203 Officially part of the Brigade

'Another good sleep…'

Opening my eyes, I could feel that my body has recovered from the side effects of over drawing 'Unbound Vitality' to re-attach my hand.

Of course, it was a similar long sleep that lasted a day and half causing me to wake up early for the day of the ceremony at 8 AM…

'5 hours to go…'

Since the ceremony was scheduled to start at 1 PM sharp, that meant that I could stay in bed till then…

Half an hour later…

Unfortunately, it seemed like someone else had another opinion…

Knock. Knock.

"Yes?"

"It's me, I want to see you in my office in five minutes."

'So he has opened the letter already…?'

As I was expecting a similar reaction, I bid farewell to the comfy bed as I got up, put on my classic outfit before heading towards the Head's room.

Upon entering, I could see that the Head wasn't sitting there alone, as he had a masked man sitting on the couch opposite to the one he was sitting on.

"Take a seat first."

"Ok."

Sitting on one of the individual chairs, I looked at the masked man awkwardly, as it felt pretty strange to have two masked people in the same room.

"This is a messenger sent from the Imperial Palace's side, he his here in regards to the matter of the events you have went through for the last month."

"Oh, nice to meet you."

The masked man nodded without speaking as he looked back at the Head.

"I got the gist of what you were doing from your letter's content and the great 'Souvenir' you left me, but we want to hear more about the important details…"

"I see, forgoing the useless details, all I can see that due to unknown reasons I was pursued by an unknown assailant who tracked me with the intent to kill, and after trying to avoid him to no good, I had to confront him in a place quite close to this Capital which coincidentally happened to be in a forest covered with an illusion formation which he intended to trap me in and escape…"

"Luckily, I did manage to see through it, finding a dark cave, though allowing the assailant to escape, in the end I remembered the cave's location to check it out later and use it for some tempering & training, so as we were given a month of free time, I took the chance to, only to find out that it was nothing but an ordinary cave…"

"After going through gruelling battles and almost freezing to death, I found myself in a place full of friends of that 'Souvenir', I did manage with a stroke of luck to destroy that place and taking out their commander barely getting out in one piece, and considering the dangers & 'surprises' that I encountered in that gate, I found that someone needs to be informed-"

I wanted to continue my talk but looking at the ghastly expression on the Head's face and the masked man's serious attention, I paused slightly...

"This changes everything…"

The masked man stood up as he left, seemingly in a hurry, while the head gestured for me to leave…

'As expected, this should be enough to start the change…'

`~~`~~`~~`

The time for the ceremony soon came…

Also being hosted at the royal garden, although not being as grand of an event as the class Trials, quite a number of people came, everything went smoothly except that…

The Head didn't show at the ceremony!

It was expected that the Head would at least appear to give out a small speech encouraging other people to strive to achieve what we did and commend us on being accepted and so on…

However, for some reason, he didn't, as Flone had to give the speech in his place while apologizing about the fact that the Head was too busy to attend.

In any case, I managed to obtain my own Zero ID, and would presumably start being a formal member of the Brigade starting today, with all the privileges and the responsibilities that followed…

As for what actual posts we would take, that was delayed for the next day when the Head would finally have time.

`~~`~~`~~`

Next day…

"Oh, you three are here."

"First of all, I'm sorry for not attending the ceremony yesterday as I was too busy dealing with official matters relating to the royal palace."

"And again, as I'm still busy, I will be quick with this as well."

"First, Ellona, you will be assigned as a senior member of the Special unit."

"Second Fredrick, you will join the First unit as a junior member with the highest priority to promote to a senior member once you produce good results."

"As for you Zero… you will be assigned as the captain of the newly established Second Special unit, you can choose any of the other units' members to join yours as long as they are willing…"

Fredrick had an astonished look at his face as if he thought that he must have heard something wrong...

"He gets to have his own unit…?!"

"I was already very clear with my assignment but yes, he gets his own unit for a classified reason, all I can tell you that he has already contributed to the Brigade before he even became an official member… you are dismissed… not you Zero, stay for now, we still have to talk about the nature of your unit…"

Ellona left quietly, while Fredrick seemed to be still hesitant but he still left, followed by Flone who has had a neutral expression for a while…

"I suppose this has something to do with the follow up of that 'Souvenir'?"

"Yes, we managed to locate the cave you spoke about and we indeed have obtained some information regards the actual truth of 'Dark Caves', which I guess can't be called just 'Dark' anymore, we plan to name them as 'Demon Caves' within our closed circle to signify their actual meaning…"

"So, they were indeed demons, I knew that I have read about them somewhere before…"

"Anyway, considering the information we discovered and the hints we received, 'Demon Caves' can no longer be regarded as a strategic resource or some growth farms, they turned out to be more dangerous than to be left alone…"

"So, for that reason, as you have prior experience handling such demons, and considering your performance at both the Class Trials and that Special 'Demon Cave', you have been assigned as the leader of the newly established unit 'Demon Hunter'!"