Emperor's Reckoning

"Does it surprise you?" Lyon asked with a grin at his students. He raised his brows twice to ensure he was proud of the result he had achieved.

"That's amazing!" said Reinhard with stars in his eyes, and his mouth made an 'o'.

"Hahaha!" Lyon laughed.

"What does the letter say?" asked Rayus as he pointed at the letter in Lyon's hand. It was a piece of paper without an envelope covering it. Obviously, it wasn't official since the guard was furrowing his brows when he delivered the letter. However, Lyon's odd way resulted in this course happening. ( His ways might be questionable, but I guess it works somehow ).

"Oh, right," Lyon opened the folded paper. "Well, that's quite effortless."

"What does it say?" asked Rayus.

'Bar, starry sky, code: Frog Eat Swan.'

"... what?" Reinhard raised his brows. "Is he joking?"

"It's obviously a code," Noah rolled his eyes, "Though..."

"Bar... starry sky... and a code," Rayus muttered as he contemplated with his brows furrowed.

"Alright, I will let you guys solve it," said Lyon as he crossed his arms.

"T-Teacher, you already knew the answer?" asked Reinhard.

"Not really," Lyon shrugged, "I'm just tired of thinking critically, hahaha!"

( What a fine example... ) Noah twitched one side of his lips as blacklines covered his head.

"The bar, well, Nemk City has a bar," said Reinhard. "Perhaps he was referring to a place?"

"That may be it," said Lyon as he nodded. "How many bars does the city have?"

"Four," answered Rayus before he sighed, "And none of them has any correlation with a frog, a swan, or the starry sky."

"We could ask them one by one," said Selena.

"Yes, we could!" Reinhard immediately nodded, "Leave it to me!"

"Okay, let's not do that," said Noah. "I don't think making ourselves publicly known searching for the Burgeon Swan is a good idea."

"I agree," said Lyon as he patted Selena's head who was pouting after hearing her darling's point of view.

"Otherwise, the elder of this city won't go through such length with the secrecy or whatnot," said Rayus as he shrugged. "Though, secrecy... hmmm..."

"Wait, you guys are allowed to drink right?" asked Lyon.

"Drink juice?"

"What? No, I'm talking about booze!~" Lyon smiled.

"Darling, no," Selena shook her head.

"Not even a sip?!" Lyon knelt by her side.

"No, means no, darling," said Selena as she crossed her arms, "The trouble darling will bring will far exceed this Burgeon Swan children group or whatever."

"Ah~" Lyon sighed defeatedly. However, the three students were astounded by her words. Some revelations proved a point that they might not be considered before. They had an inkling that he was strong, however, to think that his wife would look at the notorious bandit's groups as mere children gathering to play, brought enough shock to them, especially the tone that she brought it up, it wasn't arrogance.

( Is she really that strong? ) thought Reinhard.

( Wait, don't tell me the strong one in his relationship is his wife? My condolences, teacher ) thought Noah. ( Perhaps I am too harsh in judging you, I apologize ).

( He is totally a drunkard ) thought Rayus. ( Can't believe someone that has his way with words would be defeated by liquor ).

"Darling," Selena smiled as she touched his cheek. "Once we get everything in order back, we will let you drink, because by then we will have the power to hold you back if things went to chaos."

"Alright," Lyon nodded with another sigh for he knew it won't be happening anytime soon, at least not this week.

"Back at the matter at hand," said Rayus. "Teacher, do you have any suggestion as to which bar we should ask first?"

"Hmm, what about their names?" asked Lyon.

"We have Bara, Barb, Barc, and Bard," said Reinhard.

"What?" Lyon frowned, "That's a really odd naming."

"More like lazy," Noah rolled his eyes.

"Lazy?"

"Yeah, it's Bar A, Bar B, Bar C, and Bar D, just without the space," said Rayus.

"Oh, damn, that's clever," said Lyon. "Wait, are they owned by the elder?"

"They are not," said Noah as he shook his head, "As far as I remember to recall, they are owned privately."

"Are they owned by the same individual?" asked Lyon.

"No," Rayus shook his head, "Elder Bucca was the one that has the right to name the bar."

