Chapter 226: Learning to be Another Sly Fox
A minute ago.
Mathias gritted his teeth. "Do we still have nothing?"
"No, sir." The butler shook his head helplessly. "There is no sign of the young master. After that suspicion, we checked the professor’s car. It’s gone from the school. I’m afraid that he’s taking the young master and Miss Ellia with that car. We are still trying to find that car’s location."
"You should know that for a kidnapping case like this, the faster we can find him, the better. There’s a chance the young master will die if we wait too long..." Mathias clenched his hands.
He felt like he wanted to unleash his wrath everywhere, but causing a ruckus would be a bad idea at a time like this. He shouldn’t do anything that would just slow down the investigation.
"We’ve dispatched the shadow guards as well. They’re searching every corner of the city."
"..." Mathias let out a long sigh. He was confident that he could protect Auric, but this was the result.
Suddenly, Auric’s phone rang.
"Hmm?" Mathias looked around, wondering what was ringing.
"Sir!" The butler grabbed Auric’s smartphone from the table and showed it to him. The screen showed that Ellia was calling him, but Ellia was supposed to have been kidnapped as well.
In other words, the kidnappers might be using Ellia’s smartphone to negotiate.
Mathias was ready to pay any price as long as Auric returned safely.
That was why he snatched the smartphone immediately and picked up the call. "Hel—"
To his surprise, instead of the kidnappers, Auric’s voice was the one coming through.
"No time to explain, so listen. 50-minute drive, a neighborhood southwest of the city, and call Chief Adjudicator Arnie."
The call ended right away, but that was all that mattered. Mathias and the butler looked at each other.
They immediately rushed outside, leaped onto the rooftop, and began jumping from one roof to another.
The butler was using his smartphone to check the location and showed the map to Mathias.
"Sir, I believe this is the location. The road is straight and most likely has been cleaned. A fifty-minute drive means 40 km. It’s very long and the beasts over there should be quite powerful. A lot of rank 3 and rank 4 beasts... even rank 5 can be found there."
Mathias narrowed his eyes. "Neighborhood and the distance. If that’s his location, that’s good. What about the last one?"
"Call Chief Adjudicator Arnie?" The butler was also confused about this request.
"No, wait." Mathias almost forgot about it. "I wanted the adjudicators to handle the matter about the poison, and the one who received the task was that lad, Arnie. If he asked for that person..."
"This kidnapping is related to that organization!"
"The location and the culprit..." Mathias frowned.
"If we are rushing like this, we should be able to arrive in twenty-five minutes, Sir." The butler looked at the road and informed him as soon as they left the city.
"Ask Lunaria to lead the shadow guards and follow me. You take care of the matter in the city, including calling Arnie, as well as the Astler family. If that organization is involved, Auric and Ellia can be the target. Ask Genetia to send protection to the other kids who came with Auric. I’m going to speed up!"
"Understood." The butler nodded.
"Haaaa!" Mathias unleashed enormous power from his body. A huge firebird emerged behind him, unleashing a loud cry. "Fusion."
The firebird, or rather, a phoenix, turned into energy and flowed into Mathias.
Mathias’s body burst into flames. Two pairs of massive wings spanning over ten meters appeared on his back.
The moment the wings flapped, they caused a small explosion that would send him forward. Mathias used it again and again, increasing his speed drastically. This way, he could get to his destination in fifteen minutes.
The butler, on the other hand, stopped and turned back.
On the way, he called the adjudicator’s office.
"I am the butler of the Relesha family. Please connect me to the chief adjudicator Arnie by using the ex-chief adjudicator #001, Mathias Relesha, as the identification."
A moment later, a voice came through. "This is Arnie speaking."
"Chief Arnie, Auric Elfe and Ellia Stroph Astler were kidnapped. According to the young master, they might be from the organization you’re dealing with. There’s a high chance that Professor Schad, a professor from Kallarnos University, is one of them."
"Is he okay?"
"He sent the S.O.S. and the master is heading there right now. We don’t have much information right now."
"Understood. I will head there immediately."
"Thank you." The butler finally reached the mansion. He rushed inside and found Genetia. "Madam!"
"Ah, it’s you. What’s wrong?"
"Young master has been kidnapped. Master is trying to rescue him. He’d like you to handle the internal matter right now. The mysterious organization is suspected to be the one behind this kidnapping, so he wants you to send protection for Arina Teneressa, Eric Dabood, and Milinda Kompo."
"!!!" Genetia widened her eyes in shock. However, that expression turned solemn, as she knew what she needed to do. "Got it."
"Where is my lady?"
"Lunaria should be in the garden."
The butler nodded and rushed to the back of the mansion, finding Lunaria. "My lady, this is urgent. He wants you to lead the Shadow Guards to support the master who is trying to rescue the young master."
