"Will you still take his side after seeing this?"
Stomping my foot to ground, I crushed the floor.
"I am going to kill that monster. The very monster you ran away from. Then your time will come."
"I think they are scared enough. You can stop threatening them."
Son of a bitch! I again failed to detect him!
"Edward."
He tipped his hat. He handed a paper to Principal. Reading it, I could see him being confused.
"Can you translate what I am going to say?"
"Yeah. Wait. How did you understand I was threatening them if you can't understand Turkish?"
"Because you don't release kill-intent filled mana unless you are threatening others."
"Fair enough."
"Now, tell them that you are no longer bound this academy. You will be working as a freelancer."
"What! Is this even possible?"
While I heard some independent hunters, they were oddity. Nearly all worked under their goverments or guilds.
"What about the contract I signed before entering here? What about legal problems?"
"Elizabeth handled them. She doesn't want you to work anyone, except her."
From leash to choker. Shit. When I was about to translate what he told me Volkan jumped.
"What do you mean by that, Sir?"
Oh, so he knew English. Makes my job easier. Even though Volkan talked, Edward didn't even looked at him.
"Tonight, same time."
He left the room after tipping his hat. I also walked out. They tried to stop me but after I growled them, they stopped. I ran after Edward.
"Hey, how does even that works?"
Normally, whatever you were afflicted gave you orders. How I was supposed to keep hunting without any affliction. Whike it was good that I was finally outside of the system binding me, I still had to earn money.
"6 days."
"Huh?"
"I will be teaching you for 6 days. After that you will be clearing a dungeon solo."
"What? How I am supposed to do that?"
Clearing dungeons usually took around 5-10 people. He wanted me to clear alone? It wasn't even legal! They would never allow me to go inside alone.
"To be free you must first prove yourself. When you are a freelancer nobody would order you to do something. However, this doesn't mean that they can make offers."
I cocked my head to side with confusion. When I realized that I behaved like Elizabeth, I cringed.
"Wait, are you telling me-"
"Yes. If you prove that you are strong people will come to you, without you going to them."
"To join a guild? I thought Elizabeth wanted me to be free."
He looked at me with curious eyes. What I said was correct. Imagine, a guild or goverment already has enough manpower, influence and power to do whatever they want. For them to come other people would be only reason: To hire them. He shook his head.
"Think, if I was a freelancer. Would people still came to me for clearing higher tier dungeons?"
"Duh, you are the Sword Saint. Of course people would want you. But I don't understand how – Wait. Are you telling me to basically work for hire?"
"Yes."
"That's sounds shitty."
I mean no insurance. No people you can lean on from your guild or branch.
"Only temporary."
"Still sounds shitty."
He sighed.
"If you rise up to A rank in a year, Elizabeth wanted me to recruit you to Excalibur."
I shallowed my spit. Starting to cough, I nearly drowned because of my own spit.
"What?"
While I behaved like Edward wasn't the "shit", he was Guild Master of Excalibur. Best guild in entire United Kingdom. For entering a guild "for real" and not some cannon fodder you need to be at least upper B rank.
"Don't get so excited. We have high standards."
I wiped my mouth. Due coughing my spit was on my face.
"Well if I could get to A rank, let alone in one year, I could choose between lots of guilds, you know."
He shot me a look.
"You probably wouldn't be able to choose, you know."
Son of a…
"Normally, I wouldn't just go around saying that I would accept others in my guild. I only did that because Elizabeth requested it. Even then, I won't take you even with her word, unless you prove yourself."
Request. Not order.
"But I am still D rank. Isn't jumping to A rank is a little bit too harsh?"
"Fastest one to climb to A rank did it in 10 months. So, I gave you a little bit wiggle room. Also, do you still think you are D rank?"
Oh shit. Now, I realized. C ranked skills. Higher physical capabilities. I even unlocked my mana stat.
"I should be C rank!"
"You now realized that?"
Edward sighed.
"I had a lot of things happening at once!"
"Didn't know you had a girlfriend."
"What?"
Edward's voice came out nearly sorrowfully.
"I don't though?"
"I see."
He behaved weirdly all the sudden. His walking slowed down. I felt his mood shift very quickly.
"When I was young, I was a playboy. I had several girlfriends at the same time. Do you want to learn what I learned?"
I looked at Edward weirdly. We definitely weren't close enough to talk like this. What's gotten into him?
"Females can be very possesive and jealous. Very much."
His voice was low. I looked around and saw Ayla wave towards me. I also waved back. As I turned back to Edward, his eyes were filled with some unknown emotion. Did he wanted to warn me about something? While I was with him for short amounts of time, it still felt out of character for him to talk like this. Maybe he tried to warn me about something related to Elizabeth?
"I will be bringing a pack tonight. I am sure you remember her orders."
"How could I forget?"
I shivered with just thought. Still, Edward returned to his usual tone in a second. He was actually trying tell me something. But he couldn't said directly. Did he had a contract or something akin to it? I stopped in my tracks with a sharp realization. The one that had a contract was probably me. But how?