Chapter 291: A new morning, new troubles (1/2)

With the arrival of the next day, a group of shady figures, garbed in matching dark travel cloaks could be seen gathering just outside the city walls, far away from the western city gates. There were sizable company 11 strong.

With the hood pulled over their heads and mask pulled over the lower half of their faces, they were shrouded in mystery. Still, there was an ominous feel to the group, the air around them was sinister, cold, eerie.

They seemed to be waiting for something or someone, as they stole glances towards the far right, where the city's sewage system connected into the nearby river. They didn't need to wait long, as soon, the grating was lifted, and a figure, donning matching clothes as the group appeared. The aura oozing from him, however, was several classes above the rest.

”Greetings, Mast-” the closest of the waiting bunch nodded and spoke in a gruff tone to greet the newcomer, but an unexpected slap coming from the figure sent him to the ground. As he struggled to get up, he looked at the figure with fear and uncertainty. What did he say that insulted the master?

”How dare you? The only Master we serve is the future City Lord, Master Leon. I am merely your boss, do you understand?!” The cloaked figure roared with anger, causing the group to shiver with fright upon the exclamation.

”Y-yes… M… B-Boss! I-I apologize for my rudeness, hope you can forgive me.” The slapped man slowly stood back up, and bowed immediately, apologizing with fear and dread clearly visible in her stuttering tone.

”Hmpf. As long as you understand.” The figure, obviously the leader of the gathered group spoke indifferently. Shifting his attention he looked at the group. Taking a short gasp of air, he addressed them with a commanding tone.

”We have a very important task to carry out, given to us directly by the Master. If we can do it to his satisfaction you can all expect some great rewards. We might be able to finally gain the honor to be counted as one of his forces! I hope I need not remind you of the importance of this chance!”

He paused in his speech, glancing over the crowd. The gasps and excited yelps satisfied his ego causing a contented smile to appear on his well-hidden face.

”There is a new pest that Master has some unsettled debts with. The Master ordered us to show this commoner filth the grave mistake he made when standing against the natural order! We will give a surprise visit to his family and ever-so 'graciously invite' his family to come and join us. There should be only an old hag and some tasty-looking blonde girl there.” He spoke, putting some emphasis on the latter part of his speech. It was clear he didn't put the family in his eyes. What the Master told him, was that while they could be a bit rowdy, they are not combatants, and should not be any challenge at all. As long as that monster of a boy is not with them, they should be easy targets.

”B-boss, are we allowed to…” The closest to their leader the one that was slapped so brutally just a moment ago raised another question with a fearful tone. Although he didn't incur their leader's wrath any longer, they still wanted to know if they were allowed to act like usual or not.

”We can rough them up, but can't taste the goods this time. Master specifically asked for the blonde girl to be brought to him and that he shouldn't be tasted.”

Hearing that most of the fun they had in these types of missions was this time forbidden, voices of dissatisfaction could be heard from the group. Still, it quickly quieted down as they remembered that by doing this job perfectly, they would have the chance to finally be initiated to the Master's Special Forces. They could still enjoy some celebrations in the evening once they were done.

Once the group turned quiet and focused on their leader, the man continued.

”Let's get to it, everyone! This is it, the chance we were all waiting for, our chance! From tomorrow onwards we will be members of the Master's Special Forces Team!” Raising his right fist in the air, the leader yelled excitedly, rousing the group's morale to its peak.

With his speech finished, he turned towards the forest stretching seemingly endlessly across the horizon. A short while later the group began to dash towards the treeline with excitement and fervor shining in their eyes.

Some couldn't even believe their luck, by merely doing a menial task of collecting some forest-dwelling commoner filth that anybody could do, they would gain the chance to join the Master's forces! How lucky is that?!

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