Edited by: dragonsam656
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At the break of dawn, a small party consisting of only four people took off to Brumbies of Solfia fief. The party didn't slow down to rest at any given time and hurried their way towards their destination. In order to not gain any unwanted attention, they took the most unused and untrodden route to the town.
Although the road was full of dangerous beasts the party did not encounter them. Thus, the journey which could have taken a day and a half was completed by the night. The inn they were staying in was just in the outer skirt of the town. It was a very shabby looking one but still provided good services and hospitality to the customers.
Lilian peeked out of the window to check whether someone was spying on them or not.
"The journey was unexpectedly peaceful!" Rodney exclaimed in surprise and joy as he leaned backward taking support on his hands on the bed.
"Obviously it was. Reind was sending out his bloodthirsty aura throughout the ride. I'm more surprised that the spies of the enemy didn't find us." Said Arnette tiredly.
"Hmm... It is a very rare occurrence but something really must have happened that he is so angry." Lilian frowned as he said this, thinking back at the second letter he saw Reind reading. The odd thing about this letter was it didn't have any seal on it. Usually, only those letters which have a seal on it is taken to Reind or Melinda. Any letter which doesn't have a seal is usually discarded or are either addressed to the working staff of the household. So seeing a letter with no seal on his hand Lilian felt that there is something amiss in this whole situation. And given the hastiness with which Reind has reacted to this whole situation he has felt some unsettling feeling towards the whole matter.
When Lilian was busy thinking, his thoughts were interrupted with a knock on the door. Alerted, he didn't reply when from the other side of the door came a very familiar voice. He rushed towards the door to open it. When he opened the door he saw Silas with an extra of three people with him. Lilian looking at the company he brought alongside him was left stunned.
He immediately kneeled and bowed his head when he regained his composure as he greeted, "Your Highness, I hope you are in good health."
"Ah... You don't need to kneel down or anything. Anyway, let us get in before anyone notices us," the man says with a troubled but gentle smile.
"Ah! I'm very sorry," Lilian stands up and steps sideways to allow them to enter. The young man enters the room first and then the others follow suit as they too get inside the room, Silas being the last one to enter.
Silas ruffles Lilian's hair in a dearly manner. "Are you ok now?"
"Hmm..." Lilian nods his head in reply with a gentle smile on his face.
"Ah! Why is Rylan-san here? Who is he? A squire? A rookie?" Asked Arnette in a surprised and intrigued manner while pointing at Xander.
Xander glared at Arnette as if annoyed by his behaviour after hearing his questions but was interrupted by Rylan as he fake coughed to get everyone's attention. "So, where is the General of the White Fang?" He asked as he looked around the room but failed to find Reind.
"Reind-san has gone out because of some important errand that suddenly came up," Arnette answered as he flopped down on the bed, tiredly.
"What do you mean some important errand? What could be more important than the mission that was assigned to him by the King himself, huh?!" Xander questioned in a manner which could be said to be similar to that of a delinquent. "Does he even know what responsibility means?" Xander continued to berate Reind. "I knew it, these knights from the border don't have any sense of responsibility," Xander said as he gave Arnette a look of disgust.
While Xander continued on his rant, Arnette who was sitting on the bed leisurely, with his eyes covered with hair and hard to see. "Hey, kid, just because you are new here doesn't mean you can keep on blabbering. If you speak one more word I'll make it so that you can never taste any food throughout your life," Arnette spoke in a spiteful but determined way as he approached Xander with his hands covered in a layer of fire as he threatened him. Arnette's eyes held a kind of craziness which made him seem like a deranged maniac. Lilian who was standing some steps away from him quickly took refuge behind Silas, trembling.
The sheer amount of bloodlust that was directed at Xander caused him to tremble and freeze on his place unable to speak, move or look up at Arnette. He felt an unimaginable amount of pressure on him which scared him more than the magical beast he had before. "S... sorry..." He admitted as he bit his lower lip in frustration.
"Arnette! Why are you scaring Rylan's apprentice?" Came a voice from the window as he quelled the situation within the room with pressure which made the room suffocating and ice cold. He eyes held strictness which ordered them all to put a stop on all that farce they were doing immediately.
"Oh ho... This is the third floor you know, Reind-san~" Spoke the boy who was standing at the side watching the whole show. "Well, never had I imagined that someday someone will appear who will challenge me on my sneaking through the window gig. I commend your coolness right now." The boy clapped as he walked up to Reind standing in front of him, neck to neck as if they were having an intense battle.
"So, I guess this guy who was spying on us is from your army of mice, your highness, Aylwin-sama?"
"Ah... you caught him already? Aldwin, how can you get caught so easily when you were so confident at the time when you were claiming he won't be able to get away from you this time," Aylwin pouted as he glared at him.
