Within an empty office, a middle-aged man sat behind his desk, glaring at the letter in his hand with barely contained fury. His other fist was clenched so tightly atop the table that his knuckles blanched beneath the silver cufflinks.
He was Preston Craig, broad-shouldered and iron-gray-haired, his piercing hazel eyes sharp enough to cut glass. Though his arms were thick with muscle, the finely tailored navy coat and polished silver cufflinks maintained an aura of unshakable authority.
He was the mayor of Saphleap Town, situated on the western side of Sagemore Kingdom.
To his left was a tall, wide window, left open as always. However, currently on its sill sat a larger-than-usual eagle.
The eagle's gaze was piercing as it continued to stare at Preston's every small movement.
After reading the letter in his hands a few times, Preston finally couldn't hold back and tore the paper into pieces. He turned and glared at the bird. For a moment, he really wanted to kill it, but doing so wouldn't accomplish anything, so he held back and roared, "How dare mere criminal scum threaten my town? Tell Sigismund that even if Sagemore Kingdom is going through difficult times, we haven't weakened enough to allow wanted criminals to do whatever they want within our land. Get lost!"
At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
Preston glanced toward the door, and when he looked back, the eagle had disappeared.
He kept staring at his window in a foul mood and ignored the office door opening. He thought it was his assistant; however, when he heard the cute voice of a little girl calling, "Papa," his rage melted, and he smiled as he turned toward the three people who had just entered.
The one closing the door was a graceful woman with long raven-black hair and bright blue eyes, wearing a modest high-necked gown in dove gray and navy. She was Preston's wife, Cleodana.
The other two children were twins, both having inherited their mother's beauty, and her hair and eye color.
The little girl rushed forward and jumped onto his lap.
"Papa, were you yelling at someone? Anger is not good for health!" she scolded him with childish sternness.
She was Kiely, Preston's daughter.
"No, my dear. I wasn't yelling. I was just thanking the gods for giving me such an angel of a daughter like you." Preston smiled with fatherly love while gently stroking her long black hair.
Kiely giggled happily at Preston's praise.
The young boy and the woman stood on the other side of the table with smiles on their faces.
Despite smiling, Cleodana knew something must have happened for Preston to get so angry—something he rarely ever did.
No one else was in the office; however, she noticed the torn paper on the table and floor, clearly showing he was not happy with whatever was written on it.
"What brings you all here? Usually, you only appear during late afternoons or evenings," Preston asked absentmindedly.
Though they all lived within the same manor, which was connected to his office, his family never visited him so early in the morning.
"Today is both your children's birthday. You remembered it yesterday, yet now you forgot?" Cleodana reprimanded him with a smile before continuing, "After I got them cleaned, we decided to give you a surprise visit."
Preston recalled that it was indeed so. He had been lost in thought and forgotten.
"Papa, weren't you happy with the surprise?" Kiely pouted unhappily, seeing Preston still absentminded and not having wished them yet.
"Of course I'm happy. Happy birthday, Kiely and Herman, on your eighth birthday..." Though he said so, his mind was still preoccupied with heavy thoughts. He had a bad premonition about the blatant threats delivered by the Beast Tamer Sigismund.
He gazed at his son, Herman, and pondered. Eventually, he put Kiely down and called Herman forward.
Herman walked around the table and stood before Preston, confused. He was much more mature than his sister, who always acted like the elder sibling. He had noticed that their father seemed uncharacteristically unsettled. Clearly, they had come at a bad time.
Preston stared at Herman deeply, which made the boy even more confused, wondering if he had done something wrong.
After a few moments of silence, Preston removed his necklace and proceeded to put it on Herman.
The necklace chain was simple, painted with dirt-silver, with a small greenish oval-shaped gemstone attached to one end.
Though it seemed inexpensive, the moment Cleodana noticed Preston's action, her expression changed completely. She knew what it was.
"Son, keep this necklace safe, and with you at all times. Don't show or give it to others. Can you do this?" Preston said solemnly.
Herman didn't know what to think, having never seen such a serious expression on his father. Nonetheless, he nodded and agreed, though confused.
Kiely, meanwhile, didn't take this well. She jumped and demanded, "Not fair! Why is Herman getting a present and not me?"
Even though the necklace was nothing pretty—and she had prettier ones—it still felt bad that only Herman received such an important present on their birthday. It was obvious the necklace held great importance to Preston.