Lunaria’s expression turned solemn. She knew that the shadow guards had been moved, but she wasn’t aware of the matter yet.
Once she understood the problem, Lunaria immediately asked, "Location?"
"40 km southwest of the capital city."
"Got it." Lunaria immediately leaped away from the mansion.
The Relesha family instantly became busy as each of them carried out their assigned roles in the family.
Despite being a gentle grandmother, Genetia was the one helping Mathias manage the family. After all, when he was out there fighting a lot of people in his prime, she was the one managing the family.
That was why Mathias asked her to take care of the protection as well as the internal situation in the family. Mathias considered his son, the current head of the family, but decided Edward should focus on the external matters first.
Instead of Edward, his wife should be the one leading the shadow guards. After all, Edward was only as strong as Maya, while Lunaria’s strength was close to Mathias.
While it was true that the Relesha family members could turn into crazy fanatics when it came to family, all of them understood their roles and knew how to handle their respective responsibilities. It was for this reason that the Relesha family remained influential in this country.
They were efficient, powerful, and wealthy. They had everything.
Still, it would be a matter of time before Auric and Ellia were caught by Professor Schad and the others.
Roar!
The tiger had already noticed them, which caused Professor Schad to find them. He alerted the others and chased them into the forest.
"You brats!" Professor Schad was infuriated. He never thought that two kids would cause so much trouble.
He saw Auric using his ’Edict.’ As the creator of the fusion, the foundational concept for Auric’s Edict, Professor Schad knew that he shouldn’t have let Auric use it.
"What is he going to do?" Professor Schad dove. "Stop!"
"Ellia!" Auric shouted. Ellia heard the signal and released her energy, camouflaging Auric’s unique element. This way, Professor Schad would think that he actually used Ellia’s element and somehow turned it into a passive energy before activating it as his own ability.
Obviously, he didn’t know how Auric did it, but Professor Schad could imagine Auric achieving such a feat.
On the other hand, the reason Auric used the ability this way was not because he didn’t want to reveal his power, even though this was a kind of life-and-death situation for him.
Instead, he thought that hiding this power was necessary. It would stop the organization from getting even more interested in him because of his ability to use a unique element.
At the same time, it would also lower their guard. They were going to be pursued after this, so if they didn’t expect a unique element from him, he could launch a sneak attack.
Besides, as Lindwurm said, he could see a path, but the distance was limited. He was locked to Auric, after all. When Auric was in the mansion, he couldn’t go too far to scan the area.
After running for quite a distance, his prediction came true. The place was surrounded by beasts, and there was no gap for them to exploit anymore.
Auric was ready to gamble it all. If this plan didn’t work, they would have been caught. There was a high chance they would change locations, which meant Mathias wouldn’t find them.
That was why Auric prepared a crazy plan in mind.
Auric ran to the back of the tree as if he were trying to avoid Professor Schad. Ellia followed him, still holding his hand.
However, Professor Schad unleashed a burst of wind that destroyed the area instead. The tree snapped and was blown away.
Auric used his own power while Ellia covered them, trying to block the burst.
"Auric Elfe!" Now that the path was open, Professor Schad rushed to them, trying to capture them.
Auric, on the other hand, used the precious one-second gap between them to activate the Void Step.
"Hymn of Spatial Distortion."
This time, he used four words. This meant it contained more energy than the previous Void Step. It would bring them farther away, but that was also why the activation would require more time.
Nevertheless, he had created it.
Suddenly, Auric and Ellia disappeared.
"Auric Elfe!" Professor Schad screamed in frustration, but when he was about to chase Auric, the rank 4 tiger pounced on him.
Professor Schad had no choice but to unleash his wind, creating a barrier. The tiger produced lightning, trying to tear the barrier apart.
"Kh..." Professor Schad gritted his teeth. Both of them were at the same level, but he had just used his own power earlier, so he could only use the remaining energy to block this attack.
Fortunately, a few seconds later, R wielded his darkness to form a spear and tossed it from the sky. The powerful dark spear knocked down the tiger’s head, freeing Professor Schad.
The other agents also caught up one by one.
"R! I will stop this tiger. Lead the team to capture those brats!"
R hesitated for a moment, but it looked better that way. "Got it."
When he raised his head, several bursts of energy erupted in front of them. Beasts continued to roar, showing that Auric and Ellia were stopped by the beasts.
In the end, they couldn’t escape.
"Follow me!" R shouted, leading the group to chase after Auric.
However, the moment he reached the place where Auric and Ellia were supposed to fight against the beasts, they were nowhere to be found.
...
On another side of the battlefield, Ellia and Auric walked hand in hand as if they weren’t in danger.
Ellia glanced to the side. "You know... your plan this time is insane. Have the old foxes in the capital city turned you into another fox?"
