The air smelled fresh, clean and carried by the gentle breeze that had the smell of dew. The grass was wet and was beginning to turn brown.
The ground was covered in a blanket of colourful leaves that had fallen from the trees like snow.
Soft silky pink leaves danced around and slowly fell on bluish-white hair serving as decoration and enhancing the beauty of that silky hair.
Under the fair autumn breeze, Julian stared at the garden with an uncanny expression. For some reason, she felt lost and everything around her felt tedious.
Lost in thought, she even failed to perceive the gentle sound of footsteps that were drawing near.
A maid coughed a bit and tried to awaken Julian from her thoughts.
"Your Highness!"
"Your Highness!"
"Huh!" Julian's mind jolted awake and blinking her crimson bloody eyes, she stared at the maid bowing her head in disbelief.
Her expression returned to normal as she adjusted her mood within a moment.
'It seems I was too lost at the moment.'
''Speak!'' Julian's colour voice echoed.
"Your Highness, Lucas returned yesterday however he had taken a leave and had gone to the Frost Household.''
The maid who relayed the information suddenly felt the atmosphere turning cold and her back tingled with ominousness.
Despite that, she didn't dare to raise her head in fear.
"Hmm! You can go back."
The maid nodded and quickly left the place.
The trees around the place started shrinking and a layer of mist appeared around the place Julian sat.
"Good...Good...I don't even have time to take a nap due to workload and you are roaming around instead of helping me."
Julian didn't know why but her mood turned sour the moment she heard about Lucas' absence again.
'If you returned yesterday why didn't you visit me first and ask about my well-being?'
"Hmph! Let him come, I will surely teach him a lesson this time."Julian snorted.
....
"Thanks for saving me. I will remember your grace throughout my life." A golden-haired man bowed his head, filled with reverence and admiration.
"It's not me, it's him who saved you," Frederick gave a perfunctory response.
The man turned his head towards Lucas. His eyes brightened and he almost shed tears of joy.
"Thank you, really thank you. I thought I would die and if they caught me again, they would have surely killed me but you come as the ray of light."The man then stood up.
"Let me introduce myself again, I am Alphonso Leonhart. The heir of the Leonhart Clan and we will try our best to repay our favor."
Lucas and Frederick stared at each other giving a bitter smile.
'Isn't this guy exaggerating things a bit too much? He is speaking as if I risked my life to save him, however, this isn't also bad.'
Ancient noble families having large branching descendants often referred to themselves as clans.
Though Leonhart holds the title of Marquise, their power rivals a Duke. Their bloodline ability was known as Golden Mane, in which their body bulges and they became a hybrid of a lion and human like a beast man.
Except for the three Dukes, Cyprus had the title of Grand Duke however the family lost its presence many years ago. Leonhart was a vassal of the Grand Duke of Cyprus that became free after the Grand Duke's demise and this Grand Duke's position had been left vacant till now.
"I didn't save you out of profit. I just saw a few people chasing after you and after running after them, I found them to be from Omen, so I just brought you here." Lucas spoke softly.
"No, it's exactly because you brought me here, I can breathe in relief. I wouldn't be safe in any other place. If not for his Lord's grace, who knows what would have happened to me?" Alphonso's whole body shivered in fright thinking about his bleak and desolate days.
"In this case, you owe me a favor. So be prepared to get dragged into the mess."
"Okay!" Alphonso spoke with a smile.
"Even if you ask me to visit hell, I will go with you."
Though the atmosphere was quite joyful and Frederick might think this as some gentle words, only Lucas knew that he had caught another guy in the net.
Poor Alphonse, if only he knew about the jobs Lucas was gonna make him perform, he would have never agreed to this.
"How did they catch you?" Frederick asked curiously.
"Traitor...There was a traitor among our ranks that poisoned us and then a group attacked us. Being poisoned, the guards were defeated and I was kidnapped by them."
"Why did they kidnap you?"Lucas asked.
Alphonso fidgeted his finger and spoke warily.
"I have found an artifact in one of the ruins. I was on my way to the Capital for an appraisal and after I was kidnapped they took it away."
Lucas sighed deeply hearing this.
The artifact was a kind of space that restricted the place, hindering people from moving or coming out within the area.
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm 'It's a great item to trap the enemy but there weren't enough details so I didn't know much about it.' Lucas thought inwardly.
"Mr. Alphonso, it seems you are quite tired so I think it's better if you take some rest. So, please excuse us." Frederick and Lucas excused themselves and left.
As they walked out, Lucas's expression changed.
"Frederick, it seems we are going to have another attack."
"I can see that much." Frederick smiled bitterly
"This tournament, I am sure those rats are going to make trouble."
"Who do you think their target is?"
Lucas paused for a moment and gave Frederick a deep stare.
"I don't know."
Even though he knows, it's better if he didn't butt in unnecessarily. The real tournament will take place in a Labyrinth safe from outside interference. It didn't matter what mess those people make outside.
Their goal was mostly to massacre the citizens, kill a few nobles and lead public sentiment to cause chaos and make people go against the Royal Family.
This tournament was just a part of their long plans. Still, they should prepare thoroughly and after going through so much he would be an idiot if he trusts the original plot.
"We should be careful of those maniacs. I have a bad feeling about this." Frederick spoke as his body shivered for a moment.
"I hope everything turned out well." Lucas who just spoke suddenly sneezed and his back tingled for a moment.
"It seems someone is scolding you." Frederick teased Lucas.
"Stop being superstitious."
....
It was a place shrouded with dark mist.
Trees with sprawling limbs guarded by darkness blotted out the rays of the sun. Their bark was mottled and splotched as if bubbled dark charcoal had been frozen on the surface. Clumpy combs of wet mass dangled from boughs and branches.
When one looked carefully, one could see slight wriggling movements underneath the ground. The black and brown thorns wrapped around the forest were almost like teeth waiting to tear you down and shred you into pieces.
Dozens of men pierced through the dark haze and dwelled deeper. On getting to the centre of the forest, they saw hundreds of dark-robed people standing in an orderly manner bowing their heads respectfully.
A dark skin man with rotten skin as if he was a corpse left for years with a humpback, stood before them receiving their worship.
Supporting himself with a stick, he walked to and fro.
"Never...Never..ever in my life, have I been forced into this kind of situation." The man's sharp chilly voice echoed.
As he raised his chin, many who saw him for the first time shivered in fright seeing the hollow sockets.
There were no eyes and instead of that a green flame burned in his sockets. The old man looked like a combination of a lich and a zombie.
No one knew what he truly was nor did they know how old this person was.
His identity was also a mystery. However, what was more terrifying than this was that he was one of the Supreme elders of the Dark Church.
Except for him, there were guardians headed by the Pope Of the Dark Church whom no one had ever seen.
"I don't know how those people learnt about our hideouts but we can't swallow this. We have to strike back."
At that time, another man bowing his head asked respectfully.
"What are your orders, Lord?"
"We are going to move forward with our plans."
"Guardian Spirit. We need to extract the Guardian Spirits and tame them. Till now, we didn't manage to find any Guardian Spirits as they haven't chosen their liege but now we had information about a person who had shown signs of awakening their Guardian Spirit."
"Who is it, Elder?"
"Please tell us, we will do our best to capture it."
"Hmm!"
"Have a look."
The old man struck his staff on the ground and a blurry image of two people fighting one another appeared in between the fight, a faint manifestation of the dragon appeared and disappeared instantly.
"This is it. Go and capture the spirit. If possible, convert this woman into an undead. They should know the repercussions of hitting us.
A crooked evil smile appeared on his face.
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