章 3: Assassination
Almost two weeks had passed after the grand banquet took place in the Bonneville's residence and there was only a day left before the entrance examination. The capital of Yndrevis Empire was already so lively although it was still early in the morning.
Meanwhile in the study room, Albert was facing his daughter with an extremely serious expression shown on his face. There was only a week left and his daughter would be parted away from him from then on.
After the examination, the youngsters would be given a week to prepare and after that, they would then depart from their homes.
He could not do anything about it and just helplessly sighed.
"Relax yourself today. You can go back to your room and rest your body and mind now. We will set off to the capital later."
"Alright, father."
The capital, which is also known as the biggest city of Yndrevis Empire, Chaze City, was located at the middle part of the empire. The Bonneville's residence was located at the mid-southern part region, particularly in the second biggest city of the whole empire, Fligrawn City.
Before, when Albert was still a Marquess, he was assigned and had a march located at the southeast borders near the city of Graudon.
It took him almost 3 hours riding a single horse to travel from the southeast borders to Fligrawn City. Though the distance was huge, the horse's speed really helped him a lot as he hurriedly went back home at that time.
Two hours had passed, Albert and Eirlys departed from the residence and headed towards the Chaze City. Eirlys just dressed a simple black attire, but she still emanated an unsurpassable elegance. Albert on the other hand was wearing dark blue garments with some embroideries on it. Although his clothes were not that eye-catching, his handsome face still stood out of the masses.
The carriage they used had some gold designs on it which were completely emphasized due to the dark colors of the carriage.
Because they deliberately used a first class carriage, they didn't meet any obstructions at all on their way. When the people saw it, they knew that the individuals inside behind those exquisite curtains were not the ones they could afford to offend.
After traveling for nearly 3 hours, the carriage stopped in front of a restaurant. Albert instructed the coachman to wait for them at the parkings of carriages.
The completely refined handsome man walked inside the restaurant together with a girl whose face countenance was so perfect as if it was carefully made by the gods.
The people inside were astonished by the pair of a man and a young girl. There were some people from noble families inside who were also dining in recognized the two newcomers. The pair of father and daughter didn't pay them any attention at all and just walked towards an empty table.
Seeing that the two were seemingly not interested in associating themselves in the crowd, the people also did not heed any attention to the two anymore and just continued doing and thinking their own businesses.
Albert and Eirlys were just silently eating the dishes that were served for them. When they finished eating, a man who was obviously from a noble family greeted Albert courteously.
Although the news of him resigning from being a marquess was already spread in the whole empire, the people were still very respectful to this man who had gained many merits when he was ascending from lower ranks to the title of marquess.
Albert naturally acknowledged the man in front of him. He was known to be a modest warrior in public while being fierce and heartless to the enemies in the battlefield. At such a young age, he had already gained the favor of the emperor. The noble families and even the commoners were still confused why he suddenly left his title as a marquess.
"It's been a long time Lord Bonneville. I have not attended the happiest occasion of your daughter, Lady Eirlys. I hope Lord Bonneville won't take an offense." The man apologetically said to Albert.
"Oh please, Mr. Williams. Don't say that. We have our own personal businesses that we could not afford to disregard. Of course, I didn't really mind your absence that day. You're just overthinking it." Albert refused to make him apologize any further while waving his hand.
"That's a relief." The man called Mr. Williams sighed and turned his head to Eirlys. He added, "This must be Lady Eirlys. You've grown bigger now and even prettier."
"Mr. Williams is overpraising me." Eirlys answered modestly.
"Haha, not only are your looks unsurmountable, but even your attitude is also good. Oh, that's right. You should be joining the entrance examination tomorrow, am I right?" Mr. Williams seemed to like the behavior of Eirlys and when he remembered something, he asked her about it right away.
"Yes, I am indeed joining it tomorrow." Eirlys straightforwardly answered.
"Good! I really hope that you will be attending to the same school with my son."
Mr. Williams really want to push his son to Albert's daughter. He knew how outstanding the man in front of him is and he also believed that this young girl sitting with the same table as Albert is also extraordinary and could not be underestimated.
"We could only leave that to fate, Mr. Williams." Eirlys jokingly said to him.
Hearing the young lady's answer, he laughed loudly. He really liked the temperament of this little dragon. He didn't stay any longer and bid farewell to Albert and Eirlys.
After resting for a while, the two continued traveling towards the Chaze City.
***
At the Imperial Palace...
The emperor was tapping the table in front of him while thinking deeply. Suddenly, a person appeared behind him.
"How is it?" The emperor's index finger stopped its motion on the table and asked the man behind him.
"Reporting to His Imperial Majesty, Lord Bonneville and his daughter are now in the Blackstone City and are still moving towards the capital." The man replied while bowing his head. He didn't dare to raise his head at all.
"Did you find out the reason of Bonneville's resignation?"
"This subordinate is incompetent. This servant asks His Imperial Majesty to give a punishment." The man nervously answered.
The emperor sighed and waved his hand, "You're dismissed."
"Yes." The man disappeared without a trace.
***
It was already almost dusk and finally, Albert and Eirlys arrived outside the gates of Chaze City. They decided to find an hotel first to stay overnight and just wait for tomorrow's event.
Eirlys' senses greatly improved these past few days after she turned thirteen years old. As an agent, she already had great senses, she never thought that it would be improved after transmigrating to this world.
Her room was just next to her father's. She knew that she would be safe with her father nearby but she still did not let her guard down from the possible unexpected events.
When she was lying on her bed, she closed her eyes while only half-sleeping. She was already used to it since some of their missions before didn't only last for just a day. So half-sleeping was absolutely necessary when doing missions.
