"Please take care of yourself, Master. I’ve packed a lunchbox for you."

Mirela spoke the words with a formal bow that displayed both respect and genuine concern.

As she straightened, she handed Klaus not just a single lunchbox but an entire impressive stack of them balanced carefully atop each other... at least seven or eight containers, all meticulously wrapped in clean white cloth and tied with simple twine.

She of all people in Klaus’s party understood the brutal, unforgiving difference in social dynamics between Commoners and Nobles in this world.

The hierarchy was absolute, enforced by law and tradition and the threat of violence and though she deeply disliked it... though it made her blood boil with suppressed rage to see her Master being treated as less than human by some spoiled aristocrat. There wasn’t anything she could practically do about it without signing her own death warrant.

Perhaps if she herself were a noble of equal or higher social standing to the prestigious and powerful Aestrea family, then she would have marched right up to that insufferably arrogant woman and put her firmly in her place for daring to speak to Klaus with such contempt.

She would have defended his honor and made that noble brat understand that Klaus was worth ten of her.

But as for where Mirela currently stood in society’s rigid hierarchy? As a mere commoner with no family name or inherited wealth? As a former slave who had only recently gained her freedom?

Mirela wanted to continue living and her Master wanted her to do so as well... She wanted to survive so she couldn’t afford to pick a public fight with established nobility and realistically expect to survive the brutal aftermath.

The noble courts would execute her without a trial, without even hearing her side of the story which was precisely why her Master Klaus also had absolutely no choice but to comply with this dangerous mission, no matter how much he might personally want to refuse or tell that noble woman exactly where she could shove her condescending orders.

The system was designed to trap people like them.

Klaus accepted the heavy stack of lunchboxes with both hands, careful not to let them topple.

He gave Mirela a warm grateful nod. "Thank you, Mirela. I really appreciate this."

She leaned in much closer, lowering her voice to barely above a whisper so that none of the other girls standing nearby could overhear what she was about to say and her expression turned deadly serious.

"Master, please listen to me carefully. If you see even the slightest opportunity to escape from this situation safely... if you find any chance at all to get away from that noble woman and abandon this mission then please take it immediately without hesitation. The Death Cult isn’t something to be trifled with or taken lightly. They’re dangerous beyond any measure, and their magic involves things far worse than simple death."

To be completely honest, Mirela was genuinely surprised and deeply confused by this entire situation and how it had developed.

When exactly had her Master supposedly rescued someone named Cedric Arlain from danger? That name belonged to a relatively high-ranking noble from what she understood. Or when had Klaus managed to defeat actual members of the Death Cult in combat?

She’d never once heard him mention either of those supposedly impressive achievements before, and surely he would have said something about encounters that significant.

But she simply assumed it must have all happened before she’d been rescued by Serra and Taula, which would make logical sense and explain why she had no knowledge about it. Though notably, Serra and Taula also seemed equally surprised and confused by the noble woman’s claims about Klaus’s supposed heroic deeds, which struck Mirela as rather strange if those events had truly occurred.

"I’ll try to escape if I can manage it safely," Klaus told her with complete seriousness, meeting her eyes so she knew he meant it. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Mirela smiled with visible relief at his promise and took a few steps backward to give him space for the other farewells.

Klaus wished desperately that he could make that promise with genuine confidence, but the grim truth of his situation was far darker and more complicated than a simple "I’ll try to escape."

The reality was inescapable: even if they were somehow attacked by Death Cult members during this mission and Klaus miraculously managed to fight his way free and escape with his life intact while the noble woman Seo didn’t make it out alive, he could still be publicly beheaded by royal decree for the supposed crime of "allowing" or "failing to protect" a noble from harm while under his care.

It didn’t matter that she’d essentially forced him into this situation against his will. It didn’t matter that she’d treated him like dirt beneath her boots, neither did it matter that any rational person would see he bore no responsibility for her poor decisions.

The twisted, suffocating politics surrounding nobility and their supposed sacred status were designed specifically to ensure that commoners like Klaus could never truly win and never truly escape the system’s cruel grip.

The laws existed to protect the aristocracy at all costs, even from the consequences of their own stupidity and arrogance.

If Seo died, Klaus would be the scapegoat. The convenient target for her family’s rage and grief.

He carefully retracted all of the stacked lunchboxes into his new storage ring with a glow of mana, making them vanish from his hands into the dimensional space and the weight disappeared immediately.

