12 The Nearby Lord

In the central area of the Crescent Town, inside the mayor's manor...

The mayor's manor was safeguarded by the personal guards of the mayor, which wore better armor and were equipped with greater weapons than the town guards.

Alexander, the mayor of the town, was currently in his study, reading a letter that came from the secret organization.

The mayor sighed in response after reading the letter. The contents of the letter were...

[Mr. Alexander,

We have received your message about the necromancer we sent that died, his disciple didn't come back yet and we sent a party to find him, we will message that party to redirect to Crescent Town to protect you.

It is estimated that they would reach your town by a month, and about the treasure, the party will be the one who will find it.]

There was no signature or name of the sender on the letter, however, there was a black seal placed on the top right corner of the letter, indicating that it came from the organization.

"The treasure that could make one powerful, in exchange for one's humanity.", the mayor muttered.

***

Inside the Three Heads Tavern after the last customer of the day left...

"Finally, we can rest...", Allen sat down on a chair.

"You said it...", Drake walked out of the kitchen while untying his apron. He dried his sweaty face with it then placed it on the nail on the wall.

"Mhm.", Kate nodded in agreement.

"I never thought you can cook food, Drake.", Allen commented.

"Haha... it's hard to cook for a whole tavern of people, but I'm fast enough to do so. But Kate have the best job of delivering my masterpieces to the people, she probably smells each of my dishes when she carries it.", Drake let out a chuckle.

"No, it's probably covered in your sweat when you cook them.", Kate retorted.

"Yeah, covered with my sweat and hardwork. Hahaha...", Drake joked.

'How shameless.', Kate thought while letting out a grunt.

"I'm going to cook our dinner, be right back.", Drake tied back his apron and entered the kitchen.

"We get to eat?", Allen asked. He placed his hand on top of his stomach, noticing that it quietly rumbled.

"Of course." Kate was the one who answered, "It's a reward for our hard work."

...

Several minutes later, Drake walked out of the kitchen carrying food. The trio ate happily until night.

Mr. Sanchez walked down the stairs and saw the three of them cleaning the table they just ate dinner on.

"Your training tonight is canceled.", Mr. Sanchez straightforwardly said to Allen.

After a pause, he continued, "We're going to go to Riverboard City, we will leave tonight. We'll stay there for a few weeks, but probably won't exceed a month."

Allen was surprised by the decision of Mr. Sanchez. They would stay at the Riverboard City down at south for many days, then he became worried that his little brother would be afraid of being alone in the house while his father was gambling.

Seeing Allen's worried look, Mr. Sanchez, as if he could read the kid's thoughts, said, "You can say goodbye to your little brother tonight, after all, we'll probably pass by your house. Don't worry, you will be paid lots of money, when we return."

"Okay.", Allen sighed inwardly, the reason why he was here in the first place was because he lacked money, however, being too far from home made him hesitate, even when Mr. Sanchez will pay him a large amount of money.

'So much things happened these past few days.', Allen thought. It has only been three to five days since the kid first killed somebody. The man became actually became like the epitome of his nightmares that kept haunting Allen, every time in his sleep, that man would appear in his dreams and try to kill him.

"We'll finally leave this place.", Kate rejoiced.

"Temporarily leave.", Drake corrected her.

"Hmph."

"Alright, the three of you should get dressed, there is a carriage down south that would take us to the city.", Mr. Sanchez said.

***

Night...

In the Morgan residence...

William closed the book he was reading and placed back at the bookshelf.

He yawned deeply, stretched his limbs, then lied down the bed.

"Where the heck is that smelly brother of mine gone to?", William muttered to himself.

"Ehem, who are you calling smelly?", a voice said.

"Eeek...", William shrieked as he saw Allen beside the window. "B-b-big brother, don't scare me like that! How did you get here without me noticing? Or did you climb up the window?!"

"Yeah, I climbed up the window.", Allen nodded.

"Have you been stealing people's objects?!", William suddenly asked and said in his mind, 'No wonder big brother got so much money to give! Stealing on people's pockets is fine, but stealing their own possessions is different!'

"What?! No!", Allen immediately said. "Wait a minute... don't you dare change the subject."

"I am not!", William pouted his cheeks.

"William, I'm not going to come back here for probably a month's time. Be good, alright?", Allen said.

"I'll be good, but where are you going, big brother?" William asked.

"I can't tell you. Goodbye!", Allen hastily jumped out the window.

