Chapter 15: Infighting

　　"The barmaid at the Wandering Inn obediently handed over the two gold coins she had gotten, and the money she had gotten for information was gone.

　　She then went on to give some unimportant information, such as "the countess who moved here from a foreign country has bought a lot of pretty young girls and seems to want to engage in undesirable occupations", "the local lord likes to wear perfume and pays little attention to the lord's wife these days", "there were strange fireworks seen over Constantine one day", "the howling of wolves can be heard in the city on a full moon night", and so on, "Strange fireworks were seen over Constantine one day", "Wolves can be heard howling in the city on the night of the full moon", and so on.

　　She seems to be trying very hard to earn back the two gold coins she lost, but to Chief Hector and Edward, these are just boring gossip.

　　Still, after drinking the cider, Edward gave her two gold coins to keep her from telling anyone about her killing the heretic inquisitor.

　　Although the heretic inquisitor was a vampire, this incident, if told in a catch-all manner, would create a bad impression of vampire hunters killing clergy.

　　Having once lived on the information-exploding Blue Planet, Edward is aware of the power of rumors, so he has to control the reviews in advance.

　　After that the duo put on their hoods again and were led away from the Assassin's Guild.

　　On the way back to the guild, Edward mentioned his "training" program to Chief Hector in casual conversation.

　　This made Chief Hector a bit puzzled: was Young Master Kayne actually serious about this idea?

　　In the Chief Steward's opinion, to be able to instantly kill a Baron level vampire, get rid of a vampire disguised as a heretical Inquisitor, and knock down a flying bat demon in the sky with a Demon Breaker Arrow, there was no longer any doubt about his strength.

　　But Edward thinks otherwise, and these three things instead give him a twinge of anxiety.

　　He felt that he was able to do all three by sheer luck.

　　The Baron had run himself into the Silver Sword, the Heretic Inquisitor had been unlucky in having nothing to do with messing with Ivory, and the fact that he had been able to take down the Bat-Demon was mostly due to the hunters' bows and arrows draining the Bat-Demon's stamina.

　　You can't rely on luck all the time when you're venturing into other worlds on your own.

　　Once luck wasn't on his side anymore, any one of these three vampires could easily get himself killed.

　　"Chief Steward, I do." Edward stated his plan as he walked.

　　He scheduled his time to the fullest, whenever he didn't need to go out and hunt vampires, then he launched into training.

　　Training in swordplay on Monday and Tuesday, bow training on Wednesday and Thursday, and learning elemental magic on Friday and Saturday.

　　Go to church on Sundays to learn about holy magic.

　　Both the sword and bow arts are practical and theoretical, and it is best to train practically in the morning and learn theory in the afternoon.

　　In the evenings, they read and study on their own.

　　"Sword and bow training is fine, the boys in the guild should be happy to spar with you, and for holy magic, Father Suez should be able to help you, but elemental magic will have to be left for you to learn on your own." Chief Hector said as he wiped away the sweat.

　　"Didn't the Guild have legendary mages like the Sisters a hundred years ago? Why have they given up on magic now?"

　　Edward has recently learned a lot about the history of the Stigmata Skin, and knows that magic was part of the curriculum for vampire hunters in the past.

　　"Not only magic, but in the guild's heyday, there were masters in alchemy and forging."

　　A hundred years ago, although the size of the "Skin of Stigmata" was not as large as it is now, everyone in the guild was a top talent. To be able to survive in the era when the old Zhu Yu Empire was sweeping the continent, it naturally had its own outstanding features.

　　"Unfortunately, after the fall of the old empire, there was a period of time when the church was very powerful, and elemental magic alchemy magic armor forging and all of these were considered heretical and were persecuted, so the Mage Academy Alchemist Guild and also the Forge Guild relocated to the Western Continent, where the church's power wasn't as overbearing, and along with the vampire's power being greatly reduced, the guilds didn't focus on these anymore. "

　　In recent years, as the western continent of the countries gradually strong, the church finally realized that these "heresy" is in fact to increase the capital of the country, began to turn a blind eye to this, but what has been thrown down, want to pick up again will be very difficult.

　　"By the way, can I have Sister teach me magic?"

　　"It won't work, the soul is very limited in what it can memorize, and the Sister has discarded all her life's learning in order to maintain her own sanity, leaving behind only a spell for identifying souls. But this spell is something you could learn."

　　"Fine." Edward was very lost, this magic was quite interesting but what he desperately wanted to learn now was practical magic that increased his strength.

　　"However, when there is an opportunity in the future, I can recommend you to study at the Western Continent's magic academy for a while." Chief Hite said.

　　Edward's heart was happy to hear this, but then he thought that he had not yet built up his sword and bow skills, and he was afraid that going to another continent alone would be very dangerous.

　　This study abroad program looks like it will have to be put on hold for a while.

　　The two were walking and chatting when a man came out from the alley in front of them, and when he saw the two coming, he stood on the side of the road and saluted them.

　　That's Ray-Ray.

　　The other party saluted and then immediately averted his eyes, obviously not meaning to talk to the two, it seems that he only saluted out of politeness

　　Edward returned his bow, wondering why he kept meeting this kid lately.

　　Just as he turned his head and was about to continue talking to Chief Hector, out of the corner of his eye he suddenly swept the scene in the alley where the boy had come out.

