Arnold didn't get a wink of sleep last night. He was too busy working on the scenarios inside his head. Everything had to go smoothly so he had to try his best to not screw up.
Of course, he had to be a heroic, edgy hero for the sake of gaining the favour of others. All of this was from memory of how he remembered Alecs. It would be a while before he's able to successfully portray her like he wanted, though.
Somehow being righteous after all the things he had done left a bad taste in his mouth. He was about to destroy a city and act like he was trying to save the empire.
He would be known as the biggest hypocrite ever if anyone found out.
Arnold went to check the boy's(Nait) status when everyone was asleep but found nothing unusual. If anything the kid was below average in strength for a boy his age. Probably due to malnutrition. He was only level 2 and his class was [Farmer].
For interest sake, part of the reason why hologram cards were banned across the continent was because it could break the game's system that hid status bars and levels. This made it easy for people to see the statuses of others. Of course, it wasn't like there were a lot of ancient runic tabloids just laying around. Only major organizations had these artifacts locked away.
Anyway, Nait was Jack and Melina's age yet he was far weaker than Jack who had been training his spearmanship for the past two years. From what Arnold heard from the hunters, Nait had a very difficult time growing up.
That boy's charisma and lack of fear was through the roof. If he had that much willpower to fight then it was highly possible that Nait could also awaken one of these days.
The point of an awakening was that nothing seemed special in one's status until a certain point. Your skills or stats might seem as average as everyone else's at first.
The most exciting part is that anyone can awaken. It was random. Even village children or slaves have been known to become powerful knights or mages in the past.
It was highly likely that Nait could also be one of those people.
◇◇
"What the hell. The entire street is filled with adventurers." Arnold frowned when he looked down from the rooftop he was standing on.
The HQ was filled with adventurers. They were probably from around the entire empire. Their goal was obviously to grab that million gold reward.
'Even the newbie adventurers are here. How the hell am I going to find Elora in this crowd?'
She was an A-rank adventurer from Misteltein so she was known as one of the high-class adventurers. The Guild Master calls all high-class adventurers to her office so that they can finalize plans for subjugations.
Arnold had to go there if he wanted to be part of the subjugation unit.
'Hm?' he noticed a familiar person standing behind the crowd.
She was trying her best to calm down everyone but to no avail. There were some S-rankers in front of the guild's entrance but even they couldn't stop the crowd of people from going inside.
What could a guild receptionist do if even high-class adventurers couldn't get this mob until control.
Arnold jumped down from the rooftop and headed towards that person.
"E-Everyone, we need to give Lady Daraia a chance to discuss everything with the other adventurers first! We can only hear the full details once that's done!"
The young woman cried out. Her co-workers were doing the same but the crowd was too out of control.
"Let me in!"
"Yeah! It's not fair for those bastards to take part in this subjugation alone! We can make some serious money just by participating!"
"Why are there even rules like this!? You have to be a high-class adventurer to even be considered in large-scale subjugations!? Fuck this empire and their rules!"
Some adventurers threw things at the people who prevented them from going inside. One woman was even thrown against the head with a hard object and fell down unconscious.
Arnold was dumbfounded by these barbarians.
"Uwaaah!? What the fuck! My arm!"
An adventurer screamed out which alerted the others.
"—All of you seem no different from those monsters heading for the empire. Can you not even follow rules?" Arnold sheathed his sword.
"F-Fucker! You cut my arm!"
"That's because you imbeciles are acting out of line." He said while gazing at all of them.
Most of them averted their eyes when he looked directly at him out of fear. Others just hatefully glared at him.
"I'm not usually like this but if I must then I will cut down anyone who is a liability to this subjugation. All of you may be adventurers who don't need to follow any of the imperial laws but you are subordinates or soldiers when there is a monster attack. You follow the orders of your Guild Master. Anyone who has something to say can speak their mind," he said and slightly pulled his sword out.
Many of them scurried away when they saw that.
It felt unpleasant being the centre of attention but it was necessary for all of them—who were ranked lower than him—to know their place.
Arnold looked at the S-rankers who were standing at the entrance. All four of them averted their eyes awkwardly.
Arnold went towards the receptionist he spoke to the other day.
"Miss Josephine, we meet again."
"!?" The young woman probably didn't expect Nova to come straight towards her. Surprise was all over her face.
"Uhm, how may I help you?"
"Why is Daraia taking so long? The monsters already breached the outer wall of Nuaria city. It's only a matter of time before the inner wall is broken through as well."
Arnold heard many of them gasp after hearing this.
"The Guild Master is currently selecting leaders who can lead the adventurers. As you can see there are a lot of them so it'll be chaos if everyone is left to do their own things. Especially the solo adventurers." She replied.
