"Amatsu?"

Julian and Orpheus said together as the white haired Lord Knight sitting in front of them nodded. Despite of the odds of the two of them being together, Edward was sent with Eden to the Payon caves to train while Kai took care of Camus. Well Orpheus, dreaming of becoming a knight was evidently paired up with Julian.

"The reason I want you two to go there." Sir Xeno set down the papers he was holding and sighed. "I want you to find Richard."

"Richard? Who's that?" Orpheus asked. Julian glanced at him a bit annoyed as Sir Xeno also raised an eyebrow.

"He's the priest that went with you the 'other' day." She whispered from the corner of her mouth as the light bulb finally lit up in his head.

"Well as you may recall." Sir Xeno continued as he folded his arms. "The head priest Yue is not able to work for the time being. (Julian coughed and turned away slightly as he said that.) So usually Richard takes his place however, ever since he asked for day off he's been missing. To make matters worse he does not have a guild communicator which makes it hard to come in contact with him."

Julian tilted her head slightly and also folded her arms. "But Sir Xeno. How can you be sure that he is in Amatsu?"

"I sent Griever to investigate. The last person who saw him was the sailor who operates the ship to Amatsu. Additionally, investigating his history he was born in Amatsu so that increases the chances of him being there." He finished as he took a deep breath and sighed. Although he was known as the emotionless Lord Knight they noticed a hint of a worried expression upon his face.

"Don't worry sir! We'll find him!" As Orpheus's energetic broke the silence. Julian smiled at his forward attitude as Sir Xeno's worried expression disappeared.

"Very well. Julian. Do you have your guild communicator?"

She held up a small device in response. "Right here Sir Xeno."

"Julian Douglas and Orpheus Lieuken, the mission will be at your hands. Bring back Richard safe and unharmed. Understood?"

"Yes Sir!" Both of them saluted as their voice rang out throughout the room.

"Orpheus! Hurry up or we'll miss the ship!"

"I'm trying! But the place is so crowded!"

Orpheus shouted as he shoved his way through the crowd in Alberta. The ports of Alberta were usually crowded with vendors and merchants selling items but today is was twice the population because of the festival that will be held soon. Orpheus fell on all four after he squeezed out of the crowd. Julian stood in front of him and shook her head.

"We need to build your stamina…or else you will not last long in the real battle…" She muttered before she handed the money to the sailor trading them with the tickets for Amatsu.

"It will get quiet and less rowdy once we're on the ship." Handing the ticket to Orpheus she brushed dust off the exhausted swordsman. "Come on, let's board the ship before we deal with any trouble."

"Trouble?" Orpheus perked up with a confused face. "What kind of troub-"

He was cut off when a thief snuck up behind him and stole both his wallet and ticket. Upon noticing that he scrambled up enraged.

"YOU THEIF!! GIVE THAT BACK!! SOMEONE!! STOP HIM!!!" He hollered but only to be drowned by the voices of the crowd as the thief continued his way. Julian, seeing this, sighed and put a hand on her forehead. First the crowd and now this…when will the misfortune end?

"That's why I warned you…" She unsheathed her sword as it gleamed dangerously in the sunlight. This was a very bad day for a thief to be caught stealing from her subordinates.

Not good at ALL

"It's a hundred year too early for you to be stealing from the member of Lion's Pride!"

Julian shouted catching the attention of the people around them as she raised her sword. With panic the entire crowd moved out of the way of the direction of the running Lord Knight making a clear opening for the thief.

"Stun bash!"

CRACK!

A nasty crack rang out as the handle of the sword connected with the thief's neck, knocking him out instantly. Sprawling the floor Julian took the thief by the collar of his jacket and shoved it roughly toward the nearest adventurer.

"When he wakes up, tell him to never mess with Lion's Pride." The random adventurer nodded nervously without any complaint. She picked up the wallet and ticket and made her way back to the port, which was much easier because people moved away from her automatically.

"Never let that happen again." She muttered somewhat angry and annoyed as she handed the two possessions to Orpheus who stood their awed at what just happened.

"Orpheus! We're leaving!"

"Y-yes ma'am!"

"Fresh Sushi! Come and get it!"

"Now for a limited time special kimonos are sold!"

