"You will depart this night. You will go to the dukedom without notifying other people. Don't let the people of the dukedom know you are from Athen's Champion as there's a chance that the culprit will escape." Carmel said to him.
"I understand." Souta nodded as he glanced at the mission on his system. This mission will not be easy considering the rewards that he could receive.
"I hope you completed this mission. I personally took it from the other leader just to give it to you." Carmel paused and said, "Your circle will be promoted to Second Class Squadron after this."
"Thanks, I appreciate it, sir," Souta said.
His goal was the First Class Blue Squadron. Once his circle attained that rank, they would be given the right to explore the sub-worlds under Athena's control.
At the moment, his circle was still a Third Class Yellow Squadron. He still needed four more advancement missions to reach the First Class Blue Squadron. The First Blue Squadron was rare in Tenth Grain War, this was the reason why Souta choose the Tenth Grain. He wanted to monopolize all the missions that he will get once their circle was promoted to that level.
"Good. You can go now. I expect a good news once you return." Carmel said.
Souta bowed before he left Carmel's office. He went to the Astros' room in headquarters to discuss this mission with others.
Carmel looked at the closed door and sighed.
"The demons are attacking the continent and various evil organizations are taking advantage of the chaos. The whole situation is getting worse. We need to pluck out those organizations with evil intention."
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He guessed that sooner or later they will be dispatched to confront the demons in an all-out battle.
"I didn't think that a huge war would occur like this in my generation. Gods... I wonder what are their thoughts about this war."
...
Souta called Alice and Eztein. He told them that they had a mission.
"This mission was passed directly to me by the Tenth Grain War Leader Carmel. You will not tell anyone about it and this will be our advancement mission. Once we completed it, we will be promoted to Second Class Squadron."
"Oh, an advancement mission? I guess that it will not be easy, unlike our past missions." Eztein said.
"What about Eilish? Are you planning to tell her about this?" Alice asked.
"Yep, but I will not tell her the details of our mission," Souta replied to her.
He stood up and opened the cabinet on the corner. The cabinet was full of low-grade health potions and low-grade mana potions. These potions were provided by legion after they were promoted to First Class Yellow Squadron.
'This mission will not be easy. It's also strangely difficult for a promotional mission for Second Class Yellow Rank.' Souta said inwardly as he picked several potions and placed them on the table.
Alice and Eztein followed suit. They prepared the equipment and potions that could help them in this mission.
"Boss, I want to ask. Why don't we recruit people to join us in our circle?" Eztein asked while arranging the equipment.
"I just don't want to. I will ask Franklin and others to join Athen's Legion but as for other people I don't think I could accept them." Souta replied to him.
"It's because they don't have parasitic essence eater, right?"
Alice and Souta glanced at Eztein when they heard his words.
"Oh, what's wrong, boss?" Eztein tilted his head and asked.
"Nothing..." Souta sighed and shook his head. Eztein was right. He couldn't easily trust strangers that didn't have parasitic essence eaters.
"You're planning to call the others here, right? You are going to integrate some of our forces in Athen's Champion." Alice said.
"That's the plan. Astros is still a small organization as it only had three Shackled Realm Experts. If we wanted to expand it better if we gained Athen's Champion as our backer." Souta said in response to her words.
"I see..." Alice turned her head and looked at the windows. "Although the Council of High-World is afraid of entering Imperium, they will surely send some elites to eliminate us. With our current strength, just one person at Second or Third Shackles Realm will be enough to wipe us out."
"That's why I'm trying to increase the fame of Astros. So if Astros got attacked, the Athen's Champion will surely help us as long as we showed them that we are worth nurturing." Souta said. "They will not be able to ignore us. They needed manpower in the war against demons."
"I see... But are we going to participate in the battle against demons? I thought that the battlefield was too far from this place." Alice asked.
"It's too far but have you seen it before right. Some of the warriors of gods were dispatched to help the countries that suffered from the demon invasion. But don't worry about it, once we expand our circle you can just stay here once that happens. I'm sure that no one will mind it." Souta paused before he added, "Also, the advancement of the demon army had slowed down in the past few weeks."
"Alright, I will not think about it." Alice smiled.
The three finished their preparation after twenty minutes. Then, they visited Eilish to notify her that they will leave for a while. Ever since Souta joined the Athen's Champion, this mission will be the hardest one.
Souta once again visited Carmel in his office. He notified Carmel that he was going to depart soon.
One hour later, the three had left the Champion's Den. They were heading towards the dukedom in the south. They didn't follow the normal route as it will take them two weeks before they arrived at the dukedom. They went through the wilderness to shorten their travel time.
"Actually, we can use the teleportation circle in headquarters to travel to the other headquarters of the Athen's Champion but Captain Carmel said that we shouldn't use it. Our mission is confidential and it seems that some organization is involved with it." Souta explained to the two.
"Isn't this mission too important to leave to a newly made circle?" Eztein asked.
"Yeah, it's too important but Carmel took the quest from the other Captain's hands. He wanted to use this quest to promote us and increase the number of high-rank squadrons in the Tenth Grain War." Souta answered.
"I see..." Eztein nodded as he get the gist of it. The situation inside the Athen's Champion was more complicated than he thought.
The Tenth Grain War was one of the weakest Grain. They only had a few high-rank squadrons in Tenth Grain War. So as the leader of this Grain, Carmel wanted to increase the number of the high-rank squadrons.
Since he saw that the Astros had the potential to become a high-rank squadron, Carmel would naturally support them.
"That's why we need to complete this mission so that the Grain Leader will continue to support us," Souta said.
"So that's how it is. I understand now." Eztein nodded.
"This mission is important. I have a feeling that it will lead us to a bigger scope of events." Alice said.
"Me too." Souta agreed to her words.
The group continued their journey and after four days, they've arrived near the Dukedom of Halbun. It was a huge place with a population of more than one million people. The population of this dukedom was nothing compared to forty million people in Champion's Den but it was still bustling.
Everyone already expected it but finding the culprit in the strange cases will be hard with all of these people.
Souta glanced at Alice and Eztein and saw that they already removed the Athen's Champion's emblem on their clothes. No one should know that they belong to a god's legion as it could potentially scare the culprit.
"Okay, we'll start here." Souta took a deep breath and said.
Alice and Eztein nodded at his words.
The three of them were going to separate to increase the proficiency of their investigation. They were going to stay in different parts of the city and slowly uncover the truth about the events.
...
Souta was inside a small pub in the northern part of the city. He had a mug of beer in his hand and he listened to the story of the drunkards around him. This was one of the best places to gather information. He just needed to filter all the information later and he will get a clue.
'The mysterious incident occurred one month ago. There are a total of seventy-two victims and all of them have bite marks on their bodies. What makes this incident strange is that the bite marks correspond to the teeth arrangement of the victims. In short, it looks like those people killed themselves by biting their bodies.' Souta said inwardly.
'You needed to know the victims first. You need to know if there are any similarities to the victims. Also, the place where they died. It's important in an investigation.' Saya's voice sounded in his mind.
'Alright.' Souta drank the beer in his mug before he stood up.
