***

"We're almost at Kerudark!" shouted an Adventurer, who was also a scout.

Hearing this, Tyler, the Adventurer in charge of protecting a noble who belonged to Kerudark city, heaved a sigh of relief. "Finally, I'm free of this job! Those unsocial bastards just had to make an escorting question more frustrating than it already was!"

Despite having uttered that, however, Tyler still moved near the luxurious carriage that the noble was residing in to report the findings of the scout.

Now standing in front of a dark Elf in armor who was guarding the entrance of the carriage with crossed arms, Tyler straightened his back and spoke. "Sir Elfalox! We're only a few hours away from Kerudark. Please tell the young master to prepare himself!"

In response, Elfalox, the knight, just grumbled and turned around to walk into the carriage.

Sighing, Tyler was about to go back to his position when suddenly—

Bzzzzzzzt—! BANG—!

-AHHHHHHHHHH!

—The sound of electricity crackling and gun firing, along with a piercing scream could be heard.

Startled, Tyler ran towards the sound to check it out, only to see half of his men lying on the ground, bleeding from their arms and abdomens.

He then turned his gaze to the right and met eyes with several men wearing black bandanas that covered their mouth.

Judging by their shabby armors, rusty weapons, and greedy eyes which were glued to the luxurious carriage, Tyler quickly came to a conclusion: They were bandits.

As such, he screamed on the top of his lungs. "BANDITS! GET IN FORMATION, QUICKLY!"

Hearing this, all of the uninjured Adventurers quickly got into a tight formation to face off the bandits.

However, they were all quickly incapacitated by a bandit wielding a gun.

"Dammit!", Tyler gritted his teeth in anger. "H- How can a mere gun take down my men!?"

It was then that the door to the carriage opened, and sir Elfalox walked out with a frown. "What a waste of money, our escorts can't even handle bandits. Are you truly Iron ranked Adventurers?"

He then unsheathed his sword and pointed it towards the bandits. "I'll show you how a real knight fight!"

Sir Elfalox unleashed his <E+> ranked Aura, announcing to everyone that he was indeed a mid-ranking knight. Although he was still weak by knight's standards, such power was already enough to deal with mere bandits.

"Bandits!", he shouted as he saw that everyone, even the bandits were looking at him with wary eyes. "This is your final chance! Run right now or you shall face the wrath of Sir Elfalox!"

Unlike what he had expected, however, the bandits didn't even move from their spot. Instead, a bandit, who seemed like the leader, stepped up and pulled out his sword. "You're a mere mid-ranked knight! We're not backing down!"

"Then so be it.", Elfalox frowned as he got into a battle stance.

Seeing that a fight was inevitable now, Tyler spoke up. "Sir Elfalox! Let me help too!"

"No.", the knight immediately refused Tyler's help. "You lost half of your men to mere bandits. You will just drag me down."

As soon as he finished those words, Elfalox dashed towards the bandit with his sword over his head.

"Take this!"

<[G - Overhead strike]>

CLANG—!

The bandit met swords with Elfalox, blocking his strike with ease.

"Wh- What!? How can this be? My secret technique, blocked by a mere bandi—"

The bandit suddenly spoke up before Elfalox could finish his sentence, interrupting him. "Shut up. You're making this sound like a bad fight from a generic cultivation novel"

And with those words, the bandit applied more strength to his sword and knocked Elfalox's sword out of his hand entirely. He then punched the knight in the stomach, knocking him out.

Tyler looked at the scene unfolding with cold sweat running down his back.

Although it might not had looked like it, Sir Elfalox was actually competent enough to defend the carriage by himself from most threats outside of Kerudark. Adventurers like Tyler himself were just hired as a formality.

Thus, he knew that he couldn't fight the bandit leader and win, let alone fighting all of them while defending the carriage with only half of his men remaining.

As Tyler was about to drop his weapon and surrender, however, he suddenly heard a chant coming from behind him.

<[Fire bolt]>

A searing bolt of Fire manifested right beside him before hurling itself toward a bandit.

Fwoooosh—!

Flying through the air for no longer than a second, the bolt dug itself into a bandit's flesh.

However, the bandit didn't let out screams of pain like Tyler had expected. Instead, he just... turned into Ashes instantly.

"Wh- What power!", Tyler looked at where the bandit once was in admiration.

Although the bolt of flames looked relatively weak when it manifested beside Tyler, he knew that it couldn't have turned the bandit into Ashes if its temperature didn't reach the thousands.

He then turned his gaze to behind, trying to find out the identity of the one who had just pulverized the bandit.

There she was, a black-haired girl with a half-mask covering the left half of her face. She wielded a shovel in one hand, and a crossbow on the other.

The girl stared back at Tyler, gave him a nod, and spoke with a soothing voice. "Be not afraid, Adventurer. For I, the half-mask hero, am here to save you!"

She then put her crossbow to her back and gripped her shovel with both of her hands.

<[Flame enhancement]>

With the blade of her shovel now lit aflame, the half-mask hero dashed towards the bandits and cut them down like she was merely trimming the grass on her backyard.

