97 To the Royal Palace.

They reached the Mercenary Guild as Raven and Blaze were both immersed in their own thoughts.

Ozul noticed how even the Mercenaries were gossiping about some special events happening today. As he heard their whispers, he realized what they were talking about;

"Dude! Tell me, what's the occasion? I just came and saw this!"

"Yeah. It's cool, ain't it—So many big shots appearing at the same time in the Guild."

"You know I even saw the Wind Eagles! The Platinum Rank group!"

"Forget about them, did you see the beauties in the Blue Petals~?"

"Ya ya! All you think about is beauties!"

. . .

As Ozul passed by these people, he heard how many of the popular Mercenary groups had been sighted around here today.

Ozul was walking behind Blaze and Raven, so all the attention was focused on them when they entered the guild building.

Moreover, he also wore the Silver Badge and forced the duo to wear Gold Badges on their shoulders, which also shifted all the attention to them.

The recent news about their group helping Duke Edwin protect the innocent from a ferocious Monster had already spread to the streets.

"Pst... Look, aren't they..."

Instantly, the topic of their gossip changed to the trio. However, everyone only had Blaze and Raven in their mind. Their minds automatically discarded Ozul's figure.

Walking inside, no one obstructed their path even though there were many glaring at them from afar.

Lucy had been working behind the counter with a pile of documents in front of her. She instantly noticed the trio when they entered.

"You are here!"- She arrived before the trio. Specifically, before Blaze and her face turned red with embarrassment when he looked straight at her.

"...Okay, Follow me."- Lucy said when Blaze had not responded to her even after staring for a minute.

As she led the way, the trio followed right behind her until they reached the office of Emory on the second floor.

Around tens of men stood outside the door, all wearing Silver Badges. Just as they were going to enter, the door opened, and a man wearing a Gold Badge walked out with big strides.

As the Gold Rank Mercenary walked out, he just gave a side glance at the trio and walked away with his group while snickering.

The trio did not mind that and just walked inside. In the room, Emory sat behind the chair with a teacup in his hands. From time to time, he would take a sip from it.

"So you guys are here. To be honest, I had thought that you guys had run away already."- Emory said with a sneer.

He thought that since the group had shown up for the mission, it meant that his 'intimidation' yesterday had worked pretty well.

"Eh? When did people start running away from flies?"- Blaze asked with a confused expression acting as if he was genuinely puzzled.

Emory was angry over his behavior, but the orders from the Guild Master had forbidden him to take any actions against this group. So he could only ignore his remark and get down to business.

"At first, I wanted to inform everyone Mercenary participating together in the training ground personally. But due to the urgency, you will have to go to the Royal Palace yourselves."

Emory tossed a scroll that had the stamp of Mercenary Guild to Blaze, who stored it in his Spatial Ring.

"All other Mercenaries are gathered there. You will receive the task details from the person in charge there."

The trio left the room with any pleasantries after receiving the scroll. Lucy wanted to stop and have a talk with Blaze.

"Ugh!"

However, she could only stomp her feet in anger when Blaze did not even look at her.

The trio walked in the direction of the Royal Palace, which was about 30 minutes away from here if they kept their walking pace.

Though Mages could use their Spells to boost their speed, Emperor Luthien had forbidden the unauthorized use of Magical Spells on the streets.

Hence, even the Mages were required to take carriages to travel a long distance around the Capital.

If they used Magic Spells, it would alert the city guards, and under a few minutes, they'd be declared as one of the most wanted in the Capital City.

Raven also found a carriage since Ozul did not want to walk for 30 minutes straight when he could take a nap in the carriage.

As they sat in the carriage, Ozul took the whole seat for himself and laid on it. Blaze and Raven shared the other place.

Though Raven wanted to give a lap pillow to Ozul, she didn't get the chance before Ozul had already laid on the entire seat.

Moreover, she was even more irritated when Jinx suddenly appeared out of nowhere and laid on top of Ozul!

Hence, for the next 10 minutes of the journey to the Royal Palace, Raven had to control herself not to strangle the black cat to death.

Blaze, on the other hand, didn't know why he was feeling the chills all over even though he shouldn't have due to his affinity with Ice Element.

Only when he noticed Raven glaring hatefully at Jinx sleeping on top of Ozul did he understand what was happening. He silently prayed for Jinx in his heart and moved as far as possible from Raven.

After about 10 minutes, they arrived at the Royal Palace. Of course, the carriage wasn't even allowed to come near the actual Palace.

It stopped right at the area where many of the other Mercenaries were standing in groups all around.

As the carriage stopped after nearing the crowd, Ozul instantly woke up while Jinx suddenly disappeared again.

The trio came out of the carriage and examined the surroundings. As Ozul surveyed, he noticed the massive Palace behind the crowd.

There were many Mercenaries scattered around while all of them had at least one Gold Rank Mercenary leading the group.

The crowd, though, stopped at the walls, which seemed fragile from the outside. However, Ozul could sense the dense energy at the base of those small walls.

He wasn't sure, but it seemed that there was some kind of invisible force field surrounding the whole place around the Palace.

And those small walls were the base of that force field. There was only one entrance, but none of the Mercenary dared to enter through it presumptuously. They all chose to wait outside instead.

As the trio was observing the other Mercenaries, most of them did the same in return. It was all because their group of three had been getting famous due to 'helping' Duke Edwin.

When Ozul was observing everyone around the sight, he noticed that the strongest one among them was Rank-7 Mage.

The man looked to be around 25 years old. He was surrounded by the men in his group who were mostly around Rank-4. Only one other member in his group was a Rank-6 Mage.

As Ozul was observing that group, he remembered that he had heard about the Platinum Rank Mercenary group, which had a Rank-7 Mage leading it named Wind birds... or something.

He also noticed the group consisting of only women. The strongest in that group was a woman who looked around 20 years old. She was probably the End-Stage of Rank-6.

This was probably the group of 'beauties' that one of the passersby was talking about.

Though these people looked young, Ozul knew that they were mostly above 40 years old and only looked more youthful due to being Mages.

While observing the surroundings, the trio kept advancing towards the gates. The Platinum Rank Mercenary group had been staying near the entrance.

Though as they passed by the other groups, everyone sneered in their way. Most of them were jealous of the trio's recent fame though they hadn't even known them yesterday.

Others were angry since it was only a group of three, and they still dared to advance near the entrance, where only the best Mercenary groups stood.