Emperor's Reckoning

Lyon sighed and shook his head as he saw Kesya left with trailing dust. He turned around and was immediately greeted with Luna's little pout. 

"You want to buy something?" said Lyon with a wry smile.

"I don't know, what do you think?" asked Luna before she crossed her arms.

"Wait a minute, aren't you both princesses?" Lyon asked with one raised brow.

"What of it?" asked Lumina. "I WAS a princess."

"Well, technically, you girls are loaded," said Lyon.

"I don't have a dime of AT in my pockets, nor the treasury of the Phantera Kingdom," said Luna. "Father used to say that this world is full of danger and mystery that had yet be uncovered."

"Did he tell you that in your sleep?"

"Kind of," Luna shrugged. "I forgot, it's been a very long time."

Lyon crossed his arms and smiled. "Well, I have another ten thousand here, we can splurge if we want."

"It's not yours, right?" Lumina raised one of her brows.

"Hey, hey, I thought you're an ex-princess, not a real one," said Lyon.

Lumina sighed, "It's never my job anyway to pass on judgment."

"But you always think about it," Lyon muttered before Lumina's ears twitched.

"What's that?"

"I said nothing," Lyon quickly replied with a skipped heartbeat.

"Hmph!" Lumina raised one of her brows. "You think that you can avoid my ears?"

"Hehe, at least I tried," Lyon scratched the back of his head.

"Lyon, we should pick up a quest first before we stroll the city," said Luna. 

"Luna is right," answered Lumina. "The more we stall, the more likely the quest will take a fleet out of our hands."

"We can just, rip out the quest out of the board," Lyon shrugged his shoulder. "That way, we don't need to worry about having others stealing our quest."

"Master, I don't think that's a good idea," said Graham.

"Why's that?" asked Luna. 

"It's the adventurer's code," said Graham. "We should respect the adventurer's code because we were ones as well."

Lyon sighed. "Really?"

"We better stay out of attention for a while, you almost got the whole town riled up because of that duel," said Lumina. "You don't want to invite unnecessary trouble, do you?"

"Alright, fine," Lyon shrugged and give in. "You know, if only they gave us a better offer, we wouldn't need to do this."

"We should be fine, master, it's not the first time," said Graham.

"Heh, I guess you're right," Lyon put his hands on his waist and grinned.

"Though, it's not good times," muttered Graham.

"Let's see here, advertisements, fetching, bounty, collecting, man they got a lot more options than the first city," Lyon pressed his lips and nodded. "Why don't we take all of it?"

"Are you sure? Won't you get tired doing all of them at once?"

"I mean the reward is shitty, but if you added up all of the shits into one, it will become a huge pile of..." Lyon paused as he blinked his eyes. "Well... shit."

"Pfft!" Luna had to clutch her stomach as she laughed. 

"That has got to be one of the worst analogies I've ever heard," said Lumina before she burst a snort and quickly hid her chuckle.

Lyon shook his head. "We can split up, let's see, Graham are you good at hunting beast?"

"I can do that in my sleep," said Graham.

"Good, then you go for the bounty quest, it seems like this one is... hmm... that's odd, why does this bounty have stars on it?" Lyon furrowed his brows.

"Oh, you're right," Luna looked at the bounty more closely.

"I thought that all the quests from the public notice board don't have stars? Didn't that Avi woman say so?"

Graham shook his head, "The quest put on the public notice board can also have stars in them if the one requesting it, put an extra fee from the guild."

"They are really putting everything to gain money, huh," said Lyon.

"Guild is not a community service, master," said Graham.

"That's harsh," said Lyon.

"It was you who taught me that."

"Oh, then it's lenient."

Lumina and Luna sighed at the nodding Lyon. They were always surprised by how shameless Lyon could be. 

"What about the reward?" asked Lyon. "Do they split it?"

"That would be between the one who wants to also put it here and the respective guild, they might even post it on more than two boards," said Lumina, "Wait, that's possible right?"

Graham nodded, "That's indeed possible, however, it will come with an exorbitant cost."

"That's understandable since all the guilds are basically competing with each other for the seat in the Guild Link," said Lyon before he rubbed his chin. "You know what would be fun?"

