The town of Flendon, located in the Demonic Faction, had received quite the boom after defeating the Behemoth Clan in a small scuffle.
After the fight, the town received a large number of gifts, supporting the place, thinking it would become another big player in the Demonic Faction.
With it, an influx of citizens had come to join the place as well, and Mayor Yarlston used the influx of funds to hire more mercenary wanderers to help protect the city from smaller clans that might target such a place.
Although the Crimson Crane's base was meant to be located at Flendon, due to the small size and the way Alba ran her clan, they didn't hire new recruits.
This meant there wasn't necessarily a clan to protect the place like other areas.
There was one person in particular who had joined the clan for a while now and was standing guard on one of the major outside walls.
With his black hair and dark eyes, he was observing the situation.
"Please just let me leave!" a woman screamed in front of the gate. "We already talked about this and sorted everything out."
A man was grabbing a woman by the wrist, trying to drag her back.
"I already told you it was an accident, and it wouldn't have happened if you were at home all the time!" the man replied.
"An accident? So your little wee-wee just slipped in by accident?" the woman screamed again. "And I worked because you were fired. We needed the money."
The woman jerked her arm, pulling it out from the man's grasp, and continued moving toward the city. She grabbed a piece of rope that was tugging along all her belongings piled in boxes.
She only managed to move a couple of steps before the man grabbed the back of her head.
"You're not going anywhere!" the man declared as he pulled her to the ground. "I don't care what a piece of paper says. You're mine—you promised to stay with me, you filthy damned b*tch!"
The man continued to pull the woman by the back of her head.
"Hey!" a voice shouted out.
The man turned around and saw a fist coming right toward him. It hit him square in the face, and he felt his two front teeth bend in and snap out of his mouth as his whole body was flung backward.
"Brack, what are you doing?" one of the other guards shouted, running over. "This is a civil matter, we're not supposed to get involved with these things. And besides, she's not even a citizen of Flendon; we don't get paid for this!"
"What, and you expect me to just let that a**hole do as he wishes?" Brack said, wiping his fist as if disgusted to even have the man's blood on it.
"Besides, she was coming here to become a resident, right?"
The woman quickly nodded as she bowed, saying thank you.
Meanwhile, Brack went ahead and grabbed the piece of rope.
"Just see it as helping our future citizens," Brack said as he flung the rope, aiming to slide the large crates of boxes on the sled beyond the gate.
Instead, the sled with all the boxes slid and then crashed on the ground, breaking right in front of the gate.
Brack froze as he looked at all the items, an awkward smile on his face.
"I'll get them all packed for you," Brack said as he rushed to put everything back in its place.
While packing for the woman, the other guards just continued to shake their heads at Brack.
Most of the new hires had gate duty rather than city duty like those originally from Flendon.
It was just an easy job for them to earn some coin, so they didn't get too involved, but Brack was different—constantly getting involved—and this wasn't the first time he had done something .
The thing was, for those who knew him, they would have known that this was completely strange for his character, or how he used to be.
'What am I even still doing here? Raze, the Dark Magus, the Crimson Crane—none of them are even here. Was he even serious when he said he would let me join him?'
Brack was one of the students who took part in the martial arts tournament and was also part of the Behemoth Clan.
Due to his disappointing performance, Sha Mo had decided to abandon him, stating that he wasn't fit to be part of the clan.
At the time, Raze was the one who decided to look after him and allowed him to join the clan.
The issue was, Raze had teleported everyone away, including Brack. There was nowhere for Brack to return to.
He couldn't go back to the Behemoth Clan, so he had no choice but to go to the town of Flendon, where Raze, the Dark Magus, was supposed to be.
He had been here for over a month now, and there was no sign of him returning at all. Yet, Brack stayed with no other choice.
Needing to make some coin somehow, and being a Pagna warrior, he decided to be a guard for the city.
After putting all the woman's stuff away, he offered to help her push it again, but she kindly declined with a sweet smile.
Brack didn't insist, knowing that he might use a little too much of his strength again and just make it even harder for the poor woman.
"Brack, you need to take this job a little more casually, you know," the guard said. "Just let people be—you're not a hero that can go stopping all the disputes in the world. And you're young—you should leave that stuff to the adults."
"Adults?" Brack said. "But the Dark Magus is young as well, and look how much he's done."
"He's one of a kind, one of a kind! Don't try following in his footsteps. Just relax and accept the coin."
Just as the man said that, a horse was seen steaming through the fields, running their way. There was a man on top.
"Halt!" the guard shouted.
"Wait, that's one of our own horses, don't you recognize the banner on the horse?"
The horse continued to run forward, and as it got closer, they could see there certainly was a man on the horse, but it was just his body—as he was dead.
Several swords had pierced inside of him, and he had been sent on his way toward the town.
"I know this…" Brack said. "…This is the Behemoth Clan."