Edward Hornraven was one of the last to acquire the intelligeance report. Cale’s father, Elyas Malark, had appeared in a disheveled state to his door clutching the intelligeance report to his chest looking left and right as if his own life was in danger.

When the terrorized soul was trying to explain gibberish about the Silent Owl, Edward Hornraven was starting to think that one of his last few friends had finally lost it.

As he read the report, he thought that it was an elaborate prank. His useless son was the hero of the city? He laughed for a while after reading the report.

Elyas who was looking at him misinterpreted his laughter and screamed: “So you knew? All this time you sent your son make the lives of the most powerful nobles of the city miserable, me included. For what? Goddamnit, for what? And you have the gal to put a measly 25,000 on his head so you can keep laughing behind our backs. And my son. Do you know that my son always disappear god knows where every now and then only to be seen with your son when he comes back? Goddamnit Edward, I want an explanation. I do not want my family to be part of this. Those guys will keep raising the bounty until your son is dead in a ditch somewhere. I do not want my son and family to suffer alongside him.” All the anger inside of him took over and released him from his fear as he saw Edward laugh like he had heard the best joke ever. He even wanted to fight him, but a man who was knighted by the king himself was not to be taken lightly.

Edward looked at his angry friend and the barrier that had shielded him in seeing everything as a bad joke, collapsed.

“This can’t be real. For a joke to reach such proportions. We are adults for god’s sake. He is almost brought to tears with anger.” Thought Edward.

He read the report for the second time and after each line, his heart would beat even harder and faster. Sweat started to pour down his face.

After he finished, he went and poured two glasses of his best alcohol and served Elyas under the pleading eye of the butler who felt useless in the décor.

Elyas saw his friend’s behavior as a godsent and accepted the drink. He needed something to calm his nerves. Finally, he was going to get answers. But the next words that came out Edward’s mouth almost swept him off his feet.

“I do not know anymore than you do. I barely talk to Nilus. I hope you made a mistake with this. My cripple of a son cannot be the Silent owl.” Said Edward as he downed the content of his glass and poured himself another.

“Look at the booklet. That is the Assassin Guild’s intelligence report. Since when do they sell false information at 20,000 gold coins. It is almost worth the price you put on your son.” Elyas’s anger was reignited. He asked: “What am I to tell my wife and children? They are so scared you have no idea.”

Edward grew angry as well:“What do you want me to say exactly? That he was killing under my orders? Are you crazy? Who in his right mind would play hero for nothing in this day and age. With all that gold he gave back to the poor, I would be in a better situation right now. I put a contract on him because, I cannot let a useless son of mine inherit all of this for nothing. His brothers and sisters joined the knight corps a long time ago and they are doing a good job. His sisters were promoted to the queen’s guard. His brothers are applying for the hunting squadron. They have their own full lives, yet he does not. Legally, he will inherit all of this. Do you understand now? I am a pathetic noble because of him.”

Elyas was starting to think that his friend was as clueless as he was. He said:”Well start believing that your son is the Silent Owl from now on. I suggest you read the next intelligence report. When I was coming here I overheard that he singlehandedly killed hundreds of assassins that ambushed him.”

Elyas just left without saying goodbye.

***

Lucas the butler had just dismounted his horse and was running for the mansion.

As he arrived at the door to the room, he knocked twice and entered. He was greeted by gloomy faces.

The atmosphere inside the room was unsightly.

“Well tell us the highlights and fast.” the old man, Dyrk Redwald ordered.

Lucas cleared his throat and said: “He killed 487 assassins on his own. The rest fled but 48 S rank assassins formed an alliance to kill him. One of the 48 turned out to be a friend of Nilus they chatted for a bit before said friend asked for his dagger back. A 6th stage bone dagger. The friend killed 41 S rank assassins in under 2 minutes. 6 Assassins fled.”

“Under two minutes? Are you sure?”Dyrk asked.

