*Jules Monet’s husk of a body was found in his cell. The French farmer was later found wandering in Sector One with the [Chef] class. The majority of the world assumes that he had been placed in an ongoing Trial and went to the village and cooked for them.

  "Seriously!? Him? Why him?! Oh Manager I will take *any* class if you pick me." @ Ropalined (Unverified)

  "A [Chef] class? What a waste.” @ Ulozsa (Verified, R8)

  *The Manager has refused to elaborate on whether it will continue to choose Destined from prisoners.

  —

  Ryan stood outside of Milock’s apartment, except instead of finding just his friend waiting for him. It was both Clara and Milock, looking upset.

  “Hey Milo and… Clara? What are you doing here?”

  “Oh gee Ryan, you’re supposed to be so smart, why do you think?”

  Clara had her hands on her hips and was giving him a look that he guessed was supposed to be similar to when Seffara told him off… Clara really didn’t have the presence or stature to pull off a Seffara impression.

  He said a joke as a reflex.

  “More free sushi?”

  It really wasn’t the right move. Clara’s eye twitched.

  “So I was talking to your mom yesterday and guess what I found. Are you laughing at me? Stop fucking laughing at me!”

  Oh shit. Ryan hadn’t ever heard Clara swear before. He coughed, trying to take things a bit more seriously.

  “Alright, alright you caught me. I didn’t go back home, it would’ve been weird okay? I’ll go back on the weekend.”

  “It’s Sunday!”

  Ryan looked around as Clara’s yelling echoed around the neighborhood. He turned back at her.

  “Uh can we do this inside? It’s morning, and I think it’s a Sunday.”

  Clara huffed at him but grabbed his arm and pulled him inside Milock’s apartment. When they were back in the cramped room and Milock had set up his bubble, Clara started telling him off again.

  “Ryan, where have you been going every night?”

  “I found a place to go to The Realm.”

  Clara blinked, she hadn’t been expecting honesty.

  “And what have you been doing?”

  “Nothing major, just fighting some monsters, meeting some adventurers and exploring the Emerald hills.”

  “That’s so cool, is it as beautiful as–wait! That’s not the point, where have you been sleeping?”

  He scratched the back of his neck, slightly guilty about lying to them but not guilty enough to actually look ashamed. Milock was looking at him like he was disappointed and Ryan wasn’t sure how he was supposed to explain everything.

  “It was a public place, I haven’t been disturbed and it hasn’t been a problem.”

  “So you’ve been sleeping like a homeless person instead of going home? Are you crazy?”

  Clara had somehow hit the mark without even knowing the truth. She would probably freak out if he told her he’d actually been staying by the sea of homeless tents.

  “I’m a third realm, Clara, I could get hit by a truck and survive… Probably.”

  Clara was incensed, “That’s not the point! You could have stayed here or with me. You’d really live outside like that rather than go talk to your parents?”

  “Milo, back me up here-”

  “No Ryan, what the fuck? After all we talked about at Barry’s, you’d rather rough it out there than stay here? You could’ve at least told us, I told you I wouldn’t snitch to them.”

  I didn’t want to traumatize you in case I died. Ryan didn’t say. He was doing something really risky and the last thing he wanted to do was die and end up leaving his body as a corpse in his friend’s room. Even if his soulless body got attacked, the worst he’d have was a bit of soul damage when he returned to Earth.

  Ryan opened his mouth and closed it. He was doing the same shit Barry had done. He didn’t want to worry them, but that wasn’t right either.

  He took a breath.

  “Sorry… I–”

  “You’re trying to push us away again.”

  Milo declared accusatorily, he had told Ryan about his own little secret, it wasn’t right that Ryan was keeping a secret from him. That he didn’t trust his friend with it. Clara turned on Milo.

  “What do you mean again?”

  “He was happy to see you leave, Clara. Because he didn’t want you involved in his mess.”

  “Don’t tell her that. What the fuck Milo? That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

  Everything had been going perfectly, why the hell was it falling apart now? Clara turned to him with indignation.

  “Then what did you mean Ryan?”

  He paused as he looked at Clara’s face, at Milock’s. He sighed.

  “Alright, I’ve got something to tell you all. Both of you, Barry and Seff, I haven’t been telling the whole truth.”

  Barry was right, damn him. Keeping secrets from your friends–no, his team was poison.

  He’d been mulling over this issue for the past couple days as he stayed with the homeless. Ryan realized that he was afraid his friends would try to stop him from returning to The Realm, or worse, distance themselves from him once they found out he was on his last life.

