"Welcome Back Ghost, heard you completed your mission perfectly as always. What was it this time? A cute receptionist with long, brown hair greeted a tall man. He had long, white hair and a black mask, this mask was primarily black with the extravagant details of it being in white and silver. The mask was reminiscent of an Oni of legend, with sharp, silver teeth protruding from the mouth and two sets of silver horns. The first set of horns were on the sides of the mask at the top and were thick and larger than the thin, silver horns that went more vertically upwards in the centre of the mask at the top. However, despite all of this black, white and silver, the part that stood out most on the mask were the eyes that glowed orange, hiding the colour of the human eyeballs behind it, giving an eerie inhuman feel to Ghost's appearance.

A deep, raspy voice emerged from within the mask, "Can't disclose that information, all you need to know is that it was a complete success. I received my payment from the client, you got anything else for me?"

"As a matter of fact I do, an S-rank quest at that. I will say though, it seems a bit risky. You sure you want to know what it is?" The receptionist playfully flirted with Ghost despite having never seen what was underneath his mask.

"Of course I want the request, got nothing else to do and the money must be good if it's S-rank."

"Fine then, you're no fun, you know that? All you do is complete requests and then take a new one, what in the world made you like this, nobody who becomes a mercenary is as dedicated as you, not any that I know at least. Well anyway, here's the request, once you've read through it let me know whether you'll take it or not."

Without another word, Ghost took the sheet of paper and sat down at a table. He didn't read it immediately, rather, he was thinking about what the receptionist, Daisy, had said. There was no real reason that he had become a mercenary, none he could remember at least. After all, it had been thirty years since his sixteenth birthday when he made the decision to become a mercenary, he knew it had something to do with being annoyed at his father that he had chosen this route instead of going to the Royal Academy. The Royal Academy, whenever he thought about it the mere idea that he ever could have gone there made no sense to him, all he knew was that his father who had died while completing an adventure for a duke had been compensated with the choice for his son to enrol. Looking back, he probably would've had a better life if he had gone, but whatever his reason had been for becoming a mercenary must have been good enough for his life to turn out like this, if only he could remember what it was.

There was no time to think of redundant things like that though, so Ghost began to read through the request.

'S-Ranks wanted for assistance with a private war under the leadership of the Crown Prince Arthur. Further details will be given if the request is accepted at the meeting point.'

'Interesting, what's the pay like?' Ghost thought to himself.

'Upon completion of the request, 1500 Gold will be given to each participant.'

"1500?" Ghost couldn't help but whisper out loud to himself. Only a tenth of that money would be enough for a family of five to retire not just comfortably, but with a lavish life.

He stood back up, approached the receptionist again and put the request on the desk, "I'll take it for sure, where's the meeting place?" Ghost asked with excitement in his voice, not even one of the best assassins in the Mercenary Guild couldn't keep calm with that amount of money in front of him.

Daisy smiled, "I knew you'd like it, the Crown Prince has a manor house in the city, that's where you have to go, apparently mercenaries and adventurers from all over will be arriving there over the week so you can show up whenever, but if you want to make a good impression the earlier the better in my opinion, you'll need to show the guards this token so you can enter, well, good luck I know you'll complete this request perfectly just like you have all of the others."

"You're probably right, I will be taking my leave then." Ghost turned around and began to walk out.

"Maybe when you get back you can take me out with some of your reward money?" Daisy laughed while talking, "Just messing with you, I know you're much too serious for that."

Ghost didn't reply, simply leaving the building with a smirk beneath his mask. However, despite her previously happy appearance, as soon as Ghost had left, Daisy's face dropped, 'I hope he's okay, always alone and working. Well, it's not like there's any chance he'll actually take me out when he gets back, I really would love to see the face of the guy I've been flirting with for the past ten years though.'

