Inside the hotel room, Noah and James could see sitting behind the brown table, the young man and Luke, standing right in front of them.

The air seemed tense, as both Noah and James had a pensive expression.

“If what you are saying is true, then….”, James said as his gaze fell on Noah, who returned the gaze.

“….Why are you even telling us, what if we refuse?”, Noah asked with a helpless expression.

“I know you won’t”, the man whose name was Augustus said, with a light smile.

“How? because of the money?”, James said.

“No”, Augustus said shaking his head. “Well, yes. But mostly because you are good people”, He said.

A wide smile couldn’t help but appear on Noah’s face at those words, ‘Good people, he said inwardly

“And because we’ll have to kill you if you don’t”, Augustus added with a serious expression.

Noah laughed inwardly as he checked their power.

[Augustus]

[Tier: 2]

[Level: 48]

[Chances of death: 25%]

[Luke]

[Tier: 2]

[Level: 46[

[Chances of death: 22%] ｂｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐

They didn’t have a big chance of killing him.

“But you’ll still give us money for helping you”, Noah asked with a light smile. Though inside him, he was gearing up for any eventual fight.

“So do you accept?”, Luke asked as he brought two bottles of beer out, and placed them on the table

Both, Noah and James, glanced at each other, as an answer formed in their head, and they answered in unison.

“Yes”

“No!”

Let’s rewind a few minutes.

*

*

*

“Good day gentlemen, would you like to hear a story”, Augustus said in a calm and slow tone, While pointing at the chairs.

Noah raised an eyebrow, as he walked into the room, with light and careful steps, and sat down, glancing at James who sighed and did the same.

“I am Augustus, second heir to the house of Holon. We are a large-sized noble family, that has multiple middle-sized noble families under us”, Augustus said with a slight bow.

“I am Noah”, Noah said after a few seconds of silence. “I am James, nice to meet you”, James said, trying to be polite.

Nodding his head at their response, Augustus continued.

“Do you know why you are here?”, he asked. “To sign up for the job to escort you to Crilion?”, James replied immediately, his voice a bit shaky.

Shaking his head lightly, Augustus opened his mouth to talk, “That was just a public lie. Let me tell you the real reason”.

Noah arced his eyebrows at those words, while James frowned.

“As I said earlier, I come from a large-sized noble family, but what I didn’t tell you is that there is a power struggle and I am in the center of it.

My elder sister, my only sister, wants to get rid of my existence to claim as much property for herself since women aren’t allowed to own much.

But by getting rid of me, she would be entitled to around 60 percent of my father’s house.

You may be wondering, don’t we have inner circles and all that. Yes, we do, and she has control over them all. So we need your help to get to Crilion, where a friend of mine will receive me.

But my sister has spies all around, and I am certain that she has planned an ambush for our passage. But don’t worry you’ll be paid handsomely 10 middle-sized silver coins”. Augustus said as he finished his ‘Story’.

Noah couldn’t help but heave a sigh, as his voice rang out, “That wasn’t a story, more like an explanation,” he said, as his gaze fell on Augustus’s figure. Who shrugged in return, “As long as you get the point.”

Noah glanced at James who also heaved a sigh, “How strong is your sister?” James said as his tone sounded like he had asked a dreaded question.

Augustus sighed helplessly, “She is an expert in tier 3, though she won’t interfere physically.” he said trying to reassure them.

Noah frowned at those words, while James lowered his head seemingly depressed. This wasn’t what he had expected.

*

*

*

Glancing at James because of his answer, Noah raised an eyebrow, as his voice rang out.

“We agree”, Noah announced as he stood up. James widened his eyes as he uttered these words, “What….., No…., why?”.

“Because they’ll kill us if we don’t, and after all the pay was increased to 10 middle-sized silver coins. Last time I checked that’s a lot”, Noah stated with a shrug.

James opened his mouth, but no words exited them, only one of his many sighs escaped them. Noah was right.

“Good,” Augustus said with a slight nod. “Here is the plan….”

#

Exiting the building, Noah and James walked away, as many thoughts filled their minds.

The plan Augustus had explained to them wasn’t hard to understand, it was just that, its execution was going to be a bit difficult, for the whole team.

According to what he had said, they planned to take a specific road to Crilion, but the thing was that his sister was aware of that, and would most likely plan an ambush.

The worse part was, that they couldn’t change it. Luke had acted as a spy and got to know about his young master’s sister’s plan, by making them trust him. Changing their plan would alert Augustus’ sister about his default.

Their only job was to make sure he wasn’t killed, which sounded easy until he informed them that the ambushers were going to be mostly in the middle stage of tier 2, even a few peak tier 2’s will be there.

For Noah that wasn’t much of a problem, but for James, that was close to certain death, after all, he was only a newly advanced, who had barely gotten used to his power.

“That didn’t go as we wanted”, James eventually said, after they had walked in silence for a few minutes.

“There was nothing we could do. Running away would have been a good idea, but they both are stronger than us”, Noah said with a shrug, truth be told he found the whole incident fun.

“What should I tell my brother?, I might not return home alive”, James said with a frown.

“Our plan hasn’t changed. We both are traveling to participate in Bozolom, and will be back next month”, Noah stated.

“How are you not scared? we are about to go on a deadly mission, and you are so relaxed!”, James exclaimed, with a complicated expression.

“I don’t know”, Noah replied with a shrug and a slight smile. “Maybe because I know I’ll live through it”.

Heaving a heavy sigh, James went over the plan multiple times, and some other topics, probably to calm his mind.

You all may not understand why James is currently afraid. Let us not forget that he; just like every common man in Vonol, feared the wrath of the noble families, and unlike Noah couldn’t run at an immense speed, which guarantees his safety, if things went south.

Arriving in front of Noah’s hotel, James was about to wave Noah goodbye, when he remembered something.

“Ah!. Before I forget”, James said, as a shoe appeared in the air, and he caught it.

“I saw that your shoes are not shoes, so please take these”, James said with a smile.

A mild wave of surprise couldn’t help but spread in Noah’s mind when he sighted the shoes. They were black in color, and seemed normal, but Noah could sense a Mana signature from them, though he was mostly surprised because he had never expected such.

Liberating the shoes from James hands, Noah watched as James turned and left.

Exchanging gaze’s between James leaving figure, and the pair of shoes, a big smile couldn’t help but form on his face as he silently muttered a sentence, “Thank you”.

Turning and entering the hotel, Noah collected the key to his normal lodge.

Taking a shower, he sat on the bed, as multiple thoughts flowed through his mind, until the gaze of his blue eyes fell on the shoes.

Picking them, Noah wore them, admiring their lightness, and the fact that they fit incredibly well, Noah managed to get stunned at how light he felt because of them.

‘Weird’, he said inwardly.