As aran entered his room, it looked nice with all the necessary things like the bed and furniture. Although it wasn't as royal as it was in the mansion he was staying for the tournament, it was still better than his dorm room in the academy.
After taking a rest for some time, When he left the room for dinner and went to the dining area, Elissa was already sitting at a table. She was looking forward to discussing their plan for the mission. Aran walked towards her and sat down facing her. Before he could talk about something, a servant brought the food and they began to have their dinner.
As they were having their meal, Elissa started the conversation.
" So, tell me. how are we going forward with the mission," she asked. But before talking about that, Aran wanted to clarify some other things.
" We can talk about the mission but first, there is something we need to discuss.
I am not a fool to think that you are helping for no reason. I know there is something you want from me. So tell me, what is it?"
"Can't we talk about that later? We have to finish this mission in less than two weeks. So I think this is more important "
" No. We can discuss this first. We have all night to talk about the mission " aran said.
Although Elissa wanted something from aran, she wanted to help him before asking him. Because she thought it was better to ask him after making him feel like he owes her something. She thought that way the chance of getting what she wants will be high. That was why she had decided to help aran. But now that aran was serious about what she wanted, she had no other choice, but to tell him.
"Well then, I also don't want to continue like this. But before telling you that, there is something else you might need to know! " She said as she made a serious face and continued.
" As you know I am a young lady of the Bryde family. But whenever someone sees me, the first thing that comes to their mind is that my appearance doesn't look very ladylike. I am not wearing pretty clothes or acting like a lady and it's very unlikely that a lady becomes a sword fighter. Because most ladies of the royal family always focus on their elemental cultivation.
Before I even awakened my attribute I always wanted to become a swordfighter. B despite being a swordsmen family, they insisted, saying that sword fighting is not right for a lady like me. But When I first awakened my attribute, they lost all their hopes about me. They thought I will never succeed as a cultivator with my single wind attribute, But I was happy because I thought, with a single attribute, I will be able to become a strong swordmaster. So I focused my whole life on sword fighting "
As aran heard Elissa, he understood what she was saying but since he had it worst than her, he couldn't feel anything. Instead, he was getting bored hearing her story and feeling a little sleepy.
"That's a great story, but can we just get to the main part please?" He asked.
Elissa got angry and started biting her lips. But controlled herself and continued to talk.
" I always wanted to become the greatest sword master in the world. Although I trained for years and learned many sword techniques, that's not even close to what I want to achieve.
There are only a hundred or so sword techniques in my family's possession. The strongest sword technique we have is the 7th ranked absolute offence thousand sword technique. Although it might seem a lot, To become the strongest swords master I need more than that, so I want to learn every heavenly sword techniques that exist in the world.
I heard that there are thousands of sword techniques of different ranks in the Phoenix academy. Now that you know what my goal is, I think you can understand the rest! "
" Yes, I get it. But tell me, why are you asking me? I am the weakest sword fighter in my team. You could have asked anyone else. But why me?" Aran asked the obvious question.
"Because you are from a royal family just like me. So I thought, you might understand me and we can help each other. You will get me the sword techniques, and I will help you with anything you want that's within my reach. "
" What if I don't have anything that I want? "
" Everyone wants something. But the question is, are you willing to do anything, to get what you want?"
Although aran didn't take what she said to his mind, the last thing she said was right. Now that he was also in a situation like that he could relate to what she was saying. Since it was also beneficial for him, he wanted to look forward to it.
" I will think about that, and let you know about my decision before the tournament ends! " Aran said. It seemed safe to say that.
"That's fine with me" Elissa replied and continued with her meal. After finishing the dinner, Elissa asked aran what was his plan, for the mission.
" Nothing special! we can look around the town and when we find the bandits, we can make a good plan to catch them! " Aran said with a smile.
" What? Thats it? "
" Yes. As I said, I can look very far. So it won't be that difficult. "
Although Elissa didn't really though it will work, now that she had discussed what she actually wanted, she thought there is nothing wrong to try. She thought If they can't find the bandits, they can always leave the mission. So she accepted it.
