Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System-Chapter 360.2: A mission from the queen (part 2)

After being down for a moment the guy seemed to be return to life, in fact it was as if a weight had been lifted from his chest, he actually bowed down towards Thea, with a thankful expression on his face.

"I humbly thank the Black Empress from removing that "curse" I had on me for the last three years", he said.

"My name is Brandon Almer, a member of one of the many small towns of the Clear Water kingdom… I was worked as an information dealer, that mostly sold reports about magic beasts and the areas that were frequented by them I had such experience because my family had been hunters since the days of my great-great grandfather, one day I was "recruited" in a small group to go hunt some beasts".

Brandon remained silent for a moment before continuing.

"The pay was too good so I tagged along and of course it ended up being a trap, that woman killed the other members of the group and I was forced to serve her, all the information gathered in my family's records was taken by her… and it was used to commit different crimes, which I don't really want to speak about, you get the idea, after everything was done, the proofs were destroyed by magic beasts, and that was the end of the missions".

"That being said, that woman was the one to do all the job, I was basically her servant, my job was to fulfill all her "needs", since I'm not apt for battle I just frequented bars and taverns to gather information, one night when I was… doing some chores, we were interrupted and I managed to see her talking with someone wearing a robe, I couldn't see his face, but he had a symbol like this tattooed on his neck".

Brandon took Horals's notebook and drew three horizontal wavy lines one above the other at a certain distance.

"Wind, no, it looks like a wave", mumbled Daimon, to which Thea nodded.

"That is the symbol of "Black Wave", they are some shady bastards who had branches in the four seas, no one knows who is their boss, but I have seen them made deals with Stellar ranks before".

But then the Empress frowned.

"But that doesn't make sense, you are too weak to be involved, their assassins are at least at the peak of the mortal realm, and I didn't feel a threat on that level?".

Brandon shook his head in response.

"The woman I served wasn't part of them yet, I didn't know the name of the organization, but she once bragged about being in the process of joining an amazing group, she had some meetings with that tattooed guy from time to time, where she did all kinds of tasks for him".

Daimon shook his head, apparently the woman abused the poor guy but she herself used her body hold onto one of the guys of that organization, it was something normal, a relationship out of convenience though.

But this time it became a chance to eradicate or at least get rid of the branch in the Clear Water kingdom.

'Those guys are really unlucky, or maybe your luck with women is so high, that even when they aren't related to you, you benefit from them~', jokingly said Evangeline making Daimon chuckle.

He then gave Brandon a notebook and a pen.

"Write down all the places that were in your family records, I doubt she was assigned just random people to kill, the connection might help us, also tell me the places and dates where that woman reunited with the man and try to put a description of him, you'll make a contract and return to your act as a guard, if you see any suspicious guy, you'll inform me, understood?".

Brandon saw a chance to live and immediately accepted.

"Yes, young master!", he shouted imitating Horals, to the bone general displease.

Daimon shook his head, as he looked at Thea.

"I can't make contracts, could you please help me with this guy?", he asked.

Thea nodded, with a cunning smile.

"Sure, he can be your information official for when you accept this Empress's offer of becoming a general", she said.

This time her right eye was the one to change its color, from honey yellow to a pretty light green tone, Brandon saw a snake eye mark appearing on his chest, but he didn't resist.

"It's done, the only conditions are loyalty and reasonable obedience, the contract assigns me as the holder, but I can designate you as my representant", said Thea as she extended her hand towards Daimon.

"Normally I can just assign contracts by thinking about it… but for some reason I can't target you like that, so we'll have to do it the hard way, this Empress doesn't like formalities but whatever, a kiss on the hand should be enough".

Daimon shrugged and did as he was told, this too was also part of noble's etiquette, which his mother taught him, he grabbed Thea's hand and then kissed the reverse of her hand, the sound of a notification rang in his ears.

[Ding]

[Black Empress Thea has offered a general's position to the host, do you wish to accept it Y/N]

Daimon raised an eyebrow, apparently, he had to be a general to receive Thea's contract, it made sense since the message he got when he made a temporal agreement, mentioned it came from the "Coral Sea General", also those symbols that appeared on his scales were engraved not innate, in other words the ability belonged to Thea, but she could extend it to her generals.

Though Karmandi needed to use his blood and one of his scales as a medium, but Thea could do it by innate.

He still accepted, in any case he couldn't be retrained by it and it only benefited him, so there was nothing for him to lose, who knows this might even trigger the creation of an ability that worked to contract the people of Neptune.

[The contract has been accepted]

Unfortunately, the skill creation notification Daimon wanted didn't appear, but not everything was bad, because he indeed got a bonus from accepting the contract.

