Chapter 5: Into The Den

Mitsuna was confused. A thief? Him? Wasn't the whole point of this to prove that he is NOT a thief?

"What? I did what you wanted. Now tell me what the book does."

Suddenly three mercenaries approached him threateningly from behind, although Mitsuna was completely oblivious to this and even crossed his arms. As for Ashe, she flicked her wrist signaling the three to go away to which they did. She then walked towards Mitsuna while saying,

"Sure, you did do what I asked, but you also TOOK equipment from the man and even used one of his expensive potions it seems?"

She shakes her head then says, "Anyway, you're gonna have to pay for that. So here's what's gonna happen."

Mitsuna suddenly felt like he just made the worse decision of his life by taking the gear from the shop. Out of fear he places his hand on the dagger on his side.

"You can either return the gear you took and I'll give you the info you need, OR, you keep the gear and leave this place with no info. So what's it gonna be?"

Mitsuna was relieved that she was just giving him options and not threatening him. He thought about his choices carefully and decided to give her a counter-offer.

"How about, I keep the gear, and do ANOTHER task and then you give me the info. How's that sound?"

Ashe was surprised that he would want to do another task, based on how he performed in the last one she can't seem to distinguish him with any of the known bandit-groups or fighters. She was thinking that she could use this opportunity to learn more about him and potentially get him to work for her.

"Hmm. Alright, that sounds fair enough."

Suddenly the doors of the bar burst open and get everyone's attention. Out of curiosity, Mitsuna turns around to see... Joe?

"Boss! What were you thinking of sending this buffoon in?!"

He stomps his way towards Mitsuna. The boy felt as if every second of his new life here is filled with fear.

"Joe, calm down. He got rid of them didn't he?" Ashe says in a teasing yet authoritative manner.

"Got rid of them?! He let one of them escape!" Joe retorted. He then stomps his way towards Ashe.

"But the people got rid of them didn't they?" Ashe asked wit a tilt of her head.

"How should I know."

"Exaaactly."

"Still. You can't just change the plan like that out of the blue. That guy even stole gear and destroyed your special green potion!" Joe insisted.

For a second Ashe looked as if she was about to snap and go into a raging frenzy. But then she took a deep breath and said, "It's fine. Look, he's even willing to make up for that right?"

Joe looks behind his back to look at Mitsuna along with ash who leaned to her left to see him. But it seems that he was not there? They looked around the room only to see him over the counter with the bar-tender talking about what kind of alcohol is best for cleaning wounds or blood filtration.

Ashe tries to get Mitsuna's attention by clearing her throat but doesn't seem to work. So Joe storms his way over to them and lets out a loud screech. Loud enough to make someone deaf if they were close enough. Luckily Mitsuna covered his ears so he didn't go deaf. Although he and the bartender were stunned and their ears were ringing. The boy places his hand on the counter and slowly gets up. His face was filled with confusion and anger as he looked at Joe right in the eye to which he looked right back with all his four eyes.

Ashe waves her hand to get Mitsuna's attention and this time it worked and he turns and looks at her with a raised eyebrow. "So as I was saying, you're willing to repay for that armor right?"

Mitsuna has no clue what she said and just gave her a thumbs up. Later, when Mitsuna and the bartender have recovered their hearing the Ashe, Joe, and of course Mitsuna sits down at one table to talk about his, "Task".

"So, there was this group of people who raided the bar and took something very valuable from me. I want you to get it back." Ashe explains to Mitsuna.

"Sounds easy enough. And what exactly am I looking for?" Mitsuna responded.

"It's a long magical wooden staff. You can't miss it."

"Alright, and where are they hiding it?"

Ashe looks at Joe, and Mitsuna follows. Joe looks right back at her.

"Are you sure about this?" Joe blurbs.

"Relax, I'm sure he'll be able to do this, it should be easy for him right?" Ashe tried to reassure him. She quickly turns to Mitsuna and the boy nods in agreement even though he has no idea what he's going in.

"Whatever you say, boss." Joe pulls out a map from a small pouch that he was wearing on his side. He lays down the map on the table and begins to explain to Mitsuna where the staff is being hidden.

"We are here. The staff is being hidden there." Joe stands up and points to two locations with his octo-hand then quickly sits back down.

Mitsuna examines the locations carefully then says, "Alright, it should be done in no time."

Joe looks at Ashe and she looks back both of them sharing the same surprised look before Mitsuna quickly gets their attention.

