After sensing Bam's aura spike rapidly several times alongside the ominous aura that had suddenly appeared close to him, Blane contemplated his next move carefully and decided it was best to rush back here.
He couldn't allow the favorite bodyguard of the 5th Princess of the Jaxith family to die in such a place.
His enemy must've been one of the elite members of this secret organization to be able to outclass someone like Bam, who was an experienced warrior so Blane decided to take various precautions.
He activated several skills including, Shadow Stealth, Shadow Movements, Hide Intent, and Conceal Aura. All the skills were predicated on the main purpose of an assassination. He held no interest in a fair fight nor a frontal assault.
"Be quiet and Die."
His movements had been swift and decisive, appearing behind the blood magic user without being noticed, even his words had failed to reach his enemy in time as he instantly deactivated all his other active skills and poured all his Mana into the next one.
Assassinate?
A dark aura coated the blade of his sword as it cut cleanly through the air at the speed of light, cutting through anything and everything in its path before they could even recognize the state of being cut.
The blood lance wobbled in the air a few times before losing its form and splattering on the ground as the Demon elite hesitantly touched his neck to prevent his head from falling off. His blood moving unnaturally as he attempted to heal himself by controlling every single blood cells in his body.
"You—you're? Why is someone like you here— ack!"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Blane had appeared in front of him and his blade had pierced through his open mouth as the man's eyes went wide in shock.
"I said be quiet. Don't think any of those would've saved you."
Blane calmly pulled out his blade from his mouth as his eyes widened as he struggled to retain the blood in his body but ultimately failed and his body dropped lifelessly to the ground.
Blane then walked over to Bam who was slowly losing consciousness and pulled out a rolled up parchment from his sleeve.
"Light Heal."
The scroll burst into flames as Bam's body glowed slightly, his wounds began to heal albeit slowly and he soon regained consciousness.
"You okay."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you for helping me out."
"No problem."
"What about her?"
Blane turned his gaze to match Bam's as he saw the beaten and battered bodies of the guard they had left outside this base and shook his head.
"That was my only healing scroll. Besides, she would need a stronger healing spell to survive such injuries."
"But we can't just leave her to die."
"Sigh... Fine. Here, the Hunter guild should be closer than the castle. Why don't you take her there and hire a healer to save her? I'll handle the rest down here."
Blane handed Bam a few gold coins totaling up to 1000 DCs for his climb back up to the surface. Neither of them knew just how much the Hunter guild charged for its services so this should be more than enough for using a few healing spells or tools.
"Alright. Will you be okay down here by yourself?"
"I'll be fine. Besides, I'm more suited to stealth than you so I don't have to fight any battle I can't win."
Bam's gaze shifted to the lifeless body of the opponent that gave him such a hard time and felt as though he had wasted his breath.
"Right. Stay safe."
Understanding his reasoning and the underlying implications that his presence here would only serve as a further hindrance to Blane, Bam nodded his head as he went and picked up the unconscious Kate and immediately ran out the way they came.
The moment Bam figure had completely disappeared from view, a shrieking laugh entered Blanes ears from a corner of the ruined chambers.
"Kekeke... I thought he'd never leave."
Blane sighed deeply as he turned to the direction that voice had come from, next to the body of the Demon he had just killed was a man, dressed similarly to him and shrouded in darkness.
"Why are you here? I just submitted my report yesterday."
"Kekeke... There's no need to be so hostile. Still, the plans have changed. You have new orders."
????????
Bam finally returned to the Emerald Palace at the crack of dawn as the lights began to spread across the capital city of the Floato region.
His wounds were completely healed by a healer in the Hunter guild but he was still dog-tired. For some reason he had expected the healing spells to completely wash away his fatigue but unfortunately that was not the case.
The fighting had taken quite some time, and so had coordinating matters after the fact. In the end, things had worked out not because they had rescued the emissary but because she had been capable of handling the issue herself.
This was not the best possible outcome considering the Jaxith family would be forced to take the blame for this incident and the elders' opinion on the Royal knights core must've taken a hit.
There was also the issue with the secret organization behind all this. Considering their base had been raided by the knights and their vast inventory of Mana shards confiscated, there was bound to be retaliation from the organization in question.
Given that they had just inadvertently stumbled on a massive operation being carried out by the said organization under the noses of the family, this was bound to be a big deal amongst the nobles.
As such, he was forced to sign his name and that of his mistress on the report he had sent to the Elders.
Of course, there were drawbacks to doing so but there were a few merits to that.
The first was that Athena's reputation would be boosted as the one who discovered the presence of another secret organization working within the walls of the capital city for a while now. In addition, her subordinate had led the charge against that crime syndicate.
