Chapter 56: Unexpected mission. A wolf looking towards the south.

Edward unaware of all the things going on behind his back, went to the inn to spend some time with Violet before heading for the forest. He wanted to spend the night at the inn again, but at the same time he didn’t want to leave Minx alone for another night. Reaching there, he found Minx speaking to herself, probably for practice as he asked her to do.

Smiling at her, Edward said: “Your speaking is getting more fluent by the day. Good job.”

Minx ran up to him and rubbed her head against the side of his pants as she said: “Thank you.”

Edward pat her head and led her to rest against one of the trees. Sitting down, he said: “I’m going to sleep Minx. Have fun with the wolf and try to make sure he doesn’t do anything too stupid.”

Seeing Minx nod, he laid down on her fur and closed his eyes. Appearing inside his mind, Fenrir looked at him and said: “Be careful with that woman.”

“Woman?” asked Edward, confused at first before realizing who she meant: “You mean Eddena?”

“Yes, her. I didn’t tell you before since you have already left the tower, but there was a smell of death lingering permanently around her. She must have killed people in the thousands to say the least...”

“Well, it doesn’t sound like a big deal. I guess as a mage, using a large range spell, you can kill hundreds of people in an instant so…”

“That’s not it.. Whatever, just be careful. At least don’t end up on her bad side…” Fenrir had her own suspicions but she chose to stay silent since it was not relevant anymore.

Edward didn’t take Fenrir’s words to heart. Eddena was Circe’s sister after all and had no reason to hurt him.

He spend the entire night speaking with Azure, putting all he studied today at work to increase his mastery of water curtain spell. He was already able to cast the spell, but there was still room for improvement. As morning came, Edward appeared back in control of his own body, finding himself in a clearing surrounded by blood and body parts of wild beasts.

Sighing, he pat Minx who was waiting to the side and said: “You really went wild last night..”

Returning to the city entrance after his morning routine, he said goodbye to Minx and headed straight for Violet’s inn.

Passing though the inn doors, he saw Violet doing her morning rounds, serving customers inside. After she was done, she walked up to Edward with a smile on her face and took a seat next to him while saying: “Good morning, Edward.”

Edward grabbed one of her hands and said: “Morning. I’m sorry for spending so little time with you...”

“It’s fine.” Replied Violet as she squeezed his hand and continued: “I am usually quite busy as well.”

Violet then took out a small letter from the chest pocket of her dress and pushed it towards Edward as she said: “Someone came by this morning and left this letter for you.”

“For me?” asked Edward, not sure who would look for him. Not bothered about Violet’s presence, he broke the seal on the letter and opened it right there.

//Edward, my master came by last night and requested that my party assists her with a mission tomorrow. She also said to bring you as well. Come by my place so we can speak more.//
//Ingvar//

Edward raised an eyebrow, not really understanding why Ingvar’s so called master would want to bring him as well, but his thoughts were interrupted as Violet asked: “You’re leaving again?”

Edward sighed and nodded: “Looks like. I’m sorry...”

Violet nodded in understanding before asking hesitantly: “Since you’ll be gone for a while, c-can you come by tonight?”

Edward chuckled and brought his head closer to her ear as he whispered: “Always ready to serve, m’lady.”

Violet blushed and nodded with a happy smile. After spending some more time chatting with Violet, Edward promised her he’ll pass by in the evening and left in the direction of Ingvar’s house.

“I got your letter. What’s that about a mission and why is your master asking for me?” asked Edward as he took a sip of the tea in front of him.

Ingvar made a wry smile and said: “Well, you already know her.. Eddena Winterhope..”

Edward’s face turned awkward as he asked: “She’s your master? But isn’t she a mage?”

“Mage? That’s just one of her subclasses. She’s started as main swordsman and shadow walker subclass before mixing them into the assassin mixed class. She’s now a main master assassin with intermediate air mage and intermediate ranger as her subclasses..”

“Damn…” exclaimed Edward as Fenrir’s last night words came to his mind. He could imagine the bloodbath involving an assassin killing thousands or even more people, even shuddering slightly at the thought. Putting these thoughts at the back of his mind, he asked: “Then, what does she want with me?”

“Sigh.. As far as I’m aware, she just took a liking to you and wants to train you...” Replied Ingvar, looking a bit hesitant about the whole idea. Edward noticed this and asked: “And why don’t you seem to like this.. Is there anything wrong?”

“Not really…” replied Ingvar, “it’s just that… well ,it doesn’t matter since what’s done is done and she’s not the type to usually give up when she puts her mind on something so I suggest you just prepare for it.”

‘They are indeed sisters after all…’ thought Edward as he understood what Ingvar was trying to tell him. Just as Circe kind of forced him to become her disciple, she would do something similar if he were to decline. Since her training yesterday, while painful, did indeed manage to teach him something useful and he really needed to gain more fighting experience, the thought of getting lessons from her didn’t seem that bad and he nodded to show his agreement.

“Fine, I’ll come. At what time tomorrow?”

“First light.” Replied Ingvar and they spoke a bit more before Edward took his leave.

Since he had no more plans for today and he promised to visit Violet in the evening, he had the day free and decided to browse the library and learn a few more things about this new world he has arrived to. He’s been putting it on hold for a long time.

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He managed to enter the city’s library using his adventurer badge without any issue and, after getting some direction from the old man at the desk, he headed for the history section.

Edward spent the entire day, all the way until the sun started setting, reading through the library’s historic book collection. He learned that the City of Ashes was one of the two large cities on a large piece of land called the Crumbling Continent, it’s influence covering only the northern half. In the south, there was another city called Oasis. It’s name coming from the fact that it was situated in the middle of a large desert.

