Hundreds of men were gathered in front of a sewer gate. Knights, paladins, slayers, mages, and common guards, a small army had formed, all preparing to raid the sewer. Officially, the men were briefed they would hunt a necromancer that was hiding underneath the city of Hazen — but the men knew there was something more to it than a simple necromancer hunt. There were too many powerful and high-ranking people in this raid. One could say, the entirety of Hazen’s military might was gathered for this excursion. They did not know the details, but either they were facing a lich, or it had something to do with the mysterious earthquake that only hit half the city two days ago. Either way, most people were expecting trouble, some even saw this as an opportunity to make a name for themselves.

  Viscount Kylan Adria Hazen, the second son of Count Hazen and the vice-commander of the city guards was walking around the procession of men, observing the preparation of the mission, ensuring nothing went wrong before they even went inside the sewer.

  “Robert, how is everything going on right now?” He asked his lieutenant and childhood friend, Robert, on how the preparation was going. Kylan was nervous — this was one of his biggest operation so far, and a chance to redeem himself for failing to take care of all the mess that had been happening in the city lately.

  “The supplies and weapons count is underway, but there should be no problem. We did a headcount and we have: twelve knights including us, five paladins, thirty-five guards, and twenty-two slayers in our group. The mage group had also just arrived. Eighteen of them. According to their report: ten of them are second-circle mage, six are third-circle, and two fourth-circle mage. They are waiting for you, you can brief them anytime.”

  Other than the knights and paladins, the mage played an important role in this mission. They would act as support, but more importantly, they were tasked to count the number of molrrets and molrrets holes inside the sewer. The city leadership needed to know how big of a problem the molrrets infestation under their city was. They could not exactly bring administrative staff with them inside the sewer, so the mages who could protect themselves must be the one to do the counting.

  “All right, let’s head there. Once the briefing done, prepare the men. We’ll start the raid.” Kylan wanted to start the raid as soon as possible, they were not behind schedule or anything, but he did not want his group to bring down the other groups. His was responsible for entering the sewer from the south-east outskirt of the city — in a way, he was responsible for cutting off the escape path of the necromancer… or another entity.

  Kylan was on his way to meet the mages, when he noticed a red-haired boy, who could not possibly be older than fifteen among the group of slayers. Kylan did not know who the boy was or why he was here, but he was definitely too young to be involved in this operation. Kylan turned his direction, towards the red-haired boy.

  “What are you doing here boy? This is not a place for kids. Where’s your parents? Or guardian?”

  The boy was whittling to pass time, he looked up at Kylan, not even standing up in front of the presence of someone who was obviously a commander and a noble. The boy just smiled, there was a sense of eeriness in his smile.

  “Well, mister. I’m here for work.” The boy pulled out a bronze dog tag from under his shirt collar. Kylan was surprised that the boy was recognized by the slayer guild as a bronze level slayer. Normally, a beginner slayer was issued a wooden dog tag, only after they had proven they were capable that they were issued a bronze tag. There was a saying that you were not a real slayer until you had a bronze tag. The boy’s skill was backed by the guild, and they did request the guild to send bronze slayers as a minimum requirement for this operation. The boy had every right to be among them — but Kylan did not like it. He did not want children to be put in danger.

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  Kylan pulled out his purse. “Here ten silver Azul. The price of the commission. You can have it… in exchange, don’t join the operation. It’s too dangerous for a young child like you.”

  The boy happily accepted easy money, “I’ll take the money, but also the commission from the guild. Unlike you pampered little prince, I need to risk my life to earn a living. So I’ll join the operation, don’t want the guild to take away my tag for falsifying a job report.”

  “YOU-” Robert was angry at the boy's underhanded insult towards his master, but Kylan stopped him before he could charge at the boy. “I understand. But I would like you to reconsider. I can even put in some words to the guild for you. That way you got paid for the commission without any risk.”

  The boy considered Kylan’s offer, “Nah. I’m in the mood to kill some zombies. You don’t need to worry about me, prince. I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.” The boy said while twirling his bronze tag.

  “I see…” Kylan really wanted the boy to reconsider. But he could not waste his time convincing the boy, he got other responsibilities. “Do take care then. And if you change your mind, do not be afraid to approach me. I’ll make sure you’ll get compensated for your work.”

  Kylan left the boy. The boy waved him goodbye with a smile — Robert glared at the boy, convinced the boy was disrespecting his master’s kindness. As Kylan left, the crowd who were watching the commotion dispersed, leaving a single man who was wearing a full-mask standing next to the red-haired boy.

  “Yezus, Red. Do you need to be so rude to that noble? You’re lucky your head not rolling right now.” The masked man was more nervous for the boy than the boy himself. “Oh please, Evan. That guy used his ‘precious’ time to ask me not to join this ‘dangerous’ operation. He ain’t gonna execute for some disrespect.”

  Evan sighed. Sometimes he wondered, who was crazier, the red-haired boy or Rex. Either way, both of them were a pain to deal with. “Can’t you just accept the money and bail? Knowing you, you could easily get more than twenty silvers from that noble.”

  “Evan Evan…” the boy said in a playful tone, “you think we’re actually here to hunt some monsters and our dear friend Carven.” He got a point. Evan did not really know why they were here. The boy just invited him to a slayer job without giving him much details. And other than Rex and the boy, Evan was the only other person in their gang who owned a slayer tag.

  “So… why we’re here? We’re not actually killing Carven right?” The boy finished his whittling. He was admiring his carved wooden zombie. “I think Carven already dead.”

  Evan’s jaw dropped. He did not hear anything about this, not even from Rex. As callous as he was, Rex was not the type to leave his men uninformed — he was a former military man after all. “Wait, wait ,wait. Is that true, Red?”

  The red-haired boy just shrugged, “maybe. The last time we got any contact from him was when he decided to go against the informant's plan and tried to do his own thing… Then there’s the earthquake… Then we lost contact. Either one or two things happened.”

  “And those are?” Evan was curious. “Either he succeeded with his plan and now knee deep in necromancy stuff… or he’s dead.” The boy was so sure that Carven was dead that Evan had to ask further. “Maybe it’s the first one. Or heck, maybe he just decided to bail from the city… for whatever reason.”

  The boy sighed at his companion’s wishful thinking. “Let’s assume he’s running away — let’s say because he knows about this raid. Why won’t he contact Gano? They have good relationship. Gano would happily sponsor his necromancy research in exchange for some undead.”

  The boy made a good point, Evan had no reason to deny that. “Then maybe he succeeded and focused on his research.” But Evan still could not accept the idea that Carven was dead. “Maybe. We’ll find out soon enough.”

  The procession of men started to move. Kylan had finished briefing the mages and had begun barking orders to enter the sewer. The moment of truth was upon them, but the red-haired boy could not be bothered about Carven’s fate. He had other reasons for wanting to join the raid…

  That reason was Regulus.