Staring at Gerak''s honest look Danzel fell into his train of thoughts.


    `I know Gerak more than a whole month to know when he is serious about on staff like that. But because I know him I can′t bring myself to trust that damn dwarf.′


    `He is someone who would sell his crappy items to these customers twice the original price for the sake of this dump pride. Though I don′t really care what happens to the ignorant buyer, the items he sells are things someone would put their fate in protecting their lives.′


    `If a guy who bought a sword from him went out to hunt some kind of a monster or a beast while mid-fight his sword breaks, then that would be the end for him. If that were to happen to me and I somehow managed to live that encounter, the first thing that I would have to do was go back to the ce I bought the sword and kill the damn owner which would be Gerak.′


    `The worst thing about this of what he mentions a moment ago...′.


    "Hey, you said that you know some people who can bring us out of this mess, right?" Danzel asked with this voice still being chilling to the bones.


    "Yes, if we move fast enough we will be outside the walls today." Although stiffly, Gerak nodded.


    Though Gerak couldn′t tell, he knew that Danzel was staring him directly into his eyes.


    "If that′s the case then why are you telling me this now?"


    Upon Danzel′s question, Gerak smiled awkwardly towards Danzel.


    "..."


    "..."


    With my question, an awkward silence befell us with us staring at each other as if we were having a staring contest.


    Danzel, who met the silence scoffed internally.


    `This greedy... he didn′t tell me on purpose.′ Danzel ethereal eyes suddenly turned ever so sharper towards the dwarf.


    Though it annoyed him, he knew why he kept quiet for so long.


    After all, Geraks goal was to make me stay and continue put runes and profit from it, which for him was like hitting two birds with one stone.


    If he suddenly went out this way and arrange for me to get out of the capital that would be like shooting himself in the foot!


    Having realized Geraks motives I couldna help myself but doubt him.


    But...


    "Fine, we will do it as you said," Danzel said.


    Hearing his answer the dwarfs sighed out of relief.


    Having someone as strong as him looking at their backs was some relief they needed.


    "Good, let′s us go before the otherse," Gerak said while walking in the direction where someone escaped.


    "Huh, where are you going? Isn′t that way the exit?" Danzel pointed at the door he pushed open.


    "Well, yeah, but with how you currently look we will be found out imminently. When they bought me here I came from another entrance in the back."


    Looking down at all the blood that is on my armor he felt somewhat awkward.


    `Right, going outside like that would be awkward...′


    Following behind Gerak with the other dwarfs, we quietly left the building while ignoring the screams from the ve behind us.


    "Hey! Don′t leave us!"


    ****


    Half an hour before the Dark Fist death...


    Standing above the roof in a decayed house in the slums was someone wearing tight-up clothing looking half transparent.


    He stared at this target with these deep yellow eyes of his.


    "What the hell is he doing this time..." He asked himself as the dark gray knight who this target was stopped together without another unknown person in front of a big warehouse.


    He has been monitoring that mercenary for an entire month to found out who his employer was. But search till yet bore him no fruits.


    The mercenary behavior was in this as weird as they were suspicious.


    Usually, his job consisted of tailing someone in the dark or right of assassinating them if needed.


    Both those tasks needed exceptional skills.


    But the moment he was tasked to trail that mercenary he couldn''t be less bored than he was now.


    This target, who wore now a dark gray te armor did this month nothing else than staying at his own house for a whole damn month!


    And the moments he left the house, he wander through the streets aimlessly for hours long before vanishing back to this house.


    With such behavior of this target, he could only sit in hiding and stare at the house for days long.


    The worst part of it all we''re that he had to give a daily report to this superior.


    And after so long, he finally saw a change.


    The trip that he would do around every one week in the dwarf''s smithseemed to have changed.


    Instead of walking outside with the dwarf, he saw him dragging an unknown guy out of the shop.


    Seeing the change of the current events, he followed after those two which brought him here.


    "I will have to report that guy to the higher-ups...he might be then runesmith that they are searching fo-"


    As he was about to bring out hismunication, a crimson light appeared which caught this attention.


    "Huh?" Looking at the man that he was about to report as a possible runesmith being pierced by the mercenary de at his heart he slightly frowned.


    This frown though wasn''t the work of the dead body that was on the ground, but rather on the runes of the de.


    "There isn''t such rune in the report..." He mumbled to himself.


    *Thunk!


    With the sound of metal shing with each other, he looked at this target pushing open the door.


    "Why is he going in- Wait, if I remember right this ce is.."


    Seeing this target vanishing inside the building, he hastily brought out thismunication device.


    After some time, the crystal glowed slightly.


    "General, I have gotten some bad news..." The figure said as he began exining.


    ***


    Present...


    Walking with a map in his hand, he gazed in front of him.


    "I found it..." The man, Lewis Appolo who put this map away stared at the warehouse in front of him.


    When he did this first step towards the warehouse he halted suddenly.


    "This is..."


    Staring at a man''s dead body this frozen of before turned for the worst.


    Inspecting the man''s wound he was shocked by what he saw.


    "Traces of dead mana..?"


    Though very small, they were indeed some traces of dead mana.


    ''Might it be the council be responsible..?''


    Looking away from the corpse, both pairs of these eyes turned folded.


    "There is even more than that..." Lewis said in disbelief.


    The traces of the dead mana seemed like some pitch-ck small crumbs in the ground.


    Those traces went tough the big door inside.


    "Did some of those low lives managed to infiltrate the capital?"


    With the light in his eyes fading away, he shortly made this way towards inside the warehouse.


    With this sword in his hand, he was shortly greeted by the sight of multiple corpses being drowned in their own blood and cages around him with many different people.


    Those people had many different kinds of wounds on their body with the stenching out of them was enough to make someone throw up.


    ''The saintess was indeed right...'' He thought to himself.


    cing this thought away, he swiftly moved around with this sword and cut started cutting the bars of the cages.


    "Thank you for saving us" The many ves thanked the knight in front of them out of gratitude.


    "There is no need to thank me as I simply followed the ways of the Sacred Cross," Lewis said with a big smile on this face.


    After rescuing all the ves of the cages,asked starting to ask around who killed those guys on the ground and resulted in such destruction of the floor.


    Upon hearing that, the man asked was about to answer before someone was a tick faster in his tongue


    "The one who did this to those trash in the ground was an obnoxious dark knight who used magic and a sword." A woman said while still trembling from the bloodlust she received.


    "I see..." Lewis nodded somewhat confused.


    ''A caster wielding a sword? I heard those kinds of people are prodigies.''


    Though spreading yourself in two different kinds of paths would limit you on both of them, the sole fact though was learning both magic and swordsmanship was extremely taxing in both mind and body.


    "Why would someone like hime here and kill this guy?" Lewis mumbled to himself.


    While has was trying to make sense out of this situation, he heard sounds of many stepse closer and closer.


    Turning his head towards the sound, people wearing the guard uniform, and while others had a more polished armor with an emblem on their chest.


    As he wondered who those people were, a guy who looked like the leader of this group looked at Lewis closely before pointing this sword at him.


    "Are you the one who did this!"