32 Aegis Guild
Frederick's plan was simple yet very complicated to achieve. He wanted to accelerate the civil war within the city. His reasoning was simple.
There were plenty of candidates in the city and hunting them would be way easier without guards or even the mayor's detection zone. By creating mayhem, all the guards would be too busy with riots to care about a few murder cases.
Perhaps he could even level up once or twice before the beginning of the main story. Although it may sound reckless since killing off candidates was not an easy task at all, it was also a great opportunity to get stronger. Moreover, Frederick is confident in his abilities.
But this was for later, right now he had other priorities.
Right now he needs to lessen the pressure on him otherwise forget about getting experience, he didn't know if he would even survive. The pressure on him was huge. He was hunted down and the only reason he is fine yet is because he had his Dark Trenchcoat ability. But even so, Frederick won't be able to continue running until the start of the main story.
Entering the Aegis Guild headquarters. Frederick found himself inside a large and noisy open room with multiple candidates standing in line for a counter at the end of the room. After entering, some candidates noticed him and kept glancing at him with a weird gaze before focusing back on the front desk.
This was not surprising. His camouflage ability was still active so when Frederick entered, everyone saw a blurred figure appear from seemingly nowhere. It looked quite ominous as if it was some type of apparition. However, Frederick had a face of complete calmness. He acted as if what he did was completely normal.
Ignoring the stares from the candidates in line, Frederick slowly walked through the room and joined the end of the line. With a bit of curiosity, some candidates tried to engage in conversations with him but Frederick simply ignored them. There was simply no point in talking to them.
The room was lit by yellow lamps which gave the room a slightly warm atmosphere., making the wait a bit more bearable. Waiting patiently, it only took a few minutes until he was finally in front of the front desk.
Standing on the other side of the counter was a girl with Asian facial features and short black hair. Her attire was an official uniform with the logo of the Aegis Guild printed on her chest.
"Welcome, what can I do for you tod- today." She was surprised for a brief moment before she continued to smile and professionally greeted him. She tried to be polite and welcoming, but it didn't take a genius to know that Frederick was suspicious.
Ignoring the stare she was giving him, Frederick began to talk "I'd like to meet Thomas Rouge. Is it possible?" Frederick didn't try to beat around the bush and straight-up said who he was looking for.
At that moment, the receptionist girl's eyes flashed with a glint of surprise. But after a brief moment, her smile grew slightly bigger and she said with a sweet voice "Of course, is it for lie detection services? If so it would cost 3 lesser authorities for each hour."
Frederick shook his head and responded, "I would like to meet Thomas Rouge because I have some information that could interest the guild."
His answer surprised the girl. After a few moments of contemplation, she said in a soft tone. "Wait here please." And left behind a thick wooden door on the left.
After a few minutes, she returned with a fit man wearing the same uniform as the girl, but he had a different emblem pinned to his left chest. He had very short hair and looked very social. From the emblem of his vest, he could see that his position was probably quite important in the guild.
"Hello, I am Thomas Rouge. I heard you're here to... Give us information?" Thomas did not show any sign of suspicion toward him despite his appearance and his demeanor was professional yet polite.
"Yes. I am only here to give some information that could interest you and nothing else." He made sure to emphasize the fact that he came here only to give information and not to cause trouble. Since Thomas could see through lies, it proved Frederick's goodwill.
"...Okay. If that is so please come with me." After exchanging a glance with the receptionist, he went to the door on the left with Frederick in tow. Thomas did not bother asking for Frederick's identity. If Frederick truly wanted to share his identity, he wouldn't have come here with a camouflage.
It did not mean that Thomas wouldn't try to guess Frederick's identity. This dark veil was truly strange, it looked very ominous and made him appear as some sort of supernatural being. Not to mention his ability to enter the guild without alerting most people. This kind of clocking authority wasn't exactly common and was probably a medium rarity authority. This made Thomas a bit curious about Frederick.
Even though he couldn't quite tell his appearance because of the blur, Thomas could still hear Frederick's voice. It was calm and cold yet it still contained some type of cold-bloodedness. If Thomas was honest, his voice scared him a little but he was not intimidated by Frederick.
This was Thomas' first time seeing Frederick but it was not the case for Frederick. The Aegis Guild was a guild created by soldiers Frederick had met in his 2nd life after he killed Ethan and Amely. They even tried to recruit Frederick.
Surprisingly, even if Frederick did not guide them to Haven after he obtained Blood Dominion, they still somehow successfully arrived in the city. Albeit it was after the mayor took over Haven and established his administration.
If they arrived earlier, they could have probably prevented the mayor's power from growing at all. Perhaps they could have even led the city. Aegis Guild was very powerful, even if they were heavily suppressed, the guild had still quite an impact on the city's administration.
