Emperor's Reckoning

"All is well," said Lyon as he smirked. "How much do we have?"

"Ten thousand AT for the payment, young master," said Assid.

"And from their pockets?"

"About five hundred each, so one thousand and five hundred," said Assid. "There are three of them, and that makes the grand total of eleven thousand and five hundred Adventurer Token."

"Woah, you're really good at math," said Kesya.

"You're just stupid, Kesya," said Assid with a sharp cold icicle against her heart.

"Wow, you didn't pull any punches, did you?" Kesya rolled her eyes.

"Alright then, with this much money, what kind of luxury we can buy?" said Lyon as he rubbed his chin.

"We have no idea Lyon, we just got here," said Cecile as she sighed.

"What? Have you never visited this place before?" Lyon raised his brows.

"Why would I visit the Dark Continent where that crazy woman with a blade, lives," Cecile sighed.

"Well," Lyon couldn't think of a reason before he found a notice board. "Hey look, a notice board."

"That's one way to divert the topic," muttered Luna before seeing him running excitedly toward the aforementioned notice board.

"Hmm, maybe it's time for adventuring one o one!" said Kesya as she grinned. "The notice board is where most adventurers going to take a quest and earn some Adventuring Token."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Alchemy Union would also put a request here," said Lumina. "They are really good at concocting, but not much in gathering the materials or the components themselves."

"Pretty good guess," said Cecile with a smile, "Look, you can find one already right there at the bottom corner."

"Huh, where?" said Lyon as he crouched down and squinted his eyes. "Oh yeah, it even got the stamp on it too."

"Must have been pretty hard to find," Lumina commented.

"I don't know about that, but the Alchemy Union is using a different currency, so, maybe it's not that hard?"

"Do you want to take it, Lyon?" asked Luna.

"Nah, let the others take it," Lyon sighed before he stood up and stretched his arms.

"You can actually gauge the difficulty of the task by the black stamp of stars right at the top. The more stars there are the more difficult the quest," said Kesya. "However, not all of the quests are hunting quests, some are explorations."

"That's pretty standard," said Lyon. "Like a role-playing game or sort. However, all I see is three black stars and below here, nothing above it."

The other adventurers who heard his remarks laughed.

"Hey greenhorn, why don't you take on one of the three black stars and come back one piece first? Hahahaha!"

The group of passing adventurers also laughed and further escalated the situation.

Lumina immediately frowned with her fist balled. However, before she could latch out her devastating claw, Lyon gave her a smile under his hood. Lumina let out an audible exhale and let Lyon run the situation.

However, before Lyon could open his devastating sharp tongue, someone's presence interrupted him from afar.

"Hmm?" the adventurers slowly glanced over to the back before their eyes opened wide. They immediately made way for him.

"Hey, is the Frost Party," muttered one of the adventurers.

"The Three Stars party, Frost Party!"

"The what?" Lyon raised one of his brows as he stood unbudged from the coming group of adventurers.

The one leading the pack has a giant sword strapped to his back and a smirk on his face. He wore light armor and was taller than Lyon by a head. He had a prominent figure of a leader and a fierce gaze in his eyes. The vascularity in his forearms was well defined and could be thicker than an old branch from a matured oak tree.

Meanwhile at the back were three other adventurers. One was a female, wearing light garbs like that of a mage and a staff with orbs at the top of the stick. She was clad in a blue decent cloak with its hood laid folded and dangling on her back. It seemed to have a detachable mechanism. A neat feature that Lyon immediately noticed.

The other one was a male with thin clothing and a revealing belly button. He wore sleeveless garb and a pair of bracelets. Lyon immediately closed his eyes.

The last one was a man with a giant shield on his back. He was sluggish than the rest of them all, but he carried the most weight with his heavy armor and clanking of his steps. Lyon raised his brows over this one.

"Hey, Arf! Did you guys finish that quest?" asked one of the adventurers.

"Huh?" The leader leered over with his chin up. "Of course we did."

"Woah..." the adventurers gasped in awe before they heard Arf's smirk.

"Are you here for another quest?" asked one of the adventurers.

"Of course we are, after all, we are going for the Fourth Star," said the mage of the group.

"Fourth Star..." the crowd gasped once more.

"I'm sure you guys can do it!"