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Outside of the building, Ghost entered the city air and heard the usual hustle and bustle of the market. People selling and buying things, on family day outs with their children, all sorts of people existed in the cities within the Holy Empire, all thanks to the protection that the Holy Army granted them from the Demonic realm.

Ghost didn't have the time to think about these luxuries though, so he began to make his way to the Prince's manor. He knew approximately where it was, how could he not, it was huge and had massive gates guarded by soldiers surrounding it. Travelling on the ground was much too slow, too many people to bump into, travelling on the rooftops would be quicker.

Ghost aimed his palm at a rooftop and spoke a single word, "Grapple."

A thin, barely visible rope made out of a strange energy shot out from his palm and hit one of the grooves. Despite the force behind it, no mark was left and, after a second, Ghost was pulled through the air, and he landed on the rooftop silently. He had a lot of experience with the erratic movement that his grapple skill caused, he had been using it for years after all.

He was truly grateful for his master, the one who had taught him all of the skills he knew. He had told him that in the past he had to escape from the Demonic realm and had developed his skills in accordance, focusing on stealth and movement, picking off enemies without being noticed. Without these skills there was absolutely no way that he could have become an S Rank mercenary, he might not have even survived this long. His passing was one of the saddest moments of his life, but it did allow Ghost to receive his master's prized items, his mask, daggers, katana, bow, and most importantly, his prized outfit which he had worn during his escape from the Demonic realm.

He began to run on the roof, and despite his speed, there were no footsteps that could be heard. He manoeuvred through the rooves carefully, jumping between houses as quickly as he could. He looked down at the city below him, the families and couples walking around normally, they would never experience the life full of killing and despair that Ghost had lived through, albeit the choice of becoming a mercenary was his own, but he hadn't expected the hardships that would come along with it. He had seen countless friends slain at the hands of enemies, enemies who had no meaning to them as they were simply used as proxy soldiers for a greater force that was too afraid to fight themselves.

As he was thinking about his past experiences, Ghost almost didn't realise that he had nearly arrived. He could see the bright lights of burning wood in lamps with grand designs which were dotted around the beautiful manor grounds that surrounded the house. Huge bushes cut into intricate shapes and designs were encircled by exotic flowers and plants, unlike anything normal people would ever be able to see.

Ghost jumped down from the rooftop and approached the golden gates which were guarded by two soldiers with swords still in their hilts. He approached them and one of them, seemingly the older one, called out to him, "You, who are you? What business do you have approaching the Crown Prince's Manor?"

"I'm an S-Rank Adventurer, I accepted the request that the Crown Prince put out." Ghost pulled out the token from his pocket and showed the guards, neither said a word but a look of understanding appeared on their faces, as they pushed open the gate for him to enter.

It did not surprise Ghost that they were wary about him, as his appearance wasn't exactly normal. He obviously had his mask on which would make him suspicious immediately, and accompanied by his unusual attire of a dark blue kimono with red accents and silver decorations on it, as well as in his hair, he stood out like a sore thumb. His katana was in its sheath on his left hip, and his daggers were in their sheaths on his right. As well as this, he had a large bow and a quiver of arrows on his back which he was proficient in grabbing quickly whenever he needed it.

Ghost walked through the gates, and it felt as though he had entered a different world than his own. The perfectly cut grass and plants were unlike the forests in which he spent a lot of his time during missions, and the stone path beneath his feet felt more stable than the muddy paths in which his comrades and himself had become stuck many a time.

A life like this was unfit for someone with so much blood on his hands, the blood of enemies whom he had no grudge against. This mission would likely be the same, a powerful person hiring mercenaries to take out their enemies without lifting a finger. Ghost often thought of the life he could have led if he had gone to the Royal Academy rather than becoming a mercenary, but it was too late for thoughts like that.

He approached the large, wooden doors of the manor and knocked on them. Within a second of the knock, the door was opened by an old man in a black suit, a butler of the Prince no doubt, "Welcome sir, I assume you are one of the S-Rank's that the master hired."

