Volume 16 Chapter 38: Procurement

A few days later, Keith and his brothers stood outside the mansion. However, they were not in their usual casual attire; each one wore their own combat gear. Despite how geared up they were, their relaxed body language showed their composure.

Eric glanced behind him, “Is everyone prepared?”

“Yes!” The knights were positioned behind the quartet: they all came together today to retrieve the objects that Orin presented to Keith. Keith turned to them, “Sorry about the trouble, everyone.” A long sigh escaped his mouth: the number of items was vast, and some were even difficult to procure.

“Have fun, you guys!” Michael waved with a radiant smile.

And this was half his fault as well! Orin and Douglas finished the list of materials and were about to hand it to Keith, but it was intercepted by Michael! What made it worse was Michael adding extra items.

“It’s fine.”

“It’s for the commander’s wedding.”

The knights didn’t mind. They were doing this for a good cause. However,

“While you guys go have fun, I’m going out on a date with my Sarah!”

“...” The knights turned pitch black. Can we take back what we said? Have fun? How are we having fun when we’re getting the materials for your wedding?

“I’ll tell Sarah about it.” Keith gritted his teeth. That woman would put his cocky attitude in place.

Eric ignored Michael’s rant, “Now, onwards.”

​Everyone would split up into small groups to get the materials efficiently. Keith and his brother were in one group as they entered the gates and into another territory.

“Keith, you have a powerful horse,” Alvin muttered.

“Knight is an amazing horse.” Keith stroked the war horse’s mane; the horse let out a purr in happiness.

“It’s rare for a warhorse to be tamed.” Alvin’s eyes glimmered with a strange light. The gaze of a researcher: he wanted to have more knowledge about it.

“What is the matter with you?” Eric’s focus was on Derek, who was strangely happy. It was unusual, since he was the chatty one.

Derek muttered, “It’s been quite a long time since our brothers went out alone.”

“Really?” Keith and Alvin tilted their heads.

Derek snorted, “You guys just have not noticed because of your work. Eric, you stay beside the old man. Alvin is focused on his research while our youngest is attending the academy.” With the three, their focus differed from one another and never stayed in one place despite living in the same home.

“There’s literally no time when the four of us are together.”

“…” The three brothers looked at one another and nodded. Yeah, it had been some time since anything had happened.

Alvin added, “Then we can spend some more time together as the four of us at this moment.”

“…” Huh? I don’t like where this is going…

“We’ll tell Laura and Leon about this.” Eric grinned, “We’ll tell them their big brother Derek wants to hang out with his older brothers.”

“Don’t!” Derek wanted to cry! These little foxes! If they said this, he knew the little ones would keep away from him for weeks.

Keith shook his head. Blame yourself for saying it. Derek seemed to have forgotten, but the two would always tease him. It was supposed to be Keith—he was the youngest, but the latter was mature, so they really couldn’t.

This would then go to the second youngest of the four, Derek. He had the best reaction.

“That is what you wanted, did you not?” Alvin insisted.

“I didn’t say it like that!” Keith and Eric laughed. It was a nice pace going forward.

“Which dungeon are we going to?”

“It is a C-rank dungeon. We’ll need to gather a load of marble and garnet.” It was to create columns for the venue: the marble was originally the only item on the list, but Michael added garnet as he thought it was a good color to have.

“Then we need to search for the marble golem,” Alvin answered, “Their bodies are composed of the highest quality of marble.”

Keith grumbled, “Understood. Let’s get to work.”

Derek sighed, “We’re always the ones getting in trouble because of Michael.” The horses picked up the pace as they arrived at the dungeon; Knight and the other horses rested on the side while they entered the dungeon. The group had an air of confidence as they walked. They were unfazed by the dangers of the dungeon. Eric took point with Keith and Derek at the sides and Alvin in the back line. As they walked, Eric raised his hand, “Golem at our seven.”

“Understood.” The three raised their weapons as they walked forward toward the golem.

Derek whistled, “Wow, our luck is amazing; marble golems on the first try.” The golems before them were a dark white with black specks around their bodies; they had a beautiful luster.

“Do you think that’s enough?” Before Derek’s question could be answered, golems surrounded them from all sides!

“You had to say something.” Eric rolled his eyes as he raised his blade up, “Smash the regular golems however you want, but be careful with the marble ones. We need them whole.”

“Go!” Dashing into the center of the horde was Eric. His heavy sword swished through the air, slicing all the golems in half. Keith waved his halberd at the back to deal with the rock golems. Derek was the skirmisher, as he was the fastest of the four, cutting down the golems with precision. While the three fought, that was when they heard a chant.

“Wait—” Eri called out, but it was too late as a flame sphere flew up into the sky and rained down on all the golems!

“What are you doing?!” Eric roared!

“What?!”

“We’re supposed to bring it back home!” The marble was required for the venue, but now it was unusable!

“…”

Derek held his head, ”Now we need to search for more. Brother, you just made it worse.”

“There, there.” Keith patted Alvin’s back, “We just need to search more.”