"Before I go, I have a question. For Ashe." Mitsuna looks right at her and she looked quite surprised and a bit worried.

"I also have a question for you." Ashe had the same thing in mind.

"Just who exactly are you?"

"Just who exactly are you?" The two ask the same question at the same time.

"Hm. Seems like you two will have a lot to talk about when you return." Joe interrupts."

"But you best be on your way now, boy."

Without breaking his stare at Ashe, Mitsuna stands up, takes and rolls the map and places it in his pouch then leaves the bar quietly. With Mitsuna out of the bar, Ashe asks Joe, "Just who is that kid taking on Eric's Fortress?"

Mitsuna walked around town and followed the directions of the map which seems to take him away from town and into the forest and in the forest he found a small lump in the land with a doorway on one side.

"This must be the place." He tells himself. He walks over to the door and pushes it open, but it seems to be locked. He thinks to himself, "it's probably just rusty." So he tries again and with a little more strength but it doesn't work. This time he takes a good amount of steps away from the door then runs towards it at full speed with his shoulder in front of him. As he was about to hit the door it suddenly opens and reveals what seems to be a knight with full plated armor.

"Who goes th-" He was quickly cut off by a strong blow from Mitsuna. And as it turns out, behind the door was a set of stairs and the two went down them very quickly. Mitsuna managed to ride the knight by lying on his body as if he was on a surfboard as they went down the stairs. Soon enough the stairs came to an end and they were greeted with a rock wall. Mitsuna noticed that he was going faster than his makeshift surfboard and was going to hit the wall headfirst so he grabbed the person's head and placed it in front of his as he curled up into a ball.

And Smack! The Knight's head hits the wall and followed by Mitsuna guaranteeing him a quick death. As for Mitsuna, he was bruised and hurt and his heart was racing. To his right was another wall and to his left was a few more stairs which then lead to a room. He decided to get off the dead body and sit down while resting his back against the wall for a moment until he suddenly heard a voice. "What's going on here?!" He quickly played dead while placing his left hand on his dagger while the other sits near the crossbow.

Then, another man wearing plain leather armor approaches them. Since he was wearing a mask he could move his eyes without it being obvious, he could tell how close the man was, he walked near them and when he was standing right at his feet he says, "Dear God, what happened here."

Then he squats down and brings his head near Mitsuna. "And just who are you?"And suddenly in the blink of an eye Mitsuna pulls out his dagger and stabs the man in the throat while he placed his other hand on the guard's back pushing him closer making the knife go deeper.

"I'm nobody." He quietly says before pulling the knife out then sheathing it again and throwing the man off his side. Mitsuna had just killed somebody again and yet he didn't feel much. He didn't show any expression nor signs of emotion. But in his head, he thought, "Woah that was so cooI, I did the thing from that one game!"

He then looked back at the other guard in full plated armor and thought he could probably use that. He took off the knight's helmet and what he saw was a disgusting, disfigured, bloody, and crushed face.

"Ewwdsagfksasg." He made an unintelligible noise.

Mitsuna dropped the helmet and shook his hand in disgust and quickly got up as he walked away from those two and into the other room. He examined the room and it seemed to look like your average medieval dungeon. A good place for his second quest. There were a few boxes in the room that seemed like they were worth examining. Suddenly another door opens and emerges from it was another guard wearing similar leather armor. He looks at Mitsuna and shouts, "Who the bloody hell are you?" Out of instinct he quickly draws his handheld crossbow and fires it hitting the guard in the chest.

The guard's armor managed to stop him from dying but knocked him down on the ground. Mitsuna began to quickly walk to him while he drew his dagger once again. trying to intimidate him in the process while the guard quickly gets up while yelling for help. He then turns around and runs straight into the wall making the arrow go right through him and his heart.

Mitsuna quickly stops walking and holsters his dagger then starts to laugh. To him, that was quite funny. He then walks over to the body then pulls the arrow out to re-use it and as he was about to place it he notices that an arrow is already there."That sure is strange." he tells himself. But he disregards it and continues. He starts by looting the dead bodies for any gold or anything of use, afterwards, he proceeds to loot the boxes in the room. After all of this he managed to acquire, two pouches worth of gold coins and a map of the dungeon. It seems that all the guards carry a map of the place. As for the boxes it just carried basic swords and weaponry that he didn't know how to use so he just left those be.

As he proceeded through the doorway that the other guard came in he is greeted with a set of pathways and traps along with more guards. Before he got transported, Mitsuna loved playing stealth games and games that made you avoid traps so to be finally doing this was like a dream come true for him. Although something felt wrong most of the guards he encountered seemed quite lousy and managed to be the cause of their deaths.

