After killing the spy, Aurora's shimmering golden eyes flashed a coquettish purple light. The next second, a cloud of black mist appeared under the corpse of the dead mercenary, and a pitch-black hand reached out from the black mist and grabbed the mercenary's body, slowly dragging it into the black mist.
When the black mist dissipated, there was no trace of blood left, as if the mercenary had never appeared here.
Aurora's expression returned to its previous calmness. After putting away the Flamberge waltz, she walked in through the main entrance. When she went up to the second floor, she found Claudia standing outside of his room with hot bread and soup, ready to knock.
"Eh? Captain, when did you go out?"
Claudia, who heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs, turned her head and saw Aurora coming up from below. She walked over quickly with breakfast and asked curiously.
"Well, it's a small matter, but it's been dealt with now. The breakfast is delicious, thank you, Claudia. It really makes my day." Aurora took the breakfast, gave Claudia a faint smile, and returned to the room.
Claudia turned around and walked away, sighing in slight disappointment. 'Haven't I told you that you can also depend on me?' It was clearly there was something more to that than she let her know. 'Maybe she needs more time...' After all, no one could change just in a single day. 'Well... but she seemed really pleased with my food! I'll prepare more snacks and tea then...' Claudia's mood brightened up, bouncing to the kitchen with a blazing fighting spirit.
Entering the room, Aurora sat directly behind the table, One of her hands picking up the bread for her to grab a bite, while the other picking up a quill and beginning to write something on the paper.
The first was the system quest that she had accepted before—The Beginning of The Conspiracy.
In the game, there were two random routes that would be assigned to the player: the first was to go north to eliminate Jeffrey, and the other was to go south to eliminate Pittman. Upon the quest's completion, the players would be given different rewards depending on what route they had undertaken: the Wood Rat Flute for Pittman's route and the Pied Piper of Hamlin Ring for Jeffrey's route.
The quest that was assigned to Aurora by the system happened to be Jeffrey's route. It might be because on their first meeting, Aurora acted as if she were one of the Republic of Harmonia's operatives, thus Pittman mistakenly believed that they were on the same side, so he didn't have hostility toward her, and the system automatically directed her to the other route.
"But this isn't a mere game anymore."
Aurora understood that if she wanted to foil the Republic of Harmonia's conspiracy in Brigitt City, she had to kill both Jeffrey and Pittman at all costs, even without the system's reward. Aura's grip on the pen tightened, and her eyes were full of determination.
"I'll kill both of them as soon as possible. But…"
Aurora frowned as she crossed a name on the paper—the Raging Tempest Mercenary Group.
They were a cancer in society that needed to be abolished before she got into the main plot. If they were left alone, Aurora was certain that they would stab her in the back or play dirty tricks when she fought Jeffrey or Pittman.
They were a dangerous variable that could push her into a disadvantageous situation. To get rid of them, though, she must admit that she still didn't have enough strength.
"Our manpower is still lacking…"
Even counting Caila, their mercenary group only consisted of four people now. It was completely impossible to complete the system quest before Blair found suitable members for them.
If they had a magician in their ranks, it might be easier for them to deal with Pittman first. After all, his main strength, the woodrats, was very vulnerable in front of the highly destructive power of magic spells.
However, in their current situation, they had no choice but to start with Jeffrey first. With their members mostly made up of swordsmen who excelled in PvP but were rather lacking in large-scale PvE, they would most likely fall into a dangerous situation when they fought against hordes of woodrats.
By getting her hands on the Pied Piper of Hamlin Ring after defeating Jeffrey, she could use it to summon and control a snake to deal with the woodrats. Without the interference from the woodrats, they could focus on facing Pittman.
"What should I do specifically?" Aurora looked at what she wrote on the paper and fell into deep thought.
Raging Tempest... Raging Tempest... how can I get rid of them?
Aurora stared at the crossed name on the paper and thought for a while.
