22 Lynn of Waterfall City

It was a rare sunny day in the middle of the rainy season, and the streets of Waterfall City were filled with people bustling about.

Baroc was one of these people, walking through the streets and looking to purchase a small gift.

He had tried his best to convince King Roland the day before, but was simply told to wait by the sovereign.

While he was disappointed about the result, there was nothing he could do about it.

After all, he was a warrior, not a diplomat, and persuasion was not his forte.

Baroc simply hoped that the king would think differently from the City Lord, and that the eventual answer would be a positive one.

Now that he had to patiently wait for an answer, Baron thought that he might as well take the chance to tend to some personal matters.

Baroc decided on a famous snack stall after a few moments of deliberation, and went on his way.

The adventurer stopped in front of a small house and unlocked the door before entering.

The moment he opened the door, the sound of light footsteps could be heard as a young lady excitedly ran to the door from within.

"Brother!" the girl called out happily when she saw Baroc entering the house.

"How have you been, Lynn? I bought some snacks for you," Baroc smiled as he lightly waved the small pack of food in his hands.

"Thanks!" Lynn ran forward to grab the snack before heading back into the house.

"Is the snack more important than me?" Baroc called out cheekily as he continued to remove his boots at the door step before entering.

Lynn was a lady in her early twenties, wearing long brown hair and bright brown eyes. Her lips were luscious looking and her nose was sharp. Not just that, but her figure was also ample and curvy, making her the dream girl of many young men in the city.

Baroc, of course, did not belong to that group of people.

After all, the two of them were blood siblings.

Even though they were based in the same city, the both of them were usually busy with their own jobs, and were seldom at home.

Thus, it was relatively rare for the siblings to have a chance to meet each other.

However, that was not the case in recent weeks.

Lynn was a fisherwoman, and the rainy season proved to be too dangerous for fishing in the nearby Great Manta River due to the frequent floods.

Because of that, she had decided to return home and take a well-deserved break during this period each year.

"This is as good as always!" Lynn praised as she bit down on the delicious snack.

"Feeling bored in the city yet?" Baroc asked casually as he sat down beside Lynn in the living room.

"Of course! Especially since there is this rain, so there really is nothing I can do at all!" Lynn whined unhappily.

"Hahaha! Maybe it is about time for you to find a man then!" Baroc laughed.

"Bleah!" Lynn stuck her tongue out in protest.

At that time, knocks on the door interrupted their conversation.

"Another admirer of yours?" Baroc teased.

"Well, who can I blame for being this attractive?" Lynn played along and laughed, while heading over to the door to receive the guest.

When she opened the door, Lynn was startled.

"Who are you looking for?" she could not help but ask warily.

"Who is it?" Baroc got up and walked over as well after sensing the discomfort in his sister's voice.

"I am here to look for you, Baroc," seeing the adventurer appear behind Lynn, the guest finally spoke up.

"Me? Who are you?" Baroc frowned as he scanned his eyes over the couple who were standing outside of the house.

It was a couple who was dressed in a matching fashion, in fitting clothes and a sword hanging by their waists.

But the most eye-catching part of their attire had to be the eyemasks that concealed their faces.

"We are adventurers, but you probably have not heard of us. In any case, would it be convenient for us to speak inside the house?" the man answered.

"This is not my house! If there is anything you need, then look me up at the Phoenix Sentinels base later!" Baroc's tone was commanding and exerted a slight pressure on the two masked visitors.

Hearing that the two were adventurers, Baroc's mood turned sour.

He was a member of the S-ranked adventurer group Phoenix Sentinels!

If he had not heard of the other party, then that simply meant that the other party was beneath him in rank!

Yet someone like that actually came all the way to his sister's house to interrupt them?

That would only mean that these two were secretly following him just now!

Otherwise, any rational person would have chosen to visit him at the Phoenix Sentinels base instead.

Even through the eye mask, Baroc could see that the man had frowned slightly upon hearing his words, but he did not care the least.

"This is regarding the matter with the goblins. I have something that I wish to ask you," the masked man stated his reason for visiting.

Baroc was about to slam the door on them, but those words caused him to hesitate.

"What about the goblins?" Baroc questioned.

"I am thinking of how to resolve the issue and heard that Phoenix Sentinels had been doing some work on this. So I would like to hear your inputs."

"We will handle this matter ourselves, so you don't have to worry about it!" Baroc got annoyed once again.

The other party was obviously lower ranked than him, yet he believed that he would be able to resolve the issue even though he already knew that Phoenix Sentinels were working on it?

Was this a challenge?

"You obviously aren't able to handle the matter; otherwise you will not be here resting in a house while the matter remained unresolved. Am I wrong?"

With that, Baroc felt rage burning up from within.

Now he was sure, this guy was definitely here to challenge him!