"You'd be right in thinking that, do you know what I'm meant to be doing at the moment then? I was told that the others would be arriving over the course of the week, so I assume I'm one of the first to get here."

"You would be right in thinking that Sir, you are the second to arrive as of present, if you will follow me I will take you to meet the master and the adventurer who arrived before you."

"Sounds good to me, lead the way."

In silence, the butler led Ghost up the stairs of the manor, past the countless rooms with highly expensive-looking doors, through the halls and to a room at the end of the long corridor. The door to this room had a series of locks on it, all of which the butler opened with a set of keys which looked much more secure and complex than any Ghost had seen before.

The butler opened the door and revealed the room behind it, "You may enter Sir." The butler said before walking back the way he had come.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The room was vastly different to the rest of the manor, it was grey in colour with a large table in the centre with a map on it. This map was full of pins which had strings connecting them and notes scrawled down. There was a large board which also had writing on it, Ghost could make out some of it despite the rushed handwriting, words like Demon King and resurrection stood out the most to him, and he was confused as to just how serious the situation could be, and why something this big was not being handled by the King himself, or even by the Holy Army.

The Prince was leaning over the table in the centre muttering to himself, not even noticing Ghost. The Prince was around the same age as Ghost, but it was likely that the stress of whatever situation he was currently in had made him age faster, as he didn't look too good. He had dirty blonde hair, green eyes and slightly tanned skin and, despite his wrinkles, it was obvious that he was an attractive man in his younger years. The adventurer who had arrived before him was sitting in the corner of the room reading a piece of paper, likely with instructions for the request.

"Hello, your Majesty, I've arrived for your request."

The Prince shot his head up and looked at Ghost, "Welcome, you can drop the whole, your Majesty, I want no part in the Royal family. As I have said to the adventurer who arrived before you, there will be no masks or any form of illusion magic regarding your appearance if you want to partake in this request, I cannot run the risk of Demons infiltrating the operation, so remove the mask or leave."

Ghost understood the seriousness of the request, and immediately willed for his mask to leave his face, as a magic item this was just one of the many things that his mask could do. Underneath his mask, a sight which few people had seen since he was a child was unveiled. Ghost had pale white skin, with blue eyes. Despite clearly being in his mid-forties, most people would more than likely consider him to be quite attractive. He had a few scars on his face from humans and monsters alike, but it was fitting with his aesthetic.

"No problem, what should I call you from now on?"

"You can just call me Arthur, now if you come over here I'll give you a brief run-down of the situation and then you can get the specifics from the sheets I've had made for you all." Ghost walked over to Arthur, and he continued speaking, "This is going to sound difficult to believe, but I promise I'm not crazy. When I was in my fourth year at the Royal Academy, I came across a secret room. My father and the Headteacher were conversing, talking about plans to have every graduate who received a job in the Holy Army infected with a Demonic parasite. At the time I didn't understand it, but after doing some research I found that these parasites are used by Demons to transform humans into their kind while maintaining control over their minds. This confused me, so I did some more digging, and I managed to discover that my father and a huge portion of the nobles in the Empire are working with the Demons to resurrect the Demon King. It would seem my father has acquired one of the Queen Parasites which allows him to control others with normal Demonic parasites, and he plans to resurrect the Demon King and join hands with him, using Demonic magic to make himself immortal, essentially allowing him to rule forever. You can choose to leave if you don't believe me, but I especially sent a request to your mercenary guild hoping you would join me, Ghost, I have heard of your exploits and 100% mission success rate, with your help our chances will be better than with fifty A-ranks joining us. What do you say?"

Ghost looked as though he was contemplating something for a moment before replying, "I believe you, I'll help you put a stop to your father's plans."

