Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"Thank you for coming today, and my apologies for the sudden call," Branden said when the group arrived at the gate of his house.

Branden's new house was even bigger than the old one that Rain's grandparents had. It had a garden the size of a soccer camp, and the building was the size of a high-class resort that one would see on Earth. Thanks to that, Jori, Reca, Liss, Asche, and Terra crossed the gates as if they were robots that needed some oil in their joints.

Branden guided the group toward the interior of the house, and the place sure was luxurious; a bunch of armor, paintings, and colorful windows could be seen in all directions. Aside from that, Rain only found servants and guards around.

"Everyone is out today, so don't worry about seeing anyone unexpected," Branden said. "My stepfather, mother, and older sister are busy."

Rain furrowed his eyebrows when he heard that… now that he thought about it, his mother probably found another husband even before his father died. He wondered how their relationship was, but that wouldn't change a single thing in his life, so soon he forgot about it.

The dinner table was filled with a bunch of dishes. Perhaps there was too much food for only seven people. In any case, Branden helped himself, and while he had some class, he began to eat like there was no tomorrow, and soon the others began to copy him.

After that, the servants served some tea, and the group relaxed for a bit. Rain thought that Branden was supposed to be busier than that, but maybe that was a day off for him.

"First of all, I would like to congratulate you all and thank you for your hard work," Branden said. "Thanks to your actions, we learned a bit more about the enemies and how they operate. Until now, the attacks had been too few, and now we finally learned why. As such, our organization will receive a lot of credit, and its fame will increase. Still, I would like to hear from you all about the mission.

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I have the feeling that we will be called to deal with the monsters soon enough, and I would like to make the decisions about it myself. You can start giving your perspective of things, Jori."

"Yes, sir," Jori said while nodding.

Rain already knew that, but those kids respected Branden a lot. He wasn't just a famous guy who offered them the chance to make a name for themselves, but he was also a noble who treated them like normal people. That was rare in the capital.

While that took a while, Branden wanted to hear everything from everyone. Eventually, it was Rain's turn, and he didn't know what to say since everyone said everything.

"If you don't know anything to say, you can just tell your opinion about the situation," Branden said.

"What I think… I think that the monsters that were sent are just a demonstration of what the magic people are about to do," Rain said.

"What do you mean?" Branden asked.

"We didn't have time to learn how the monsters kept themselves hidden, but they still made some mistakes, like attacking when we were still awake," Rain replied. "That being said, the second fight was more difficult because the enemies did things that they didn't do in the first, like attacking in a larger group and coming from several directions.

They also left their area and looked for us before all that."

"I see… that truly doesn't sound like natural behavior of monsters," Branden scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Some of the magic people can manipulate other creatures, but we never heard of them controlling monsters like this. Still, this kind of behavior fits the bill."

"Well, humans didn't fight the magic people seriously in one hundred years. That is plenty of time for them to develop some new tricks," Rain said.

Everyone went silent… that made sense. That kind of power isn't something that is developed overnight, after all. Still, considering the war so far, it seemed unnecessary. The capital would take more effort to fall, but it didn't seem like monster attacks would be enough to help make it fall.

Rain wasn't thinking like that because his father told him: the magic people were playing the long game, that was why their actions seemed useless for now, but then all of a sudden, they would go all out and then get another chunk of the realm.

When Rain thought of that, he suddenly wondered… making the capital fall would be a lot of work, but taking it down would be the same as taking down the whole country. Facing the royal army would be a lot of work; if he were the enemy, he would target other parts of the realm instead and keep weakening them further.

"Do you know the locations of all the places where the monsters were spotted?" Rain asked.

"I believe the person who asked for the job knows that; why do you ask?" Branden asked.

"At first, I thought that the monsters were being used to disperse the focus of the army that is keeping an eye on Tristan, but what if that isn't their true goal?" Rain asked. "The monsters could be just an experiment, and they might become more troublesome, but they also could be just a distraction.

While we keep an eye on them, the enemies are making moves in other areas without wasting manpower with the distractions."

"... You might have a point," Branden said while studying Rain's words for a bit. "With that in mind, we need to deal with the monsters as soon as possible and also make sure that our spies are keeping an eye on more than just Tristan. I will try to keep their job under our control, and I think that you should be one of the groups that should handle that, so wait for that call, all right?"