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Okay. At least he had a point to his words. We were indeed just random foreigners with faked papers trying to pass ourselves off as sellswords. Still, we haven\'t done anything to warrant this much of a response from the authorities.

Then again, Maruki had clearly tried and fought against this guy only to lose badly enough to get his body personally delivered to our doorstep.

"So... You\'re here to what, arrest us?" I couldn\'t help but ask. "I think this is all just a misunderstanding of some sort. Maybe we can talk it out?"

The man only laughed at us again, his hand casually twirling his carved dagger as he responded. "I wouldn\'t be averse to such a suggestion, kid. Unfortunately, you all have already piqued my interest. You\'ve shown interest in a budding mind, and Marquee doesn\'t take kindly to foreigners trying to steal our innovations."

"But we aren\'t stealing anything?" I asked aloud. "We\'re willing to pay Nicole for her services, and we\'ve managed to talk things out like adults."

"But where\'s the paperwork?"

...

.....Huh?

"Do we really need to file for paperwork just to get someone to work for us?" Guidance dubiously questioned. "I highly doubt that any of the merchants selling their services need to work up a contract for every person they come across."

"Ah, but to provide a service, one must have the prerequisite permit from the local authorities," the man sagely pointed out as if he wasn\'t threatening to arrest us. "As Miss Alset doesn\'t have these prerequisites, she has no right to sell her services."

I narrowed my eyes at the man. "That\'s just unrealistic. You can\'t expect everybody to have this kind of permit. What about us then? We didn\'t receive a permit to sell our services when we first got here, but the Portmaster still told us to make ourselves available for hire."

"Ah, but there\'s a specific clause that allows foreign services to conduct business without a local permit," the man pointed out as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The same does not apply to Miss Alset, who is a bonafide citizen of Marquee."

"Why are we even talking about this stuff?" Shizu groaned out in impatience. "Is there a point to all of this?"

"Ah, a thinker," the man smiled, his dagger glowing as he casually took a bite out of his sandwich. "I do agree that we\'ve talked too much to be productive. So instead of making the inevitable paperwork of all of this harder on ourselves, may I suggest that you all go along with me quietly for questioning."

Shizu shot me a worried look, and I immediately got the implications of what was going to happen should we submit. Having the Imperial Princess taken in like some kind of petty criminal would be a massive hit to Kattleyna, even more so if Marquee suddenly decided that having her in their custody would mean being able to leverage their position against the Empire.

This was bad...

"How about we just try and talk things out?" Guidance called out despite her [Manifest] already glowing for a fight. "Based on what we already know, this really is just a massive misunderstanding."

"Unfortunately, the time for talking has passed, miss..."

[COMBAT COMMENCED]

Huh... That was concerning.

"Still, I wouldn\'t mind us talking in the field of combat," the man smirked, his rotund build suddenly looking rather imposing with how massive he looked against us. "You\'re all sellswords, after all, and I might as well see where your combat expertise lies."

[LEVEL SYNC]

Of course, it is...

[Lewis Marc Level: 50]

[Hound of the Desk]

Letting out a sigh at the random instance we just found ourselves in, I blinked at the rather weird title this man had. His name was Lewis then, a level 50 with a dagger that practically screamed that it was his [Manifest]. We still didn\'t know how it worked, but I could only assume that it had something to do with heat or fire based on how badly Maruki\'s armor got melted. Guess Shen has her work cut out for her after all of this was over.

[ENEMY HP: 100%]

Wait... Were my eyes deceiving me, or was that an actual health bar? When did that happen?

"I guess we\'re in an instance already," Guidance sighed, her gaze going to the [Rig]. "And Shade got cut off from the barrier. Great."

"So it\'s only us three against him," Shizu beamed, her excitement doing little to mask the simmering anger that she was currently exuding. "We can take him."

"Wait up," I called out, barely stopping Shizu from pulling Lewis into a fight. "First up, Guidance, since when did you manage to fix the health bars?"

