Way of the Knights

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"Alright…"

After I finished tying the assassin together, I casted a simple technique which shaved off a few months of my lifespan, but that\'s fine since in exchange their memories will be replaced by something else entirely.

Once they wake up, they would recall meeting someone powerful before they even met me, then this expert would beat the crap out of them simply because he was in bad mood.

And since this is a made up memory, they won\'t be able to track this person no matter how much bounty the place on him. Well, Mort Family wasting their money into a fruitless search is something that I won\'t mind seeing.

Oh and I also placed a sign on the rope which reads: \'Please return us to our Pig Boss, Zelor Mort.\'

That should make that pig\'s mood down, which brings happiness to me. That is, of course if a crowd saw them like this, and oh I made sure that it would be so…

I patted my hands clean and walked out of the scene, they should be waking up after an hour or if someone woke them up.

***

Adventurer\'s Tavern, so this is the place huh.

The facility looked like an over-sized hut for some reason, also hidden from the bustle of the crowd, I never visited this place before so I don\'t know what\'s the reason behind this but it\'s not my business.

I walked up to the door and gave it a slight push. It made a loud creaking sound as it slid and inside, I saw several people looking at me with a questioning expression.

"Hello, My name\'s Raven. May I know who\'s in-charge?"

There were three people inside, they looked at each other before the one sitting at the center table stood up and said: "I am. What do you want?"

Not saying anything, I gave him the contents of the Monthly Mission instead.

He grabbed the scroll and unfolded it. After reading its contents for a while, he gazed at me deeply…and then back at the scroll, he gazed at me again, and back to the scroll again. This action of his happened multiple times before I heard him sigh…

"The institute\'s really fucked…to think they would send a kid for this mission." He said softly while shaking his head, then he gave back the scroll to me.

I was close to him so I heard him say that, but I was surprised that someone actually heard him aside from me.

"Oh come on! Really? First they give us a dangerous mission which we never asked for then they would send a kid? Are they playing with us right now?" This was the the guy who was reading a thick book at the corner. His words then provoked the last one to talk as well.

"Unbelievable, they sent a kid to his death. Ugh…" This is a woman who was cleaning her nails on the opposite side.

"Listen up here kid…" The man in-charge narrowed his eyes and spoke seriously. "Go back, tell them to switch the contents of your mission. You will die if you step outside of the walls."

I scoffed inwardly, I really want to slap his mouth for some reason, I never liked it when people talk to me this way. But, he\'s doing this because he doesn\'t want me to charge towards my death, which I appreciate. And it\'s not like he knew that I experienced soul rebirth anyway.

"Uh, I think you\'re forgetting something here." I said while faking a wry smile. "The mission is final, no switching. Could tell me more details about the mission first?"

"Oh boy. Can\'t you understand? This concerns you life! We\'re telling you to drop this mission in order to save you? God! How could someone in Genius Class be so stupid!?" The woman frowned and commented on the side.

I don\'t like her already.

"I certainly understand your sentiments, Lady. However, I am confident that the institute won\'t hand any unreasonable or certain death missions to its students. According to the contents of the mission, the task is only a reconnaissance and it\'s within the five kilometer radius of the walls, which is still relatively safe. The only instances that will place this mission on a more dangerous level is that if you people wanted to do more than recon. Which places us back to the main reason why I\'m here. I want to know more details about the mission first before taking up your further suggestions."

There was a period of silence after I spoke. They probably wasn\'t expecting a child to retort them like I did. This goes specially well with the woman who is apparently displeased.

Be happy woman! This is as polite as I could get! Don\'t try my patience.

I looked back at the man in charge of the mission, I could swear I saw his eyes twitch as he looked at me.

"Bahahahahaha!" The other man burst out in an uproarious laughter. The lady snorted and glared at me for a few moments before looking away, she was probably embarrassed. "Oh boy! They \'DID\' send out a genius! It hasn\'t even been an hour since we met but he already asserted his dominance! Well, done!"

I involuntarily said: "Thanks." Without thinking. I happen to realize that when lady grunted angrily and the guy over there laughed even harder. Great! She doesn\'t like me, and I don\'t like her. What a great first impressions.

"Why don\'t we talk over here?" The man in charge said in attempt to diffuse the situation. I nodded and followed him on a separate room, away from the furious lady.

As soon as we walk in, he gestured me to sit down on one of the wooden chairs while asked: "Your name\'s Raven, right?"

"Yes."

"I assume you\'re a new addition to the Genius Class."

"That is correct. Does this have anything to do with the mission?" I asked curiously.

"No." He hurriedly said, "You see, this is not the first time that I worked with one of you."

"Is that so?"

"Uh-huh." He nodded, "By the way, my name is Jordan, current Captain of the Adventurers Tavern." He held out his hand which I shook with mine.

"Anyways, I apologize for the attitude earlier. I can\'t tell you much right now, but just know that there is a good reason why we acted that way."

Some part of me was yelling for him to stop beating around the bush and go straight to the discussion about the mission, but my better self told me to not be rude so I let him finish his monologue.

"The general description of the mission is correct." He said, "It is a recon within the \'Yellow Zone\' around the Kingdom."

He\'s talking about the 1 kilometer area around the Kingdom. \'Yellow Zone\' is proper term for that.

"While it is true that the \'Yellow Zone\' is relatively safe, don\'t think that it applies for every nook and cranny within the zone. Some places within the \'Yellow Zone\' isn\'t safe but included since the rest of them are."

"Is it safe to assume that our target is one of these said places?"

"Bingo."

"Great." I rolled my eyes and sighed, "Tell me more…"

Jordan unfolded a map on the table, just from a glance I could already tell that this is an old one because of it\'s wrinkles and some recently discovered zones aren\'t drawn in it yet.

I don\'t know who these cartographers are, but I\'m guessing that they just assumed that the Kingdom sat in the dead center of the Grand Ancestral Plane. Well, not like I could blame them for doing so, it\'s not like they could explore the entirety of the plane anyway.

Jordan pointed at one spot in the Yellow Zone and said, "This is where we\'re going."

I followed where he was pointing and I think I could understand why their mood wasn\'t so great. It turns out that we are going there.

Nevertheless, I kept a puzzled expression in my face. Can\'t let him think that I know way too much, I don\'t know these people and therefore don\'t trust them. I\'ll leave the explaining to him.

"Few years ago, this place wasn\'t really that dangerous. In fact, this spot was one of, if not, the most safest place around in the Yellow Zone. But that changed last year."

"There were reports where numerous adventurers/Lair Hunters took this path and were eventually tagged as MIA. The Royal Army sent multiple people to investigate this spot but they too, never returned. Eventually, an announcement was made that this spot was no longer safe for passage, and now it is our turn to investigate."

"Knowing the recent reports about this place, of course our team would be on edge, not to mention that we will have another member whom we don\'t know to risk our lives and limbs with…"

"Surely you understand our predicament right?"