Rothester

Petrus peeks around the corner in horror with two of his colleagues. The moon shines dimly in the night sky, but he can still see the carnage. Never in his life did he expect anything like this to happen. He has spent the past six years as an agent for the Tabellarii, Venesia’s foreign intelligence agency and one of the most infamous organizations in the world. Butting heads with the best of the other Great Powers, he thought there wasn’t anything that could scare him. But this, this is something else.

A few moments ago, they responded to a commotion in one of their safehouses, where the target was supposed to be lured in. Fearing failure of the target’s kill or capture, they sent three dozen mercenaries to reinforce the agents inside to ensure success. Then someone appeared—someone whose identity he isn’t sure of. A murderous blonde woman attacked the mercenaries, leaving the safehouse with a large gaping hole where the front door once was.

The threat was clear. She was a mage likely sent by a rival country. Despite this, he is familiar with the tactics of foreign spies and assassins resulting from years of experience. There wasn’t anyone who could get the upper hand over them. But if that’s true, then who are these newcomers?

The target is already gone, along with the female mage. Petrus saw them disappear into the dark alleys, but the mercenaries they hired to do their dirty work are still getting slaughtered. A barrage of flashing lights and a constant strange sound akin to gunshots fill the air. Petrus is hearing the work of modern suppressors, but he’s entirely oblivious to it. All he sees are flashes and streaks of light, cutting down the mercenaries, who have spread out across the street. It would otherwise look like a fireworks display if it weren’t for the death it causes. Whatever never-before-seen firepower this is, it’s coming from down the street. He can not clearly see the enemy.

Despite giving the mercenaries firearms, they are entirely ineffective. They fire wildly while the enemy fires at an impossible rate, with higher accuracy.

Some of the mercenaries throw down their firearms to take out their own edged and blunt weapons. They charge down the street with swords in their hands but never make it past a few steps. Petrus is paralyzed with confusion and fear, but most of all, anger. He needs to do something.

“Herod! Maris! Let them die! We must leave this battle!”

The three Tabellarii agents watching the massacre unfold come back to their senses and realize that this mysterious enemy is too powerful. Whoever they are, they will get theirs. Right now, they must assume their colleagues in charge of the target are already dead. The target has escaped. They must fall back and report to their superiors, who wait a few blocks away.

Meanwhile, amid battle, Eleanor watches in absolute shock. She’s tightly clutching her flintlock pistol, unsure of what to do. Her eyes are wide open, unable to look away from the fire and sparks spewing out in front of Matt and Jax’s weapons. HK416, they call it. The muzzle flashes are bright enough to illuminate their faces and bodies in the night briefly. Despite having already witnessed Ken’s Glock 19, she is unable to comprehend how these weapons exist. No advanced weaponry Ravenia has developed can come close to this, not even the experimental magic repeaters.

Their firearms seem to fire projectiles under the same principle as her flintlock, but everything else is different. They can fire with each pull of the trigger without needing to reload. The strange tube at the end of the barrel seems to mitigate the sound of gunshots, making the noise barely tolerable. Peculiar small brass-colored objects are continually ejected from the side of their firearms.

Another peculiarity is how they aim. Despite some of their shots missing because the area is illuminated only by the moon, they are remarkably accurate. They vehemently stare through small square objects attached to their weapons, and she can briefly see a red dot floating inside the object as she stands behind Matt.

Everything Eleanor previously knew about Ringleader comes into question. Her view of the new world invasions also comes into doubt. If warriors of the new world have access to these weapons, then the mighty Venesian Empire may have crossed paths with a foe they may not defeat. However, that thought is outrageous. Venesia has always been dominant; it’s impossible to imagine another nation challenging them. Surely, Ringleader must be an exception. They are elite warriors. Therefore only they have access to such advanced weapons.

Matt pulls back from firing around the corner and faces Eleanor. He leans on the door next to him, smoothly takes out a small box from under his weapon, and reaches inside his cloak.

“You all right?” Matt asks without any visible concern. Eleanor can’t help but notice how strikingly calm he is, despite causing so much death. She simply nods her head without a word, her mouth slightly open from observing their firepower.

Matt seems to take out the same box again from under his cloak and quickly inserts it back under the weapon. He pulls on his weapon’s charging handle, and it makes a distinct sound of metal parts sliding on other metal parts.