  Ryan was being selfish and wanting the best of both worlds, taking their choice away from them by withholding information.

  Milock frowned.

  “What do you mean? You’ve got more stuff than–”

  Ryan interrupted his friend before he started talking about the apocalyptic scenarios to Clara. That was information that she should learn at Seffara’s place, not here.

  “I have something to tell you guys, but I think we should do it at Seffara’s place. Not in the Secretary’s silence bubble.”

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  Somehow his friends gave him the benefit of the doubt.

  –

  They stayed in the bubble while Ryan talked about his adventures in the Emerald Hills. Milock was still giving Ryan the silent treatment. But despite his anger, his friend couldn’t help but laugh at the image of Ryan fighting a spinning amperdon alpha while surrounded by amperdon butts preventing him from running away.

  Clara shook her head and laughed.

  “Okay, so what are you up to? Keep exploring and practicing or get to the next Trial thingy?”

  “Still in progress. It really depends on how quickly the Adventurer’s Guild can react and whether the Witch Tyrant… well I’m still figuring out her exact angle.”

  “It’d be good to know what she’s thinking, considering she still hasn’t responded to what happened overnight.”

  Ryan frowned.

  “What do you mean?”

  Clara looked at him in surprise, so did Milock. Ryan really hadn’t checked the news on his phone. He was already on Milock’s laptop most of the day, and he preferred to clear his head while he walked to Milock’s place.

  Clara shared a look with Milock.

  “There’s been an interview with a blacklisted dragonslayer. It’s kinda getting bad. She still hasn’t made a statement and everyone’s getting nervous.”

  Ryan blinked. He knew that the Witch Tyrant hadn’t been answering anyone but hadn’t seen the interview. Clara brought up Milock’s laptop as she looked up the video. The video was originally in French but had English subtitles.

  It was worse than he expected.

  –

  Dragonslayer Ludovic Dubois sat down in ornate bronzelike armor, he looked calm and powerful. A man in his seventies but appeared as if he was no older than twenty. There was an unnerving air of presence about him that drew the eyes. He sat with his helmet on a table, a confident monarch that looked down on the subject in front of him.

  The reporter sat nervously, she wore a skirt suit and adjusted her pink handkerchief as the camera crew got into place. The angle was different and looked like it was recording the entire scene.

  There was a moment of silence, then someone in the background gave a cue to the actual professional camera guy.

  “Hello, sir Dubois. I thank you again for this interview and to save your precious time I’ll cut to the chase. What are your thoughts on people demanding that you return to The Realm?”

  The dragonslayer looked confused, like a politician that was very clearly pretending he didn’t understand the question.

  “What are you talking about? I am here to meet my family on vacation. There was a desync and I have been away for over a month!”

  A bad answer, one that might have worked if he’d picked the right reporter to talk to.

  “Well, you were part of a group that strong-armed their way back to Earth as well as your previous blacklist Edict by the Guild. It’s only fair that -” the reporter swallowed halfway through the conversation, like something was making her uncomfortable, “um, what do you have to comment on that?”

  Dragonslayer Dubois waved his hands, as if he wasn’t using his aura to pressure the woman who was asking inconvenient questions.

  “A misunderstanding, I was part of no group that attacked the Tyrants. And the only authority you should concern yourself with is France itself. Guild Edicts? What a disgrace.”

  “Are you saying that the video released by the Dwarven Tyrant was doctored?”

  Ludovic tried to wave it off again.

  “There were extenuating circumstances, not everyone there was to attack. There is more going on than what you kids on your little forums might think. It is a complicated situation, you see?”

  Dragonslayer Dubois dismissed the accusation as if each of his skills and attacking patterns hadn’t been thoroughly identified by the internet. The man still talked about the internet like it was forty years ago.

  Perhaps in another time, his dismissal and clear use of his aura would have been heeded as a warning.

  Not in this generation. The reporter refused to drop the issue.

  “Are you really saying that there are others that were also misidentified as blacklisters? Would you care to name them?”

  “I - no, are you stupid girl? This is a high level negotiation, not for you young kids to be talking about.”

  “Well it concerns us when you have made an enemy of the Tyrants and the French people are worried that you are using us citizens as a shield while you hide from them.”

  It was a maddening conversation, Ludovic Dubois was getting heated up, probably never having been challenged like this by anyone else in what had to be decades, if ever.

  “That is wrong and untrue! Who thinks like this? I am here for my family and to stay in my home country! This interview is over!”

