CLAY was stunned upon hearing the black haired teenager who was just trying to cut him in half called his name . Then as if a b.u.t.ton was turned on inside his head, a sudden realization hit him . He suddenly thought of everything that had happened in the last 15 minutes . The unexpected familiarity he felt with the black haired girl and the savvy swordsmans.h.i.+p of the teenage boy . If his mind wasn't full of getting money, he would have probably recognized the two much sooner .

"Argent Blackbourne?" Then he turned to the girl . "Blondie?"

Aurum almost blackened her face . Why did this guy never bothered calling her by her name? She walked beside her brother and looked at Clay arrogantly . "I told you my brother will kick your a.s.s . "

Seeing that the two didn't refute what he said, it readily confirmed his guess . Truly, what a coincidence . Meeting in this kind of place . Then he remembered what Aurum just said . "Wait- have you known it was me the whole time?"

"Not with full certainty . Just thought that your voice was annoyingly familiar . " No wonder she stopped struggling when she heard his voice . "Why are you robbing people anyway?"

That was the part Aurum didn't quite understand . It was weird enough to suddenly meet him here, it's even weirder to find out that he suddenly became a thief . She might not know Clay that well, but she knew he's not the type to just go around taking things from other people for no reason .

Clay felt ashamed . It's one thing to be a masked thief, it's another for an acquaintance to discover that he was that thief . He's not really that proud of what he's doing right now . But he had to do it .

"You needed money to go to Victoria City . That's the reason why you're running around town, robbing n.o.bles, isn't it?" Argent said .

Clay just shrugged helplessly and answered, "Yes . "

He wasn't really that surprised that Argent figured it out that easily . This guy was the young genius who founded Silver Corporation after all .

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"Why would you do that so close to Victoria City?" Aurum said, a bit confused . "You should have robbed enough people in other places before going here . "

"Nice advice," he said sarcastically . "Going to Victoria City wasn't in my plan . But circ.u.mstance forced me to . How about you two, what are you guys doing here?"

"We're also planning to go to Victoria City," Aurum answered .

Although he already kind of expected that answer, Clay was still slightly surprised . Then an idea entered his mind . If he could ask these two to bring him along with them, then he could enter Victoria City without a problem . At the rate he's going he still needed to steal a lot in order to stay in Victoria at least for a couple of days .

"Could you guys take me with you?" he said, his tone a bit hesitant . "I promise I'll pay you back . "

Aurum turned to her brother because the decision was hers to make . She saw Argent thinking, meaning she's considering Clay's request .

"Why do you need to go to Victoria City?" Argent asked instead of immediately giving answer to Clay's request .

Clay wondered if there's a way he could lie his way through that . But in the end, he thought better of it . Maybe if he told them the reason why he's really here, they could help him . But then again, Argent Blackbourne was not really the type to be moved by a sob story . The only way he would agree to help him was if he gave him something of importance in return .

He sighed and just answered truthfully . "I'm here to save someone . "

"It's not your sister again, right?" Aurum asked before he could elaborate more .

"No, my sister is somewhere safe and sound, thank you very much," Clay said, a muscle on his face twitching . "As I've said, I'm here to save someone . The information I received told me that the person would be here in Achea but when I got here, I found out that the person was moved to Victoria . I was not prepared to go there so I have no choice but to resort to thievery . "

"You need to elaborate more on that," Argent said .

"It's kind of complicated . "

"Then explain it properly," Argent simply said .

Clay hesitated for a bit then at the end he could only grit his teeth and explain everything . Maybe if he did, then Argent would find it interesting and decide to help .