Is it all made of metal? Eleanor notices the weapon has no wooden components and wonders if it’s made entirely of iron and steel. How does it work? All firearms she has ever seen use matchlock or flintlock mechanisms. Muskets are long, heavy, and challenging to make in large quantities, so wood is always used. A firearm made of nothing but metal would be incredibly heavy, but neither Matt nor Jax seem to show any signs of fatigue. They make quick and effortless movements as they aim, moving their weapons along with their head.

The street is a blood bath. Dozens of bodies lay in pools of blood. Swords, daggers, and flintlocks are scattered all over, the stone roads are stained, and any remaining mercenaries are hiding, trying to find an opportunity to escape these merciless demons. None can be seen out in the open; the battle is nearing its end.

“Jax! Advance!” Matt orders.

Both operators step out from the stone archways where few lead shots hit and walk forward, never lowering their rifles.

“Eleanor, on me.”

“On what?”

“Follow, stay close.”

Eleanor follows behind Matt. Her hands tremble as she has never been in such a battle. Even as a Raven, she hasn’t much experience or training. She isn’t meant to. The Ravenian Security Service emphasizes that most of their Ravens discreetly collect information. Few Ravens are specialized in combat or trained for assassination. Only mages get priority for extra training. As a woman, the little training she gets is purely for self-defense.

Women usually excel in espionage since they can more easily seduce or distract a target, but they also face the threat of sexism and the abuse that comes with it. Eleanor can take down any hotshot who wants to impress her or any drunkard who tries to molest her, but a battle like this is far outside her capabilities.

All Eleanor can do is rely on these foreign spies, if that’s even what they are. She glances around the street, hoping that the noise they are causing doesn’t attract too much attention. She is wrong. She can see people peeking through second-floor windows. All across the street, people have been observing the battle take place. Curtains are quickly shut as Eleanor’s eyes meet with the city denizens who fear the conflict occurring on their street.

More semi-automatic gunshots sound from Matt and Jax. As they get closer, the remaining mercenaries are gunned down. Some plead to be spared, others attempt to lunge at them, but the sound of brass casings hitting the ground follows every time.

“Wait! Don’t kill me! I yield,” a mercenary cries from behind the destroyed wall of the safehouse as Matt comes closer.

“Come out,” Matt orders.

The mercenary slowly walks out from cover with his hands up, and Eleanor says, “We should ask him about—”

With a bright flash and a pop, a bullet tears into the mercenary’s head. Eleanor jumps from the sudden gunshot, and she watches the body fall.

“W-why?” she asks, perplexed by Matt’s action.

Matt lowers his rifle and says, “He wouldn’t be honest.”

“Area’s clear. No sign of Kai,” Jax says as he jogs from across the street.

“No sign of the blonde from the academy either, any clue who she was?”

“No idea, but we made much noise.”

The street is tranquil. Small movements are noticed from window curtains. They have limited time before city officials come to investigate.

“We should check the building. Maybe we can find something,” Eleanor suggests.

The three of them enter the half-destroyed building. Matt reaches under his cloak and takes out a small flashlight to illuminate the room. The bright light startles Eleanor. Yet again, Ringleader surprises her.

“What is that? Some kind of magic lantern?” she asks.

“A flashlight. No magic involved.”

“Of course,” she mutters.

“Look,” Jax says as he illuminates the floor.

Charred debris and body parts lay scattered. A layer of dust sits on top of everything, and they see a few pools of blood. Bright red as the flashlight moves over it.

“How horrible,” Eleanor mutters.

As they walk through the destroyed living room, Matt notices something striking. Among the corpses, two of them are noticeably smaller. As he comes nearer, he realizes who they are.

“Ah, shit…”

“What is it—oh,” Jax says as he sees what Matt sees.

As the most senior and experienced members of Ringleader, Matt and Jax had clearance to read Ken’s file before crossing the portal. They are familiar with his background and past deployments. Even having seen combat before, Ken developed PTSD in 2015, a year before coming to Adon, while battling the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels after an informant was brutally executed. The informant was only fourteen years old, and Ken carried the guilt of recruiting and using him. Reportedly, Ken grew close to the kid and his mother, interacting with them daily for several months. Despite the operation helping to find and arrest the Los Zetas successor known as Z-42, Ken became enraged and adopted the cartel’s brutality to dish out retribution. He was merciless from that point onward. He tortured, executed, and even continued to recruit more informants knowing they would eventually be killed. So long as it meant destroying the Los Zetas cartel, he no longer cared what he had to do.

