Base of the World Tree.
Donning a loose white shirt and brown pants, tying his hair up in a rough bun, and having a wooden sword around his waist, Lith blended with the commoners looking like an adventurer.
Despite wearing clothes that the commoners did, his handsome face was something that was striking and made him stand out among the crowd.
To solve this problem, he made his hair a bit messy and had some dirt on his face, making himself look like he had just arrived in the city from an adventure.
Lith's goal today was to see how the commoners were faring off amidst the instability among the top brass of the nobles.
He took the common route that any adventurer would do.
The base of the World Tree was a huge open area where there were many people, buildings, stalls, and so on. It was the place for commerce and leisure for the people of the Elven Society.
Lith walked and went to the adventurer's guild to redeem things like any normal adventurer would do.
Things were normal in the guild, nothing unusual happened. Lith wasn't surprised with it as guilds weren't managed by any noble house in the Elven Continent.
Lith was just trying to take a normal route which wouldn't make him appear suspicious.
After the first step was done, he finally decided to go to a tavern that belonged to an upper noble.
Lith took out an emblem that belonged to a lesser noble house and donned it in his chest before he reached the tavern.
He soon stood outside a two-storey tavern building that belonged to a chain of restaurants owned and managed by the House of Blanc.
Lith had seen in the court yesterday that Blanc and Elaith had a meeting together and so without thinking much, he came straight to a tavern that belonged to her family.
All taverns that belonged to them were luxurious and open to all adventurers. As one went above in the World Tree, the taverns became only more luxurious and currently where Lith was, this tavern was probably the most low level one among the whole chain.
Lith saw two guards standing at the entrance, holding spears and with a poker face.
He walked to the entrance casually without looking at them and tried to get in as if he was a regular here.
The guards, noticing Lith's behaviour didn't feel anything odd and were not going to stop him. However, their gaze fell on the emblem on his chest and they immediately put down their spears in front of the gate and said,
"Halt."
Lith stopped in his tracks. "What?" He looked at them with a serious look on his face and asked sternly.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe guards, feeling annoyed with Lith's look, said in a rude tone, "You cannot enter."
"Why?" Lith asked.
"Don't question. Go somewhere else." One of the guards said.
Lith knitted his brows, trying to appear angry. "Do you know who I am?"
The guards didn't know but they had orders from above to not let anyone in if they belonged to any of the lesser noble houses.
The guards knew who the emblem belonged to and since their bosses were someone from the upper noble house, they didn't take Lith's threat seriously at all.
One of the two guards pointed his spear at Lith's chest and said, "I don't care who you are, this tavern belongs to the House of Blanc. There are strict orders to not let people without an invitation inside."
The guard lied but he had to do so because he was instructed to not give it away that lesser nobles weren't allowed.
'Sure seems like a good excuse.' Lith thought to himself. 'But it isn't enough.'
"Okay." Lith walked away despite thinking that it wasn't enough to sway him.
The guards sighed in relief as that happened. They didn't want to cause a ruckus and bring unnecessary attention onto them.
They did feel that everything happened so smoothly and something may be amiss, but they dismissed their thoughts thinking that Lith must be someone understanding.
Also, such a situation had occurred a few times already and they had simply made this excuse. Although the people had tried to fight with the guards, eventually they went away as well when told that it was invite only.
Ten minutes later, a person wearing decent clothing and looking like an adventurer appeared at the gate.
The guards saw no emblem or badge on the person. They stopped him and asked him for his ID. All adventurers had one and from that, they would get to know if this person belonged to any lesser noble house or not.
The person showed the ID and finding that this man didn't belong to any noble house, the guards looked at him and said,
"Enter."
Just as they said that, Lith's voice rang in their ears, saying:
"So he's allowed to enter, but I am not, yeah?"
The guards felt rattled as they heard that and looked around to see who the voice belonged to.
Lith walked out of thin air right in front of them and coldly looked at the guards.
"You! It's you again!?" One of the guards said.
"That's right. Didn't you say it was invite only, so why was this person given entry?" Lith argued while pointing at the guy at the entrance.
"Well… of course because he's invited!" A guard said.
Lith smiled hearing that. He took out a bag of coins and handed it to the person at the gate.
"Thanks mate. It's one of the easiest ways I've made money." The guy took it and said grinning ear to ear.
"I was the one to have sent him here." Lith said with a cold smile.
The guards froze on the spot realizing their blunders. It seemed they should've used their brain and believed in their gut feeling that something was amiss.
But now it was too late and their lie was found out. Still, knowing that the person in front was nothing but a mere lesser noble trying to cause a ruckus, they sneered and said,
"Get lost. You nobles aren't allowed."
This time the guards weren't trying to hide the fact that entries for the lesser nobles were banned.
Lith smiled. That's exactly what he wanted to see.
He didn't say a word in response and barged inside the tavern.
The guards panicked and tried to stop him.
But how would two mortals even do such a thing?
Lith slammed open the tavern door while the guards yelled at him to stop.
Their loud voices alerted the people inside and everyone looked at what was happening.
"STOP! YOU RASCAL!" The guards shouted.
Noticing their yells, the manager of the tavern had a look and immediately came to the scene.
"Stop shouting, you two! What's happening?" The manager immediately asked.
The guards bowed in response and said, "Sir, even when we denied him entry, he barged in."
The manager knitted his brows after hearing that.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe guards, feeling that the manager didn't understand the whole situation, put their hand to their mouth and whispered, "He's a lesser noble."
"OH!" The manager now understood everything.
He turned to look at Lith and said, "Sorry young man, but we can't serve you."
Lith, feeling no threat from anyone here, sat down on a chair and asked, "Why not?"
The manager, before answering Lith, looked around and saw that there were people looking at him.
He smiled and asked Lith, "can we discuss this in private?"
Lith shrugged. "Sure."
He was free and wanted this situation to escalate as much as possible. Thus he readily agreed.
The manager smiled and took him to the private room which had a sound barrier to prevent the voices from leaking.
As soon as they entered, the manager's mood turned sour and he said, "You filthy lesser nobles aren't allowed, do you not get the hint?"
"Oh? Not even trying to cover up now, are we?" Lith smiled and asked.
"See, I am telling you, this tavern belongs to the House of Blanc, even if I kill you right here, nobody would raise any question." The manager threatened Lith.
The reason why despite being a mortal, he said something like that not even knowing the strength of the other party was that all lesser nobles belonged to houses that had heads of Half King Rank and below.
Other than that, the emblem Lith wore belonged to a lesser noble house whose head was a Saint Rank. The manager himself was a Rank 8 and he assessed that Lith probably was some fly in that lesser noble house.
If Lith wasn't so, there would be no reason for him to look all dusty and be an adventurer. He also seemed poor from his looks so the manager had become pretty sure that Lith was a mortal too and someone below him in prowess.
He thus felt no problems in threatening him. He tried using words at first because he didn't want to have blood on his hands unnecessarily. But if Lith didn't agree then…
"Kek." Lith chuckled.
He walked close to the guy and held his shoulder. "Did you think I came here to chat with you?"
"What—"
CRACK!
"AHHHHHH!"
Lith crushed the man's shoulder brone into fine dust in a split second of time, not letting him question anymore.
"Oooh. Nice loudness your voice has there. Let's see how louder it can get, yes?"
"NOOOO!"