Character Information - Who is who?

Because I have created quite a variety of characters, I will now create little cheat sheets before a chapter for the characters who will appear in the chapter, but not for those who haven't. Please open the spoiler if you need some reminders. (Be careful, it can be a spoiler for the chapter!)

Sarusos Leonandra (Fox-kin)

* Retainer of the lord

* Specialized in intel, high-energy control, and dagger arts

* Red eyes

* Blond fur and hair color

Kairoso Leonandra (Wolf-kin)

* Lord of the Leonandra household

* Druid

* Father of the MC

* Green eyes

* Black fur and hair color

"I really hate this part of Moorgrel."

"Nobody likes this forest, but at least we get paid."

"Shut up, both of you!"

"What is it, boss? Why so annoyed?"

A fat cat-kin that road on a war boar beside his workers became enraged, "I hate taking jobs for the damn... never mind."

One of the workers who sat in front of the furthest coach of the caravan shrugged, "Just don't take it? I heard that they don't pay well either way."

The colleague beside him smacked his head, "The pay is not that good, but it is steady, you moron."

"I am not a moron!"

"You are!"

Their boss yelled, annoyed, "Both of you are morons. Now shut up!"

His workers were right. The jobs he received from the Leonandra's were paid ok, steady, and usually safe. Young merchants would kill each other to get a foot into the door, but the jobs were never exceptional and usually only allowed for decent pay.

Like now, they were traveling to the borders of Moorgrel and the buffer zone of Kratikal. Usually, to have a higher profit and to cover the expenses like protection, he would take travelers with him who would pay.

His caravan could take up to a hundred people with him, and in his younger days, when he traveled from the east to Wolfsteeth, he made massive profits alone from the fee the passengers paid. He also hiked the prices of the food he sold to them or other necessities.

But here, only three joined, and there was a reason for this: Nobody in their right mind lived on a border with invading, bloodthirsty demons. There were only military and logistic centers.

The only cities that flourished somewhat were south, close to the sea, and further away from the border. Of course, there was also Wolfsteeth, but this city was practically a bulwark, not because of their almost non-existent walls, but because of the mass of soldiers who patrolled all year around.

Traveling to the south, by ship, or west was much more lucrative, but the jobs were highly dangerous outside the Leonandra territory. Few cleaned their regions from monsters as well as the guard dogs did since they couldn't allow supply chain problems when a demon run could occur regularly.

He remembered how they played overly safe and even destroyed a dungeon hundreds of years ago, which could be considered a highly profitable source, but they feared a dungeon run, which was rare. However, if it occurred while a demon run was ongoing, it would be a catastrophe.

Here came his calculative mind into play since even if the pay was lower, so his expenditure per delivery since he barely needed any protection.

One or two low-level mercenaries and his personal guards were more than enough for the occasional monster. Travel was absurdly safe, and nobody in their right mind would attack the goods of a noble.

'This is soooo boring!'

This was his immaturity which he tried to suppress. He wanted action, more adventure, and risk for a much higher reward. Yet, his merchant mind always drove these thoughts away and called him an idiot.

With a steady income like this, he could open a business in Wolfsteeth or around the Howl Sea and settle down. All he needed was a bit of time to save up some coin.

'But this is soooo boring!'

This thought was interrupted as a scout from the front came to him from the side, "Boss, there are... bandits."

He flinched, "No way? Bandits? Are they insane?"

His hawk-kin scout shook his head and said, "I don't know, but my instincts tell me they are not weak."

"Strong ones?! Send someone forward and..." as he said it, another scout came over, "They are coming over!"

Before he could decide on negotiation or threats, he already saw around a dozen of bandits coming over. One of his [Mystic Skills] activated, and he started to sweat heavily, 'Damn it! They are strong!'

"Prepare defense! Take every guard and... damn it! Protect the load! Otherwise, it would be either way our heads!"

The five guards and the two mercenaries gathered at the front and flanks of their caravan to defend. Even the ten coachers took a weapon and gathered up too.

Everybody knew that if part of their delivery was stolen, their heads would roll, or the boss would go bankrupt, and they would lose a steady income. Even though the last option was most likely, they would not risk it and try to defend everything.

As the bandits came over, the cat-kin could smell a fellow feline-kin, a tiger-kin, 'What the hell is such a bastard doing here?!'

Tiger-kin were usually D~C-class mercenaries. They had strong, sturdy bodies and good instincts, even without much training. They were perfect for protection missions, so he was perplexed why one was supposedly a leader of a bandit group.

