"I wanted to inform you that although we did find a suitable land for your reward, that land was occupied by hostile entities."

"....."

The emperor told him about his reward. He fell silent for a moment after hearing him. He had a guess that this would happen, especially that beasts and bandits were common enemies to the residence of this world.

And the first time he woke up in this world was in the face of a beast, so he already guessed that if ever the emperor gave him a piece of land, there was a high chance that it wasn't a normal land that he would give him. Though he also wished that he would give him a normal, peaceful land. In the end, his initial guess was right.

Certainly, the emperor wanted to use this opportunity to his advantage. He truly was the emperor. Or should he say as expected of the emperor?

Although it sucks, Eman could not blame him. It was to be expected for a person who managed his whole nation. His decision was always for the greater goods.

The emperor must have wanted to say that it's up to him to take it or not as he was looking at him with a condescending look. If he won't take it, then that's that. If he wanted to, he had to drive out those hostile creatures first.

Without him knowing, the emperor was admiring him. It wasn't frequent to find a perceiving person of his age. The emperor's corner of the mouth slowly bent at both sides as he noticed the young man in front of him was unhurriedly opening his mouth.

"Uhm, your majesty, but I am an academy level only. Don't you think this land is kind of extreme for me, haha?"

He asked, then laughed listlessly, trying to bring out pity to himself. But to no avail. The emperor was seemingly disregarding it intentionally.

In any case, no matter how he thought about it, it was an exaggeration of his capabilities. The emperor must be putting into account his achievements of killing the Rat Lord. Or maybe he was assessing him? Maybe he was yet to trust his words of killing the Rat Lord. Well, it doesn't matter now. He thought, but then he realized something.

Wait, why would he have to request such a reward in the first place? He could have just bought it directly like in his former world, right? Even though there some processing needed to be done, it would be fast and easy to acquire if the land seller had all the needed documents ready.

But then again, he had no understanding of how an empire works. 

Since he was living in a democratic country just recently, being transferred to a world where the nation was ruled by an emperor was enough to lose his mind. Not really true. But it made him ignorant. Regardless, no baby learned to talk right after they were born. Well, it was based on his knowledge and mostly it was the case.

(Sigh!)

Having a lack of knowledge was truly a scary thing. 

After his reply, he noticed the emperor repositioned himself, caressing both his hands, whereas his elbows were resting on the armchairs.

The emperor chuckled lightly before he began his reply. "There's no academy level who can defeat a high caliber opponent such as the Rat Lord in a duel…" then he paused and made a short laugh before he continued. "I can lend you some of my armies if you are uncertain," with smiling eyes, the emperor said while lifting his hand in the air. It was likely his habitual gestures whenever he spoke as he noticed the emperor did it from time to time while they were conversing.

Nonetheless, he noticed the emperor was getting suspicious. Lending him an army huh. Wait, aren't this turned into a subjugation mission? Right, it was! This emperor initiated a subjugation mission in the guise of rewarding him land and lending his army.

Watta wise move…!

The emperor, on the other hand, was looking at him with great interest. This young man in front of him, he felt like— his under the cover plan was perceived by him. However, he noticed the young man seemed to have loads of wariness within him. It mostly happens when a person is mature enough to understand his surroundings.

'Interesting…' he thought. In truth, he had a feeling that this young man was different from the other people of his peers. That's why he wanted to test him. He wanted to see if he was truly capable. He could be the golden key that he was looking for. 

"..."

A weird period of silence passed between them. In the end, he agreed. It was already 10 at night when their talk was finished. The emperor asked him many questions that prolonged their conversation. Well, he also learned quite a few things about the empire.

He was surprised to know that 65 percent of this empire's land was occupied not by the empire's people. But by bad elements such as beasts, bandits, and any other hostile creatures.

Sigh.

He let out a sigh and let his tired back fall on the soft bed. Since it was already deep in the night, he had to comply with the emperor's pleas to stay over. He was led in one of the guest rooms.

But for some unknown reason, after closing his eyes for almost an hour and a half, he found out he couldn't fall asleep no matter how he closed his eyes. He gave up and opened them again. Looks like he wasn't used to sleeping here.

He got up, then peeked in the window. The glimmer from the moon brightened up the night sky. A full moon huh. His thoughts.

Looks like even in this world, there was only 1 moon. He remembered that in the solar-system the other planets had multiple moons.

He wondered where this world was located. The last time he checked on the website on earth, the space exploration team was in the process of terraforming the other planets. What if those space people would someday discover this world unintentionally? It came across his mind while he was mulling.

At the thought of it, he let another sigh escape from his mouth. Then shook his head. There was almost no percent that it would happen. Unless this world was located near the solar system. But if it is located light-years away from it, then it was a naive thought.

After a couple of minutes gazing at the empty sky, he darted his eyes below. Some soldiers were patrolling using some conventional source of lights. Those are torches. His thoughts upon seeing it.

Just right after he blinked his eyes, a shadow leaped towards the soldiers. It happened so fast that he believed a normal person could not catch it. As he was a couple of distance away from them, he could not tell with certainty the event happened just now. 

But he had a strong guess that it wasn't a normal happening because he noticed a sheen coming from a metallic object whenever it was hit by the illumination of the glimmer coming from the moon.

Assassin!

His thought right after seeing it. The torch died immediately right after that shadow leaped to the patrolling guard.

As he was far away and was located on the higher floor of the guest room, his perception ability could not reach the distance.

He continued staring to where the shadow dragged the poor victim to hide his body. Then from the bushes, the shadow appeared once again. But Eman narrowed his eyes when 4 other shadows leaped from the plants. All of them were wearing black-fitted suits from head to toe. 

They looked like ninjas. His impression towards them.

A smile creeped out from his mouth the moment he thought of something.

Although he was a dozen meters above the ground, he could use his Lord's Domain to instantly teleport to the ground by opening an entrance to enter his domain and exit to the ground surface.

The assassins stealthily hid their presence. They move from shadow to shadow in order to prevent the guards that were patrolling the area.

While they were doing so, they didn't notice that about 50 plus meters away from their back, someone was following them.

Seeing that they went towards the western part of the palace, Their target must be the emperor!

Looked like even the emperor himself wasn't safe in his own domain huh. Who could it be who had such guts to assassinate the highest person in the empire?

In any case, it would be bad if the emperor died.

The assassins quickly hid in the plants when two guards were moving towards their direction with a torch and spear in their hands. The other assassins jumped to the trees and the others sank in the shadow.

Seeing that their movements were soundless even after the sudden motion, he surmised that they were high-level assassins. Must be to a level of those assassins who he encountered from before.

After the two patroller's backs were wide open, two of the assassins appeared behind them and stabbed their backs, whilst using their other hand to cover their victim's mouths to avoid unnecessary noise.

Then they dragged them to hide their bodies and proceeded inside the palace.

Eman took a glance at the two lying patrollers, he could no longer perceive any sign of life from them. So he decided to follow after the assassins.