Celestial Era: The Rise of the Full-Time Enhancer

"They're here, Lady Yulia. But we still haven't heard from Sir Vincent. I assume that the auction hasn't ended yet." Caesus said as he seated in front of Yulia.

They are currently at the reception hall of the Stellar Residence. They were already informed that the Dragon Riders have been searching various residences to find the 'criminals' they were hunting within the First Tower City.

They have recently placed a bounty on a group of people who had stolen something from the 15th Tower. They also included that they needed these people alive to ensure that the stolen items would be returned to them. Giving them any useful information about these people would also allow them to earn a few hundred gold coins.

Thanks to Yasin's group, they were able to gather this much information very quickly.

"I understand… Let's just delay it for a moment while Lar and the others are still preparing." Yulia replied as she couldn't help but feel nervous a little bit.

Vincent had already predicted that the Followers of Qheglena would be found sooner or later. This is why he had prepared for various actions they could use in case they really arrived.

The first option was to eliminate these investigators silently but once they were missing, the 15th Tower will obviously find it suspicious and just send more investigators. Well, the danger will still be acceptable but it could only be done once. After eliminating them, they should quickly hide Calidia and the others until they become stronger and could protect themselves from Adept Mages at the very least.

The second course of action they could take was to remove their suspicion that the Followers of Qheglena were here in the city. To do that, they need to leave pieces of evidence that they were leaving the First Tower. In any case, the Divination Artifact of the Black Tower could not be used repeatedly.

Furthermore, it wasn't just the 15th Tower that wanted to use it. There were other towers that are waiting in line to get a chance of using the Artifact. In short, Vincent should've come up with a way for protecting themselves against Divination by that time.

Yulia and Severin couldn't tell whether Vincent was being arrogant but they could only trust him after giving such a bold claim. It wouldn't be easy to stop a Legendary Artifact after all. Nevertheless, this person was seemingly capable of pulling out any kind of items within his treasure box so the two can only wait until he indeed managed to do so.

"Hmm… It's about time that the 'informants' arrive, Severin should be heading to the gate by now." Caesus said after looking at the time.

***

"I'm sorry for being delayed. I'm Severin, the Chief Steward of this Residence. May I know why the honored Dragon Riders of the Black Tower graced us with your presence today?" Severin arrived at the gate and appeared professional facing the squad filled with killing intent. He looks like a genuine steward with his current attire.

Severin then noticed that these people weren't hiding their killing intent at all as they seem to be trying to intimidate him.

Anyway, he can easily recognize that they are squad members of the Dragon Rider Battalion because of the insignia on their leather armor. Even if they didn't bring their mount with them, not anyone can just wear the uniform of the Dragon Riders.

Of course, they were called Dragon Riders not because they really had dragons as their mount. In truth, they were only using Forest Wyverns which can be easily mistaken as Dragonnets once they flew high in the sky.

But even if that was the case, their power is still a huge threat so no one would belittle their squad.

"I'm Ersin, the Squad Leader of the 12th Dragon Rider Squad. We've been searching for criminals that have escaped our prison. We received a piece of information that this new residence appears very suspicious with your recent activities… You see, those criminals are quite talented and we're suspecting that you've been used by those people… Allow us to search inside and confirm whether our suspicions were right or wrong…"

The leader of the group explained calmly as he observes Severin's reaction.

However, the latter remained unperturbed as he seemed to be completely fine letting them in.

"I understand. Although I'm sure that you won't find any criminals in our residence, we will cooperate with your investigation. After all, our young master here is a student of the First Tower's Academy, he informed us in passing that the Dragon Riders of the Black Tower are righteous and must be respected by everyone." Severin said with a smile.

After hearing the praises coming out of his mouth, the previous members who wanted to spill some blood calmed down a little.

"Haha! Your young master is right… The Dragon Riders are just and righteous."

"Hmm… I guess we can just quickly look around your residence then we will be on our way."

The members of the squad couldn't help but give an approving nod to Severin as they readied themselves to enter the Stellar Residence.

However, at this time, a galloping horse came rushing toward Ersin's group.

The rider seem to be very excited as soon as he saw them…

"Dragon Riders! Dragon Riders! Hurry! I found the criminals! They were currently escaping out of the city!" A young man who appears to be a commoner of the city shouted in hurry.

This caught everyone's attention and someone immediately went to him.

As soon as the horse stopped in front of their group, the young man immediately got off the horse as he knows that he can't just speak with these people while he was looking down on them.

"What do you mean? Are you sure that you recognized them? Where did you find them?"

"Tell us which of the 16 criminals were found."

The members of the squad quickly interrogated the man.

"Yes… We recognized one of them in the poster you handed out recently. We can't be mistaken. There was no name written on the posters but it's written as Number 14 Criminal. My group recognized one of them and followed them immediately. They rented a merchant carriage and we heard that they will be using it to escape using the eastern stone road. If we move now, we can still chase after them."

The young man answered with full details of what happened.