Alendale

Del and Cole were on their way to Alendale. Del was on the back of the horse while keeping an eye on any possible ambush using his G3 while Cole was taking control of the horse. Alendale itself was a town located east of Midham.

Alendale was a town well-known to be a noble residential area. Many nobles resided in Alendale because of its large beautiful lake that was located beside the city. The town itself was known to be not adventurer friendly because of the expensive prices that the town had.

"Cole, do the children of a noble usually use its family surname?" Del asked.

"In this continent? Yeah, they usually do, why do you ask?" Cole replied.

Del was thinking about Lize's surname. Her surname was "Reed" instead of "Dela Rose". There must be something unusual about it. Could it be that Lize was actually not related to her siblings? Del didn't know.

"Nah, you know, it's about Lize, her surname is different from our target's surname," Del uttered.

"Now that I think of it, there is a common circumstance when an illegitimate child was born inside of a noble family, they would get the surname of their mother. For Lize's case, it seems that her mother's surname was Reed," Cole said.

"Oh, so she is an illegitimate child?" Del asked.

"I think," Cole asked but he was unsure.

It took around two hours before they arrived at Alendale. The first impression of Alendale was the place was holy crap luxurious. Even the guard post was decorated in jewelry. Never in his life, Del had seen a guard post which window frame was made of gold. What the heck?

Looking at the houses and estates in the distance, it was clear that every single building was either lavishly decorated or made from an expensive object. For example, there was this house whose chimney was made of gold. There was also this house that had diamonds decorating its door frame.

How much money did these people have? Thinking about it, Del also got a lot of money in such a short amount of time. The noble might have what he had in that short amount of time in just a few hours of working and getting taxes left and right.

Well, life wasn't always fair. If this was how a regular noble lived, Del, wondered how his friends were living inside of the palace. It must be nicer than living like a regular person in this world, right?

Both of them eventually arrived at the center of the town. The amount of building there was even less than in Midham. The only building there was a restaurant, a clothing shop, and a jewelry store. There was a market as well. There was also a sign that told a kilogram of meat there were ten gold coins.

"Damn, that's one expensive piece of meat," Del commented.

"Let's focus on searching the guard barrack, shall we?" Cole said.

"Right," Del said.

Finding a guard barrack wouldn't be hard. After all, there was only one building that resembled any defensive structure inside of that town. The barrack was located a little bit further down the road, in the road heading to those expensive estates.

The barrack itself looked more like a house made to house the security guards guarding the nobles. However, it also looked like that the nobles also had security guards stationed for their estates or houses.

Del disembarked from the horse and he approached one of the guards standing outside of that barrack. Del approached him to ask about Firma Dela Rose. They either would give Del the details or ask Del to fuck off. The latter option was rather unlikely though.

"Excuse me, sir, I need information about Firma Dela Rose," Del asked politely.

"Oh, you must be the adventurers, our captain just told us about that. Anyway, our captain has established a checkpoint near Firma Dela Rose's house on the northwest. Anyway, do you want to come there together with us?" The guard said.

"Nah, I'm good, how's the captain look like?" Del asked.

"Just search for someone with a thick mustache," the guard replied.

"Thank you," Del got on top of the horse again.

"You're welcome," the guard waved his hand.

Cole moved the horse and Del asked him to go to the northwest direction of the guard barrack. Cole just nodded and the house started moving away from the guard barrack. Wolfie followed them from behind as usual.

Eventually, they reached the guard checkpoint. The checkpoint was pretty much located next to a road leading to a mansion that was surrounded by multiple people. The people consisted of guards wearing Mithril armor or mage holding a staff. Either way, they seemed to be keeping Firma inside of her mansion.

Del disembarked from his horse. He walked to a person that was wearing heavy metal plate armor and had a very large brown mustache on his face. The large mustache was really large, almost covering his mouth.

Del approached him.

"Stop right there, this area is off limit, and who's that demon anyway?" the captain said.

Del stopped walking in his direction, "Relax, I'm the adventurer from Alder. I was informed to ask the barrack of Alendale to get information. However, it seems that I have to ask you first."

"Oh, I'm sorry, so you are the adventurer that Alder sent to deal with our current threat? Well, I wonder why they are only sending two people with a mystical wolf???" The captain walked backward slowly as he saw Wolfie.

"Relax, he's my pet, so, Captain, what are we dealing with?" Del patted Wolfie.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, call me Belgram anyway," Belgram pointed at an estate that was surrounded by multiple people, "That's Firma's estate, she has rented around ten mercenaries. We have surrounded her estate, but attacking it by our own force will give a massive amount of casualties. Still, I couldn't believe that the person that Madam Lize suggested only two people," Belgram said.

"Lize? What are you talking about?" Del asked.

Belgram coughed, "Madam Lize, anyway, we have assessed the strength of the enemy. There are three mages, five swordsmen, and two archers. We spot two archers on the roof of the building and three mages are patrolling on the second floor of the estate. The swordmen are guarding the entrances to the estate."

Looking from afar, Del noticed how most of the estate was located on the higher ground which meant the archer got a clear all-around view of the estate. A stealthy attack was not an option. Well, Wolfie could do that, but it would be unwise to send Wolfie alone to distract five swordsmen at once. He needed Cole, but Del doubted Cole would want to participate in such a crude plan.

Still, thinking about it again, Del only needed to kill the archer first from distance. His G3 was more than capable to attack the archer from a distance that the archer couldn't attack him. Overall, it was quite a solid plan.

Cole poked his back, "What are you humming about?"

"I'm planning the attack," Del said.

"I see, keep planning then, but I'd say that we should attack the mages first before we barge in," Cole suggested.

"Yeah, how?" Del asked.

"Well, Wolfie can distract the enemy first while you attack the archer. I will take care of those swordsmen with my new tool. While they're distracted, you can enter the house and take out the mages, simple, right?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, so basically, you will be dealing with the babies while I deal with the men?" Del asked.

Cole nodded.

"Damn, let's plan it more thoroughly, alright?" Del said

Looking at the building, there was three entrance point. The first entry point was the big and obvious front door decorated in gold and the last one was the door on the left side of the house that led to a garden. Theoretically, there should be a backdoor somewhere on the back of the mansion, so Del also put that into account.

Mage is a good armor penetrator so Del would need to deal with them fast enough before they were able to cast their spell. Still, his flak jacket should be able to deal with a ballistic threat much better than the plate armor that the knights were wearing.

"Ok, I think it's should be better if you and Wolfie attack the estate together, that way, the swordmen's attention will be divided and I can deal with the archers swiftly. After that, I will break into the building to deal with the mages," Del explained.

"Sounds simple, I like it," Cole said.

"It seems that Firma wouldn't be able to escape either since the whole estate is surrounded, I think flushing Firma's out is the best option I have available," Del said.

"Alright, is that all?"

"Yup, let's begin the assault, shall we?" Del put his rifle on full-auto.