Emperor's Reckoning

A horse was running on the pathway, carrying the weight of the wagon with him. The wheels spun under the scattered light from the sun. Reinhard who sat in the middle had his hand on the reign. His two friends were sleeping beside him, using his shoulders as a hard pillow. The forests started thinning out, and it invited the smile of the driver. Over the end of his view, he saw buildings.

The grin on his face was then accompanied by an exciting tone from his lips, "Guh City!"

"Huh?" two of his friends had their eyes fluttered before waking up from their slumber. Noah rubbed his eye before he heard Reinhard repeated his words.

"It's Guh City!" said Reinhard as he saw the forest start thinning out.

"About time," said Lyon from inside the wagon. "Who are we going to meet again?"

"The man's name is Lenu," said Rayus. "Though, we have no idea what he looks like."

"We need to think that later though," said Reinhard. "There are two guards telling us to stop with their hands."

"Then stop," said Lyon.

"Alright," Reinhard nodded before he slowed down the caravan. The two guards gave them furrowed brows before one of them caught the lotus on their uniform, "Ah, you're from Nirvana School?"

"Yes, sir," said Noah with a nod.

"Ah, I see, I see, did you just traverse from the forest?" asked one of the guards.

"Yes, we did," said Rayus. "Is there a problem?"

"Well, we should be the one asking you that," said one of the guards, "There was a loud detonation or some sort of origination from the forest, have you come across anything suspicious?"

"Nothing is suspicious," said Lyon from inside the caravan.

"Hm?" The guards raised their brows before seeing a young man getting out of the caravan with a smile on his face. "And who might you be?" asked one of them.

"I'm their teacher," said Lyon with a proud smile as he approached the two guards. However, he noticed that the guards kept their alertness up. He didn't have a special set uniform from Nirvana School and coming out from the back of the caravan was already suspicious enough. "Why do I have the feeling that you don't believe me?"

"Pardon my intrusion," said Noah. "However, this man is really our teacher. "

The guards furrowed their brows before seeing the three students nodding at the same time.

Lyon very carefully looked at the shifting change of the guards' eyes. Once the sharpness softened, he began to speak, "Gentlemen, there is nothing going on in the forest, probably some beasts fighting over a territory."

"What is your name? I've never seen your face before," said one of the guards.

"My name is Lyon, I'm the teacher of these three knuckleheads," said Lyon.

"Lyon? Are you a new teacher?" asked one of them.

"Fresh as fish swimming in the sea," said Lyon. "However, we are not going to waste our time here speaking about my identity right?"

"I'm afraid we need to have a thorough check on you," said one of the guards flatly. "We cannot risk the chance that you might harm our city."

"What?!" Reinhard exclaimed.

One of the guards looked at the three students, "We know who you three are now, you three made it to the news, the ones that were rumored to have an encounter with the Burgeon Swan, a group of criminals with not a shred of heart for humanity."

Reinhard gritted his teeth.

"So what?" asked Lyon before he courted all of the attention. "There is no need to check on us either, right?" Lyon smiled before he passed him a pouch. "Right..." he emphasized the word as if it came from the very Paradise.

Rayus had his eyes sharpened. (Bribery!?). He immediately covered Reinhard's nobility mouth as he whispered, "Close your damn mouth for now."

The guards looked at the pouch in Lyon's hand. Lyon smirked before grabbing by the neck of the touch and bouncing it off in the air a couple of times with a pull. The sounds of tokens clapping each other made their chin rise. The temptation made their adam's apple bounce up and then down. They looked at each other's opinions through their eyes before looking back at Lyon. One of them looked around and found no one before giving Lyon an open hand.

Lyon smiled and hovered the pouch over his hand. He sharpened his eyes, "Do you know a man named Lenu?"

The guards didn't speak a word before Lyon let go of the pouch from his grab. The moment the pouch made an impact, the hand slightly sunk as the receiver's eyes opened wide in disbelief.

The guards turned up a smile. "Well, well, if it's not Teacher Lyon, is so great to see you."

The three students raveled in the outcome. The guards that were about to give him cold shoulders had now shifted into the heat. Moreover, the weight of the pouch that the guard received made them gulp their saliva. They knew not the amount inside the pouch, but they could have a rough guess that it was probably more than half of what they had just earned from those corpses.

"Yes, yes, it's very nice to see both of you," said Lyon with a burst of laughter.

( He just played along so naturally... that's quite a skill ) thought Noah as he took great notice of the flow Lyon was going. The gesture, the note in his voice, and how he presented himself Noah unconsciously tried to learn his behavior.

"Now then, we didn't come from the forest, did we?" asked Lyon.

"Oh, absolutely not," said the guard before asking his friend for confirmation, "Isn't that right?"

"Absolutely, you never came from the forest, you have nothing to do with the loud boom," said the guard before the two of them laughed.

"Great, great," Lyon nodded. "Now then, about the man named Lenu, do you know where can I find him? A friend of mine wanted to give him a souvenir."

"A souvenir? A souvenir being escorted especially from you? Lenu is a lucky guy," said the guard with laughter.

Lyon smiled before the other guard pointed out the road, "Teacher Lyon, you go straight from the main road, once you're at that four-way with— a fountain at the center of it— you turn left. At the end of it, there is an old bar there with a tilted sign, that's where you can find Lenu."

"I see," Lyon nodded. "This old bar, is it really famous?"

The guard shook his head, "It's an old bar with wine that tastes more like a donkey's piss."

"Ugh," Lyon was disgusted, "Sounds like a cheap beer."

"A what?"

Lyon sighed, "This joke is getting old."

"I'm sorry?"

Lyon shook his head, "Nothing, nothing, pretend I say nothing." Lyon took a deep breath before looking at the two guards, "Great work you two, keep up the good work."

"O-kay?" The guards answered before looking at each other with confused looks.

Lyon nodded before returning inside the wagon and joining Selena.

"Well, we'll be going now," said Noah, "Thank you for your service."

"No, thank YOU," the guard smirked before putting away the pouch from their eyes. "I heard that the graduation event is coming, I hope you all do your best and win."

( I can see it in your eyes, the lies of your word ) thought Noah but upfront, he nodded with a smile.

Reinhard on the other hand was furrowing brows. He too sensed that the guard's wish for them faring in the graduation event was seasoned heavily with sarcasm. However, Rayus handed over the reign.

Reinhard let out a sigh before with a heavy heart he took the reign once more. The caravan continues inside Guh City.

The city was not as big as Nemk City, but despite that, the market was bustling as any healthy city would. The three students were occasionally called by the merchants as they passed them by, but they could only softly smile and nodded away.

After going the way that was instructed— going left at the four-way — the horse cantered slowly before they noticed the path was getting more narrow as they delve into the direction told. There were fewer people, but it didn't smell like a slum. The people they found with their eyes still neatly dressed greeted them with a smile.

"This atmosphere is really weird," said Reinhard.

"Yeah, the air feels a little bit off," said Noah. "It feels like something illegal is happening right under our nose."

"What are you talking about, something illegal almost always happens under our noses," said Rayus before he noticed the place that was mentioned, "There, look."

"A tilted sign," said Reinhard.

"Teacher, we're here," said Noah. "A tilted sign, that said, Frog's Pond."

"Considering our relation with the word frog these last few days, looks like we are here indeed," said Lyon before getting out of the cargo. Selena stood with her head already on his shoulder.