Supreme Monarch

The sun had not yet risen, but there were already quite a number of Hunters gathered in the Lord Aur castle's courtyard. The last people to arrive were Berot and the members of Dominion, for a total of 21 people. All of the people gathered for this quest were high-ranking Hunters within Winged city and even the entirety of the Sentro region.

Most teams kept a fixed distance from the others, but there were a few that were acquainted with others and thus were sticking together. Although they had all been hired to do the same job and would have to work together at some point in time. Their pride as high rankers made them unable to make the first move.

As Dominion entered the courtyard, every single eye inside turned to face them. Their scrutinizing gazes contained quite a lot of pressure and weaker Hunters would've run away by now.

"Ah, there's a few familiar faces. I guess that's expected when you hire almost all the highest-ranking Hunters around Huh. Although I don't see the Dark Wizard though."

"Indeed... it would seem that Mr. Kline's party had chosen not to accept this quest. Still, there are a lot of rarely seen Hunters around today. Goes to show the pressure the city had placed on the Guild."

"Or perhaps the Guild also had its own agenda in this. I personally didn't expect to see the famous Spirit Mage Lady Bell and her Knell haze group here today."

"Let's leave that aside for now; since lady Bell is there, the ones over there should be the other team leaders, right?"

Almost everyone present was divided into their teams, and among them, a group of four people was discussing in the center of the courtyard.

"Alright, it seems like those are only the party leaders so I'll go over to say hi. You guys try and get along with the others okay."

"…Ah! Ugh, is that lady from—? Don't tell me those crafty pigs from Red Ruby are here too...? Why the heck would they even hire them. They're supposed to be information specialist but all their information are always wrong or incomplete. Incompetent idiots."

"I'm not sure that's the case Eliss. They might be doing it on purpose you know."

"Why the fuck will they do that. Isn't selling wrong information damaging to their reputation."

"Yes, selling wrong information would be. But none of the information they've sold so far is wrong though. They are just incomplete and missing certain details. They would then later sell the more complete information for an even greater price than it's worth."

"Geez, those vicious bastards."

"—I don't like them either."

"Ah, it doesn't matter if you like them  or not, just remember we're supposed to work together as a team for this mission so try and tolerate them. Besides, I don't see anyone else from the group so maybe she's alone this time. Don't say anything stupid though."

"Are you actually calling me stupid right now?" An annoyed look was plastered on Eliss face as she glared daggers at Abel.

"Come on guys, you're going to ruin our impeccable reputation."  Saying that Berot walked in between the pair and smiled mischievously.

"…Hey, I'm going over to say hi to Bell. Don't give them a reason to mock me. We're one of the strongest parties in here if not the strongest. So let's not give them a reason to look down on us."

"Fine fine, just go."

"Work hard, leader."

After hearing Lyka cheer him on, Berot deliberately scrunched up his face and grumbled, "for me to be the voice of reason. Those two must be really confident today." He then walked to the group of four standing in a circle in the center of the courtyard.

The first to greet Berot as he walked over was a female Tritanium ranked Hunter he was acquainted with. 

She was an attractive middle-aged lady with long single-braided brown hair and beautiful brown eyes that seems to be able to see through everything. She was about the same height as Berot and wore a raven black cloak with blue threads designing it and held and long wooden staff that was about half an inch shorter than her. 

She was his acquaintance who was also well known as a very powerful spirit mage, named Bell. As she greeted him, the other three turned to observe him. While he had never met them before, he was fairly aware of who they were.

Standing next to Bell was a Duranium ranked Hunter in a suit of Dark Blue-colored full plate armor. Due to the strange structure of the plates and the wide shape of his pauldrons, he did not look like a typical humanoid creature but that off a monster standing on two legs.

Two large tusks stuck straight out of his helmet, and from his exposed green skin, one could surmise what race he was. Looking oddly similar to the evolved troll Kazko, one would be mistaken if they considered him a troll as there was a large disparity in their heights. Instead, it was Kazko who looked similar to his race after his evolution.

His build was that of a warrior and he wields a large war hammer and a shied was strapped on his back.

"Oh Berot, I heard you returned yesterday. I guess you accepted this request as well." Bell said in an oddly amused tone.

"Well honestly I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter but the terms of the job seem favorable this time."

"—And if it isn't the strongest mage in Sentro. I would this types of jobs would be beneath you."

"Now why would you think that Vrutha the brute. Why are you here?"

Interrupting his conversation with Bell was the Orc, Vrutha the Brute. Leader of a Duranium ranked Hunter team called, Battle Lords. 

"What do you mean why am I here. For the battle of course. That what we orcs live for."

Ignoring the brute for a moment. Berot waved to the other two people. His attitude was neither polite nor dignified but they didn't mind. This was because they did not care much about one's status, not their attitude only their strength and Berot was definitely not weak.

