39: red star

"Harris, who are all these people?" Drill Mouse asked in a low voice.

His knowledge was about the same as Ronan's; he could only guess which major power people belonged to, but he had no idea who anyone was specifically.

"That group of black-armored Mercenaries, the largest one, belongs to the Shadow Mercenary Group, one of the three major mercenary groups under the Mercenary Blood Pact."

Harris kept his volume low to ensure only Ronan's trio could hear, avoiding any unnecessary trouble.

"See that leader?"

Harris surreptitiously pointed at the man standing at the head of the black-armored Mercenaries.

"He is the Shadow Mercenary Group's Vice Commander, Cain Cerberus—a fickle and temperamental executioner."

"What is the relationship between this Shadow Mercenary Group and the Dawn Mercenary Group?" Ronan suddenly interjected.

"I'm not sure about that," Harris shook his head. "But being fellow members of the three major mercenary groups, their relationship must be quite delicate."

"Keep going, don't stop, don't stop," Drill Mouse urged from the side.

This kind of intelligence would be worth at least a thousand or so points at the Adventurers Guild.

"That scholarly-looking squad in the middle are Arcane Apprentices from the Arcane Arts Society."

Harris instinctively lowered his voice further. "Don't be fooled by their harmless appearance; their methods are far more cruel than you can imagine."

"Dissecting corpses, stitching flesh, modifying bloodlines, even creating races... they'll do anything evil..."

As he spoke, he felt a chill down his spine and gave his armor a sharp tug.

"Arcane Apprentice?" Ronan only knew of Magic Apprentices, which was the precursor title for a Mage.

One had to become a Magic Apprentice first and master three spells before reaching the threshold of becoming a Mage.

From the look of it, an Arcane Apprentice would likely grow into an Arcanist later on.

Though in reality, before obtaining a class and opening the path to advancement,

these titles served more as broad categories to help distinguish between different professional classifications.

"Yes, the backbone of the Arcane Arts Society."

"Don't be fooled by their small numbers; if this bunch got into a fight with the Shadow Mercenary Group next to them, it's hard to say who would win."

Ronan pointed to the youth he had noticed at first glance and asked,

"Do you know that youth in the middle wearing the white magic robe? Is he also an Arcane Apprentice?"

The words Ash Leaf had spoken when he first met Team 408 suddenly flashed through his mind:

"Mage, preparatory Academy robe, age and height match..."

"That one, he seems to be a Mage."

"Supposedly he has quite the background in the Arcane Arts Society. He's a junior or something to the Blood Controller Higgs, named..."

Harris tilted his head, trying hard to recall the other's codename.

"Red Star," Ronan said flatly.

"Right, that's the one." Harris had a sudden realization, then he reacted. "Captain White Night, I see you're wearing the same clothes. Do you know him?"

"I don't," Ronan denied. "But he might also know the two missing persons."

Just as he finished speaking, he saw Red Star among the Arcane Apprentices cast his gaze toward him as well.

After a moment's hesitation, the youth smiled and gave a friendly nod.

He had obviously seen the magic robe similar to his own.

Ronan nodded politely in return, then his gaze fell on the group ahead.

Aside from the personnel from the Shadow Mercenary Group and the Arcane Arts Society, only his own squad had come from the Adventurers Guild.

It seemed his guess was correct; unless they had another motive, not many people would participate in a mission with so many unknown factors.

"Area 82 has undergone a preliminary investigation, and several caves suspected to be sources of pollution have appeared."

"We will assign personnel based on the actual situation."

Another armored man announced loudly in front of everyone.

He held a card to his chest; from the number '82' on the card, it could be inferred that he was the person in charge of this area.

While it was called assigning personnel, it was mainly dividing the members of the Shadow Mercenary Group and the Arcane Arts Society.

Ronan's three-man squad was kept together as a whole.

However, as luck would have it, those eventually grouped with the three of them

were Shadow Mercenary Vice Commander Cain Cerberus and his two subordinates, along with Red Star and two other Arcane Apprentices.

In terms of numbers and factions, this group included all three major powers with an equal number of people from each, looking very balanced.

Of course, their true strength was hard to judge.

After the assignments were finished, Ronan's trio followed the six people from the other two major factions toward their assigned cave.

"Hello, my name is Red Star. Are you also a Reserve Apprentice?"

During the journey, Red Star took the opportunity to come over for a friendly exchange.

However, his question clearly stumped Ronan, who didn't know how to answer.

"Uh, no."

Lacking relevant information, Ronan decided not to pretend to be a 'Reserve Apprentice' as the other had suggested.

"Eh? Then how come you..." Red Star looked surprised, clearly taken aback by Ronan's answer.

"It's complicated. Actually, this magic robe belonged to someone else..."

The original owner had no memories regarding the background of the magic robe, so Ronan knew even less.

"By the way, I'm White Night. Do you know Ash Leaf and Red Hammer?" Ronan shifted the topic perfectly.

"They are the two who went missing."

"I don't."

Red Star said without thinking, "The mission my mentor gave me was to find two people from the Society. I assume they are the two you mentioned."

"Are they your..."

"Friends."

"Eh? That's rare..." Red Star let out a soft exclamation, then quickly explained, "Sorry, no offense intended. I just heard that Adventurers generally only care about profit and don't talk about friends."

"I didn't think there would be an Adventurer who is friends with people from our Society, haha."

Red Star laughed as he spoke and extended his hand. "If you don't mind, please become my friend as well."

"Why is that?" Ronan asked, puzzled.

"Because I think you're very interesting, and I like making friends with interesting people."

Red Star grinned with a bright smile, looking every bit the youthful and sunny teenager, incredibly handsome.

His looks were almost half as good as Ronan's.

"Alright, nice to meet you." Ronan reached out and shook his hand.

"I hope we can all work hard together in the upcoming rescue."

Making friends was fine, but they had to actually help out; his current assets only amounted to two... "No problem, White Night." Red Star nodded heavily.

Their handshake seemed to become a sort of pinky swear.

"You two brats, you don't think we're going on a picnic, do you?"

A highly mocking voice came from a distance.

The speaker was Mercenary Vice Commander Cain.

He wore black armor that set him apart from the other Mercenaries, and on his back was a folded cold-weapon spear. Two pitch-black wolf heads sat on the shoulders of his black armor, making his overall aura appear even more ferocious.

Ronan had learned from Harris that this Vice Commander was fickle and temperamental.

Therefore, he decided to avoid direct conflict with the man as much as possible.

Saving people was the priority right now.

Red Star apparently thought so too. He walked up to the mercenary and said,

"Mr. Cain, you're the oldest, so why don't you lead the way for everyone..."

Thud.

Before he could finish his sentence, he was kicked several meters away by a black-armored foot.

The mercenary shook his foot with a look of displeasure, as if shaking off non-existent dirt.

"Are you mocking me?"