บท 163: chapter 16

Flashback

"Who are you- arghhhh!" Count Bulsis was being chained down onto his seat while having a long ice-pick like tool embedded on his thigh, staring at the masked figure that was responsible for his current situation of agony.

"I heard that you wanted to have me kill...I'm just here to return the favor of course…" the masked figure slowly pulled off the mask that covered his face, revealing a handsome blond youngster.

"Since when did I offend someone like you! I don't even know you!" the count roared.

"Let me go now, and I will forget all that just happened! If you were to kill me- the Windstad family, and the kingdom will become your enemy!" the Count threatened.

"Oh yes, I am so scared…" Leonard smirk at the count threat before ruthlessly stabbed another ice-pick onto the other thigh, causing the Count to once more- wailed out in agony.

While the Count was busy singing the tune of "joys" and "delight" Leonard was busy looking through a few random pieces of documents that he managed to find hidden inside of a safe, and boy- the surprise on his face couldn't be hidden as he goes through piece by piece slowly.

"Hmmm...slave trade, banditry, tax avoidances, and oh? What is this?"

The last piece of document caught his attention, it was a letter with a strange looking wax seal.

The delicate seal had a picture of a two-headed hawk holding arrows on one leg while a scroll on the other, and enclosed by an olive branch.

"What is this?" Leonard turned his attention to the Count.

"Hmph! Ptui! Your mother love letter!" the Count mocked him.

"I see…" Leonard smiled as he slaps the Count quite a few time, knocking a few tooth loose and flying out in the process.

"That for insult my mother." since asking the Count himself was no help, Leonard tore the letter open and slowly going through the message.

His expression turned for the worse as he finished the letter and seeing the Count personal seal printed at the bottom.

"so... you're working for the "emperor" huh…" Leonard once again brought his attention to the Count and slowly stuffed the letter into his own pocket, of course, it was not truly inside his pocket as he secretly deposits it inside of his inventory before placing a free hand on the Count head.

"I- don't - know- what- arghhh!!!" the Count wailed out loudly as he felt a massive headache inside of his head, and pieces of his memories being extracted.

"I'm done here, I have to finish this quickly so I can go back…" Leonard slowly sucking out pieces of memories from the Count head, slowly turning his victim into a brain-dead person in the process.

It took a full minute or so before the entire "operation" finished and the Count head slanted on the side, with a pair of lifeless eyes opened wide open.

"Now that's finish, time to get rid of all the evident- but first, loot the place." he thought as he once again rummages around a bit, digging up every valuable that he could find and store it all into his inventory and cast a fire spell on all the flammable object that he came across.

"Yes, yes! By fire be purge!" he grinned before activating the nano battle armor builtin cloaking function and vanished without leaving a trace, he only discovered the function after messing around with the suit a bit of course, but there are plenty of other useful function- but he needed time to poke around with it, the time which he does not have, because he needs to get back to Ryan, he does not want her to wait any longer than she had to already.

Flashback End

*****

After Leonard bid farewell to the Windstad family, he did not waste much time to finish his last remaining business here in the capital of the province.

And that was paying a visit to Count Bulsis, personally- as he discovered a more delightful news about the Count, the man who wanted him dead actually resided in the same city.

Of course, he left Sachi at an Inn, telling her to wait for him a bit as he finished off some loose end before vanished and came back roughly an hour later to pick her up.

"Alright let get going now, the journey ahead of us will be quite long, the earlier we set off, the earlier that we will reach there," Leonard told her.

However, Sachi remained silent while having a conflicted expression on her face.

"What are you thinking about Sachi?" he notices that expression and asked out of worry for her.

"I-I...how will you explain...our relationship to your lover who lived in this world?" she asked nervously.

"...what can I say… I'm prepared to take on any punishment that she would give out…" Leonard told her truthfully,

"What if...she blame everything on me?" she asked.

"I don't think she would blame you, as she likely knows that I- too had a hand in everything that had possibly happened while I was on the other world." he let out a sigh.

"Besides, I don't think that she would hate you over anything… But I think you can get along with her quite well if you get to know her a little." he told her but his inner thought had something else in mind. "well her docile personality that is...I don't know about the other one... "

"B-but." just when Sachi was about to say something, Leonard cut her off.

"Don't worry too much about it, just...go with the flow."

He reassured her.

With that matter pushed aside, for now, the both of them quickly purchased some traveling supplies and once again, set off on their journey for the northern Domain, specifically- the northern border army camp.

Of course, right after the both of them left the city, new quickly spread that the mansion of Count Bulsis, which resided on the western part of the city- suddenly went ablaze into a raging infernal that burned everything down to the ground.

Fortunately, all the servants and guards managed to escape from the blazing infernal just in time- however, unfortunately, they seem to forget about the Count himself and his son, Dannis- who were locked inside of his room.

Strangely enough, most of the servants came out with pieces of value and some of their personal belonging and was ready to scurry away- but instead they were caught by the guard who notices that they were on suspicion that they looted the mansion during the fire.

Some, however, were ever stranger, a few of the servant and a strange man in a cloak were cheering at the blazing infernal with tears in their eyes, which baffled the guards as they wonder.

"What the fuck just happened?"

Of course, in the end, the guards had to round up all of them and take them to the barrack for questioning as to what just happened, how the fire started, etcetera.

But none of them know what happened, it all came down to a servant who notices that there were a lot of smoke coming from the Count office, when she pushed the door open- she was greeted by a blazing infernal, like any normal and sensible human being would do, she immediate call out for help- but it was too late for that as the fire quickly spread after the door open and engulfed half the building before it continues on.