Interestingly, Ken wasn’t supposed to lead Ringleader, nor did some think he should participate at all. Given that Matt was formerly a Delta operator, he was picked to lead the operation. If it wasn’t Matt, Jax was the second choice as he was an experienced Ranger. Both refused the position after learning about Ken. They sympathized with him, so they insisted that Ken lead Ringleader to get his mind off of his past.

“What have you found?” Eleanor approaches from behind Matt and Jax before laying her eyes on the corpses of two teenagers. She inhales from surprise and says, “Heavens… These are slaves. What happened here?”

“Kai was here. We must have just missed him.”

“We don’t know if Kai killed them. How common is it to kill slaves?” Jax asks Eleanor.

“I’m not too sure. Ravenia outlawed the practice. I hear it’s quite common, but do you suggest Ken did this?” Eleanor curiously asks.

“He’s had some bad experiences. This would be something he could have done.”

“I never knew…”

“So, who do you think these people are?” Matt asks.

Eleanor looks around and examines the other corpses. She can confirm that most are mercenaries while a few are not. Those that are not, she deduces, are Tabellarii agents. No one else would bring a cache of firearms in an underdeveloped kingdom.

“This has to be a Tabellarii safehouse,” she says.

“I thought so. I’ll head upstairs and look around. You and Jax look around and keep watch.”

Matt leaves Eleanor and Jax alone while he climbs up the stairs.

Jax and Eleanor continue to look around the first floor. So far, it all looks like there’s nothing useful, but Jax notices blood coming through an open door.

“Look over there.” He points.

“Perhaps another mercenary.”

The two of them enter the kitchen and are shocked to see the corpse of a young woman with green hair—Lana. Sitting on the floor and leaning up against the counter, she’s wearing dark clothes, and she oozes blood from bullet wounds in her abdomen.

“Oh shit,” mutters Jax. He looks down and picks up empty casings of 9mm rounds. “This was definitely Kai, but who the hell is this?”

Eleanor approaches Lana and crouches to examine her. She hasn’t seen many assassins but can recognize one when she sees one.

“She’s an assassin, definitely from the Tabellarii.”

“I suppose it’s relieving to know assassins can’t take him down,” Jax says.

“She’s also a mage. It’s incredible. Not many people can say they encounter a Tabellarii assassin and survive.”

Meanwhile, upstairs, Matt is rummaging through the belongings of the deceased. It’s mostly just random documents and items. However, he eventually finds something interesting. On a table next to folded colorful robes of some kind, he finds a golden token. It’s inscribed with the words ‘Sorrest Academy of Magic Arts’ on one side and ‘Lana’ on the other. He takes the token. Maybe it will be useful somehow.

Scanning elsewhere, Matt opens up a few drawers and finds more documents and papers. Just as he was about to leave, one sheet of paper caught his eye. Taking out the contents of the drawer, he finds a crude map of the Kingdom.

Matt takes a closer look at the map and finds the letter X is marked in several places. The strange thing is that the marked locations look arbitrary. Few are in cities, while most are randomly dotted across the kingdom. It’s probably important. It’s a Tabellarii safehouse, after all. There was bound to be invaluable information.

.

.

A few blocks away, Petrus, Herod, and Maris, the three Tabellarii agents who fled the battle, discuss inside an undisclosed building with their superior, a man in his late twenties. Candles provide little light in the dark room, but all agents can see the grim face of their superior.

Furious that Ken’s capture is a failure, Tabellarii Officer Aurelio Vulso vents his frustration. He runs his fingers through his black hair before raising his voice.

“This is an embarrassment to our name! You dare tell me an unknown enemy laid waste to three dozen mercenaries?! Useless! What of our assassin, Lana?”

“We don’t know, sir, but we are sure we saw a rival assassin in the battle. She was a mage as well. Perhaps Lana met her match.”

“Curses! It must be either Ravenia or Nanatia’s interference. And for our assassin to fail as well? Disgraceful! Months of work to infiltrate the academy is now wasted!”

It’s clear to everyone that Officer Vulso is in a bad mood. He has never felt so humiliated in his entire career. How could Ken Kai have escaped their grasp once again? Thinking they could lure, trick, and capture him alive was a mistake. He should have ordered Lana to assassinate him when they heard Countess Maida Thorne rescued him after the initial ambush.

