Sol could see from Duncan’s reaction that this wasn’t normal. It was his first time entering the city as a knight, so he thought it was standard procedure for their carriage to be inspected, but now he understood it wasn’t the case.

“Let them inspect the carriage. We have nothing to hide.” For now, Sol chose to comply, planning to get to the bottom of it later.

Duncan nodded and got off. He wasn’t against the inspection; he was just worried about what it meant.

The soldiers quickly inspected the carriage, not wanting to waste any more time than needed, and promptly let them into the city.

When they arrived at the castle, they returned the unused supplies and the hornsteads to the stables.

Sol received the refunded merits and looked at his squad.

“All that's left is to report to Grand Knight Lawrence or Commander Zaman what happened, but only I need to do that. The rest of you can get some well deserved rest. Later we need to meet up and discuss what we will do with her…”

“She didn’t leave behind a will?” Rex asked.

Sol shook his head, “No, we also don’t know if she had any family, so there is no one we can contact.”

Because their squad was immediately thrust into their first mission, there were a lot of things they skipped. They hadn’t even seen their new sleeping quarters, which were solely for their squad. Another was leaving behind a will, which was usually the captain's duty to collect from his squad. The only ones who already had a will were Duncan and Rex, but the rest didn’t, not even Sol.

The squad agreed they would meet up later to decide on her funeral and they all left to go to their quarters together. Sol was the only one who went the opposite direction as he went straight to Zaman's office. As he walked through the halls, he glanced at his right hand where Lapis’ spatial ring now resided.

Sol peeked into Lapis’ spatial ring, curious as to why she was so adamant for him to take it. He didn’t find anything special inside; there were a few spears, armors, and some useful tools and items. What he did find interesting was the number of dresses stored inside—he didn’t take her for the type of person to enjoy such cute designs.

When he was looking through her potions, he stumbled upon something odd: two red vials he initially thought were potions, but no system message appeared when he used [Analysis]. Upon further inspection, he realized the dark red color was actually blood. He didn’t know why she carried two vials of blood, but thought it might have been related to her third talent of [Viper Blood].

While looking at her ring, he remembered her final wish. ‘Ophis huh… I’ll check it out as soon as I can.’

Soon Sol arrived at the door to Commander Zaman's office. He was about to knock but he faintly heard two familiar voices on the other side of the door.

“...bastards… clearly planted…”

“I know… wait… right time…”

‘Maybe I should come by later.’

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As soon as Sol finished his thought, he noticed they stopped talking. The door opened, revealing Grand Knight Lawrence.

“You're back already?” Lawrence thought the mission would have taken a bit longer. Zaman, on the other hand, who sat behind his desk, wasn’t surprised as he had already heard of their return ahead of time.

“Yes, Grand Knight. I have some important news to report, but should I come back later?”

Lawrence glanced back to Zaman, who gave a single nod.

“It’s fine, we just finished. Zaman, I’ll see what I can do regarding the incident.”

“Thank you. I’ll delay signing the papers as long as I can.”

Lawrence then left, and Sol entered the office, closing the door behind him.

With a friendly tone, the Commander spoke, “Welcome back, Sol. How was your first mission?”

Sol showed a complicated expression as he wasn’t sure how to succinctly answer that.

“There were many, umm, complications…”

He told Zaman what happened in the mission. From the bandits and the impromptu rescue operation of the townsfolk to them obtaining the fruit but then losing it in a trade with a creature previously thought to be only from fairy tales. He didn’t omit anything from his retelling with the exception of him briefly seeing the future, delaying Kirgar back with [Polychromatism], and the multiple magics he used in the attempt to heal Lapis.

Needless to say, the Commander went through a wide range of reactions from amazement to shock and finally sadness over hearing of the loss of such a promising knight.

“My condolences. Lapis’ death… was unforeseen.”

Sol shook his head, “No one could have predicted it would turn out like that. Although it was my first mission, I know there is always a risk and the unexpected can happen. I can only improve and never let it happen again.”

Zaman gave a sincere smile but shook his head.

“I’m glad to know that you will strive to do better. It's all we can do to honor those who have fallen, but that's not what I meant. I gave you that mission because I was assured by the Saintess that there would be no casualties. I wouldn't have assigned you such a mission otherwise, no matter how good it would be for your reputation and future.”

Sol widened his eyes in surprise. He had already guessed the Commander assigned him such a mission for such a reason but it wasn’t confirmed until now.

“So nobody was meant to die…”

Zaman nodded and shared his theory of what could have happened. “I'm not sure what could have happened, but I have a hunch it had to do with the dragon. A week ago, she said the future changed and we would soon be in a cooperative relationship with orcs. What you just told me confirmed it. I believe that dragon changed the future into something that suited him better. After all, if we succeed, he gets the life clusters you mentioned.”

“Oh… yeah it could be that.”

He obviously knew it was him who changed the future. It seemed his choice to spare the orc had a much bigger impact than he thought.

‘It's good to know I can change the future if I have another vision.’

The Commander noticed he had a rather lackluster response and found it odd. He considered asking for his opinion on the matter, but decided against it and instead changed the subject.

“So when you gave the dragon the fruit, he offered three of his scales in return? May I see them?”

Sol nodded and retrieved them from his inventory. Each scale was huge, being a meter tall. When the scales were revealed, the Commander frowned.

‘Such powerful auras… especially that one.’

The one that stood out the most was the scale bathed in the Law of Dragons. Compared to the other two, it had a much more dominating presence.

Sol was confused by Zaman’s reaction as he sensed nothing of the such, but it wasn’t because he was too weak. It was because the scales were bestowed to him and his squad—they would not release their aura onto them as their owners.

Sol pushed the three scales to him and said, “While we failed to retrieve the fruit, I believe these scales are more valuable.”

He didn’t have any intention to hide or keep the three scales to himself. Although he didn’t know what they could do as [Analysis] didn’t work on them, the findings of the mission belonged to the Royal Knights.

Zaman agreed, “It likely is. Originally, the mission reward was 500 merits, but with the bandits and these scales, I would say it's more around 1000. We need to appraise them and find out what they can do before I can say for certain.”

Zaman then reached out to take the three scales, but something unexpected happened.