Taking a look at the groups behind Bell and Vrutha. Berot counted their numbers to be a total of 17. Bell's group was a party of only women, most of which were either lesser demons or Demi humans. The number nine and including her would make them an even Ten.

Vrutha group were four strong-looking orcs like himself and if you included him, that would make them five. The only remaining two seem to have accepted the quest on as solo Hunters but as they were both Tritanium rank as him, they must be really confident of their strength.

However, Berot had never seen these two fight before so he couldn't be sure but he trusted the Hunter guild ranking system as it wasn't flawed enough to rank Hunters based on their magic potential alone.

"So Bell, you're friends with Kline right?"

Hearing his sudden question, bell turned to face Berot with an expression that said. "So?" Before tilting her head slightly.

"I was just wondering why he didn't show up today. You'd think going to a dangerous place like the Farbelt pass would be something he would really be into."

"Oh, that... he said he wasn't interested."

"Huh, why?"

"He's looking for someone."

"Really? Who could that be?"

"A few days back he heard that someone who had only just joined the magic institute defeated their vice guild leader in a one on one duel."

"Oh right, he is part of the magic guild as well isn't he."

"Correct."

"So what does he want to do with that person."

"Fight him of course. He was aiming to one day defeat the vice guild leader after all so now he wants to defeat the person who defeated his prey or something dumb like that. You know how men are."

"Oh, I see. Isn't that person the VIP merchant I've heard about?"

"I think so."

Bell smiled thinly, Berot saw that she was no longer interested in the topic and so he shrugged and turned to the other man.

"This is the first time I've spoken face to face with you."

He extended a hand to the other man as a show of respect, and that man took it. His was a sturdy and strong hand. The man narrowed his eyes for a moment before speaking.

"Ah yes, The strongest mage Berot from Dominion isn't it."

"I've also heard of you. Godspeed slayer, Kazim Izazel. They say you're the fastest swordsman in the surrounding regions. Compared to me whose only ranked in Sentro. I'll say you're more impressive."

"How flattering for a man of your caliber to know of me."

The man had short grey hair that was styled upwards and dazzling grey eyes with extremely handsome features that matched Zomatsu. Showing his high noble standings even though he was currently a Hunter.

He wore light metal armor and wielded a one-sided curved blade that was longer than the average sword.

Although he spoke in a polite manner and had a gentle smile. No one could mistake the arrogance in his eyes and posture that seem to consider everyone around him a lesser being.

'I should be careful of this one.'

After exchanging brief pleasantries with Kazim, Berot moved on to greet the last one of the group. 

She was a young lady with short black hair and a pair of mismatched eyes that seems to contain a vast amount of secrets. One is blue and the other golden. Wearing a pair of spectacles that complemented  her eyes, she was an intellectual beauty that gave off the air of a wise and cunning witch.

She wore light armor that was hidden under a light brown cloak. Although she was a representative from Red Ruby. It would seem that she had chosen to come along on this mission for whatever reason. 

"Hey there, you must be the famous Ms. Aegar Blare aren't you?"

"Indeed I am, and you're Berot, the so-called strongest mage in Sentro."

"So-called. isn't that a little—"

"—Nope! We at Red Ruby pride ourselves in our information gathering abilities so being up to date is only natural for us. According to our current data report. The two recent members of the magic institute may have already surpassed you even though we are fairly confident that they haven't even shown us the full extent of their abilities."

"Huh? Wait what are you—"

"Moreover, we've never even seen Master Lix in combat and only his companion who we've judged to be weaker than him, meaning his level even surpasses that of the vice guild leader and even the guild leader of the magic institute. There's a high chance he's even a legendary behemoth that surpasses even current-day demon lords."

"Wait... Master?"

Hearing his question, her face suddenly flushed red as she started fidgeting wildly with a lewd expression on her face as she couldn't help but continue ranting.

"Yes, Master Lix is a man most deserving of our respect and everyone at Red Ruby greatly admires him. For a man to so completely block all our surveillance of him makes our hearts skip several beats that we just might die if it skips a few more. He's just so cool and mysterious and is able to perfectly hide his presence. He's like a god taking a mortal form. I just want him to embrace me in his big strong arms."

"Errr... Rig...ht..." Berot couldn't help but think he had made a mistake coming here but he could not just leave just like that so he had to endure it for just a bit. "Umm, so where's the rest of your team?"

"Oh silly you. Of course, they are all out there trying desperately to find Master Lix by all means necessary. I'm so jealous that they have a chance to encounter him before me but I have to earn some more funds to increase our efficient information range past the surrounding cities. I'm sort of hoping we'll run into him on our way to the mine since he escorted those five there and back safely. I'm sure they just made him do all the work. Those idiots. Anyway back to—"

"—Oh look, the guild leader is coming so it must be time to go—" 'Thank You Lord' "—I better get back to my team, let catch up on this later."

Saying that Berot literally ran away as the Hunter guild leader came out of the Lord's castle accompanied by a maid.