1 The Arbiters

I'm Orion, the Arbiter of celestial city of Kingdom of Adicyle, who had been recently appointed as the Arbiter. We Arbiters have a job to solve the case by judging various situations, things and people, we are not supposed to use violence in any given cases however there are other types of cases that requires violence.

For instance sometimes we need to deal with culprits or monsters, that's why it's hard to get a job as the Arbiter. Unlike guilds, An arbiter's job is way more difficult than that of the guild. The guild, basically, doesn't accept requests that is hard to solve even by S ranked Members.

And it doesn't mean an Arbiter is stronger than S ranked guild member in terms of fighting prowess, it's because the Arbiters are qualified to solve harder or complex situations. The Arbiters are divided and sent to the particular towns or cities, Sometimes two or more Arbiters are sent to the city depending on the size of the city.

Today I'm in the Adicyle Castle in a hall, apparently this is an event where new Arbiters would be given the first real case but maybe this event is held so that Arbiters are kept in check, in other words, in this event someone else would be accompanying Arbiters to check their skills and evaluate them, it might seem like the job of assassins or spies but these people will also help in solving the situations that might be hard, it's not exam since we already passed but maybe they might not be satisfied so easily.

"Greetings everyone, as you all know we select new Arbiters and remove Arbiters, who fail to do their job as a Arbiter, every year." said Jystice.

He is Jystice, his name looks somehow simple and easy to guess the similar word but he is a man who has authority over Arbiters.

"This event is held every year after we go through the process of recruitment of Arbiters and approve them, this year we have four new Arbiters who have been replaced with other four old Arbiters who fall behind and fail to do their jobs" said Jystice

The fact he intentionally saying about "Removing Arbiters every year" means he would not show mercy on lower ranked Arbiters and kick them out of their job, it's not like I know about this person but it was stated as a rule to remove lower ranked Arbiters. He also ordered to hide the rankings, until the day when Arbiters have to be recruited and replaced, so that Arbiters would not know of their rankings and feel fear of left behind and start competing each other without even knowing their rankings.

Even though revealing rankings can still lead to competition but he would have guessed that if they knew they are on top they would be slacking off or enjoying themselves leaving their duties and that's why the rankings are hidden until it's time of revelation comes.

"We have assigned these four Arbiters recently and now the day has come to reveal their identity and the cities they had been assigned for, please come on the stage one by one and introduce yourself to the other Arbiters."

I saw a person, with a long ponytail with red eyes and he was holding the katana, entering the stage.

"Greetings everyone, I'm Mikazu from kamo Village and I have been assigned for Rednaught city, It is an honour and opportunity for me to meet the Arbiters who protects this Kingdom. I always wanted to to help the people in need and I did that exactly so I thought I could contribute to this Kingdom as an Arbiter, I m looking forward to work with you all, Thank you"

He returned to the position where he was standing before, the next person that came after Mikazu was-

"Greetings to everyone present here, I'm Reina from Hage village, I m appointed as the new Arbiter, it's nice to meet you all!."

Just like her, another Arbiter came and introduced himself, and now it was my turn. I entered the stage, everyone watched me as I approached the stage.

"I'm Orion and the new Arbiter, I'm assigned to Celestial city. I m looking forward to working with you all."

Everyone looked at me as though I missed a part of my speech, I guess they were wondering where I came from, Unfortunately I don't remember my past but it's fine no one seemed to care about it and they ignored it at last, still Jystice told them that I don't remember my past and some of them looked like they want to give me sympathy but I didn't care about at all.

"As you all introduced yourself I'm assigning all four of you with your first case, I hope you all do better. Also I have assigned your new partners for helping you out in case if you are lost and don't know what to do. You can check the requests from your client on dashboard outside this castle. Best of luck everyone, dismissed!."

The meeting was over, the new Arbiters were interacting with the senior Arbiters. It would be useful for me to interact with them because I may gain new informations, but i deliberately didn't try to do it and left the hall because I didn't want to waste my time and besides I m not good at keeping the conversation.

I left the castle and headed straight towards the nearby dashboard to see details of my first case, I can see many Arbiters there and they were trying to find the suitable case. I came near to the dashboard and saw my first case that was marked, I saw the title named "The Vanishing Village".

"Well..."

Before I tried to read further i realised that I had forgotten something.

