For Kairos, the Orcs’ disappearance is a major cause of concern. When the Orc army previously retreated after losing their target of vengeance, Calculus, it was Kairos that prevented the others from chasing. Now when he heard of the ill-effects happening here, he felt… guilty for it.

As someone who had fought against those creatures, he knows precisely how formidable they are; therefore, he did not regret to give up the chase against these magical beings. Not only are they superior in number, but in rank as well. All the students will likely be killed should they pursued.

Of course, at that time despite having the advantage, the Orc King’s decision to fall back is understandable. They were close to human settlements and ran a terrible risk of being exterminated. But things became far more dangerous when the orcs not only vanished from the training grounds but are also disappearing from sight even as far as Tiny Town.

There’s little doubt that the same incident could be happening across the empire. And this information only confirms one thing for Kairos. The Orc King is not merely laying low, but also mustering his army.

He felt as if a cold metal of a blade is touching his neck. If things escalate, it might turn into a race of survival of the stronger species, but for now, he must focus on finding Jones.

The very next morning, the group went together to the Adventurer’s guild. Because all of them have to register as members, they would stick out like a sore thumb no matter what. When they through the wooden gates of the building, every pair of eyes looked at them.

“Whoa, what’s this huge amount of kids doing here?”

“Look, there’s an adult among them. Must be some students and their Martial Teacher are here for sight-seeing?”

“Sight-seeing just what? A bunch of stinky old men like us? Hahahaha!”

Ignoring them, Kairos made his way across the crowd to the counter and spoke politely to the girl. His head barely made it above the tall wooden table.

“Hi, we would like to register as adventurers.”

The room immediately silenced, then a short moment later, everyone in the place burst into raucous laughter.

Noticing their laughter, Vouno went forward and sharply rapped the table, silencing the room. Then he spoke sternly, addressing the room while talking to the attendant, “I am from the noble Astroire house, and I bring these lads here today to begin their training. Tarry not, good fellow, and let us be on our way.”

He flashed the jade ring given by the Emperor and gestured for them to continue with a nod. The laughter died immediately, replaced by curious questions.

“Ahh, they are guard trainees of nobility!”

“I’ve thought that they looked rather important the moment they stepped in.”

“Bullshit, you laughed the loudest.”

“Which family is the Astroire, have you heard of them before?”

“That’s not strange. They are probably some border noble, coming all the way here to train the more talented guards during this time.”

“Oh yeah, I nearly forget that we have a flood of monsters. It’s no wonder they chose to sign up here!”

It is a common thing for nobles to bring talented trainees to the Adventurer’s guild for missions. Training them this way not only quickly give them experience, but it also helps alleviate the costs for a family, and sometimes if a trainee luck-out those nobles could even acquire a rare artefact.

It took merely a moment for the attendant to create personalised tokens for each of them. Vouno gave the excuse that as overseer for this group, it is his first time leaving the Astroire compound, and he also forged a token for himself.

When the eavesdropping adventurers heard that, though they were curious why an adult of Vouno’s age never had an adventurer’s token before, not one of them questioned the authenticity of this ‘Astroire’ family they heard for the first time in their lives. The jade ring is all that is needed to prove that there is indeed such a noble house. This may sound like an easy thing to fraud with, but in reality, it is infeasible to do so.

No matter how minor a noble house might be, if they lost a jade ring which symbolises their title, it would be reported to the local magistrate. And such news will spread quickly throughout the Empire, turning that particular Jade ring unusable. All that is involved in the theft and usage of it will be put to death, along with their families. These laws are what kept people from toying with the authority given by the crown.

To identify those rings, each of them has a symbol unique to the noble, engraved upon it. It may be possible for someone to use the ring before the news of it spreads, but to register as adventurers with it, and take a risk? High unlikely. Therefore, for these veterans in the room, none of them bothered to ask questions them. And their curiosity soon died down.

This time around, it was fortunate that they used the ‘Astroire’ name in a place where they are still unheard of. Of course, if it was Kairos who had stepped forward, their cover will also be blown. The title of Viscount is something that the common folk could only admire and Kairos’ age in becoming one makes him the youngest ever to be conferred through one’s own merits. It made him famous even in such a backwards place and fame is not always a good thing.

There is no way to know what the rich and powerful Devilheart family would do once they found him absent. Kairos’ preeminent concern is his shop, or more specifically, his employees and their family.

It was the people that mattered.