Secondly, as his unit was the one to escort the emissary safely to her temporary residence, they would be credited as the ones to prevent an international incident from occurring.
As for Blane, Bam wasn't sure where he was currently. He had gone ahead to investigate the base but was yet to return. Perhaps he had discovered something even more crucial to taking down that organization.
Bam thought about those things as he knocked on Athena's door.
Although his mistress had told him several times that he didn't need to knock and could simply just walk in at any moment, he didn't think that was appropriate, especially at an hour like this.
As he waited for a response, Bam thought about the fight he had with the blood magic user earlier. If Blane hadn't appeared when he did, he didn't think there was anything he could've done against such a foe.
After surviving the brutal battlefield of various wars since he was a child, Bam had thought of himself as strong. He wasn't complacent to believe he was the strongest but at the very least, he had thought he was strong enough to protect his mistress with his innate ability, no matter the opponent.
However, things changed when he met Blane. With the few sparring sessions he had with him he was painfully made aware of how truly weak he was and the last fight was evidence of that.
Bam felt his heart grow heavy as he thought about all the things he would be troubling his mistress with due to his incompetence.
He could not help but think about how much better it would be if he were stronger. It was all thanks to her that he could lead a life like this and serve such a great mistress, yet he could not do more for her.
...Strange. There didn't seem to be an answer... There wasn't one, right?
He had not heard her permitting him to enter. Did he?
Bam knocked again.
This time, he heard a quiet voice granting him entry from inside the room. That put his heart at ease and he entered.
"Please forgive my tardiness, my lady."
He bowed his head low, in apology.
"This is the first time you've been gone the entire night. I was worried you know?"
Bam could hear distinct anger in Athena's voice, which surprised him. His mistress wasn't the type to get angry over anything and this was a first. To think someone like her would be worried about a mere soldier like him made his eyes water.
"You know, because I was so worried about you all last night I couldn't sleep very well, do you plan on taking responsibility for that?"
Bam had no idea how a mere commoner like him could ever take responsibility for causing such discomfort to a princess like his mistress so all he could do was sincerely apologize.
"I'm truly sorry for causing you such unrest my lady."
"Apologizing isn't the issue— well never mind, how did your mission go?"
Bam was going to deliver his report from a standing position, but Athena insisted that he sit down.
Thus, Bam took a seat. There was a teacup in front of him, and Athena poured him a piping hot cup of tea from the magically heating tea kettle before walking behind his seat and leaning forward to hug him from behind.
Bam's face immediately went bright red as he tried to stand back up but was pulled down tightly by Athena's locked arms. Not wanting to hurt her, he hesitantly accepted his fate as he tried distracting himself by taking a sip from his cup.
"Come on now, tell me everything that happened."
Bam then narrated the entire situation to Athena, because he felt there would be people that would need her help.
"What did you think of the emissary?"
Bam was briefly baffled by the first question Athena had asked after hearing the proceedings. However, she had asked, so he had to answer.
"I'm not sure. She felt like someone beyond my comprehension."
"Is that so... I guess even my Bam can't help but be entranced by her beauty huh?"
"I was? What! No! That's impossible."
Bam immediately shot up as he rejected Athena's words with a serious expression before suddenly becoming rather embarrassed for raising his voice in front of his mistress and immediately lowering his head.
"Is that so? You're really adorable you know, Bam. fufufu..."
"Urr... I'm not really..."
Athena chuckled gently before walking to take her seat.
"...Let's leave that aside for now; I have something to tell you. After I received your report, I spoke to my elder brother and it's decided that due to the war, the two criminal organizations have become too active within the capital to the point of daring to kidnap an emissary under our protection. Even the Dark Order has been kidnapping orphan children from the streets recently."
"The Dark Order? I had no idea they'd become active again. My sincerest apology, I let myself get complacent and failed to notice such crucial information."
"No, please pay it no heed. While I feel for the missing kids considering the goals of the Dark Order, this situation has given us the authority to launch an all out attack on all the bases of both organizations. I've had Aurora and her team investigate their hidden bases within the city for a while now, she has come up with a list. Now that we know they're using the tunnels for transportation and transit, we will be able to hit all their bases efficiently before the Elders can protest."
Athena finally let go of Bam as she walked curtly back to her seat before smiling.
"Since you've successfully uncovered a base of the enemy. They would be in recovery mode for a while before they can recover from such losses. We'll hit them again before they can get the word out of the Royal Capital!"
"Understood! I will go rest now, and gather my strength for tomorrow's operations!"
"Please do. I think tomorrow will be quite an exciting day. Please keep that in mind."
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