"I forgot about the person who was supposed to accompany me, but it's strange that the person didn't tried to follow me...."

"There you are!! Finally caught up with you." said the person behind me.

"Sorry about forgetting you and left you behind." I said.

"That's not fair! Why did you do that!, I went to the restroom and you suddenly disappeared when I came back." she said.

"I guess I apologized..."

"That's not what I mean but you have no right to do that to the person you supposed to work with." she said

"Well, anyway I guess I didn't introduced myself right?, I'm Chloe from Hage village, I'm one of the assistant to help new Arbiters, it's nice to meet you."

From same village as that Arbiter named Reina, this girl seems to have a Magical Rod, in other words she must be good at using magic attacks, buffs etc. Her hair is pink just like her eyes and she seems to be wearing a pink robe. Maybe she likes pink colour and it seemed coincidence that she got her favourite colour on her hair and eyes, not to mention her rod is also pink coloured.

"I'm Orion."

"Mhm, I heard it when you introduced yourself."

"So is it true that you don't remember anything about your past?" said Chloe.

"Its true."

"Well, don't stress over it, some bad thing happens in everyone's daily life someday but we can rely on each other to support,so let's be friends from now on."said Chloe with a gentle smile.

Sympathy again? Her nature is kind hearted, atleast that's what most people would think about. I don't need any kind of sympathy though because I never felt like I wanted any sympathy from others however I will just go along with her since I don't have time to sit still while other Arbiters try to increase their ranks, I bet we will be watched by spies or assassins so that they evaluate us and report to Jystice.

"Yeah..." I said

"So did you read the information for your first case?"

"It seems that the title is "The Vanishing Village" and for more information we need to meet this client name Raven."

"I see so let's head to the client according to the location on dashboard."

We reached the destination and stopped at flower shop where Raven was selling his flowers.

"Woah there are so many beautiful flowers, so you sell flowers Mr. Raven?"

"Haha, I just started selling since yesterday. I thought I should just start a new buisness so I thought of flower buisness."

She told me that she knew Raven, though they met a week ago.

"I see, in that case I would love to buy one-"

"We don't have time for that." I stopped her.

"Ah, yeah I forgot we should be focusing on the main buisness right now." said Chloe.

"Hm, So you are the Arbiter. Let me explain all the details I know of."

I thought Chloe would be disappointed when I stopped her but I guess she understands the situation.

"Please come inside and take a seat while we discuss about my request."said Raven.

We did as he said and get inside, and took our seats.

"Now then I will explain the details, so there is this Village that Vanished at midnight, no one was around at that village except me."

"What were you doing there in middle of the night?" I asked.

"That is where I live but I saw a Bright light emitted in the center of the village and before I noticed everything, everyone were gone. I was terrified and thought what I should do but I was helpless, so early in the morning i reported this to guild but they didn't found any clue on how the village disappeared."

"And guild issued this request and let Arbiters know about this case right?" I said.

"Thats right, So I want you to find about the cause of this. I really want to go back to my village and enjoy with everyone, they were all good people always trying to help each other even critical situations." he said with a sad expression on him.

"Thank you for the details, now I know what happened I will try to find out the truth and solve it." I said confirming that I would help him.

"Also I want to ask a question, what is the name of this village." I asked him

"Its Rieke village..."

Rieke village? I don't know why but I don't seem to know about this Village, it seems there are many places I have not visited. I also asked him about the location and he gave me the location of the village. The location of the village was near a deserted ruins where people usually don't pass by. This Village was located in an area that was almost unseen by other people.

"Ok see you later we will do our best to solve this issue Mr. Raven." said Chloe.

After that we were headed towards the given location. On the way, Chloe seemed to say something.

"By the way can I ask a question Sir Orion?"

"You can just call me Orion besides i thought we just became friends, so what is it?"

"Oh sorry about that but usually it would be better for me to act formally in front of others besides if someone reports that I was making friends I may get in trouble. Anyway, Actually there was something I wanted to ask you though it might be unnecessary but still I want to know what you did for a living before becoming the Arbiter, what's your hobby, what you want to eat, I want to get to know you since we are friends and will be travelling together for a while."

Apparently her questions were really unnecessary as she said herself and it seems she wants to know more about me, aside from my past that i forgot. Its true we will be together for a while until Jystice himself personally approve us Arbiters completely. I don't feel like answering them and besides even if I had answers for her questions i think it would be an ridiculous answer for instance I don't like or dislike any food and I eat only healthy food to maintain my health. It is only natural to maintain your health. But most people would dislike this answer. Should I lie? No, More importantly I would avoid answering because we already reached our destination.

