The bar was currently ruled by crickets to fill the awkward silence caused by the defeat of their MIGHTY and UNDEFEATABLE Barak.
A man cleared his throat. Heads snapped to see who dared do such an act and disdain the tranquillity of concentration they were trying to have. They anticipated to get slapped one-by-one and end up similar to the poor bloke outside. He would probably have the slap mark seen as a birthmark for his entire life.
Standing at about an inch shorter than Karma was a stout teenager with cheeks comparable to that of a squirrel with two nuts in its mouth. Pouted lips greased and eyes completely covered by squared bangs in a short haircut with the back shaved zigzagged as if it was clawed by a monster.
"Are you Salem Apostle?" he asked in his voice that seemed to come out from a pinched nose or a severe cold.
"Who's asking?" Salem asked back.
"Reysin Torric." The boy was wearing a scholarly robe.
Salem eyed him from head-to-toe, judging the boy's appearance to know what kind of service he wanted from their mercenary group.
"Do you want me to ask the girl you're stalking and convince her to date you saying that it is God's will?" Salem guessed, offending Reysin and causing a heated blush to spread across his face.
"Absolutely not!"
Salem took another wild guess.
"You're a poor handsome and refined young lad who was cursed by a woman who you rejected, and you seek ways to break the curse that put you into that unpleasant form."
The scholar groaned exasperatedly. He was warned that the excom was different. Dealing with him was like dealing with a snake that happened to be the King of the Jungle, but at the same time he was that annoying parrot that you'd want to defeather.
"I am here to hire you on an exterminating mission!"
"Ah," was Salem's only response before having another offending thought.
"Is it that time of the year already?"
"What time?!"
"We dropped the boar hunting last year. You have to find some other hunters to get meat for you on Thanksgiving," Karma drawled.
"Who names their kid after a dried grape?" Jinx scoffed.
Reysin was close to strangling the group of mercenaries, if only Salem wasn't a gigantic freak clothed in a seminarian's holy armour and greatly blessed with the power of the Elysians.
The tension in the bar was gone not because the people were less afraid of Salem, but because they ended up going home early with the bar owner hiding under the counter.
Salem, Jinx, Karma and Reysin sat around the round table. Salem was sipping on fresh cow milk from a beer glass through a straw sticking out from under his mask. He wasn't listening to Reysin but was still glancing at him so that he wouldn't notice that his mind was already somewhere else. Jinx was snoring on the table and Karma was reading a book.
"There are valuable scriptures in the Royal Castle of El' Azar which are not yet retrieved. Many scholars have tried and hired mercenaries to escort them to the castle, but a wild beast with two tails lurks within the castle walls. The beast releases a breath of fire to those who attempt to enter. A dragon must have nested inside of the ruins but judging from the size of the fire, it's still a baby."
"If it's still a baby then why can't mercenaries handle it?" Karma asked.
"The fire it releases is black fire. Once it sees someone a foot near the gate, it quickly surrounds the entrance with the blaze."
Black fire cannot be extinguished. It stays until the dragon who released it dispels it.
"A descendant of the Emperor Dragon Tenebra. Now why would Tenebra let his offspring reside away from his nest? He is overprotective over his children," Karma questioned. His master and the idiot weren't at all paying attention. Karma took it upon himself to listen to their clients so that they wouldn't charge in like a headless chicken.
Reysin shrugged. "That is the same question that all the scholars have now. If Tenebra's child is not returned to his side many villages close to El' Azar will be endangered."
Karma set his eyes on his boss. The scholar wasn't concerned with the villagers. He was only concerned about getting artifacts and other valuables from the castle for his research.
"Will we accept?"
Salem set his empty glass of milk on the table and asked the owner for seconds.
"5, 000 cannites and two cows," he put out his emolument.
Reysin blinked in question yet satisfied that his request was granted. This kind of mission would have cost 20,000-50,000 cannites. It was too good to be true, but the rumours were true: Salem Apostle was a cheap man who offered preeminent service.
