I leaned against a tree, with Arvalor resting behind me, glaring at Avid, who was sitting on a boulder across from me. He had removed his mask and hood, revealing a scarred up face, with short black hair and dark eyes. He looked like a man who had been through hell and back.

  “I suppose I will start with introducing myself.” The man exhaled, placing his right hand onto his chest. “My name is Avid and I am a mercenary registered with the Ordial Mercenary Guild.”

  Mercenary?

  If I remembered correctly, I had actually read about the mercenary guild. While the Adventuring Guild was established to allow individuals an easy and quick way to earn money, through commissions and rising the ranks, the Mercenary Guild was a lot less welcoming to newcomers.

  Just to get into it required a lot of paperwork and most of the time, a brutally difficult test that very few could pass. It also operated a lot differently to the Adventuring Guild, not having ranks or anything and more being as a place where anyone could hire someone to do something for them – most of the time, involving tailing someone or killing.

  So, does that mean that someone had ordered a hit on me?

  …No, that can’t be right. I am a newbie and just arrived at Ordial. I haven’t even made a name for myself yet, let alone any enemies — Someone ordering a hit on me made zero sense.

  “Alright then Avid – why did you tail me and try to kill me?”

  The man remained silent, before sighing. “Well, usually I wouldn’t disclose that kind of information to anyone, let alone my target, however…” He threw a nervous gaze at Arvalor, who growled at the man, a slightly intimidating aura leaking off of his body. “I don’t have a choice here.”

  Avid crossed his arms. “First, don’t worry – I wasn’t hired to kill you. This entire thing was my own doing.”

  “And why? As far as I am concerned, I haven’t done anything to warrant ending my life.”

  “Because…” Avid looked at me with sharp eyes, narrowing them. “I have reasonable suspicion that you’re not a human.”

  My eyes widened slightly.

  How did someone catch onto me already–?! Sure, my body is covered in markings that I have from my snake body, but those are easy to pass off as tattoos! Unless the concept of a ‘tattoo’ is very much non-existent in this world, there is no way this guy should be able to know that I’m not a human!

  …Unless…

  “Did my eyes give me away..?” I shed a small sweat, before sighing. “And why do you think so?”

  “Your eyes.”

  I knew it. Avid pointed towards them, sharpening his gaze a bit. “They’re not humans – however, also don’t belong to any humanoid reptilian race I know of. Lizardmen are very distinct from humans and Dracomen, while more close to humans, still have normal eyes.”

  Dammit, this guy is quite knowledgeable about the races in this world…

  Does that mean I can’t even lie my way out of this? Is this the end of the road for me?

  “So tell me – What are you?” Avid asked, sharpening his gaze, before placing his hands onto his knees. I remained silent. I was in a corner – how do I get myself out of this situation without revealing the fact that I am a snake? Snakes, or I guess serpentines, are most definitely considered monsters in this world…

  If I tell him that I am one, who knows what might happen.

  …Do I have to silence him—?

  I quickly shook my head, getting rid of that thought. Silence him?! Am I mad?! I can’t just casually take the life of another human. I might not be a human myself anymore, but it doesn’t mean I have lost all my memories and feelings of being a human. I thought hard about how to explain myself to the man, shedding a cold sweat.

  Avids intense gaze made it even harder to come up with an excuse that he’d buy. I thought, thought and thought – until an idea struck.

  “It’s a bit embarrassing but…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m somewhat cursed.”

  …Saying it out loud now, I realise how dumb that sounds. Cursed? Am I trying to get myself killed by this mercenary?

  Avid looked at me with a perplexed gaze, as if he had not expected my response, before coughing lightly and bowing towards me. “I apologise then – I had not realised the unfortunate circumstances you are in.”

  “Please, raise your head! The curse isn’t deadly.” I panicked a bit as the mercenary lowered his head. Avid looked back up at me.

  “Even then, I tried to kill you because I had assumed you were a monster trying to infiltrate our society. If I had just listened to what you had to say..”

  Well, you’re not wrong about the monster part… But there is no way I am telling him that I am a snake and not a human. It’s better if he thinks that these markings and eyes are the result of a curse, instead of something else.

  Avid exhaled, getting up and turning away. “Well, since you’re not a faker or a monster, then I suppose I had no reason to pursue you. My apologies once more and goodbye.” Then, the mercenary put back on his mask, before throwing on his hood and disappearing. He must have used his concealing ability again to slip away.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Arvalor leaned in towards me, as if asking if he should pursue the mercenary, however I shook my head. “Don’t bother. If he doesn’t plan on killing us anymore, there is no point in trying to kill him.” The Chimera nodded, before disappearing inside my shadow. I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck once more.

  That was an… interesting distraction.

  I wonder if I will see that guy ever again. He seemed quite skilled, so maybe if I ever need some help, I could hire him from the Mercenary Guild? That could be something I keep in mind. Stretching out, I proceeded to continue with my hunt for the monsters needed for the quests I had accepted.

  By the time the sun had begun to set, I exited the Adventuring Guilds building, just having handed in the materials for the monsters I had killed for the quest. I managed to make a decent amount of cash from them – at least I think it was a decent amount – so I was pretty happy.

  While on my way back to the inn to rest for the night, I overheard some chatter in between some houses. At first, I thought about ignoring it and just kept moving forward, however…

  “Are you shitting me?!” Then, the sound of a slap echoed, followed by a woman letting out a grunt before falling to the ground. I really shouldn’t get involved, however I just couldn’t overlook it. I quickly ran up, pressing my back against one of the buildings and peaking around the corner. There was a woman on the ground, dressed in a plain, simple dress and standing over her, was a cloaked individual.

