They ended up spending majority of the day in the castle going over every report they could think of to see if there was anything else that could be suspicious. They didn’t find anything glaring, they were relieved that it was unlikely there were any dangers within the castle itself. Eventually it was getting late in the day, and he was mentally exhausted ready for it to be over. They would be starting their investigations in two days, giving them enough time to prepare. They did keep it completely confidential until it was time to bring in the knights who would be assisting them. Lady Emelia offered them a room in the castle, but they declined.

As they were leaving the gates of the castle with the Director, Abigail said, “I need your help with finding out where an adventurer last quested at.”

Director Sara raised a brow and said, “Oh? Right now?”

Abigail nodded, “I would prefer to get it over with now. We got ambushed by bandits on the way here and their leader was a B-ranked adventurer. The others that were with him didn’t have guild cards and based off of their level of skill I find it unlikely they are adventurers.”

Director Sara face contorted in disgust as she said, “Adventures took an oath to help protect the people. Please tell me he got what was coming to him.”

Abigail just nodded to that, and they walked on in silence.

Director Sara looked over at him and said, “You are rather quiet one. You have only talked when asked a question.”

Thomas was going to retort but got a brilliant idea, instead of responding he gave her a stone-faced stare. He at it until she was getting slightly uncomfortable before he gave her a shrug. He could see Abigail holding back a laugh. It’s not like he could admit that he didn’t talk that much out of fear of embarrassing himself.

Eventually the Director got uncomfortable and turned back to Abigail to say, “Let’s get back to the guild to get that information for you.”

Thomas flashed Abigail a smirk as they walked back to the guild in silence. It didn’t take long for them to make it to the guild and for Director Sara to pull up the information. She said, “Leon Cress, B-ranked, last worked out of the Ruthmire branch. The last official quest he took was a month ago.”

Abigail nodded at that and said, “I guess we will need to talk to Ruthmire’s guild.”

Abigail asked a few questions about the other guild branch trying to gather more information about their future stop. They didn’t learn much other than the amount of adventurers there has increased over the last few months. Which isn’t all the abnormal since rumors of a dungeon started to spread recently.

When the conversation died out Thomas finally spoke up and asked, “Who are you inviting to join me tomorrow?"

Sara pondered for a moment before saying, “The best team I have that would be willing and able to is called Hopes Vengeance. They are a highly skilled B-ranked team. Unfortunately, we only have one A-ranker in the fort, and he isn’t the most agreeable. The same could be said for most of the B-ranked teams I have in the fort. I may have one other person I want to ask but she is an odd one. She is only C-ranked but she is a dark mana user and has some interesting abilities.”

Thomas really didn’t have a lot of experience working with a group of people. It was going to be interesting since he will technically be in charge of the expedition since it is an official Inquisitor investigation. He will have to discuss it with Abigail tomorrow hopefully she could give him some tips to make it easier on him. He still nodded to her answer and hoped it would work out for the best.

A thoughtful look crossed Abigail’s face before she said, “Thomas, adventurer card please.” He handed it over without question.

She said, “Thank you. Director, please promote him to C-ranked. He should have the required completed quests if he doesn’t then I vouch for his ability.”

Sara just nodded and slotted his card in the node and pulled up his card details. She promoted him from D-ranked to C-ranked. He felt it was anticlimactic, he was almost disappointed in the promotion. It felt like he didn’t truly earn it.

He looked at the new rank on his card and said, “I don’t feel like I earned it.”

Abigail patted him on the back and said, “You did earn it. Your personal skill would have gotten you promoted without my intervention. I just sped up the process.”

Sara spoke up with a shrug and said, “If an A-ranked vouches for your skill then it’s the real deal.”

Deciding to just trust her words Thomas begrudgingly accepted his new promotion. Examining his updated guild card, it looked the same as before. The only difference was it now showed he was a C-ranked adventurer. Sara said she would get in contact with the adventurers she wanted to join the expedition and to meet back up at the guild tomorrow.

As they walked back to the inn, Abigail bumped shoulders with him and asked, “What’s wrong. You have been quieter than normal.”

