'Hiring Mercenaries of Rank 2 and above for the security team of graduation exams.

Rank 2-Upto 1 Gold Notes

Rank 3-Upto 10 Gold Notes

Rank 4-Upto 100 Gold Notes

Rank 5 and above- Minimum of 1000 Gold Notes. Can be negotiated depending on rank and ability.

Please apply at the mercenary association. A screening will be held.

The rewards will be exempted from the association's commission charges.

3rd Prince John Emberson.'

Luke looked at the notice plastered on the board. The notice was printed in a gold border to easily grab the attention of anyone. The royal emblem stamped at the bottom ensured this wasn't a fake notice and a proper one, along with this commission being established in the mercenary association,

Luke went to the counter of the mercenary association.

"I would like to register as a mercenary." He told the women sat in front of him.

"Fill this paper." She said as she pushed a paper forward without even looking up.

Luke nodded before moving to the side and filling the paper out. He passed it back to the lady as she finished dealing with the person in front of her.

She read the paper, before looking up in amazement. "Rank 3?"

She looked him up and down before saying "Deploy you magi particle to this." She passed him a translucent cube.

Luke nodded as he transferred all his available rank 2 magi particles to the cube. He passed the blue cube back, following which the lady started examining the cube, while his expended magi particle recovered.

"Do you have a high capacity?" The lady asked as she turned the cube around.

"Yes." Luke replied back.

The lady left the cube on the table before proceeding to examine the form.

"Excuse me, you have left the section for previous education blank. Can you please fill it and show me your graduation certificate please?" The lady asked nicely.

"Sorry I haven't graduated or studied in any academy." He replied while looking at the dumbfounded women in front of him, who was probably wondering why a talented person like him never went to the academy.

Probably due to not believing him the lady asked, "Can I please have your i.d. card?"

The i.d. cards of each person also have a recorded imprint of which academy or institution one is studying or have graduated from.

Luke passed the fake i.d. card to the lady, without raising any sort of commotion. He was not worried the lady will spot the fake card, as there was no need to be suspicious of him along with calling down the high ranking members of the association to inspect the card. The lady was flabbergasted looking at his i.d. before sighing in defeat as she processed his documents.

As she finished she encrypted a special stamp on the back of his i.d. card which the association can later use to access his records.

She passed the i.d. back to him while asking politely, knowing that the person in front of her could be a future high-ranking member of the association "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I want to enlist for the commission of his highness, prince John Emberson." He replied.

"Sure, however since you don't have a graduation certificate you can only receive a maximum of up to 5 gold. Is that ok?"

This was one of the many privileges of graduating from an academy. Graduate abilities and capabilities were much more reliable than a non-graduates, hence they were often offered more than others.

"That is fine." Luke nodded. He wasn't doing this job for the money.

He knew what the little cult of Fake was planning, and he wanted to stop all their attempts at Prince John before he notices them.

The only way for him to do that, without bringing the Prince's attention to him was infiltrating Prince John's their ranks and stopping Linda before she could even get close to him.

"Ok, one second." The lady rang the bell beside her and soon a young girl in her twenties came through the door on the side.

"Please guide Sir. Storm to the screening." Seeing the respect given to him the young girl nodded seriously.

"Follow me, Sir." She kindly asked while smiling.

Luke followed her silently and went to the 5th floor of the mercenary association. This floor was usually only accessible for the head of the association and the high-ranking nobles.

This was Luke's third time coming here.

They came in in front of a heavily decorated door and the girl knocked on the door 3 times, before waiting.

Luke looked around to see that there was no one here. It was strange seeing that there was no one waiting in the hallway, especially when the commission is extremely well-paid. However, that could be because this was the last day for the commission enrollment.

The door opened after a few seconds to reveal a man with scruffy black hair adorning a pale face. He nodded towards the girl before motioning Luke to come in.

There was a large decorated desk and chairs at the end of the room, surrounded by shelves of books and maps.

Luke went in and the man closed the door and led him to the chair opposite the desk.

"Sit." The man's silent but powerful voice resounded.

Luke followed his direction as sat while watching the man sit down.

Suddenly Luke saw something that was extremely familiar but nearly forgotten by him on the man. An outdated piece of technology from his past life.

It was a tiny device located inside the man's ear. Luke quietly looked around to spot a few hidden cameras inside the room.

"Name?" The man voice resounded.

"Luke Storm." He replied without any worry. Suddenly his astute hearing picked up a voice coming from the device.

"True." The voice coming from the device was very mysterious. What did he mean by true?

"Place of birth?"

Luke replied without any hesitation"Gr..."

However, before he could even finish he heard the same voice from the device "Lie."

Pretending not to hear anything or notice anything he carried on "...een Field village.".

'Who is on the other side of that line?' He wondered as he suddenly realised the person in front of him was just a mask for the other person. The true interviewer is watching and listening from somewhere else.

'Able to detect me lying even with my experience. Who the hell is that guy? Other than that Commandment of Information, Albert, and Butler Smith of the current Emperor, no one should be able to notice me lying. Even if they could it would have taken them a while, but this person spotted me lying just when I was about to lie. Even the award users that have abilities suited to detecting lies need to stay close to the target for their abilities to work.'

Luke stayed calm and decided not to make any hasty decision.

"Rank?" The man carried on asking without a change in expression as well.

"3 with high capacity." Luke replied.

"True." He heard the voice again from the device.

"Ask him about his age?" He heard the voice from the device again.

"Age?" The man in front of him asked with his poker face, that made anyone who sat here uncomfortable.

"22" The man patiently waited for the reply from the device while staring at him silently.

There was no response from the device for a second before the voice came back. "Sorry was distracted by something. True. Ask him where he studied before?"

"Where did you study before?" The man rephrased his question as he asked Luke.

"Self-taught. Was guided by magi in my village." Luke replied while not specifying the job of his village magi. Telling the village magi's job was equal to admitting that he wasn't from the 'Green Field Village', as he had no idea what their job was.

The magi at Green Field could hold the occupation of anyone, saying the wrong one would screw his cover up.

The man expression didn't change as he waited for the reply "True."

As soon as the reply came in a quick flash of surprise ran through his eyes before replaced by its cold stare.

Anyone would be surprised to find someone so young being a rank 3 magi, especially when the said person has a higher capacity and hasn't studied under any academy.

"Skip to the last question." The voice from the other end ordered.

This time the man couldn't hide his shock as quickly as before. "*Cough*...*Cough*. Sorry." He tried to cough to hide his shock.

After a while he settled before asking "Are you willing to serve an oath, swearing you will do your job properly?"

"Yes." Luke replied back calmly.

"Excellent. Take this to the counter found 1 floor down, and they will brief you with everything." The man replied as he got up and handed him a small card with silver border before guiding Luke out.

As the door closed Luke sighed. He placed his hand on his chest as he felt the crazily beating heart of his.

'That was close. That man had the aura of an award user. He seems so familiar as well, who is he? Could the other person on the device be the 3rd prince? If so, no wonder the others fear him, even his observation abilities are at a terryfying level. This is not going to be easy.' Luke thought as he walked out.