"How long are you going to keep staring at the contract Henry? We are now so close to the Fog Mountains and it is no time for fusing over pointless things like this." Lydia Hyde felt ticked off at the constant flipping of the contract over and over again.
"And whose fault is that? Huh?! You and your pig headed pride being goaded into doing such a suicidal task!! If you had just calmed over for a bit then we won't be here at the edge of the world going to a godforsaken place if you had just shut your mouth for a bit!!" the Vice leader was an middle aged looking redhead screamed at their leader.
"What? Is it my fault that the stupid fancy ass prince questioned our strength? If you were me you'd have punched that smug ass face of his and that dirty set of eyes I just wanna carve out of his ugly ass head!" Lydia fumed as she still remembered the night of the party when the tenth prince invited them for a celebration.
"Oh, so am I to blame the prince about you being so stupid enough to try and prove yourself huh? Wow I didn't know you care about our reputation so much your ooh so awesomeness!" Henry said in the most sarcastic voice he could ever pull out as he looked angry towards their team leader.
"And what? Should I let pansy looking people like him judge our names like that? I won't stand for it!" Lydia fumed as she looked outside the window seeing the foggy mountains said to have been the work of a Grand Wizard to prevent the Dangerous Beast beyond from ever going South.
"Oh how great, now we're here in one of the twelve danger zones in the edge of the East Continent because you wanted to protect our pride! Please push down your pride missy! Unlike you the rest of our teammates are only B-Class and only five of us are A-Class!" Henry got angry again as he looked at their leader.
"Why are you worrying so much? We survived the Ice Glades between the four Nations and even fought an S-class monster recently, we'll be fine. Besides I think that the rumors about this place is overrated anyways." Lydia shrugged her shoulders as she looked towards the mountains.
"Urghh! I just can't with you! You seem to forget we barely got out of the Ice Glades alive and we were able to kill that S-Class Beast because it was already injured by a ++A-Class beast before we even found it!" Henry's veins seemed to about to burst but he calmed down and looked at the small chubby cat in Lydia's thigh and sighed in exasperation.
This was an off spring of an Alpha Lighting Lynx that died fighting against the S-Class monster Variant Blighted Wyvern. He felt they were lucky the wings of the Wyvern was torn apart rendering it unable to escape and fly away when they were attacking it.
Lydia on the other hand adopted the cub and now their funds are getting low since they spent a bit of money to buy quality monster milk to feed the cub.
Henry did not regret it though, if the cub ever grows up it'll be a great asset to their team. He was just upset they had to go to a more potentially dangerous place than the Ice Glades.
Wildlands beyond the Fog Mountains were much more dangerous for him since people had been known to survive the Ice Glades but the Wildlands has barely any news from inside and the few survivors cannot describe much as most died soon after getting in the accursed place.
He had hoped that maybe the missing Sister of the Emperor would be found there in the Fog Mountains but that is highly unlikely. Since it had been almost two months already since her disappearance and the rumor did say she could not be found in the Fog Mountains by scouts of the prince.
He just hoped they would not go into the infamous Wildlands, it had been said that the fog and the storms surrounding the lands were made by the sacrifice of a Grand Wizard who deemed the monsters of the land to be very dangerous for the people of the East Continent.
"*Sigh*, I just hope that our journey here would not be for nothing." Henry rubbed his temples as he had realized that the contract they were given was a very bad trap and if they fail they would lose a lot of reputation.
His team leader also read it but her optimism is what making him feel throbbing headaches. It was stated in the contract should the person or target be not found or presumed deceased then their group must find keepsakes and evidence that would show that the target for extraction has already passed.
But he understood that if it was ever a beast or monster that killed the target then surely there would be no evidence left. It would have been mostly digested by now, and if rumors are to be taken note of then the sister of the Emperor would have been most likely assassinated.
And no good assassin would leave behind any evidence, thus this frustrated him greatly as he felt that their leader was always too quick to jump the gun.
"Don't worry Henry, we will all be okay!" Lydia smiled as she looked over to the road but then she frowned. "What are they doing here?"
"Hmmm?" Henry noticed Lydia's displeasure and he too looked outside. "Another A-ranked adventurer team, Deadly Cross Bones. Ughh such an ugly naming sense."
"Hehehe who do we have here? A bunch of little girls playing house?" a bald gruffy man rode his horse-like beast forward as he looked towards Lydia's group. They were mostly bald men with tattoos and rode on a horse like +C-Class Beast called Sand Spirits, but instead of hooves they have paws and are carnivorous.
"Oh no! Somebody please give this old pervert some glasses so he can see better!" Lydia acted so concerned as she said this in mocking tone while her team members giggled a bit.
"Tch, you should go back to where you came from little girl. This place is not something you should be in." the bald man scowled as he looked at the other people in the carriages.
"And why should I? I was sent here by the request of the Tenth Prince of Solesinese Empire to rescue the sister of the Emperor. I should be the one asking you to leave here old man Axe Face, your face is so ugly monsters would get offended at the sight of you." Lydia snarked back as she looked at the bunch of bald men in their horses.
"Axe Face, is that even your name? But I'm pretty sure it's better than your original since it might be a very ugly name since you have a very ugly face!" Lydia continued and laughed at the old adventurer Axe Face.
"Why you little brat! Hmph! I won't waste time with you…" Axe Face scoffed and took out a scroll then unfurls it towards the direction of Lydia. "…as you can see, we are in employ of his Highness the 4th prince of the Solesinese Empire, Prince Ernest of Caldon, to rescue and retrieve his Majesty's Sister the Lady Janice Harleigh. So please little brat stay out of my way as I will find her ladyship here in the Infamous Wildlands!"
Axeface looked smug as he looked at Lydia who was quite surprised but it was Henry who understood why the other Princes sent their own group. The rumors of one of the prince sending assassins to the Sister of the Emperor made them have to take a stand to appear innocent.
This made him groan and looked back to the road they had passed and there he saw another group of famous A-ranked Adventurer team.
"Damn, the Scorpion Lilies… this day just keeps getting worse." Henry's voice made Lydia and Axe Face look too and they also frowned. There they saw a dozen women dressed in light green robes with bows in their back led by a man in light blue Hanfu riding Moa Bird beasts that were categorized as C-Class Beast but were very fast rides.
"I can't seem to avoid overhearing your conversation my friends, it seems fate has brought us together in this place as I too have been Employed by the 19th prince of the Empire of Solesinese, Prince Malden of Boston." An effeminate looking man opened his fan as he looked towards the other teams.
"Yuck, it the eunuch Pang Hu…" Axe Face scrunched his face as he looked at the leader of the Scorpion Lilies Pang Hu.
"Eww, it's that pervert dude from before…" Lydia also showed a disgusted face as she looked at Pang Hu.
"*clench* First of all, I am not a eunuch and also I have my tools complete here. Second, I just invited you to be a member of the Lilies last time and I had no other intention than that." Pang Hu was visibly annoyed at the reactions of the other team leaders.
"If you aren't a eunuch then why do you have an all-girl team other than you and no one has seen you touching them before!? I heard you like men more so please stay away from me!" Axe Face made a cross with his hands as he looked at Pang Hu.
"I still think you are a pervert, the way you smile is just so creepy and slimy and totally disgusting." Lydia said making Pang Hu stunned at the hurtful words.