Chapter 55: The Ball (5)
A window smashed open from the room behind. The CEF soldiers ran. Inside, theroom was filling up with blood, half out of fear of this particular kind of
death and half from the maddened craze to get the corrupt.
If not themselves, they had to get the word out.
It was easy. It was possible.
The CEF soldiers ran up. One of them came out of the window when an arrow flew
from the top and shoved itself into his head.
In the distance, Dumas was sniping them down. Nea had been looking after Arlene,
while Keith and Rachel also came at Dumas’ order. Keith was right outside the
windows on one side along with Rachel, and the other two Dumas handled with a
bow and arrows.
He wouldn’t miss anyway.
One of them stood out, and another tossed out a large trunk.
Dumas shot him. The one from the inside collapsed.
The other soldier, outside, immediately hid under the body of his friend and
used his blood to inscribe something on the giant trunk.
"What...?" Dumas murmured. Such a thing. No way, carrier pigeons? All of them
were synced with a message on the damned trunk? "Such bastards!"
Dumas’ angle was gone. He quickly leaped down the terrace and to the ground.
With the angle open, he shot at the soldier. His arrow pierced the shoulder.
The soldier didn’t even flinch. He had already forfeited his life. A chill ran
down Dumas as he thought of these monsters completing their tasks. They didn’t
give a flying shit about anything else ever.
It opened.
And out flew a series of pigeons and doves.
"Ah... fuck it."
Dumas didn’t nock the next arrow. He simply tossed it to the side and it went
into the neck of the man. His eyes glanced at the window inside. Blood was
splattering in that room as Adam went on a rampage.
"Alright. I’ll do my part."
He ran ahead and to the other side. As another man was trying to escape from the
windows, Keith, who was hidden underneath one, stood up and slashed his neck.
"Rachel!" Dumas yelled, and Lady Rachel turned.
She saw him nock 7 arrows on his bow at once, then turned toward the sky. A
whole slew of pigeons were flying off.
Were they off for the capital?
They had to be shot down.
Rachel immediately placed her hands on the ground and created a transparent
platform for Dumas. He was lifted up high in the cover of the castle. As he went
up, he started shooting his arrows. Each of them, coated with sword aura, went
straight out and struck the pigeons.
It wasn’t enough to just kill the messenger pigeons, especially not above the
city, so he used enough force to take them further up in the sky and explode.
One after another, they were dropped to the ground, dying. Each hit got the gray
and white pigeons and doves.
Firecrackers still went off in the sky. The sounds of people screaming and
enjoying themselves reached his ears.
The messengers bound for the capital had been struck down. He was about to lower
his hand when his eyes caught the faintest glint of brown in the distance.
Merged with the night sky, a pigeon doused in pure black paint was also flying.
The rope around its ankle was the only thing one could see. It was impossible to
even tell where the bird’s wings were.
"Fucking hell..."
The CEF always was a maniacal institution, and it sent chills down his spine
every single time.
With a deep breath, he focused and pulled the arrow one last time.
It was great he had seen it right now.
If this bird had escaped his sight, it would have flown all the way to the
capital.
"About.... well into the forests..."
As long as he knew it was there, he could take it down.
Dumas felt the wind and the air, poured mana into his arrow, and pulled the
string.
"Now."
The arrow curved through the air, making a silver line through the skies, and in
that same distance, a splash of red met with the pure black of the night sky.
The bird was downed, and it fell straight to the ground.
Dumas’ platform started to descend, and he took deep breaths.
It was done.
It was done.
A pigeon hurtled to the ground and fell in the forests behind the city.
There, the CEF soldier sent ahead to report to the capital saw its body [2]. As
soon as the trunk was opened, he felt it moving. The trunk was nothing other
than the scouts’ communication module, for every regiment to talk with their own
people.
The scout of the CEF picked up the dead pigeon and read the note inside.
{Arl Rnvlt is Corptd}
Arl Rnvlt.
Arlene Reinvelt. That was the only possible name he could make out from that.
Easy, too.
The scout looked back. There was little way to tell what the situation there
was. It was also impossible to tell if the information in his hands was
accurate.
The fact that the pigeon was shot down added to that uncertainty. Just how many
people in the world could hit a pigeon like that without knowing about it?
Almost nobody he could think of.
The CEF themselves might have shot it down.
Regardless, his duty was to take the information where it was needed, and so he
went on.
Dumas and Keith returned to the castle from the front. Entering the room where
the CEF soldiers had been assigned, Dumas knocked on the door first, ensuring no
one was behind them.
The door swung open as he knocked. Suddenly, the heir of Reinvelt, Adam, came in
front of them.
"Young master..."
"Lord..."
Adam opened the door and stepped in. He gestured at Keith, and the knight handed
him a cigarette as the two closed the door behind them.
"Hahaha..." Dumas chuckled. "Are you hurt, young master?"
Adam didn’t say much. He was exhausted and bloodied. He gestured again, and
Keith pulled out a lighter, burning his cigarette for him.
All of them stood at the door, looking ahead.
At a sea of blood.