"Captain, have you finished your breakfast? When are we going to the Mercenary Association?" Claudia's voice suddenly sounded outside the door.
"The Mercenary Association... That's right!"
Aurora's eyes lit up with a hint of coldness. No matter what, the Raging Tempest was still a mercenary group! As long as there was a commission with high profit, they would definitely bite it!
'If so then…'
Aurora scribbled a sentence on the paper: "The mantis stalked the cicada unaware of the oriole behind."
A brilliant plan was being cooked in her mind—a scheme to kill two birds with one stone. If it worked perfectly, not only could she kill Jeffrey without much effort but also greatly weaken the Raging Tempest Mercenary Group.
Finished perfecting her overall plan, Aurora stood up, crumpling up the paper and throwing it in the trash can before walking out of the door refreshed. When she opened the door, all three girls had already waited for her outside the room, especially Caila, whose wagging tail already revealed her excited heart.
"Let's go."
"Okay, okay! Let's go nya!" Caila jumped and ran outside.
*
"Lady Aurora?"
Sharon, who was drowning in a pile of documents that needed to be processed, suddenly sensed a person standing in front of her desk, raising her head to find that it was Aurora along with an unfamiliar little girl.
"Miss Sharon, I would like to trouble you to arrange the mercenary qualification certification today." Aurora rubbed Caila's head.
"Does this little girl want to participate in the mercenary qualification certification?" Sharon looked at Caila in front of her.
'Beastfolk... it's rare to see their kind in Rosewood Town...' Sharon was a little surprised when she saw Caila. 'Judging from her exquisite and refined appearance, she might be someone with a relatively high status among her kind…'
"Yes, yes! Please take care of me, big sister, nyaa!" Caila jumped in front of her and smiled, almost melting Sharon's heart.
Kyaa!! She's so cute! I'm going to die from cuteness!
Sharon forcibly controlled the urge to pull the loli catgirl into her embrace and spoil her. She took out a parchment scroll from a pile of documents, picked up a pen, stopped on the name column, and asked, "What's your name, little girl?"
"My name is Caila, nyaa!"
Caila leaned on the desk and looked at the parchment curiously. All the activities in the association gave her a novel feeling. Before, she didn't even dare to think that she could go outside world.
"Okay, Miss Caila, please come with me." Sharon led the girl to the test area with ease. After Caila came in, some mercenaries who were still participating in the test turned their heads and looked over.
"Who is available to give Miss Caila an examination right now?" Sharon walked to the side of the mercenary instructor's lounge and asked.
When these mercenary instructors saw Caila biting her lips and looking at them with such a sweet and adorable look, they all stood up at the same time, screamed at each other, and tried their best to pull the others to stand out from the crowd.
"I can!"
"I am the most professional instructor among them! Let me come!"
"Bullshit, obviously I am the best! Didn't you bastards say you were tired just now?!"
The room suddenly turned into chaos, and some people even brawled with each other.
"Oh, this is why men are..."
Sharon watched the scene in front of her with black lines covering her forehead. They were usually reluctant when she asked them to test the newcomer, but when they saw that the one coming was a cute girl, they all suddenly fired up!
All men are pervert pig!
"Okay! Don't fight!" couldn't bear the pathetic sight any longer, so Sharon had no choice but to choose one of them randomly. "It's you, you'll be the examiner!"
The chosen mercenary jumped in joy and turned around, not forgetting to jeer mockingly at the unlucky bastards behind him.
Finally, under their envious and jealous eyes, he walked up to Caila and put on a gentlemanly smile.
"It's an honor to be your examiner, lovely lady."
"Yeah, please give me your advice, nyaa!" Caila pulled the little dress slightly and saluted in curtsy.
"Of course, of course!"
The mercenary's face almost burst into a smile, and he couldn't wait to walk to the test stage, pick up a sword, and swing it around, as if trying to impress the pretty lady with his superb swordsmanship.
"Oh, men..."
