We returned to the city, Lea quickly headed for the city hall while Cynthia and I headed for the ship. I entered and was met with a question from Alissa

"Zeno? where have you been?" She asked

"You don't remember? I told you that I went out to scavenge earlier..." Did she seriously forget?

"No, I don't remember anything" She looked back at the monitor

I only sighed and helped Guardian 2 remove the contents of the cart

"Heyo!" Liliana barged in

"Liliana! you're here!" Alissa excitedly stood up from her chair, seems like they're research buddies

I'm starting to doubt if Alissa loves me... No, she asked about our whereabouts... that should be enough..., right?

Cynthia helped me by passing the tools while the head mechanic, Guardian 2 minded his own business on the other side.

We all worked till late in the night, We were finally done making a refrigerator and an oven. I looked at Cynthia who fell asleep, she was exhausted by all we did.

"Alissa, did you eat dinner?" I asked

"I'm good" She didn't look back and focused on whatever she was doing with Liliana

I think I'm jealous...

I shrugged my head and carried Cynthia back to the guild, I had to knock on the gate to ask them to carry Cynthia back to her room but no one answered so I had no choice but to carry her there myself, I laid her down on her bed and started removing her boots, robe and socks. I was done and now had the time to realize what I've done...

'Zeno, I never thought you would molest a lady who is asleep' Lilith monotonously spoke out

'Lilith, it's a misunderstanding' I sighed

'Tell that to the undressed girl'

'She's still wearing a pumpkin pants and shirt!'

Lilith went quiet and I sat down beside the bed, Cynthia's room was quite simple. I kinda expected it to have some stuffed toys here and there but all I saw was some knitting kit, I guess this is Cynthia's secret hobby...

It was rude to snoop around so I left, I quickly left the female's dorm to avoid any misunderstandings and went straight for my room at the male's dorm but I found Lea waiting outside for me

"You're finally here" Lea looked at me

"You've been waiting here?"

"Don't worry, I just arrived, I wanted to wake you up but I found out that you weren't in your room so killed time here while I was waiting for you"

"Oh...How may I help you then?"

"Yeah, those monsters, they shocked everyone at the City hall, and now they want to create a subjugation squad to exterminate these bugs"

"Are they going with numbers?" I asked

"Yeah, they want to kill them fast"

"That's the stupidest choice, go with quality instead"

"I knew you would say that, I tried to persuade them but they scratched my opinion"

"When will they attack?"

"It was a rushed decision... they'll attack tomorrow morning"

"...They'll all die"

"That's why I refused to send anyone from Aegis"

"Great move"

"But I still feel guilty for all those that they will send"

"Don't be..."

"I have a bad feeling but I'm still going to ask why"

"Those that will die, you might be facing them the day after tomorrow"

"Then we should stop them!" Lea looked at me

"Wish we could but what can we do? talking to them about this is obviously going to be ineffective, I also have my secret I have to keep"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"You are willing to sacrifice hundreds of lives just to keep your secret?" She looked at me and asked

"I'm willing to sacrifice thousands more to keep everyone that is important to me safe from harm, their lives mean nothing to me"

Lea was speechless but I saw a weird smile on her face

"Is that your belief everytime you draw your sword?" She looked at me and asked

"I once believed that killing those bugs would bring me joy and comfort... it took the death of someone really important to me to realize that all I needed was right beside me all along"

"...Is that so"

"Yes"

"That Asotorotia, that secretary wants to see you, I refused but she threatened me, she knows that you were the one who hunted the bug down... be careful around her, she gives me the chills"

"Alright, If that's all then we should rest"

"Yeah"

Lea left and I went to my room

I woke up the next day and heard a loud march so I quickly ran up the roof and looked at the adventurers gathered at the gates

'Lilith, Zoom in'

'Zooming in....'

'that's enough, can you count all the adventurers gathered?'

'Counting....please wait.... done... 414 adventurers in total'

This is going to be a hassle

I went down and headed straight for the guild hall to eat my breakfast, Cynthia was waiting for me. We ate together before I headed for the city hall while Cynthia followed, we arrived at the city hall and headed straight for the secretary

"What do you want?" I asked

"Nothing much really...it's just that you have something that I like" She stood up from her chair and started drawing circles on my chest that was covered by DK and a robe

"...If there's nothing then I've got to go" I spoke out, I was about to leave but she wrapped her hand around my arms and pulled me back... she was strong

"A lady is throwing hints at you... isn't it a bit rude to ignore them?" She charmingly spoke out

"Sorry but I have no interests in women, I'm gay" I hope Johny's line will work on her

She was speechless and so was Cynthia, come on Cynthia, you should know I'm lying...