-Wha—

-AHH—

-Please n—

The bandits could only let out a short groan of pain, shock, or regret as they turned into Ashes after being inflicted with even the slightest cut made by her shovel.

After a while, all the bandits were slain, leaving only the leader alive.

"Dammit!", the bandit leader clutched his head and glared at the hero in half-mask with bloodshot eyes. "You just have to ruin our plan huh? O most righteous half-mask hero"

"Keum!"

Unexpectedly, the hero coughed in what seemed like embarrassment at the leader's words.

'Weird...', Tyler thought, but he eventually put such thoughts aside. After all, he shouldn't question his savior too much.

After recovering from whatever that was that made her cough, the hero spoke up again. "I won't let you do evil again, Gray skull bandits!"

She then rushed towards the leader while swinging her shovel wildly. However, her strike was blocked by him.

CLANG—!

Unexpectedly though, the bandit was sent a couple of meters back by merely blocking her strike.

"Dammit!", the bandit cursed in frustration. "How can someone be so strong and intelligent? Such a person is more suited to be a noble's personal attendant, not a mere Adventurer!"

He then turned around and ran into the forest, but not before leaving some final words. "Mark my words. The Gray skull bandits will surely take their revenge!"

And with that, the battle ended.

"Good god! Such a little girl defeating that monster of a bandit!". Sir Elfalox, who had woken up since god knows when, suddenly exclaimed.

The girl scratched her head in embarrassment at his words.

Before she could even say anything, however the door to the carriage was suddenly swung open.

Walking out of the carriage was a dark Elf in his twenties with black hair that had a faint shade of purple and black eyes. Judging by his pale complexion and scrawny build, one may be forgiven for not recognizing him as a noble despite him being one.

The noble then made his way towards Sir Elfalox and the girl. Before he could approach the girl, however, Sir Elfalox suddenly stopped him.

"Young master Apel, please get inside the carriage. The bandits might still be around! 

"Go inside the carriage and what? Not give my gratitude to my savior? What nonsense are you spewing, my knight?", the noble - Apel exclaimed.

Although he was still apprehensive about putting his master at risk, Elfalox could only bite his lips and follow his orders.

Smiling at his knight's obedience, Apel walked toward the girl with a grateful gaze. "Thank you for saving my life!"

"I- It's nothing!", the girl stuttered. "I'm just doing what anyone would do in this kind of situation"

"What nonsense! A lot of people would just go on with their day and not pay attention to us. Some might even join the bandits and rob us! You're a good person, and I know it!"

At his words, the girl merely hung her head down low in embarrassment and shame.

'Ah, I guess she isn't used to getting praises', Tyler thought.

"Anyways", Apel suddenly spoke up. "What are you doing here, ermm... what should I call you?"

"...I go by Araceli"

"Got it! Now let me ask you again, what are you doing here so close to Kerudark?"

"I- I... am actually jobless. So I hoped that I could make a living in Kerudark"

"You're trying to enter Kerudark?", Apel stared at Araceli, shocked. "Don't you know that only Beastkins and dark Elves can enter the city?"

"I- I don't..."

"I see...", Apel muttered before falling into thoughts.

After a while, he looked up at Araceli again and spoke. "Say, what kind of job are you looking for?"

"Anything that pays well", she answered.

Apel smiled widely at her words.

"Would you like to be my personal servant then?"

***

\\Theodore's POV//

I sat in a nearby bush, straining my ears to hear the conversation between Celi and our target - a sickly-looking nobleman.

'Who would have known that someone who looked like he can die from just a push is the Void lord of [Despair]?'

Even I was baffled when I first saw his illustration in Eleanor's book. I even thought that Eleanor was just fucking with me. Well, that was, until now.

Judging by the color of his hair, and the fact that he was using Void magic to hide his black sclerae, it was safe to say that he was a Void lord, or at least a high-ranking Void fiend.

Pausing my thoughts there, I focused on the situation again.

-"Would you like to be my personal servant then?"

'YES!', I cheered inwardly as I heard this.

'So the information that he likes strong women isn't wrong'

-"S- Servant?", Celi stuttered as she heard [Despair]'s words.

'What the fuck is she stuttering for, just accept it! Did she really forget about our plans?'. Right now, I just wanted to march up to her and drill those words into that stupid head of hers.

However, I realized that I had needlessly worried about nothing as I continued listening in to their conversation.

-"Yes, personal servant. You can earn up to 150 Golds a year just by simply delivering meals to my room everyday"

-"Th- Then I accept"

-"Great!"

'Great!', I smirked inwardly at [Despair]'s willingness to take Celi in.

I then watched as [Despair] and Celi got into the carriage with the knight and departed towards Kerudark again, with the Adventurers trailing right behind them and carrying their injured comrades along with them.

As soon as the carriage got out of sight, I hurriedly jumped out of the bush and scratched my arms. 

"Dammit! I shouldn't have chosen that bush! It's itchy!"

As I was cursing my past self for not choosing a better place to hide in though, I suddenly noticed a squirrel crawling out of the same bush I was in.

