Chapter 89: Beast Tides (1)

“I thought about it. I don’t think I can risk going to the Limnor territory,” Kadre stated resignedly as they met in the lounge in preparation to finally depart. “The reason you wanted to go there, is it something too important?”

“Not necessarily, but I’ve changed my mind too.”

“Professional reasons. I’m sorry.”

Mikael just adjusted his scarf over his neck, and to his companion, it looked like he was pretending not to hear her.

“I-“

“Kadre, your reasons are not mine to judge. I too am pressed for time. And since I have hired you to be my guide, and our logistics are your job, let us do your plan.”

Kadre sighed, with a smile. The kind of client the brat was: not pushy, not nosy, and quite generous. No, very generous.

“Fine, let’s go. If we walk all night, we should get to Largos before dawn.” She stepped out of the building. “If someone can keep up with my pace,” she smirked at her own joke.

The evening air outside was cold and clean, and the lantern light made long,dim shadows of them on the stones.

“You are still an Adept rank, though.”

“Tch.” The blow to the heart connected successfully. “I was joking, you brat!”

“And I was stating facts. Seriously, we need to raise your rank. I still think it’s too weak,” Mikael stated, with a face that showed no laughter.

“Shut the hell up, brat. Don’t tell me what to do.”

“Very well.”

Kadre rubbed her forehead in exasperation. “Seriously, you need to learn how to read jokes.”

Mikael looked genuinely puzzled, as though jokes were a language he had once known and since forgotten.

Just barely ten minutes after the duo walked past the square, a burly figure pulled up to a restaurant, the same one Mikael had been eating at.

The dust of the road still clung to his boots, and he had clearly not slept much. The letter was folded small in his breast pocket, and he touched it once as though to be sure it was still there.

The letter had said the boy might be in this part of the city, at least going by the lad’s high-and-mighty disposition and his very noble appearance. And how hard would it have been to find someone with snow-white hair and pale, almost ceramic skin, who stood at nearly five foot eleven? Some coins here and there quickly broke “professional” ethics and revealed where the “prize” might be.

The hotel was a little way from the central square, a high-class one, as predicted.

“Suits his taste, that brat. His Rank Breaker sales must be giving him quite the stacks,” he mused.

He glanced around the lobby, at the polished floors and the tall vases, and snorted softly.

The Empire’s coat of arms emblazoned on his blazer gave him the authority he would have had with his full armor, and so the attendants at the counter were left shivering.

He read them the information he had: the description, the room number, how many nights the lad must have visited.

However, all he got were settled bills and the news that Mikael had left barely twenty minutes ago. After managing to squeeze out a little more information, he found out that the lad had a female companion who was not exactly a law-abiding citizen.

He gave chase immediately!

The door swung shut behind him, and the attendants let out a breath they had been holding for a full minute.

* * * * *

“Well, I did create the soon-to-be very famous Rank Breaker myself, and in less than ten minutes. Counter that,” Mikael laughed.

Kadre opened her mouth, closed it, and then glared at him for lack of a better answer.

“Hmph. As if something like that really exists. I need hard facts-“

It wasn’t that she had not heard of the Rank Breaker. The lad was annoyingly arrogant when he wanted to be.

“MIKAEL!”

The shout from behind startled even the traders around. The owner of the name didn’t spare a glance as the burly man chased up to the duo.

Mikael had a scythe slung over his shoulder, a monstrous-looking one at that, while his companion wore a simple cloak that covered all but her face, which was still not visible. She wasn’t his business for now.

The blade caught the light and swallowed it, and the crowd, without quite knowing why, made room.

“I was wondering who knew my name,” Mikael said when the man finally caught up. He said it mildly, and still did not turn his head.

“Good to see you again, Captain. However, how did you even find me? Oh, and how has the General been?”

Behemoth laughed loudly. “So you still remember us, I am pleased. You don’t exactly scream subtlety, do you? Now.” The laugh died out. “Let’s get down to business, Mikael. His Imperial Majesty has ordered that you present yourself before him. He and the entire Empire are keenly interested in discussing the prospect of the Rank Breaker with you, its creator.”

Kadre’s reassessment of Mikael was instant. Not that she had cared about the amount of fortune he had; that was none of her business. But if it truly came from the widely rumored Rank Breaker, then the boy she had been walking around with and taunting was at least at the level of a Silver Arcane Head Professor, one of the acclaimed smartest groups in the Empire! She looked at his face.

He was visibly irritated and clearly uninterested.

She went over every moment of the past days again, the attitude, the maps, the gold, the rings, and found that the pieces fit uncomfortably well.

“The interest is noted, Captain Behemoth. However, I’m afraid I don’t have the time to honor your Emperor’s summons yet.”

The knight and the thief felt their hearts sink instantly, and they weren’t even the ones rejecting the Imperial Majesty’s summons.

The Emperor was the highest authority and ruler of the largest empire, one that covered nearly two-fourths of the entire Human Realm. And while he appeared ceremonial to most, he had held his territories together over centuries. There were even rumors of the Emperor being at the Quasi-God rank and being immortal!

Nobody, absolutely no one with a breath of life left in them, dared to not answer the summons of the Empire’s ruler! Even the Six Dukes and the Saint Bloodline families rushed to the capital every time they were summoned, regardless of their levels!

And yet a mere commoner, even if he was quite the genius, dared to refuse the summons!

A silence ensues between the three, one that was almost louder than the shout had been.

For this fool hardiness, Behemoth felt pity, while Kadre felt troubled and she subconsciously drew back away from Mikael. There was every chance she would be roped into whatever punishment that would follow and be deemed an accomplice in the disrespect. And not for the first time, she genuinely considered leaving him and his job, only this time out of fear that he would cost her her head.

But the gold, and what it could buy, kept her feet where they were.

Behemoth chuckled. “Proud as you might be, no one here refuses the Emperor. It is not something you have a choice in.”

The Captain had delivered this message before, and in every case the answer had been a bow.

Mikael turned away. “Tell him I’ll visit whenever I am chanced.”

He walked on as though he had said nothing remarkable at all, and the Captain, for once, did not follow.

Kadre opened her mouth to speak, but the sound of something sent chills up her spine instantly.

The first horn sounded, and even the semi-busy market around them froze, and the district slowly fell silent.

It was a low, rolling sound, deep as a drum and sorrowful as a bell, and every person who heard it knew exactly what it meant. A woman hugged her basket to her chest. A pair of guards stopped mid-sentence.

The second time it came, the silence still prevailed, albeit with a few movements here and there, feet and postures shifting.

By the third horn, chaos finally broke out!

Carts overturned, doors slammed, and somewhere a child was crying for a parent already lost in the crowd.

Being at the edge of the noble district and the walls of the lower side, the anarchy was much more intense, as stampedes broke out instantly.

People poured into the streets from every door, and the noble district’s calm cracked like glass. Merchants abandoned their stalls with the coins still on the counters, and the air filled with shouting and the scrape of boots.

The Captain had left, jumping atop a roof at the second horn, while Mikael and Kadre did so only when the minds of the people had caught up.

“Beast Tides!!!”

The word spread faster than the horns had, and then there was only the sound of the city running.

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