"You want two cows for a mission that could possibly end in dealing with the Dark Dragon Emperor?"
Karma would want to protest against the service fee that his master decided upon. However, there was no use with arguing with a man who did not place value on prosperity.
"Do you know how much mooing I deal with every morning?" Karma brought up—hoping that his master would realize how many cows they were taking care of back at home.
"I know and do you know how much milk I consume every day?"
The young boy sighed. "Gallons."
The night passed by. Karma and Jinx slept soundly in their warm beds. Salem stayed up, watching how the dandelion tinted moon glanced back at him.
It had been seventeen years since he was excommunicated from the Elysian Church and dropped off from Ecclesia Academy.
He was a prodigy and a genius with natural-born gifts. The priests in the academy praised him highly for his achievements in both academic and fieldwork. The Elysian Church expected him to replace the executive minister in the near future. However, Salem had a change of plans.
His future was set yet his heart was not. Once he came face-to-face with a child born from peculiarity, he could not bring himself to end him and instead, he ended up doing a crime that caused his expulsion from the academy, banishment from his religion, and extraction from a great future.
'You are a disappointment. You are a criminal who deserves to be sent to Sheol. You failed just as you have failed to protect your family from Beelzebub...' The words of the High Priest were still freshly marked in his mind.
He bore no grudge against anyone from his past life. Revenge wasn't in his mind and heart in the slightest. For Salem, he was simply a passer-by in this world. He rowed the boat in the river of death while watching the world burn around him.
His mother's dying wish was for him to escape and live life in the simplest and safest way possible. His father's will was for him to avenge their deaths and become a priest.
He threaded in the middle of both wishes at first yet fulfilled none. He stared at his sleeping subordinates and grinned behind his mask.
Well perhaps he did fulfill one wish.
The sun rose. Jinx hauled himself out of bed, taking a deep breath through his nostrils in front of the window to take in the fresh morning breeze scented with freshly baked bread. His two companions were already gone from the room and once he heard the neigh of a horse, his slanted eyes widened and the sleep in his body was drained quickly.
"Wait for me!!!" he screamed.
The trip to El' Azar was quick and it could have been quicker if Reysin knew how to ride a horse. Even Jinx, who gets frequently kicked by one, knew how to tame a horse better.
"I never felt so good about myself before," Jinx snorted before the horse he was riding neighed and jumped back, causing him to fall painfully on his buttocks.
Karma knew he would jinx that one.
The mossed and vined crumbled walls of El Azar was the first thing they saw as they neared the ruined capital that became a battleground of light and dark 250 years ago. A group of antlers leaped out and birds chirped as if the capital was completely cleansed from all evil and chaos.
As they rode their horses inside, Karma looked around, seeing if he could catch a glimpse of the baby dragon. Jinx was being dragged by the horse, Reysin felt like the horse he was riding was born in this world to terrorize him and Salem looked straight ahead.
The excom put his index finger and his thumb inside his mouth and blew a sharp whistle that caused the horses to stop walking, the birds to stop conversing, and the breeze to abruptly halt.
"What was that?" The scholar asked.
"God's call," Karma replied. Something will come. God's call was Salem's special skill to attract the energy that predominates in an area. It could either be a friend or a foe. Salem had a strong guess that it was the latter as they always had dealt with strong monsters whenever his boss uses this ability.
Lightning struck down in broad daylight right in front of them. Salem and Karma smoothly jumped off from their horses that panicked from the shock brought about by the surge of electricity. The other two were thrown and dragged off.
An ivory spear was staked to the ground and the four men traced their line of gaze from the bottom of the weapon right up to the creature standing on top of the spear.
The creature had a man-like figure combined with monstrous characteristics. Eyes glanced at them coolly yet sharply.
Their arrival was not welcome and most importantly...
"That is not a baby dragon," Salem commented.