Most of then fell into their traps or was just lousy in battle. Were these soldiers still in training? Were they just that bad? Something didn't seem right. But after countless hilarious deaths, Mitsuna encountered a room labeled "Secure Storage". When he tried to open it, of course, it was locked. What kind of secure storage has a door that wasn't locked? Although he noticed one thing. It seemed like the door was badly damaged and was on the verge of breaking. So, with one strong kick, he made the door fall. As he walked inside he noticed that there was no one guarding the inside of the room. Before he was disappointed. Now he's just sad for these folks. He walked inside and examined the room, there he saw the staff Ashe was referring to. A long magical wooden staff resting on a stand. But something else caught his eye. The staff was not the only thing they were guarding. To its left was fully plated golden armor which looked like it was the perfect size for him. So he took it off its stand and wore it. While he was wearing the chest plate he immediately fell to the ground because of how heavy it is. He realized that this armor may fit him but it's simply too heavy for him. So he took it off and left it be.

To the staff's right, however, was another set of armor but different. This one wasn't anything a knight would wear. It seemed as if, this armor was the same armor that he is currently wearing, just better. It had shiny silver gauntlets, boots, and leg armor, pitch-black gloves, a light metal chest plate. A plane white metal mask. And a black cloak.

Now, this armor seemed right for Mitsuna. As he put it on he felt cool. And as he was about to grab the staff and leave he thought for a second. If he's gonna take the role of an assassin he mustn't leave any traces. So he went back the way he came and started looting then dragging all the bodies into one room to hide them and probably burn them for later. Although he noticed that left a noticeable trail of blood as he dragged the bodies there was a lot of blood. So much that it seems the floor was naturally painted red. He thought what his options were then realized something. He quickly placed his hand on his waist as if he was looking for something and eureka! He found his special spray tied to his waist which contained a universal cleaning agent that could clean anything in a matter of seconds.

He tore the cloth of a shirt from one of the dead bodies and got to work. It seems that all his time working as a janitor paid off since he was able to clean all the blood and traces in a matter of an hour or two using up his entire spray bottle. Yes. There was THAT much blood. He looked at the place and saw it was sparkly clean and felt proud. He then took a look at his spray and began to talk to it, "Sure wish you'd refill on your own. But thanks for all your help. I'll keep you for later."

He then did his best to re-arm all the traps that either he or the lousy guards had activated and took note of their placements by marking them on the map with a small pencil he found. Once all of this was said and done he finally took the staff, removed his cloak, and wrapped it around the staff to conceal it then, walked out of the dungeon.

As he opened the door to the outside he noticed that it was now night. Although that wasn't the only thing he noticed. He saw a small campfire right outside the door and along with what seems to be at least ten or more knights wearing the same armor the one he first killed had. He could tell because these knights had a noticeable symbol on their shoulders which the other guards inside did not have. Although all these knights were either asleep or busy doing other things to even notice him so Mitsuna sneaked his way out of the forest and got back to the village. Once he entered the bar there were a lot more people than earlier. It seems that more people like to drink at night rather than during the day. As he walked in he could see the bartender's happy smile quickly wipe away and instead be filled with fear and worry. The people's laughter and chatter suddenly became whispers and murmurs as Mitsuna approached the counter and took a seat.

"Can I help you, sir?" The bartender asked in a strong voice, but he sounded a bit nervous.

"Yeah, have you seen Ashe?" Suddenly, the room becomes quiet and some of the people inside stand up. Mitsuna turned around to take a look at them and saw angry and battle-ready faces. Some of them crack their knuckles others ready their swords.

"And what exactly is your business with Ms. Ashe?" The bartender gives a cheeky smirk as he asks.

"Yeah, I got something she asked for," Mitsuna says as he turns back towards the Bartender and lifts the covered staff and places it on the counter. People behind him approached him to see what it was, some sat beside him while others stood right behind him and looked over his shoulder.

Once he had unwrapped it everyone looked surprised and shook. "Her staff."

The bartender was no exception, he was more surprised than any of them were. "I shall take this to her right away."

He quickly placed his hands on the staff but suddenly Mitsuna grabs hold of it before it gets out of his reach."I think I would like to give it to her, personally." Mitsuna says with an authoritative voice.

