Sinful Pride - Volume 1 Chapter 29 Epilogue

Then news about a new Half-dragon being born quickly reached the Aerch militia. A hefty reward was already in place for the assassination of pregnant Dragonborn in the Northern frontier but few were willing. After all, it would mean infiltrating deep into Dragonborn territory, passing through many clans. Not to mention, the guards would be on high alert. After many weeks, the deadline of the Half-dragon being born grew closer and the reward even more generous. In the end, a party of four, two Swordsmen, an Assassin and a Sorcerer claimed the female Dragonborn’s head. A gold ranked team, called Shinning sun. A fitting nickname given to them by the common people. They quickly became renowned and there has been even talk of promoting them to Mythril rank.

At this moment, they were waiting for Maltra, the female Assassin of the team that went to look for quests, in an inn, close to the North Aerch headquarters.

“I’m back. Nothing interesting this time.” Maltra said as she sat down with the others.

She wore tight fitting and revealing clothes. As a contradiction to her class that was supposed to be sneaky, Maltra’s beauty drew gazes wherever she was. Her golden hair and green eyes, paired with her charming freckles and her large curves, made her irresistible to most men.

She sat next to Jona, the Sorcerer of the party. He was wearing dark purple robs and was reading a book as always. His white staff was besides him and his big hat on the table. He wore a beautiful monocle with silver lining and chain. His face was quite plain, brown hair and eyes but his achievements had made him popular among the women of the city. Even if he seemed to be more interested in books than them.

“Should we just head for the frontier and see what we find?” he asked without lifting his head from the book. The one he was talking to, was of course the leader of the party. Kaito the swordsman. He was a middle aged man, in his forties. He had brown hair and an intimidating face. He wore clothe armor and his two rapiers were hanging on his belt.

“No, we need quests. We don’t need the money right now and we are too close to a promotion to roam the battlefields for good targets. If we don’t achieve something grand soon, our achievements will be forgotten.” he said in a confident voice. “We are just a step more from Titanium. We’ll be able to get to the top with just one more step.

“Titanium isn’t the top.” the other swordsman said. His names was Raijeto. His was young, barely an a.d.u.l.t but he’s seen his fair number of battles. He looked like a younger version of Kaito. Same clothe armor, same twin rapiers and same hair color. His look was distant, as if he was always somewhere else, even when he talked.

“The Mythril rank has always been reserved for the Heroes, you don’t know even that?” Kaito asked as he raised his voice.

“How would I?” Raijeto responded. “How long has it been since a Hero appeared?” even though his youth, it seemed there was no fire in him. He didn’t seem excited at the thought of a promotion and averted his eyes when he met with Kaito’s.

“Speaking of Heroes, I heard an interesting rumor in the headquarters!” Maltra said with a bright smile.

The others, moved their eyes to her. Even Jona, closed his book and waited for her to speak. The moment the word Heroes came out of her mouth, she became the center of attention.

“There is an interesting rookie in Atestari. They talked about how he single handed defended the city from a horde of Orcs and killed their War-chief. And then he chased the remaining Orcs all the way to Bloodguard and slayed the leader behind the invasion who turned out to be a Demon!” she said with a hint of excitement. “I also heard he is a total stud!” she added.

The rest of the party looked at each other.

“Mere rumors.” Kaito scoffed. “The commoners always look for Heroes when things go bad.” he continued. “It is no wonder that some would exaggerate.”

“But rumors are often based on some fact.” Raijeto remarked.

“It might be. But we haven’t seen a Demon for 200 years. Other than the newborns that we take care of every now and then. It was probably just a raiding party instead of a horde. Besides, do you know how far Atestari is? Rumors get distorted with distance and time.” Jona said and went back to reading his book.

“Yeah, yeah whatever.” Maltra pouted her cheeks. “You are just jealous because he is handsome!” She pointed at each of them starting with Jona and said “Bookworm! Gloomy! Too old! It would be nice for me to have a pretty boy in the party.”

“Pretty boy? How old are you, anyway?” Raijeto muttered.

“What?” Maltra grinded her teeth with anger. “I am still young! Besides, he wouldn’t mind! Age doesn’t matter when there is love!” she screamed.

The others were slightly appalled with her words and looked at her with blank stares. In the end, Kaito let out a long sigh.

“I got it. We are wrong. But enough about Atestari and it’s Hero to be. We need-” he started to say but was interrupted.

“Ah!” Raijeto got up from her sit as she recalled. “I remembered, that wasn’t the reason I brought him up! Kaito, this kid is said to have a peculiar fighting style, kinda like yours and Raijeto’s.”

“What do you mean?” Kaito asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He just wears plain clothe armor but he is a swordsman. He is very fast and has a small build but enough strength to chop an Orc’s arm off. And he even uses a frail sword like a katana to do it! But most importantly, they said that he uses a Skill on his sword that makes it shine pure white. White is already a rare color for magic power, but you both have it right? And you use a similar Skill!” She said with excitement in her voice.

“Father… How is this possible?” Raijeto asked Kaito.

“I don’t know. Might be just a coincidence. Which team is he with?” Kaito asked, filled with interest.

Marta’s cheeks, became red from Kaito’s question. It took her some time before she finally answered.

“Li…le… R…kies…” she said in a low voice.

“What?” the others asked.

“It’s Little Rookies, okay? That’s what the common people call them!” She shouted to hide her embarrassment.

“Little Rookies…. Well, that’s…” Kaito tried to respond but no words came to him.

“It’s lame, okay? I know! But, they will change it, you’ll see!” She once again shouted, waving her fists up and down.

Kaito cleared his throat before speaking again.

“And what about his name? More importantly, his last name. Did you catch it?” Kaito asked, as his interest became even larger.

“I only know his first. Keita.”