“Yes, sir. The report says it may have been shorter than that.”Lucas said.

“What happened during the test? How did he fare against that Shadow Envoy?” Talfen Swiller, an eminent noble asked.

“The report says that he is a clumsy fighter but can evade any type of blow. He forced the Shadow Envoy to use his aura.” Lucas shared.

“We should attract Asuras to take care of him. It cannot be delayed. He is becoming dangerously strong by the day.” Jeras Oberhelm said.

“If we all pitch in, it should not be hard to bring the bounty over a million gold coins.” Davis Leerstrom suggested.

“We can do that or we can do it ourselves. Asuras are as strong as us anyway. We are knights under the king and it is a peaceful time. I know many nobles who join the Assassin guild out of boredom. It is almost guaranteed that we will end up paying one of them to do our dirty job.” John Helder the giant said.

Half the room laughed at him.

Deo Gullscream said:“You sure are daring. What if you die under that kid’s sword?”

“Enough” Dyrk said then added: ”I am older than all of you yet we are almost at the same level because just going from the 9th stage to the 10th, it takes an enormous amount of aura that no normal noble can acquire unless we harvest the aura illegally. Almost all the nobles do this hoping that one day they can be free of this mad king’s avarice. He keeps taking aura away in a open way while we end up doing it in underhanded ways. No one is as rich as he is and no one else has a divine weapon to keep the wolves at bay. Each stage takes more and more aura and it is impossible to get to the divine way in any area without a country’s resources to back it up. Basically, we are prisoners inside our own country. If we leave this country we will end up in the same position. If this rising king succeeds in acquiring a divine body and he will, he will just let his successor take his place as the next king and give him the Divine sword and the cycle will repeat itself again. We will still be nothing than resources for him to provide aura endlessly. Only the knights under him are allowed to reach the Asura level using the King's resources. Unless we want to become his eternal lackeys, there is no easy way to advance.”

He stopped for a moment then continued: “What if we teach this kid a thing or two about how this world works. Maybe he doesn’t know how the king uses the whole country to illegally acquire aura crystals and maybe his own father didn’t know and maybe they are not a secret family under the king’s direct orders.”

“You are becoming senile, old Dyrk. Why would we do such a thing?” John the giant said.

“We lost years of revenue because of him.”

“Why not give ourselves some time to breathe a little? He’s done enough.”

Many voiced their complaints.

Davis Leerstrom took a sip of his wine and said: ”You all seem to forget something. What if he leaves this city because the bounty we put on his head forces him to hide forever unless he likes to keep killing all day long? No one would like to live like that. He will probably leave the city sooner or later. We do not need to add more gold to his head. He will do that himself.”

“I see. Good point Davis” Dyrk said. He continued : ”If everything goes well, even the king will have to act. Since he did a good job at being a hero here, why can he not do it elsewhere as well? He will not resist and the rest of the nobles will keep complaining, the bounty on his head will increase and the king will send his personal guard to deal with him. If it keeps escalating from then on, it would a good thing for us, but it is unlikely. In the meantime, we can hoard as much aura crystal as possible and put the blame on Nilus the Silent Owl.”

“The longer he lives, the longer we can keep saying that it is his fault and it will be a half-truth. All the other nobles will have to lie as well and put the blame on him because just like us they will not resist the temptation of cheating the king and laughing at his face. ” Dyrk finished sharing his thoughts.

“I will send for the nearest cities and as soon as the same raids commence it will be our time to start working without worrying about him returning for a while.” John said.

“Why not start now?” the young Jaden Leerstrom suggested.

“Patience, kid. Patience. In the end we will keep more aura crystals than we’ve ever kept in decades. That is if he lives long enough and gains us more time.” His father said.

***

Commercial district, north-east of Violetmill city

Inside Old Sam’s Hammer shop.

Nilus and Cale were patiently perusing the displayed merchandise as they waited for the blacksmith to receive them.

“Thousands of gold coins for just normal weapons is a little too much, isn’t it? ” Complained Nilus.