Suddenly one of the people standing behind him quickly draws a knife and brings it near his throat. Inside Mitsuna was scared as heck, but on the outside, it's as if it was nothing. He slowly pushed the knife aside with his free hand while saying,

"Please. I insist we had a deal." The bartender then turns to the man with the knife and he turns right back. The bartender nods to him signaling that it's okay. He then lets go of the staff and says, "Right this way."

Mitsuna thanks him as he gets off the barstool and puts on his cloak. The bartender leads him to a small room in the back. Inside he heard a group of voices talking. "Ashe is in here."

He stands beside the door to give way to Mitsuna. As he was about to place his hand on the doorknob the bartender places his hand on Mitsuna's shoulder and says, "I think you should knock before entering, don't you think?"

"Right."

"Also please, don't try to do anything stupid in there."

"Heh, what could I possibly do?"

"Come in." He could hear Ashe's voice from the inside.

He then opens the door and is greeted by two familiar faces. Joe and Ashe, along with two others he hasn't met yet. All of them took one look at him then quickly drew their weapons. One of them drew a great-sword while the other drew a bow. She raised her hands and magic circles appeared around her. Joe raised his octo hands ready to grab Mitsuna at a moment's notice. "That."

The bartender says in a teasing manner as he leaves and goes back outside.

"Who are you and how did you get here?!" One of them shouts out.

"Relax. I'm just here to talk to Ashe." He tried to calm them down.

"If you've got something to say to me, you can say it in front of everyone!" Another one chimed in.

Well, I got your staff just like you asked." Mitsuna showed them the staff in his hand.

"You? You got it?" Ashe lowered her hands and the magical circles slowly started to disappear.

"Ashe you know this guy?" The man with a broadsword asks.

"Hardly, I made a deal with him earlier morning. Said if he gets my staff I'd give him info." Ashe responds.

"Info? What kind of info?" This time the female with a bow asks.

"Hardly anything significant." Joe blurbs out.

"Can you guys leave us for a moment?" The others look at Ashe with a confused and worried look. "But he's a-"

The man with a broadsword was quickly cut off by Ashe. "He has no idea who he is alright? Now go."

The others leave while giving Mitsuna a threatening look as they pass by him. Joe was the last to leave, and as he passed by the boy he pokes his chest with his octo-hand and says, "If you do anything to her, I'll personally make sure that you will not leave this bar A L I V E."

"Joe, you can go now."

The octo-man glances at Ashe then back to Mitsuna before leaving. "Alright, have a seat."

Mitsuna closes the door behind him and then takes a seat across Ashe.

"The staff. Can I see it?" Ashe asks, and Mitsuna places it onto the table for her to examine.

She runs her fingers across the staff then grabs it with both hands. Suddenly a strange aura fills the room and a bright red glow emits from her. After a moment the glow stops and everything returns to normal.

"So it is my staff. Just how did you manage to get through all of the knights?"

Mitsuna was a bit confused by this."Knights? There was only one of them inside. Then when I finished up, there were a bunch of them waiting for me outside." Mitsuna seemed a bit frustrated while Ashe seemed confused.

"Really? Then what did you face in there?" Ashe asked further.

He began to explain how he dealt with the lousy and careless guards and how he cleaned up the entire place to leave no tracks which is why it took him so long.

"Ah. So that's why. And the uh, new armor?" She just has more questions popping up each time.

"I found it beside your staff."

"Riiiiight."

"Now." Mitsuna drops the blank book on the table. "Time to keep your end of the deal."

Ashe grabs the books and begins to flip through the pages."It's a blank book alright."

"Anything else you can tell me?" Mitsuna wanted to know more than just that.

"This book. It's a special book that you give to specialized witches so that they can check your stats and adventurer tier." Ashe went on. She closes the book and places it back on the table.

"What do you mean adventurer tier?"

"It's exactly what it means. Your tier as an adventurer. Just where did you exactly get this book if you're not an adventurer?"

"Well, I woke up with it. Along with the crossbow. Inside a barn." Mitsuna was being honest.

"And I'm guessing you have no memory of anything that happened before that?"

"Bingo."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ashe seems confused.

"Where I'm from it means "Yes" or "exactly" something like that."

"So what do you plan on doing once you leave this room?" Ashe changes the topic with a question.

"Well, I'm not sure. I guess I'll wander around for a while till I find a place to sleep." Suddenly, his stomach grumbles."And maybe a place to eat as well."

"Well. I couuuuld maybe, perhaps, possibbbllly..." Ashe let herself slur teasingly.