"What do you know?!" Baroc yelled out in anger. "You obviously have no clue about how monumental this task is, yet you come to me and run your mouth off?"

"Monumental? Does that mean you are admitting that this task is beyond your capabilities?" the man continued, apparently undeterred by the S-ranked adventurer's anger.

"You-!" Baroc was about to lose control, but Lynn promptly stepped in and stood between the two men.

"I think this is enough. We do not welcome you here. Please leave," Lynn's tone was cold as she said to the masked man, before stepping backwards and closing the door on them.

The couple wearing eyemasks turned to look at each other for a moment, and walked off without speaking another word.

They were Roland and Rose, who were here intending to probe deeper on Baroc and if possible, glean more information from him.

Roland had thought that this would go without a hitch given Baroc's passion towards this matter, but who knew that the adventurer would fly into a rage all of a sudden?

No matter how detached he was, as a member of the royal family, how could he not feel angered after being shouted at for no reason?

That had resulted in him challenging the adventurer's capabilities, causing the meeting to fall out.

It was regretful, but not the end of the road.

After all, this was just a side job that he intended to do out of convenience.

Knowing about Baroc's temperament was an unexpected result as well.

At least he now knew that he could not afford to trust Baroc with the Royal Army soldiers' lives, just in case the adventurer made any impetuous decisions that could prove to be disastrous.

In the city, word had started to spread about the expedition army that arrived the day before, but the locals were not feeling exceptionally hopeful just because of that.

Even the local city lord's army had not been able to alleviate the precarious situation with the goblins in recent months, so what good would a small breakaway unit from the capital do?

They had no idea which family the army originated from, but there was no way the fief would be left undefended, so what could be sent to aid Waterfall City could only be a relatively small sized army.

Hearing about the sentiments of the people, Roland felt extremely depressed.

How desperate was the situation that an adventurer like Baroc had to be the one to try convincing the king to deploy his army?

How pathetic was he to have been worried about investigating the potential coup when the commoners had been paying with their lives for the inaction of the authorities?

What good was a country in which the commoners no longer held hope for the nobles?

And what good was a king in such a country?

He had to subjugate the goblins in a flashy manner that would announce his majesty and strength to the entire world!

He needed to show the commoners that King Roland of the Great Manta Kingdom was here for them to rely on no matter how difficult the ordeal might seem!

When he managed to do so and gain the mandate of the masses, what basis would others have to stage a coup against him?

And how many soldiers would be willing to follow such a person who would raise his sword against the rightful king?

Thinking of that, Roland immediately understood the most important thing that he had to do right now!

"Let us return. I have instructions for the Royal Army. Make your own preparations as well, we are setting out towards Dragontail Valley first thing tomorrow," Roland instructed resolutely.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Rose nodded in response.

---

Baroc might have shouted at the masked duo from before, but he could not help but continue to think about the man's words.

"You obviously aren't able to handle the matter; otherwise you will not be here resting in a house while the matter remained unresolved."

Those were the words that kept replaying in his mind.

"What's wrong, brother? Are you still affected by the man from before?" Lynn placed a cup of hot tea in front of the adventurer.

"Yeah," Baroc did not bother hiding it.

"As you said, the matter is truly too monumental for any individual to handle alone, even if you are S-ranked adventurers," Lynn tried to comfort her brother before switching sides. "But have you thought that perhaps he really might have been able to make a difference?"

"What?" Baroc looked up at his sister in surprise.

"After all, we do not know who he is and what background he has. There is always a possibility after all," Lynn was much more rational in her thoughts since she was not the one involved.

Baroc looked at his beautiful sister for a while before letting out a sigh.

This sister of hers was too optimistic.

He naturally knew that there was always a possibility, but if he had to bank on every small possibility, then he could just wait at home and pray for the goblins to die of disease!

However, he could not bring himself to refute this precious sister of his.

"I got it," Baroc nodded. "I will definitely sit down with that man to hear him out if he truly comes over to visit me at the Phoenix Sentinels base later."

"That is not what I meant, brother. What I meant is, is there truly nothing else that you can do? I am but a weak woman, but you are not. Adel, Klint, and Winstart are not. Surely there is something that you can do?"

"Something that we can do?" Baron repeated while pondering over this question.

He had tried to lay traps to hunt the goblin raiders that were about to attack surrounding villages.

He had tried to respond immediately to news of goblin raids on surrounding villages.

He had tried to convince the City Lord, and later the king, to follow his lead and launch an offensive into Dragontail Valley in order to wipe out the goblins.

What else could he do?

"I'm sure you will be able to think of an answer eventually!" Lynn smiled as she encouraged her despondent brother.

"Thank you, Lynn. I sure hope that I truly will be able to think of an answer eventually."