After wandering the streets of Marquis through his portal, Razor took to being a commoner wearing the layman's clothes. Walking around the streets without being limited by his mana, he had much more room to explore before having to take a rest outside the city.
So far, all he's seen was the everyday lives of the inhabitants with nothing truly out of the ordinary. Had he not known that the kingdom was being controlled by a demon, he would've been duped into believing this place to be just another regular kingdom.
"Well…" Resting a pouch filled with gold on the guilt's reception, Razor settled into a chair and glanced up at the attendant present. "Where's everyone? No adventurers in town?"
Her back turned away from Razor, the receptionist kept dusting the wine glasses stacked on the shelf behind the counter. One after the other, she would pick one out and clean them with a wet cloth before setting them back into their spot.
As her cleaning process continued and Razor kept being ignored, he decided to lay down all the facade and dig out what he came here looking for.
"An adventurer's guild without adventurers…Why would they need a receptionist?" Muttering under his breath, he slipped around the counter and stood just behind the mute receptionist. "It's almost as if people do use this place just not for what you might expect."
Whispering into her ears, he was ready to use reality alter to force a confession out of her, but before he could, Razor noticed her body stiffening up before hesitantly attempting to turn around to look at him.
"Why are you here?" She asked, her left hand confidently resting on her hip.
Taking just a moment to look the brunette up and down, Razor wondered why she would be stationed as the gatekeeper when her looks were sure to attract unnecessary attention.
"To find adventurers, why else would I be here?" Razor replied, sensing a test on her part.
Crossing her arms, the girl squinted her gaze while still looking at Razor's face. With a step backward, her eyes lit up a curious glow as if she'd realized who exactly she was looking at.
"You're not a demon, are you?" She asked, trying to make sure it wasn't someone masking themselves as a general.
"Not yet, no," upon hearing his response her shoulders instantly dropped.
Seemingly relieved, the receptionist heaved a sigh soon after which a genuine smile crept up her lips.
"Razor Alumnibolt, am I right?" Her suspect gaze now replaced with curious charm, the receptionist poked a finger into Razor's chest to see if he was real. "Whoa…You're not a phantom. I thought everyone surrounding the emperor would be dead too."
"Well now that you know who I am, why not spit out where the others are?" Razor proposed without much reservation about displaying what he wanted.
"Uh-" Drawing her finger back, she wheezed through her teeth wondering if she'd given him too much information too early. Peering back into his eyes, she took a deep breath and dropped all sense of pretense anymore. "Fine, just promise me you won't tell anyone about our base."
"I'd suggest getting a better place to hide the resistance then, finding out about this rebel's hiding spot was easier than getting a change of clothes," Razor muttered, letting down the hood on his cloak.
Pressing her lips shut, the girl moved aside and revealed under her feet a dusty small carpet. Kicking it to the side, she then revealed a small openable hatch leading into the basement of the establishment.
"I feel like every guild has that kind of underground hiding spot," reminded of his time in Laria, Razor was quite honestly surprised that these people haven't been found yet by Haruki's demonic guards roaming around the city.
"I suppose you're right, we should move out soon," replied the girl while opening up the hatch.
Just looking through it, Razor noticed numerous people peering up at them with their bows and swords drawn out in fear. They'd possibly assumed the hatch was being opened because a demon guard had found the place, but upon seeing the familiar face of the receptionist, they quickly lowered their weapons and made room for the two to descend down to the basement.
'These idiots would've died the moment trouble showed up…' Landing inside the basement and looking around, Razor was not in the least confident about any of them surviving a single demon's attack. They all looked as if they'd seen a ghost, terrified, and shaking in their boots. 'He probably had the stronger adventurers killed in fear of rebellion.'
Left with a crop of at best copper plate adventurers, Razor had little clue as to what exactly he could do with them.
"Who is this?" Asked one of them to the receptionist.
Even while looking around, Razor felt that barely any of them knew who it was. If it had been in a similar situation before the emperor's fall, he would've been deeply offended by the whole thing, but knowing the fate of the human race was on the line, he chucked away his pride and simply let the girl introduce him to the others.
"He's one of the emperor's war generals, sir Razor Alumnibolt," moving through the crowd, the girl had the adventurers subside so she could lead Razor to a set of chairs.
By the time Razor settled on the chair by the dusty desk, everyone's eyes were fixed right on him. None of them could take the receptionist's words at face value, after all, in their mind everyone had suffered along with the emperor's death.
"Look, I do not have much time to explain, but just know this," stretching his arm forward, Razor glanced through the crowd of varying adventurers. "Michael and I survived, Nabe is missing, and Dominion has been captured. As for the emperor, you already know what happened to him, thus it falls to us to rebel against the demonic rule. If you wish to fight under my banner, I'll help you, but if you intend to hide in this basement counting your days, then there's nobody that can save you."
Keeping things as brief as possible, Razor relayed what he'd come to offer. Even though these adventures didn't appear all that competent, when it came to war oftentimes the weaker links can end up causing the most amount of trouble.
"Again," rising from his seat, Razor offered the handful of adventurers a hand. "The world belongs to us humans, everyone else are pest that need to be culled."
Speaking in the language of religion, the only language effective enough to persuade them, it didn't take long for him to sway their minds into agreeing with him. Bobbing their heads in agreement, the adventurers agreed to be recruited into Razor's situationally convenient cult.
"Alright then, reality alter: Mass teleportation!" With a bright blue flash, everyone inside the room was pulled into a vortex of light.
Blinded temporarily they had no clue what was happening, all they could feel was a sense of fall that seemed never-ending. But spitted out into the forest near Marquis, their vision slowly recovered and they could finally make sense of things once again.
"That's quite a handful of people," an unfamiliar voice called out from behind them.
Coming out of the realm tear portal at the very least, Razor was facing the direction of the voice.
"What about you? Got anyone?" Razor asked, staring at Michael.
"A few tribes, but it'll take some time to convince them," replied the elf.
'At this rate, I'll be a hundred years old before we have any semblance of an army.' Even though they were definitely getting people to join them, their rate of recruitment was definitely not as drastic as Razor had expected.
"He's taking everyone under his banner, no wonder we're not finding much," Razor muttered to himself.
"Let's just set up camp for everyone first and then worry about everything else later," Michael suggested, trying to secure the potential soldiers they'd acquired for now.
For the rest of the day, the two generals as well as the adventurers spent their time setting up a secure parameter around the Marquis kingdom and making sure it was secluded enough to not be found by the demon guards roaming the Marquian cities. Once everyone had settled down, Razor and Michael began to clear their doubts about the emperor's death but also made sure not to reveal anything about the Valkyries killing him.
Instead, they turned their rage towards Haruki by making him the monster who'd slayed the emperor, the preacher of their god's words. At a certain point, the duo almost forgot that the emperor and Atlas, their god, were completely different people to the common folk, but thankfully they hadn't slipped anything that could help them draw that conclusion.
'They can't know that their god is dead, and not just the man who carried his message.' These were the thoughts of both generals as they kept their lips shut about the situation.
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