The two cities have a peaceful relationship, at least on the surface, but conflicts have appeared here and there throughout their history.

Having a better understanding of the place he found himself in, Edward saw the sun beginning to set through one of the library’s windows and closed the book he was reading before standing up. Thanking the old man at the entrance, he headed for the forest to let Minx know he would be spending the night in the city. He also wanted to let her know about the mission in the next day’s morning.

After he told Minx the news, he spent the entire night with Violet, their deeds that night remaining untold. As morning started approaching, Edward got out slowly from under Violet’s arm and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“I’m leaving. Take care.”, whispered Edward softly as a trace of unwillingness flashed briefly through his eyes.

After getting dressed, Edward sighed and headed for the southern gate to pick up Minx. That’s also the place where he was supposed to meet the others, but there was still around half an hour until then.

After reaching Minx’s hiding place, he climbed on her back and they both started walking towards the city gate. As they approached, the guards there immediately got on alert, the incident from a while ago still fresh in their minds. Edward told Minx to stop some distance away not to alarm them too much and waited for the rest of the party to arrive.

[How do you plan on dealing with the curse as you travel with that woman?] asked Fenrir as he was sitting on Minx’s back. Edward sighed and said: “I don’t really have a plan. I will probably have to tell her about it eventually, but we’ll see how it goes. I can go at least two more days without sleep…”

Fenrir remained silent and they waited for twenty or so minutes until Ingvar and Kara appeared in the same gear they wore when the party went to the dungeon. Seeing Echo was not with them, Edward unmounted Minx and asked: “What about Echo? She’s not done with her quest yet?”

Ingvar shook his head and said: “No. I told father to let her know we’ll be going with Eddena on one of her missions. There’s nothing we can do about it now..”

Edward nodded and turned towards Kara: “Good morning, Kara. It’s been a while.” He hasn’t seen her at all since the night of the Swarm hunt. He didn’t know if she was still mad at him, but didn’t want their relationship to turn into the awkward one from before.

Kara nodded back at him and said: “Good morning. It has indeed. Good to see you’re looking better.”. Her face was completely indifferent, but Edward was still happy she didn’t appear to be angry.

They spoke a few more minutes until all of sudden, both Kara and Ingvar turned to look to the side and fell silent. Edward followed their eyesight and noticed that Eddena was there smiling at them. He didn’t even feel her arriving at all, but that was not surprising considering she was after all an assassin. What surprised him was the fact that Ingvar and Kara both seemed to have noticed her arrival.

Eddena approached them and covered her mouth with one of her hand as she chuckled and said towards Edward: “What a surprise, I didn’t expect to see you here as well, Edward. Have you decided to follow us on this mission as well?”

Edward’s eyebrow twitched at her shameless words but still maintained decorum as he bowed slightly and said: “Miss Eddena.”

Eddena waved her hand and said: “Just call me Ena. That’s too long.” She then turned towards Minx and asked curiously: “One of your family members?”

Edward knew she was just messing with him, but he felt her statement was not completely untrue. “Something like that. She’s Minx. Do you mind if she comes with us? I don’t want to leave her here alone.”

Eddena nodded, not really that interested in the wolf since she has already heard what happened at the city gates a few days ago. Her expression then turned serious as she said: “Now that we’re here, let me tell you what the mission is about.”

Everyone turned serious as well and waited for her to explain what they will be doing. Not even Ingvar or Kara knew what this mission entrails, but since Eddena was the one tasked with it, they knew they would likely not be able to contribute that much. Eddena nodded at their expressions and started explaining the mission.

“There have been sightings of an humanoid beast roaming and hunting in the Lucent Marsh to the south.”

Just the first sentence made both Kara’s and Ingvar’s expressions turn ugly, but Edward had no idea what that meant and asked: “Excuse me, but what is a humanoid beast?”

Everyone turned towards Edward, looking at him like he was an idiot, prompting Ingvar to explain: “It’s a magic beast that reached the peak of rank 5 and evolved, gaining the ability to turn take on a humanoid shape.”

Edward put on an awkward expression and asked: “Rank 5? How strong is that?”

Ingvar sighed and said: “Rank 5 means their strength is somewhere between level 40 and 50 in human terms. Peak rank 5 means the beast has strength equivalent to a level 49 adventurer.”

Edward nodded and asked: “But then, won’t this beast just easily kill all of us?”

Eddena nodded and said with a creepy smile: “It will indeed, but you will not be fighting it. In worst case, if the beast proves hostile, I’ll be the one fighting it. You’re just coming with me so I won’t get bored.”

Edward thought it was just an excuse to train him and the others, but Ingvar knew what she meant by that. She was going to use them as her playthings to have fun on the journey. Seeing Edward’s unaware expression, he sighed in his heart, feeling a bit sorry for him.

Edward pondered for a moment before saying: “I don’t know where this marsh is, but we can probably save a lot of time if we ride Minx on the way there.”

He thought it was a good idea and didn’t expect Eddena to straight up reject the idea saying: “No. We’ll just walk there. This will give us more time to train and you practice by hunting magic beasts we might stumble upon on the way. The wolf can still come if you want to, but we’ll be walking.”

Edward nodded, not really caring that much and Eddena continued her mission briefing.

“Once we find the beast, we’ll try to convince it to register inside our city. If it declines or proves hostile, my orders are to kill it. Understood?”

Edward felt it was not his business what happened with that beast so he just nodded in agreement with the others. After a few more words of caution from Eddena, she pat Edward’s back.

“Let’s go. We have a long day ahead.”

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