Season 1; Lurking in the Alleyways.

"Have you heard?"

"About what?"

"Apparently, the heir of the dukedom of the de Valois'es ran from home! I heard he hasn't even debuted in society!"

"I also heard he wasn't accepted as a knight!"

"But wasn't he one of the great contributors during that War?"

"He killed many Orcs and subdued the Earthlings from invading the Capital."

"What's so great about that? The Capital is just any other City. The King and Queen don't even stay there!"

"Who cares about that prince! I heard Princess Juliet became a Holy Saintess of the City Drarc!"

"She's nothing compared to Princess Elizabeth of the City Lovel!"

"Have you heard, though?"

"A Starman came down from the heavens! An Angel! More divine than any of us!"

"I heard he's handsome!"

"I worry about the forests nowadays. It's been crawling with more advanced monsters."

"Yeah, there's been so many hostile beasts. It's hard not to encounter a non-hostile creature. Most of what's inside of the forests are beasts and monsters."

"I saw a dungeon near the city."

"Really? Oh my god! What is the King doing!"

"It's not the fault of the King! It's the Count! This is his County!"

"Dungeons cannot be controlled by the King or Count. They are magical, isn't that supposed to be common knowledge?"

"But they are responsible to secure our safety!"

"How about you become an adventurer yourself. You keep blabbering."

I didn't think going to the Adventurer Building of City Stark was a bad idea. It's surrounded by too many gossips. The place radiates a tavern with beer and rum and talk. And not to mention, dancing. It's like a market! So uncivilized and chaotic.

Nevertheless, I wanted to check what's on the quest board. I wanted to check whether there was a wanted poster of me or not. And thankfully, there wasn't.

There weren't any requests in the A.ID, too. With that, I can safely continue my travel to the City of Erast. Well, at least for now.

I can't stay here in Stark, too. It's too dangerous here. It's a good thing the checkpoints I encountered let Adventurers in with ease. It's kinda lax for security, but I can't complain now.

It actually works in my favor since I am able to buy some ingredients that the Archbishop has given me. It's a good thing I brought a lot of money. But eventually, it'll run out. Nightfall, I will continue my journey.

In the meantime, I can go to an intelligence guild to find some information. Question is, where will I find them. I didn't study this City so my intel is kinda lax.

"Hey, young man. You look like you're in some dire need of some sweet woman-"

"I'm sorry but I'm not interested." I cut her off and left.

Although there are more plebians, even succubuses stay in this city. I guess they welcome any type of affliant. I some mages doing their things in the middle of the square town, earning small bits of money for their performance. I also saw a group of Aegises pass by with their growling faces. Those cute hobbits.

I should go to the alleyways to find what I am looking for, which is the information guild.

I need to find out the movements of the duke while it's still daytime-

"Oi, child! This place ain't some likes of yah. Turn back now!" some grumpy old daemi. Daemis are short people just like Aegises, but they don't have the same abilities as Aegises, instead, their talent comes from their building skills. They are practically called carpenters or construction workers. Although, they only work for the nobles or those that are able to pay them.

What's an old daemi doing in the alleyways?

"Hey, hey, hey. Don't scare off our prey now, old man." a large tall man came up behind the daemi. At his back is a massive long sword.

I scanned my surroundings and felt many lurking behind the shadows and corners of the alleyways. And it was expected. The alleyways aren't called the outskirts inside the cities for no reason. This is the kind of place where crimes would occur nonchalantly. A place where the black-market or information guild would stay.

This is the best environment for people who hide in secret or who have dark stories.

"It'd be best for you to drop all your belongings, boy." the tall man spoke arrogantly.

Yeah, right. Despite not having a sword with me, I can pretty much take care of hooligans from the alleyways. I took off the hood of my cloak and smiled at the tall man behind the daemi. "I'd be best if you step away before anyone else gets hurt."

He looked at me strangely and started laughing loudly. "Look at this kid! Hahaha! Good! He's got spirit!"

"For a mutt like you, I'm sure you are not an ordinary person. Perhaps you're even a noble." a man in his cloak appeared behind the tall man.

"Oh, would you like to know?" I smirked.

The two's faces became darker and angrier. "Kill him."

Two men jumped out of my right side from the shadows, with daggers on their hands and cloaks covering their identity. It was a reckless attack but used often. I could tell from how they charge that they are used to doing it with no hesitation.

Of course, these two easy attacks wouldn't be a problem to me. I evaded the two knives that were directed at me and immediately broke the arm of one of the men and the other man on his leg. They both screamed in agony.

I took the dagger from the floor and smiled at the two in front of me. "Are you coming or what?"

"This fucker. Everyone, come out!" the tall man yelled.

As soon as he said that, many men came out of the shadows and began attacking me. They were charging recklessly but in sync. I evaded most of them but got cut on the side of my shoulder. I knocked them out one by one and avoided the attacks they kept launching. And when I knocked the last inexperienced man, the man behind the tall guy was already above me, ready to strike his sword.

I already had two daggers, enough to stop his sword from slashing me. I pushed him back with sheer force and began to sprint towards him. I wasn't someone who was comfortable with daggers, but it'll do for now.

"You're good, boy!" the man in cloak remarked.

"And you're nothing," I said and smirked.

"Tch!" he leaped and began attacking me. He swung his sword, aiming to kill me. But I was able to counter each strike he took with my daggers.

I kept reading his movements until I figured his style. "Why is a knight from the Nora Family of Barons here in the City of Stark?" I questioned. He stopped his attacks and backed away, feeling revealed.

"How do you know me?" he asked ferociously.

"You're far too reckless for a knight that serves a noble family. Do you know the consequences of showing your sword arts in public without a presence of a Nora family member?" I asked, my eyes blankly staring at the cloaked man.

The tall man then interrupted by launching a surprise vertical slash with his long sword.

That's too big for me to counter.

I shifted my daggers to deflect his long sword to the right, using the edges of my daggers.

"You shifted my trajectory through your daggers, you're skilled."

"You can say I have confidence in my skills." I grinned. "I can't say the same, though."

I began to attack the tall man while the cloaked one was shocked. He kept blocking my daggers with his long sword with ease until I threw one of my daggers into his gut. He evaded it enough to minimize the damage, but my dagger cut through the side of his gut.

"You fucker!" he groaned.

"Looks like you aren't able to fight anymore." I smiled.

Before I could kick the tall man's face, the cloaked man continued to fight me.

"Do you really want to continue this, knight of Nora?" I warned him.

"Well, I just have to kill you so that no one will find out," he smirked wickedly as if he was confident he could win.

I used my footwork and evaded his obvious attack and grabbed him on his neck with a dagger holding him down. "The difference between you and I is that you possess a weaker sword art than I do."

"W-who are you!" he asked, yelling.

"Someone you don't have the right to know," I responded. "Now tell me what I want to know if you don't want to die." I smiled.