" Great!" Aran said as he heard her decision. After taking some food for arrax, he left for his room.
***
On the next day, aran woke up early in the morning. After wearing the new casual clothes he bought yesterday, he got ready and left his room. After meeting Elissa outside, they both had breakfast and left for the town.
Since Elissa thought it won't be good to take their royal horses, she asked the manager of the inn for help. The manager told her to take two horses from the stable behind the inn.
Elissa took aran to the stable and both of them selected a local horse for each. After getting on the horses they left for the town.
After a while, As they were riding in the town, aran asked Elissa where he can get a map of the town from. She showed him a shop and he told her to buy a map of the town since he didn't have any money left.
After buying the map, aran looked at it and selected some particular places in the town, from where he can use his vision to look at most of the town. That way he was planning on covering the town to find the bandits. Since his vision had improved with his soul cultivation, he could see up to three miles by then. He was sure that he can look around the whole town in less than a week.
After choosing some spots for the first day to visit and discussing them with Elissa, he began his ride.
On the first day, both of them went to a place in the town which was well known for the best food and had their lunch there.
After that, they went to a famous black market in the town and looked around for a while before returning to the inn.
On the second day, they visited a street fighting club in the town Because it was most likely one of the places where he can find the bandits but they couldn't find anyone there.
Just like that, they both continued to look around the town for six days. From all the places he visited, he looked at the town and in six days he covered almost 70% of the town.
While Aran was looking around with his vision, he saw hundreds of people fighting and killing each other in the alleys. Stealing from one another was very common there. Although Elissa had warned him many things about the town and she also seemed afraid, for aran who saw everything with his own eyes, it was more terrifying than what he imagined.
As both Aran and Elissa were travelling around the town, Although it started as an investigation, soon it became a fun trip and they both started having fun, visiting places and walking around.
While they were looking around they even had to face many street thugs and Elissa fought them off every time. Looking at her Aran was sure that she will be a great ally in the future.
On the seventh day of the investigation, aran saw one of the bandits he was looking for, in a dark alley in the town. He immediately told Elissa and followed him for a while and found four more bandits.
Since they had found some bandits, they continued to follow them for two more days and found the base of the bandits' crew.
In the eastern region of the town, aran was standing on a building, looking at the base which was a mile away from him. Surprisingly, it was as big as a whole mini town. The base was filled with the worst people in the town.
Aran was pleased to know that he had finally found them and as he looked at Elissa to talk about the plan to catch them, he saw that she seemed frightened. She was looking at the base from there as if she was horrified looking at the scariest thing in the world. Before aran could say something, she immediately said
" We are aborting the mission !"
" But why, " Aran asked, but she didn't say anything. She just turned around and started to walk off.
After seeing her reaction something seemed wrong and Aran again looked at the base. But this time he used his vision at its full power. As he saw it, he was also got shocked! Because this time he saw something unexpected there.
It wasn't just a base for bandits to hang out but it was a proper cultivators' base.
There were four towers, that were almost a hundred feet high and these towers were nearly a mile away from each other, creating a square-shaped base town between them.
The towers weren't built to keep tracks on the base but they were built as the pillars for a defensive formation.
Looking at that, aran was happy and worried at the same time. Because at first he also thought about abandoning the mission but when he looked carefully he found something. Something that he thought he will never get for at least a year. Looking at that, he immediately got ready to get it at any cost.
As Aran was about to smile, he saw the cultivation stages of the hundreds of bandits there and realised, that he can't do it alone, even with Arrax. It immediately made him worry. He wasn't worried about the base but he was worried about how he was going to convince Elissa.
Even when he saw that base and the formation, he was still confident that he can break through it but he needed Elissa's help. He knew how strong the base is and no one with the right mind will help him. Thinking about what should he do to convince her, he also left for the inn.