The dev looked at me all confused... Not a good sign. "Uhh, I haven\'t? Wait, you can see enemy health now?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "It\'s just popped up, hovering right above his name sitting at a hundred percent."

"So it does work... Wait... but it doesn\'t make any sense?" She pursed her lips in deep thought. "Is this connected to what we saw earlier?"

"Most likely," I sighed. "Still, that\'s the least of our concerns at the moment. Right now, we should get this guy off our back."

"He looked at Nicole all suspicious-like too," Shizu pointed out, her fists already tightening in wait. "I don\'t trust him."

"As if we all don\'t," I chuckled. "Alright, Guidance. Can you tell us some stuff about him? Assuming you know him, of course."

In response, the dev hummed as she wracked her brain for answers. "This guy\'s an Academic, right? If so, he should have a [Manifest] on him. At the very least, he knows how to fight."

"We can see that already," I couldn\'t help but scoff. "Anything else?"

"Hey, don\'t expect me to know all of my characters like the back of my hand," she pouted. "Even I don\'t know what Shizu\'s entirely capable of, and she\'s my favorite character out of all of them!"

A small yelp erupted from Shizu at Guidance\'s words. Sure enough, the moment I turned, I saw that the princess was already blushing up a storm, her lips trembling even as she did her best to look menacing in front of our enemy.

"T-Thank you for your... affections..." Shizu weakly muttered out, barely even a whisper.

Guidance... blushed as well. Great, we\'re just going to be flirting in the middle of a fight, I suppose.

Shrugging, I shook my head as I waited silently for the dev to actually give us the signal to go ahead and pull. Seeing as we didn\'t have a tank at the moment, I guess Shizu will be the one on tanking duty? Or maybe this will be a fight that wouldn\'t need a tank in the first place. We could always just kite like our lives depended on it.

Or maybe that was just me. I was the only one that was twenty levels beneath him, after all.

"So, when are we fighting him?"

I blinked, "I was honestly waiting for your signal."

Guidance scoffed at me as if she wasn\'t just blushing a few minutes ago. "Healers don\'t pull in general. It\'s either the tank or the DPS that does that."

"So I guess-"

"Leeeeet\'s goooooo!"

[*whoosh!*]

Before I could even react, Shizu\'s afterimage had already left my side, the princess running straight towards Lewis like a mad dog excited for a fight. Rearing her right arm up for an uppercut, she aimed her strike right at the man\'s face, her fists glowing as she did a [Move].

"[HEAT ACTION]!"

[*THUD!*]

Her attack... did something, I suppose. Instead of dodging, the Academic simply stood there and took it, his dagger sitting right between his chin and her fist as Shizu snarled at the annoying block.

"That\'s a decent amount of power, miss," Lewis patronizingly praised. "I can see that you also have [Moves]. What\'s your [Manifest], I wonder?"

[ENEMY HP: 99%]

Seeing Shizu jumping back, Guidance and I quickly moved to assist as I took a glance at the man\'s [HP]. It moved just a tiny inch down, but it was more than decent enough seeing how he had readily blocked such a devastating move from the princess.

"A coordinated effort then," Lewis chuckled before pulling out yet another sandwich from god knows where. "I suppose I\'ll take part in this lesson."

[BULK UP: 40%]

I blinked. "A raid-wide?"

"Doesn\'t look like it," Guidance pointed out. "Just keep attacking."

Shrugging, I did as she wanted, watching as Lewis munched on his sandwich despite us already raining down the pain. He didn\'t even flinch, his dagger blocking most of Shizu\'s punches while his massive belly jiggled with each shot I pelted it with.

Somehow, I couldn\'t help but giggle at such an image.

"Now I\'m ready to take you kids on!"

I almost raised my arms up to shield myself, only for nothing to appear as Lewis simply stood there, his dagger still casually moving through the air as Shizu did her best to break through. All the while, my eyes drifted towards his health, my jaw almost dropping as I saw something that probably shouldn\'t exist.

[ENEMY HP: 150%]

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