At the northern side of the camp stood a spacious red and blue tent made of high-quality material, bearing the Armakea flag on its roof.
The flag was embroidered with the Royal Family's crest, a profile of a golden three-headed lion inside a golden ring, and two intersecting black spears. The ring was covered with elaborate rune writings similar to how magic arrays were written in the Human plane.
This was the Prince of Armakea's tent.
Standing on each side of the tent's entrance were two knights wearing silver armor and holding a silver spear.
The tent had three sections. The middle section was a receiving room. On the left side was a small conference room, and on the right was a bedroom.
Most of the tents around the Prince's already had their lights dimmed. Only his was still brightly lit, especially the one on the left.
The Prince, along with two attendants, were inside this room. They stood around a rectangular table, where a terrain was replicated with magic.
"We went to investigate the area Captain Hohen reported as the weakest part of the Eidum's border and confirmed it is as he said. However, we noticed these past few days that the number of Eidums patrolling that side has improved," one of the attendants, wearing a long blue and yellow robe, reported.
Like most of the complete beings, the attendant had short blonde hair. However, unlike the Eidums, who had blue eyes, the attendant had dark green.
The Prince, wearing golden armor with a red and blue cape, leaned forward and observed the replica of the Eidum's border on the table. He also had blonde hair, but its shade was lighter than most complete beings, and the shade of his green eyes was close to olive.
Whether it was a privilege of being a Royal Family, the prince's features could be considered one of the most perfectly sculpted faces in Somuli.
"How long have you observed the area?" He asked.
The other attendant, a female with short blonde hair and green eyes, wearing a similarly designed robe as the other attendant, checked the memory tablet in her hand.
"About a week after Commander Liel failed the surprise attack," she replied.
"They failed that raid because of an interference of an unknown individual, right?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Have they learned anything about that person?"
"Captain Hohen reported that the person might be someone from Howling Pass," the male attendant reported while looking at his own memory tablet.
"Might be?"
"His appearance... well, he did not look like a native of our plane."
If others heard the male attendant, they would have wondered what he meant. However, if the Abbot or Kyran heard him, they would realize that the Armakea Royal Family seemed to know a lot of things than what they let on.
"Captain Hohen also mentioned that person was not using our plane's magic law."
"Is it true that person is currently residing in the Eidum's border?"
"That we are unsure of," the female attendant responded. "Since our forces had been wiped out in the first surprise attack, we failed to confirm where that person went after interfering. As for the last raid, he appeared quite late, which might suggest he was not staying with the Eidums. However, our side witnessed him going over the Eidum's border."
The Prince frowned at this. He only scanned through the information of the failed raids because he felt ashamed of their side's failure. He did read about the interference of an unknown individual but did not think much of it because he did not think that person changed the course of the situation alone.
Alas, it appeared that the person had indeed changed the situation in favor of the Eidums all by himself.
"Do we have an imagery of that person?"
"We do. However, since it was night and the attendant documenting what happened was far, the image is blurry," the female replied, swiping the image on her memory tablet toward the table.
The image was then replicated on the table, and the Prince looked at it intently.
"Dark hair, dark eyes," he muttered.
"Initially, we presume he was an Imon-spawn. But we ruled out the possibility since he is not using our plane's magic law."
"Obviously, that also means he is not a tainted one."
"Yes," both attendants replied in unison.
"Interesting."
"Yeah, it is."
Whoosh!
The attendants and the Prince summoned their weapons instantly and turned toward the conference room's entrance after hearing an unfamiliar voice.
The Prince's olive eyes glowed as runes appeared on the blade of his sword.
"I don't want to spill blood tonight," the owner of the voice said, and suddenly, the three felt an invisible force sweep their body.
"Ack!" The weapons on the two attendants disappeared, and they were both forced to their knees.
"Ngh...!" The prince faired well, but the runes on his sword disappeared. He looked at the figure standing at the room's entrance, shrouded in darkness.
"You dare...!"
"And please, let's avoid tacky exchange," the figure added and slowly stepped into the light.
The expressions on the Prince and the attendants' faces turned grim as they looked at a familiar yet unfamiliar man before them.
"You are not Eikin," the Prince said, scowling at the man who looked like Eikin, one of his most powerful knights.
'Eikin' smiled. However, it was different from the honest smile the Eikin they knew would always wear. This Eikin's smile was mischievous, and even an unmasked hostility was in it.
"I knew our build would be a huge giveaway," the man said, not admitting nor denying the Prince's words.
The Prince's eyes narrowed; he then raised his hand and attempted to activate the array on the tent. However, he realized that his connection to the array was also gone.
The man scratched his head, "It's useless. I deactivated the defensive array on this tent."
"You...!"
The Prince looked at him in shock. Even he, a Royal Family, was unable to deactivate arrays and could only activate them according to the instructions left to them by their ancestors. But this man could do it? Not to mention, he knew the tent had a defensive array and that he tried to activate it.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
Kyran only smiled in response. He then looked toward the table where the Eidum's border was replicated, and a blurred image of himself was shown.
"In eighteen hours, the Prince and his knights will meet with Captain Hohen's group and launch a sneak attack at point 236 of the Eidum's border. The Prince will take six of his most talented and trusted knights, infiltrate the Eidum's HQ, find the Saint, apprehend her, and take her to Armakea's border."
His eyes turned cold as he looked back at the Prince, who was still looking at him in disbelief.
"I heard your family hired a few mercenaries from Howling Pass in an attempt to talk to the Abbot. However, it failed, and the Abbot has gone missing. As for the objective of the talk, it is to seek the Saint's help."
"You... how did you— ngh!"
"Prince Achim!"
"Your Highness!"
The male and female attendants shouted respectively as they saw the man with Eikin's face disappear and reappear before the prince, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him effortlessly.
The two moved at once. Since they could not use their magic, they planned to fight the man using hand-to-hand skills.
Since the man was using Eikin's face, he subdued the latter. From this, they were able to gauge the man's strength. Nevertheless, the two became the Prince's attendants for a reason.
They were far stronger than the other knights.
"Take your hands off the prince!" The woman shouted as she jumped, aiming a dropkick on the man's head.
Meanwhile, the male attendant squatted and aimed a sweep kick to force the man to lose his balance.
Without looking at the two, Kyran raised his left hand and grabbed the female attendant's shin.
"What—?"
After that, Kyran turned, taking the female attendant along before knocking her down toward the male attendant.
"Ngh—guh!"
The male attendant failed to stop, and the female attendant crashed into him.
"Ack!" The female attendant shouted in pain.
Everything happened so fast that the two were stunned for a few seconds. Moreover, the man only made small movements when he dealt with them and did not even let go of the prince.
Kyran ignored the two as he looked at Prince Achim, his eyes glinting malevolently.
"Since you failed to make contact the first time, you planned to take her by force," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous level as his killing intent became visible. He smiled, which did not reach his eyes, as he said, "You have two choices, Prince Achim.
"Submit to me, and I will let you live. Or, resist, and all of you will die by my hands."
Prince Achim's pupils constricted as he stared at the man before him. He had been threatened before but never felt disadvantaged until now.
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