The tiger-kin came over. A giant woman of a beast, around two meters tall (~6.6ft), started shouting, "Give me all of your possessions or forfeit your lives!"

The cat-kin boss clenched his teeth and shouted back, "This is a delivery from the local noble to his army! If you are not fully insane, back down!"

A ravaged laughter boomed, "Hahahaha! Who cares?!..." she took a bastard sword from her back and readied herself, "...you know what! You are right!"

She turned to the back and shouted, "You heard what fatty said! Kill all of them so nobody can find out!..." She turned back to the merchant, "...hahaha! You have my thanks, little kitty!"

All the other bandits came over, and the merchant's skill started to go into overdrive since they were too strong for his people to handle. Very much so, and as they were about to attack the guards and mercenaries of the caravan, a dagger, wrapped around with milky-white energy, flew from behind where the passengers were towards one of the bandits.

It implanted precisely into the throat of a bandit. Whoever it was, fell to the ground and died.

Everyone became stunned, even the bandit leader, who started grimacing heavily. Another shout rang out, "Kill them a..."

She stopped mid-sentence as some hooded figure rushed toward the leader like an arrow. As the unknown passenger passed by the fat cat-kin, he could only see a vicious smile under the hood. Almost like, whoever it was, only waited for a chance to fight.

Clang!

As the hooded figure tried to attack, the tiger-kin barely deflected it with her giant sword. She slipped back as the force was too much to handle. The other bandits were confused but readied themselves instantly and tried to encircle the unknown person. It was apparent to them that whoever it was, it was the strongest fighter in this caravan.

As they were in a half-circle, another two throwing knives flew out from under the cloak. One hit directly into the heart of one, but the other was deflected.

A bandit archer from the back saw his chance and shot an arrow at whoever was making trouble for them. The arrow was heavily coated with his energy, and he also used every possible skill. Still, as soon as it closed toward the hooded figure, it grabbed the arrow and, with a heel spin, redirected it towards another bandit.

A hit, but the bandit leader saw her chance and activated a skill with a massive chunk of her energy. A vertical slash flew toward the hooded figure.

The energy exploded mid-air and split into multiple small arrows of blue energy. They all flew into an arc toward the hooded figure. It avoided the first ones, and they hit the ground, creating a giant cloud of dust. The other energy arrows flew into the dust cloud, and she thought that she had hit whoever it was.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Nonetheless, the bandit leader readied herself as she didn't get the experience prompt and waited if her opponent. But after a moment, only some throwing knives came out and were deflected easily by everyone. Still, after the impact, they exploded into smoke surrounding the bandit group.

Nobody panicked as this was a known trick in the underworld, usually used by assassins who were caught but tried nonetheless to finish the job.

A moment later, a blood-curdling scream from one of her people was heard, "Careful! Just guard yourself and try to find whoever it is!"

This didn't help, as one after the other died in seconds, and she couldn't see anything. It was the worst case for her since her mercenary group specialized in open-field battles, but this was too different from what she knew and even less how to handle.

As the dust settled, the tiger-kin immediately regretted taking the job, 'Damn it! I knew the pay was too good!'

The job was to rob a merchant working for the local noble with her team. Afterward, they could even take the goods for themselves. High risk, high reward.

She even confirmed that all the information she was given was correct through week-long observations. So it should've been easy, and even though the caravan had noble crests plastered all over, they could just kill everyone and leave. Nobody would know the better. But this one person was not something she expected.

As the dust settled, she saw that her team was dead, either throat slit or the head decapitated. It was a horror scene. It was a true professional who did this.

Alone stood the now, not anymore hooded figure, smiling like a psychopath and licking the blood from his hands, "Well, well, well, now, will you tell me who tried to actually attack the property of my lord, or do you want to go through of one of my sessions? I would appreciate the latter."

It was a fox-kin with blood-red eyes, blond hair, and fur. He was beautiful, like a painting, but his facial expression told her that he had lost all of his marbles, like some psychotic mass murderer.

The tiger-kin readied her energy and stood still, ready to attack, "What do you mean you, psycho?!"

Sarusos took out a dagger and played with it while grinning from ear to ear, his tail wildly swinging like he couldn't contain his joy, "You see, some of my informants in Wolfsteeth told me about a job to target this caravan."

He knew. The tiger-kin couldn't disclose anything as she was under a mana contract, and even if she did and was cursed, she would need to run away as the underworld hated nothing more than a snitch.