[Ding]

[New title unlocked: Rookie General]

[Having noticed the host's potential and like-minded virtue, the Black Empress has granted him the authority of a newly incorporated general, from now and onwards all the magic beasts subordinated to the Empress will treat the host as their kin, additionally those who are assigned by the Empress will follow the host's commands (Former development of the title is possible depending on the host's actions)]

[Subordinates assigned: 1]

This made Daimon wonder, why did making a contract with Thea gave him a title, but when he made one through the emblem with Vincent nothing else happened.

'Maybe the principles behind them are different ad the system finds this contract to be more of my liking', he thought.

The system supposedly grew in the direction he wanted adapting to his wishes and needs, most of the times it gave him things he needed instead of what he wanted though.

Thea looked at her hand which Daimon was still holding because he got lost in his thoughts, her expression was calm but at the same time she looked somewhat happy that he accepted.

Daimon woke up his daze, when he felt the intense gazes not only of the sisters but Aisha, too, even the princesses had hard to decipher expressions on their faces, it was then when he noticed he has been holding the hand of the Empress all the time.

"Ahem, we should get going, I don't think we are going to find those guy's den tonight, but if we can capture the tattooed man who is an official member of Black Wave, then we'll get some valuable intel from him", Daimon cleared his throat and let go of Thea's hand, he then looked at Brandon who was finishing writing down what he was asked.

"These are the locations in the kingdom that were written in the records of my family, I underlined the ones that have already been used by that woman to get rid of evidences once, there is also a list of the places we used to frequent and even some inns in which we had stayed, I know young master probably isn't affected, but some of these places aren't, suited for sensitive… no decent people, specially girls", said Brandon in a low voice as he pointed at the princesses.

As an informant if course he recognized Mellie, Daphne and Jasmine, needless to say but since his former boss which was that woman, worked as an assassin in trial for Black Wave, the places she frequented were places where the scum of the kingdom went to have fun.

No matter in which galaxy, planet or city you live, there is always a dark side, it's a needed evil to some extent, since mages and knights live such a long life, they are prompt to go crazy and suffer deviation if they don't have anything to entertain them through their lives, of course not everyone enjoys debauchery, some strive to improve their abilities, spells, others aim to research, there are people who enjoy the thrill of the battle or the successfulness of creating something new.

Daimon knows it and he doesn't care, as long as someone he cherishes isn't involved, or if he doesn't have anything to win or simply doesn't feel like it, he won't go hunting some lowlifes for the sake of "justice", selfish maybe but realist, to anyone that would ask him, he would respond with "why should he risk his or the girls lives for people he doesn't care about".

Sure if the situation allows it is aligned with his goals, then he doesn't mind lending a hand here and there, just like how he brought back the nobles that were taken as hostages, since he was going to fight the pirates and Skelefiends anyway.

Daimon turned to see the princesses before saying.

"Where we will be going, there will be some ugly things to see, and we don't have time to get involved into that, furthermore if we dismantle those places our target which is Black Wave and its members will notice it and they will disappear, if you want to come then be prepared for it".

The Risha sisters didn't flinch, they have already decided to follow Daimon no matter where he goes, so they won't step back now, Aisha was never a concern, she is used to slaughter and to see the real faces of hypocrites, so this was just another everyday situation for her.

The princesses had somewhat troubled expressions, but ultimately, they exchanged gazes and nodded.

"We'll go too, we are going to fight alongside with you soon, then we need to incorporate into the team", said Jasmine.

"Sis, wanted me to tag along as the one in charge of external relationships, besides you are still my bodyguard", added Mellie.

"Mm", Daphne only nodded, but her eyes expressed her intentions, she won't stay behind.

Daimon then looked at their clothes and bitterly smiled, as princesses they naturally outstood from the rest, the sisters and Aisha did too, but they were using disguises thanks to the bracelets, so they were covered in that aspect.

"You need to change to something more discreet then", he said, while the girls went to the bathroom to change, Daimon handed the notebook to Thea, Brandon was given a map of the kingdom and he marked the places they had to visit.

"That's all for now, mix in the guards and if you notice something suspicious send me a message", said Daimon as he handed Brandon a disposable mirror plate, the queen prepared a few just in case, as always, she probably predicted something like this might happen.

The girls returned wearing black or dark gray clothes as well as robes and half-face masks.

'Well, I guess that's less showy to where we will be going', thought Daimon.

"Let's go".

With Daimon's greenlight, the Black Empress teared a hole in the space with her spear and then created a bubble with her mana, to avoid being noticed they will be appearing on the sky above the respective locations, luckily her attribute was darkness and it was night so she could easily hide them, also Mellie had the authority to ignore detection arrays of all the cities which weren't occupied by major families since she had an extension of Annete's authority.