The next day…
"He did what!?"
The mistress was trying hard not to lash out, but after hearing the things Lashken said to her it was really tough not to allow her anger to get the better of her. She had sent Lashken to congratulate Ashton on getting his first class, but according to Lashken, Ashton immediately started berating him.
In his words he took all the insults Ashton threw at him, but when he started disrespecting her, he attacked Ashton and as a result got banned from ever entering the capital again.
Obviously, everything he said was a lie. The mistress had already informed him not to trigger Ashton. But Lashken intended to show off his worth by defeating her precious pawn. He did exactly the things mistress told him not to but he could not tell her that, so he decided it was best to manipulate the story in his favour.
"He berated me?" The mistress asked Lashken in a serious tone, "He, who did not ever lash out no matter what I did to him, berated me?"
"Y-Yes, Mistress-"
"You seriously expect me to believe that?"
"I… I only speak-"
Before Lashken could complete his sentence, the mistress snapped her fingers and the next moment he was on the ground withering in pain. He was desperately clinging on to the collar the mistress had forced him to wear prior to the meeting.
Although it looked nothing extraordinary, it was a restraining device in all sense of the word. After Donovan and Disha betrayed her, she was forced to see the wrong in her ways and immediately decided to correct them so that no one would be able to betray her again.
The collar was an electrocuting device that the mistress could control with her gestures. Since the collar Lashken was wearing was only the first prototype, the mistress decided to test it first-hand.
"I wanted Ashton to be the one to get the honours of being tested on," She mumbled while Lashken kept crying out in pain, "but since he got taken away from me before I could use this, I guess you should do just fine. After all, you're both mutts."
She expected Lashken to respond to him but the pain was too much for him to do anything but scream. After what seemed like an eternity, the mistress snapped her fingers once again. Although Lashken was free from the pain, he was still hurting even though his body was completely numb.
"Get up." The mistress walked up to him and kicked him over, "and this time, tell the truth. If you don't, then you already know what's going to happen to you the next time."
Lashken's face was drenched with tears and sweat but he somehow managed to get back to his knees. He wanted to speak but no words came out of his mouth. It seemed the collar still had some issues but the mistress couldn't care less about it.
She wanted to know what this fcker had done to anger Ashton to the point where he handed Lashken over to the guards. Lashken kept trying to explain, but the darn collar kept getting tighter and tighter around his neck.
Soon the low ranking creationist who brought the prototype collar for the mistress to examine realised what the fault was and informed the mistress about it. It goes without saying, the mistress was a bit annoyed and ordered the man to take off Lashken's collar.
"Go back and fix the fcking collar or I'll send someone to fix your entire department up!" The mistress yelled and anger completely consumed her, "Looks like we'll have to do this the old way then."
***
A week passed since Ashton received his first class. By this time his team had finally assembled in front of the guildhall to take on their first mission together as a team. In the last week, Ashton and Seven had done nothing but clear quests.
Well, Ashtin did all the work while Seven only intervened when things got a bit overwhelming for his 'lord'. That's right when Jonathan got the good news of Ashton getting his first class and what the class was he only saw it fit to reward Ashton.
What was that reward? Let's just say Ashton was a couple of promotions away from being considered nobility. He was no longer an ordinary citizen in Lycania but a Baronet. Although the title meant that his powers were above that of the usual knights, he only had one knight under him. That was Seven and hence the knight now referred to Ashton as 'lord'.
Although Ashton did not like when he did that and often instructed Seven to call him by his name when they were on a quest or something. Ignoring all that mess, Ashton along with his teammates headed inside the guildhall.
Most of the people who were standing near the blue board immediately stepped aside as soon as they saw Ashton. It had only been a bit over a week since this kid became a Bronze-A ranked adventurer, but now he was only on dungeon clear away to being promoted into Silver rankings.
"Woah… I never thought I would ever get to be inside the guild!" Baiter exclaimed and immediately went down to his knees and started kissing the ground as if it was a holy place from him.
Although Ashton was calm, Baiter's behaviour prompted him to kick his butt and that's exactly what Ashton did.
"I know it's your first dungeon trip but get a grip over yourself!" Virgil immediately criticised Baiter when he saw Ashton taking the initiative, "Your name is already humiliating enough for the girls, at least show some decency through your actions."
"Oi! What's wrong with Master Baiter!? It's a good name!" Baiter countered and punched his metallic fists together, "Wanna get a piece of these?"
"What have I done…" Ashton mumbled and shook his head.
"Only God knows the answer to that question, my lord." Seven Shrugged his shoulders, "Don't worry, I'll put them in their places. Till then, why don't you go ahead and select a quest?"
Ashton nodded and left, but not before smacking both of them at the back of their heads.