Chapter 386: A familiar request

Seeing the boy's reluctance, in the end, Sir Arthur could only sigh and let the matter go, at least for the time being. After witnessing personally what Aiden is capable of, he wasn't just going to completely give up.

For the time being, he could only take a step back, and just agree that they would talk about this with his master.

As for Galina, he also couldn't progress as the shy girl was mostly silent, and just followed after the boy. If he were to want her to accept him as her master, he would first need to win over the youngster, this masked girl would follow after.

After a while, Sara returned to the room, dropping the hood back the moment she entered. Whilst she was adamant in keeping her identity a secret, for the most part, there was no point in hiding before her friends or from the legendary Roaring Lion.

"Sir Arthur, I have contacted my moth-, khm the Mistress, and she has agreed to meet with you. She said that Sir Arthur is kindly asked to visit the Slums district, an escort will be waiting for your arrival to guide you back."

Sir Arthur nodded at her words with the increasingly familiar warm, kind smile of his. It was actually still quite weird to see the bright contrast between Michael and his grandfather, but truth be told, this was much better.

"Thank you, Lady Examiner." He nodded at her, returning his attention to the map spread out on the table. "Anyway, the reason I have told you all of this is that I know that you are all…" He glanced at the silver-haired prince and his fiery red-haired sister, with a flash of apologetic look on his face. "Well, almost all of you, in any case… are expected to attend the event. On one hand, I wanted to warn you all, there are other… hidden cards at play from not just this hidden fourth side, but even from the others. There are… quite the colorful rumors, which I am sure, Lady Examiner here is aware of…"

Seeing the wry look on Sara, he merely smiled, flashing an understanding expression, before continuing.

"Anyway, the second, and more important reason was to ask you to keep your eyes peeled open. You guys can stay in the shadows, away from the prying eyes, while I will have to stay at the front, and avert everyone's attention."

He heaved a heavy sigh, before turning his attention towards the ceiling.

"I just hope… we can still avert this… this disaster…"

"You know… there is just one thing I don't understand about all of this…" Suddenly, Aiden spoke up, grabbing the attention in the room. He looked at the old man with a quizzical look as he asked.

"Being as strong, as mighty, as powerful as these supposed stories go, you should be more than capable of handling some average soldiers. Not to mention, I doubt that Lord Sonovan is the only powerful warrior in the Kingdom's army. Why don't just go in when the enemy appears and just put an end to their plans? It seems kind of pointless if I'm being honest…"

At first, the others in the room, even Sir Arthur, looked at him with a mixture of shock, confusion, and bewilderment. After a few moments, however, Sir Arthur chuckled as he waved his hand dismissively.

"Ahahaha, I love this honesty and naiveté of yours, Aiden! Truly so!" He chuckled, taking a few breaths of time before going further. "Although what you say is truly the easiest approach, and it is not that we generals didn't want to stand in the frontlines, unfortunately, the matter is not that simple." 

He smiled at him bitterly, not explaining further, causing only further confusion. What's so difficult about it? He couldn't understand it, though seeing the looks of the others, he decided to not push on with the matter for now, and just ask about it at later. From their expressions, this wasn't a simple topic at all.

Eventually, the meeting came to an end, Aiden, Lily, Galina, and the royal siblings, Drake and Scarlet said their goodbyes and left the room, while Sara being the acting leader in Sir Michael's sudden absence, still had a lot of matters that needed her attention. 

For Sir Arthur, he promptly left the room and the building. Riding a black horse, his figure quickly vanished amidst the crowded streets, going towards the direction of the famed Slums district…

Back in the front hall, the team was currently looking at the numerous requests posted by the citizens and officials alike. They were searching for something not too time-consuming for themselves. Even though they weren't in dire need of money, or even guild credits for that matter, Aiden still wanted to give Galina some opportunities to get to know her new body and abilities.

Her test turned out to be rather unique and didn't give much of a chance to shine.

As he was busy looking at the central section of the board, Scarlet's exclamation brought over the team's attention. 

"Here! These two!" She tore down two notes and presented them to the team. The first was from the nearby apothecary, asking for some help in gathering several different types of herbs for the business. Although it could turn out to be interesting and gave them more freedom than usual, Aiden wanted to wait with requests related to any of the currently analyzed skills and professions until the system would be back up again. 

Reading it over, he frowned, not too keen on accepting the request. However, before he could speak up, his eyes wandered on the other one, causing a grave shift in his expression almost instantly.

The second request was unrated, preliminarily posted as a 2-star quest for the time being. The requester, who was not listed on the note, wanted a seasoned team to investigate the mysterious Deserted, and rumored-to-be 'Haunted', dilapidating Mansion found here in this very street.

His first meeting with Cole came to his mind, making him sigh with a forlorn, sad, distant look flashing across his eyes.

"Everything okay brother?" Seeing the changes in his brother, Lily worriedly asked.

"No, it's nothing." He shook his head, a sad-looking smile replacing his usual calm, collected outlook. He looked at Scarlet, shaking his head.

"While both would have its uses, I would rather do some simple hunting or monster core collecting quest for the afternoon. I…"

"Don't worry, Aiden. We got you." Patting his back, Drake spoke up, presenting a quest note of his own.

This one, just like Aiden wanted, was about a quest that he was all too familiar with. After all, when he first came he did something similar. Just like then, it was about culling the constantly growing underground population of skinks, those small, primitive, fragile-looking lizard-like humanoid creatures. It was still ranked as a 3-star group-only request, which, knowing the savage and troublesome nature of the little bastards, was quite understandable. 

"Skinks? Here in the city?" Reading through the details of the request, Aiden looked at his friend with a puzzled look. "What are those?"

"Skinks? Eww, I hate those little sh*ts! Isn't there anything else we could pick, brother?!"

Strangely, even Galina, who usually remained stoic, shivered as the little creatures were mentioned. This, of course, did not escape Aiden's attention, as even without looking at her directly, he could feel her disgust and unwillingness to have anything to do with whatever these monsters were.

Seeing the puzzled look of Aiden and strangely, even Lily, Drake sighed and gave a short, brief description and his own experience from before.

"They are not too hard, and would be similar to our fight with those sea-devils from yesterday, it's just, we would be venturing below the city. I was thinking that if what Sir Arthur said was true, we could at the very least take a look. I couldn't think of any other place where these 'hidden' forces could hide and still be close by."

Turning toward her frowning sister, he could only helplessly sigh.

"Still, if you guys are so against it, we could…"

"No. You are right, let's go and do it!" With a determined gaze, Scarlet suddenly sprung up, taking the note from Drake's palms."

"Lily, Galina, you both are fine with this, right?" Scarlet asked the other two girls, her gaze passionate, giving them the feeling that she would not accept a no at all.

In the end, whilst still squirming, Galina silently nodded, hiding behind the comfort of Aiden's back. Lily patted both of his four-legged guardians' heads and nodded with a cheery-looking smile.

"I don't mind."

"Great, then let's-"

"I agree with taking the quest, but we should prepare a bit more for it." Before Scarlet could turn around and stomp her way to the closest guild receptionist Aiden grabbed her shoulder. "For now, we should go and fix up our gear. This one could probably take quite some time, definitely not something we could 'quickly' do in just a few hours."