"They attacked my town... 6 years ago." She whispered to the man.
"Hm... And here I thought you were wealthy." The man laughed aloud while she simply smiled.
"Well, I kind of am. It's complicated." She sighed.
For some reason, despite what she had thought earlier, it was much easier to open up to a complete stranger that she would probably never see again than to her friends.
She didn't really know what that was the case. She wasn't good with the whole emotions part of the being a human after what happened, but she would savor the feeling that was currently going through her right now even if it didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.
"But seriously, kid. I don't think attacking any of them would be in your best interest. They're much stronger than you'd think..." He said with a low voice before looking around them as if he didn't want anyone to hear what he was about to say next.
"I had heard about the Darkless organization long before they had become public. I'm sure you already know, but not many people knew about them until about 6 months ago." The man explained, while Syra raised a brow.
While he was talking, her eyes had roamed around the town, and now that she was more observant, she quickly realized something.
The town had posters everywhere.
It was almost like every 9th house would have a poster on it with the word "BOUNTY" written in bold on top of it.
She didn't understand why she hadn't seen them before, but now they had suddenly become easier to spot.
Every one of those posters had the same face on them.
"You see the posters, right? Most people don't actually spot them until they come to the adventurer's hall. I think it's some kind of psychology thing. People subconsciously avoid looking at things that they don't want to see until it looks them in the eyes." The man shrugged.
"Why are there so many posters of... Him?" She asked.
"Hm... I'm assuming you must have been in school when it happened, so you probably didn't get to know about it." The man scratched his chin with a little bit of amusement before pointing in a specific direction.
"About a few miles in that direction, there was a place called the Red Hog. It was a pretty big town. Thousands of people lived there. However, the people who lived there were quite... How do I say this..." He chuckled and scratched his temple.
"They were essentially a gang... A militia that would go from town to town, 'asking' towns to pay the protection fee." He explained.
"Hmm..." She nodded before looking up at the man with a jolt. "Wait, what do you mean by 'were'?"
At this point, even Syra's friends were listening in since they weren't really speaking in a low voice anymore.
However, he continued with the story instead of answering Syra's question.
"Well, after a few years of the kingdom doing absolutely nothing about them because it was still getting its taxes from us and all the other towns, we started to complain. Again, the kingdom did nothing. We were being forced to give them almost 50% of all the money the entire town earned, yet the kingdom still did nothing.
At one point, one of the other poorer towns fought back, but instead of them being pushed back and disciplined slightly, the Red Hogs wanted to make an example out of them..." The man sighed and looked at the ground with balled fists.
"What happened?" Syra asked, but by now, she knew what his answer was going to be.
"The Red Hog's leader, who was a mage with a Sapphire core, came in and single handily defeated everyone who could fight in that town. His men enslaved the women and children, and just when they thought that they were being punished enough, the entire town was eradicated with a single tier-5 spell with all the men still in it."
"Fuck..." Syra spat when she heard the last part. "I'm sorry-"
"But, that was the last mistake they ever made..." The man spoke with a cold voice; however, there was a subtle smile on his face.
The fact that an entire town disappeared caught a few people's radar. The kingdom was angry that they would destroy an entire town, but all they did was give them a small fine since the Red Hogs were allies with the kingdom...
However, they also caught the attention of Darkless." He said while Syra frowned a little.
"A few days later, the Red Hogs suddenly realized that the slaves they had captured were no longer with them, and when they went outside to call upon their leaders and tell them about what happened, they saw a white-haired man covered from head to toe in black and green armor.
They say that the crystals within his armor were made out of the cores of humans he had judged, while some say that even the runes placed onto his equipment and armor were the melted cores of both people and creatures."
"This sounds more like a legend..." Syra said dismissingly.
"Well, that's what it is... Only one person survived that massacre. That white-haired man called himself Judgement, and he did exactly what his name said he would do. He judged the entire town, and sentenced them to death while pouring the blood of his victims onto his armor for it to consume.
After that, he burned the town to the ground and left without saying a single word to the slaves outside the village who were waiting in order to thank him."
"..." Syra didn't know what to say. The whole thing sounded made up, and even though she wanted to believe him, from her perspective, Darkless was the enemy.
"We're here." The man suddenly said before Syra could even utter anything she wanted to say.
Looking up, she saw that they were at the town's gates.
"Here... This is the exact description of the mission and exactly what you need to kill. It shouldn't be too hard since you're not far from the Sapphire core, so just make sure your friends over here don't get hurt. okay?" The man smiled before turning around and leaving without saying another word.
"Well... That was weird." Zelon suddenly said with a chuckle, yet even though he was trying to lighten the mood, Syra quickly ignored him and walked toward the direction of the snowy forest in the distance.
Not knowing what to do, they all simply shrugged and walked behind her. They had never seen Syra like this, and deep down, they hoped that she would return to normal before the end of the mission.
Because a part of them really didn't want to delve into the previously simple and now complicated life of the girl they had known for over 4 years.
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