Chapter 182: Arnold, The Abnormal

It was a sunny day, around noon, and the sunlight was reaching every corner.

A man in adventurer clothes who looked to be in his early thirties walked through the streets.

He looked in a hurry, although he wasn't running.

After walking hastily for a while, the man entered the building called a guildhall.

As soon as he entered, everyone stopped talking, and their gazes stopped at the man.

"Heha!" a brown-haired man walked out of the crowd and laughed at the man.

"Look who is here," he said.

Another man walked out of the crowd and placed his hand on the brown-haired man's shoulder: "It's Arnold the Abnormal."

Arnold ignored the crowd and walked straight to the counter. He looked at the woman at the counter and let out a weary sigh.

"Why are you here, Arnold?" she asked.

"Please." Arnold slammed his head on the counter and begged, "Give me an adventurer pass."

"Did you pass the exam?" 

"No," Arnold answered. "They didn't even let me give the exam as I can't use any magic."

The woman frowned her face and uttered, "Then why are you here? You know you can't get an adventurer card if you haven't passed the exam."

"But I need the adventurer card!"

"Tch!" The woman clicked her tongue and asked, "Why are you so persistent about getting an adventurer card? It's for your own good. A magicless man like you can't survive alone."

After a brief pause, the woman continued, "If you want to earn money, then you can join a party and play your role as a lackey."

"I need an adventurer card to travel to the 'Azure Kingdom'," Arnold replied. "I want to meet my sick mother, who is bedridden."

The woman raised her brows and asserted: "You are aware of the current condition of the Azure kingdom, right? They are at war with the neighboring kingdom, and almost all the citizens are captured and executed."

"..." Arnold gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in frustration.

"I… still want to go there," he uttered.

"You will die either way," the woman remarked.

"Just give me a temporary adventurer card," Arnold begged. "I will give it back after I come back from the Azure kingdom."

"You won't be coming back, old man," the brown-haired man remarked.

Arnold turned around and glared at the brown-haired man: "You are an adventurer, right? Then you must have the adventurer card. Come with me to the Azure kingdom, and I will be your lackey for my entire life."

"Why would I choose a magicless abnormal as my lackey?" The man snorted. "I would rather have a cute girl as my lackey instead of an old man."

"Please!" Arnold bowed down.

"Argh!" The man rolled his eyes and groaned: "Why is this good-for-nothing old man so annoying?" 

The man standing beside the brown-haired man tapped his shoulders and uttered, "Leave it, Naben."

"Come on, Pavel. I was simply having a little fun with this old man. I mean, he is hilarious, and he got guts."

Naben turned to Arnold and threw a paper on him: "If you complete this quest alone, without anyone's help. Then me and my party will accompany you to the Azure kingdom— without asking for anything in return."

Arnold picked up the paper and left the guildhall.

"Heh!" Naben smirked and sat at the table with Pavel and his party.

"If you were planning to help him from the start, then you should have said so. Why make fun of an old man?" Pavel asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"You know I don't like to help anyone for free," Naben replied with a distant smile on his face.

Pavel sighed and shook his head: "What question did you give him?"

"Just obtaining some plants to make pills." Naben glanced at Pavel from the corner of his eyes and continued, "Rhea said she wants to use them in alchemy."

Pavel's face twitched as he heard that, but he didn't say anything.

After seeing Pavel's reaction, Naben smirked and continued, "Are you jealous that she didn't ask you?"

"I am not!" Pavel hissed.

"The plants she wants to make the pills using alchemy are for you. She is doing that for you, so she didn't want you to know about it." Naben informed. "Don't tell her that I told you, though."

"Where is she, anyway?" Pavel asked with a curious look on his face.

"She went to the market with Sophia and Zeus," Naben replied.

"Zeus again," Pavel muttered Zeus' name in annoyance.

"Do you hate him so much that your mood gets ruined just by hearing his name?" Naben questioned.

"Yes." Pavel nodded. "He is just a 13-year-old kid, yet he is so strong, and it's… it's annoying how he gets all the attention."

"Heh!" Naben scoffed softly and uttered in a solemn voice: "That's not the case."

"Whatever. You always take his side," Pavel remarked.

Naben took out a paper from his pocket and stood up from the chair with a horrified look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Pavel asked. "You are making a face like you have seen a ghost or something."

Naben gulped down and looked at Pavel, then uttered with an anxious look on his face: "I think I messed up."

"What did you do?"

"I gave that old man a different quest…"

"Which one?"

"Monster expedition…"

Pavel's face turned pale as he muttered, "He will surely die."

"We have to do something!" Naben shouted.

"What's wrong?" A female voice asked from behind.

Pavel and Naben looked at the girl and said, "Sophia, where is Zeus?"

"He is with Rhea. She said she wants to do something with Zeus alone." Sophia shrugged and muttered, "Although I am sure she is going to confess to him."

"...."

Meanwhile, Arnold was running from dozens of monsters in the dungeon.

"What the hell?! Why are there so many A-rank monsters in a rundown dungeon like this?!" Arnold yelled.

'Just a little more, Arnold. Once you exit the dungeon, the monsters won't follow you,' Arnold reassured himself.

He was running continuously from the monsters. He was out of breath, and his legs were giving out.

He somehow managed to exit the dungeon, and tripped to the nearest tree.

PHEW!

He sighed in relief, thinking he was safe now and the monsters won't follow him, but he was wrong.

The monsters chased him outside the dungeon too.

Arnold began crawling as he couldn't get up.

Suddenly, a petite figure of a boy passed Arnold and walked straight to the horde of the monsters.

"Hey, kid!" Arnold yelled. "Don't go there! It's dangerous!"

The boy looked around 13 years old, and he wasn't carrying any weapons with him.

Arnold stood up and tried to stop the kid, but he tripped again and fell to the ground.

"Kid!" Arnold yelled as he watched the boy getting surrounded by the monsters.

The next moment, all the monsters were ripped apart as their body parts splattered around the forest.

"Wh...at?"

The boy glanced at Arnold with a lifeless glare in his eyes and walked to him.

"Don't call me a kid, old man," the boy asserted.

——— 

Arnold glanced at the sleeping Rosemary in the carriage and muttered with a wry smile on his face: "Farewell, Mary."

After traveling for six days with Nero and the others, they reached Arnold's kingdom.

Arnold mixed a sleeping drug in everyone's food to make them unconscious. He left alone to fight for his kingdom and free it from the evil knight.

He took a secret passage that took him inside the palace's gates, but when he reached there, he was already surrounded by hundreds of soldiers.