"Thank you, my friend, take one of the sheets and you can discuss it with your teammate over there. Rest assured, I will not be abandoning you if things get tough, I will be fighting alongside you all until the end, I might not look like it, but I have been training my  swordsmanship my entire life and have consumed all of the highest quality elixirs you could dream of, I would not be able to view myself as a human if I were to let you all fight without the added help of myself."

Ghost smiled and put his hand out to shake Arthur's, "I'm happy to hear it comrade, I haven't had a client like you before, I'm sure if we survive this you'll be able to create a better future."

"Thank you, Ghost, if you don't mind me asking, what is your real name?"

Ghost made a saddened face, "I can't remember, it's been so long since anyone called me by it that I've simply forgotten."

"My apologies for bringing up the topic, carry on and make sure to memorise the plans."

Ghost looked down at the paper and read through the plans, they were quite simple actually, nothing too complex.

There would be four groups, the first would be the melee combatants, their orders were to storm the castle during the night of the attack and take out everyone as Arthur had confirmed everyone inside of the castle had been infected with a parasite. They were to make as much progress as possible and reach the heart of the castle where the king would be residing within his protected chambers with the help of the other groups.

The second group were the defensive group, they would be split in half, some of them would be mixed in with group one for the frontal offence, and some would stay back to defend group three.

The third group, and arguably the most important, were the magic users. They were tasked with supporting from the back, staying safe, and then performing their most vital role, destroying the protective barrier around the King's chambers by using any means possible.

The fourth group, the one that Ghost would be a part of was the assassins, tasked with picking off enemies that the frontal offence missed, as well as sneaking past powerful enemies and taking them out before they realised they were there. As well as this, if the King turned out to be too powerful for everyone else, they would have to collectively perform a sneak attack to maximise damage from behind and hopefully take him out.

There wasn't a huge amount of information, but it was enough to figure out what was going on, and Ghost planned on discussing it with the adventurer in the corner, so he called out, "Hey, the name's Ghost, which group are you going to be in?"

The adventurer in question was a woman who looked to be about thirty years old, with brown skin and brown hair, she had a slim build and was wearing a purple and red robe, she looked over to Ghost and replied, "My name's Bell, I'm in group three, it's nice to meet you. Do you want to have a guess at which type of magic I use? It might be a good icebreaker, and then I'll guess what you specialise in too."

"Interesting, I reckon you use ice magic."

"Wrong, I'll give you another guess."

"Spacial magic?"

"Nope, close though. I use gravity magic, so just as rare as spacial magic and just as powerful, I learned it from a grimoire I found as a kid."

"Pretty cool, your turn now then."

"I bet you're an assassin!" She said confidently.

"However could you have guessed?" Ghost said sarcastically, "Guess the name gives it away a bit doesn't it."

"Just a tad." She laughed.

“Where are you from then Bell?"

"Nowhere really, I'm a drifter, have been since before I can remember. What about you?"

"I come from Flithport, or at least I think I do, I spent a lot of time in my teenage years in Sorrow Hollow, so I tend to tell people I come from there."

"How are you feeling about this request then?"

"Honestly, it sounds really interesting, as much as I do this for the money, I'm still human. I don't want a Demon King running around killing everyone, so I'm glad to be able to help out."

"Me too, hopefully, my gravity magic will be able to take down the Emperor's chamber barrier."

"I wish you good luck."

The two of them continued talking, going between talking about the mission at hand and their past life experiences, it was refreshing for Ghost who never took his mask off and never really talked to anyone properly. After talking for a while and no other people showing up, Ghost decided to go and see his room for the week he would be staying there. It was in the long corridor with the meeting room at the end, and it was deceptively large, not looking that large at first while standing in the doorway, but incredibly nice inside. It had a large bed inside of it, as well as a large wardrobe, and a bathroom with everything he would need. As he hadn't been able to rest after completing his mission, Ghost thought it would be a good idea to get some sleep. He took off his clothes and got into the bed, and a level of comfort, unlike anything he had ever experienced washed over him.

