First Member (1)

After giving me a piece of paper with his number, Keith then left the room.

I turned my head to face Arthur once again, he looked pale and his body seemed more like a corpse than anything else.

After hearing the story from miss Monica, I wasn't sure what to believe, there was a demon amongst the teachers, and not only that but he almost killed my little brother.

Then I remembered the talk I had with Keith, I kept telling him about how the academy was going to protect him but in the end, it was just as he said.

The other three here also seem to care deeply about him as well, I think that they will probably become great companions for Arthur.

Ever since he was young Arthur always seemed to have an idea of what others wanted from him, he knew when someone was bad or when someone was trustworthy.

So I believe that if he accepted these three beautiful girls, then they would also be along side him for his journey to come.

I stood up but before I could leave I felt someone pulling my sleeve, I turned around to see a white-haired girl with blue eyes.

"Are you leaving already?", She asked.

"Yes, I need to meet with the kid that had just left", I said, as I wanted to talk to Keith about Arthur.

"Is there anything special between you two?", She asked in a curious manner.

I blushed at first but I still responded,"Yes, something like that", I said while smiling faintly.

It was then that she finally let go of my sleeve, I bowed to everyone in the room and started walking away.

I grabbed the piece of paper that Keith had given me and called him.

...

I was on my way to my apartment having different thoughts about Alicia, of how maybe I should bring her to the dungeon together with me.

Snapping me out of my thoughts the sound of my watch ringing and the color was an unknown number but I already knew who it was.

I answered the call and heard Alicia through the other side.

"Hello, Keith?"

"Yes"

"Can we meet somewhere?", She asked.

"Then should we meet at the same cafe as before?"

"Okay"

And with that, we ended the call.

The outside of the academy was in chaos with reporters all over the main entrance but they didn't really seem to care about me so I was able to squeeze through them.

I arrived at the cafe and rented out a private room and told the cashier that a golden-haired girl would arrive soon and to guide her to my room.

The private rooms were pretty much two seats and a table in between.

I waited for almost an hour before Alicia finally arrived, she hurriedly sat down in the chair in front of me and breathed heavily.

I gave her some time before she finally calmed down.

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"You know what I'm here for", She said.

I smiled and took a contract that I had written from my dimensional pocket and handed it to her. The contract stated that she would work in the mercenary group for 10 years and a few clauses of not selling our information and normal stuff.

She gave me confused look, as the operation was a little different than I stated before. I let out a chuckle and began to explain.

"You see, for the mercenary group has changed, so the operation is a little different, I removed the name, Blackout as the leader and instead put my name on it, the other 4 names that are the supposed members are just nonexistence fake identities"

"Why?", She asked.

"Well, you see, we will be rising amongst the ranks using this mercenary group from now on, so having our actual identities be high in the human realm will help us in reaching places we couldn't before, while our other work will be done as a sort of undercovered group that works in the shadows"

After thinking about the mercenary group some days before, I noticed that it would be better to climb the ranks instead of being just a front as it would allow us to access many places while also providing us a better front for our operations.

Alicia gave me a glare but soon signed the document which I then scanned and put back into my dimensional pocket.

I then stared at her and explained that tomorrow the two of us would be going on a journey and for her to pack her things up. With that, we both left the cafe and headed back to the academy.

...

It was early in the morning but news of the attack yesterday had yet to die down, as the heads of the household of Light and the household of Sea, were coming to the Koun to protest against the academy.

I got my usual breakfast in the cafeteria and went out but from the north entrance today as the train station that is in the north of the first district.

The academy is like a huge square with a circle in the center representing the main building, it has 4 entrances in the four cardinal directions. The academy's main entrance is in the south and the market is of course in the south as well. To the east is the Round Table and where most guilds are located while the west is filled with residential homes for the rich.

With that out the way, I soon arrived at the station and saw a hooded person with a black mask approaching me. I already knew who it was but it still crept me out.

"Oh, Keith, you are finally here", Alicia said.

"Yeah, we should probably get on"

And with that, we entered the train and headed to a private compartment that cost me 100k RP, but it didn't matter. Money is great, isn't it?

"So what are we doing?", Alicia asked

Now that I thought about it, I haven't really told Alicia about anything. So with that, I explained to her that we would be going to the third district to complete a dungeon and then head to the fourth district to complete more dungeons and possibly find some useful artifacts in the things that are sold in the slums.

The ride to the third district would take around 8 hours, that just goes to show, how big the city is.

Since we still had some time I decided to change my appearance using my newly acquired skill.

...

I got on the train with Keith but he had yet to explain anything regarding this trip and as soon as we arrived at our private compartment I asked the question.

Keith then went on to explain how there is a dungeon in the third district that contains an item that he wants.

He then began to explain the plan of going into the fourth district which was the slums of Koun and clear more dungeons and buy stuff from the slums.

I didn't understand how he knew all of this but considering he knew about Arthur's skill, most mean that he probably has a good network of information, which only made him more mysterious.

Then out of nowhere, a blind light appeared on Keith that soon started to die down.

"What is going on?", I blurted out.

Then a boy with black hair and golden eyes appeared in front of me.

"Keith?", I asked.

He then put his hand up and turned on his watch. Soon a hologram appeared which showed his new hair color and eyes. He inspected himself for a good solid minute and said.

"Interesting"

Then he noticed my confused expression or something as he then began to explain the skill and how it worked.

He mentioned that it could change anything except for height and your private parts, but he said that he could also probably disguise herself as a little girl.

He then said something that caught my attention even more.

"I will be getting you a grimoire similar to this in the near future"

I was so surprised, I didn't know what to say. But he then explained that it would be useful for operations and keeping our identity hidden and I finally understood him a little bit more.

He then pondered for a second and said that he would be telling me about something that he had not told anyone else.

To this, I put on a serious expression and prepared myself.

Throughout the whole train ride, he mentioned how he had an appraisal skill level that was so high that he could even appraise SS ranked items and how he had a Lich as his summoned beast which he showed to me that was called Baggy due to its form as a bag.

He then started to explain how he wanted his Lich to get some summoned beast and that I should help him by putting the enemies in a state where Baggy can easily kill them.

...