The best way was to fight and survive, so her energy exploded into a soft but firm blue, and she readied herself to give everything.

The fox-kin sighed and shrugged, "Fine by me. But don't think you will leave dead."

Sarusos energy manifested slowly around him, like a mother's hug. It was first milky-white but gradually turned into a purplish-red. It was soft and peaceful but also gave a feeling of absolute madness.

The tiger-kin flashed toward him, and she was already in front of him in a blink of an eye, and a horizontal slash followed.

It was aimed a little downward and the ground a little in front of the fox-kin. The land became gashed by her massive power. It didn't stop there, as the attack replicated itself around the first gash and created many craters. She hoped that one of her replications would hit the fox-kin.

Assassin types had relatively weak bodies, and with a well-timed attack, it was possible to kill them directly, even if it was not particularly strong.

After the dust settled, only the destroyed ground was seen, no blood or fox-kin. She suddenly felt weird. Her sword became heavier than usual, and an unimaginable pain invaded her right arm a moment later.

Looking to the right, she saw it was falling down mid-air.

"Aaaaaargh! You bas..."

Before she could end the sentence, a blow of unimaginable power came from the other side, around her legs. She lost her balance and fell down.

Only a moment later did she register a massive pain. He broke her knee and probably knocked her kneecap out. Another moment later and she felt pain in her neck. She lost consciousness for good.

Sarusos stood above her and looked elated, "Ahhh, I love this task... too bad my lord can't share my happiness..." He looked toward the merchant's guards, "...what are you looking at? Go and treat her right now!"

The guards didn't even need to look at their boss as this display of power from such a figure was enough for them to listen, and nobody was ready to die because they defied such a simple command.

They scuttled around, tried to bandage and heal the bandit leader as well as they could, and understood why he wanted her to stay alive.

Sarusos threw his hooded cloak away as he disliked such clothes. Underneath he wore a white dress shirt made of silk and black dress pants, like a butler from an estate. He needed to travel without his blazer as it would become too hot under the hooded cloak.

He took out a water bottle, washed his hands, and slowly put on new white gloves. He also checked the rest of his throwing knives, and as he inspected them, he suddenly took one and threw it towards a tree farther away.

There was no smell of blood or anything which hurried in fear while sweating. Sarusos tilted his head in confusion, 'Did I imagine it?'

...

Further away in the forest

A hooded figure jumped down from the tree where a throwing knife with insane force had just penetrated the place where he sat before, barely avoiding it.

Luckily, his instincts kicked in, and he quickly could avoid being detected. He immediately used all his movement and stealth skills to leave the area unseen and as fast as possible.

However, he was pissed that his task failed, 'Hm, this fox-kin is problematic but nothing I can't handle... but not here...'

He stopped for a moment further away and looked around the forest, and his upper lip moved upwards in disgust, 'I am too weak right now, but it doesn't matter... I hope my little puppet will have fewer problems.'

He ran again for another 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes jumping on a tree and using them to move forward or zig-zagging so that if someone followed him, he would shake them off.

He especially wanted to avoid the fox-kin. While he was sure that given the right place, he would win, he would rather not try to fight him here inside the forest. It would be a win where he could see himself dying in the end, 'Can't risk it. Not now.'

He suddenly stopped at a tree with a specific mark and waited till another hooded figure came over. Someone unexpected came and immediately asked him, "So, how was it, Will?"

William sighed and removed his hood, feeling no danger around the other person. He was a stunningly beautiful androgenic wind-djinn, but his facial expressions were full of worries when he saw who the runner was.

"Not good. There were unexpected circumstances, but why are you here? Something happened?" He emphasized the you in the sentence.

His heart stopped momentarily as he knew his colleague, and he usually came to hand over bad news. This was the last thing he wanted, and a bit of killing intent started to seep out of William.

The runner chuckled as he knew of his reputation, "Hehe, I do not only bring bad news, so calm down..." He took a couple of parchments from his side bag and gave them to his brother in arms, "...we found something interesting."

William took the parchments and decided to read them later, "So? How does it go on other fronts?"

The runner shook his head, "Bad, we need first to stabilize the situation at home... ah yes, your mother is fine and is looked after by multiple people."

William nodded happily, "Good! But..."

The runner sighed, "Calm down and just do your job. The sooner we can claim a piece of land, the sooner your mother will be fine."

William's mother was not the only one who suffered in Kratikal, as anyone too old or weak to resist the wild demonic energy in the air would slowly wither and die without any special skills.