"When we left Shandra, me, my sister, and the others decided to help the children in other villages like the one we grew up in . There's a lot of those scattered all over the world . But sadly, we could only help those that were being thrown away because, like us, the Temple didn't manage to brainwash them . They were few and far between . Even if we wanted to save the others, they wouldn't want to go with us . "

Most of those kids were thoroughly brainwashed by the Temple . They would probably think that they were kidnapping them instead of saving them . Which was truly sad . He wanted to save those kids because he wanted them to live the life that they should have if they weren't taken in by the Temple . And it was also a way for Clay to retaliate against the Temple . Clay understood that he was powerless to fight against them on equal grounds . But with this, he could at least make a ripple . And soon, he promised he would turn that small ripple into a big tidal wave .

In these last five months, they managed to find three villages and saved seven teenagers . Her sister, the others, and those teenagers were now in a certain mountain range in this continent . It was quite isolated, which meant safety for now . Clay wanted to at least build a village or even a proper house for them . But he didn't have the financial power to back that up . Which was really quite frustrating .

"Wow . You really became a crusader, huh," Aurum commented .

That was dumb in some way, if you considered his status and who he was up againts . It's like a dwarf trying to win againts a giant . But it was also quite admirable . It showed just how much guts this guy had . Not to mention, the fact that he did have a very big heart .

"Well, it's s good way to p.i.s.s off the Temple," Clay shrugged .

Aurum gave him a thumbs up . "I like that answer . "

"Anyway, in the last village we went to, we encountered a problem . When we tried to save the kids that were being thrown up, a masked man wearing a white cloak pa.s.sed by and just overwhelmed us with his Gift . Some of the knights who were pursuing us died on the spot . " He still felt chills whenever he remembered how those knights ended up .

"We would probably also end the same way if that boy didn't appear . He s.h.i.+elded us and took the attention of the masked man away from us . We didn't have time to think too much and we just ran the h.e.l.l out of there . When we were in somewhere safe, I wanted to go back and help the boy but I knew it was already too late .

"Then one of the teenagers we saved said that the boy was brought to the village three days before that particular day and that he escaped the day before . He heard that he was just there for a pit stop until his escort came . The masked man was his escort and they were going to take him to Achea . Thus why I'm here . I've been here for three weeks now .

"For the first two weeks, I searched every nook and cranny of this town . But I still didn't find any traces of them . Then last week, I heard about a special auction that would be held on the eve of the Festival of Creation . My instinct tells me that the boy would be sold in the auction . So I wanted to go to Victoria City as soon as I could . "

Clay wanted to save the boy . That's the least thing he could do . Because if not for him, he would definitely be nothing but a corpse now . He owed him his life . So he would make sure he would save his .

The twins looked at each other, digesting everything that Clay said . The masked man he mentioned, that was definitely an Apostle . Which meant this boy Clay was talking about was of some importance to the Temple if an Apostle was sent to personally escort him .

"What makes you so sure that the boy would be at the auction?" Argent asked .

"Because he's an elf . "

Well, that answer was certainly something the twins didn't expect . Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www . webnovel . com for visiting .

"You mean an elf, elf?" Aurum asked, quite unbelieving .

"Yes, the one with the pointed ears . "

"An elf would certainly be a good finale in an auction . " But Argent doubted that the Pope would just sell a member of one of the mythical races at an auction . He probably needed him for something else . And it was most probably related to one of the sacred artifacts . "Okay . We'll bring you with us . I'll even help you save the elf . And as an added bonus, I'll also fund your crusade . "

Clay was surprised and a bit confused too when he heard what Argent said . "You will fund us?"

"Sure . I have a lot of extra money . If you're going to p.i.s.s off the Temple, then I'll be more than glad to help you," Argent said . "But I need something in return . "

Clay just knew there's a catch . "What is it?"

"I want you to tell me all the information you have on the artifact that your family was trying to protect . And when I said all, I mean everything . "

He became even more confused . Why did the artifact suddenly pop up in this conversation? But despite his confusion, he still considered everything seriously . He weighed all the pros and cons and finally arrived with a decision . "I understand . I'll tell you everything that I know . "

"Good . " Argent grinned . "Let's have a good cooperation once again . "