“Zack? The person at the recruiting office?” The man asked.
He nodded. He took out the pin that Zack gave him and showed it to the man at the gate. The man took the pin from Leo and observed it carefully. After he confirmed its authenticity he opened the gate entirely.
“Come in. I’ll show you to the boss,” he said.
Leo walked inside while observing his surroundings. He breathed a sigh of relief when he entered the manor. There weren’t any 3rd Circle Aura Knights at all. The group wasn’t big enough to have Aura Knights on that level.
He walked confidently with the man guiding him and quickly reached a door. The door led to a small office on the ground floor. The man knocked on the door.
“Come in,” a scruffy voice came from the inside.
The man opened the door and gestured to Leo. He left after Leo entered the office.
The man inside the office was sitting at his desk with a few books open in front of him. There was a small name plaque showing his name – Roy Leroy.
“So, why are you here?” Roy asked.
Leo smiled. “I am here to earn some money, Mr. Leroy.”
“Well, you came to the right place. Just make sure to register with the mercenary group at the guild to make your payments to us more smooth. If you have any questions, then just ask one of the members. You can leave now,” Roy said.
“Well, I do have a question,” Leo said.
Roy looked up. “What is it?” He asked.
“Where is all your money?” Leo asked.
Roy frowned. “What did you say?”
“Where’s the money? Do you keep all of it in your dimensional ring or is there a secret vault somewhere here?” Leo asked.
The table shook lightly when Roy banged on it. He stood up, rising to a menacing height of 6′ 3″. Leo didn’t flinch and stared him in the eyes.
“You have a lot of guts to ask me that question. Do you have the strength to match that up? No. What was a 1st Circle Aura Knight like you hoping to achieve by pissing me off?”
Leo smiled. “I don’t know why people assume so much.”
Roy punched Leo, but his fist met nothing and went straight down to hit the back of the table. He stumbled forward because he didn’t expect to contact nothing. When his fist hit the table, it created an explosion, smashing the table to bits.
He looked to the side and saw Leo standing to the side, leaning on the wall.
“How? You were right here,” he said. He immediately lunged toward Leo, but Leo sank into the wall behind him and appeared from the wall behind him.
The boss quickly took out a sword from his dimensional ring and swung it at Leo behind him. Leo didn’t have any time to Shadow Step, so he put up an Intermediate Arcane Shield, completely deflecting the blow.
“You… you are a mage!” Roy shouted.
“Yes, genius. Took you long enough to figure that out,” Leo said and fired a Shadowbind bolt at him.
The bolt hit the boss straight in his chest and wrapped him in shadow tendrils. He started struggling to try and get himself out of the tendrils, but Leo used more magic to keep him in place.
He walked forward and controlled the tendrils to keep the arms away from the body and lock them in place. He then walked to Roy’s left arm and took out the dimensional ring on the index finger.
“Is this what you use to store all of the money you made?” He asked Roy.
Roy lunged at Leo but the tendrils held him back. Leo quickly checked the dimensional ring and found almost 10 million Starcoins lying in it. He was very surprised.
“Wow, there’s a lot of money in this. I’ll take this for now. Next time I see you, I don’t want you to be doing the stuff you do now with this place,” Leo said.
He quickly took a step back. Roy broke free out of the shadow tendrils and roared loudly. He charged at Leo, but Leo quickly shadow-stepped out of the room.
“Evan!”
The person at the gate ran back into the mansion. He had heard some sounds but didn’t know what was going on inside. But now that his name was being called, he had to hurry. He knew better than to make his boss angry.
When he got into the mansion, he saw that the decorations were destroyed and his boss was standing in the hallway, fuming.
Roy had destroyed the rundown chandeliers around him in anger when he couldn’t find Leo. He looked up and saw Evan standing there.
“Who was the person you brought to me?” He asked Evan.
“He was someone Zack sent. He even had the Crown Band pin, so I let him in. Zack will probably know who he is. Why? Is there anything wrong?” Evan asked.
Roy looked at Evan. “Is something wrong? No. I destroyed these chandeliers because nothing is wrong. That door behind me is demolished because nothing is wrong. Bunch of idiots. You guys brought a mage to my doorstep! I was robbed in my own house!” He shouted. His anger was starting to increase again.
Evan started backing away. “I will bring Zack to you immediately, sir.”
He ran out of the mansion and left the gate unmanned. He rushed to go to the Mercenary Guild. When he got there, he rushed to the recruitment office. He saw Zack at the table for the Crown Band.
He walked to the table and saw Zack sleeping with his head on the table. He smacked Zack’s head hard, waking him up.
“Who was that?!” Zack shouted, drawing attention to himself. Everyone looked at Zack for a second before going back to their own affairs.
Zack looked up and saw Evan standing there.
“Evan? Aren’t you on gate duty today? If Roy finds out that you are slacking, then he will punish you.” He said.
Evan laughed. “You sure seem pretty concerned about me. You should be more concerned about yourself,” he said.
Zack smiled proudly. “Nope. I got the group a free member today. He just magically appeared and said that he wanted to join our guild. He even gave me the monthly fee without even properly registering with the Mercenary Guild. I’m telling you, I was way too lucky today. I think the boss will enjoy the story.”
“Was the person you are talking about called Sirius?” Evan asked.
Zack nodded. “Did he already come to the manor?” He asked.
Evan nodded. “Yes. That’s why I came. The boss wants to talk to you about him. So you should come with me now.”
Zack was confused. “Now? I’m in the middle of my shift, though.”
“Your shift isn’t that important now. The boss wants you back at the manor.” Evan said.
“Fine. But tell me why. Am I in trouble?” He asked.
“Oh yes. You are in a lot of trouble, Zack.”
