CHAPTER 52: WAR!

"Hey, Eliza."

"Yes?"

"I think I love taking a shower."

"I love when you take a shower, too."

In the inn room, Dante was lying on his bed and chatting casually with Elizabeth.

He was now clean from head to toe, his smell was so good, and his clothes were clean.

He had taken a shower and used real soap—something he hadn’t done for years. And of course, using a toilet with a magical water splasher was the best part.

Unfortunately, his soap slipped off his hand and fell into the toilet hole. His misfortune was truly frustrating.

As for his clothes, he tried to wash them but couldn’t. He had to leave and buy a special cleaner for the blood.

’Oh, it’s night now.’

As Dante noticed that the window light wasn’t enough to illuminate the room anymore, he immediately stood up and lit up the oil lanterns using a runic lighter he borrowed from Elizabeth.

’Maybe I can live like this forever.’

"Hey, I’ll cook dinner." Elizabeth stood up and took a few ingredients from her bag: "Should I cook for you as well?"

"Oh, yes."

Dante handed Elizabeth some meat, a few vegetables, salt, and his cooking pot.

She had been cooking for both of them since Dante discovered her cooking skills while travelling on the carriage.

Of course, he had paid her for that. He insisted on doing it for free, but Dante refused her offer.

’I just don’t like to owe anyone anything. I don’t want to feel anything if I had to leave her someday.’

Elizabeth carried everything and moved to the kitchen. But as she walked, Dante noticed faint pulses of light coming out of her body.

’I wonder how she would have lived without this spell.’

The spell she was using was a kind of detect spell that used light. With it, she could form an imaginary picture for everything around her.

Dante found out about this spell when he was travelling in the carriage with her. It was pretty useful for a blind person.

Of course, its downside was that it used mana and spiritual energy continuously, which prevented her from using it all the time.

Dante had tried to learn it from her, and thankfully, he succeeded in mimicking it.

Shadow Spell — Shadow Detect!

A faint shadow pulse burst out of Dante’s body and resonated throughout the room. Instantly, the image of all shadows in the room formed in his mind.

’Not as good as her spell, but still better than nothing.’

Unlike Elizabeth who could sense everything with her light, Dante could only sense shadows.

He ’saw’ the shadows of all objects unmoving, the shadow of Elizabeth cooking a stew, and the shadow of someone moving toward their room.

’Wait, what?’

Dante immediately moved to the door and opened it. The woman in black suit was standing there, seemingly surprised by Dante’s senses... or appearance.

Unlike before, when he looked like a human-shaped green slime, he was now clean and normal, allowing his temptation trait to work perfectly.

The woman cleared her throat awkwardly and said: "Your licences are ready. Is Miss Elizabeth here?"

Dante immediately called Elizabeth. Once she arrived, the woman brought before them two small books and two bronze necklaces.

Their names and faces were engraved on the necklaces as a kind of ownership, unlike the onyx tokens they purchased from the town’s guards.

The woman first gave them the books—though she hesitated before giving Elizabeth one—,then said: "The licences need your blood to become official mercenaries."

"Blood?" Dante raised an eyebrow.

The woman nodded: "Only one drop will be enough. It’s required for identity confirmation later on, in case someone tries to steal your identity."

"Okay." Elizabeth nodded as she bit her finger and dropped her blood on her necklace.

Immediately, the necklace absorbed the blood and glowed for a moment before returning to normal.

’Ah... will this even work with me?’

Dante was still awakening his bloodlines, so he didn’t know if his blood was changing or only improving.

’I’ll just try.’

A small mana dagger materialized in Dante’s hand, then after some struggles, he managed to make a small cut on his left hand.

Once his blood touched the necklace, it glowed faintly for a moment before returning to normal.

The woman nodded in satisfaction as she bowed: "Excuse me, I’ll take my leave now."

BAM!

As the door closed, Elizabeth turned her head toward Dante: "Can you read the guide for me?"

"Sure... wait, what about the food."

Elizabeth blinked: "Food?"

"...."

Immediately, Elizabeth rushed to save the food that was on fire. After a few minutes, they started eating the semi-burned meat stew while Dante read the guide.

They were now legal mercenaries, and their information was shared among all the Mercenary Guild’s branches across the continent.

This information was required for accepting quests, as some quests had some specific requirements in order to be taken.

That was why the old woman had to know about Dante and Elizabeth’s abilities.

After all, they couldn’t just let a warrior accept an urgent quest that needed a healer. A human life might be on the line there.

Of course, they could always update their information if they wanted to accept more missions. They only had to meet that old woman and tell her about their other abilities.

"Then, there are the licenses themselves."

According to the guide, there were five different mercenary ranks. They were Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

They simply gave a discount for anything bought from the Mercenary Guild’s branches and showed the owner’s reputation and experience, as it wasn’t easy to rise in ranks and required hard work.

It wasn’t about only being strong, but also having enough experience of clearing several hard quests.

Additionally, some quests had a minimum mercenary rank, just like how Skylar’s wanted poster recommended being a silver mercenary and Rank 2 existence.

"Why did they give us bronze licenses? And how much is that discount?" Elizabeth asked suddenly.

Dante kept reading a few more things—like the penalty of harming the quest givers for no reason and failing in completing some missions—until he found the answer.

"It’s so common for some people to start with bronze rank, but anything after it is very rare. As for the discount..." Dante’s eyes suddenly sparkled: "5% for iron, and it increases by 10% the more you advance in rank. In other words, we have 15% off!"

That meant Dante would have to pay less for renting the room before buying his own home.

After eating the semi-burned stew and drinking hot tea, he left the room and went to buy the most trusted and suspicious source of information in this world.

A newspaper.

He got it from a child who was selling newspapers on the main road, and it cost him one bronze coin.

In this medieval world, the newspapers could be easily manipulated and no one would notice. Therefore, Dante knew he couldn’t trust it entirely.

"Read it for me please." Elizabeth said as she went to her bed.

"Yes, yes."

Dante lay down on the bed and started reading as he raised an eyebrow.

"There is news about ’another’ Abyss Gate discovered in a county. Do you know what that is?"

"Oh, I know." Elizabeth explained: "It’s where the abyssal races come from. They’re gates connected to the Abyss and can cause disasters of not dealt with carefully."

Dante frowned as he opened his mouth, but Elizabeth continued before he could say anything.

"Before you ask, I don’t know who makes these gates. I only know that they’re hard to break and most of them are just surrounded by knights... at least that’s the case in my kingdom."

"Oh, thank you." Dante nodded as he continued reading.

’So now, there are magical gates which lead to the Abyss and even a saintess candidate doesn’t know how they appear.’

Dante read everything loudly. The news varied from economy and politics to random topics like a romance story between a slave and her noble master.

After reading everything, Dante turned off the light and said goodnight to Elizabeth. Unknown to her, there was one topic that Dante didn’t read loudly.

[ULDOR DECLARES WAR ON THE HOLY KINGDOM!!]

``Uldor, the land of giants in the Western Region, declared war on the Holy Kingdom all of a sudden and sent an attack. Some analysts suspect the involvement of an abyssal race, others think it’s just the greed toward the bloodline cores.``

``Only one thing is certain—It’s only the start.``