"Wait! Don't be so stupid to jump out the window!", William looked out the window and saw Allen's silhouette waving goodbye at him, finally his big brother left towards the darkness.

"Big brother's getting weirder and weirder these past few days, first he got twenty bronze coins, second, he returned to the house at midnight, third, he's going to leave and not come back for some time.", William rubbed his head due to stress.

"I hope that you'll just be okay."

***

In a tree grove...

"Here's your clothes and a new dagger", Kate passed Allen his assassin's clothes and a new weapon.

"Thanks.", Allen wore the black clothes over his current ones and placed the dagger inside his sleeves.

"Come on, they are waiting for you.", Kate said as she beckoned Allen to follow her.

***

Night, one day later, inside a carriage at the outskirts of Riverboard City...

"We've arrived at the outskirts, it's better if we set off by foot.", Mr. Sanchez then told the driver to stop the coach.

Afterwards, Allen, Drake, and Kate went out the carriage.

"Finally, I could stretch out my arms.", Drake let out a joyful moan while stretching his joints.

"Thank you for the ride, old friend.", Mr. Sanchez said towards the driver.

"Don't mention it.", the carriage driver laughed and continued towards the Riverboard City.

"We're not going to go straight to the city?", Kate asked.

"No, we're going to a nearby lord first.", Mr. Sanchez said.

"A lord? Which lord?", Drake asked.

"Just follow me.", Mr. Sanchez said.

***

The group of four passed by a night market on the road without anyone noticing them; after which, they spotted a small castle on the hill. They hid themselves into a grove of trees near at the bottom of the hill.

"What are we going to do now?", Drake asked.

"There is a group of assassins coming for the lord of that castle, our job is to protect the lord.", Mr. Sanchez explained.

"Other assassins? Do they have special abilities?", Kate asked.

"No, but they're very fast.", Mr. Sanchez said.

"Fast?", Drake's eyes shone when he heard the word 'fast'. "Let me see how fast they are."

"Hey kid.", Mr. Sanchez looked at Allen. "Don't hesitate to kill, or those assassins will kill you instead. They already killed a lot of people in their other jobs, and they won't hesitate to even cut off your head."

Allen nodded then thought, 'What a risky job this time.'

After the briefing, the four of them rushed towards the castle walls.

"And let me remind you three.", Mr. Sanchez said. "There are guards up there, the lord didn't declare that we are coming, so try to avoid getting hit by friendly fire."

After a pause, he continued, "Alright, I'll go straight to the lord's bedroom to protect him. You three stay outside."

Mr. Sanchez literally disappeared within a flash.

-clang- -clang-

Right after he was gone, sounds of weapons clashing each other erupted up the castle walls. The battle has officially started.

"Come on, let's go.", Kate used flicker and immediately got to the top of the walls.

"Try to catch up, Allen!", Drake swiftly climbed the castle walls with his daggers and got to the top in a few seconds.

One could say that Kate's specialty were explosive sneak attacks. While Drake's specialty was his speed and agility.

Allen took a look at the castle walls, it was more than twice as tall as an alley wall! Nonetheless, Allen successfully climbed it by approximately several seconds more than Drake.

-whoosh-

As soon as he reached the top of the wall, he was met by a sword slash by one of the assassins. However, Allen's reaction speed was quick and he quickly dodged the sword slash.

"It's a child?", the assassin saw Allen's height and got into a conclusion, but the former still unhesitatingly attacked the latter.

Allen took out his dagger and dodged the attack, with his smaller height compared to the attacker, he swiftly got to the enemy's side and attacked.

Due to the fast movements of Allen, the assassin was caught of guard and his side bled profusely.

"Too fast!", the attacker tried to turn to Allen's direction, but the kid was already behind him and latched onto his back.

"Get off me!", the enemy tried to crush Allen between the floor of the wall, but the kid already removed himself from the back of the assassin.

-crack-

The assassin cracked his own bones because of his actions, taking the chance, Allen impaled the neck of the enemy with his new dagger.

-pshew-

The dagger accurately hit the neck, afterwards Allen immediately retrieved the dagger.

The enemy made gurgling sounds before he died, with his eyes wide open, he couldn't believe his eyes that he perished by the hands of a kid.

"You're much easier to handle compared to that young necromancer.", Allen commented under his breath.

Afterwards, this time Allen took the initiative and charged at an another assassin.