"We can talk about this later I think."

"Yeah I guess you are right."

We finally arrived at the village or more accurately we arrived at the empty area where this Village disappeared last night.

"Lets split up and try to find some clue while being cautious not to get lost, this fog is heavy after all."

"I wonder what happened I hope we find the clue as soon as possible." said Chloe.

She went to the west side and I headed to the north side of this Village while keeping an eye on every single thing that can be a clue. However there were only big objects like stones and nothing more. I didn't find anything I was thinking I should return to center and see if Chloe found anything. When I reached the center i didn't saw Chloe, maybe she was still searching for clues. But then I saw a sign that had a familiar symbol.

"Could it be..."

Its the symbol used by Arbiters to mark dangerous magical anomalies. With this clue I immediately realised who was the culprit. However I was a little late to understand this.

"So you found a clue? As excepted of an Arbiter." said culprit

"I guess I was lured here purposely so you are one of them Chloe..."

"I m really sorry but I want you to disappear."

Her voice and expression looked as though she was trying to force herself. I learned many things and identifying, the truth or lies according to the behaviour of the person, was one of the skills I learned.

"Before dealing with you...."

There was another person who was following us from behind and that person eventually killed all of the spies sent by Jystice, I feel bad for for those spies but I can't risk anything until found something useful and it seemed it paid off.

"You can come out...Raven."

"Well I wasn't expecting that I thought I was hiding perfectly, I see you made me look like I was not caught." said Raven

"I m not good at conversation so before you try to do anything can you atleast tell me what you were planning."

"Oh, so you haven't figured most of the things?"

"I m not god so yeah I will admit what you said." I said

"I had set you up in a trap using Chloe."

When she heard her name, she somehow looked a little guilty.

"Actually the request you got was not the official request that was issued by guild or anyone, Your real request was torn apart into pieces and we made fake request and Chloe set the request on dashboard."

So that's why she was a little late when I arrived at dashboard or more accurately she was deceiving me by making it look like she was in the restroom.

"So in the end there was no such village from the very beginning."

Apparently I think I have activated the trap under this symbol, It was a magical trap that could blast the surrounding area after a certain period of time. This trap is ultimately dangerous depending on the user. The user can set the time and set it up, but if the countdown is not high then it's magical power is also weak. He came here to buy some time and explode this area. He must have set the symbol on trap so that he would know where he set the trap but there was something about this symbol that bothered me before.

"You are the Arbiter who just got expelled."

"Yeah that's right." he said

I was right after all.

"But what do you gain by doing this?"

"Don't act high and mighty young lad, because of this system because of Jystice and because of New Arbiters. My career was destroyed. I can't accept this. I will take my revenge upon you all!."

"So that's your, kind of trauma?"

"There is another question. Why is it that Chloe is helping you in this."

"Unfortunately I don't intend to tell you that, but you know since you are going to die I will tell you so listen. This lady here has a sister that was kidnapped by this unknown group called Anti-Libra that claims they want to destroy Libra. Since then she was forced to act as the spy for this group, there interest aligned with me so I accepted their offer and what's more they will give me so much money....hahahaha."

Anti-Libra Group huh? Libra is group of Arbiters with a leader representing them. And it seems This group has some kind of connection to Libra.

"I m sorry Orion i didn't want to do this....I...."

Raven tried to attack her with the hammer, I dashed in as quickly as possible and prevented it by blocking his hammer with my bare hand. He then tried to kick and I blocked with my another hand and threw him a little far away.

"Tch, what a monster you threw me like I was some kind of ball." he said.

"Why did you tried to hurt her even though she was doing exactly what she was told."

"I don't care about that young girl, however I was ordered to kill her.That takes care of my problem since I personally never wanted to work with her."

"Wha!?"

She was shocked that the Anti-Libra wanted her dead.

"Disable the trap Chloe, while I m dealing with him. It seems that there is still some time since he took trouble to attack you and standing up against me again without showing any sign of retreating."

"Wh...why...I thought I betrayed you....Why would you-"

"I want you to meet your sister and besides you can't die like this by doing this crime you will have to repay me by helping me out."