He bumped her back and said, “I am nervous about the expedition. Correct me if I am wrong but I will technically be in charge, right?”

Abigail nodded and let him continue his train of thought, he said, “I will be in charge of a team that outranks me. That seems like it will cause problems. Then there are the knights Lady Emelia will be sending to join. How will that even work, the knights could easily say I have no authority over them. I have never led a team or really worked with a team before. Any suggestions?”

Abigail nodded, bumping shoulders with him again and said, “My suggestion would be to make it clear you are overall in charge but will trust the guidance of those more experienced than you. The adventurers shouldn’t be a problem. The knights may not like it, but Lady Emelia will make it clear that you are leading the expedition. Knights have a tendency to be prideful so expect some discontentment with you.”

“How strong is the average knight?” he wondered.

“It’s a bit complicated. It depends on the kingdom or academy they trained at but to become a true knight is a long and grueling process. Most knights pure combat skill I would say is around a B-ranked adventurer. Knights are some of the best at body strengthening but most of the time lack mana techniques. I would say most knights are only in the fog stage of mana, but they make up for the lack of mana concentration with pure skill. You will only start to run into liquid stage at around captain rank.” She answered.

“Got it, don’t pick a fight with knights.” He replied with a chuckle.

“Don’t go picking fights in general.” She said with a teasing smile and with another gentle shoulder bump but continued saying, “Honestly there aren’t that many true knights around. Even here at the border fort there is probably only thirty to fifty of them. Don’t let that small number fool you, that is a considerable fighting force. Each of them will have a few squires and people mistake squires for knights all the time. Don’t look down on squires either they are only selected to be squires after showing great promise or have graduated from an academy. Oh, there are two types of academies, for squires and for knights. A squire can become a knight if three active knights believe they earned it or if they are granted that by a baron or higher. The other way is to be selected to go to a knight academy, those are righteous and famously hard to get into and to graduate from.”

“How can you tell a difference between a squire and a knight if people mix them up?” He never really learned anything about knights.

“Well, most of the time they will wear the city, family, or country’s colors and emblems that they are from. Most knights are the children of a lower noble house or a civilian that was able to enroll in an academy. Sometimes a city or family will sponsor someone and pay for them to become a knight. In that case they will wear the colors or emblem of that group. The kingdom themselves does that too. My family sponsors hundreds of people every year. Sometimes if they get enrolled on their own merit then they will only wear their academies colors. Only full-fledged knights are allowed to wear colors. They are also considered nobility albeit lowest ranked ones.” She answered.

“Huh I never knew it was that simple yet complicated.” He then bumped her shoulder and said, “Now your turn. You seemed a bit more on edge with Lady Emelia than normal.”

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A chuckle left her mouth as she looked up at the darkening sky, “Lady Emelia is the type of noble I don’t particularly like. She took command of the fort after her father passed away, but she doesn’t like her station here. She believes she should be with the higher society and does whatever she can to try and get her house elevated. Look how quickly she changed her attitude when she found out who was backing me. She has done some questionable things to try and elevate herself but that isn’t for us to deal with or gossip about. Especially since I don’t have concrete proof.”

The next morning, they went around and prepared for his expedition. He moved most of the items out of his spatial bag and put it back into his normal pack. They didn’t know how long the trip could take so he was preparing for at least a weeklong trip. The biggest issue is meals for Mila, even with his spatial bag her food was taking up the majority of the room. He would let Mila hunt down some things if it came down to it. He just hoped it wouldn’t get to that point. He had learned that she really did prefer finer cuts of meat and if she didn’t get some, she would become pouty.

The other item of note he bought was a new dagger. Abigail had been harping on him to get a backup weapon. It would have helped when he fought the wolves a while back after he was disarmed. The blade itself wasn’t anything special, it was a five-inch blade that would sit comfortably on his right side. It would work perfectly if he ever disarmed again.

