"Welcome to the Xantia Brotherhood outpost. Despite your name in the family, I bet it"s your first time here!"

The guy that approached him before, introduced the place with a proud smile on his face.

"Who are you? I believe we didn"t meet before!"

Mike was a bit confused. It was true that he made a name for himself back in the days, but he was proud of being able to recognise all of his acquaintances. Yet the person in front of him didn"t ring the bell at all!

"Don"t be surprised! Such a small fry like me would never catch the eyes of the renowned bloodthirsty Mike!"

This guy laughed out loud as if finding this fact funny.

"I"m Ritzy. I"m the manager of this humble outpost. How can the Xantia help you?"

"I wish to send two messages. First one will go to the Kerialis, with the Mash as the receiver. The other one should go to the Revy in the headquarters. Will that be any problem?"

After stating his wishes, Mike stared his counterpart right into the eyes, as if trying to pry open his mind and read his thoughts. There was something strange in his behaviour. If this guy knew who he was, he should act differently, either full of respect or hate. Yet no one of those emotions could be seen in his eyes.

"That won"t be a problem at all sir… But would you mind answering me one question?"

Ritzy asked while spreading his arms and striking a pose.

"Why would the brotherhood bother to help a traitor like you?"

Right after he spelt those words, everyone in the room suddenly stood up and readied their weapons. It was obvious that they were ready to jump into the fray the second that the ringleader would signal them to do so.

"While there is no bounty on your head, neither do the family hunts you, I can"t even begin to imagine what would I gain from bringing your head in!"

Showing his true colours, Ritzy broke in the laugh.

"With this, I will be finally able to leave this s.h.i.thole!"

"Considering how much you want to leave this place, I a.s.sume that you didn"t come here voluntarily, am I right?"

Mike turned around on the bench he was sitting, resting his back on the table. Ignoring the armed thugs in the room completely, he focused on the leader.

"You don"t even need to answer. But let me ask you a different question. Considering that somehow those silly joke of guardians would be able to take me down, how can you be so sure that Revy would reward you for my head?"

As relaxed as if he was sitting in the warm bath instead of being surrounded by armed enemies, Mike asked with a slight smile.

"Do You know Revy at all? Or did I just mistook you for the legendary Mike, idiot?"

Ritzy lashed out, ticked off by the lax att.i.tude of the merchant.

"She is the most power-hungry person in the Kingdom, maybe with the exception of the King and his court. How could she accept such a legend you are behind her back? Your head might even bring me into her chambers as for the reward!"

Right as Ritzy said those words, Mike moved.

Pushing his back against the table give him enough momentum to move his torse over the line of his legs. Thanks to the sitting position, his knees were already bent, allowing him to instantly jump at the other party. Pulling the dagger during his move, he extended his left hand to the head of the leader.

In less than it takes to blink, he grabbed Ritzy"s throat and by using the momentum and his weight, he smashed on his opponent body. Falling together on the ground, he slammed the knife into the floor, hair width away from the young pesky brat ear.

"Never speak about Revy in such a disrespectful matter. Even calling her name is too much for you."

Leaning his own head over the scared face of Ritzy, Mike uttered those few words with overwhelming fury. Despite only whispering them, one could feel the amount of rage boiling in his voice.

Not wasting any time - after all, there were a lot of guards everywhere - Mike secured his hand on the young leader throat and rolled on the ground, putting him on the top. Landing on his knees, he pulled the man in front of him like a shield, looking for incoming attacks.

One of the thugs couldn"t handle the tense situation well. Seeing his boss in danger, he immediately jumped at them. When his employer body blocked his line of attack, he tried to step away and attack from the side.

While he lost his stability, he still managed to poke his sword along the Ritzy side, endangering Mike"s vitals.

When the sword was about to pierce Mike"s body, he threw Ritzy to the side, denying the guard a way to attack him. Using the momentum attained from the throw, the young man jumped at the guard.

With the sword extended in an attack, the guard had no way to guard himself. Just a second after he though he will deal the fatal hit, his throat got deeply cut by Mike"s knife.