"Get me a place to stay along with free food in exchange for some more work, yeah, yeah, I know." Mitsuna has figured out how this woman works.

"Woah, you read my mind. But let's talk about the work tomorrow, for now, you should get some rest."

"So that you can make sure there's no way I can back out of the job tomorrow right? Real clever."

"Huh, you're a lot smarter than you look. But does it seem like you have any other option?" Ashe asked, but she was impressed with how perceptive Mitsuna is.

"Yeah. I could rent a place and buy food using all this gold I found from the place." He begins to place all the bags of gold coins on the table having five pouches all in all.

"But I think I'd rather just give you this and stick around rather than go to a random place alone. " He pushes all the pouches towards her.

"Woah woah woah, you're just going to give me all this gold?" Even to someone like Ashe, this was a huge sum in an instant.

"Yeah, sure. Think of it as my way of thanking you for keeping your end of the deal. Also, that was getting quite heavy carrying around so-" They both let out a small chuckle.

"Alright, I'll have Edward escort you to a special room upstairs and if you need a bite or a drink just ask him and he'll give you as much as you need."

"Quick question, who's Edward?"

"Oh, right. He's the bartender here."

"Oh, I see. Also Ashe."

"Yeah?"

Just what exactly is going on here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Joe calls you "Boss" people here treat you like you're some kind of important person. So tell me, who exactly are you?"

She takes a deep breath then begins to explain to Mitsuna what's going on."The land you're in is called Palvertia. It's divided into four areas. All following one government. Now this government doesn't care about what happens in the city, as long as they get paid. Because of this the local bandits and thieves managed to team up and form a group called "Ezikel". they go around harassing the local populace and are always up to no good. And as for the town guards and knights, they've either been bribed by Ezikel to pretend nothing's happening or to join them. So, the people were forced to make a group whose focus is to stop Ezikel. So, four leaders were made for the four lands of Palvertia, and for some time they were able to stop Ezikel. All of a sudden three of the leaders disappeared along with all of their men."

"And the one remaining leader?" Mitsuna asks.

"Well, you're looking right at her." She says as she leans back into her chair.

"Huh. I think I might be able to help with that." He says with confidence.

"You think? You WILL help us with this. We need a guy like you on our side. And besides, you're doing it for a good cause." Ashe persisted.

"Well, if I'm going to be helping then what else am I getting besides "helping people" and whatnot?"

"Well, what do you want?"

This took Mitsuna back for a second. What did he want? After a moment of thinking, he settled on something he could use for later.

"Huh, not sure about that just yet. For now, let's just say you owe me. Does that sound good?"

"Sure. So just to be clear you'll be working with us and helping us right?" Ashe wanted to make sure for no confusion later.

"Yeah. Sure." Mitsuna simply nodded his head.

"Great! Welcome aboard!" Ashe said with a grin on her face.

Ashe stretches her hand out and Mitsuna shakes it.

"Nice grip."

"Not bad yourself." The two then let go.

"Also, you never really told me your name." Ashe suddenly brought it up, wanting to ask since earlier.

Our boy thought for a moment before telling her his name. Since he's in a different world he could change his name to whatever he wanted. It could be something cool or something new, with this in mind he said his name was..."It's Mitsuna. Mitsuna Otoko." He didn't want to change his name. The name he got was good enough for him.

"Nice to meet you Mitsuna. My real name Is Kelly Asheburn, but you already know what to call me." She then quickly clapped her hands once. "Well, unless you have any further questions, I suggest you go get something to eat or head over to bed. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow, especially for you."

Mitsuna then got up. "Well I have a few more questions, but I'll save them for tomorrow. Thanks for everything."

He then turned towards the door and as he was about to open it Ashe quickly informs Mitsuna about how the armor he's wearing belonged to Ezikel and that it would be better off if she accompanied him to explain to the others how he's now part of the group and is not a threat. On his way though, he comes by a map of the very Kingdom he is in.

The Kingdom of Palvertia, It's capital being Arginzola. Having a land border with the empire below and beside them, and a healthy trading relationship with the Grand Duchy below. Some fine print at the edges of the map points out how Ezikel controls a vast majority of the lands, while this print called "Resistance" is Ashe's holdings within the kingdom. The terrain is usually snowy most of the year, the worst of the blizzards can be located in the northern frontier, and only about two months of summer can be felt, which is the first two months of the year.

So she did. They both went back out and she told them all about it while Mitsuna chomped down some delicious food before heading quietly to bed.