"That's a first. Does she have somewhere to be?"
A Guild Master should never leave their duty of leading the adventurers. The Guild was like their kingdom and they were the kings.
"Yes, she told the staff last night that she'll participate in rescuing the seventh year students from the academy."
"Hm? What do you mean by rescue? Did something happen to them?"
Arnold pretended to be surprised.
'Of course she managed to figure it out. That woman might be a brute but she has a good head on her shoulders when it comes to monster hunting. Can't say the same for her little brother who's just a hot-headed freak when it comes to fighting monsters.'
"It's highly likely that the monster wave started in the Fairy Province." Said Josephine in a whisper.
But the adventurers seemed to have heard her.
"What did she just say?"
"Is this an attack from those fucking Elves and Fairies!?"
"Bastards!"
It seemed that they were misunderstanding something.
"No, no! It's nothing like that!" Josephine hurriedly said, "The Guild Master said that the monsters came from the dungeon off their shores. The appearance of humans probably startled the monsters so they were chased out of their natural habitats."
It sounded convincing to the people who didn't know the full story. Maybe even Daraia wasn't sure if that was the real reason for the monster wave. At the moment it was the only lead they had.
"I see. So seeing an entirely new species must've alerted them so they left their homes. But after realizing that humans aren't that big of a threat, they banded together to take over the lands we rule."
Arnold blurted his own theory.
The adventurers looked like they believed him.
"Yes, that must be it!" Josephine agreed.
Arnold looked at the adventurers, "I'll be heading up to the Guild Master's office to hear what's going on. I trust that everyone will act rationally and not get out of hand like you did earlier?"
He received no reply. That didn't matter so he began walking towards the entrance. The adventurers gave way to him as he slowly walked.
◇◇◇
The other two SS-rank parties, Sky Kings and Dead End hadn't responded to the SOS Daraia sent out yesterday. Because of this she had to believe that none of them would show up. That was why she decided to just begin without them.
The first order of business was to take care of the infestation that Nuaria city was facing.
"—I need five A-rank parties to clear the water system and disrupt any flow of water in Nuaria city. We can't do anything about the adult parasites besides kill them but we can at least prevent more from appearing. No one can get infected as long as there isn't water."
Daraia looked at the hologram map of Nuaria city. She placed a blueprint map of the water system above the topographic map.
"Be careful out there. Full grown parasites have already been spotted roaming around in the sewers. They attack on sight and have taken about a dozen people already."
Daraia looked at the A-rankers, "I hadn't decided who will go specifically so all of you should choose amongst yourselves."
It will take awhile to choose people to do everything that suits their skills. For example, there are A-rankers who are stronger in fighting monsters and subjugation quests while there are others better in stealth and capture missions.
The S and SS-rankers and some of the A-rankers would be sent out to deal with the monster wave. The Mercenary Guild agreed to send some of their own people to help defend the empire.
The Imperial Palace... well, Daraia sent a letter but received no reply whatsoever. It seems like the Great Nobles wouldn't assist them.
What irks Daraia the most was how the Emperor would only order his people to fight if an enemy nation were to attack but not when monsters are involved.
If the Guild failed to protect the empire then the nobles would hold her and all the other guild masters accountable.
Did it really matter what kind of enemy they faced if the danger they pose were the same? The monsters could destroy the capital just as much as any other nation surrounding them.
"Lady Daraia, what about requesting help from the other nations? Why can't we just ask the Theocracy, Demihuman Kingdom and Republic for help?"
Daraia looked at Cameria who offered a suggestion, "The first one is currently our nation's enemy unless proven otherwise. The kingdom of beastmen will never assist us since it will give the Holy Kingdom a reason to start trouble. The Republic of Zrek is known to have no adventurers at all. Most of their soldiers are stationed at the border with our crown prince. All of the above are no-go's. We only have the adventurers within the empire's land to rely on. That includes the city west from here that belongs to Duke Berkley. I'm not sure about the other cities."
Most of their expressions turned pale hearing Daraia shoot down Cameria's suggestion.
"Then what about the Undead Nation or the city ruled by the Taelith House?"
Cameria spoke again.
This time her question made a lot of the others frown.
"Both those nations are considered a danger to associate with. Forget danger, they can destroy this empire if they wanted to. Wouldn't this be the best chance to have us wiped out?" Daraia said, "Sure, they can agree but they can also sit back and watch how our nation falls."
The Taelith Household were nobles who were famous for their connections to dragons. With good reason since their family had the blood of the Black Dragon Lord. Every corner of their nation is filled with dragons that they were known as the city of dragons.