Besides, this guild was extremely popular. The reason behind their fame was quite simple. Their ideas were more moderate and firmly opposed the mayor's heavy rule. In addition, Aegis was often associated with "selfless" since their protection fees were extremely affordable.
The fact that the mayor didn't make any efforts to mend their relationship, and the fact that he instead tried to antagonize the guild as much as possible did not help. It was understandable since the mayor still firmly believed that the Aegis Guild killed his son. However, the guild was too influential for him to annihilate.
It didn't take long until they arrived in front of a small wooden door and after Thomas opened it, both of them entered a room. Walking through the wooden door, they arrived inside a narrow office space with a white tile floor.
The room was very simple and it didn't have any kind of decoration at all, just plain walls and a wooden floor. Surprisingly, the room had no window, only a wooden table and two chairs.
After he entered. Thomas closed the door. Then Frederick moved to one of the two chairs on the table and sat down. Thomas simply took the other seat with his arms resting on the table.
"Are you perhaps new in Haven? I could perhaps squeeze in some time to show you around. There's an excellent restaurant nearby so ..."
"..."
The atmosphere was a bit awkward because Thomas tried to make some kind of small talk but was firmly ignored by Frederick. Seeing this, Thomas just waited in silence with a professional smile on his face.
"Alright... You don't seem interested in having some small talk. Let's get to the business shall we?"
"I can tell you guys the reason why the mayor closed down the city."
"...I'm listening." Thomas' eyes flashed with a glint of excitement. It was evident that Aegis was quite intrigued by the reasons. After all this lockdown surprised everyone.
Most people thought that the mayor was just mad because one of his concubines left him for Frederick. It could make a bit of sense since both of them were wanted for unknown reasons. The mayor tried to accuse them of "terrorism" but this couldn't fool everyone. He went as far as putting a bounty of 3 medium rarity authorities on their capture.
Some intelligent individuals in Haven started to wonder. Would the mayor cause such a ruckus just for that? Even if those rumors were true, wouldn't the couple already be caught at this point? Did they already escape the city? Would the mayor do something as reckless as locking the whole city for this?
Of course, even if they doubt it, most inhabitants of the city just accepted this explanation while some even believed it to be true.
"They are looking for a High-tier authority."
"...What?" Thomas had a dumbfounded look on his face. This was so random, that he couldn't accept what he was just told. Even if his authority was saying that Frederick was telling the truth, he couldn't quite believe it.
"You're telling me the mayor is blocking all exits from Haven... for a high-tier authority? How do you know that? Do you have any other information? Where is this authority?"
High-tier authorities were a mystery to most people. Everyone knew that high-tier rarity authority existed but they couldn't confirm what they did. What could be the difference between rarities?
Even if there was a high authority user, they would be dumb to reveal themselves.
It is been almost 4 months since the start of the Chronicles and it became common knowledge that lesser tier rarity was often more associated with a "job". For instance, Threadweaver's Touch which was one of the first authorities Frederick obtained was associated with a "tailor" type occupation.
In contrast, medium-tier authorities were more associated with an "ability". Taking his coat as an example, spatial vault was a medium-tier authority that could open a storage space through the glove on the user's left hand.
Then there were high-tier authorities which were more mysterious since this kind of information was closely kept secret and no information could be found to the public.
However, one thing is certain. The term "rarity" was extremely vague. It would be fair to simply think that the higher the rarity, the stronger the authority will be and It can't be considered wrong but that wasn't necessarily the case.
Most candidates think that higher rarity authorities are just much rarer while some think that it would depend on the "potential" of the authority.
After some thought, Thomas quickly re-composed and resumed his interrogation.
"Are you telling me the truth? I'm just making sure..."
"I am telling the truth. The mayor closed down the city to hunt down a high authority. I even know what the authority does. But if you want more, you'll have to pay." Frederick replied in a cold tone with no emotions in it.
After hearing his words, Thomas paused momentarily and his gaze turned a bit weird before he said "What's your price ?"
"I want an automatic firearm with replacement parts, ammo and a few grenades. And I only accept technology equal or above Earth's." Frederick directly answered.
After hearing those words, Thomas frowned slightly and answered "Those are precious ... I will have to contact the guild master for this. Give me a few moments."
"I do not want to meet your guild master." Frederick didn't want to make any contact with the guild master since he knew how cunning he was. The guild master's name was Markus. Frederick had already met him and was extremely wary of him. In his 2nd life, Markus had even tricked Frederick once.
"...fine." After hesitating for a bit, Thomas left the room and left Frederick all by himself in the small office room.