Kairos did not feel as attached to the coins he has now. Unlike many of the noble snobs that identify themselves by the gold and spirit stones they possess, Kairos started with nary a two coins in his pockets to rub with. In fact, even making a pocket is too costly a venture for any seamstress to him in the past.

Should he be forced to return to that life, it wouldn’t even make him blink twice while most nobles in that position would cry and beg. His priority is to drag for time and giving away his movements is the opposite. It was why he told his team to prepare for the trip secretly through Xuan Xian.

Unfortunately, it is a matter of time before their departure from Saint City will be discovered. At that time, the countermeasures Kairos had prepared will be kicked into place.

It ought to be enough to divert attention away from their task at hand in retrieving their missing brother. Otherwise, if the Devilheart family were too undistracted, those rich snobs might be bored enough to throw a wrench into the works.

But for now, they need to focus on gathering information.

Taking the adventurer’s token in one hand, and their badge in the other, the boys sent their internal energy through. Soon an inscription surfaced on each badge, showing the stats of the owner.

Name: Kairos

Adventurer Rank: Peak C

Cultivation Rank: Entry D

Completed Missions: F Rank – 0, E Rank – 0, D Rank – 0, C Rank – 0, B Rank – 0, A Rank – 0, Top Rank – 0

Every person’s token held similar information. These data are somewhat back-dated for Kairos and his brothers, for they have already increased their cultivation rank to Peak D by now. However, instead of his cultivation rank, he received Peak C as his adventurer ranking. A result of his badge having five stars is an indication that he could handle himself against opponents who are five minor stages above himself.

Almost every practitioner in the empire has a badge like this, which could be used to register for all sorts of things. Vouno’s situation is slightly more complicated. His adventurer token remained empty. As a person who had never stepped into F rank, he was not considered a practitioner and therefore did not have such a badge.

As a tall and lean man, Vouno coolly walked towards the end of the guildhall. His long dark hair almost glittered against the sunlight pouring in from the windows, causing not just a few female adventurers to blush inevitably. His presence is like a calm breeze that neither provoke nor allows disrespect. And the bulky men that were sitting in his way skittered away and opened a path for him. Those that saw him walking in their direction naturally gave way to a man with such aura, and such dignity.

He stopped a step from the large billboard with all the missions currently available.

When any adventurer wishes to pick an adventure, they would tear down the particular note that is pinned and give it to the counter. In this way, none other may attempt the same mission until it is completed or failed. If it is a mission meant for multiple parties, there will be multiple slips instead for them to tear off.

Vouno perused the missions for a moment, with everyone staring at him. The others went into a quiet discussion, but none attempted to pick a fight or rough up a newcomer that was so commonly seen in a rowdy Adventurers Guild.

“The Astroire family. Seems like they are a big family.”

“Obviously. They could whip out over twenty young trainees of this level so easily, how could any minor nobles do that?”

“Yeah, at least a Marquis, or maybe even a Duke title would be needed to do this.”

Meanwhile, a frown appeared on Vouno’s face,

“Hmm, these quests… looks terribly hard! I guess I’ll aim for work at around the C rank level.”

Vouno turned and walked back to the counter.

“I would like to take the combat grading examination.”

“Pardon me?”

“You heard me. I need a practitioner’s badge.”

“O..oh. Yes Sir, please come this way.”

Kairos’ father followed the slightly trembling youth to the grading room. Even though none in this room could identify their house, the attendant obviously feared that he had offended a powerful noble. Seeing this, Alan and Edward immediately stifled a laugh. Their humour flew past Tommy’s head, and completely missed Jim.

Kairos put up a stoic expression because despite the joke, he is now pretending to be the leader of the trainees and had to act the role.

“Hey what’s so funny?” Jim asked, almost begging to be let in on the joke.

Edward whispered in his ear, “We’re laughing at how Kairos learned his acting skills from his dad. Have you ever seen uncle Vouno this… regal?”

“GAHAH…bfffftt…” the boys muffled Jim before he could laugh too loudly.

By now, the four of them have already heard from Vouno about the ‘episode’ at the bar last night.

Kairos rolled his eyes.

Two hours later, as the others are enjoying their lunch at the guild’s bar, Vouno came out of the grading room.

He walked proudly towards the boys and then sat down besides Kairos.

“Father, what’s your rank?” his son whispered.

“Entry C.”

*BLEBBB?*

The brothers that heard it nearly barfed out their food in shock.

Wasn’t Vouno I ranked just a month ago? How did he jump, one, two, three…. SIX MAJOR STAGES IN A MONTH?!