"Despite not owning it?" asked Lyon.

"I heard it was either that or no bar," said Noah. "So they comply, on top of paying taxes."

"What is he scheming..." Lyon muttered. "Bara, Barb, Barc, and Bard, they really have no connection with the other words mentioned in the paper."

"I told you," Rayus added.

"Perhaps, it's time, darling," said Selena.

"Time?" Lyon raised his brows.

"Oh the starry sky!" said Reinhard. "It's probably referring to the night!"

"That's possible," Lyon nodded before looking at the other two students, "How about you two?"

"I have to agree, it is the best connection we have," said Noah with a nod.

"Same for me," Rayus nodded.

"Alright, now say thank you," said Lyon.

"Thank you! Madam Selena," they all bowed without a second shred of another thought.

( Holy fuck that scared the shit out of me ) thought Lyon as he was a bit taken aback by their response time. Never did he know that they did that instinctively out of fear.

Selena on the other hand was indifferent toward their behavior, even when garnering the attention of the passing cultivators. She nodded with a slight 'en' before looking at her darling with a smile.

"Alright, now the last puzzle, code: Frog Eat Swan," said Lyon.

"Maybe we should say it toward the bartender or a closed door?" suggested Reinhard.

"That might be possible, I've been playing RPG games back at home and they sometimes pull that kind of trick," said Lyon.

"What?" all four raised their brows.

Lyon sighed, "One day, maybe, I will show you but for now, let's forget about what I just said, and focus."

He knew he would get nowhere if he tried to explain the new vocabulary, even to his own wife, especially his own wife, in particular this one wife of his.

( That's odd... what do they have in the Mortal World? Sounds like quite a fun game ) thought Noah.

"Now considering what we know so far, maybe we can narrow down our bar choice," said Lyon.

"Hmm?" Rayus raised his brows.

"Like what?" asked Reinhard.

"Since Elder Bucca goes all the way to give us a piece of paper when he could have told us in the living room, it means that he doesn't want to get involved with this 'hunting'," said Lyon.

"But that's his own living room," said Reinhard.

"It means he doesn't trust his own home either," said Rayus. "After all, for a man like him, the sum of enemies he has might frighten us."

"Rayus is correct," said Lyon with a nod.

"It's just basic common sense," said Noah.

"..." Reinhard looked at Noah with raised brows.

"Alright, back at it. Since it's the secrecy that he wants, yet he wants us to find a bar then that means..."

"Hmm?" Rayus raised his brows before he uttered, "You mean he wants us to find the least crowded bar?"

"Like, if they are on the brink of out of business, the better," said Lyon with a smirk.

"That's!" Rayus had radiant eyes. "That's probably it!"

"We wouldn't know for sure, but it has the highest chance," said Lyon. "So, anyone knows which one?"

"Bard has an actual bard and they are crowded every night," said Noah. "Bara was the first and people don't like to change once their tongue got accustomed."

"That leaves Barb and Barc."

"Barb has women as servers and bartenders, they also wore skimpy outfits, their booze might not be the best but they are the most crowded of them all, whilst Barc is.. well... there is nothing special about Barc," said Noah.

"It's totally Barb. We are going to Barb," said Lyon as he nodded and looked at all three boys. "We are going to Barb yes?"

( This guy is really edging to die by the hand of his own wife ) thought Noah before all three of them suddenly felt cold as their toes crawled under the sun.

"Darling..."

"Eh?" Lyon was oblivious to the eerie killing intent combing the goosebumps on his nape. He gulped and with perspiration he said, "O-Of course it's Barc, there is no way that it's Barb right? Haha, nice joke Reinhard."

"Me?!" Reinhard pointed at himself.

"You're too young to go to Barb, I'm sorry but as your teacher, this is not something I can tolerate," said Lyon as he shook his head. "Nirvana School wants you to graduate not just as a cultivator, but also as a proper man."

( Holy shit, that's a whole new level of thick skin) thought Noah as he saw his teacher turn and smiled at his wife.

( Are we really going to be okay... I'm having doubts if we can hunt those bandits, now ) thought Rayus as he sighed inwardly.