Chapter 365: The prelude of the disturbance

As the audience were leaving the arena a person standing on top of the Grand Mage's tower watched. A black mist surrounded him and seeped into his skin.

"Even with heightening their emotions I only get this amount of malice. This era has a distinct lack of fear and anger. The wars they have are just petty squabbles compared to the era before. If it wasn't for those dragons and that human hero that turned into a half-dragon we would've already plunged this world into glorious chaos!"

Nyarlom grumbled to himself as he continued to absorb the small amount of malice the people were producing. The quantity was minuscule but the quality wasn't too bad.

'This should be enough to show these people a prelude to the fun times ahead.'

...

The Golden-Haired Maiden frowned as she noticed something. She looked at the sky and noticed a faint dark aura enveloping the city.

'Primordial demons the tree of life has given me a bit of information about them. They are the creators of monsters. They use these monsters to spread chaos and death. I'm not sure what powers them but I'm sure that it isn't mana which is why they want to cut down the tree of life... Hmm, if they like creating chaos so much, then I have a few guesses of what they need. So it's obvious what that primordial demon would do.'

The Golden-Haired Maiden looked at Irene who was sitting beside her. Irene was pretty strong for the people of the current era, but she wasn't strong enough to be a part of this kind of battle.

'I can try to tell the humans that govern this land about the impending crisis, but I'm pretty sure that they're under the control of the primordial demons... I guess I could try talking to Kretos's students. Still, based on the fight they had today even if they somehow regain a bit more of their strength that wouldn't be enough. I could use them as sacrificial pawns, but I'm no longer sure what kind of person the current Kretos is. If I used them in such a way he might never forgive me. So for now I'll just do what I can do.'

"Irene." Hearing her master calling her, Irene bowed her head.

"Yes, master."

"I want you to return to the eternal forest and give Kara this letter." The Golden-Haired Maiden waved her hand and a letter appeared in mid-air floating towards Irene.

"What about you master?"

"I'm staying here."

"Then I'm going to stay too." When Irene said those words a torrent of killing intent could be felt from the Golden-Haired Maiden. Unlike the first time, she felt killing intent, this time Irene was able to hold on a bit longer, but that didn't last for long. The elven maiden that had little to no experience in life and death battles had her knees buckled and fell to the floor.

Irene tried her very best to stand up again but her legs wouldn't listen to her. Seeing her disciple unable to stand up from such weak killing intent made the Golden-Haired Maiden sigh.

'I guess I cuddled her a bit too much.' The Golden-Haired Maiden approached Irene. Seeing her master slowly approaching her Irene struggled to stand up but to no avail. Now standing in front of her disciple, the Golden-Haired Maiden knelt on one knee and started stroking her disciple's hair.

"This isn't a fight someone of your level could mess around in. We must do what we can do with our own abilities. You better go home and give that letter to Kara."

"But-" Irene looked at her master's face and was about to persuade her master, but stopped before saying anything. Irene was surprised to see an unknown expression that had never been seen on her master's face. It was a look of uncertainty and worry.

"Irene just do what I say for now. Don't worry about me, if something bad truly happens I can just leave. With my teleportation spells, I can do that quite easily."

Irene gnashed her teeth and clenched her left fist while holding onto the letter given to her. She wanted to cry because of her weakness but she couldn't do that in front of her beloved master.

"... I will fulfill the mission you have given me, without fail. So when should I depart?"

"You should go now, the quicker you give Kara the letter the better. Bring the others with you as well. I'll be the only one to stay."

"...Be careful master." After saying those words Irene left the room since if she stayed any longer it would become harder to leave. Left alone in the room the Golden-Haired Maiden smiled.

'Didn't I give a similar speech long ago...'

...

In a tavern that seems out of place in a street filled with magic shops, the tavern called the lonely cat had many people in it that were drinking and eating. In the tavern the lonely cat, there was a waiter who was having difficulty serving people was. This waiter was a new employee and was also the former leader of the traitorous demons, Nero.

After being saved by Haruto he was forced by his savior to become a waiter in the tavern. Nero wasn't really planning to be a waiter but after being tricked into signing some documents, Nero couldn't even leave the tavern without Haruto's permission.

Even though he was reluctant at first, he was having a good time now. There were many good things about this job one of those was that he had free food and lodging. The lodgings hidden inside this little tavern was amazing. It had clean running water, something Haruto calls a toilet, and other miraculous things. Not to mention the food was something to die for.

If that wasn't enough Haruto was actually paying him twenty copper coins per hour. Usually, waiters or any other servers would only get paid one copper coin per hour, but he was given ten times that amount.

'Is it really okay to stay here and forget about my dream?... No, I promised Amon that I would show him our dream come to fruition... But staying here does feel kinda good, and it's not like I can leave...'

While Nero was having an internal struggle, Haruto received an ominous quest from the system.

[New Task: Save as many paying customers as you can.]

[A crisis is about to befall the area around you. As a Tavern owner, you need to protect the place where the money comes from, aka the customers. Save as many paying customers as you can, bring them all to the tavern to keep them safe.]

[Of course, salvation comes at a price, only paying customers may be saved and stay in the tavern. If one wants to be saved they need to cough up the coins.]

[Task Reward: Will depend on how many paying customers are saved.]

When Haruto saw the task given by the system, he couldn't help but sigh. This system really is all about money.

'I wonder what kind of crisis will happen... It's not like I'm a saint or anything, but I do want to save the people, but if the system doesn't allow them inside... How should I go about saving them? Also, it's not like I can fit the whole city into my tavern... What should I do?'