An hour after the incident.
We were currently sitting inside Harold's study room. Tobias had explained the situation with the Drisica kingdom to everyone.
Apparently, the emperor suspected that the Drisica kingdom had colluded with the devils. There was no other choice but to suspect that after the continuous leak of top secret information.
Whenever there were reinforcements from the empire to the northern fortress, the devils were always luckily one step ahead. They had the reinforcements even before the empire, subduing the momentum of the soldiers of the Sahhan Empire.
"Your majesty, if it is really as you suspect, I am afraid there might be some officials from other kingdoms who had sold their souls to the devils too."
Harold said seriously after pondering the situation. Harold was someone who had become a duke from his own merits in various wars and subjugations and was well versed in such tactical and political manoeuvring.
"That was also the reason why I haven't outright called out to them. I am still unsure of whether the king of Drisica kingdom had fallen into the hands of the devils yet. But the one that I am sure about is Duke Albert from the Drisica kingdom's northern territory. He's the one in charge of the Northern Drisica fortress and is the ruler of the Oldstar Dukedom. Which is coincidentally the territory adjacent to the Northern fortress."
Tobias laid out all the basic information to give us a gist of the current situation.
'Even though he's an Emperor, he's a nice guy overall. If I someday grow big enough, do I have to overthrow his empire?'
I couldn't help but think. Mayhem and the world of Ethra was a place that followed the definition of the rule of the strongest. And for every player, the goal was to someday become big enough to convert all these NPC-dominated territories into player-dominated ones.
'Well, let's worry about it when I am at that point. I can't do batshit against the emperor right now, so removing him early on is a futile dream.'
"Hmm. I never liked that guy, to be completely honest. He reeks of lust and envy whenever he comes to the empire's castle's regular meeting."
Lorcan scowled, thinking about that greedy and lustful face of Duke Albert. Lorcan had caught him taking glances at the royal maids multiple times.
"Well, the problem is. First, we need to verify whether or not the king of Drisica had also fallen into the hands of the devils. And if he has, then we need to purge the people who have colluded with the devil bastards."
Tobias brought up the main topic of the whole discussion.
"One of you has to do the investigations, being as discreet as possible. I don't wish to bring innocent people into this mess. Due to the current situation, I can only clearly trust a few people since I can never be too sure who is in with the devils and who is not. Since the devils attacked everyone here regardless, it's safe to assume none of you has collided with them. With that said, who is willing to volunteer?"
Everyone looked at each other after Tobias's declaration.
Well, everyone except for me. I stared at the quest window that I had been smelling for a while now.
[Cleansing of the great Sahhan Empire
Difficulty: B
The emperor of the Sahhan Empire, Tobias Zuk Sahhan, suspects that the Drisica kingdom had betrayed the Sahhan Empire. To save his people and his empire from distress, he is asking for you, an earl of the empire, to aid in cleaning out the trash of the empire.
He suspects that the king of the Drisica kingdom may or may not have colluded with the devils. You are tasked to find out the truth and deliver the message to the emperor.
Quest acceptance reward: Disguise of the fool
Quest declination penalty: Affinity with Tobias -10
Quest clearance condition: Find out whether the king of Drisica had fallen under the devils or not.
Quest clearance reward: 1,000,000 gold, +30 affinity with Tobias, An Earldom.]
'Wow!'
It had been a while since I had seen normal quests that had a rating below A. On top of that, this quest was directly from the emperor of the Sahhan Empire.
Although the gold reward was very lucrative for a B difficulty quest, it wasn't much when compared to the rewards I had been getting recently.
'Fuck! Fuck! What the fuck am I thinking? A hundred thousand dollars seems less to me now. What is wrong with me? I need to seriously reflect on myself.'
I cursed myself internally when I thought that a million gold reward was less. Apart from the gold reward, there were two more rewards that were much more lucrative than the gold itself.
'Plus thirty affinity with a super high-class NPC and an Earldom of my own!'
"If you don't mind, I can do it. Nobody would suspect a new noble, they'll just think I've come to sightsee and gain experience."
I said some really unconvincing words. Sightseeing in a war location? Sure! Even though I felt like it was a weird excuse, I couldn't come up with anything better on the spot.
"Oh? Don't you want to stay out of trouble since you have just become an earl? You might get demoted if you fail your mission."
Tobias said with words that seemed like they were trying to test me.
'Hah! You aren't the first one to test me in my short 22 years of life!'
"No, your majesty. I am seriously not the type to sit around and wait peacefully instead of getting involved in trying to come up with a solution in chaotic situations."
"Haha! You have the right attitude! Keep it up and one day, you'll soar really high."
Tobias said as he patted my back. It seemed weird getting a young man treatment from an old man in young skin.
'Ah, why can't they just act young too when they're in such a young body!'
If the emperor was a person in real life, they'd never be able to make him out to be the father of the older-looking Lorcan.
Which father looked younger than even his own son?
[You have accepted the quest.]
[Quest acceptance reward will be distributed shortly.]
"Oh, right. Take this, although it's not much of a help, this thing can help you at least look a bit more human. The Drisica fortress is a territory filled with humans, you would definitely stand out there."
The emperor handed over a piece of card to me.
'HOLY FUCK! A PORTABLE SKILL CARD????'
I was wondering why there was no description of the quest acceptance reward. To think it was a Skill Card!
A Skill Card was a rare item which had a minimum rating of Epic. It allowed any person to use the skill that the card had, regardless of one's class, race, job, level or status. As long as the person had enough resources (Mana, Energy, Etc.), they can use the skill card without any restriction.
It was a cheat-like item that was desired by even top rankers, but only luck can bring such cards to people. Only a few of the really trashy ones were up for sale, otherwise, no one was willing to sell a skill card that had even a bit of practical usage to it.
"I won't stand on ceremony then."
I said as I accepted the blue-coloured, deck-sized metallic card and immediately checked its information.
[Disguise of the Fool
Type: Skill Card
Rating: Epic II
Resource Consumption: 100 mana per hour
Cooldown: 3 hours
A skill that lets you disguise your face into something closer to your overall look. You can't turn an ugly person into a good-looking one or vice versa, but it can still allow you to reshape your body and skin tone.
*Cooldown can be ignored if the skill is used for three or more hours.]
Nice!
This was it.
This was definitely what I needed right now.
Due to this fucking demon-like body, I always end up standing out even without wanting to, which ends up creating an unnecessary ruckus.
With this skill, I'll just revert myself back to my original look. I can manage to stay in the disguise 24x7 with my current mana and regeneration speed. So it won't be much trouble.
I can always show my monster self around when I am at least on the rankers list, but for now, it was too much trouble for no reason.
"This will definitely be helpful to me, thank you for the gift, your majesty. Don't worry, I'll be sure to find out whether the king has fallen under the devils or not. Here, take one of these communication stones, everyone, so that we can stay in touch."
I said as I handed out a small, peanut-sized, green-coloured stone to everyone. It was a magic stone called a communication stone that helped with long-distance conversations between NPCs and players.
It was a really popular item and I had bought a few to give to Gomchul and the others, I never thought I would end up using them like this.
"Alright then, I wish you luck Earl Shura!"
"Thank you, your majesty."
Weird, even after everything proceeded so smoothly, I felt like I was forgetting something. What is it?
Just then, I felt Ena intently staring at me with a creepy smile.
'Oh, shit!'
***
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