It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, and within moments he was dreaming of a life free from stress or worries, a perfect world in which he lived a normal life.

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Over the week of waiting, many S-rank adventurers and mercenaries showed up, some heard of the task and left immediately, either thinking of Arthur as crazy or seeing it as too much of a challenge. However, a good amount stayed, and Ghost got to know a few of them quite well.

Obviously, there was Bell, whom he had met when he arrived, but there were four others who he had grown fond of.

The first of these was actually Arthur, despite being the Prince of the Empire, he was a very nice guy and easy to get along with. the tales of his time at the Royal Academy before he discovered his father's plot were full of mischief and happiness, two things which didn't really fit with the current state he was in.

The second person he had come to like was another man named Jacques, a tall, burly, dark-skinned man who came from Valor's Keep, apparently he had grown up in the mountains before becoming a mercenary, even slaying an Earth Dragon before joining civilisation. He was a bit rugged and didn't do well with manners, but he was good-spirited and wanted to protect humanity if he could.

The third person was a woman named Keira, she was short and blonde, and she had come from Dragonspire as a mage. She used fire and lightning magic, with fire being her speciality and she had previously been a scholar before becoming an adventurer. She was quite fiery for her age, considering she was nearing fifty years old, but she was a good laugh and they got along well.

The last person was a young adventurer named Adrian, he had found a holy sword in the middle of a forest and ever since then he had been taking on missions as an adventurer. He had short brown hair and was always in high spirits with energy to spare for two or three other people.

Overall, the week leading up to the assault was the most fun he had experienced in a long time, maybe if he had made different choices in his life he could have had a happy and fulfilling life instead of one filled with death and misfortune. He knew this was impossible, and he also knew that it would likely peak in the next hour or so, as the group of around fifty S-ranks, led by Arthur, were on their way to Thronehold, the city in which the Emperor's castle was located.

They had come from the northern section of Sunfire, a Duchy ruled by Duke Blaine, who according to Arthur had been infected a long time ago with a parasite. Arthur's manor was located relatively close to the border between Dragonspire and Thronehold which met in the Northeast of Sunfire. This meant the journey would only take a few hours, as everyone in the group was fit enough to be able to walk at a fast pace, and a lot of them even had horses.

As the group approached the border of Thronehold and Sunfire, Arthur made sure to stop them slightly before they reached the walls which surrounded it, "Listen up everyone, I have a secret entrance which will require us to go through a tunnel that may or may not be infested with giant rats. It has been a while since I have cleared it out, so be careful when we are inside. This tunnel will lead us all the way to the Castle's cellar, where we will begin the plan. Everyone understand? If you don't, raise your query now."

Nobody said a word, and they followed him to the tunnel which was hidden by a fake patch of grass in the side of a small hill. It was dark, but luckily Arthur's sword was able to emit light from it to ensure the space ahead was visible. There were some rats, but not enough to be a hassle, as they were killed with ease by the adventurers and mercenaries at the front of the group.

Ghost was in the back, and he had put his mask on to make sure he was in top condition, as he had gotten older the mask had become more and more helpful due to its features as a magic item. With a heat regulation function and a boost to all of his senses, he felt as good as he had without the mask when he was in his twenties. He didn't get to do much during the walk, but he did make friends with an old man who reminded him of his master, his name was Hikaru, and he was also an assassin. Despite being in his eighties, he was able to create some of the deadliest poisons on the planet strong enough to kill most creatures.

As the group were nearing the end of the tunnel, Arthur instructed them to be silent, and after just a few moments they were ordered to stop. Despite stopping in front of what seemed like a solid wall, when Arthur put his hand out and touched it, the stone disappeared and revealed a large opening.

The group began to walk into the cellar and, once the group had entered, Arthur spoke once more, "Everyone ready, okay? It's time to go, group one once we get up these stairs it'll be time to fight. Let's kill my bastard of a father and stop the resurrection of the Demon Lord."