Eventually it was time for them to separate to attend to their individual tasks. Abigail had to go to the castle and meet with Lady Emelia and the knights that would be joining her in the investigation of the fort. It was also time for him to go meet with the adventurers that would be working with him on his expedition. The knights would join them in the morning when they would leave.

Walking into the still packed guild he made his way to a receptionist who told him where to go. It was one of the meeting rooms that all the guild branches had. He waved off the receptionist who offered to escort him. A quick knock he entered the meeting room.

Inside was four people sitting and chatting at the table. Three were men while the last one was a woman. When four sets of eyes turned on him, he almost stumbled. The three men looked the exact same, they had short cut sandy hair and light blue eyes. They even turned, looked at him and waved in the same fluid motion. That was what caught him off guard, he had never met twins let alone triplets before.

Clearing his throat and with a small wave he said, “Hello I’m Thomas.”

The one that was wearing heavy plate armor in the middle of the other two said, “Hello I am Damian.” Pointing to the one of the left, “This is David.” Pointing to the other one, “That is Daniel.”

Seeing the look on his face David tapped a thin green ribbon on his arm and said, “Pay attention to the ribbons. Easiest way to tell who is who.” He finished with a chuckle. He looked over the three quickly and noticed that Damian wore red, David wore a green one and Daniel’s was blue.

The red-haired woman spoke, “I am Luise. The Director really didn’t tell me anything outside of going to track down the missing beast. Do you know anything more?”

He only said, “Let’s wait for Director Sara.”

Luise seemed annoyed at his response while the triplets seemed to take it in stride. He used the quite moment as an opportunity to observe his temporary teammates. First, he looked over Luise. She appeared to be short and lean physique, with shoulder length red hair. She looked around his age if not slightly older. Her blue green eyes were sharp. She was wearing tight, light weight armor that was clearly made to give her free range of motion. He couldn’t see any obvious weapons on her, but it was hard to tell with her sitting. She seemed to be a serious professional which would be helpful on the expedition.

Next, he looked over the triplets that were each doing their own thing. Damian was reading a book, while Daniel and David seemed to be throwing a small knife at each other. One would catch it out of the air and send it flying back to the other. Damian was wearing full plate armor that was clearly high quality. Sitting beside him was a large shield and war mace. Devin and Daniel wore the same light weight leather armor, giving them more mobility to move. It complimented the twin short swords both of them had near them. All three of them had the same lean physique and were older than him but not by much. Then again judging peoples ages became difficult the more skilled with mana manipulation and how far along their mana concentration was.

Thomas took a seat and tried to get in the right headspace for when the Director arrived. Closing his eyes he stretch his mana sense out which at this point reached a few feet around him without an issue. He could feel Luise’s eyes still on him as he barely slipped into a light meditation. He kept going over how to best handle leading an expedition. It was hard to get a good read on the four with the brief interaction but he did get the feeling that the triplets were pretty free spirted. Luise was harder to read but she had the feeling of being a detached professional.

He didn’t have a lot of time to ruminate about how everything was going to go before Director Sara walked in. She spoke as she entered seeing that everyone was there.

“Good everyone is here. Let’s get down to business then.” She took the seat at the head of the table.

Thomas took note how everyone, even the two triplets who were tossing knives at each other straightened up and focused on the Director. Clearly showing the respect her position earned. Thomas himself wasn’t bothered by Sara he spent enough time with her yesterday. He still respected her position and her as a person, so he wasn’t going to show her any disrespect.

“Just to get on the same page here with introductions. We have Damian, David, and Daniel Fields. Damian a B-ranked, David and Daniel are both C-ranked but based off of what I know will be B-ranked in their own right soon. They make up the B-ranked team Hopes Vengeance.” She nodded to the team as they waved at their names.

She then turned to Luise and said, “Luise Luto a highly skilled solo C-ranked adventurer.” Who nodded at the mention of her name.

She then turned to Thomas and said, “Thomas C-ranked.” He gave another wave in response to his lack luster introduction.