On the topic of Lana, she was the only Tabellarii mage assassin in the kingdom. Her original mission was simply to infiltrate and monitor the Scorrest Academy. Since mages naturally posed a more significant threat than foot soldiers, the Tabellarii wanted to ensure the Scorrest Academy didn’t plant anti-Venesian sentiments in its students. Her assistance against Ken was only requested when they found out he survived the ambush.

Now that their only infiltrator is likely dead, Officer Vulso has two failed operations in his hands. It’s a damning situation that may end in being labeled incompetent and recalled to the empire to be reprimanded and dismissed from the Tabellarii.

Fuming, Vulso rubs his eyes in frustration. As much as he wants to lash out at his subordinates, he must remain calm.

“Officer Vulso!”

Panting and out of breath, another agent enters through the door.

“What is it now?” Vulso growls.

“Sir. Some of our men in the city outskirts claim they saw someone matching the target’s description leaving the city.”

“They did? Where?” Vulso asks desperately.

“Northeast, sir. A dozen mercenaries went after him.”

“Nay, that won’t work. Blasted blighter. He’s too dangerous; those mercenaries aren’t likely to survive. Not with a rival assassin on the loose. What are our current numbers?”

“Ten agents, but we’re scattered. We have twenty-four mercenaries on contract, but half already went after the target.”

“Not enough. Nowhere near it.” Vulso punches the wall in anger, and a drop of blood runs down his knuckle. “Curse them! This operation is a failure!”

Vulso debates his options, not that he has any. He never expected interference from other factions. If the blonde woman and the newcomers are from rival agencies or even from Ardai Industries themselves, then the assassination attempt has to be abandoned. A new strategy would have to be developed in the future. The Tabellarii has failed, which is something he never thought would happen.

“Lana, two agents, and three dozen mercenaries… killed by four people. How can that be possible?” Vulso questions himself. “Petrus, Harod, Maris,” Vulso says and turns to the three agents, “make way to the STC offices. Inform them of what happened and request their men to clean up the battle site before the city guards or the Crown’s Guard realize what happened. It will be troublesome if King Carl learns that the Tabellarii are here.”

“Right away, sir!”

The three agents promptly exit the house and disappear into the night. Everyone can feel the pressure that has been unleashed on them. They will be forced to admit to their headquarters and the STC that they failed to kill Ken Kai and that assassination may no longer work.

.

.

Running through the dark on the empty sidewalk of the street is Petrus and the other two Tabellarii agents. They must reach the STC offices and inform them of what happened. The image of streaks of light cutting down the mercenaries continues to play in their minds, and they fear who the new enemy could be. None of the other Great Powers should be capable of such a feat.

Suddenly, Petrus sees the agent running in front get struck by an arrow piercing through his neck. Petrus stops; his eyes are wide, staring at his colleague falling to the ground.

From across the street, a dark figure emerges under the dim moonlight. Cloaked in all black clothes, the only distinguishable thing is the bow in his hands. The figure draws the bowstring once more and releases another arrow, piercing through Petrus’ leg before he can react.

Petrus falls in pain, hollering while holding his leg as his mind scrambles to figure out who they are. From behind him, he can hear the unmistakable sound of blades penetrating through skin and clothes. He turns around to see the other agent stumble onto his hands and knees. Multiple tiny daggers stick out from the agent’s back and leg, thrown from another threat. Behind the agent, another hooded figure approaches.

“Curse you!” Petrus yells at the approaching figure, whom he notices has a short and distinguishably feminine silhouette.

The figure holds a peculiarly small shark tooth dagger in their hand and viciously thrusts downward into the agent’s neck. His body falls limb as the strange blade pierces and cuts through the cervical spine.

“W-who are you?” Petrus mutters with fear. As much as he wants to run away, he can’t. Not with an arrow halfway through his leg.

The figure lifts their head to reveal a very young feminine face. Her eyes look droopy; her top eyelids rest just above her pupils and make her face look dead and cold. She also has a strange choice for makeup; a blood-red face paint design surrounds her eyes and extends down to her cheeks.

The archer from across the street approaches and stands alongside the young woman. In contrast to the woman, the archer is male, but he shares the same dead and cold face.

“Who are you?!” Petrus repeats.