"I’ll make absolutely sure to eat everything before I get back," Klaus said with a small smile, trying to inject some optimism into the grim situation.

That was assuming he even managed to make it back alive at all, of course.

The Death Cult was far, far too dangerous and unpredictable to take lightly or underestimate for even a moment.

The last time Klaus had barely escaped from one of their underground hideouts, it had only been possible because of Zephyra’s overwhelming combat power backing him up and even with the silver-haired princess using her full strength to attack them, he’d still come face-to-face with the terrifying Heir of Death herself and nearly died in that encounter.

’Why do I have to keep going through all of these insanely complicated and life-threatening situations...’ Klaus thought with rising frustration, ’when literally all I really needed to focus on was quietly preparing for the Divine Academy entrance examinations? Why can’t anything ever be simple?’

Mirela took another step back, and Serra immediately moved forward to take her place for her own goodbye.

"Boss," Serra said with her voice carrying more emotion than usual. "For your travels ahead... I wish you unbridled luck and safe passage. Please return to us safely and in one piece."

She paused, then added.

"During the time you’re gone, we’ll be traveling to the Capital to enroll Maurie into a proper Academy so she can get an education. She’s been making good progress with her reading."

Klaus nodded approvingly. "Good luck with that. And try not to get lost in the Capital... it’s a big city."

Serra’s face flushed slightly with embarrassment. "H-how would I possibly get lost?! I’ve been there before, you know. I’m perfectly capable of navigating."

Regardless of her defensive protest, Serra then stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Klaus in a tight hug as her voice became more vulnerable. "Please come back safely to us, Boss. Please."

She had already lost Vex to that horrible incident and Garrick too... even Kahn was currently rotting in prison. Losing Klaus too would be far too much for her heart to handle as she didn’t think she could survive that kind of pain again.

Klaus gently placed his hand on top of her head and gave her a few reassuring headpats.

"I’ll come back. I promise."

Serra reluctantly released him and stepped back.

Before Klaus could say anything else, Taula suddenly sprang forward with her characteristic energy and practically tackle-hugged him.

Klaus had to stagger backward slightly to support her considerable muscular weight without falling over.

"You better come back in one piece," Taula said seriously then she frowned. "How am I going to marry you if you go and die on some stupid mission?"

Klaus sighed but couldn’t help smiling slightly. "I have absolutely no plans on dying, you know. I’m not that reckless."

"Okay, good." Taula dropped back down to stand on her own feet.

Then she suddenly remembered something she’d read in a romance novel she’d found on her grandmother’s bookshelf.

In the story, the Hero had been going on a dangerous journey to slay the Demon King, and his Heroine had given him a passionate kiss for good luck and power or something along those lines.

She couldn’t recall the exact details of how it worked, but she vividly remembered that scene.

Taula looked directly at Klaus’s lips with obvious intent then, before anyone could react or stop her, she dove her face forward and pressed her lips firmly against his. The kiss was clumsy and forceful but genuine, and she held it for several seconds.

Klaus’s eyes widened in complete shock with Serra and Mirela both blinked in surprise as they were frozen in place.

Taula finally pulled back as her face was now bright red with an embarrassed blush. "I hope that gives you all the energy and luck you need to come back to us safely!"

Then she tilted her head with confusion. "Though for some reason, there’s no trail of saliva between us like there always is in the romance novels I’ve read? Why is that? Did I do it wrong?"

Klaus looked at Taula’s innocent, genuinely confused expression as she tried to figure out why reality didn’t match the romance novels she’d been secretly reading then he couldn’t help but laugh .

The laugh wasn’t mocking at all... Taula’s straightforward honesty and complete lack of pretense were some of the things Klaus appreciated most about her.

She never played games or hid her feelings behind layers of social manipulation like nobles did. What you saw with Taula was exactly what you got.

"Goodbye, everyone," Klaus said warmly with his expression softening as he looked at each of them... Mirela standing with her hands clasped together worriedly, Serra trying to maintain her composure despite the tears threatening to fall, and Taula still looking puzzled about the saliva question. He gave them all one final wave, committing their faces to memory just in case this really did turn out to be a trap he couldn’t escape from.

"I’ll be back before you know it," he added with more confidence than he actually felt. "Try not to burn down the inn while I’m gone, alright?"

