Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Skullius froze.

Before him was a man that he never expected to see again.

A man by the name Gin.

The same Purity Knight who had been aggressively opposed to hearing Skullius' case as Elita had judged back during the event where he interrupted the charge of the carriages that were headed into Eofel.

The man was smiling as he conversed with Erkus when he raised his head to look at Silrat, Skullius and Tulnas, his eyes immediately going to hone in on the Discount Human.

...!

The Discount Human opened his mouth in shock as if to scream but held himself back.

'SHIIT! If this guy remembers me, then I'm done for!' Skullius thought with aching distress.

"What are you waiting for. Let's go down there," Tulnas said as he slapped Skullius on the back.

The Discount Human inched towards the steps that reached down to where Gin was, his eyes squinting at Skullius for a moment more before Erkus decided to introduce the three while indicating each with a stretch of his hand.

"These three are from the Guilds Association. Silrat, the head for the branch here in Inhone City, Tulnas, leader of the strongest Guild in the city and this... is Festos," the City Lord said.

Gin smiled politely with a nod of acknowledgement.

From his short introduction, one could deduce two things.

The first was that, Erkus seemed to want to avoid having to speak about the Ideal Ark as if he stated Tulnas' Guild to be the second strongest, he'd have to deal with being asked on which one was the strongest Guild.

This wasn't exactly applicable in this situation as Gin likely wouldn't ask something like that, but the fact of the matter remained that he had had enough of such questions over the past week.

The second was, he did not want to introduce Festos as someone worth attention given his circumstances that could very well attract the Purity's attention because of Festos' curse.

He preferred to not be involved with the Purity no more than was needed.

Erkus continued to speak, introducing the Purity Knight next.

"This is the head of this group of Purity Knights, Gin. He is here to secure the man Tulnas captured."

"Pleased to meet you all," Gin said before he looked to Tulnas with an amiable smile. "I'm surprised you are the one who captured the cultist. I expected someone older. I suppose talents aren't that rare in younger generations as the Deities are so grateful."

"It was a team effort, I assure you. I couldn't have brought down a Master Stage combatants on my own. But I can also guarantee that Quintess had a hand in our success," Tulnas said with a cheery smile in response.

Gin wore an even brighter smile as he heard this.

"Definitely. Young and acknowledging of the Deities. Hahaha, a fine young man," Gin said.

As Skullius heard the conversations, Gin going on to give a genuine smile as he spoke to Silrat as well, he couldn't help but want to shout 'hypocrite'!

Wasn't this man the same one who smacked him while he was seated in the carriage while being as tough as jerky?

Wait? What?!

Still...

"You truly hate this man don't you, tomato flinger?" Sila's voice echoed in Skullius' mind.

'Be quiet,' Skullius thought while shutting off Sila as he then focused on what potential danger could be in store.

Skullius didn't know much about Gin truthfully.

The man was kind hearted yet bold and enthusiastic.

He portrayed a harsh and unforgiving temperament when dealing with individuals that stood at odds with the Purity, which would make such see him as a monster who knew no empathy or mercy.

The Purity Knight had perfectly demonstrated this during that day when Eofel was invaded by Fulina who used her <Faithful Message Undeath> to cause despair within the city.

(A/N: Refer to Ch109-128)

Soon enough, Gin turned to Skullius as his gaze turned sharp with his face showing that something was really eating him up inside.

"I'm sorry, I feel that we've met before. Your face looks quite familiar," Gin said with a polite smile.

Skullius absorbed these words carefully.

Wait.

'He doesn't remember me?! Why... OOOOH that's right! I look different from before!' Skullius thought as a wave of relief started to wash over him.

Because of his use of Enriching gems, he looked utterly unrecognisable save for a few fundamental features on his face such as his longer hair, its colour, facial structure etc.

This was great!

He could escape suspicion without any issue!

"I don't think we have. I just have a very common face that's all," Skullius said with a respectful tone.

It was no shock that everyone who heard Skullius, even Sila disagreed with this but just didn't voice out their opinions.

Skullius' voice through off Gin even further as he shook his head and apologised.

"I apologise then. It's a pleasure meeting you still," Gin said as he then turned to Erkus. "I would like to get to the prisoner as soon as possible so we can transport him to a more secure location before the morning, City Lord. Can we get to it right away?"

"Of course. I will leave you with Silrat to deal with the rest," the City Lord replied as he then exchanged a few words with the Purity Knight and left along with his entourage of two.

The Association branch head, Silrat took over as he decided to personally lead the men to Guissepo's cell, leaving Tulnas and Skullius alone.

"Well. It seems like it's just me and you. How about you come and watch me celebrate the victory at my Guild residence? It'll be fun. Mostly for me. I won't lend you any of my women though. It's a shockingly exclusive party," Tulnas said with a cheery smile as he slung his arm around Skullius' neck.

'Women this, women that...' Skullius thought as he shook his head.

Instead of answering Tulnas, he changed the subject.

"Do you remember what you said two days ago? When you and Silrat told Damilla and the old man that you'd be supporting me? That you'd risk even your entire Guild for the whole thing."

"What about it?" Tulnas asked with a languid expression.

"This whole idea of risking something you care about for something you want. How does it work exactly?" Skullius asked with a serious expression.

It would be a lie to say that he fully understood even half of the risks that Tulnas and Silrat made in the name of benefits.

He wanted to truly understand what they did it for and how they could be sure of everything going their way.

"Oh. Your words make it seem like you truly have nothing that you care about. But I'll tell you this. I never gamble on something that I'm not sure will work or at the very least have no contingencies for. I had several plans in the background to ensure that me and my ladies would be fine even if things went wrong," Tulnas said before he suddenly turned sullen.

He recalled the moment when Ginie was blasted open by Guissepo and added more to his statement.

"I'll admit though, I did learn that I was growing overconfident and thought I could account for every little thing when in fact, I could have lost everything instead. So... you could say a risk is only as good as what motivates it. If you don't have enough desire to attain something, there's no worth to your risk."

Hmm..

This was food for thought for the Discount Human.

Ambition.

He lacked this in great detail.

What he had to work with was what Serenity had given him as well as the need to get rid of the seeds of Somanda that still lingered within him.

But what about personal desires?

'It doesn't seem like, I have much of those...' Skullius thought before his mind raced over to the girl he constantly saw.

Could that be something he could try to uncover?

Tulnas saw Skullius getting lost in thought and smirked.

The two journeyed for quite a while, talking about different subjects as Tulnas found once more that Skullius was a natural information sucker.

He tried to absorb every little detail but Tulnas would evade.

He was still cautious of the young man's curse.

It was only when they passed by the city gates that gave a view of beyond the horizons that the Tamer sensed something amiss.

From the hordes of people that wished to enter the city as the night descended, there seemed to be some noise going on.

A disturbance was occurring that pulled on the attention of the Capital Knights who rushed to try and found out what was going.

"What's going on over there?" Tulnas asked with narrowed eyes as he started to walk over with Skullius in tow.

The masses parted to reveal a group of battered and bruised mercenaries that desperately pushed away anyone who stood in their way, while wheezing and stumbling.

The Knights held up some while Tulnas immediately rushed to hold up one of them.

"Hey! What's wrong? What happened?!" he asked.

The man he held looked to be in too much pain to form proper sentences but he managed to say something that put Tulnas on active guard.

"Strong...monsters..."