Neither responds. Instead, the archer kicks him across the face.

.

.

Back in the destroyed Tabellarii safehouse, Matt, Jax, and Eleanor were just about to leave with all the information they collected until they spotted a group of people approaching from both sides of the street. The trio can not leave without confronting them, so they retreat back inside the safehouse. However, the people coming are not the mercenary reinforcements they expected. They all wear identical heavy armor. Polished and clean, they are definitively bad news for the trio.

“No, no, no, we took too long,” Eleanor says in a slight panic. “And those are not mercenaries; they are knights!”

“Then we’re fucked. Unless we shoot our way out.”

“We can’t,” Eleanor emphasizes. “Most knights use magic in some form or another. And killing a knight will make us outlaws. We have to try to reason with them.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

“Listen up!” A stern voice emanates from outside. “We know you’re in there. Come out peacefully and explain yourselves! Otherwise, we’ll force you out!”

“Please, we can’t kill knights. It will bring too much attention,” Eleanor repeats. “We have to try and talk our way out.”

Matt sighs and says, “Fine. We’ll see what they want.”

Matt and Jax lower their rifles and try to hide them under their cloaks. Eleanor does the same with her flintlock.

Stepping on rubble as they walk out of the darkness, the trio slowly reveals themselves to the surrounding knights. They have yet to draw their swords and only hold a shield in front of them. There is also an Ardai A1 Coach nearby with a knight standing guard beside the door. Corpses are still scattered.

“Identify yourselves!” the lead knight orders. He’s the only one without a helmet.

“Shit, what do we say?”

“Anything.”

“My name’s Matt,” he finally announces. “We are travelers. Sorry to say we know nothing of what’s going on. Can you enlighten us?”

The knight says nothing and examines the trio as if analyzing their threat level. He turns his head and nods to the knight in the distance who guards the coach.

The knight knocks on the door, and the trio watches as the coach door opens and a beautiful middle-aged woman exits the coach. She wears a slim dress, unusual for women of these times, and a fur coat over it. Her chestnut-colored hair is tied in a bun, and her face is sharp.

“We have limited time,” she says with a refined tone as she approaches the trio, “so I hope to discuss this quickly. I suppose you three are related to this mess, yes?”

“Depends. Who asks?” Matt says plainly.

“Countess Maida Thorne, darling.”

“A noble,” Jax whispers.

“She’s the one Agent Matson mentioned. The one investigating the ambush on Ken,” Eleanor whispers back.

“Yeah. We might be involved,” Matt says.

“Then you must know Kenneth and Arierane, correct?”

“Ken, yeah. We don’t know the other one.”

“Apparently, she’s Kenneth’s sister.”

“Sister?” Eleanor asks, confused. “I never knew he has a sibling.”

“That’s because he doesn’t,” Jax replies.

“How do you know him?” Matt asks Lady Thorne. “And who is this ‘Arierane’?”

Lady Thorne looks back at the coach, and the knight nods once more. The door opens yet again and out exits an elderly man in robes—Grandmaster Geiszler.

“Greetings, everyone. I’m Grandmaster Alberich Geiszler, Dean of the Scorrest Academy of Magic Arts.”

Geiszler brings a heavy atmosphere with him, one in which suggests total dominance. The trio can immediately recognize Geiszler as a mage, a powerful one.

“Before we speak any further,” Lady Thorne starts, “I must confirm my suspicion. Are you three from Ardai Industries, the emerging corporation in Efielge? I know Kenneth is.”

The trio is astonished at how easily Lady Thorne deduced their identities. It’s not often they feel exposed, surrounded by knights, no less.

Matt only cautiously nods his head as his eyes lock onto the knights.

“Fret not, darling. We need not be enemies here. The Grandmaster and I will be happy to explain what we know.”

Lady Thorne has only recently met Grandmaster Geiszler. Earlier that night, Lady Thorne’s network of informants reported movement from the STC and strange behavior from mercenaries near the academy. She knew that Ken was in the academy, trying to restore his memories, and so she suspected another attempt on Ken’s life would be made. Even more concerning was that she lost track of Arierane’s whereabouts. Lady Thorne had no idea where she was as she seemed to escape her watchful eyes in the city easily. It wasn’t until she was informed of an explosion inside the academy campus that she decided to take a look.

