Chapter 230: Returning
Lunaria immediately escorted Ellia and Auric with the shadow guards. She couldn’t help but be curious about what happened, so she asked Auric a couple of questions.
Auric answered them to the best of his ability without saying anything about his elements.
Fortunately, all the people who had witnessed all his elements had died. Professor Schad might have known a thing or two, but he definitely knew nothing about the fact that he copied elements, not awakened them.
"By the way, I have been meaning to ask..." Auric looked at Ellia. "Why were you waiting for me outside Professor Schad’s office?"
"Me? Well..." Ellia looked around. She felt a bit uncomfortable saying everything in front of these people. "...Let’s meet again tomorrow. I’ll tell you about it."
"Okay." Auric nodded.
Ellia wanted to thank him for giving her freedom, but Mathias seemed to be glaring at her earlier. Lunaria acted kindly, but Ellia could sense some prejudice from her.
For some reason, she wasn’t well-received by the people from the Relesha family. She could only think of one reason.
Her father had sent a butler to warn Auric. That action could have been bad if the butler decided to kill Auric.
So, as the daughter of the man who ordered it, she was hated. Of course, this was wrong.
"Anyway, we’re going to reach the gate soon. You sure you want to point out the guard?" Lunaria asked. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Auric. She was just impressed that Auric could actually find out all this while being kidnapped.
It was as if Auric hadn’t been unconscious all the time.
Of course, Lindwurm was the one who got all this information. Without him, let alone finding the culprit, he wouldn’t be able to escape.
Auric nodded. "I’m sure, unless the guards have changed."
"The night shift started two hours before the kidnapping happened, so you shouldn’t worry about that."
"In that case, let’s do it right away. It’s better to get all the related parties first."
"Sure," Lunaria agreed.
It didn’t take long for them to return to the capital city. Upon arriving at the gate, Lunaria immediately asked, "I am Lunaria Relesha. Where is the captain?"
She shouted so that everyone could hear her. The guards were startled, but the guard captain rushed out of his office to meet her.
"L-Lady Lunaria." The captain bowed to her politely.
"I need you to gather all the guards here right now."
"This... May I know what’s going on?" The captain asked.
"I will tell you the reason later. For now, I need them here ASAP."
"I understand." The captain wasn’t completely convinced, but he couldn’t say no either. After all, Lunaria was simply too strong to be messed with.
So, he immediately called all the guards and made them line up.
Lunaria then turned to Auric and asked, "Who?"
Auric walked to the front and said, "The two guards who were in cahoots with the organization are those two."
Auric pointed at two people, following Lindwurm’s instruction. Even while Auric was unconscious, Lindwurm continued to operate.
Lindwurm remembered the people and the road, so this time no one could escape.
The first person panicked and suddenly raised his hand as though he were about to pull a weapon.
Unfortunately for him, a shadow guard appeared in front of him and cut off that hand. At the same time, another shadow guard appeared and pushed him down, restraining him.
The second person turned around, trying to escape.
However, two shadow guards pounced on him, restraining him on the ground.
"What are you doing? I’m innocent!"
"Aaaaahhhhhh!"
They were screaming frantically, but Lunaria simply said, "If you’re innocent, why are you acting suspicious?"
"This... Lady Lunaria, may I know what’s going on?"
"They belonged to a terrorist organization. Unfortunately, there is nothing more I can share with you because the information is classified. However, I’m sure that their actions clearly showed their involvement.
"In addition, the police will handle it soon. I’m merely ensuring that they’re in custody. If anyone gives you trouble because of this, you can direct them to me."
"I understand." The guard captain nodded furiously. He thought, ’It’s best not to get involved deeper. I still value my life.’
"Is that all?"
"Maybe, maybe not. Unfortunately, I could only point out those two." Auric shook his head helplessly.
"Well, if there are more, we will find out soon." Lunaria raised her hand. "We’re leaving."
Cars started lining up in front of them.
In the end, the situation was concluded with Auric and Ellia returning peacefully. Things could have gotten worse if a single key had been missing. Thankfully, Ellia had brought her smartphone, or they wouldn’t have been able to call for help.
"I guess this is it..." Auric closed his eyes, feeling relieved that everything was over. He was... a bit tired.
"!!!" Ellia was startled and turned her head around, finding Auric’s head resting on her shoulder. She just smiled.
Auric had done a lot of things in the past two weeks. The research took a lot of his time, not to mention the interview and all the mess he had to handle in the last couple of days.
He even spared a bit of his time to give her the freedom she was longing for.
Nevertheless, everything was over. They could finally relax.
Lindwurm smiled, looking at Auric. "It’s good that you were able to improve this much. I guess Trevor is very useful to you. Without him, you wouldn’t have grown enough to become a sly one.
