After a couple minutes of walking, Aurora arrived at her destination. As she entered the tavern, her gaze scanned the nearly empty room, and she immediately spotted an old man huddled in a corner by himself, chugging his beer quietly.

She ordered a glass of wine and sat silently beside the old man, pushing the wine in her hand in front of him.

"Huh?" The old man said, his face flushed, "Silanger's Tears, huh? How strange… Only a few people know about this wine. It's not on the list after all."

He took the wine and gulped it down, then wiped his mouth with satisfaction. "I don't think a young lady like you wants to hook up and fuck, so just spare me the bullshit and tell me what you want."

Unbothered by the old man's vulgar way of speaking, Aurora took out a small purse from her pocket, put it on the table, and pushed it in front of the old man. "I'd like to ask Mr. Blair to help me find some excellent mercenaries."

Blair didn't even look at the money bag in front of him. He propped his cheek with one hand and looked at Aurora playfully.

"I know you… the rookie who took over Gard's mercenary group. Although I don't know how you got Kyre's approval, your courage to confront that bastard Henrick is still very much to my taste, but..."

Blair shook the empty wine glass in his hand, his red nose twitching slightly.

"I've already quit the mercenary world after many years and don't know a lot of information, so you should find someone else."

"Hehehe, Mr. Blair is being humble. If you don't have the best information, who would dare say that they are well-informed?"

How could Aurora fail to see that the old man was trying to avoid the topic? She just nodded her head and pointed at the bartender, and soon, the second cup of Silanger's Tears was pushed in front of her.

This time, however, Aurora didn't push the wine to Blair but quietly picked up the wine glass and took a deep sip of the light, fruity, and sweet wine.

"Mr. Blair, are you worried?"

"Oh? What am I worried about?"

Aurora shook the fine wine in her hand; the aroma of the reddish fine wine sloshing in the glass kept getting into her nose.

"Mr. Blair, the reason you quit the previous mercenary group is because—" Aurora spoke at an unhurried pace, sipping her wine in the middle of a sentence. "Something happened back then that forced you to quit being a mercenary, am I right?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?!?" Aurora's question was akin to thunder in daylight as soon as it entered Blair's ears. He jumped out of the chair like a cat being stepped on its tail and glared at Aurora fiercely. "I'm done with the mercenaries for health reasons. I can't keep up with the group because I lack strength, and that's it!"

"But as far as I know, you were only in your forties ten years ago. Even if you can't keep up with your physical strength, it's not impossible to stay at the base to train younger generations, not to mention the excellent source of information you have. It really doesn't make any sense for you to quit the merc group so suddenly, don't you think so?"

Aurora's tone was as calm as ever. She drank the fine wine in her hand in one gulp, feeling as if a fire rose from her stomach the next second after the cool liquid slipped into her throat.

"Mr. Blair, it doesn't feel good to be under surveillance for so many years."

Swish—

A cold dagger was stuck to her throat in the blink of an eye. The wielder, Blair, wore a gloomy face with chilling light in his eyes, as cold and biting as the cold wind in the winter.

"Girl, I don't care who you are; if you dare to say anything else, I'll definitely slit your throat!"

"Hehe, Mr. Blair... If I were you, I would definitely fight back fiercely rather than hiding in this small tavern all day like the coward you are."

Despite a sharp edge looming on her neck, Aurora's expression remained unchanged, and she just expressed her thoughts in a very flat tone.

"You brat, what do you know! Do you think I never thought of fighting back?! But how can I fight them alone?!"

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"But now I'm here in front of you, Mr. Blair, and I can help you!" Aurora stretched out her hand to him, saying, "I sincerely invite you to join our mercenary group; you'll be under our protection, and we can work together to exact your revenge."

"Girl, do you think I'm a fool? How can a newbie mercenary group with only three members fight against them?!"

"Well… At the very least, I'm brave enough to face it rather than hiding here like a turtle, drinking and wasting my days like you." Aurora pushed the dagger around her neck and stood up. "Mr. Blair, I'll give you time to consider. I presume that you already know where our base is, you can go there when you make up your mind. Whatever it will be, I'll respect your choice, but mark my words, Mr. Blair; If you want revenge, this might be the best and only chance you get in your lifetime."

Aurora took out a gold coin from his pocket and threw it into the bartender's hand. After saying, "I wish you a good day," she turned and left the tavern.