Soon after the first shots were fired in the Tabellarii safehouse, Lady Thorne arrived at the campus and encountered Geiszler after Arierane left him at the academy gates. Though they had never previously met before, they were aware of each other since both are upper-class members. They respected each other, and after extensively discussing what they knew about Ken’s situation, they agreed to collaborate. Lady Thorne was told of Arierane’s true identity, while Geiszler was told everything Lady Thorne knew about Ken’s assassination attempt.

Lady Thorne and Grandmaster Geiszler tell Matt, Jax, and Eleanor everything they know about the whole mess for the next several minutes. From the ambush to Ken’s memory loss, Arierane’s manipulation, the wireless telegraphy advancement, Arierane’s intrusion in the infirmary, her identity as a Royal Ranger, and Ken’s disappearance. Everything was laid out for the trio to absorb fully.

However, the question they have in their minds is why? Why bother helping them catch up on Ken’s situation? They question Grandmaster Geiszler and Lady Thorne’s motivation for being so friendly with them. Especially since Lady Thorne’s knights have them surrounded, they wouldn’t have thought nobles would be as kind as she is.

“If I may,” Eleanor interrupts as she takes a step forward, “is there a reason you tell us this? What do you gain from helping us?”

Lady Thorne smiles mischievously; she knew they would eventually ask. Lady Thorne steps forward and stands directly in front of Eleanor. Lady Thorne is taller, and she looks down on Eleanor.

“Interesting you say that, dear.” Lady Thorne raises her hand and caresses her cheek, causing Eleanor to become extremely uncomfortable. “I want—you.”

“M-me?” Eleanor steps back in shock.

Jax and Matt glance at each other; their eyebrows are raised in surprise. Grandmaster Geiszler briefly looks away while the knights act normal as if they are used to their Lady’s odd mannerisms and behavior.

“Well,” Lady Thorne continues. “Not just you—all of you.”

“What?” Jax questions, recovering from his previous surprise.

“Look around, darling.” She points at the mercenary corpses. “Clearly, Ardai Industries is more than meets the eye. You are making a name for yourselves. Scorrest is already changing because of your inventions and innovations. I want Ardai, if only for your cooperation.”

“Ardai isn’t for sale. The STC already made the mistake of asking, and this mess is the result.”

“What I propose is more of an alliance, dear.”

“My Lady.” A knight comes up to Lady Thorne. “They’re here. In addition, word of battle reached the King’s Castle, the Crown’s Guard has been dispatched.”

“We must make this quick. Let them through. Let’s see what they found.”

The trio watches the knight bow, who then signals to other knights. From one side of the street, they notice two hooded people are let through to approach them. Both wear black clothing and small capes. One of them wears visibly tighter clothes, and her silhouette gives away her gender. The other carries a bow in one hand and is dragging a body with the other.

“Horten, Vara,” Lady Thorne turns to the two young people. “What have you found?”

The man named Horten drags and drops the unconscious body of another man. Both of them lower their hoods for everyone to see.

Immediately noticed by Matt, Jax, and Eleanor is how unique these two look. Both look young, very young. They see that the woman, named Vara, has some sort of red face paint around her cold eyes. Her black shoulder-length hair also has streaks of red, as if she dyed it that way. The man, on the other hand, has shorter hair but in much the same aesthetic. He has no face paint but what concerns Matt and Jax more is their weapons.

Horten’s bow is one of a kind, as in it’s one of the few compound bows that Marc’s Armory has sold. They also notice that all their sheathed blades look strikingly familiar. They even see the shape of a karambit on Vara’s waist.

“See that?” Jax whispers to Matt.

“Yeah.”

“This man is Tabellarii,” Horten says to Lady Thorne.

“Excellent job, darling. Have you interrogated him?”

Horten nods and softly says, “They know where he’s going. Northeast, likely towards the ambush site. They plan not to go after him.”

“Back there? There is nothing except the wreckage,” Lady Thorne says.

“I think I may know why,” Grandmaster Geiszler says. “The memory restoration process is unlikely to be complete, and whatever trauma he experienced in his past was intensified after that ambush. He may be returning for the sake of finding something familiar, perhaps to cope. I’ve seen this sort of response before.”

“So he’s going to the ambush site?” Matt asks.

“Correct.”

“My Lady,” another knight interrupts. “The Crown’s Guard is approaching.”

