Many days past and there was still no sign of Lea coming back to Izaya's mansion. Her classmates were growing anxious by day. They felt it was unusual for Lea not to say anything to them before leaving them behind, but they also understood that Lea could definitely do just that.
What was even more surprising to them was the presence of Hamsphant in the courtyard. The poor beast had been clearly depressed over Lea's long-term absence and it was nearing its breaking point. It had stopped eating and paying attention to most events going around its surroundings.
Eventually, the beast might decide to run away somewhere else without giving them any sign as well.
On the contrary to the three classmates Lea left behind, Imhe had been very cheerful with her conquest. She had found one of the superior guys that was a member of the Chlad higher council. A son of the member and was considered a high official.
She befriended him and they had been meeting one another quite often. And as the side, she also tried not to neglect Izaya. But Izaya knew better than to simply be lured by Imhe's approaches. He had learnt to hide behind Bright or Ulla in certain occasions when Imhe would strongly force him to do something with her.
"I feel so bad for you, mah friend. But it's okay. I shall protect chuu!" As Bright declared, he landed a kiss on Izaya's cheek. The latter felt a strong urge to kill himself.
"Geez Bright. You are gonna end up killing Izaya in this lifetime if you don't behave yourself." Ulla chided.
"You don't even care. You've only been friends with books since you started living here! Even more so since Lea left...." He retorted, hitting his own foot.
Bright had not been feeling that well either ever since Lea left, and never came back since. But in return, he focused most of his time in his training, which had been steadily giving him obvious results.
Worse of the three was Raize. It was fine when it was only a week after Lea left, but after that first week, Raize had started acting strange. Aside from reverting back to his indifferent personality, he had also started locking himself in his room researching something that nobody seemed to know.
Imhe was totally creep out. She would avoid Raize like plague despite his good looks.
Although they were all affected by Lea's unannounced departure, they continued to live their every day life in Izaya's mansion like usual.
The aftermath of Lea's soldier kidnapping caused the capital into a haywire. And pictures of Lea's beautiful face were posted all over the place, eventually it would spread to other nations. The Izaya household remained quiet over the matter despite having the incident occur in their courtyard.
As a side note, Raize stole one of the posters and brought it into his room. Bright saw everything happened himself. He told Ulla, and she had asked Bright to keep his mouth shut over the matter. And so he obeyed.
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The situation in Mingzhe Dei had gone from bad to worse.
The division between the Emperor and the Prince factions grew worse in time. Despite how skillful and wise the Prince's actions were, there were always a leeway for the other faction to manipulate against them. The consequences weren't to the point of irreparable, but the consecutive deflects to his plans were slowing down his progress considerably.
He had suspected they were caused by the organization working in the shadows that Lea had mentioned once. So he had tried to pry the people involved only to return with a dead body every single time. He was amazed, but he couldn't afford to remain at awe and idle.
Most citizens were in the Prince Faction, while most of the rich were part of the Emperor Faction.
Unbeknownst to him, the person who had been deflecting his moves was none other than Lea herself.
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"Our mission this time is to retrieve the Accounting Records that the Prince Faction gathered. Our objective is to prevent them from using the records against the Emperor Faction effectively. We have 3 days to act." Reported Seth as he and Lea were meeting in secret.
"Got it. Prepare a false report in replacement, then report back to me." Replied Lea as she continued to observe out the window of the inn they were in.
The two of them had joined the Shadows Organization that Seth was working with. After passing a simple examination of power and smarts by completing a stealth mission, Lea was immediately able to join their ranks without questions asked in addition to Seth's reputation.
To her order, Seth nodded respectfully. "Understood."
He had become a great assistant to Lea as she practiced her way through the many ropes in their underground society. Apparently, Shadows Organization was just one of the many.
She had to protect Oliver in the darkness by deflecting some of his plans from turning a success to keep the two factions going. Sometimes she would stare out the window only to see the faces of her classmates. She missed them, but she chose to work alone after meeting Seth.
Even if she remained with her classmates, the war would still steadily come about if nothing was done with the sneaking plans devised by the different underground societies. With Seth's help, she found out plenty. But there was still more to gather. Besides, she had thought with the heroine around, the plot would continue as it should. Her classmates would be safe with Izaya and the heroine around.
She found out that the Emperor was completely innocent and totally unawares about any secret organizations working against him. She had a gist that the secret societies' intention was to bring Ingrid to an all-out war. And that was only possible if all current rulers in each nation remained intact.
"Easy to manipulate huh..." She whispered to herself.
Things were progressing too fast on her end, and she was starting to get worried that she might fail to completely stop the Shadows Organization from harming Mingzhe Dei as a result of their many operations.
She could clearly see abandoned children being sent off overseas, while the poorer families were sent off to be farmers in rural, more deserted, areas. Savagery at their finest, but she could only observe, for now.
The citizens rallied so many times for the Emperor to see, but he continued to ignore their pleas. Lea felt pity over the crumbling Mingzhe Dei, and she hoped everything would end on a good note soon. And she would do her utmost to achieve just that.
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When night came, Lea expected Seth to arrive with the false documents and ready to depart for their new mission.
And just as she thought that, he came in through the window.
With a smile, he greeted Lea amiably. "I've come back, Lea."
She smiled back at him. "Good as ever."
Obvious word praises were not Lea's method, but Seth just knew when Lea was pleased with his work. And when she did, he would feel very proud of himself and feel even more motivated to serve under her.
Despite Lea's rarely changed face, Seth knew he could trust his life in her hands. And she in his'. They understood one another through simple gestures such as how they looked at one another or how they smiled to one another.
The fox remained dutiful at following Lea about. He might be the most skilled at sneaking around out of the two since he had never been caught during their missions even once. Although its attitude towards Seth was just as terrible as ever.
Offering his hand to Lea, Seth made a curt bow.
"....." She accepted his hand in silence. She was used to Seth's antics by now as they have been together almost 24/7 since they left Chlad.
She had learnt that Seth was a pure gentleman when given enough time for the young boy to warm up. Lea reasoned that Seth's manners must have stemmed from his Assassination training. Her speculation was not far off.
"Leaving at 5 before 2'o clock in the night would be most appropriate to sneak in Marquis Yvenn's mansion." Suggested Seth as he helped Lea stand up from her seat.
"Agreed." She observed the night sky one last time before leaving the room with Seth behind her.
In the cover of the night, two young shadows could vaguely be seen moving about from one roof to another, while from time to time, they would be sneaking deep in alleyways only to appear in some street right after.
Another hour and they successfully arrived at their destination. Lea had planned to sneak through the backdoor of the mansion using her picklocking skills. Seth was amazed at first when he first found out such a skill existed, but Lea later taught him how and now he is also capable of opening certain locks. And for that, he would always bring chaining pins.
Successfully unlocking the backdoor, the two sneaked into the darkness of the mansion's kitchen.
"3rd floor, 2nd room." Whispered Seth into Lea's ear.
She nodded her head in assent and continued to walk slowly and silently up the stairs.
She would apply enough essences on the ground to stop any sound from being made with her weight. The precaution was necessary as the flooring was made of wood.
They had reached the 2nd floor when a light in one of the rooms was suddenly lit. And whispers could be heard.