Preston chuckled and coaxed, "Don't worry, my dear. I've already prepared a prettier birthday gift for you that I'll give you this evening."
Kiely smiled brightly and began imagining what the present could be.
At that moment, Cleodana instructed the twins, "Both of you, go downstairs and wait for me. I need to speak with your father privately for a moment." Though she smiled, her tone was firm.
Kiely pouted at being sent away so soon, but Herman grabbed her and pulled her out.
"We'll play in the garden. Take your time, Mother, Father," Herman said, closing the door behind them.
After the twins left, Cleodana asked with concern, "Preston, what's the matter? Why did you pass your family heirloom to Herman so soon?"
That necklace was a key to somewhere—she didn't know the details—but she knew Preston had never taken it off since receiving it from his parents.
He could have passed it to either twin in the future without it being strange, but Preston still had a long life ahead, and Herman and Kiely were just children.
Since he had done so now, it meant whatever was happening was dire—perhaps life-threatening. That was why she had sent the children away.
Preston sighed. He stood and faced the window, hands locked behind his back. He gazed at the morning sky and, after a moment of silence, spoke.
"Cleodana, you know about the war that's about to break, right?"
"Yes," Cleodana nodded.
The Lochwheel Kingdom and their Sagemore Kingdom were on the verge of war. The Lochwheel Kingdom sought to conquer theirs. However, the warfront was far from their town, and by the time it reached them, its brutality would have lessened. In that sense, Saphleap Town was in one of the safest locations. As long as they didn't resist any new ruler, their land wouldn't suffer major tragedy.
Preston sighed again—this time with regret and helplessness.
"Our Sagemore Kingdom is far weaker than Lochwheel. Because of this, the royal family has summoned, hired, and conscripted many capable Mortals and Mana Wielders to the frontlines. This has allowed wanted criminals—not just from our kingdom but others—to create chaos within our borders."
He continued, "These criminals mainly exploit our lack of forces to loot wealth, but they avoid full-scale massacres. They're smart enough not to cross that line."
Cleodana could understand that. If any Mana Wielder criminals created too much bloodshed or chaos, their bounty would rise, making them hunted by powerful forces beyond their ranks. That was something any sane criminal would avoid.
Preston continued, "Our Saphleap Town has also sent twenty Mana Wielders and over a hundred capable Mortals to the battlefield. Taking advantage of this, a Grade D wanted criminal group has sent me a blatant, unreasonable threat. They demand that all remaining Mana Wielders evacuate the town and give them complete freedom within our town, or else they will kill us all."
"What nonsense!" Cleodana frowned with distaste. "Even if we lack strength at this moment, a single Grade D group isn't enough to threaten us. Not to mention Mossphere City is less than a day's journey from here. How dare these lowlifes think we will sacrifice our people without a fight?"
To her, this demand was absurd. A Grade D might have a few Rank 3 Mana Wielders; however, it was far from truly bringing them any great calamity. Their town had nearly fifty Mana Wielders—even if over twenty of the most capable ones had left, it was still not enough for them to panic over a threat from mere Grade D criminals.
Cleodana openly scorned the threat, but Preston remained grim.
"Yes, just as we understand this, they should also, yet they dared to threaten us. This shows they are either fools or too confident. Perhaps they have managed to team up with another criminal group."
"Even then, they will at most have ten or twenty people—far from truly threatening us." Cleodana shook her head, clearly not taking this as some great calamity for their town.
Just because a group had numbers didn't mean they would throw their lives away for no reason. Even if the group leader was reckless, their subordinates and teammates wouldn't agree, as they could also lose their lives.
Preston could understand his wife's reasoning, but she was lacking critical information.
"This group is mostly made of Beast Tamers," he revealed.
Hearing this, Cleodana finally turned solemn. Beast Tamers were among the most troublesome opponents, as fighting them was equal to fighting more than one opponent. Even Necromancers, with their near-infinite skeleton-summoning spells, were not as troublesome as the Mana Beasts of Beast Tamers. Beasts were usually not only far stronger and more intelligent than mere skeletons—they also wouldn't disappear with their master's death.
Moreover, Mana Beasts had many different varieties. Even a powerful Rank 3 Mana Wielder could die against a weaker beast if they didn't know what type of beast they were encountering or its capabilities.
Preston turned back to his wife and nodded at her somber look—clearly, she was now taking this matter more seriously.