“For us aura wielders, it is more about the toughness, flexibility, lightness and finally external looks that move us. Since we can strengthen the weapon it is not recommended to take something rough and unattractive. In short, you pay for the good looks.” Cale explained.

“Did you see how my bone dagger looks gorgeous? It’s my sister’s birthday present for my 5th birthday. She had it made here. It came in a pair. I leave the other back home just in case something happens to this one.” Cale said as he played with his shining dagger.

“I guess you do not have to worry about this dagger of yours anymore.” Said Nilus.

“Well, I can still lend you the other one. I see how you take care of other people's belongings.” Said Cale with a smile.

“It took close to five hundred souls to level it up to that level.” Rebuked Nilus.

“Just joking.” Cale repentantly said.

The door behind the counter opened. No one was seen and the door closed.

The blacksmith could only be seen as he left the cover of the counter. He was a midget.

An old unreasonably muscled midget.

The old man almost teleported to Cale’s side and his swift hands took the bone dagger from Cale’s hand.

The old man scrutinized the dagger in his hands while saying: “Hum…The 6th stage already…that was fast…I sold it fifteen years ago…but with you nobles, you never know… ”He gave it back and said: “You are quite lucky there little Cale…If you keep going like that you will end up with a divine dagger soon…”

“Hey…Old Sam…I brought my friend over. His name is Nilus. He needs a weapon custom made for him.” Said Cale as he presented Nilus to Old Sam.

“What kind of weapon do you….? Nilus? It’s not Nilus Hornraven is it?” The Old Sam inquired.

The startled Nilus asked:“It is exactly that. Is there something wrong? How do you know my family name?”

Cale who was behind Nilus vigorously shook his head from left to right in an attempt to stop Old Sam from inquiring further. At the same time, this strange reaction gave Old Sam the answer he wanted.

A strange gleam appeared in his eyes as he answered Nilus:” Nothing is wrong. It is just that Cale always mentions your name sometimes. A real pleasure to finally meet you Nilus.” He then continued: “What kind of weapon is the most suitable for you? You’ll have it in less than a day.”

“Gauntlets will do.” Nilus said after thinking for a while. He rarely used weapons. Only his bare hands had done the killing all this time. He never learned how to properly use a weapon before. He thought that a gauntlet was the weapon suited for him.

“How do you want them made then? Do you want them stretched with arm guards? What kind of cloth do you want used as the base glove? Do you want claws?....” Old Sam took a minute to enounce all the possible options.

Nilus had no idea what to choose as he was put in front of so many choices. Turns out a simple gauntlet could be transformed into a multi-purpose weapon. From imbedded blades and spikes to having the entire forearm covered.

Cale intervened: “Just do your best but simple Old Sam. He imagined a simple gauntlet after all. We need to leave soon. Do the best you can.”

The old midget looked frustrated as he said: “How can a gauntlet be so simple?”

“Alright. Come back tomorrow morning to get your two gauntlets.” Said Old Sam. He was writing on his palm as he left through the door he came from.

“I wonder if we can stay in this city for one more day without being attacked.” Said Nilus.

They had long left the store and were hiding their faces under new masks.

“We are leaving the city right now. We will come back tomorrow and then leave for good.” Cale said.

“You are planning on spending the night in a dirty forest? No way. Let’s just go to Lora’s Brothel. ” Nilus suggested.

“Forget about it. That’s the last place you ant to be right now. In fact, with her father’s network, this whole city is the last place you want to be right now.” Cale said.

“Isn’t it about time you tell me who he is? I always ask the both of you but you always look like you are scared of saying a thing. Is he that scary?” Nilus inquired.

“Well, you kind of already know about him. He is the Shadow Envoy that tested you this morning and he is also my mentor.” Cale said. he added:”He might have sold your true identity already.”

“WHAT?!!!” Nilus exclaimed.

They left the city after a heated conversation.