Rat

Maxwell got up very early that day, it wasn't even 5 in the morning. The sun hadn't risen yet and the chill of the night was still palpable, but he found it impossible to go back to sleep. Not after remembering the dreams of him. Bringing both of her hands to his face, he discovered that two streams of tears adorned his face.

"I could have saved them" he whispered to himself. He stared out the window into the distance staring into space until he felt he had wasted enough time and jumped up.

The vast majority of the maids were already awake and performing their respective tasks. Every time he looked at these ugly old women, Maxwell couldn't help but sigh wishing he could trade them for young beautiful girls. Still, he greeted each of them and ordered their breakfast as well as a bath as politely as he could.

It wasn't common for Maxwell to wake up so early, so he decided to do some training at the mansion's training ground. As his magic was very flashy and noisy, she was left with no choice but to train his physique with basic workouts of push-ups, abs, and a gentle jog around the mansion grounds that were surprisingly larger than they looked.

The mansion included a large front garden with a six-foot-high wall surrounding it, a thick, sturdy iron fence guarded by two guards. The training field, a beautiful flower garden and blue tiles. To the left it had a small tree lined, to its right on the other hand it had a large water fountain with tables and benches that allowed to observe the entire beautiful and old mansion.

After completing the exercises, Maxwell felt much better, although tired. He took a bath to get rid of the sweat and bad smell. He changed, breakfast and I wait.

He waited for everyone to wake up, eat breakfast and go out to do their homework. Finding himself inactive and unable to do anything, Maxwell was bored like never before and for the first time since he came into this world, he understood how boring life was without the internet or other forms of entertainment. Never before had he thought about it because he was always doing something or at least trying.

With an exasperated sigh, Maxwell left the mansion on foot. He was still too early to go to the knight order, but that was not where he was headed.

After only half an hour of walking, Maxwell found himself in front of the animal mansion with his respective hood on his head, once he showed his ring the guards let him in.

Most of the animals were still in the mansion and he couldn't blame them, life these days was very boring if you had nothing to do.

He searched through all of them until he found a guy named rat.

"Are you a rat?" Maxwell asked.

"It depends." He replied looking around suspiciously.

"I need some information."

"You came to the right place." The Rat's behavior changed completely, even rubbing his hands together with excitement. "What do you want to know? The lion fetish? Do you want to know what he did mantis last night? Trust me you'll be surprised."

Maxwell was actually very tempted to learn that he had made Jacob last night but he controlled himself. The rat was a rare fellow among animals, he was both outcast and somewhat loved.

To simplify his existence, the rat was the club's gossipy neighbor. You had to be very careful about what information you released around this guy and with this being such a secret club his existence was a bit marginalized but he was also the person you could go to when you wanted to find out something.

"I want to know if you know a guy named Griffin."

"Griffin? You know there are a lot of people with that name right?" Rat asked as a matter of course.

"He is a noble and he is living in brenor right now." Maxwell thought for a moment so as not to reveal too much information in front of the rat.

"Ahhhh Griffin!!" Rat slammed her right fist into his left palm. "He's not called Griffin, that's his last name."

"Do you know him?" Maxwell asked excitedly.

"He's just a little knight who isn't even a ranker." He laughed rat.

"Ranker?" Maxwell asked.

"Heavens!! Don't you know yet? Rankers are the most powerful knights in the empire and the continent. They all receive a ranking position that denotes their strength and power." Rat raised his head exaggeratedly. "There are only 1000 rankers in the whole world, each one of them is able to easily annihilate each one of us and based on their position in the ranking they receive different privileges and rewards from the royal family of the empire. Rumor has it that the top 100 rankers are monsters capable of changing a battlefield with just their presence and destroying a city in the process."

"Temperance Knight, Meteor Knight, Eternal Night Knight and many more of these legends are among the top 100 rankers." Rat began to ramble excitedly. "I once had the fortune to see a ranker in action, believe me they are on another level entirely. We nobles are considered gods by commoners but we really are nothing compared to those monsters."

clap clap

"Focus rat." Maxwell clapped his hands in front of the rat's dreamy eyes. "What can you tell me about Griffin?"

"Griffins?" Rat dropped a doll of contempt. "He's just a bastard who couldn't inherit any land and lives in a small mansion owned by his family. After becoming a knight he got married and now works as a supervisor for a small sub-district in the city."

"OK thank you." Maxwell said goodbye.

"You're welcome." Rat laughed. "By the way, raccoon hasn't found a suitable girl yet."

"How do you know about that?" Maxwell asked a little nervously, he didn't like being exposed like that.

"I am a rat."

"That's not an answer."

"It does not matter." Rat acted very nonchalant. "This time the information was free since it's your first time here, but next time, you'd better come prepared with some gold or some very juicy information." With that said he turned around and left.

Maxwell for his part put all rat thoughts behind him and ran in the direction of Griffin Manor. He didn't get very close to her, he just watched her from a distance.

After an hour of observation, Maxwell noticed that Griffin left his house for work very early, around 7 AM. His wife, on the other hand, stayed inside the house and seemed not to want to leave soon.

Maxwell circled the Griffin mansion and looked for a way to sneak in. To his complete surprise, the mansion had very lax security, with only the two guards at the front door not even bothering to make rounds around the mansion.

Taking advantage of this fact, Maxwell activated his lightning speed and easily jumped the back wall of the mansion.

Without taking time to think, he started running towards the mansion at breakneck speed. When he arrived at the mansion he was flattened against the wall with his heart beating a thousand per hour with emotion. Taking a few short breaths he jumped hard and grabbed onto the second story window sill.

Very slowly and carefully he peered out. Inside the finely decorated room was a beautiful girl about 16 years old changing her clothes. Maxwell was very tempted to stay there and watch the show but he had come to the mansion with a purpose, he braced his feet against the wall and pushed himself towards the window adjacent to it.

The jump fell a bit short and he almost fell but he managed to steady himself and look into the room. There was a still sleeping woman, who was exactly who Maxwell was looking for. Rummaging through his pockets, Maxwell pulled out a piece of paper that he slid out the window onto the woman's bed.

Once this was done, Maxwell jumped to the ground, running and disappearing into the distance.