The amount of Exps he got from this single Quest surprised Zarin. He had earned the Quest when the Dark Knight was within his sight, and it challenged him to defeat him.
Zarin wasn't much of a fighter, and he was confident that if Heymon had a hard time dealing with the Knight, he would obliterate him in a second, so he used his special die.
Even if he only earned two levels from the quests, the amount of exps was almost as much as he had learned during the past weeks, doing tasks from Emlyn.
The first one to make any reaction to what happened was Lady Emlyn. She approached Zarin and used her still tied hand to pat him on the head.
It was an awkward moment for Zarin, as nothing like that had happened during the past week. After finishing his work, Lady Emlyn had given him some comments, not every time being good comments, though.
Zarin lowered his head so that one couldn't see his face, as he was sure that it was turning red.
"Good job, kid. You could have told us that you could do something like that earlier," Heymon said as he approached them.
Heymon helped his wife free her hands while the rest of the guards moved the two corpses.
The crowd started dispersing after Heymon shouted orders for people to go back into their regular routine. As the crowd got thinner, a figure approached the gate and did not get away from it.
Zarin noticed that person, who was a middle-aged woman, maybe a little younger than Lady Emlyn. Her clothing was more luxurious than the rest, showing that she wasn't an average villager.
"Heymon, report," the woman said when she finished approaching where Heymon, Lady Emlyn, and Zarin were standing.
"That person came and made demands and tried to get my wife. My people and I dealt with the situation. Unfortunately, they weren't cooperating, so we had to kill him."
Zarin noticed Heymon didn't mention that he helped since he technically wasn't one of his people. He worked for Lady Emlyn, not him.
He understood this person had to be the Mayor he had heard stories about.
The Mayor looked towards the fallen body of the Dark Knight. It was in the middle of being moved by the guards.
"HOLD," she said as he approached the body to inspect it.
As she did so, there was a reaction of surprise at her. She turned towards Heymon, and there were signs of anger on her face.
"Do you know what you just did? Do you know who that person you killed is?" she said in a frustrated voice.
Heymon was confused over the questions but didn't have any time to give any kind of response.
"He is Sir Yvonnet of the Dark Council."
As she said that, a few people still nearby let out a few gasps, and everyone had a look of fear in their eyes.
Everyone except Zarin, of course, since he still did not know who that person was.
"We need to hide that body as fast as possible. If the Council learns about it, we will get leveled to the ground."
The guards nodded and threw their cloaks over the body in a try to hide it. Then, Heymon joined the people that were to move the body of the fallen Knight.
"Who is he? What is the Dark Council?"
The Mayor turned in the voice's direction. The person who made the question was, of course, Zarin.
The Mayor looked at him with a confusing stare.
"Who is that kid?"
Zarin didn't like that people called him a kid. His appearance was the same as on Earth, so he was still young, but not that young to be called a kid.
Before he could speak, Lady Emlyn stepped in front of Zarin to be between him and the Mayor.
"He is my last helper and the son of my sister. She heard I needed some help, so she sent him to stay with us for a few days."
The Mayor looked at Lady Emlyn's face and then towards Zarin's. She clearly was trying to find some similarities between them since they were related. But that didn't last for long, as she lost interest and went to check on the corpse of the other creature.
"Is something wrong with that person?" Zarin whispered to Lady Emlyn when the Mayor was at a decent distance from them.
"Let's go home. I will explain everything on the way."
Zarin nodded at that, as he had no reason to stay here.
"This person was the Mayor of our village. Her name is Oriel, and even if she is supposed to be the one in charge of this place, she does very few things. She rarely comes out of her place unless someone of importance passes by or there is news of a discovery that drew her attention.
"Of course, we rarely have visits for important people, so seeing her is rare unless she goes out on a drinking spree. She normally orders barrels of wines from a nearby town, but when it is over, and she has nothing left until the next batch, she goes through any good liquor left at the local inn."
