I Level Up Dragons with My Evolution System-Chapter 62: Preparation

At the Corner of Fire Restaurant, on the top floor.

When Edward arrived here, it was already 9 a.m. Arnold was sunbathing on one of the beanbag cushions he had brought with him. On the table next to him was a closed book and some drinks.

Edward was speechless as he watched him.

"This guy..." He let out a long sigh, but smiled. Somehow, seeing that he was still himself on a mission reassured him.

"Don’t just stand there, come over here. I don’t think it’s a crime to bring one of these on a mission, right?" Arnold laughed, looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

"I was thinking: How strange that he’s not reading the book..." Edward shrugged as he approached.

"Well, I was tempted to read, but I realized that then I wouldn’t be able to observe the mansion carefully. Missions sometimes make you sacrifice your best hobbies, which is why they’re not so great," Arnold said with slight annoyance. "You, on the other hand, don’t usually read much. Reading is a beautiful thing, you know?"

"Well, I’m not as addicted to it as you are. I’m sure you’ll never see me reading on a mission." Edward came up beside him and looked at the mansion from above. "It’s huge."

"Well..." Arnold laughed. "If you ask me, I think it’s relatively small. In the Upper District, almost all of them are bigger than this one."

Edward wrinkled his nose. He had never seen such a large mansion up close before. On Earth, he lived in the neighborhoods of his city, and in this world, he lived in a small house in the lower areas of the slums. Something as big as this was already gigantic to him.

"Some things have changed, so I came to inform you." Edward decided to get to the main point. "There are some strange things happening with that man’s daughter, so I want to see if I can find out anything about her. I left them some bait that they’re sure to take, and depending on how they decide to take it, it will open up a wide path for us to complete it. That’s why I want you to pay special attention to those who enter the mansion." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Describe them in detail and send them to me. Don’t do anything else for now. If things go wrong, we’ll have to attack in two days at night, and we’ll do it head-on."

Arnold looked at him thoughtfully. "What...?" He wanted to ask something, but then shook his head and leaned back on his cushion. "I’ll pay close attention to what you tell me. I’ll send you the information as soon as I can. Pay attention to your surroundings, as the information may come to you by air, land, or magic."

Edward looked at him. He knew he had questions to ask, but he had chosen to trust him. "Thank you. I’ll see you later then."

Edward left the upper floor and headed towards Aurora, who was simply watching quietly from the lower rooms.

She moved around frequently, so she was never in one place for more than 20 minutes.

"It’s unusual for you to come see me so soon. Has something happened?" Aurora asked as soon as she saw him arrive behind her.

"I’m going to need your help."

"Help?" She turned to look at him. "With what?"

"I don’t think I’ll need your help today, it might be tomorrow or the day after, but you have to be there."

"And who will take charge of the mission here? Lander?" Aurora frowned. She didn’t think Lander was qualified for that mission...

He was a not-so-outstanding Perception Mage. There was a clear difference between a 2-Star Mage and a 3-Star Mage. It wasn’t just a difference in "academic pay"; that difference existed precisely because the 3-Stars were clearly superior in power.

Not to mention when it comes to filling Aurora’s position, who is a 4-star mage...

That’s why it wasn’t a good idea to leave Lander in charge of a mission such as "spying" on a target mansion.

Edward knew that. "Partly, yes. But for now, we’ll leave it as a half-mission. Arnold will take care of most of it."

"Arnold?" Aurora nodded. He could accomplish the mission. She stood up. "Don’t trust Arnold too much, unless he proves himself trustworthy. He was in one of the harshest punishment regions a few months ago, so you need to be careful with him."

"I heard that from him, although I never knew why they put him there. Do you know anything?"

"That kind of thing isn’t usually revealed, since we are still members of the nation’s Armed Forces, even though we are students. But there is a strange coincidence, and that is that a young student in his class died a few days earlier... maybe it has something to do with it."

’He killed a student?’ Edward frowned slightly.

"I’ll keep that in mind." He nodded.

"Don’t think too much about it, maybe the guy deserved it, right?" Aurora laughed. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"Goodnight Inn, Room 13," Edward replied as he walked beside her.

"To an inn? What are we going to do there?" she asked.

"I’ll tell you about it as we go..."

--

--

One day later, it was 10 p.m. when Aurora walked through the door of Room 13 in Goodnight Inn.

Edward had spent the whole day inside the room. Since he had no idea when they would arrive, he had to do this.

He was currently leaning against the window, looking at the huge moon before him.

"This is the first time I’ve been on a mission like this that’s so peaceful," Aurora said as she lay down beside him. "I dreamed many times of going on missions with you, going through difficulties together and then emerging victorious... but this doesn’t feel bad at all," she said with a smile.

On this last day, they had eaten all three meals together and chatted; things were calm. That didn’t make much sense on an assassination mission; it was a strange contrast, given Edward’s arrangements and plans.

Edward didn’t really have much to say about it.

Did he have everything under control? Not really. He had thrown out bait and hoped someone would take it, but for the last few hours he had been wondering if he had thrown it correctly... Did it land in the right place? Was it a mistake to have thrown it there?

But no matter how hard he tried to think of alternatives, he couldn’t come up with a better strategy... or maybe there were alternatives, but he didn’t want to use them because they went too much against his own morals.

He didn’t want to kill someone who didn’t deserve it, just because. That’s why his strategy was to try to beat around the bush. The problem was that he didn’t know if that would end up being worse...

"Do you think it will work?" Edward asked.

She was leaning on his shoulder, so she only had to look up to see him. "I trust your strategy, you’ve always been good at that stuff." She smiled.

Edward sighed. ’The problem is that I’m not the same Edward who was strategic...’

"Anyway, if we fail the mission, they’ll only punish us for a few weeks. It’s no big deal." She laughed.

"I wouldn’t want you to be punished because of me, you know..." He protested...

"There are ups and downs in learning. If we’re in a down, it means we’ll be in an up next time, right?" Her relaxed smile reassured him.

Then he looked back and laughed. "Looks like we’re not in a down yet. Go hide, they’re here," he whispered.