Blair watched her back disappear outside the door with complicated eyes and sat down on the chair again. Looking at the bag of coins she left on the table, he sighed deeply and kept silent for a long time before crossing his palms on his forehead, as if he were making some difficult decision.

Aurora wasn't that disappointed by Blair's refusal; after all, in the game, to get Blair working for you, you need to clear a series of quests, which was almost impossible for Aurora's current strength if she did it in the normal way.

Originally players who want to get his acknowledgement must complete a pre-quest. After completing this quest, Blair would get ride the shackles of the past and help provide players a series of information.

However, there are several major elements in the triggering conditions of the pre-quest: First, the player's mercenary group must have more than 10 people. Second, a certain level of prestige was required. Third, the player's strength must reach the elite level.

(A/N: As explained in the previous chapter where Aurora fights Crazy Sword Kyre, mercenaries at level 11~19 is called Elite.)

After fulfilling the aforementioned requirements, players only need to come here in the early hours of the rainy night to activate the pre-quest to save Blair, who has been pursued.

Then, by accepting and successfully clearing the commission he proposed and destroying his enemies, the player can pay a certain amount of money to obtain all kinds of required information from Blair.

But now, Aurora has exploited the loophole and directly skipped this pre-quest to meet Blair, picked up the topic, and directly invited him to join her mercenary group.

For Aurora, this was a gamble. After all, this wasn't a game anymore, and many things were unpredictable.

Aurora was betting whether Blair's desire for revenge would be strong enough for him to put the bet on herself regardless.

Now that the words had been spoken, she didn't have any chance to regret them anymore. Now, she still needed to go to a place in person, albeit feeling reluctant.

*

"Hmph! I admit that you are a competent leader, but even so, this is at most a personal entrustment task! I can agree to mark this as a C-level mission, and you should be grateful to me. As for the B-level mission, don't even think about it!"

In the office of the Mercenary Association, Henrick, who learned that the case of Earl Vidal had been resolved, immediately acted up and directly downgraded the previously agreed B-level mission to C-level.

"You old man is still as shameless as ever." Aurora looked at Henrick contemptuously.

"Shameless?! Damn brat, do you believe I'll tear your mouth apart? Do you understand how to respect your superior?" Henrick sat on a chair suppressing his anger.

At first, he thought Eve's illness was complicated and incomprehensible after hearing the rumors, but it took less than a day for Aurora to cure her, so it probably wasn't a big deal.

After all, he didn't know what Aurora had gone through in order to treat her, so he just unilaterally thought that the Earl had exaggerated things too much.

So, since it's a simple matter, why mention it in the scope of the B-level mission?

Besides, if he didn't put this kid in her place earlier, he would have bet all his wealth and glory that she wouldn't take him seriously in the future.

Aurora would scoff if she knew what Henrick was thinking right now because she had never looked him in the eyes since the beginning.

"Respect is something you earn, not something you're entitled to just because you're older than me or in a higher position than me, old man." Facing Henrick's coercion, Aurora's face was still as calm as water. "I know you care about face, but I advise you not to cross the bottom line. You should do what you've said; that's what an adult with integrity does."

"I'm happy! What can you do? Believe it or not, I won't give you a C-grade!" Henrick said with contempt, his face smug.

"Sigh... I didn't want to resort to this, but you force me, old man."

Suddenly, Aurora sighed, then tapped on the table with her right hand.

Henrick, who was still basking in contemptuous joy, was suddenly attracted by the blue light on her finger. He didn't pay attention to it at first, but when he looked carefully, he jumped up from the chair.

"You, you, you..." Henrick opened his mouth and pointed at Aurora in front of him with trembling fingers, his eyes were full of disbelief, "You actually have a title?!"

"Old man, are you surprised? It's thanks to the mission you gave me, I got to get this title."

Henrick's eyes were filled with fury, but at the same time he was trying his best to restrain his emotions, eventually sighing in resignation.

"Hey... B-grade is B-grade..."

In an instant, Henrick seemed to have aged ten years older. He understood that Aurora was no longer someone he could suppress. The other party was a Baroness! A noble!

Even if he were the president of the Mercenary Association, he was still a commoner, and a commoner cannot have a conflict with the nobles. Aurora, if she were a narrow-minded person, could easily deal with herself from the start.

"Wouldn't it be better if it were like this earlier, old man? You insist on forcing me to use this identity to suppress you."

After successfully receiving the task points, Aurora left Henrick's office and walked downstairs with satisfaction, but just as she was about to step out of the association's gate, someone blocked her path.