William nodded again, "Good, but I need more time."

The runner shrugged, "Everything is fine. Like I said, we need more time to stabilize the situation at home, and I am done here, see ya..." He turned around and sprinted away.

William frowned as he watched his colleague run to the next spy, scout, or whoever his next delivery was for.

He sat down and thought more thoroughly about what had happened. The situation wasn't fine at all on his side. The nobles and their retainers were much more powerful than expected, and the information gathering was at a snail's pace.

All beast-kin disliked unofficial foreign races and would rather not have anything to do with them. While William found out they had good relationships with djinns, it was only between wealthy merchants, nobles, and royalty. Commoners were much more careful around other races, and the underworld was much more skeptical around William or others. They saw this as someone trying to get into their turf.

Furthermore, he found out that the relationship between beast-kin and other races was flimsy, at best. The only reason beast-kin tried to cooperate at all with others was that humans, dwarves, gnomes, high elves, etc., The Alliance of the First Servants were trying to expand heavily, and beast-kin, djinns, high demons, etc., huddled together to defend against them. There was no natural trust but only necessity.

So much William could understand as his little puppet explained this to him, 'The expensive corpse crystal was worth every coin since the knowledge I gained from this was an immense help.'

He took out the parchments and started reading them. A little smile was seen on his face as he murmured, "Lizko, huh?"

...

At the encampment in the buffer zone, Leonandra's territory

"You are an idiot!"

"I am sorry, my lord! I thought she would survive!"

Kairoso looked at his retainer like he had lost his mind, "You say that you thought she would survive?!"

Sarusos was exasparated, "Yes!"

Kairoso turned around fully and looked into his eyes sternly, "So, you are saying that cutting someone's arm off and breaking their knees, someone could survive... did you get fully mad?"

The fox-kin opened his arms and said, exasperated, "But you survived too!"

Bang!

Kairoso planted his fist on his retainer's head, "Yes! With five healers treating my wounds and trying to attach my arm back! Not some third-class guards who try to stop the bleeding with dirty rags!"

Sarusos held the top of his head and rubbed where his lord hit him, "Owww, but she was not that badly injured! She should've survived if she used her energy!"

The lord gritted his teeth and screamed, "She was unconscious! How would anyone stop oneself from dying while asleep!"

There were multiple techniques known to mercenaries in which they used their energy to stop excessive bleeding or other injuries. It would burn through their stamina, but what about it if one could survive?

Sarusos suddenly became void of any expression, and Kairoso took him by the collar and lifted him up, looking directly into his eyes, "Listen here, you bastard. Someone is trying to sabotage us, and I want to know who. Do you get it?"

Sarusos smiled at his lord and nodded while hanging in the air, "Of course, my lord and I, in my heroic de..."

His lord interrupted him, "Shut up! You killed everyone who could've known about this!" he let him down again and walked around his tent, "...fuck! Who was the fucker who ordered a hit on a damn lord's property?! Nobody in their right mind would pay so much out."

Since Kairoso was a mercenary in his younger days, he somewhat understood the prices one needed to pay for him to attack a caravan of a noble. The cost would be astronomical and much more than what their whole cargo was worth.

While Sarusos straightened his clothes, he answered, "I can look for it, but the underworld guilds are a complicated mess if it comes to who gave what job."

Kairoso was maddened. He was a noble and a druid. This meant he could mobilize his army or the temple from other branches if he found out who did it and destroy fiefs or whole companies. It happened very rarely that someone was crazy enough to go against him.

The underworld, where he also acted, should know that it could come to a purge, and he really wanted to do one right now. But if one happened, a lot of innocent stragglers would be caught in it, and after it was done, a crazy war for power would begin, which could worsen the stability of Wolfsteeth.

The last time he destroyed the underground guilds was when his son was poisoned by some of the underworld venoms. He and his retainer went as a duo. They killed hundreds of them, uprooting basically multiple guilds, from the assassin to the black market itself, sowing chaos which, only after a couple of years, came to a conclusion with a more noble friendly leadership. If he did it again, they could go after his children, and he really wanted to avoid placing them under house arrest.

There was only one way. His voice sounded serious, "Go to Wolfsteeth and get any information about who targeted us..." Kairoso looked at him sternly, "...use every method possible but do it as secretly as possible."

Sarusos's smile bloomed, and he bowed to his lord, "It would be my pleasure!"

Kairoso frowned, 'I can expect an earful from Mari, but it doesn't matter. Nobody attacks my property and will come out alive.'