Chapter 20: Mercenary Hall

Gage spun around with his arms outstretched. His axes blazed in angry red flames hitting all incoming attacks from the army officers.

“Hahaha! Weak! So weak!” He howled in laughter.

Almost three hours had passed since he had started his ‘rampage’. The front of the Regis estate entrance was already scorched with fire and holes were seen everywhere.

Bodies were lying everywhere, but they were not dead. Just unconscious.

Gage was not seriously fighting and he was too lazy to kill these dogs.

“Where’s your leader! Tell your leader to come out! We still have a score to settle!”

To the army officers, Gage’s words meant that he knew the leader of the ‘Regis Clan’ and he was here to cause trouble.

However, even if the army’s leader did appear before Gage. What good would it do? Wouldn’t that just expose their disguise? After all, Major Jax was nothing like the Regis Clan Leader! Apart from that, currently, the highest-ranking officers in their midst was a Lieutenant, and they were tasked to keep watch for any movements inside the Regis estate.

Of course, this was not what Gage meant. Gage was too immersed in wreaking havoc that he forgot his initial job and simply wanted to butt heads with the army’s ‘leader’. If Silas was here, he will still praise him for doing a very good job.

“Rawrgh!” Gage bellowed as he jumped and bashed his axes at a group of four people with melee weapons.

The four people jumped back to avoid his attack, but the axes’ flames burst out and they were immediately engulfed by the flames.

“Argh!”

“Burn! Hahaha!” Gage shouted as he dropped to the ground, forming cracks from where his feet touched.

“What are you doing archers! Aim!” Someone from the army shouted.

Immediately, different elemental arrows flew and fired at Gage.

“Humph,” he sneered and did not move. He simply watched the arrows coming at him.

All of the officers were shocked as they watched the arrows hit him, but did not even leave a scratch on his armor, even on his skin!

“Well, that tickles,” Gage sneered. Then his eyes turned serious, “Call out your leader now!”

The army officers immediately backed away from Gage. They were not his match at all!

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The Regis Estate had outer and inner lands. Its outer land was composed of barracks and few storage houses. If one was not fully aware of the whole structure of the estate, one would think that the barracks and storage houses were built randomly.

It was the same with Silas, he also found the buildings in the Regis estate’s outer land excessive. His first impression was that it was built to confuse thieves or bandits, because of its maze-like arrangement.

And he was partially correct. However, only the Regis Council and the Patriarch knew why it was built that way.

Still, Silas found its structure intriguing. But while he wanted to learn more, he did not have the time right now. After all, the sun was already up and he was not sure how long Gage could keep the army busy while he searched inside. It had also become harder to keep his presence hidden with all the army officers running around.

Currently, Silas already arrived near the inner land of the estate. He was hiding behind an empty barracks, looking at the inner land gates.

His eyes narrowed after finding the Royal Army’s makeshift camp located nearby.

‘This will be hard,’ he thought, roaming his eyes around the inner land walls.

Silas understood why the army stayed outside. The inner walls currently had a very complex defensive array. He was not very knowledgeable about array creation, but he knew this defensive array was probably a tier nine.

Silas wondered his eyes and captured all the details he could from the surrounding. He already had a few clues to support his theory.

First, they saw officers under the Forbidden Magic Control Squad in town. Second, the outer land of the Regis estate was full of army officers disguised as Regis clan members. Third, the Royal Army had built makeshift barracks near the entrance of the inner land. Last, and this was his biggest clue at the moment, was the remnants of a recent battle around the outer wall of the inner land.

‘If I am right. The Regis clan and the Royal Army had a fight here that night. It involved the Forbidden Magic Control Squad and the Tracking Team. It could mean that the Regis clan is practicing forbidden magic and the army made a move against them. But why would the army keep this under wraps? It is not like them to hide their operations when it comes to suppressing anyone who practices the forbidden magic. Is it because the Regis clan was an old noble family of the empire? No. From what I know, the reason why the Regis clan kept to themselves, although their ancestors helped shape the empire to what it is now, was because they do not like how the Royal Family has become. Are they planning a coup?’

