Inverse System

Earlier, somewhere in Orthlys…

"Lady Melina! We have located another one of the cursed Springs! It is one of the cities that Orthlys does not control, on the far west of the Econica region!" A grunt hurriedly rushed into a room.

"Oh? The land of the Econican royal guard? Very well, we can send someone to fetch that," she said as the grunt bowed down and left the room.

"So, what? That\'s our 5th cursed Spring?" Luther guessed.

"No, this one will be our 3rd. But we do know the locations of 2 more, so I suppose you could say it\'s our 5th. Anyway, how are we on \'that\' front?" She replied.

"Pretty good. We\'ve got Crypt\'s leader on our side already, and as you know, the other one is grouped up with the 2 curses. We just need to find the last one," Luther informed, kicking back while floating in the air.

"Perfect. We are steadily approaching our goal. We just need the final piece of the puzzle. Let\'s pay a little visit to the king, shall we?"

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Back at the academy…

"Core, you\'ve still got that Riskel guy tied up, right?" Rein inquired as they walked towards the commission\'s board.

"Yeah, D8 still has him in her stash. Why? You need something from him?" Core replied.

"He\'ll prove to be an incredibly useful source of information for us in the future, but for now, can you tell her to summon him for just a second?"

"Ah, I see," Core snapped, D8 appearing at his side.

"What\'s the matter, master," she said, kneeling down.

"Summon that green-haired cardinal guy for a second."

"As you wish."

She threw out a marble that contacted the ground, which then transformed into a sleeping man. Rein touched him, copying his Spring, D8 then retrieving him and taking her leave.

"What was that?" Xenia asked curiously.

"Nothing. Let\'s continue."

As they arrived at the commission\'s board, they found a handful of others from different classes, looking at the requests. Whenever a team found a request they wanted to take, they would rip the paper off the wall and bring it to the receptionist, who will either approve or deny their request.

As Rein gazed upon the commission\'s board, he noticed that nearly all of the quests in Orthlys had been taken, and there were several Econican quests that were left to be. They were either marked with the Econican unicorn or the Orthlys lion.

"Tch," Rein bit his lip.

"You wanted to go around Orthlys and maybe find clues about \'her\', didn\'t you? Look\'s like there are only two requests left in Orthlys," Core stated as they inspected both of them.

They saw a large red circle with the letter S in the middle.

"Damn it, these ones are for class S only, right?" Xenia spoke, disappointed.

"Right… And I don\'t see any for class D…" Core observed.

They heard quiet laughter from one corner of the room, seeing 6 people holding 4 pieces of paper. As Rein looked closer, he saw that each of the papers had the letter D on them.

"Oh boo hoo, it looks like class D can\'t do any commissions!" One of them ridiculed as the rest started laughing.

"Just ignore them. D commissions aren\'t worth our time anyway," Rein loudly said, pissing off one of the guys in the group.

"Oh! They aren\'t worth your time, eh?" The black-haired man stood up and waved the paper in front of Rein\'s face.

"I guess you\'re just not gonna earn any points then? Where are your other class members? Don\'t tell me you ditched them," he smiled maliciously, Rein unphased by his intimidating aura.

"Move. I\'m trying to see the board," Rein warned him, which ticked him off further.

"Hey! Tanaga! We should give these commissions to their other classmates!" One of the girls he was with suggested.

"Oh what a great idea Patricia! It\'d be a great way of starving these guys of points! And just like that, the winner of the entrance tournament would be eliminated!" Tanaga flared, making Xenia clench her fists, ready to swing at him.

Suddenly, Rein swatted the back of his fist across Tanaga\'s face, sending him flying to the left side of the room, crashing into the wall like a cannonball. The wall cracked on impact, and the man\'s group all gathered around him to see if he was okay, while resentfully staring at Rein.

"I said move," Rein spoke sternly as he ripped one of the commissions off of the wall.

He walked outside of the room, the receptionist calling after him.

"Um, sir! That\'s a B-rank request!" The receptionist nervously called.

"I know. I\'ll be right back," he walked out of the commission\'s room, followed by Core and Xenia.

"Hey, you sure that was a good idea? Won\'t you get in trouble for punching that guy?" Xenia asked, concerned.

"I\'ll be fine. If anything, I think our principal would endorse punching annoying pricks instead of condemning it. Besides, you were about to punch him too, weren\'t you?"

"Ahaha, I guess I can\'t deny that," she guiltily laughed.

"But anyways Rein, are you sure you want that request? It\'s in Econica, in fact, it\'s in the farthest city from Orthlys. Not to mention that it\'s B-rank," Core pointed out.

"This is only a 3 man request, so if we get 3 students in B-rank or above, we should be able to tag along with them as party filler. Anyway, Something about the job description seemed strange… The Econican royal guard, who are Sirens originated from this place, right?" Rein conferred.

"That\'s right. A long time ago, the Siren species who specialize in water Springs were heavily feared by the Econican monarchy, specializing in fire-based springs. This conflict escalated into a miniature war, in which the Econican royal family miraculously won. The Siren\'s pledged loyalty to the Econican Emperor, thus forming the royal guard," Core explained.

"Yeah, that\'s what I know too. They\'re a race that can freely swim and breath underwater and have adapted to land so that they can walk as well. But they serve solely the Econican Emperor, don\'t they?" Rein rhetorically asked, pointing at the sheet of paper.

"Here it reads \'we need a group of Rangers to investigate an incredibly important matter. Over the past 3 days, there have been many suspicious sightings around our King, and recently, several attempts to kidnap him. We need a group of Rangers in the town of Aquifa as soon as possible!\'. Does something seem strange to you in that message?" Rein posed a question to his group members.

"Yeah… They called someone their \'king\'..." Core remarked.

"And the Siren race should only serve one person, and that\'s the Econican Emperor. So there\'s something weird going on, because they should be saying \'emperor\' instead of king!" Xenia concluded.

"You\'re catching on quick," Rein smiled, the intellect boost starting to show. "This whole thing\'s got me sketched out. And I\'ve got a feeling \'she\'s\' connected to this," Rein looked at Core, who wore a surprised expression, Xenia oblivious to their glances.

"So? What are we waiting for? Let\'s go find Quint and Reggie!"

After some time searching, they finally ran into Quint. They asked him to join their group and explained the contents of the commission.

"No way."

"What! Why?!" Xenia outburst, her brother rejecting their invitation to join the party.

"My fuckin weapon\'s been broken since the day at the volcano and I can\'t find a blacksmith in town that knows how to make a proper battle axe. Shit\'s pissing me off," Quint spoke angrily as he scratched his head.

"Oh yeah. I\'ve been trying to find a blacksmith to make me a new weapon too. I\'ve been using this one from that guard that was knocked out," Xenia summoned her greatsword and held it with an outstretched arm with ease.

"Damn, how much does that thing weigh? Anyways, I can\'t join you. Even if I find a blacksmith right now, it\'ll take \'em a while to get my weapon done."

"I think I can help you find one," Rein proposed, surprising Quint, making him smile in jubilation.

"For real dude?! That would be fuckin\' awesome!"