Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Somewhere far away, Setkh and Karrun were walking slowly with a sombre air about them. It was a dry air lacking their usual vibrant personalities to brighter it up, making the sparsely vegetated lands they trudged in seem like desert lands.

Each step the two took was hard and heavy, scraping against the ground as a blatant depiction of the sour mood both of them were in.

Who knew feet could speak much just from their interaction with the ground?

The two didn't have much of an aim or a place to go and just now, they had performed the lambada with death way too intimately, something Karrun was more aware of than Silrat who had been focused on Stylla.

Seddrik had been about to kill them.

If that caped figure hadn't intervened...

Karrun could only sigh.

That moment had been both a fulfilling and terrifying moment for him, but not for Setkh. This man had other concerns.

The reveal behind his employer's twisted affection towards his sibling had been unnerving for Karrun but in the grand scheme of things, it was flushed down under a ton of the stress he carried now.

"What now?" he asked while gazing at Setkh's lifeless face. Their relationship was professional but because of the circumstances concerning how it was formed and how it developed later on, it had grown more personal.

Karrun had staked everything on Setkh since the beginning.

After completing his first set of months as a Contract Knight at the Carpet Keep, Karrun had been looking for a different line of work.

His expertise and abilities were well appreciated in the Carpet Keep, so much so that one of the Commanders had offered him a permanent post with grand forms of numeration, but Karrun didn't want to continue like this.

He felt like his Mind Casting ability, which he had named Mindful Doubt, was unfit for public works.

He had even been criticised for it but others who only looked at hoe dangerous it could be. Trust was difficult to establish when dealing with someone who could up and leave at any moment.

Beyond these dilemmas, even though Karrun had an Advanced Class, he lacked heavily in actual combat capability. This wasn't by choice but by circumstance. A trade of sorts. For the time he spent cultivating an Advanced Class, he hadn't been able to simultaneously train up his physical abilities to the same level.

This wasn't too bad in his opinion though.

On his journey as a seeker for more specialised jobs, he had found Setkh who met the criteria for what he wanted freakishly well. It was as if direction was pointing him on this path.

A job where at a moment's notice, Setkh who was running from a mysterious group of individuals who had captured him and demanded him of something he was reluctant to give, would require his ability to escape, was perfect!

A job where he felt like only he could do it spectacularly.

Karrun was confident that even Master Stage experts wouldn't be able detect him even after figuring out how his ability worked. Mindful Doubt was intricately tried and tested.

This challenge was just what he needed.

Following their official agreement to work together, Karrun was delighted when Setkh invited him into his Family as a further benefit and a cover for the true purpose of their relationship. He would need the man by his side all day, everyday so a convincing argument was needed for why he had such a tail.

Thus, Karrun registered for the Premium Age as a contender but his intention and purpose was never to win or even fight for that matter.

"What now?" Setkh repeated what Karrun had asked with a dark look on his face.

He genuinely didn't know.

"We will still be dragged to the Venue of the Royale by the Control Seal right? You need to make sure you're prepared for that," Karrun informed.

Setkh nodded.

That's right.

The Royale.

The setting would keep him and Stylla close for the next months, each instance no doubt feeding the guilt he felt inside and possibly Stylla's wrath.

Seeing Setkh's face, Karrun couldn't help but sigh in exasperation.

This wasn't what he signed up for. Dealing with deadly assassins and whatnot was great. It was thrilling to watch them all turn dumb after he vanished.

Just like that one time when underlings of this organisation had tracked down Setkh and managed to find him.

Karrun had happily assisted Setkh by giving them the slip.

Karrun was ready to even die by facing someone he couldn't fool with his ability. That would be a fitting death.

Now that this matter included betrayals and complex Family relations, the whole mission becoming an action drama instead...

This was not what he signed up for.

'Makes me want to head back to the Carpet Keep and ask if that post is still available,' Karrun thought with the raise of his head. 'I wonder... did it suit that short woman as much I thought it would?'

In this moment, Karrun thought back to a certain lady he had recommended the Keep to.

Perhaps she was fitting in just fine.

***

Genhuis City.

"How did she die?"

"I don't know. I just got here."

"I think someone said something about her tripping and falling. Apparently when her head hit the ground she died immediately."

"Really? Just like that?"

"Just like that."

In the night, a small group of civilians gathered around a corpse that had been hurriedly covered up by a group of women who supposedly knew the victim. It wasn't by coincidence. These women had been walking with this person when the incident happened and how people were so curious to look at her dead body had lead them to act, holding back the feelings of grief to respectfully hide their friend from unfeeling crowds.

For those who had been there when the woman died, it was truly a mystery how someone could fall to the ground and die like that.

The simple manner in which one could think about it is exactly how it had happened.

It was strange.

A Capital Knight soon arrived to disperse the crowds and take control of the situation. He made sure the crime scene didn't affect the general public too much while calling for his fellow Knights.

He crouched down and uncovered the tarp used to hide the body of the dead woman.

"What is this?" the Knight asked himself with a frown. "Isn't this body supposed to be fresh?"

What laid before his eyes was a partially shrivelled corpse, looking to have been plagued by a terrible disease that sucked up the mana and moisture from the body.

Strange.

The skin was deformed, twisted even.

It was just enough to almost hide the dying glow on the corpse's arm, the light tracing a Seal on it that was popular these days growing dull until it dissipated.

***

Guild's Association.

A Guild Master was confusedly looking at his Guild members who had just come from clearing a blue-white Cluster.

For this Guild, as powerful as it was, this was just them taking up smaller requests in order to cover smaller expenses demanded by their growing size.

Petty cash transactions, as they were called in another universe.

Something like this wouldn't take much effort for even three of their members but in this particular case, a total of sixteen new members, all of them Advancement Stage experts, added on their number an experienced member of the Guild who was leading them, had taken up the mission.

But...

"You can't be serious?!" the Guild Master boomed. "Was it a Cluster General that did it?"

The Guilds members from the mission looked at each other with constipated faces.

"No. It wasn't," one of them replied.

The hell?

No way!

"You're telling me Timosse was killed by a common Cluster beast in a low level Cluster? Timosse, an experienced Form User who trained the lot of you in basic defence and awareness?!"

The Guild members shivered.

They didn't offer another explanation as it barely made sense to them how their superior had died such a simple, ridiculous death either. They had been there.

To describe it would be to dishonour Timosse and his skills.

The Guild Master face-palmed hard.

This couldn't be a joke, right?

What in the name of Cluster beasts could have caused this?!

If it was a Cluster General he would have understood, factoring in unique natural abilities those beasts tended to have but...a common beast?

Had that man somehow started slacking off or something?

To lose a member like Timosse was a huge blow to the Guild. He usually handled training and evaluating newcomers as well as taking care of them too.

Now that he gone...

This went beyond sentiments!

"You couldn't retrieve his body?" the Guild Master asked the group to which he was met with sombre looks that answered his question perfectly.

He sighed.

'Maybe cutting practise to go watch the Premium Age whatever pricked his strict self-training routine. Tsk. I can't believe this.'