"Haha! you're really funny, you're giving me reasons to fall in love with you~" She laughed and flirtingly pinched my waist

"Alright, you won't take my hints so I'll be frank, please, ma'am, stop it, you're being a huge pain in the ass" I blankly spoke out

"Oh~? I'm a pain in the ass? why don't we have a match then? If you lose you'll be my slave" She stated her condition

"If I win you will leave me alone"

"Alright, let's head for the arena"

There was a simple arena near the city hall, it's used to entertain the citizens and to satisfy the bloodthirsty veterans and bandits

Astarotia used her position as secretary and forced everyone out of the arena... seriously... how much power does she hold?

"We now have the arena all for ourselves, let's enjoy this while it lasts~" She chuckled as she faced me at the blood covered sand

"Cynthia will be the witness" I pointed at Cynthia

"Alright"

"Then, let's go!" I quickly unsheathed Azazel, she is strong... I must not underestimate her

She vanished from my sight and appeared behind me while a dark orb spun around her palm, she threw it down and I barely dodged it by jumping up. My robes were torn and DK was revealed.

"Nice armor, I want to strip it down~" She laughed as two more dark orbs appeared on her palms

'Lilith, speed mode'

'Acknowledged'

Astarotia ran forwards and threw both those orbs at me, I nimbly dodged and was about to aim Azazel at her neck but she vanished again. I used spatial rip to move above, Astarotia destroyed the ground where I once was just as I appeared above her. I stabbed my sword down her neck and stopped it just centimeters away from her neck

"Well?" I asked

"As expected of my future husband... haah haah... haah" She kept breathing hard which creeped me out

"Please uphold the conditions" I helped her stand up after I sheathed Azazel

"I'm sorry... but I'll have to disappoint you there... a man like you... I won't let you go~" She hugged me

"Damn it woman, you crazy" I struggled to break free from her embrace

"Crazy for you~" She sent me a flying kiss which made me cringe so hard

"I'm leaving!" I spoke out before running towards Cynthia and carrying her

I ran out of the arena and Astarotia was powerless to stop it

I stopped after we arrived back at the guild, I took another robe from my room and put it on. Cynthia and I are going on a simple mission today

[A new species of monsters have been found in the forest south of this city thereby causing some of the goblins to move out and explore areas to move in, the area around the forest is no longer safe so your mission is to exterminate 20 goblins

Class: D Class mission

Reward: 500 copper coins

This mission is sent out by the City hall]

I took the mission and had it stamped before I left with Cynthia, I want to visit Alissa but I'm betting she's too busy with her research with Liliana... I really am jealous

Cynthia and I soon arrived at the forest, we always met a party of 5 goblins so after killing 4 groups of Goblins, we finally won. I cut their ears and placed it on the quest form. The quest form swallowed the goblin ear and increased the number of goblins I killed until it reached 20, this quest took us 4 hours because we hardly saw groups of goblins...

We were on our way back when we heard screams of terror come from the forest, I immediately unsheathed Azazel and had Cynthia stand behind me. An adventurer who had no arms came running out of the bush, his blood sprayed everywhere but he didn't care, he just kept running and running leaving a bloody trail. I was not concerned about him, I was concerned about whatever was chasing him... my questions were soon answered, a 6-foot human male came out of the bushes. You can't even call him a human anymore, his rib cage was torn open, revealing his beating heart, his arms were turned into a scythe made out of bones, his jaws was gone while his neck was slashed open which left the tongue hanging... and on his head was a Formar

Cynthia resisted the urge to puke and aimed her staff at the monster

"Cynthia, relax, don't let fear take over you" I gave the best advice I could

"Ok!" She pumped herself up

I ran forwards and cut off its legs, the monster dropped to the ground and started crawling its way towards Cynthia by stabbing its scythe-like arms on the ground. I need to let Cynthia have this experience so I only stood there while my hands were tightly gripping Azazel, Cynthia didn't disappoint and sent a [Lightning] at the monster's back which killed it

"You alright?" I asked

"Those things make me puke" She covered her mouth and nose

"Understandable" I've seen someone shit their pants the moment they saw these... abominations

"Did you fight monsters like these in the past?" She looked at me and asked

"Yeah, let's go! there might be more popping up if we don't move!" I pulled her and started running back to the city

Looks like war is coming