"Then why don't you select a new Mayor?"
Lady Emlyn stopped walking and threw him a confusing look.
"Elect? What do you mean? The King's Council decides mayors."
"Is that the Dark Council?"
This was the second time he had heard about a Council, so Zarin wondered if they were the same thing.
"No. Dark Council and King's Council are two different things. King's Council is an official power. Its members are people of great political power bestowed by the king itself. The Dark Council is a private group of Nobles with great political and economic power. Still, compared to King's Council, they are the same as peasants."
Zarin nodded once more to show that he understood.
King's Council could be considered the government and politicians of a country. But, at the same time, the Dark Council was a high-class company. They both were powerful, but their resources were quite different.
"So, what she said is it true? Could they level the place to the ground if they knew what happened here?" Zarin said in a worried tone.
He didn't know that his action could have that kind of effect. He didn't even plan to kill that person as he had no control over Kester's summon. He just gave him a command when he used the die, and that was all.
His command was to deal with the two people, but since he didn't specify how to deal with them, it seemed it automatically went for the killing way. But technically, Kester only killed the creature follower as the final blow of the Knight came from the guards.
"So why did you hide the fact about who I am? Why did you lie to her?" Zarin asked her, as she didn't explain that yet.
"Because if she knew what kind of power you had, you would have to leave this place."
That response confused Zarin.
'Would she consider me that exceptional that would get me to a place to become a great adventurer? Does Lady Emlyn just want me to stay to help?'
As he had those kinds of thoughts, Lady Emlyn continued speaking after a brief pause.
"If she knew about your powers, she would report it to her higher-ups, and who knows who would try to get you to work for then? There are people with Dark intentions there that you don't want to meet or work for."
The response surprised Zarin. It seemed Lady Emlyn did it to protect him from people taking advantage of him, not because she would lose her new helper.
"Also, you have lots of tasks left for you to do. You just got here after all."
Lady Emlyn half chuckled at her last comment, and Zarin couldn't tell if it was serious about it or she was just joking around.
In the middle, on the way back to the fields, they met Gele and her brothers. They ran towards them the moment they saw them, with Gele being left behind as she was slower than her two brothers.
As the boys reached them, they stopped in front of Ame and looked at him with wide eyes full of amazement.
"Mr. Zarin, are the stories true? Can you use magic?" Alos asked.
Alos and Alth were almost entirely identical, except for their hairstyles.
Alos' hair was almost completely shaved at the side, leaving the top to be a full extent moicana, but the hair had only a finger height.
As for Alth's hairs weren't cut much, and that hair at the front was long enough to sometimes cover his left eye. But most times, he kept them from being on the way.
"Magic? I wouldn't say…well…. maybe one could consider it magic, I guess."
As he said that, he opened his empty palm for them to see it, and then summoned a die at it. He noticed the excitement in the eyes of the two boys and Gele, who caught up with them just in time. At the same time, he saw worry in the eyes of Lady Emlyn, which, after a few seconds, disappeared.
"Is that it?" Alth spoke this time.
Their excitement didn't last for long, and disappointment replaced it as they didn't get what they expected.
"Where is the cool warrior we heard about?"
"Yeah, we want to see him."
"I heard he is like a true knight."
Zarin could clearly see that rumors of his power had spread quite fast.
"Lady Emlyn. Don't you think that, by this point, probably Oriel will know about me?"
If the kids that far from the gate already had heard of his power, it was normal to think that Oriel would also, eventually.
Lady Emlyn looked at him with a grin on her face.
"No need to worry. Nobody really likes her, and my husband's report was an obvious message for all — not to say anything about you. My explanation also backed this and should have spread throughout the entire village at this point."
The speed of information spreading amazed Zarin but considering that the place wasn't that huge, not that hard to believe.
As they made their way towards the house, Zarin noticed a figure outside the building since it was close to lunchtime.
Ais was moving around, waiting and acting impatiently as she walked in circles.