They had been a threat to the imperial crown for generations so the imperial family had been wary of associating themselves with them.
"Once the capital loses most of its strategic defences then we're left vulnerable to attacks. Although the Great Nobles and the Imperial Army might be able to defend against them for a while, we would be ultimately annihilated even before that vampire gets involved."
'That's assuming that family tries to take the throne.'
The Black Dragon Lord tried to take over the empire many years ago but failed each time since Promethius and the Shining Dragon Lord(who became his mount in subservience) prevented him. Daraia wasn't certain whether some of his descendants would have the same ambition.
But it wasn't a bad idea to be prepared. The Emperor probably had many precautions if the Taeliths were to attack them.
Since no one else had questions, Daraia decided to begin addressing other matters.
"At the moment we only have four leaders to lead the adventurers during the subjugation," Daraia looked at Cameria and the other three, "The Guild can't afford to fund everyone equally since it would take a long time for us to gather the necessary gold to reward every one of you. This is why I will personally pay a million gold to whoever brings the most monster cores to the Guild. For the rest of you… I'm sure it isn't necessary for me to tell you that you're basically working for free?"
Daraia lied about paying those who participated. That was because she knew most of the adventurers wouldn't have come otherwise.
"We know that the empire will fall if we don't repel the monster wave and any possible waves in the future," a boy stepped forward and spoke, "Though I am not from the capital, I want to defend the people even if there isn't money to give."
"Look at this cheeky little kid acting like some figure of justice," another person remarked in annoyance, "Your leader isn't here to tell you what to do. You're like a dog, listening to whatever he says. If he were to tell that you shouldn't help us then you'd listen, won't you, Nova's dog?"
"T-That's not true!" The boy screamed in protest.
"Ha! What are you even doing here? All of us here are rank A or S. We have the skills to prove it. You don't. You only got this far because your master contributed the most."
Many of them chuckled at what the man said. Lucri bit his lower lip and glared hatefully at the man.
'Why are you trying to bring down people's morale when we need it the most?'
"Go home, kid. Or better yet why don't you become our porter? Kukuku!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Daraia was about to intervene for the boy's sake but another person spoke:
"—What a joke."
Everyone glanced towards the entrance when they felt killing intent. Even Daraia, an 8th star warrior, got goosebumps when she felt it.
The crowd of adventurers parted in two, allowing the two people at the entrance passage.
One of those people was a tall young man with whitish silver hair who wore a black coat. The other one was a guild receptionist who followed behind him.
"N-N-Nova?" the guy who had been running his mouth, quieted down and cowered.
Nova slowly walked towards him as everyone's eyes was glued to him. He arrived in front of the man and his party members.
"I heard you say that Lucri is nothing without me, that's what I find so funny," Nova said with a deadpan face, "I guess you're too blind to see his true potential. I can tell you with confidence that my companion outclasses every single mage in this room in power and talent."
The mage, who was in Cameria's party, frowned heavily at this. He was a 5th star mage so what Nova said was definitely offensive. How could a 3rd star mage compare to him?
Although his words sounded ridiculous, no one laughed. Just by looking at his earnest eyes one can tell that he wasn't trying to spout nonsense.
"If you want him to become your porter then I will only hand him over if you duel with me."
"Eek!"
The man shrieked like a little girl when he saw Nova unsheathe his sword.
The S-rankers were looking at this sight in interest.
'A man capable of fighting equally with a fully grown wild dragon is definitely not someone who should be an A-class adventurer. That's what my little brother said, huh.'
Nova definitely fitted into the S-class category. Flord probably already knew this but limited giving Nova such a gigantic promotion from E-rank since it would've caused bigger problems.
Flord had already told Daraia of the anonymous letters coming to the Guild in Lockinge demanding he demote Nova by at least two ranks. If not for the value and potential he had then he would've been a C-class adventurer.
But Flord was never the kind who cared about satisfying someone else's demands.
"I guess you don't want him as your porter then?" asked Nova after seeing that the man wasn't accepting the duel.
"O-O-Of course n-n-not! H-He's an A-class adventurer so that would be insulting his worth!"
The man shouted in agreement with the biggest smile on his face that Daraia had ever seen.
"Good," Nova walked towards his companion.
"Sir Nova—"
No, he walked right past Lucri and came straight to Daraia. He looked her in the eyes and said, "Misteltein will fight with all of you but on one condition."
Daraia expected this so she answered back, "I'm listening."
*
Author note: Shining Dragon Lord is referring to the dragon lord that left the Dragon Lord Alliance before the Black Dragon Lord. If you go back to Suar's intermission then you'll see somewhere in that chapter where he mentions two dragon lords. Just wanted to clear up any confusion. Thanks for reading!