42 A New Test

It's been 3 days after the new year's ball. Rosaline and I both became 11-years-old.

Weiss gave me another test. It was apprehending a gang of thugs in one of the cities of the Triangle.

The Triangle is a name given to the 3 cities inside the Montampes duchy. The reason why it's called the Triangle is simply because the 3 cities are arranged in a triangle formation.

Leghorn, the city where the undead invasion incident happened, is at the western point of the Triangle. The cities of the Triangle are Leghorn, Boulse, and Meln. The manor is located right in the center of the Triangle.

Among the three, Leghorn is by far the safest. The monsters in its vicinity are relatively weak and the public security keeps law-breakers in line. Quite a big difference from the capital where it's commonplace to see thugs assaulting women.

The gang of thugs I'm supposed to apprehend is in Boulse city. Boulse city is at the northern tip of the Triangle and is the worst at handling public security compared to Leghorn and Meln.

It's not as though the security force is incompetent, but quite a lot of undesirable people still slip in.

Normally, this kind of thing is handled by the guards in the city or mercenaries hired to deal with this kind of crap. Using some connections and pulling a few strings, Weiss assigned a mercenary mission to me even though I'm not registered in the mercenary guild.

I departed early in the morning, bringing necessities like my dagger, spare clothes, a water canteen, a cloak, a map, and a few thousand Lumens. All of my stuff is inside a satchel bag.

I wore simple leather armor and paired it with iron-plated arm guards. My dagger was holstered at my waist so that I can easily grab it.

After walking for 2 hours I reached a road. Checking the map for directions, I walked the road.

The forest surrounding the road was lush. The birds were singing as the wind gently blew, rustling the leaves of trees.

After walking for some minutes, I heard a rattling noise behind me.

I stopped and turned around to see what was there. There was a wagon on the road. Maybe I could hitchhike.

"Hello there." I greeted the man holding the reins of the horse pulling the wagon.

"Hey there! What're ye doin' out 'ere kid?" The man asked me with a curious expression.

"I'm going to Boulse as you can probably tell. I can see you're going there too." I replied. My golden eyes were exposed, but the man didn't seem to react. It seemed that the existence of the Blessed One myth isn't that common.

"Yer damn right. Boulse is quite a dangerous place for a lone kid like you."

"I can take care of my own."

"You wanna hitch a ride?"

"I was just gonna ask. Thanks!"

I rode on the wagon with the driver's permission. The horse started to pull the wagon forward again and I could immediately feel the entire wagon shaking. I miss modern cars...

Inside the wagon were some crates and boxes. No one else was inside except me.

"So... you're a merchant or something?" I asked just to start small talk.

"Yep, I'm a merchant. Just a small-time traveling merchant. Hoppin' from city to city, town to town, village to village, buying and selling a bunch o' stuff. What 'bout you kid?"

"Oh just...a traveling adventurer," I lied.

"A mercenary? You, an adventurer at dat age? Where's yer parents?" The man looked at me in disbelief.

"Ah well, I have to feed myself somehow you know? And my parents...well...they're gone." I shrugged.

"...Sorry tah hear dat." The man's voice became sullen.

"It's fine..."

"No, no. I'm truly sorry. I lost mah fam'ly too, so I know how yah feel."

Huh...this world is really cruel.

"How'd yah lose them? Mah fam'ly was taken from me by bandits." The man's grip on the reins tightened as he said that.

"Same thing. Bandits..." I lied again. I couldn't possibly tell him that they were killed by some unidentified beings... that 'thing' especially. I didn't know what they are, so I just lied about my parents being killed by bandits.

"You too huh?"

Our conversation stopped there. The heavy subject made it hard for another conversation to start, so I just stayed there until we reached Boulse city hours later.

I got off the wagon and bid farewell to the traveling merchant.

I wore the cloak to hide my eyes before walking around the streets of the city for a while. Looking around, the city doesn't seem all that bad. Everything seemed normal as far as I could see. I'm going to have to search around if I want to find where the gang is.

But first, I need to book a room in an inn.

I asked the locals for an inn and I picked the cheapest one from the many inns they recommended.

"'Cat's Smelly Bum Inn'. Cute name," I sarcastically remarked after reading the inn's name on the wooden plaque hanging on the door.

Entering the inn, my nose picked up on an old musty smell permeating everywhere.

I approached the receptionist and asked.

"How much for one night?"

"100 Lumens." The receptionist answered with a raspy voice.

I paid 300 Lumens for 3 nights. The receptionist told me where my room was and went inside soon after.

The inside of the room was really rundown. The bed is just a wooden frame with some pieces of hay littered on top of it. There was no window to. The entire room is just a small enclosed space.

"Better than nothing I guess."

Sitting down on the bed, I organized my thoughts and what I should do from this point on.

The gang I'm after is dubbed the 'Bloody Claw'. Quite an edgy name but it suits the rough and lawless members of society.

I could try asking around, but that would most likely attract unwanted attention. I might get ambushed out of nowhere, and I'm not confident I'd be able to pull off what I did back then. This is a matter of life and death, I'm not going to risk it.