Sara turned back to the rest and said, “I invited everyone here for an emergency quest. The quest is to track and find out where the missing monsters have gone. The guild and Lady Emelia are concerned that there hasn’t been any accurate information. For the quest you will need to follow the tracks and find out exactly what is happening. This is a dangerous quest with quite a few unknowns. So, I will ask does anyone object to going?”

She panned her eyes over Hopes Vengeance and Luise. When no one objected she turned to Thomas and asked, “Want to take it from here?”

That got raised eyebrows from the others. Nodding he pulled out his Inquisitor badge, sending a wisp of mana into it to make the eye glow. The triplets seemed stunned, if not outright concerned, while Luise furrowed her brows in confusions.

Clearing his throat he said, “I am an Inquisitor and asked for this expedition as well. The reason why the Inquisitors are interested is because this entire situation could be linked to an active investigation we are conducting. Just to be clear while I will be overall in charge, I leave the majority of the practical parts of the quest to you all.” He motioned to Hopes Vengeance. “As a team you have more experience than me when it comes to quests in general. I respect that and your higher rank but do know I have the final say. Do you have any questions for me?”

The triplets seemed to still be processing that he was an inquisitor and didn’t say anything. Luise asked, “What is an Inquisitor?” The triplets looked at her like she grew a second head, but Sara didn’t seem surprised.

Sara explained, “They are an independent force within the guild. They conduct investigations into adventures, guild branches, and well any guild employee. Sometimes they get tasked out in agreement with high-ranking nobles if the guild agrees with the request. It isn’t that surprising you haven’t heard about them. Unless you are in a major city or capital where they walk around openly, Inquisitors normally go around unnoticed.”

Thomas nodded at that; it was interesting to hear about his job from an outside perspective. He didn’t miss how Luise still seemed confused.

She ended up saying, “If that is all then why do you three look like you seen a ghost?”

Damian said, “From what I know and have heard. Inquisitors only appear when something is truly wrong. Or they believe something truly wrong is happening.” He looked to Thomas and said, “I mean no disrespect Inquisitor Thomas but if you are here then how bad is this situation?”

Before he could answer Daniel muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, “They are called the boogeymen of the guild for a reason.”

Damian and David, both send him a glare. Thomas chuckled and said, “Thomas is fine. We will be working together for a while. Truthfully the situation isn’t that bad, but it is still something we need to look into. We are just concerned about the movements of monsters. I won’t go into more detail than that unless I deem it necessary. Just know it is of some importance.”

The triplets nodded in unison and Luise looked at everyone in the room. It seemed like she still didn’t understand, and the Director seemed to notice as she explained even more.

Seeing her the confused Luise the Director seemed to just state it bluntly. Saying, “Luise, Inquisitors have some of the highest authority within the guild. I mean that literally, they are backed by the Guild Master himself. Depending on what they are working on they could have authority back by a Kingdom too.”

That seemed to make her understand as she nodded and gave him another appraising look.

He raised his hand and said, “We are getting a bit of topic. I would like to go over the quest and make sure no one has any objections or questions.”

Thankfully no one objected to the quest. They seemed eager, especially after the Director told them how much they would be paid. It would be five gold now and ten gold upon completion of the quest. They went over what they would be looking for and what the overall goal was. He did receive some push back when he told them at least one knight would be joining them. That was quickly squashed when Sara made it clear it wasn’t up for negotiation with Thomas nodding along.

Overall, the meeting went well, and he got to know his new teammates some. He got a decent read on the triplets. Damian was the more serious one, but Thomas didn’t miss when the man would smirk when his brothers would do or say something funny.

Luise was still hard to read but his original assumption on her seemed correct. She was the serious professional type. She asked pointed questions about possible issues and dangers they could face.

Eventually they separated and agreed to meet at the southern gate in the morning. The others went off to procure the provisions they would need. Thomas was mentally exhausted, he put on a facade like he knew what he was doing but deep down he was unsure on how this expedition would go. A part of him felt like an imposter. That he was pretending to be this important figure but in reality, he felt like the orphan boy who shouldn't be here with this responsibility. He was nervous, if not outright scared about being responsible for their lives.