Not long after she closed her eyes, a black shadow could be seen outside of her room. She opened her eyes immediately but her body remained still to not alert the man outside.
She swept her eyes around the room and used her hearing sense to its highest level to know if there were some other people accompanying the man near the window.
After confirming that there was only a single enemy, Eirlys heaved a sigh of relief. But when she spotted that the man actually made a hole near the window, she immediately covered her nose and mouth with her bare hands and shouted in her heart. (Damn it!)
She already knew that the man outside was not trying to kill her through slicing her body to halves or whatsoever, instead, he was trying to poison her!
She quickly found a thick cloth and covered her mouth and nose using it. She walked to the window with light steps.
Fortunately, she's also an expert of assassination. Sneaking attack and concealing her presence through controlling her aura, breathing and heartbeat were also some of her expertise.
When she arrived near at the window, she didn't act immediately.
Although she was already used to blood, seeing and smelling it, she still found it irritating and since the time she transmigrated to this world, she hadn't killed anyone yet. Stopping herself from killing anyone as much as possible was what she was trying to do the most at the moment.
She pondered for a moment and a sudden flash of light could be seen in her eyes after a while.
Seeming like she made up her mind. She pushed the straw in an instant that was in the hole near the window.
She didn't know how the man made a hole there without anyone noticing any noise it probably made in the process. After all, the whole room was made of some kind of rock. Eirlys couldn't really figure out how the man did such thing.
The man outside who was previously blowing the straw carefully to not allow himself being poisoned and complete his mission flawlessly, was now coughing loudly because the poison that he was blowing not long ago, had entered his mouth.
Only now did Eirlys find out that the poison that the man was trying to use on her was a vey fatal one. If the man was given enough time to cover the whole room with this poison, the poison would surely have entered Eirlys' internal organs and would definitely caused only one result, an instant death!
Hearing the rapid footsteps outside, Eirlys immediately walked to her bed and just laid down there as if nothing happened at all.
The owner of the footsteps arrived at the door and immediately opened it. When he saw that Eirlys was just lying there unharmed, the worries in his heart were thrown away.
He immediately went to see the man outside who was now lying there motionlessly. He spotted the hole near the window as well as the straw with some poison beside the man.
He finally realized the intentions of the black dressed man and those strangers that he met outside earlier to keep his attention away from his daughter.
He calmed his heart for now and thought for a while. Since he could not bring his daughter back to their clan, his only hope was the academy that would be the safest place for his daughter and could also be the place for her to get stronger.
***
Somewhere near the borders of Yndrevis Empire...
In the dark room, a tall figure was facing towards outside of the window. It looked like he was appreciating the view outside but the truth was he was just deep in thought.
A black robed man appeared near the door and just silently waited there for that man near the window to speak first.
"Report." A cold voice resounded within the dark room. It was from the man near the window who spoke out.
When the man standing near the door heard this, his body shivered and his legs went limp that caused him to kneeled down immediately. He didn't dare to raise his head and said while stuttering, "Th-the mi-mission.. f-failed."
"Useless trash!!!" The man angrily roared as he turned around to look at the man who was kneeling down on the floor. "You can not even get rid of a little girl?!"
"T-This... w-we were a-able to lure.. t-the Marquess out. W-we thought t-that our c-companion finished h-his task already t-that time.. b-but he w-was nowhere to b-be found when w-we arrived in our m-meeting p-place..." The man in the floor tried to explain while his whole body was trembling in fear.
"You piece of trash!!! Go die!!" After hearing the man's explanation, he became even more angry and killed the man in front of him on the spot.
"Jason!" He shouted once again.
"This subordinate is here."
"Clean this trash up and kill those worthless garbages who handled this mission!"
"Understood."
***
Albert already cleaned up the corpse and the traces of it. He didn't ask anything to Eirlys and just let her get some rest.
In the room beside Eirlys', a sound barrier was set up while there were two people who wore gloomy expressions inside. They were Eirlys' father, Albert and the newcomer, Arnold.
"It's a good thing nothing happened to her. Seems like your enemies here are now finally making their moves." Arnold worriedly said.
"Right. That's why we should send her to an academy as soon as possible," Albert solemnly replied.
He would be much more reassured if his daughter will stay in school. The students in every academy where highly protected from the people outside especially those students in top ranked academies. He was clearly aware of this.
"Then.. do you want to get rid of these people first before going back? Although the people in this realm were not that powerful compared to those old hags in our place, there are still some of them here who have some abilities and are just silently waiting for the opportunities to show up. Who knows.. you're enemies may not be that easy to deal with and might harm Eirlys in the future."
Arnorld was of course worried for his niece's safety. When they depart from this place, they did not know how much long it would take them to come back and reunite with Eirlys.
There was no sound could be heard after Arnold said those words for a moment and suddenly..
"Don't you think it would also be good for her?" After thinking for a while, Albert spoke out with a calm voice.
"W-wha... Y-you!!!" Arnold was stupefied by his elder brother's words.
He immediately understood what Albert was trying to say. He knew that this guy is completely heartless when facing enemies, he didn't think that he would also be this heartless towards his only daughter!
"If there are no people who will corner her, she could not release her full potential at all. As what everyone says, one can only gain something when there's a trial. The more challenges one faces, the more one progress. If I clean up those ants now, who would obstruct her in the future? Don't worry, she's my daughter. I know what I am doing and I'm only doing this for her own best."
"You... I really can't believe you!" Arnold angrily shouted to him.
"Alright. You can leave now. We can discuss this after we go back to my residence." Albert waved his hand lazily to shoo his younger brother away.
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