  The cloak was black and it hid almost everything about the man, even his face was obscured by darkness. The cloaked figure walked up to the woman and kicked her. “You said you would be able to get me the item, and now you’re going back on your promise?! Have you no shame as a mercenary?!”

  “Shame…? You’re the one who took my daughter hostage and demanded I do as you say…”

  “Oh shut it–” He kneeled down, grabbing the woman by her hair.

  “That woman's a mercenary? There’s no way – a mercenary would put up more of a fight, wouldn’t they?” I sharpened my eyes. I was about to step in to help, however a sudden noise came from behind the man, as if something had gotten knocked over.

  The man and woman looked over to where the sound had come from.

  Nothing. Then, ‘Enlightened’ went off – Someone was here.

  Stab.

  The man suddenly let go of the woman, before coughing up blood. Then, a familiar figure materialised behind the cloaked man, a cold gaze in his eyes and a dagger gripped in his hands, which he had driven into the man's back. “You should have expected a sneak attack.”

  The woman, seeing the man and that the cloaked individual wouldn’t be able to do anything in this state, turned serious and seized the opportunity to pull out a small dagger of her own, that had been hidden under her dress, before driving it straight into the cloaked individual's throat.

  “Go to hell.” The woman whispered to the cloaked man, before her and Avid pulled out their weapons and let the cloaked individual's body fall to the ground, blood lightly staining the stone ground beneath them.

  “Guess she didn’t need help…” The woman cleaned the blood off of her dagger, before sheathing it and looking at Avid. “Unusual to see you here Avid. Lost something?”

  “Just happened to be in the area, that’s all.” He responded, cleaning the blood staining his dagger, before looking at the woman. “You’re getting sloppy Natalie, if someone like this managed to get you to do some dirty work for him by threatening your daughter.”

  “Oh shut up – it’s not my fault I can’t battle mages.”

  The cloaked individual was a mage?

  I guess that would explain the faint aura I had felt leaking off of his body. Avid sighed. “Well, either way — The Guildmaster wished to see you.”

  “The guildmaster? What does that old geezer want with me now?” She exhaled. I could tell from her tone that she was quite disappointed. Avid shrugged, sheathing up his dagger. “Beats me. He simply told me to summon you.”

  The woman sighed again. “Alright, I’ll head over now I suppose.” She said, turning around and walking my way. I quickly pulled away, activating ‘Presence Erase’. The woman walked past me and then away, down the street I had walked down earlier. I watched her from my ‘hiding’ spot for a bit, before moving back over to the corner, my skill deactivating.

  Once I peaked back around, Avid was nowhere to be found.

  “Eavesdropping is a crime, you know?”

  I jumped back – startled by the sudden appearance of the very same man who had been in the alleyway just moments prior. He was not standing beside me, leaned against the building and arms crossed – with a cold gaze peaking through his mask's eye holes.

  “We meet yet again.”

  “...Yeah— a lot sooner than expected…”

  I looked around a bit awkwardly, before exhaling and rubbing the back of my neck. “So… Should I forget what I had witnessed happen in that alleyway?”

  “You can, if you wish to. The Mercenary Guild usually cleans these kinds of cases up. Besides,” Avid looked at me with a cold gaze. “That man was a member of the Hand Sons of Tritery, a criminal organisation, so no one would put me on trial for taking his life.”

  Hands Sons of Tritery? Never heard of such an organisation before…

  Though I suppose that’s because I spent a good month or so after reincarnating, in the forest. I threw a gaze at the dead body, before looking back at Avid. “Say, you’re quite good at sneaking up on others huh?”

  “That’s the nature of an assassin.” Avid replied, pushing himself off of the building and moving onto the street a bit. Then, he threw a gaze at me. “...Say – Would you care to help me investigate something?”

  I froze for a second.

  Where was this coming from? Earlier today, you tried to kill me. And it wasn’t as if we knew each other that well — In fact, I don’t think I ever told him my name. “Help with investigating what..?”

  “I can’t tell you unless you agree to do it.”

  “And why do you want my help?” I tilted my head. “We aren’t exactly close and earlier today, you tried to take my life.”

  Avid exhaled, looking away for a second, before placing his right hand onto his mask and taking it off, looking at me with his scarred face. “I have no real reason why it has to be you – I just could do with some help from anyone skilled enough, and seeing as you were able to outwit me and even have whatever the hell that thing that came from your shadow is — you can definitely provide me much greater help than any other mercenary or adventurer.”

  Would I?

  I was only a D-Rank adventurer, and while sure – the ranking shown in my status screen is much higher, it’s not like I can show it to others…

  There was a rather long silence between us both, before Avid sighed and placed his mask back on. “Well, think about it. If you do wish to help me, then come to the Mercenary Guild tomorrow and ask for me at the reception.”

  Then, the man vanished.

  “H-Hold on, don’t just vanish on me!” I quickly activated ‘Enlightened’ on maximum power, however Avid was nowhere to be found. Seems like he was quite fast… Dammit.

  I exhaled, looking up at the sky.

  What do I do in this situation? Today has been intense enough already and now I had an invitation to get involved with an investigation dropped at my feet out of the blue… This was too nonsensical for me to digest today.

  “I need some dinner first…”

  I sighed, turning away and continuing to move towards the inn.

  From afar, Avid watched Faofa with a sharp gaze. “That man is a lot more interesting than I had initially expected… He said he was cursed, but I don’t buy it. If he had been cursed, I would have felt the lingering presence of a curse…” The man turned around and leapt off of the roof of the building he was on, landing onto the street before walking towards the Mercenary Guild.

  “Whoever… Whatever that man is, I need to keep a close eye on him. Something tells me that he is someone I have to be wary of.”