The streets of Amatsu were filled with voices of shop owners of this area. Girls who lived and grew up in the ancient land were sitting under cherry blossom trees and chattering with their usual nonsense. As the men went to bars that serve Japanese wine called sake and getting themselves drunk. Amatsu (in Julian's opinion) seems the most peaceful and calm place that anyone can ask for.

The down side is, foreigners attract a lot of attention.

Julian was now surrounded by both male and female who stared at her armor and sword that hung down her waist as Orpheus was being pressured by the girls who taken a liking in him.

"Ummm…Julian?"

"Hm?"

"Why are we…so attractive here?"

"Cause we're blonde." She responded bluntly as she whacked away a hand that stretched out to her sword.

"Well blonde's aren't that rare…"

"Take a look around you. If you see another person in this crowd that was born and raised here that has blonde hair, then I'll think up of another reason."

There were none.

"…okay I see your point."

"Anyway," She took out a picture as she held off the spectators. "Down to business. Has anyone seen him?!"

All of the citizens of the area were now staring at the piece of paper in her hand that turns out to be a picture of Richard. (No one knows how the guild got their hands on pictures but it's better not to ask anyway) The people muttered and whispered among themselves as each of them shook their head indicating a no.

"That's odd…a red head wouldn't go unnoticed here…I guess Sir Xeno was wron-"

The blonde Lord knight was cut off with a beeping sound indicating that someone was called on the guild communicator. Pressing the button to talk she held the communicator in a way which both Orpheus and herself can hear.

"Julian, can you hear me?" The voice from the communicator was none other than Sir Xeno.

"Yes Sir Xeno. We hear you clear."

"Crystal clear in fact." Orpheus butted in.

"You need to show some respect for Sir Xeno…" Julian muttered angrily making note to teach him manners later.

"Upon further investigation we found out that "Richard" isn't his real name."

Both of them looked at each other with a puzzled expression before returning their attention to the communicator.

"Which means…?"

"It turns out that he changed his name when he registered at the Prontera recording building. (A place where they keep track of people in Rune Midgard) Also the picture of his registration is different than his historical one."

"How did you get the historical one?" Orpheus once again interrupted only to be knocked down by Julian's fist.

"…Griever found it in his room."

"along with some really good Japanese alcohol!!" There was a holler in the background that sounded like Griever enjoying some sake.

"…ahem…returning to the subject. His real name is Haku and-"

"HAKU?!?!?!?!" The citizens of Amatsu suddenly yelled with horror and panic.

Poor Sir Xeno was not able to finish his conversation as the villagers who were listening were now panic stricken. Julian and Orpheus on the other hand had a blank expression.

"…what's so bad about the word "haku"?"

"!!!!!!!!!"

The villagers once again had the same reaction with the word as they were now several feet away from the duo.

"?" The two were utterly confused as the mob slowly inched away whispering among themselves. Clearly Richard wasn't well liked in Amatsu or perhaps…?

"Look, we just want to talk to this "Haku" guy. All right? Can any of you please tell us where he lives?"

There was a moment of silence, then a trader stepped forward looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"He lives in the house near the south-east of the field outside Amatsu…"

"Ok ladies and gentlemen we're going to take our leaves now." She said quickly before she grabbed Orpheus's arm. Which surprised Orpheus for such rash action from her. "No autographs or picture can be taken."

With that said she sped off dragged poor confused Orpheus along with her.

"Why are we running?!" He shouted as he attempted to keep up with the pace she was dragging with her. Julian glanced at him before giving a long sigh.

"Orpheus, haven't you noticed something odd about the villagers when we mentioned him?"

"Well I mean they ran from the communicator like 5 feet away-"

"No!" Julian cut him off. "I mean did you feel their aura? There was a intense feeling of killing."

"Well sorry I didn't notice that! I'm not some psychopathic Lord Knight who clearly has some anger management to do!"

"………………………………"

WHAM!!

K.O.

END OF CHAPTER!!

FireyFlame: Thank you :D

Yumi Sakura: Man I get that pairing a lot…maybe I should do it that way…then again I'm tricky /gg

Steel Heart: Yup! Now let's see what happened when a he becomes a monk

RicePaper: thank you! And I updated so you should update yours too! I love reading your story!