I want to use her abilities to get the upperhand in this battle. Because that guy looked confident enough that he could escape 100% given any circumstances, but for now he will try to stop me from escaping. But I know why he needed a trap to kill the Arbiters, he was weak against other Arbiters and he must have been a lower ranked Arbiter. He may have already realised that fighting Arbiters, even new ones, may lead to defeat.

"...I... Understand..I will try to disarm the trap.... because I want to meet....sniff....sob...sob..meet....my sister."

She almost cried but looking at her desire to meet her sister, this will be advantageous for me now.

"I won't let you do that BASTARDDDDS."

He rushed quickly with intention to kill us. of course, if he kill us the ending would be same. He Swing his hammer in the orthodox fighting style to attack me relentlessly, no matter what even lower ranked Arbiters are strong enough to defend them. I dodged and blocked all of his attacks.

"What happened? If you keep blocking and dodging my attacks you won't survive or maybe you can't compete with me huh? Maybe I would not need to depend on the trap that I-"

I saw him wide open when he was trying to attack me with the hammer above me but I quickly gave him a clean hit with my jab to his stomach and he was knocked back little distance away from me. His armour was shattered and he was bleeding too much from his mouth.

"Wha..what the...hell....is....damn this... monster..."

He was still speaking despite not getting enough oxygen. It seems he is tough but that was not enough...

"Curse you Arbiters...."

He used his skill this time he slamed his hammer on the ground as hard as possible and the big stone spikes were rising up from the ground, I dodged all of them and went behind him and before he looked back I already punched his head, he was knocked back again. This time he was unable to stand up, I already gave him a body blow, targeting his vital point that lead his legs to shake and then targeted his next vital point on his head to make his brain disable the commands for a while.

"Why...why..why.....I want to stand up damn.....curse you.... bastard.."

Apparently he had not realised why he wasn't able to stand up and fight back. He was struggling but unfortunately for him no matter what, even the most powerful guy in this world will not be able to stand up after this.

"I disabled the trap Orion.."

"Is that so? Alright then let's tie him up and ask questions."

She looked a little surprised by looking at the condition of Raven but then she helped me tie him up.

"First of all tell me why did you or should I say why this group wanted Chloe dead even though she was following all of your orders? And what is it that Anti-Libra group aiming for by trying to go against Libra." I asked

"Even If I wanted to tell you I still can't explain anything at all they never told me anything about their aim or whatever so I never loo-"

I kicked on his head and asked the same question.

"Ugh."

"Or- Orion that's enough he doesn't know anything, you will kill him in that way."

"I think you are right or else he would have told us because he could not withstand any more pain, let's give up on him and-"

"Wha- what's happening to your body!" said Chloe in a panic.

Without thinking more, I grabbed her hand, stepped aside and made a distance. In that moment Raven exploded.

"Thats!!" she looked a little horrified

"So Anti-Libra is cruel enough to even discard their own pawns to protect themselves and try to achieve their aim..." I muttered.

When Chloe was in a stable mode she spoke.

"I don't believe this would happen to me...I apologise once more and I m ready to atone for my crimes!" she said while bowing her head.

"Lift up your head, we would make a report where the culprit was only one and after that lets take a rest."

She looked up with a surprised face.

"But..."

"If you want to atone for your sins, I won't stop you but just you know that It would not be helpful for you. Libra is strict and no one knows what will happen and you might get executed right away. But If you help me I will make sure to find your sister along with Anti-Libra who wants to destroy the Libra. This will be beneficial for both of us and for the Libra. Besides I noticed that your magical powers are higher than the average people who uses Magical Rod. If you really want to meet your sister I will help you with finding her."

I believe that she know about the rules stated in Libra, I made sure to convince her by offering the help

"Orion..."

She is now...

"Thank...you Orion I am really.....sniff...sniff.....sob...sob.. grateful that I found you!"

..... dependent on me and I will...

"Are you alright? Why are you crying now?"

"I.. m not crying anymore rather I feel happy that I met you....Orion.."

...use her as one of my pawns, humans are easy to manipulate and when their life is saved by someone they get vulnerable to the person who saved them and it is more easy to manipulate them when they are in a category of good people. First of all I need to report this incident and about the Unknown group of people that call themselves as Anti-Libra. My rank might increase since I will be reporting something important, I hope so. For now I need to head back to the Libra base...

To be continued...