  The reporter refused to let it go, Ryan’s heart started beating for her, wondering if he was about to watch something that shouldn’t have been on this site. The reporter seemed suicidal as she continued, pressing the dragonslayer for what she knew was a viral scoop.

  “Then would you like to talk about your family or families as I understand it? You have multiple wives in The Realm while still having a wife here in France. Polygamy is considered illegal. It seems you yourself do not support the rule of law in France too.”

  The distortions in the air could be seen in the video. The aura that the dragonslayer had been using manifested in the room as Dubois used it to press down at a normal human.

  The room started to tremble with his voice.

  “Who the fuck are you to talk to me like this? You know what I’ve done? What I’ve sacrificed for The Realm and my country? You treat me like this?”

  The wide-eyed reporter started shaking in the chair. She grabbed at her throat and fell to the floor, her eyes bulging.

  Ludovic blinked and almost looked surprised at how frail the woman was. Without a word, he turned to the camera. The last thing the video recorded was Sir Ludovic Dubois glaring at the production camera as it exploded.

  –

  “Holy shit, did he kill her?”

  Milock stared coldly at the video. His friend was still visibly angry at Ryan, but the story and the video seemed to have dulled the rage.

  “No, the reporter ended up in the hospital but she refused to say anything against the dragonslayer. This interview happened two days ago, but the video leaked today.”

  “Everyone’s getting worried Ryan,” Clara said, “They’re all saying that the dragonslayers are hiding behind civilians so they can use them as meatshields. Everyone on the internet’s saying it.

  Clara was worried, looking at him like he might have some answers that would reassure her.

  “Every single Tyrant other than the Witch has made their stance clear. They won’t go after the dragonslayers as long as they don’t bother them. People are saying she’s been hunting them down, one by one. Everyone wants to know if she’s actually hunting them down.”

  “Oh.”

  Then it all clicked.

  The words the Witch Tyrant had told him.

  We have simmered in peace for far too long. I see that now.

  All of this was the Witch Tyrant’s plan. She wanted chaos and unrest. It was even likely that the dragonslayer assault was all part of her plan.

  Ryan could see the twisted logic the Witch was operating on. He had been the message from the Manager, a perfect scenario that had fallen into her lap to become a blacklister.

  Maybe the message was that the world was too peaceful, that it needed chaos for the truly powerful to rise. If the Witch Tyrant wanted to really hunt down dragonslayers, there wouldn’t be a need for all the rumors and the blacklisting. She’d just go kill them. He didn’t doubt that she could, not with a Legend of illusions.

  Maybe she even hoped that someone like dragonslayer Dubois would become stronger from this.

  That thought repulsed him. No wonder Valee looked like she swallowed a frog when she tried to use her father’s name as a shield.

  A man like that didn’t deserve to be an adventurer. No, he never was one. He was someone from the Settler generation. Not an adventurer.

  Ryan had been thinking for a while about what exactly adventurers were. It still bothered him that the Witch Tyrant thought they were just rebranded Trialists. They weren’t fake. They could be rough around the edges but they…

  “They step up when called but other than that, they’re the same as anyone else.”

  “What was that Ryan?”

  Ryan looked at his friend. He knew she didn’t quite get it either. Well, neither had he until recently. He stood up straight with more assurance in his plan than ever before.

  “Adventurers, Clara. Adventurers work for coin, yes. They’re selfish and silly but still want to be relatable to the people that watch them. They’re just like anyone else. That’s what’s important.”

  Ryan paused, trying to put into words what he understood in his heart. Unknown to him his aura pulsed and spread throughout the room. It silenced the odd stares his friends were giving him.

  “They’re not heroes but they’re not just mercenaries either. They get paid for a doing a job, try to get popular and try to follow the rules. But they step up when it’s needed, when the time comes, they stand with everyone else. Because they are everyone else.”

  He pointed at the video that had ended on Dubois’ face. The arrogant man who thought he was above it all. Who hadn’t changed with the times and still believed in might makes right.

  Ryan lightened his fist as he realized he was letting out his own aura. This aura was different from his Epic. It still drew the eye and focused on him, that was the same. Milock and Clara couldn’t help but watch him in rapt attention.

  Not in fear but something else.

  He pointed at the still frame of Ludovic Dubois.

  “That’s not an adventurer.”

  His doubts over his plan washed away. The Witch Tyrant wanted to set the world on fire, she wanted the strong to rise from the chaos. The other Tyrants weren’t stepping up to stop her.

  “I’ll show her that she’s wrong. I’ll prove to her that adventurers aren’t like the Settlers of old. I won’t let it go the way she wants it to.”

  https://www.patreon.com/Purveilor