Standing in the middle of the hall, Mike"s body was splattered by the blood escaping from the fallen guard neck. For a second, the time in the hall seemed to stop. Only when there was a loud thump indicating that the body has fallen to the ground, did Mike spoke again.

"If anyone else wants to try my hand, go on!"

Those imposing words spoken by the bloodied mouth had some kind of effect on the rest of the guards. Just from the single look at their outfit, it was apparent that they didn"t belong to the Xantia. Mike could bet that they were nothing but a bunch of hired thugs, used by Ritzy to impose his arrogant nature on the others. But by spending so much time around the young guy, they had to hear about the bloodthirsty Mike!

Seeing the legendary person in front of them, dressed in his t.i.tular colour, made them waver.

"What are you waiting for? Kill h…"

Mike instantly stopped desperate Ritzy"s shout, by simply kicking him in the stomach. The imposing aura that he showed successfully stopped the guards in their tracks, allowing the young merchant to do as he wished with their leader.

Stepping on the Ritzy belly, he turned back to the guards.

"I need two couriers. One will go Kerialis, find a trader going by the name Mash and deliver one message. The other one will hurry to Latavia, find anyone from the Xantia family and pa.s.s them the second message along with my sign. I can guarantee that both of the volunteers will be heftily rewarded after the mails will be delivered."

With every calm word leaving Mike"s mouth, the pressure he was putting on his hand increased bit by bit. Doing so made his words reach the guard"s ears with the company of pitiful whines.

"Who is willing to take this task?"

At this point, the force that the Ritzy belly was stepped upon finally reached the required threshold. Everyone could hear a disgusting sound and feel sour smell reaching their noses.

"Eww… You dirtied my shoes!"

*****

"Come on, young Miss. The boss is waiting on the top floor!"

A butler was guiding Xyenna through the complicated outline of n.o.ble"s mansion. Strolling through the endless corridors made the girl wonder about the true size of the building. While the ground floor was mostly a single, open room, every level higher was more complicated than the one before.

Right after she entered the building in the first place, this butler instantly appeared on her side and offered his help. Ignorant about the layout of the mansion, young swordmistress was elated about the situation. What was supposed to be the worst part of her mission actually was easier than she could imagine!

While the first and second floor were indeed really complicated, then the third one was build in a very straightforward manner. Rows of rooms on each side of the straight corridor, with the stairs at both endings.

Surprisingly, the butler stopped before the last stairs and simply pointed the way up.

"I"m deeply sorry, but the servants are forbidden from entering the Lord"s chambers. I"m gonna ask you to go there yourself, madam!"

Slightly confused about this strange rule, Xyenna couldn"t help but head forward. Yet before she managed to make even a single step, she was stopped by the butler.

"I"m really sorry, but I need to ask you to leave your weapons with me as well. We cannot allow any danger to come to our Lord!"

"Ok, just let me enter. The faster this starts, the sooner it will end!"

Slightly annoyed by parting with her beloved partner, Xyenna gave up her sword and pa.s.sed it to the Butler.

"Let me remind you. If I see even the slightest scratch on the scabbard or the sword itself, I won"t pay any heed to your silly rules here!"

Only after leaving her weapons behind, was Xyenna finally allowed to climb the stairs. What struck her as she was reaching the last door that enclosed the staircase, was the immense focus paid to the details of decoring this place. Every single step was a sculpture in itself, making one hesitate to go up!

But that didn"t work on the swordmistress. After spilling enough blood, one would lose sensitivity towards those kinds of intricacies. Unbothered by the dirt left on the stairs from her shoes, she decisively reached the door and pried it open.

The sigh that welcomed her was insane. In contrast to the lower floors, this whole level was just a single, open s.p.a.ce. But that didn"t mean that it was ugly!

Golden statues, beautiful paintings, skins of the rare animals… This room contained it all! Despite being adorned with gold on both sides, the walls somehow managed to keep the hall comfortably warm, preventing its inhabitants from overheating.
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But out of all those wonders, the thing that pulled one"s attention the most was a simple, mahogany desk, with a feeble figure of a man busy with his papers behind it.

"Welcome to the golden room! I presume you are the renowned Xyenna, who will soon entertain us with the death of the City Hall guard?"