14 - A familiar face (R18)

Ethan continued to talk to Eve, and Robert soon went downstairs.

A few moments later, the tavern door opened, and a figure in a black cloak and mask appeared; only his beautiful blue eyes were visible.

"Captain Robert, is everyone here?" The masked figure spoke, a noble male voice echoing through the tavern.

"Yes, but Durgan had some problems and had to get some sleep; please sit down." Robert gestured as he pulled out a chair for the masked figure.

Then he pointed to Ethan and lied shamelessly: "This is Ethan, the son of an old friend of my father; he will be the sixth participant in the mission."

"Hm..." The figure grunted before sitting down, his eyes sweeping over everyone present, his gaze lingering on none of them for more than half a second before moving on to the next, with the exception of one person: Ethan.

When his gaze fell on Ethan, it lingered on him for long seconds before finally turning back to Robert.

'Holy shit... this was a mistake!' Ethan shouted to himself as he tried to maintain normalcy; he knew those eyes and that voice better than anyone else.

The masked man was David Stormerga, Lord of Stormerga County and an old friend of his family.

"Well, can we get started?" Eve interrupted Ethan's train of thought and leaned her body against the table, shifting the target of her usual seductive smile from Ethan to the masked man.

"Yes..." The masked man spoke before waving his hands in the air.

An intense glow emanated from his hands; space was distorted, and a map appeared in his palms.

When it was placed on the table, everyone realized that it was a map showing the surroundings of Stormerga.

In the center was the city, and to the northwest of it was a single X mark.

"This is the place where the item I want is; it's in a coal mine under royal administration. I prefer not to deal with royalty, so I need you to do the work for me." The masked man pointed to the marker as he spoke.

"The royal family is a real pain to deal with." Robert spoke, his eyes glazing over at the masked man as he prepared to touch on what he really felt was important.

"Now there's a subject we haven't discussed yet. The payment, I have a lot of mouths to feed."

"Four thousand," the masked figure said without hesitation, startling everyone there.

Four thousand gold coins were more than enough for all of them to live in luxury and wealth for the rest of their lives.

Ignoring their anxiety, the figure waved his hand, and six heavy sacks fell onto the table.

"This is an advance bonus; take it as a sign of my desire to do a prosperous business with you."

Robert opened the bag, an astonished smile on his face as he saw the amount, which totaled one hundred gold coins, a small fortune even for ordinary merchants.

"Well..." Robert said after clearing his throat and regaining his composure, "It is a very generous reward on your part, sir, but I sincerely fear for the safety of my compatriots, as such a large reward would naturally involve great risk."

"Don't worry about the risks," the masked man said, shaking his head. "The item I want is extremely important, but the difficulty is less than you think."

"The item I want is a golden crystal, kept in the vault of the mine. There are only twenty guards protecting it, and probably not even the royal family itself knows how important this crystal is, so they shouldn't miss it too much if they find out it's been stolen.

I'd go there myself to sort it out, but I'm in no condition to risk exposing my identity."

"I understand..." Robert put away his own bag of coins before standing up. "That's good enough; we accept your offer."

"Good..." The masked man smiled before waving his hand again, this time summoning a piece of paper that contained an intense magical aura.

Seeing this, Ethan felt uncomfortable, and his shoulders shook—something that didn't escape the masked man's eyes.

This was a magical contract, a type of contract that allowed two people to guarantee that a service would be performed properly, the willful failure of which often led to terrible consequences such as crippling and death.

Fortunately for Ethan, only Robert and the masked man had to sign the contract, saving him from having to write his full name and possibly reveal himself.

Right after Robert signed, the man left, not giving them time to see his name before he put the contract away.

[System: A new mission is available!

{The Request of a Lord.

Description: The Count of Stormerga has given you a risky but lucrative mission: Along with your new companions, retrieve the crystal he so desperately wants.

Difficulty: C

Reward: 10,000 corruption store points}]

Ethan was slightly daunted by the difficulty and amount of rewards of this mission, but his mind was focused on other things, and he barely had time to pay attention.

"Ah, well, it looks like we're a little richer today, and I hope we're filthy rich tomorrow, hahahaha!" Robert laughed gleefully as he bit into one of the gold coins he had received from the masked man.

Eve and the two idiots also maintained the exact same facade, smiling happily as they basked in the sensation of having their pockets.

"Are you all right, Ethan? You look weird." Robert asked, noticing that Ethan didn't share the stasis of the rest of the group.

"It's nothing; I just need to meditate a bit; I always do." Ethan told a half-truth and shook his head before putting away the gold he'd received as a bonus.

"All right, here's the key to one of the rooms; it's the third from the left on the second floor." Robert took a small key out of his pocket, and since he knew that Ethan wasn't a man of many words, he didn't insist.

Immediately after taking the key, Ethan went up to the second floor and entered the bedroom, his expression tired as he sat on the old, worn bed.

His mind spun between a multitude of possibilities as he thought about David. If he were an ordinary person, he wouldn't have minded the extra seconds David stared at him, but David was no ordinary person; he was a man at the peak of the power of the Eternal Islands, a being so powerful that even Alice probably couldn't last more than a few seconds fighting him.

That was something, and no matter how hard he tried to hide his fear, it always came back.

"Maybe it's my appearance?" Ethan thought he had an extremely handsome appearance, but he wasn't sure if it only affected women. David was a mysterious man, and Ethan didn't know enough about his private life to rule out the possibility that he played for the other team.

"That must be it!" Ethan said to himself and didn't have long to think before he heard a knock, followed by Eve's voice.

"Come in!" Ethan said before straightening up.

Just then Eve entered the room, carrying a plate of roast beef in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other—a type of wine so expensive that it caught Ethan's eye.

"Robert said you hadn't had breakfast yet, so I decided to give you a little surprise." She smiled as she approached Ethan.

"Hm..." Ethan exhaled before smiling seductively at the woman and saying, "Let me guess, you're the main meal?"

"Nah..." She laughed before leaving the plate of food and wine on the table next to Ethan's bed.

Without worrying about Ethan's reaction, she grabbed his legs and spread them before crouching between them, her deft hands going straight to the zipper of his pants.

Without hesitation, she unzipped Ethan's pants, and his semi-erect cock popped out and flew right into her face.

"The main meal is you ~" She spoke, her eyes wide with lust, as she licked Ethan's cock, using her tongue on every inch of it before opening her mouth wide and swallowing it all in one go.