章 123: Chapter 123 - Being Proactive
In the end, though, Rynold was pretty damn satisfied with how things turned out. A Fine-Gold weapon was a lot more than he had hoped for.
With the Bow in hand, Rynold decided to head upstairs. Motioning the Spirit of Fire to come with him, the two ascended the tunnel to meet with the other two.
Rynold shot the grapple to the ceiling of the cell without hesitation and slowly retracted the rope. Prominence Alpha wasn't far behind as it floated behind him, leaving the underground room for the time being.
"Again!"
A shout resonated in his eardrums as Rynold got closer to getting to the cage where Leo and Lissa were currently training it. As far as he could tell, Leo was really pushing Lissa towards her limit.
'You would've thought that the guy would go easy on his little sister,' Rynold thought as he got closer to the higher level.
As soon as he landed, Rynold couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Lissa had scrapes all over her as sweat and blood covered most of her face. Leo, on the other hand, was relatively unharmed apart from the small bruises. Clearly, the two weren't doing some harmless sibling bonding activity.
"Man, you gotta tone it down a bit," Rynold said as he approached Leo from behind. "You're going to be doing a lot more harm than good if you keep this up."
Leo turned around to greet Rynold. "I know what I'm doing and, more importantly, I know what her limits are. Trust me. I need to take it to the next level with the training if we want to get her ready in time."
"There is still such a thing called too much," Rynold walked towards Lissa and helped her up. It seemed that the training had done a lot more to Lissa than Rynold had initially thought. The young Princess had trouble standing up and steadying her breath.
"Whatever, man," Leo dismissed Rynold's disapproval of his methods. "I'm guessing you didn't come here just to tell me off?"
"No, something that meager should have just been common sense," Prominence Alpha answered from behind, its voice echoing within the trio's heads.
"You let this guy out of his cage?" Leo remarked with significant arrogance towards the Spirit of Fire.
"No wonder the Thunder God has chosen you to be his emissary. Arrogant and loud, just like how the Thunder God is," Prominence Alpha disappointedly responded.
"You know who he is?" Leo asked with great surprise.
"And, you don't?" the Spirit of Fire retorted back.
"All right. Can it, both of you," Rynold said as he managed to bring Lissa to her feet with much effort. "There are better things to do than to argue about nothing."
With her arm around Rynold's shoulder, Lissa had a much easier time walking than she would be alone. As Rynold handed her the [Severing Decree], she graciously accepted the Fine-Gold Bow with her other hand.
"You made something for her?" Leo curiously asked, "Even I haven't gotten anything from you."
"Well, you don't really need anything from me," Rynold responded as he carefully assisted Lissa towards the tunnel, "The weapon you have is already pretty damn good. I'm only giving this to her because she needs a weapon. You don't."
Shooting the grapple and latching it on the ceiling once more, Rynold shifted his right hand to Lissa's waist, causing her to fluster. Rynold, in his common dense fashion, didn't really notice as they descended the tunnel.
As the two slowly descended, Lissa looked at Rynold with a very loving expression. It was as if she were completely smitten towards him. Rynold, on the other hand, didn't pay much attention to her as his mind was clearly on something else.
'What's our next move," Rynold thoughts started to ask the right questions.
Rynold knew that there was the current opportunity for them to make the first strike. But, at the same time, he was reluctant to do so.
From his perspective, there were too many unexplained variables, too many things that he currently doesn't know. Taking the fight to someone that didn't have a proactive agenda was something Rynold didn't have experience dealing with. The overall goal of the Duke was still unexposed.
So, Rynold's thoughts continuously wandered as they descended. By the end, he had thought of steps on what to do next.
Leading the young Princess towards the wooden bed frame, Rynold instructed her to rest for the time being. She would only be a burden if she forced herself with her injuries.
Leo and the Spirit followed behind Rynold and landed on the underground cave soon after Rynold did. Rynold turned around and had a determined look on his face.
"Seems like you've got a plan," Leo said as he crossed his arms.
"Well," Rynold added as he let out a sly smirk, "It's more of an idea than a plan."
"Get on with it. I'm all ears," Leo sarcastically responded.
"Right," Rynold ignored Leo's tone, "We need information. With the things that you've told me, it's not enough for me to tell what the Duke's goals are. It might be as simple as taking the throne. But, I doubt it's ever that simple."
Leo nodded in agreement as he contemplated. As far as he could tell, there wasn't much going on in terms of suspicious activities. During the past few days, Leo didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Apart from the sole fact that the Duke was nowhere to be seen, that is. But, even then, that wasn't really indicative of much.
"Okay," Leo agreed, "What do we do about it then? Rustle up some feathers and get information from the guards?"
"I don't think the castle guards know anything about it," Rynold responded as he raised his hand to his chin. "The castle guards are different from the troops that the Duke controls. As far as I can tell, the guards that protect your cousin are a lot stronger than the guards you have in your castle."
"That being said," Rynold continued to explain, "If the Duke and Wilfred have the military power to seize the throne and castle, what's stopping them? We now know for a fact that Wilfred has the ability to wield Mana. That should be an even bigger reason for them to seize the throne. So, what the hell is stopping them?"
Leo's eyes lit up as he realized what Rynold was talking about.
"That just means they're up to something even bigger than the throne," Rynold confirmed Leo's thoughts. "We need to find out what before we do anything else."
"Then, what's the actual plan? You're just explaining why we gotta do things, not really what we need to do," Leo straightforwardly asked.
Rynold put both hands on his hips as he sighed. Clearly, what he was about to say next would displease the muscle-headed Leo.
"A stealth mission," Rynold finally answered, "But, you're not going."
Leo was appalled. He couldn't understand why he wasn't the one who was going to do the mission. There really wasn't much for Rynold to choose from.
"Before you say anything," Rynold added, "I'm the one who's going. I'm benching you because you attract too much attention. Besides, we can't really risk you going out and getting caught because of your high profile, Prince Leo. I'm the right choice here."
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do while your ass is out there doing who knows what," Leo responded with a lot less anger than Rynold initially thought.
"Easy," Rynold casually remarked as he walked towards the tunnel. "You're staying here and protecting your little sister. Just in case I don't make it back, you're gonna need to get out of the castle and head to the Tree. Take this," Rynold tossed a teleportation stone to Leo.
"You know what to do with that, right?" Rynold asked, to which Leo nodded in response. "Good. Prominence Alpha, stay with them. They'll be able to fulfill your wishes in case I can't. And, one last thing. I'm gonna need that Sphere back."
Leo tossed the Accord Sphere: Dictum back to Rynold.
"You better not croak it out there," Leo intimidatingly said. "How do we know when we should leave?"
"Hm... I guess... If I don't come back when the Duke actually shows up, then you could probably assume that I'm dead," Rynold was overly casual with the whole situation of him dying, "And, in case I actually do die. I'll be sure to take a whole lot of them with me. I'm not so easy to kill, remember?"
"Fine then," Leo reluctantly agreed to Rynold's plan. "Don't fuck up, man."
"Who do you think I am," Rynold said as he shot the grapple up the tunnel, "You?"
With a smile, he disappeared, retracting the rope to bring him up. Rynold felt a weight on his shoulders that seemed to have become heavier as he left. Landing on the top platform, Rynold let out a deep sigh.
"Let's just get this shit over with."
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