“Take my coach,” Lady Thorne says to the trio. “Retrieve your friend. The coachman knows where it is. Come by my estate once it’s done, would you kindly? I very much want to discuss a possible relationship between Ardai Industries and the House of Thorne. I must remain here. It will create fewer problems if I simply claim my knights had a scuffle with rogue mercenaries.”

The trio nods their heads and leaves for the coach.

“Oh, before we leave,” Matt turns to Grandmaster Geiszler and takes out the gold token he found. “You might be interested in this. We found it inside.”

Grandmaster Geiszler takes a look at the token. It was Lana’s token to identify her as a student.

“I had my suspicions,” he says softly, “but I never thought it be true. A Tabellarii spy within the campus. Thank you.”

After saying their goodbyes, Matt, Jax, and Eleanor enter Lady Thorne’s coach, and they leave. Horten, Vara, and a pair of knights take the unconscious Tabellarii agent away, and soon, the Crown’s Guard arrives.

With armor fancier and shinier than Lady Thorne’s knights, the Crown’s Guards stand with pride as they confront Lady Thorne.

From the group of knights, a young and handsome man appears before Lady Thorne, and her face becomes neutral, no longer showing her usual flirtatious aura.

“Countess Maida Thorne!” the man announces with a proud and loud voice. “Why, I never thought I would be meeting you under such circumstances!”

“Prince Cain Laess,” Lady Thorne says plainly.

“Please, why the bad attitude?” he says with a smirk.

“No reason, your highness.”

“Ah, Grandmaster Geiszler! An honor to meet you as well!”

“Your highness,” Geiszler says as he bows his head.

“Now then! If I’m not mistaken, I do believe there are bodies about. That building over there suggests a vicious fight, does it not? Care to explain?”

“Your highness, these corpses are mercenaries. They are nothing less than criminals who clashed with my knights out of greed,” Lady Thorne explains.

“You dare expect me to believe that? I see none of your knights have any injuries. Not even a scratch.”

Prince Cain Laess and Lady Thorne stare at each other. Neither of them has any respect for each other. Lady Thorne simply has little to no trust in the Crown after the civil war, while Prince Cain views her as nothing more than a pest. Perhaps even a traitor since that’s the reason her House nearly became extinct.

“Why not tell me the truth, Countess? I know you hide something. What happened here?” Prince Cain orders.

“Your highness,” Geiszler interrupts. “Perhaps I can shed light. I’m sure you’ve heard about the explosion in the academy?”

“Yes, I’ve heard reports. However, it can not be more than a failed experiment, I’m sure.”

“Unfortunately, your highness, it was an attack.”

Prince Cain’s eyebrow rises at Geiszler. He has more respect for the old mage and is more willing to listen to him than Lady Thorne.

“We uncovered a Venesian spy, your highness. A Tabellarii agent who infiltrated my academy. This battle is the result.”

Geiszler isn’t known to be deceitful, and Prince Cain knows that. His reputation is widespread, which even his father has great respect for. He has little choice but to accept his words at face value. Geiszler’s word holds too much weight; trying to refute him would only damage his reputation.

“How about you let me take over this mess,” Lady Thorne says. “If you bring back the word of a Tabellarii spy, the treaty is put in danger. I’m sure King Laess would not be happy.”

Prince Cain scoffs at her. Revealing a Venesian spy would indeed put a political strain on his father. Times are sensitive, and the friction between the Great Powers naturally spills over to Scorcia. There’s no guarantee that Ravenia, Dercia, or Nanatia won’t try to capitalize on a breach in the treaty.

Prince Cain laughs maniacally. “Oh, how clever you are, Countess! I don’t suppose the loss of your family fuels your animosity. You must understand, we had no choice in the matter. Traitors were widespread back then; we simply had to make sure.”

Grandmaster Geiszler can feel the tension rising between the Prince and Countess. They seem to hate each other, fueled by the chaos of the civil war.

“I never understood why father spared you or your House. Why he allowed you to inherit your husband’s title, I know not nor do I care. The time will come, Countess. Once I take the throne, I will finish the job.”

Prince Cain turns around to leave with his knights, and Lady Thorne’s face frowns. As her knights are the only ones to stay, she watches the last of the Crown’s Guard disappear into the unlit streets. Lady Thorne stands still. She’s livid about the Prince’s threats. There is so much the Crown hides about the war. One day, she will learn the truth.