It was looking at me with what I assumed to be a grin.

'Is that a grin though...?'

I wasn't sure. After all, I wasn't an expert on squirrels. However, I could somehow tell that it was smirking at me for having picked such a bad bush to hide in.

As I had learnt to ignore jeers from mere insects, I didn't get mad at it like I normally would.

'Or should it be animal in this case?'

Whatever the case was, it wasn't important. What was important was that—

"Celi'd better finish her mission in a week... it would be bad if I don't present the evidences that [Despair] is a Void lord to the City governor at that time..."

—[Despair] would definitely be confronted sooner or later by Evelyn in this summer.

And I had to kill, or at least weaken him before she got here.

After all, with the Void rifts opening years ahead of time, Void lords everywhere in the normal realm had became stronger than they originally were.

'And if the worst happens, I'll just use Evelyn's sister to force her out of the city'

I stopped my train of thought there and decided to go back to Kerudark.

'It's still sucks that Lyra can't help me for a while...', I thought as I dragged my legs back to the city.

Since Lyra had wasted her divinities to help me pull off that Great magic to stop Celi from undoing her [S - Polymorph] the other day, she had now fallen into some sort of stasis.

'Well, it's only for a few weeks though'

It was then that I felt a gaze drilling into the back of my head. Startled, I turned around, only to be met with the sight of the same squirrel from before grinning at me. However, its grin seemed a bit... dangerous and malicious this time.

"Why are you grinning at me?"

As if answering my question, it crawled up to me and bit my shoes.

Although its teeth couldn't pierce through my shoes, it still hurt my pride that a mere animal dared to try and harm me.

As such, I lifted my foot up and kicked the squirrel back into the forest. "Bastard, don't mess with me again!"
...

After a while, I finally got back to Kerudark. 

As I was on my way back to the church, however, I suddenly noticed a commotion near one of the entrances to the noble ring.

"Kurrghhh... let me in!"

"No."

I could feel a sense of Deja vu as I listened in the to the commotion from behind the crowd that formed around the noble ring entrance.

Pushing my way through the crowd, I widened my eyes in surprise at the sight before me.

'Guess this explains why it felt so familiar...'

The main culprits of the commotion was the same Orc that I had helped to get inside Kerudark from before, and another dark Elf guard.

"Please", the Orc brought his hands together and begged.

"No."

"Kurrghhh... bastard! You're raci—"

Seeing that the Orc was about to cause another fight, I stepped in.

"Hey Orc brother!", I shouted as I leisurely walked towards him.

The Orc stopped glaring at the Elf guard and looked at me with surprise. "Kurghhh... Aryl...?"

"That's me!", I gave him a smile.

'Take the hint and get away from the guard already, you dipshit!'

Unaware of my thoughts and intentions, the Orc spoke up again. "...What are you doing here?"

Ignoring his question, I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away.

However, the Orc frowned at my attempt and refused to budge an inch. "Kurghhh... what are you trying to d— urghhh!"

Before the Orc could finish his sentence, I reinforced my hand with a bit of Mana and tightened my grip, causing him to let out a short groan of pain.

Seeing that he was more docile now, I spoke while giving him a creepy smile. "Follow me. Don't. Question. Anything. Got it?"

The Orc nodded his head with a tinge of fear in his eyes.

Smiling in satisfaction, I pulled him into a dark alleyway, ignoring the weird stares everyone were giving us.

After making sure that we were completely alone, I turned my head back to the Orc with a glare. "What were you trying to do?"

"Kurghh... I want to get inside the noble ring"

"Why?"

"Kurrghhh... those Neviltis bastards kidnapped Eileen!"

"Neviltis?", I raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You mean the noble house Neviltis?"

"Yes! They abducted my lover!"

"So what is your plan then", I inquired. "March into their estate and rescue your lover?"

"Kurrghh... exactly! That is a warrior way of doing things—"

"I'll have to stop you right there", I stared into his eyes with a frown. "You can't make a mess in the Neviltis estate, not when I have business there, and especially not when you entered the city under my guarantee"

"Kurrrghh! So what!? Should I just sit back and watch my Eileen slave away under those dirty nobles?"

Hearing this, I sighed. "One week"

"...?"

"I'll be destroying house Neviltis in one week at maximum. I want you to wait until then. You can join me if you want. Or...", I infused a little bit of Mana into my Eyes. "...You can oppose me. Though, I wouldn't recommend doing so"

The Orc's face stiffened in fear for a split second before he regained his composure.

'Interesting... he resisted my Eyes despite being at the same rank as me...'

Unaware of my thoughts, the Orc deliberated his options and sighed.

"Kurghhh... fine. I'll listen to you"

"Great!", I smiled. "I knew I could count on you, Orc brother!"

"Kurghhhh! My name's Zakadon"

I absentmindedly nodded my head at his words and led him to the abandoned church.

"Onwards, Orc brother!"

As I was walking out of the alleyway though, I could hear a small mutter from behind me.

"Kurghhh... I'm Zakadon though..."