"I didn't think you'd come finding me so early."
"And why not?" I replied with Ardor's voice distortion.
"You are in the palace, it would take time, how did you slip past the security there, cause I'm sure the palace Knights are no joke."
"I flew."
"I see..."
"So?"
"The shadow assassins were commissioned by a noble, Earl Bralfai."
"I don't know him, who is he?"
"If I'm to describe him, I'll say a noble whose household is ruined, though his brother is a Prima but they are not well of, with further investigations I discovered the head of the house is a vassal to Duke Heelterd."
"Explain that too," I said as he paused.
"Duke Heelterd is one of the seven Dukes of the empire, Duke Heelterd, Duke Rautelet, Duke Goldstein, Duke Maxnor, Duke Augustham, Duke Chavamoux and Duchess Sarrassac. All seven are like pillars holding the empire, of course, other nobles contribute to the growth of the country and also hold important government positions, but power circles around these seven, though the Maxnor duchy has always shown indifference to politics or the power struggles and fights.
"I see, so Duke Heelterd might have targeted me because he wanted something from my father..."
'...to be exact he probably didn't want me to go to the palace and be the Prince's friend... I can remember Reilfreid explained to me the true meaning behind this culture.'
'I can't get used to this, by the look on his face he seems to have put the pieces together, he's too smart to be a kid'
"It seems you now have a grasp of what is going on. Then I shall take my leave." He said and was about to stand.
"You can't!"
"Why not?"
"I have a request."
"Again?"
"Yes"
He leaned into his chair and folded his arms as he looked at me.
"I plan to register as a Prima and an adventurer."
"Adventurer?" He repeated after me with a confused face.
"You know, those people that accept people's request hunt beast for money or certain rewards."
"You mean mercenary."
"Yes, that..."
'...so it's mercenary, I thought they call them adventurers in every fantasy world...'
"What about your image as the son of a Duke?"
"Do you see my image right now?" I replied him pointing to my face which was covered by the golden mask.
"Oh I see, if it's that then it will be possible. But I thought you were a mage."
"I'm a lot of things Challan."
He smiled, "There is more to you than meets the eye. I know I won't regret my decision of deciding to serve you." He said.
"It's nice to see you give yourself assurance," I added.
"You will need a name to go by, afterwards you will need to register officially at the public guild which is at the centre of the city not too far from here. You'll, of course, be given a test to determine your Prima level and you will start from the rock bottom mercenary rank and the more jobs you execute the higher you climb, for example, Platinum and adamantine rank mercenaries take on Jobs on the level of kingdoms.
'That's so nice, that's where I'm going.' "What's the highest mercenary rank?"
"Tungsten, in the entire continent there are only three of those."
"Wow" My eyes lit with excitement.
"Aren't you — He paused and looked at me, then let out a scoff, "...well I'm sure it'll be possible with you. So what are you going to do now?"
"I have to go and register."
"But you haven't decided on a name?"
"Ah, that's right." I looked down at myself, "How about golden boy, Golden man?"
"No, no don't do that" He replied.
"No don't, Goshujin..."
They both added.
"Then Ardor?"
"Not bad..." He said, nodding his head to it.
"Yea, yeah, not totally bad..."
They both added.
"Then allow me to escort you to the guild." He said.
Both of us stood and took a walk down the street that night.
***
"Welcome to the Public guild." A feminine and rotund voice.
We both walked over to the attendant table, the lady behind it seemed to be the one that greeted me seeing as the other people were customers that had passed out from drunkenness.
"How may I help you?" She asked.
"I've come to register my friend here as a mercenary," Challan said.
The attendant looked at me, I could tell her eyes were peeking into the mask and golden armour that covered every bit of my body, and to hide the brimming I had covered myself with a black cloak but it was still impossible to cover my feet, hand and neck, even my face.
She slid a paper to me and a feathered pen, "Fill in your information sir."
'Ah, shit, I've never tried writing in this world.'
"You don't have to worry about that, just write like you normally do," Anastasia said.
I obeyed and wrote my name age, which I put eighteen to avoid any age restrictions on Jobs and other unnecessary pieces of information were asked.
She glanced through the paper after I passed it back to her, "Then Sir Ardor, follow me. You alone." She said the moment Challan looked like he was about to follow.
I went behind her up the stairs behind the table.
"What a pity, I would have loved to see what the measuring would be like." He said, peeking into the stairs.
After reaching the upper floor, we entered a room that was mainly illuminated by the light of the large blue orb that consumed most of the space in the room. Next to it on one side, another attendant was seated behind a table with a lot of papers in front of her.
"Do we have a new applicant?" She said as we entered, standing up and adjusting her glasses, dark circles could be seen behind the glasses. "It's been a lot these past few days, the endless streams of new jobs and new mercenaries, would the dungeons just stop appearing?"
"It's like that all over the continent, but still thanks to the massive number of Primas we have that the demonic beast has been kept at bay, who knows what danger we'll be in right now."
"Anyway this is Amelia, she's in charge of measuring your rank as a Prima." The attendant said.
"Nice to meet you, Amelia, I'm Ardor."
She nodded at me, the height difference was annoying, they were all dressed like office workers which was sexually appealing.
She brought out a metallic card.
"This is a profile card," she said, looking at me, "The front plate displays, your information as Prima while the back plate displays your information as a mercenary. To get your information as a Prima we will need you to place your hand on the ice orb."
"Okay," I responded and slowly moved closer to the large orb.
"The ice orb measures a Prima's core level and changes colour in contrast to the level. This is one of the best ice orbs and was even carved out of the original ice orb."
'Too bad I don't what is so special about ice orb.'
"So Goshujin, want me to hide it or what?"
'No, we are not doing that here, I can't hide my face and hide my powers again, I'll be the top.' I responded to her as I gently placed my hand on the ice orb.
Upon touching it I could feel the coldness and roughness of the orb.
After a few minutes,
"What's wrong? it should be changing colour right now..." She said, both of them exchanged glances behind me.
"Should I just remove my hand?" I asked.
"No, if it takes longer it means you are on a higher level, the higher the level the longer it takes to measure." She replied, her tone was fast-paced for some reason.
About an hour later,
'It's probably midnight, I need to sleep...'
Both of them were sitting on the chair and for some reason tapping their feet.
After some minutes,
"It's changing, it's changing!!!" Amelia shouted in excitement.
I sighed in relief as I was getting tired and sleepy.
The orb slowly began to change colour, and in a matter of seconds, the ice blue colour had changed to a pitch black.
"Black?" Both of them were puzzled.
"What does black mean?" I asked.
"We've never had black before, the highest We've had is red and that's a level 9."
"So what is going on? Is the orb fake?"
"That is impossible, I can assure you this is one of the best." Carie, please get the guild manager." She said to the attendant who immediately ran outside.
She came back in with a white-haired man, whose beard was also white-haired, he was donned in a black suit and looked elegant and strong. His eyes widened immediately as he saw the orb.
"How long did it take to measure?"
"Over an hour," Amelia responded to the guild manager's question.
"I'm sorry young man, can you come back in three days for your evaluation result." He said to me.
"I've been here for close to two hours, yet I'm not even going to get my profile card before I leave?"
"I truly apologise sir, there will be compensation for this mistake." He said.
I grinned, not that he could see it, but compensation sounds just perfect. "Alright, then I'll be back in three days," I said and walked out majestically.