"Yeah, ditching Nafail was the right course, after all, look at them go! Completed quests after completed quests, Three Stars to boot! Unbelievable," said one adventurer with his head shaking.

"Oh?" Lyon raised one of his brows before he smirked.

Arf furrowed his brows before he approached Lyonm "Is there something funny here, friend?"

"No, I just find it interesting," said Lyon as he smirked.

"You find it interesting? I've never seen your party here before, are you guys a newly assembled party?"

"Hah, these guys are greenhorns Arf, they know nothing about the guild and stuff."

"Oh that explains your unawareness, I forgive you," said Arf as he laughed heartily. "Now step aside, I need to find a proper quest to end this Three Stars journey."

Assid immediately grabbed Kesya's shoulder. "Don't."

Cecile nodded in approval before she patted Lyon's shoulder, "Let's go."

"Here it is, this one seems perfect," said Arf as he picked one up from the notice board. "A Three Stars quest."

His enthralled voice trailed away as the group left the notice board.

"What a dork," Lyon laughed.

"You said it, emperor, hmph!" Kesya pouted. "Were it not for Assid, I have pulled out his spine already."

"Tch, if you keep acting like that, we would have more trouble than we should," said Assid with an audible click of his tongue. "Just be calm would you!"

"Alright, alright, you're no fun," Kesya put her hands behind her head.

"Have you heard what they said? Nafail was originally a Frost Party member," spoke Luna.

"It seems like they have a bit of history together," said Cecile with a smile.

"It's not really uncommon that party breaks up for one reason or another," said Lumina. "Before you asked, I read it."

"You really love to read," Lyon smiled. "And you look really beautiful doing it too."

Lumina slightly looked away with her blush hidden by the large hood and as much as Lyon wanted to tease her more something else happened.

"Hey, it's Nafail!" said one of the adventurers passing by.

Lyon's group immediately took an interest and turned around. There they found the same adventurer who had just 'saved' them from the hungry beast standing at a distance from the Frost Party.

"Oh? Nafail! How are you, friend?" asked Arf with a big grin. "I see that you are still doing some adventuring."

"Y-Yeah, hahaha," Nafail laughed as he scratched the back of his head. "I uh, I heard what the commotion is about, c-congrats."

The Frost Party and the other adventurers were stunned by his words. They never thought that he would congratulate them.

"Thank you!" Arf laughed heartily after a slight stun. "Nafail, we would have never made it with you, so thank you!"

"E-Eh..." Nafail had his pupils shrunk seeing the condescending smirk that Arf gave. He leered over behind him and looked over at his old teammates having the same laugh. ( Furge, Helena, even you, my shield, Abes ) he made a harsh swallow before he forced himself a twitching smile.

"H-Hele—"

"Stop right there Nafail, a lone star adventurer such as yourself needs to know his place, we are advancing to the Fourth Star rank adventurers as a group," Helena remarked with her chin slightly raised.

"Yeah, sorry, Nafail," said Furge as he sighed. "It's just that, with you, we are not advancing anymore."

( Nafa...il? You used to call me older brother! ) Nafail stood petrified before he darted at Abe's. The heaviest of the group. However, the latter merely shook his head. ( B-But... I picked you up when you guys are still roaming here... I made you guys the adventurers you are today! ) alas, he couldn't say the words inside his heart. His fists slowly buried inside his palm.

"Huh?! Heh!" Arf grinned before he hacked down his giant sword forward.

"Eh?" Nafail's pupils shrunk at the approaching blade as he could see death weaving its fishing rod.

*Boom!!

The destruction was loud and clear as a cloud of smoke instantly formed.

Some adventurers that were near the point of impact were blown back.

"Hahaha, sorry! My hand slipped friend, I hope I didn't cut anything," Arf laughed before he tried to pick up his greatsword. "Ngh?!" ( Heavy! )

Cecile sighed before Graham and Kesya were seen smirking at the back.

"Wh-What?" Nafail had fallen over to the side and out of the clouds of dust.

Arf furrowed his brows after realizing this before he glared at the silhouette challenging his core might.

Assid fixed his glasses before giving a soft palm against the air and sent a light gust forward. Then they gawked at the sight.

"I'm sorry, my foot slipped, heh," an iconic smirk was spotted. Lyon's foot was pressing down against Arf's blade on the cracked pavement with his arms crossed.