However, this was just one of the reasons he was worried. Not all.
"Since this Beast Tamer Sigismund has dared to threaten me so directly, it means either he was just trying to scare us or has managed to gather more companions. No matter which, we cannot just hand him the town freely—that would be laughable. The consequence of it would be too severe."
"He is most likely hiding within the western forest near our town. I will send scouts to track his group down. And... I will also post an emergency mission to the guilds in Mossphere City," Preston declared his decisions.
Cleodana agreed and suggested, "We should also send a notice to City Lord Rainor."
Rainor Calder was the city lord of their nearest city, Mossphere. He was the sole Rank 4—a Master Rank—in this entire region. With him on alert for the ambush, if the Beast Tamer group went too far, he could come in haste to protect the town. With him present, even thirty or fifty Apprentice Ranks wouldn't dare to do anything. For a Master Rank, all below were just ants. They were that powerful.
Preston's expression turned bitter. He slowly sat in his chair. While taking out a few empty papers from his drawer, he explained his biggest concern:
"Lord Rainor has also left for the battlefield..."
"What?!" Cleodana's face finally paled. She had been calm so far because she knew as long as City Lord Rainor was present in the vicinity, no criminals would dare to go too far, even impulsively. However, if he was not present… this was disastrous news not only for them but for all other human habitations nearby.
Preston's expression remained bitter as he explained while also beginning to write mission request letters for the guilds.
"Not only that, most of the capable Mana Wielders, including the guild members in the city, have been hired by Sagemore Kingdom for the battlefield. You could say that currently, all cities in Sagemore Kingdom have the worst defenses in the last century or so."
Cleodana nearly had heart failure hearing all that. If that was so, then perhaps no remaining guild members in the city would come to their help, as they were clearly a weak bunch who didn't have the capability or courage to fight a life-and-death battle. Meanwhile, the remaining city soldiers and guards definitely wouldn't leave their city during such critical times. In other words, they wouldn't get a single bit of help from Mossphere city!
They now had to defend by themselves and no longer had anyone to rely on. This was truly the worst situation for the entire region.
Cleodana still couldn't swallow this and questioned, "Why would the kingdom summon Lord Rainor yet not leave another Master Rank behind to guard this region? If he's gone, then this area will be left completely unguarded. What if the Beasts from the Western Wilderness suddenly attack us? The whole region will turn to ruins!"
Preston sighed yet didn't stop scribing as he explained, "Powerful Beasts from the western wilderness won't appear; that is the least concerning matter for the kingdom at this moment. However, the war is the most impending situation. Our kingdom is small and doesn't have enough Master Ranks—a few of them had to be stationed in some places even if the kingdom falls, so they won't move. But this western side of the kingdom doesn't have any immediate threat, so Lord Rainor was secretly summoned. I don't think too many people knew of this."
"Then, what are we going to do...?" Cleodana truly started to panic. Even if the Beast Tamers were just throwing empty threats, they had to be eliminated or at least driven away soon, or else they would continue to create trouble in the surrounding region. Not only that, they could also infiltrate the town and commit various crimes.
Preston nodded to show that he fully understood the situation. "That is why I am posting an international mission request. Hopefully, if even one Grade D team from within or nearby kingdoms accepts and arrives within one or two weeks, then we can join forces to eliminate these wanted criminals..."
He didn't mention to his wife that he was taking more precautions and requesting a secondary mission to save both his children in case something unexpected happened.
He was very hesitant to send his family alone to Mossphere city at this moment. One reason was that he still didn't believe a mere Grade D group could bring complete disaster upon their town, and another was that even Mossphere city was currently not safe from inside or outside. It was better if they stayed within the town, as he could protect them or even help them evacuate in case the situation turned truly severe.
"Cleodana, you should return now. I will find someone to deliver these letters to the two guilds in Mossphere." Seeing the still-anxious look on Cleodana, he tried to soothe her, "Don't worry too much for now. Perhaps it is just an empty threat. I will still ask Ismael to be stationed at the western wall and will also close the gates until this trouble is cleared. Just be extra cautious of your surroundings, even within the manor."
While watching Cleodana leave, Preston took a deep breath to calm his own inner turmoil. He had a feeling this matter was much more serious and personal, as these groups were 'Beast Tamers'. Perhaps they had figured out his ancestor's secrets. Hopefully, that was not the case, as even he didn't know much of it, or what was inside that hidden crypt or its exact location.