"Without that improvement, you wouldn’t be able to come up with such an exquisite plan to escape."
Because of Trevor, Auric’s method became trickier. He managed to fool the enemy a few times, which bought them valuable time to escape.
Lindwurm nodded, satisfied. "Learning truly is your strength. Make sure to keep learning so that, in the future, you will be able to know the full truth about your family and learn about that tragedy."
...
In the safe house, Mathias carefully looked at the documents. "Hmm. This organization is larger than I expected. No, they might be the remnants of the past."
"Hello, Sir." Arnie suddenly entered the room with a tired expression.
Mathias looked at the time and said, "Four hours."
"I did my best." Arnie sighed.
"Well, it doesn’t matter. I have briefed you about the situation."
"Yes. It seems that Auric has suffered."
"Take a look at this." Mathias handed over two papers.
"Hmm?" Arnie skimmed the documents. "This... Is this true?"
"Most likely." Mathias nodded, his expression turning solemn. "This group is not just a simple terrorist organization. They might be the remnants of that..."
"In the past, you helped establish this country, leading the people in the shadows to ensure the stability of the country. At that time, you encountered your biggest problem—an organization called Apocalypse.
"It was an organization that basically worshiped the apocalypse and wanted to cause as much chaos as possible.
"You destroyed them, but..." Arnie frowned.
"Yeah. I couldn’t destroy them completely. They might have rebuilt it. Still, if they were at their previous level, they wouldn’t be acting this secretly."
Arnie pondered. "So, they rebuilt it to a certain extent, but it was still manageable even for me."
"Most likely, but you still need to be careful."
"I have read your file, Sir. They were like cockroaches." Arnie nodded in understanding. "Still, the poison, the barrier, and even Auric... Are they trying to create another apocalypse?"
"Who knows?" He shook his head helplessly. "All I know is that exterminating these bastards will take a long time."
"Are you worried about Auric Elfe?"
"I’m worried about him, but not because of this organization, but because of something else."
"Something else?" Arnie wondered what kind of threat that could make him worry.
"Yeah." Mathias’ expression turned grim. "I’m worried about those foreigners."
"What? Do you mean that this organization has become an international organization? They’re going to send agents from another country to this place?" Arnie gasped.
"NO! The world now knows about the brilliance of my Auric. He is a silver-grade evolution master who has multiple elements. Even Supreme Chief Lucasta believes he could become an all-element evolution master. He even mentioned that he could reach the adamantium grade or even surpass it.
"Other countries will definitely send their people to approach my Auric. They might kidnap him, but knowing Auric, it might be fine because if he were kidnapped, he wouldn’t work for them.
"However! What if they send sexy girls with smooth skin and long legs to seduce him?"
"Sir, aren’t we supposed to talk about the terrorist organization?" Arnie was speechless. "Besides, my Auric? You claim ownership already? For whom? Your great-granddaughter? No, wait... Don’t tell me you want to pair him with Maya?"
"..."
Arnie’s eyebrows twitched. "Sir. Maya is supposed to be... what? 26? 27 years old right now? She’s much older than Auric."
"Age is just a number. Even my wife and I are twenty years apart. It doesn’t matter anymore because people just see me as a 100-year-old guy and my wife as an 80-year-old woman. Does it really matter now?"
"I don’t know what to say. Besides, are you even worried that Auric will be snatched by another country or about the fact that Auric could marry someone outside your family?"
"Hmmm..." Mathias looked down as if he had fallen into deep thought.
Looking at how hard he was thinking, Arnie could only let out a long sigh. "I don’t really want to discuss this."
Arnie just took a step back and looked at the documents. "Well, what do you think about this one?"
Arnie showed a paper.
"Hmmm..." Mathias kept looking down as if he were still thinking.
"I’m seriously going to smack you, Sir." Arnie took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "In any case, I think I can attack them. And this director thing..."
"Do you have an idea?"
"Not yet. However, from the way it’s structured, they may have several people leading this organization. The director just happens to be the one who handled most things, not because he’s the most influential, but because he was the one who was directly involved with their operation. At least, that’s what the documents tell me."
"You can tell all that?"
"Yes, you can tell things from the way they word their communication. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like they’re talking in code, so I don’t have to rack my brain or ask for help." He shrugged. "For now, with all of these, I think I can keep the organization very busy so that they won’t have time to kidnap Auric for the time being. Of course, the other four students will be safe as well."
Mathias nodded. "In that case, you handle it. I’m already retired, so I don’t really want to deal with this messy stuff."
"Speaking of messy stuff. Isn’t Auric going to meet with Supreme Chief Lucasta tomorrow? I hope he doesn’t embarrass himself."