How about I do a stakeout? Just position myself in a street corner and watch for any suspicious-looking people. Thugs are pretty easy to spot most of the time.

I've decided, I'll do a stakeout!

The afternoon soon gave way to the dark mantle of the night sky.

Wearing my cloak, I wandered around the streets of the city to look for any unscrupulous people I could tail.

The streets were relatively empty at night. Only a few loiterers, homeless beggars, and wandering drunks could be found. Haven't seen anyone that looked like a thug so far.

I sat down in a corner and pretended to be a homeless street rat. The hood of my cloak was covering my eyes but still allowed me to peek a little.

I sat there and waited. A few people passed by me and paid me no attention. Some drunks spit on me for no fucking reason but I ignored it. It was hard to fight off the urge to kick their balls for revenge, so I tried to calm myself by singing songs in my head.

Some minutes passed, maybe a few hours, I didn't really pay attention. My ears heard two boisterous laughs from my left.

"KAHAHAHAH!! That new whore was great!!!"

"I know right. Her hole was grabbin' on my stick REAL TIGHT!!"

"Which hole?"

"All of 'em!"

""GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"" The two men laughed loud enough that it wouldn't be a surprise if one of them puked out their lungs after that awful sex joke traumatized my precious hearing holes.

"Hehe, look at this little street rat." One of them suddenly talked about me.

"Keke, stupid fuckin' runt cluttering up the streets."

I felt something fast coming towards my head. The harsh dodging training Weiss put me through as really heightened my senses. I could avoid it easily, but I didn't arouse suspicion. That was the reason why I even pretended to be a street rat.

I quickly channeled Aura to my head.

*WHACK*

"AAAAAAHH!!!" I faked myself crying in pain while holding the impact area. The motherfucker actually kicked me in the head.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

"You are messed up, man..."

"I KNOW! AND I FUCKING LOVE IT!!"

"Let's go, Doug. We don't want the boss to find out we've been slacking."

"Oh right!"

I could hear hurried footsteps quickly getting farther away.

Stopping the act, I stood up and saw their figures becoming smaller.

Channeling Aura to my legs, I jumped high up in the air and landed on the rooftops.

I ran and hopped from rooftop to rooftop, following the two thugs from earlier while keeping at least a 30-meter distance.

The thugs went through an alley and entered the slum area of the city.

I gotta say, the slums of Boulse are a whole lot better than the slums in the capital. There aren't any littered dead bodies, the buildings in the slums are merely abandoned stone buildings instead of decaying wooden sheds, and the ground wasn't muddy and didn't give off an awful stench.

Is the royal family fucking incompetent in running a city?

The two thugs entered a building. I jumped on the roof of that building they entered while making sure not to make any sound.

Just a guess, but this building is probably a headquarters of some kind.

I channeled Aura to my right ear, crouched down, and placed my ear on the roof to hear whoever was inside.

There were footsteps, a creaky door closing and entering. Then more footsteps.

A couple of men chattering, the voices I could pick up were muffled, but from what I could piece together they were talking about some new whorehouse in the city.

I kept listening in to whatever I could hear. It bored the hell out of me that I had to fight the urge to sleep.

After listening in for what felt like hours, I finally heard something that proves these guys are outside the law.

"H-- have y-- taken c--- of the cargo?"

"---ht on Bo--!! Th--s- dru-s ar- -on-a make a ki--in-!"

Unless I'm hearing incorrectly, these fuckers are distributing and selling illegal drugs.

I took out my dagger and gripped the handle very tightly.

Taking a deep breath, I hardened my resolve.

"Let's fucking do this."

====================================================

In a place far, far away from Luka, there was a 14-year-old prince penetrating the rear end of a maid.

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

The bed was creaking as hips repeatedly collided into each other.

"Fuck fuck fuck!! I'm.... cumming!!!!! HNNGGGG!!!!!!!"

Prince Ludwig blasted his seed into the fleshy caverns of the womb as the maid moaned, feeling the warm liquid gush inside her.

"Haah..haaahh...haaahhh." Ludwig was gasping for air, exhausted from pumping his pipe.

"P-prince, may I go now?" The maid asked.

"Yes, you may go."

The maid wore her maid uniform and exited the room with shaking legs.

Meanwhile, Ludwig's mind was stuck on something. No, someone.

'Rosaline... Rosaline....ROSALINE. I WANT TO FUCK ROSALINE!! She's the prettiest girl I've seen so far!! I have to get her. I will have her! She's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine she's mine SHE'S MINE!!!!'

Ludwig racked his brain and thought of how to make the princess of the Montampes duchy his.

Eventually, he thought of a way.

"Haha!! How about I beg daddy dearest to arrange a marriage?"

He laughed at his brilliant plan. Ludwig couldn't wait to run down his hands all over Rosaline's body and deflower her.

Ludwig looked in a certain direction. If someone saw Ludwig, they would think he was staring into thin air. But that couldn't be farther from the truth.

In the eyes of Ludwig, there was something floating in the air.

[Rosaline—Current Affection: 1/100]

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