"Well, he is stronger than I thought. What can I do?" The captured youth said with a sigh.
"Heh... obviously I would be ok even if you come at me with your strongest attack because Melinda gave me a charm she made. She made this by herself. Ah! Melinda loves me so much!" He started to praise Melinda forgetting about the people around.
"Ah... that face of his makes me want to punch him to death. How can one say that he is the strongest swordsman after looking at that stupid face?!" Aylwin said with a tick mark appearing on his forehead because of irritation. He walked to the youth sitting on the ground with his hands bound and helped him up.
"He is a love-struck fool and a doting father at the end," the youth defended Reind as he got up with the help of Aylwin.
"Are you ok, Aldwin?" The youth just nods his head in reply with a smile on his face.
"But Reind-sensei, you have gotten stronger than the last time," he said as he cleans the dust off his clothes. "So, when will I get to meet your beloved sons and daughter?" Reind smiled a smile so shinny which blinded people around him.
"So, now if everyone had fooled around enough, can we move on to important topics?" Rylan interrupted the discussion with an irritating loud voice. "Reind, what is the plan? How are we gonna raid that place? Have you even thought about the plan?"
Reind's mouth tilted upwards as he began to speak, "Heh... well, about that..."
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Everyone was divided into four groups. The first group- Reind, Arnette and Xander, the second group- Rodney and Silas, third group- Rylan, Aylwin and Aldwin, and fourth group- Lilian; it was more of a one-man army than a group but it was essential for infiltrating the mansion's secret passage. If a huge amount of people entered the passage together, even if they're discreet, it may alert the enemies.
Rylan was hiding behind some bushes with him were Aylwin and Aldwin as they looked at Baesley (the name of the villa in which the Oletha's live btw. I know nobody cares.); the mansion looked quiet and peaceful from the outside, actually it looked way too quiet. Aldwin realizing that something was amiss decided to approach the mansion. Just when he was about to get out of the bushes, a stone was shot towards him, though he was able to avoid it with no efforts at all, it was still able to graze him. A line of blood appeared where the stone had scratched him and a drop of it fell down on the ground. He looked at the direction from which the stone was thrown at him and he found it was Arnette who had targeted him. His eyes held a warning telling him not to do anything unnecessary until Rylan orders it.
Xander, who was beside Arnette, felt a chill went down his spine as he looked at the man who was only two years older than him. Reind had left both of them together as he was hiding in another location. All of them had to command a troop of ten to twenty soldier. Although, Xander was a squire who was seen as the closest to the position of vice-commander he had never commanded a platoon before. He was always training alone and had never interacted with any of the soldiers, thus, a clear lack of leadership ability was one of his biggest shortcomings.
He looked at Arnette from corners of his eyes and sighed. He remembered what Rylan had said to him when Reind had divided the teams and he had protested. “Don't be a spoiled brat! Both of them may not be a part of the Imperial Knights but they are more powerful and have more experience than you. Learn from them and don't think just because you are a part of the Imperial Knights they are beneath you. If they get serious you won't even be able to touch a strand of their hair." He looked at him with a complicated expression then a flashback of Arnette threatening him appeared in his mind and he got cold feet because of that.
Arnette noticing Xander's gaze on himself turned to him and he, in a hurry, looked the other way around, fearing that he may agitate the guy.
The wait and the silence seemed to stretch till eternity as they waited for any movement or news regarding what was Lilian doing and when will they finally start attacking. The rustle of the bushes alerted Rylan as he swung his sword and covered Aylwin and Aldwin. Both the boys got in a defensive stance and were ready to draw their sword at any moment when they heard a familiar voice:
"Hey! You nearly injured me!" Reind exclaimed alarmed and scared from the sudden attack.
"Why are you sneaking around then?" He looked at him with a stern expression. The two youths beside him sighed in relief as looked at the two adults' interaction. But looking at the way they were interacting they had no way possible to interrupt them so they went back to hiding.
"I wanted to leave your boy and my boy alone to bond." He answered as he found a place near them and hid in the bushes alongside them. Rylan hearing Reind gave a weird look before sighing and hiding again.
"So, why is it taking so long?" Rylan asked Reind as he kept an eye on the villa.
"What is taking so long?" He looked at Rylan with a confused expression.
"The raid. He is talking about the main reason of why we are here," Aylwin answered without taking his eyes off the house.
"Well, there was something that Lilian wanted to make clear. He begged me to allow him to do what he wanted this once," he looked at the hidden passage to Baesley which Lilian had entered and continued. "This was the first he begged me and requested permission for a selfish wish. He is twenty now but he has been a grown-up for a long time now. I wanted to let him have this one selfish wish of his."
