Chapter 68

Dolby Inn, within the restaurant cum pub, a group with a total of 10 members occupied a big table almost near the center of the restaurant. Each member in that party held a sword or a rapier on their waist or back. The only difference was the size of the sword. Some had short sword attached to the cover near their belt and wore leather gloves arm guards were hanging near their pouch while some had long sword or a rapier hanging near their waist thin in size which presented that they emphasized speed type attacks while the last type was that of broad and heavy sword hanging on their backs. These broadswords were huge and heavy and the men who used this weapon were both huge and filled with thick muscles.

The thing that stood out the most was that the entire mercenary wore a silver star on their sleeve suggesting that they were from a strong mercenary group with the rank of silver. Generally mercenary groups unlike mercenary guilds which were operated by the nobles were a band of mercenaries who had teamed up either from the beginning or those who had worked well with each other and were ranked by white, bronze, blue agate, emerald, silver, ruby, gold and finally platinum. Mercenary guilds on the other hand were ranked from F to SSS.

Since this group were wearing a silver badge it meant that they had enough experience in this field and the people around them all being mercenaries showed envy and respect towards this group. The most glaring of all was every single person of this group were of the strength at least level 7 warrior. The group seemed to be on a mission as it was quite glaring for a group of this level in such a small city. There were many other mercenary groups talking about presence of bandits within the mountains, extermination of danger beasts, different missions issued in the adventurer's guild and mysterious disappearances within the jungle.

The thing that caught Sean's interest was the talk about recruiting different teams of mercenaries with no restriction to power levels to escort a group of merchants famously called merchant's carnival where large number of merchants from different places carry on business throughout the kingdom. Some merchants with more money carry their business with huge caravans while some merchants make do with more makeshift tents and carry their goods in smaller carriages.

The merchants carnival happen for a period of six months where the group of merchants travel to every city within the Arcadia kingdom. Not anyone could enter this group. Every merchant is a member of Merchant guild and had formed an alliance of the party called the Carnival which is a group formed by senior merchants with reasonable amount of popularity within the merchant guild. To enter this group the merchants would have to go through many checks and create various connections with these senior merchants apart from paying certain amount of percentage as fee for the sale made by the members.

Sean had been to this carnival back in his home town Shell city. With this major information in place Sean gave a glance at Cornelia who seemed to have the same intention as him. Quickly finishing their dinner and booking a room to stay Sean and Cornelia made their way to the adventurer guild which was in Market street of Gurney city.

Meanwhile within the central part of the Golem city, the entire part of a particular street was cordoned off. There were many mercenaries in payroll of other clans, the enforcement guards and many unknown spies coming in and out off the street.

It had been an hour since the explosion in the Rothschild mansion and body bags were carried out by the city guards while injured ones were treated by medical staffs in the city. The enforcement guards had a serious expression while conducting preliminary investigation. They had found that the entire mansion was rigged with almost 60 explosion circuits, each with at least the power to blow up a wall. The only reason that the explosion didn't cause damage to surrounding mansions were because of enchantments created within the compound of Rothschild manor but it ensured the destruction of the manor and the people who were living inside.

The serious expression held by the enforcement officers were because it was a capital crime to carry, trade and use of such large number of explosive circuits and they were supposed to be strictly regulated by the mage families who trade through their shops. No more than two explosive circuit could be held by a mercenary group. Only families and big guilds were allowed to hold such large number of explosive circuits and that too only on obtaining license and periodic inspection by the enforcement officers.

It was destined to be a sleepless night for many in the central district especially the enforcement officers who were clearly not happy with the recent happenings in the city. With a serial killer on loose and the massacre in the Sapphire restaurant and now a possible terror attack on one of the prestigious families in Arcadia kingdom with possibility of explosives smuggled, the reputation and respect which an enforcement officer had was starting to dwindle and there had been a recent report on spike in crime rates within the city.

"If this continues we could possibly loose our jobs or suffer pay cut" said one of the enforcement officer for which the guys around him just nodded their heads.

Meanwhile in the market area of Gurney city there stood a rather old looking building with a board containing the symbol of adventurer guild where mercenaries generally register themselves in order to take up missions issued by the guild. Being a member of mercenary guild of Rothschild family, Sean was naturally registered and had an identity card for the same. With this in view Sean and Cornelia made their way inside this old looking building and came in view of a rather good looking black haired receptionist who stood before the reception desk.

There were many notices in the board behind the receptionist indicating missions list.

With a smile to her face despite the late hour of the day, the receptionist welcomed Sean and Cornelia and asked for presentation of their mercenary ID card.

Though Sean was not hidden behind a disguise Cornelia was hiding her face with a scarf and just to be on the safer side could not give her true ID and hence presented a fake ID which she had made using her connections. Sean on the other hand presented his legal ID which Carmella had given him when he joined the clan guild.

With regular checks completed Sean asked for the mission which he had heard regarding escort of the merchant Carnival and also asked for the place to accept the mission which in the slang of mercenaries called as the 'Mission Point'.

The receptionist gave a notice containing all the information regarding the mission which included the route which the Merchant Carinval was going to take and the final destination which was also the final destination for Sean and Cornelia 'Arcadia City'.

The mission point to accept this mission would be just outside the city where the Caravans were parked. Sean also found out that the Carnival was setting off by noon tomorrow and had been in this city for two days inorder to restock food and recruit mercenaries. The best point of this mission was that many mercenary teams would love to take such mission as they instead of travelling alone with their team could travel alongside many which would be after for them as well as earn some money during the process.

Due to the attractive prospects of this mission generally many Mercenaries would love to take such mission. Without wasting much time Sean and Cornelia made their way to the mission point and formally joined the group by signing their name up through a coordinator.

With everything settled and also recieving the order to assemble at the Carnival by 8 in the morning Sean and Cornelia made their way to the most awkward part of the day.

Since they had booked only one room for security purpose and there being only one bed in the room without any living room Sean lied on the floor while allowing Cornelia to take the bed.

Since Cornelia could become the future queen of the Arcadia kingdom it was even more weirder for Sean to be in this situation. Just to be on the safer side he had once again used the memory manipulation device to create a perfect illusion that being in the same room as Sean was exceedingly normal. He could have taken things even more crazier like creating a illusion that having sexual relation with him being normal, he did not nor will he ever do that despite his character being more inclined towards evil.