"Like I said, very bad timing"
Barthel was perplexed. What was going on?
The scream faded with the body dropping to the floor, revealing the killer.
Barthel's eyes shook when he saw a royal guard.
Clad in red armor, the imprint of Niton's crest was hard to miss.
"Since when did the royal guards care for such matters?!"
The guard shook off the blood on his spear.
"Since today" he said and lunged.
'Damn!" Barthel turned his horse.
Battling royal guards, in the capital no less, was no different from suicide.
"We retre-"
Simultaneously, something tore through the wind.
"DODGE!"
But it was already too late.
*Splech*
The spear pierced one of his men through one ear and out of the other.
The person wasn't able to react as he fell to the floor, dead.
The horses were scared into a frenzy and those without riders took off.
In the midst of confusion, one of the members fled.
Meanwhile, Cabrera had the group retreat.
"Calm down" Barthel calmed his horse, unable to focus on the deserting member when he noticed a looming shadow.
'Oh no!'
He swung his sword in the shadow's direction, but…
*Pah!*
A kick landed on his face, or rather, his palm, and sent him off his horse.
He landed less than three meters away, and quickly got to his feet with a bleeding nose to see Cabrera standing in front of his horse.
Cabrera shook his head.
'How pathetic'
His strongest attacks were barely dealing damage.
"Boss, we're being attack-"
At the same time, a spear flew from behind and pierced the heart of the last member.
In less than three minutes, three were dead. Barthel couldn't comprehend the situation as the last guard arrived before him and killed him.
Cabrera looked around. The skills of royal guards were no joke.
'A team of Experts was killed just like that?'
If it had been him…Cabrera gulped.
'Thankfully, we have a buffer zone'
The second spear had come from another royal guard who was passing by.
"What about the one that ran away?" Cabrera inquired.
"He is of no threat to us" said the guard.
"What about the horses?"
"Do as you wish"
Cabrera nodded and proceeded to tie down the horses and chase after the rest.
Papers indicating Black Jaw's buffer zone activation were placed all over the city.
At the same time, many became curious about the so-called 'Black Jaws'.
I mean, what kind of guild could get a buffer zone at G-rank? It was entirely displaced.
Entities of B-rank upwards and a few C-ranks outrightly ignored it. The war was more important than whatever joke the royal faction was trying to pull.
Cabrera gathered the horses in less than ten minutes and took them to the base.
After which, he joined Nathan for a drink in the renovated tavern.
"We did it!" Nathan hails, chugging his drink.
"Yes we did" Cabrera replied, but joy was nowhere to be seen on his expression as he stared into his drink.
Nathan understood the change of atmosphere and sat upright.
"It seems something's on your mind"
Cabrera tapped the table.
"Someone sent mercenaries after us, a team of Experts"
Nathan's eyes widen as Cabrera continued.
"If it weren't for the buffer zone, I would've been killed"
He clenched his fist.
"The Royal Advisor, those royal guards, the mercenaries, all these just make me realize just how weak we still are, and how quickly our lives can be forfeited"
Nathan pushed his drink away and sighed.
"I was going to say the same thing. Back then, I couldn't even speak because I was too weak to resist. That feeling, I hate it."
He faced Cabrera.
"I don't want to feel that way again…but then, what can we do?"
Cabrera's fist clenched tighter. Expert-rank he could reach, but beyond? It was almost impossible.
At that time, a palm landed on their table, followed by a voice.
"You can follow me"
Nathan and Cabrera jerked their heads.
'This voice…!'
The man on the other side of the contract.
The moment Cabrera grasped his facials, his head began aching.
"Try not to scream" the man muttered.
With it, the memories hidden beneath layers of fog came to light.
Minutes passed as Cabrera gripped his aching head, but he refused to let out a sound.
Suddenly, his grip became lighter and he slowly raised his head.
Cabrera gained realization, and it shone in his eyes.
"Fred-"
The man covered Cabrera's mouth.
"Shh, follow me"
Cabrera tapped Nathan with a smile and they walked to the Fire Scar building.
Within the room, Cabrera, Nathan and Fredrick sat in a circle.
Cabrera was smiling as stared at Fredrick.
Nathan was put off by the weird atmosphere.
"Will someone tell me what's going on?"
Cabrera comes to the rescue.
"It's like this. I had…."
Minutes passed by as Nathan found himself slack jawed.
Turns out, the memory wipe was in preparation for the possibility of mind reading.
Fredrick had advised it as someone was bound to make the connection between their expedition and the other events.
The soul scroll they signed was Gold-rank.
Mind fox couldn't break past it, allowing Cabrera to answer 'I don't know' as he truly did not know as he couldn't remember.
He had no qualms telling Nathan about how he was involved with the Windless Peaks destruction, the manite mine, and the disappearance of the A-rank beast.
Given that Nathan had not fled even when he could've very well died, what else remained?
Then he told them of how he had tricked Bolton.
Cabrera also found that not all of his memories had returned. For example, the tree and the beast eggs, he could remember that they took them, but not how they did so.
Also, he couldn't remember the face of the b#stard who broke one of his nuts, along with a few other things.
Asking Fredrick, he replied.
"Those few are of absolute secrecy"
It was frustrating, but Cabrera didn't make a fuss.
After half an hour, Cabrera explained the situation fully, allowing Fredrick to carry on.
"There were a few things we hadn't foreseen…which we should have. We didn't expect Fire Scar to join the attack. The Vice Head Alchemist teaming up with the Royal Advisor was also one of them. We certainly didn't expect Mithril to be that expensive. Rather, there might be another reason why the sentinel bought it at such a high price"
Fredrick was able to find out the amount he was given by having Cabrera give him hints.
Cabrera didn't say the exact number, but Fredrick and Nathan approximated it to 600,000 Platinum.
He pointed at Nathan.
"And you…we hadn't expected you to give the recipe as a gift, neither had we ever expected that you'd get your hands on a Land Proprietorship Certificate"
Fredrick smiled.
"Thanks to you, we have secured a foundation stronger than any other for this guild, and gotten the protection we sorely needed"
Nathan was all smiles. His self esteem went up a notch.
Nevertheless, he was sharp on the uptake.
"What do we do next?"
Fredrick starred.
"We hide"
"Huh?"
"We'll lay low for the next ten years"
Cabrera sat things straight.
"Are you telling us to do nothing?"
He couldn't understand the logic.
"'Laying low' and 'doing nothing' are two different things" Fredrick replied.
"I see you haven't curbed your impatience"
Cabrera looked away.
Fredrick continued…
"Do you think we'll not be found out?"
"They can't possibly find anything-" Cabrera opposed.
Fredrick interjected.
"Don't delude yourself. We'll surely be found out. It's only a matter of time"
Cabrera gulped.
"Especially since you've set the Royal Advisor and the Sentinel against each other"
Fredrick shook his head.
"But we have a buffer zone, so they can't touch us"
He looked at the two.
"Have you wondered what will happen once the buffer zone expires?"
Nathan nodded.
"I did"
"And?"
"We'll be wiped"
Fredrick nodded.
"Good. But we can't let that happen, which is why growing stronger is our top priority"
"Such would normally be impossible-"
He removed an item from within his pocket.
"-if we didn't have this, that is"
A mana crystal.