Aurora and Sharon's mouths twitched as they watched the instructor's behavior.
Soon, Caila stepped onto the test stage, and in the next second, her body emitted a stream of green and pink light, and an emerald-green spirit sword appeared in her hand.
"Um?"
Aurora quickly noticed that there was another smaller spirit sword hanging on Caila's waist. Needless to say, she knew it must be the light pink spirit sword with a little chill.
Caila was ready. Her body leaned to the front and lowered slightly as she took a small step with her right foot. The emerald green sword was pointing at the mercenary, but her grip was loosened slightly as if she had another thought.
"Huh? That stance is…"
Aurora frowned slightly when she saw Calia's movement on stage, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
"Then Mr. Instructor, I'm going to start, nyaa!"
"Come on, little girl!"
The mercenary instructor chuckled lightly, but his expression quickly turned into a shocked one when he saw Caila's eyes suddenly sharpened, as if the lovely little girl standing in front of him suddenly changed into a vicious predator who had been baptized by blood and stepped on thousand corpses.
"This… what's going on?"
Gulped. He swallowed unconsciously. All of his contemptuous attitude before quickly disappeared, and he began to really pay attention to the girl holding the sword in front of him.
The next moment, Caila's figure flickered and rushed directly at the mercenary instructor. The spirit sword in her hand stabbed directly at him with a clean thrust, without any fancy movement.
When the mercenary instructor saw the sword coming, he waved the sword in his hand and swung it outward towards his chest. Caila's sword just passed by his blade, making a sharp sound of metal friction.
After a miss, Caila, who was still in the momentum of sprinting, flipped her body quickly, and her left hand hammered directly on the back of the mercenary instructor, adjacent to where his heart was.
"If this is a real life-and-death duel, he is already dead." Aurora couldn't help shaking her head when she saw Caila retracting the hand holding the hilt of the sword in her waist beforehand.
She could imagine the scene where Caila's light pink sword pierced the unsuspecting enemy's body from behind.
If Flamme was a master swordsman with extremely advanced swordsmanship, then Caila was the exact opposite of her. Her swordsmanship was a simple move with only one goal—killing her opponent as swiftly as possible.
The mercenary instructor staggered and immediately adjusted his state, concentrating on facing the girl in front of him.
Caila didn't stop attacking; one sword after another was aimed at the mercenary instructor's body. Even if the mercenary instructor could block her attack once, she could always use another tricky angle to attack the opponent the next second.
The flexible body of the beastfolk race was fully displayed at this time.
"You're really good! Let me see your skills again."
The mercenary instructor held the hilt of the sword tightly with both hands, and his body faintly emitted a light blue gleam.
Swoosh—
The mercenary instructor launched an attack again, even faster after the light blue light on his body appeared. The sword in his hand entangled Caila tightly like a snake.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
Their swords clashed crazily, making a crisp sound of collision.
Caila's fierce attack and the mercenary instructor's quick reaction attracted everyone's attention.
"This little girl isn't so bad. She can compete head-on with the Speedsters Simi for so long without losing."
A mercenary instructor who almost successfully squeezed out just now looked at the two people on the test platform attentively and praised.
As mercenary instructors hired by the Mercenary Association with high salaries, they all have strength above the elite level and have experienced a lot of combat training.
After the short confrontation between the two, they could tell at a glance that the girl seemed to be restraining something, so sometimes she paused subconsciously, and Simi must have discovered the little abnormality of the girl and wanted to force that thing out.
"Hu ha hu ha..."
Caila rolled over to avoid the downward slash of Simi's sword, and quickly jumped back after getting up to avoid the stabbing attack from him again, creating some distance between them.
Her chest heaved up and down rapidly; a drop of sweat was already dripping from her forehead.
"Hoo... ha... ha... ha..."
Thump!
When Caila clenched her sword tightly and was about to attack again, she felt her vision blur for a second, and then fell straight on the test stage with a plop under everyone's eyes.
"Caila!"