That got a small laugh from Serra, which was what he’d hoped for. It was better to leave them with smiles than tears.

Currently they were all standing inside his rented inn, and through the window Klaus could see the luxurious noble carriage that the arrogant noblewoman Seo had brought waiting outside on the cobblestone street below.

The carriage itself was a work of art with polished dark wood inlaid with gold filigree, pulled by two magnificent white horses that probably cost more than ten gold.

He walked toward the door, pausing to adjust his clothes and sword belt one final time before heading outside into what was almost certainly a death trap.

’I just hope this isn’t some kind of stupid, obvious trap designed specifically to get me killed,’ Klaus thought as he descended the creaking wooden stairs.

Though if he was being completely honest with himself, this whole situation absolutely reeked of being exactly that... an elaborate trap with him as the intended victim.

The logic was simple and damning: there wasn’t any dragon currently being held captive by the Death Cult at this point in the game’s timeline.

Not at any point in the original Artemis Online storyline, really, unless something absolutely fundamental about the world’s core narrative had somehow changed dramatically for some unknown reason that he couldn’t predict or account for.

And even if... somehow, impossibly there genuinely was a captured dragon being held by the cult right now, Seo already had the Protagonist himself traveling with her as her adopted brother and bodyguard.

Neo could already use multiple elemental affinities simultaneously, which made him incredibly powerful and versatile in combat situations as his purple resonance meant he could cultivate faster than virtually anyone else alive.

So why would a noble of Seo’s status and resources bother dragging along the thing she apparently hated most in the entire world... a filthy, lowborn commoner with no family name or inherited wealth and force herself to endure sharing a carriage ride with someone of Klaus’s supposedly disgusting social status?

It made absolutely no tactical or strategic sense unless the real goal wasn’t retrieving a dragon at all.

’Well, I suppose there is technically a very small chance that she’s actually romantically interested in me and this is some incredibly convoluted noble courtship ritual I don’t understand...’ Klaus finished that thought.

But he didn’t believe that explanation for even a fraction of a second. Seo had made her contempt for him crystal clear during their previous encounter and the disgust in her eyes when she looked at him had been genuine, not some elaborate act or facade.

At the end of the day, the only way Klaus would get a definitive answer about whether this was an assassination attempt, a kidnapping plot, or a legitimate mission was to tackle it head-on and see what happened when they reached their destination.

There was simply no other choice available to him that didn’t end with him being hunted down as a criminal for refusing a noble’s direct commission.

He arrived at the fancy carriage and reached for the door handle, intending to climb inside but before his hand could even touch the polished brass, the window suddenly slid open.

Seo’s disgusted crimson eyes looked down at him with obvious contempt, as if he were something unpleasant she’d stepped in on the street.

"What kind of filthy commoner," she said slowly, her voice dripping with venom, "dares to even consider sitting down in the same enclosed space where a Noble of my distinguished stature and pure bloodline is currently sitting? Have you lost what little mind you possess?"

Her nose wrinkled as if smelling something foul.

"You should go sit up front with the carriage driver where you belong, with the other servants and commoners. That is your proper place in the natural order of things."

Then she pulled the window closed with a sharp snap, cutting off any possible response Klaus might have given.

Klaus felt his jaw clench with suppressed anger, but he forced himself to remain calm and respectful on the outside as he walked around to the front of the carriage where the driver sat.

The driver... a middle-aged man with the typical brown hair color that marked him as a fellow commoner tapped the wooden seat next to him in a friendly, welcoming gesture.

His expression was sympathetic, suggesting he’d witnessed similar treatment many times before.

"Why don’t you sit down here with me, friend?" the man said kindly. "It’ll be more comfortable than standing, and we’ve got a long journey ahead of us."

Klaus appreciated the man’s decency and pulled himself up onto the driver’s bench, settling into the seat with a sigh.

From inside the carriage, Seo’s shrill voice rang out imperiously.

"We’d better get moving immediately! I don’t have all day to waste sitting here while you common folk dawdle about!"

The driver’s expression tightened slightly with annoyance, but he maintained his professional composure.

He snapped the leather reins with both hands and called out.

"Hyah! Get moving! We don’t have time to waste!"

The two horses pulling the carriage immediately began moving forward at a brisk trot.

The carriage lurched into motion and soon they were rolling steadily through the streets of Galen Town, heading directly toward the open city gates that led out into the wider kingdom.