　　There were several people lying about!

　　With a shock in his heart, he pulled Chief Hector back.

　　When Ray-Ray saw the two men stop, he turned back to them as well, flashing a moment of confusion as he looked at Edward, then seeming to release it.

　　"What's going on with these people?" Edward asked.

　　"I'm not sure, I just passed by here and that's it, I was about to contact the Knights that guard this place." Lei Lei said with a calm face.

　　Edward carefully stepped into the alley, unsheathed his silver sword, and with the scabbard poked at a man lying close by. Seeing no reaction from the other man, he crouched down to check.

　　"They all seem to be dead." Chief Hector said.

　　Several people had weapons stuck in their bodies, blood was flowing freely, and they were all out of vitals.

　　"But there's still a lingering warmth on the body, so it's obvious it hasn't been dead long."

　　"Then please stay here and watch while I go find the Order." Lei Lei said.

　　"You .... Well, please be careful." Edward was actually still a little skeptical of him, but the kid looked like he was only thirteen or fourteen, not like he could kill so many people at once.

　　But this kid was so calm even when he saw a corpse, so he was obviously not an ordinary person.

　　Ray-Ray said, "Please don't worry, I'll be back soon." And left.

　　Edward and Chief Hector, meanwhile, carefully examined the bodies on the floor, trying to pick up a few clues without destroying the scene.

　　"This one seems to be a woman, doesn't it?" Edward said, pointing to a nearby body in a hooded cloak.

　　"Yes." Chief Hector stepped forward and gently pulled back the hood, revealing a pained female face.

　　Along with the face was revealed a pair of long, prominent elven ears.

　　"This woman, we just met at the 'hostel', right?"

　　Although she is now dressed in plain clothes, the elf sister's previous attire at the "Wandering Inn" was very impressive.

　　"Are you saying that these people are ...."

　　"Assassin. "

　　"Hiss..." Chief Hector sucked in a breath of cool air.

　　The two of them had just gone to the Assassin's Guild, and then a few assassins died in front of their eyes, this matter was too weird and bizarre.

　　"Do you think it could have been the boy who killed these people?" Edward said suddenly.

　　"That kid is only twelve or thirteen years old, how can he be a match for such a group of people?"

　　"Unless ...."

　　".... The kid wasn't human?"

　　"Can't jump to conclusions right now, but don't you think the kid is blanding out too much?"

　　Edward thought back to when he was thirteen years old, a silly kid who only coveted his cousin's handheld game console, and who would have been scared to death to see the monsters on the game screen, let alone the bleeding and twisted corpses in reality.

　　"Children of noble families, some of them follow knights to the battlefield as squires at the age of eleven or twelve, and it's quite common for them to be used to seeing corpses." Chief Steward Hite didn't think there was anything strange about it.

　　"Then maybe I'm overthinking it. I've run into the boy so many times lately, and every time he's saluted me, that I may have been too impressed."

　　"Will he know you?"

　　"Eh?"

　　"You can ask him, maybe you can figure out your origins and help restore your memory."

　　While he was talking, Lei Lei had already come over with a group of knights.

　　The leader was not the old knight Edward recognized, but a tall, thin, middle-aged knight.

　　"What do the two of them do?"

　　This tall skinny guy said as soon as they met, nonchalantly pointing his sword at the duo.

　　"These two found these bodies around the same time as I did, and I've asked the two of them to stand guard here. Avoid beggars and whatnot coming over and spoiling the scene." Lei Lei said.

　　"Oh, what are you two? Why are you wearing swords?"

　　"I'm a vampire hunter."

　　"We are from the 'Skin of the Stigmata' guild." The Chief Steward replied.

　　"Oh, may I ask Master, are these people vampires?" The knight's attitude had clearly changed for the better, and it was clear that vampire hunters were still worthy of respect.

　　"No, they're ...." Edward was about to say they were assassins when Chief Hector pulled him.

　　He then thought of the Assassin's Guild as an organization that couldn't be put out in the open and said instead, "Is it a bandit?"

　　"Robbers? Doesn't look like much." The tall, skinny knight came in front of the female elf and recklessly dug around in the corpse.

　　"This is the .... the emblem of the evil god Asassin! They're assassins!" The knight pulled out a small circular emblem with the head of a banshee on it.

　　The knights immediately became excited and said:

　　"Good luck brothers."

　　"It looks like these assassins died from infighting, let's just say that they were found and shot by the brothers!"

　　"Cut off their ears to collect their reward!"

　　That leading knight nodded his head repeatedly as he stood up and said to Lei Lei, "This young master, don't expose us, it's not easy for our brothers to get some money."

　　"Be my guest, gentlemen, I am not one to talk nonsense." Lei Lei said.

　　The knight then turned to the Edward duo, "Would you two masters like to cut two ears as well? We'll say that the two of you have acted in a righteous manner and collaborated to kill the assassin."

　　"No need, how can I take credit from you all." Chief Hite shook his head.

　　"Now that it's okay, let's go." Edward said.

　　Obviously the knights didn't want to find out what killed these assassins, and there was no need for the two of them to stick around to watch the knights line up to cut off their ears and split the fruit.

　　The duo walked out of the alley, and Ray-Ray followed.

　　"You are . . lord Kayne, right?" The always calm teenager suddenly said.