"No," Luna shook her head.

"Bad idea," Lumina shook her head.

Graham merely shook his head.

"Hey! I didn't even say anything yet!"

"You want to build your own guild," said Lumina with her chin slightly raised and one brow also raised. 

"Wha?! How did you—."

"It's immensely predictable, Lyon," Luna sighed.

"Wow, it's like you guys have developed a pattern to recognize me," said Lyon with a wry smile.

"Your actions to be precise, however, it's not like we could stop you," said Lumina. "Those two are entirely different things whatsoever."

"In the meantime, I can," said Graham. "Please don't do it, master."

"Yeah, but, imagine the fun," said Lyon. "You know, running a guild."

"Well Kesya quit," said Graham.

"Alright, alright, I'm just joking anyway," said Lyon as he shrugged his shoulder. He darted over to the only quest with stars. 

"Hmm, we must hunt this beast called the... Cockatrice?" Lyon furrowed his brows. "It has six stars."

"Six stars? But the whole page seemed to be eaten with time," said Luna. "Is nobody taking this quest?"

"Well, it is a six stars quest," said Lyon. "Even the guy I dueled with is a Five-Stars adventurer."

"A Cockatrice?" Lumina raised her brows. "That's a dangerous beast."

"Really? Isn't it just a chicken?"

"What are you talking about? It's not! It's not just a chicken anyway," said Lumina. "The head is that of a chicken, but it has serpent like-scales."

"Half chicken and a half snake?" Lyon crossed his arms and raised his brows.

"It has four legs, master."

"Chicken legs?"

"No, the legs are like wyverns," added Graham. "They have a deadly capability that could kill a god with a stare."

"Pfft, c'mon now," Lyon smiled but Graham didn't. "Are you kidding me? That's like cheating."

Graham shrugged his shoulder. "It's not cheating, many weak cultivators died this way."

"Really?"

"One glance, it was enough to stop their heart."

Lyon furrowed his brows. "Did they turn into stone or something?"

"No, it didn't petrify, it's just a glance and they're dead. Not even the mightiest armor can save them," Graham shook his head.

"Damn, that's really cheating, does this beast also come from another world or something?"

"What?"

"N-No, forget it," Lyon shook his head. "So can you do it?"

"I told you before, master, I can do it in my sleep," answered Graham calmly.

"Wait a minute," Lyon frowned. "You mean you're fighting it with your eyes closed?"

"Hunting is the more appropriate word, master," said Graham before he nodded, "But yes, it would be better to do it with one's eyes closed."

"That's dangerous," said Luna.

"That's careless," said Lumina.

"I was taught this way," said Graham.

"Must be one crazy guy," Lyon smirked before the others looked at him. "What...? OH? It was me, wasn't it?"

"You're one crazy guy, Lyon," Luna chuckled.

"But! There must be a better way right? How about ranged weapons?" asked Lyon.

"Ranged weapons won't work, because they are quite agile, one arrow or javelin always miss if it was a tad too slow."

"Always miss?"

"Always," Graham nodded.

"What about magic then?" asked Lyon. "We can still activate magic from far away."

"The Cockatrice is not empty inside its head. They can flee at the sight of a magic brand," said Graham.

"Or we can just bind them? How far is the distance before you get instantaneously killed?" asked Lyon.

"Nobody dared to give a precise estimate, and they all varied in strength too," Graham shook his head. 

"Hmm, what a handful creature," muttered Luna.

"How about trapping it?" asked Lumina.

"It would be difficult and time-consuming," Graham shook his head. "Unless we are willing to sacrifice a week in the forest, we can't."

"A week?!" Lyon was taken back before he sighed. "Though adventuring is fun, spending nights in a forest is definitely not."

"Then we go with the original plan, master," Graham nodded. "I will hunt the beast, it should be done pretty quickly."

"Can you not make a scene with this though?" asked Lyon.

"We should notify the one that's going to reward us first, we should be able to make some sort of a deal that benefits us," said Luna.

"I agree," Lumina nodded.

"En," Lyon nodded.