The moment Darius left, Slade brought out a bottle of wine and without a glass cup, he began downing its contents as he tried to understand why he was so unlucky.
It all started back when he was still in the Kaldron Empire. He was the leader of the B rank adventurer party, The Creed. They were famous at the time and they were well known for their success rate in exploring the vast number of dungeons located at the outskirts of the Malock desert.
They were on the rise in both fame and rank, but everything came to an end when a noble family had hired them for a mission in a deeper part of the Malock desert.
It was a collaboration between the adventurer party the noble family. The noble family was to support with their manpower, while the creed adventurer party was to bring a lesser amount of manpower and expertise in exploring dungeons.
Everything was going well until they finally reached the end of the dungeon and found the artifact they had been tracking.
The problem was that it was being protected by a king-rank desert hedgehog. With its humanoid form, sand manipulation and the thick quills that acted as tools for great defense and devastating offense, the combined power of both teams couldn't beat it in a fight.
It was a stalemate between both forces and if any of the parties wanted to win they would surely incur a lot of damages, so they decided to retreat.
Because of the defensive capabilities of Slade and his adventurer party, they were to hold off the beast as the members of the noble family retreated. Things were going well until an attack from the leader of the noble family landed on one of the members of his members.
As seasoned adventurers that had been through a lot of missions, they had expected a scenario like this, but the problem was that they were being attacked from both sides.
Seeing that the adventurer party was now in a tough position, the King rank desert hedgehog went all out on them increasing the pressure.
The leader of the noble family capitalized on the desert hedgehog attacking them to steal the artifact. Once they had gotten hold of the artifact, the noble family began pulling back.
At that time, members of the Creed adventurer party had sustained a lot of damage making it impossible for them to survive the wrath of the desert hedgehog. So it was best for them to leave the location before the desert hedgehog changed its target to them.
That was when the adventurer party agreed to sacrifice themselves to make sure the noble family escaped.
They disregarded the attacks of the king-level desert hedgehog and began sealing the area to make sure the noble family didn't escape.
This increased the speed at which the desert hedgehog was taking them down, but it also meant it wouldn't take long before it began attacking the noble family.
When it was finally time for the badly injured Slade to die, the desert hedgehog noticed that its precious artifact was missing, causing it to instantly switch to the current possessor.
By then the entire area had been sealed, and if they wanted to escape they would certainly die. This forced them to stand and fight.
The battle rage on, but unfortunately for them, the adventurer party had mostly been on the defense meaning they had dealt close to no damage to the desert hedgehog.
The members of the noble family had used everything in their arsenal as they fought for their lives. They had managed to fatally injure the desert hedgehog, but in the end, they all ended up dead.
That was when Slade took hold of the opportunity and used his most powerful artifact to end the life of the desert hedgehog.
With the help of the plant element, Slade was able to recover in a day. He plundered the bodies and he buried his dead comrades before returning to the city.
He reported everything that happened to the adventurer association causing them to invite representatives of the noble family.
On seeing that the Slade had survived and their members hadn't reported back to them, the noble family acted as if they knew nothing about what happened began accusing Slade of killing both his team and their family member and making up a story to cover his tracks.
Luckily, it wasn't hard for the judges to see past this. So they declared Slade not guilty, but they didn't have enough evidence to show that the family was part of it, so they let them go too. Slade wasn't happy with this decision, but there was nothing he could do against such a big family.
That wasn't the end of the story. With the number of noble family members he had killed and the impact, the allegations leveled against them had affected their reputation as a noble family, there was naturally no way they would let Slade go without getting the proper punishment.
They began sending assassins to end his life, but Slade always came out alive, so they changed their approach. They killed some of their family members and framed Slade for committing the crime.
They presented to the court shocking falsified evidence against Slade. Since it was most likely that he had a grudge against the family and decided to take it out on the members, coupled with the fact that he was a commoner, Slade was sentenced to life imprisonment.
He stayed in jail for almost a decade, until a masked man came to his cell and freed him. Without holding a conversation he was given a dimensional amulet that contained everything he needed before he was warped into the Malock desert.
Not needing to be told, he didn't return to the Kaldron Empire instead he journeyed to the east and arrived at the Synder Empire where he began building the current Creed gang.
CRASH!
Slade crushed the now empty glass of wine in frustration as he stood up and took in a deep breath.
"There is no point of thinking about the past when I can not change it. I have to make sure that I still have a future." Slade said to himself as he left the room to begin making preparations for the guests arriving the next day.
...
When Commander Darius returned to his office he called for Ashely.
"Yes, Commander." Ashely saluted as she entered the office.
"I am done with the investigation. Everything in the report is accurate down to the last detail, so you can close the commission and report everything to the hirer." Darius said to Ashely who was about to leave the office.
"Before you go, call up some of the technical corps, I have some new ideas for my walls." Darius said with a smile that left Ashely confused, but she just followed commands.
After she was done updating the hirers on what had happened so far, she requested a communication link with the Order of chaos adventurer party.
"Mr. Zero, the report you have given to us has been confirmed meaning your team will be given the price reward of 150k from the hirer and 100k from the ash corps for providing information of Slade's whereabouts." Ashely reported.
"The raid of the gang hideout has been scheduled for tomorrow. The hirer has invited you to join the raid, do you accept his request?" Ashely asked.
"No, thank you." Blake didn't waste time declining the invitation. Although they would receive a lot of fame and gold coins from participating in the raid, Blake knew his limit.
The battle that was going to occur wasn't for people on his level, so it was better he took part in a less dangerous commission.
Once the communication link was cut, Blake contacted Susan and applied for the second investigation and capture commission they had received.
The investigation mission was a simple one. It involved tracking a thief who had robbed a merchant's house.
The only problem with the mission was that they had no idea of the robber's power level meaning they had to be very careful when they would try to capture him.
...
Just as Ashely was about to call it a day and hand over the shift to another ash corp, she received an application message from the adventurer association concerning the Order of chaos adventurer party.
"They are accepting another investigation commission. Let's see who well they perform.." Ashely said as she confirmed the application before leaving for home.