"Have this wish? Reind! Are you crazy? This mission is very important. How can you allow him to do such a thing? Everything aside, it may be very dangerous in there and he is all alone! Even Silas is not with him, what if he meets some danger?" Rylan looked at Reind with an angry but worrying look.
"You don't need to worry. He has someone with him in case he meets any unexpected danger that he can't deal with alone." Reind replied to Rylan without looking at his face.
"Uhm... All that is ok, but when do we get to the part of the mission where we 'raid' the Olethas?" Aylwin interrupted them as he raised his hands and asked a question.
"Oh that... When that guy makes the entrance." Reind answered as he relaxed lying down on the ground while keeping the lookout for both where Lilian was and the entrance of the Baesley.
'Who?' was the thing that the three guys in the spot thought simultaneously as they looked at Reind but didn't pursue answers as they knew they won't be getting any no matter how hard they try.
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(Inside the hidden passage)
Lillian walked carefully as he used a stone which was glowing a faint light just enough to light up the steps but not a large area. The stone he was using was made from the mana of those kids who had died in that cave from mana exhaustion. Although people usually use these stones to replenish one's mana during battle; but people who can't use magic or with little magic use these stones for their everyday use. The stone currently in possession of Lilian is very high grade, thus, he was able to adjust the kind of magic he wanted to use.
The hidden passage's layout was similar to that of a maze. If one was not careful they may never be able to see the sunlight ever again but for Lilian, it was different because on the other side of the entrance there were people waiting for him. After walking straight for quite some time he reached a blockage. In front of him were two split paths - right and left.
Without taking a lot of time he took the right path and continued walking. After walking quite a long distance he reached a place which seemed like a hall with a lot of paths and a seat in the middle of it. Lilian, with a confused look, walked around to find a path to the rooms in the villa when he heard a low laugh of a man. Alerted, he froze on the spot and looked around to find the place from where the sound of the laugh was coming but he couldn't find anyone.
Suddenly Lilian felt a great amount of pressure which made him kneel and then lie down as if someone was forcing him down and was sitting on top of his body.
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(Outside Baesley, hiding spot: Silas and Rodney)
"Hmm," Silas scrolled as he looked at the entrance of the passage.
"Silas! What is wrong? Why are you making that scary face?" Rodney asked, whispering.
"I cannot sense Lilian's presence. At all. There is something definitely wrong in there. I'll go and check," Silas was about to leave when Rodney grabbed his hand and pulled him back into the bushes. "What do you think you are doing?"
Silas looked at him with anger as he freed himself from his grip. His eyes narrowed down as anger started to take over him and his blue coloured eyes became ice cold. It gave off the feeling of extreme bloodthirst.
"Reind-sama, said that we can't..."
"I don't care what Reind said; I'm Lilian's familiar not Reind's. I don't care about the orders! My first priority is keeping Lilian safe." Silas interrupted Rodney before he could complete what he was going to say.
"But this mission is one that is very important to Lilian-san, isn't it? Please stay for his sake I do know that he volunteered to go there to fight alone but for as long as I have known Lilian-san I have never seen he more determined about anything more than this. So please complete this mission for his sake." Rodney pleaded for Silas to stay as he once grabbed one of the sleeves of Silas.
"You think I care about that?! As long as he can live even if I die or he hated me it's all ok. I just want him to live..." Silas retorted and once again freed himself but suddenly went silent as he looked towards nowhere in particular.
Rodney pursed his lips as he found it hard to say anything to Silas. Awkwardness was in the air and the two men didn't know how to deal with it but just then a small eagle flew out of the bushes signaling the start of the mission.
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(Inside the hidden passage)
Just when he was about to pass out, somebody held his back by the collar and pulled him up. When the pressure subsided and Lilian came back to his senses he realized someone was standing beside him still holding his collar. Lilian turned his head to see who was the person holding his collar and found The Assassin from Hell standing beside him. "Belzebub?! What are you doing here?" Lilian asked in a low confused voice as he was shocked to the core.
"How can you fall for this kind of illusion when you can assimilate with a dark nymph?" Belzebub replied to Lilian with a question then he pointed towards the seat in the middle of the hall and said, "And you, who are you?" Lilian turned his head towards the seat as he realized that there was one more present in that hall other than themselves.
"Silvester?! Why are you here?! I thought you were dead!" Lilian exclaimed in horror and shock.
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(Hey guys!! Guess it's a double update. It feels so good to be out of that room studying for exams. And now that exams are over writing would be faster I guess. I still have to catch up with a lot of mangas, anime, and novels myself. I'll try to update the story faster.
Thank you for reading this book. I hope you enjoyed it.)