with private matters, so I'll just see you guys in the morning."
"Un!" Colette nodded her head obediently while patting Eiko's head. "That will also give me some time to set up an appointment for you to meet with my sister, Big Brother. By the way, my sister likes dried berries. Make sure to buy a bag of them as a gift before meeting her."
Lux suddenly imagined a slightly older Colette munching on dried berries like a chipmunk and it made him smile.
Aina was the Guild Master of the Silver-Ranked Guild, Eternal.
The Storm Dragons, which was currently under Nero's management, was only a Bronze-Ranked Guild, indirectly proving that Aina was a step better than the brown-haired teenager, who held animosity towards Lux.
The Half-Elf thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to form a good relationship with Aina, who was in control of a well-established Guild in Whitebridge City.
"Okay, are there any other things that she likes aside from dried berries?" Lux inquired.
Colette, who thought that his Big Brother was trying to score more brownie points to make her sister like him, was more than willing to tell him the things that Aina liked and disliked.
Lux smirked when he found out that Aina wasn't a fan of spicy things. According to Colette, her sister's face would immediately turn beet-red if she consumed something relatively spicy.
To his surprise, Aina liked eating sour things, which was the reason why she preferred dried berries. She was not too fond of sweet things, and could only tolerate the sweet and sour taste of the dried berries that she liked to snack on from time to time.
Suddenly, the carriage came to an abrupt halt, and the sound of shouting was heard outside of the carriage.
"Goblin attack!"
"Are they perhaps bandits?"
"Protect the carriage!"
"There's too many of them!"
After hearing the commotion outside, Lux immediately opened the carriage doors to help their escorts ward off the danger that had come knocking on their doors.
Immediately, he saw dozens of Goblins that were wielding short swords, maces, and bows. They were known for attacking merchant convoys and kidnapping the women to make them their breeding horses.
Using the appraisal ability of the Elysium Compendium, Lux immediately knew the Ranks of the Monsters that were attacking them. The bulk of the Goblins consisted of Rank 2 Monsters, but nearly twenty of them were Rank 3 Monsters.
Although they weren't that strong, there were too many of them, which placed their escorts at a disadvantage.
Lux wasn't too worried about the Goblins since he still had his skeletons. However, before he could even summon them, a black blur flew past him.
A two-meter tall Lycan grabbed the head of one of the Goblins that were attacking the adventurers, and smashed it towards the ground.
The Lycan then emitted a growl that made the nearby Goblins take a step back due to the intimidating Monster, who was looking at all of them as if they were mere insects that it could easily crush with its bare hands.
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