Silas shook his head, ‘No. Don’t overthink things. Focus first on the target. I am sure the boy escaped from here that night. How did he escape? Did the Regis clan make him, escape? Why let him escape alone? Does the army want the boy because he has the evidence of what the Regis clan has been doing here? Why let a boy keep the evidence? Was the boy that capable?’

Silas sighed, ‘Wrong question Silas. They already put a bounty on his head, meaning he is capable enough to escape.’

Then he frowned, ‘But is he really alone?’

Shaking his head, Silas looked at the defensive array of the estate’s inner land.

‘It seems the Regis clan members are still inside. Now, this has become a battle of attrition. How long their supplies would last will be the key. But unless something happens that will make the army leave, the Regis clan’s probability of survival was very low.’

Then he thought of something, ‘Wait. Could it be that the Regis let that boy escape to find help?’

Silas immediately dismissed the idea, ‘No. I don’t think there will be others who are willing to oppose the army. Ugh! I can’t help but think that there’s a conspiracy to all this!’

Scratching his head, Silas stood up.

‘I need to find a way inside. The answers are definitely there.’

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Kyran took a deep breath as he stood in front of a huge tall building.

At present, he was wearing a cloak much like Nolan’s.

Under his cloak, he looked at the building in front of him.

The building had five floors. Floors from the ground level to the second level all had the same size. The third floor was a few meters small, and the very top floor was smaller. Its outer walls were painted gray with red accents.

Kyran’s gaze moved higher and read the sign that was mounted on the outer wall of the last floor.

Mercenary Hall.

[Just go in. It’s not like anyone will recognize you since the cloak is hiding your face.]

Kyran heard Nolan’s voice in his mind.

Right now, Nolan was ‘hiding’.

Kyran was really curious how he could hide in broad daylight. But after just a day of knowing this man, he already gave up trying to make sense of what he could do.

“Can I use Nar’s face, first?” He asked in a low voice because he did not want others to think he was talking to them at random. He preferred to let them think he was just mumbling to himself than to get in trouble for saying something aloud that was not really meant for them.

[No. I told you, we’re going to make those army guys shit their pants. How will you do that if you are in Nar’s face?]

Somehow, ‘Nar’ had become an entity to these two.

Kyran took another deep breath. His heart was beating furiously as if it wanted to tear off his chest and run away. Well, Kyran did feel like running away right now.

[Kid. Just remember why we are doing this and what good it will do when we succeed.]

A sudden change appeared in Kyran’s expression.

“You’re right.”

Yes, if they succeeded here today, he might be able to help his clan.

[Good. Remember what I told you. I will wait outside. But don’t worry, I have my ways to know if there is any danger. When that happens, I’ll let you know so you can leave.]

With a little nod, Kyran finally moved and went up the steps to the Mercenary Hall’s entrance.

The reason why Kyran was nervous was that he had to do this alone, inside a place full of mercenaries that were probably after him.

Since they could not afford to trigger the Mercenary Hall’s defensive array if Nolan entered the premise while he was ‘hiding’, he had to stay outside.

While it was true that he could get in normally and keep an eye out for Kyran, Nolan would not be able to act without drawing too much attention. And they wanted to keep his involvement with Kyran a secret to the army.

As soon as Kyran stepped inside the Mercenary Hall, mercenaries who were gathered around the lobby discussing some missions all stopped what they were doing to look at him.

Kyran did look conspicuous with his black cloak, and his face hidden under it.

Ignoring the stares from all these people, Kyran walked to the front desk.

A woman who was in her early twenties, with a short bob, dark-violet hair, and bright green eyes, greeted him with a smile.

“Greetings, good sir. How may I assist you today?”

Kyran looked at the woman and said, “I would like to register as a mercenary.”