Orion entered the city quietly.

There was no guards, and no sign of the lamias.

He passed the gate, and ended in the middle of the main street.

A muffled roaring lightning, different from Ivan's, could be heard in the city.

'What's happening? I've never seen a city in this state before. Where are the citizens?'

To be as discret as possible, Orion kept to the shadows.

His hunting capabilities slowly returned after a long time of not using them.

He hid in the shadows and moved silently toward the sound.

'It's getting louder, I'm getting close.'

'If the situation allows it, I'll get the girls before doing anything.'

Learning from his lessons not to do everything by himself, he was ready to avoid getting yelled at.

Slipping through the dark alleys, the sound became quiet all of the sudden.

'Let's see what's happening.'

Orion slowly looked from the corner of the building he was hiding behind.

There, he saw the cause of the noise, and a situation close to Kamala, but reversed.

Florian was in the middle of the street, holding someone by the throat.

The man was lifted so that his feet couldn't touch the ground.

"Do you have any idea of what you did? Is that how you are supposed to display your power?"

Florian's face displayed anger, and disappointment. His body was hurt in many places, with his clothes cut here and there.

"Y-You have... no idea what yo-your speaking... about."

But the man in his hands was in a much worse state. He was burnt everywhere, and missed his left leg and an right arm.

"Then tell me, why are you in such a pitiful state? I didn't drink that mixture like you, so why am I stronger than you?"

"F-Fuck... you!"

"That's all you have for me? You don't even have the decency to answer my question? Then I have no use in keeping you alive."

"N-No... No! Wa-"

Lightning magic flowed from the Florian's shoulder to his hand holding the man's throat.

"UuuuUUUuuuUuaaaaaaaaAAaa-"

The man convulsed strongly, before dying from electrocution.

Florian's grip released, looking at the body falling on the ground.

'Damn. Lightning magic is scary in the hand of some people.'

That's the only thing Orion had in his mind.

After a few seconds, he weighted if coming out would be a good or bad idea, but he didn't came as an enemy, so he came out of hiding after looking around for more enemies.

"Florian Delur, right?"

The man turned around with a frown on his face, before surprised appeared over it.

"Orion?! Why are you here? Wait, are you here to kill me perhaps?"

He shook his head.

"No, I'm not here for that, you can be at ease."

Florian exhaled a long breath of relieve.

"I'm sorry, I'm a little on edge. I've been dealing with a huge problem in Lahro, the city I recovered the right to lead thanks to you."

"The murders of male lamias? Yes, I know."

"How-"

"Read this, it will give you everything you need to know."

Orion handed over a letter with the crest of Hocride.

"A letter from Kamala? Wait, what?!"

He took it gently from Orion and opened it with a flick of his hands, cutting an opening with lightning.

His emotions kept changing while reading.

"..."

"..!"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

*sigh*

"Good."

"Kamala..."

"I see."

Florian folded the letter back, and placed it in one of his breast pockets.

"Orion, thank you very much."

Florian bowed his body very low toward Orion.

"Why are you thanking me?"

Taken aback, Orion asked him.

"Not only did you save my friend, but you chose to come to my aid after hearing the situation from Kamala. How could I not thank you for that?"

Orion smiled at the respectful man in front of him.

'I've already knew how respectful this man was from our previous encounter, but he his more than that.'

After being with Kamala, a human, and an Apostle by name only, he began to place his trust in Florian.

He kept his cautiousness at maximum level as usual, but his previous edge had disappeared.

"After finishing my business with the fairies, I found my way to her city. I wasn't supposed to save her, but I took your words seriously and saved her anyway. I don't regret that choice."

"If my words were enough to save one of my friends, then I am glad. All that work didn't end up in being for nothing."

He walked closer to Orion, limping slowly from a bad cut on his leg.

"Once again, thank you."

Florian stopped in front of Orion and extended his hand.

"You want to electrocute me too?"

Orion joked with a smile on his face as he grabbed his hand.

Florian laughed and shook hands with Orion.

"Hmm?"

When he wanted to retract his hands, he saw that Orion wasn't letting go.

His body grew hotter, and he felt slightly better.

Giving to the feeling, he remained in place without questioning anything, until Orion removed his hand.

"I feel way better all of a sudden."

He looked at his body and looked for his injuries that had been healed.

"What kind of magic is that? This is incredible. Thank you."

"This is my own magic."

After Florian finished examining his body, Orion continued.

"What happened? And who was this man you were fighting?"

Florian turned his head and looked at the burnt body laying on the floor.

"That was the Apostle Leonis. Since Kamala said to trust you, I will do just that, and explain the situation to you."

'He killed another Apostle... alone. He's either strong, or the other was weak.'

Orion kept his gaze on Florian, trying to learn more about him by analyzing his movements.

"I've explained the situation to Kamala in my letter. Two Apostles, Julian and Leonis, attacked Lahro. Their motives are unknown to me, but there is multiple reasons for that."

"Jealousy because I recovered the city faster, my bad-blood with Kiel, me trying to help the lamias, or simple murdering."

"After Kiel died, it's been hard to keep them at bay, but they've gone too far this time."

Orion spoke when Florian left a blank in the conversation.

"Though, I'm the one that killed the guy."

"That you did, and it was gruesome. If I have one thing against you for doing that, it would have been that you did it in front of Olivia, but it is also true that the opportunity was perfect."

'He has guts, I'll give him that. Maybe he thinks that I won't kill him anymore?'

Orion wasn't thinking of hunting Florian, he had no need for that. But he wasn't persuaded yet, because seeing the effort to help the lamias helped his case.

"Why is that a bigger problem than killing one of your rank?"

"Well, this is something you wouldn't know, since you aren't an Apostle yourself, but Olivia obtained a place in our ranks only recently."

"Oh, why is that? I knew she was too young in a place like this at the time."

"Her father fell ill and is close to death, so she obtained the place by elimination. Since she is an ony child, and of age, she was practically forced to join us."

'That's unfair.'

"If you think that this is unfair, than I am with you on that. The same happened for me. My mother retired all of the sudden when I was younger, leaving me to take care of everything."

The previous Lord of Albriar was Florian's mother, a person too shy to come to the meetings of the Lords. So at the first opportunity, she threw everything on her son and stopped showing herself anymore.

'And he reads my mind too. Or we think the same way.'

Orion internally shrugged, as he began to believe that it was easy to read his emotions.

In fact, only Amelia was able to do that, and maybe Karteira sometimes. It was because of the situation that forced one type of thought from people that led them to think the same.

"Anyway, let's get back to the question."

Florian returned to explain the situation.

"Since Kiel died, I've been having these two to deal with with the paperwork of both cities to deal with. Then, I began receiving worrying reports about male lamias dying."

"It was worrying because the women lamias protect the males with their lifes, they are really important, and even the Queen ordered that. The men are a treasure for this city."

"Which is understandable, considering that one out of a two hundred lamia is a male."

A shocking expression appeared on Orion's face.

"I didn't know about that."

"There's a lot of things you learn when you become an Apostle. That damn book has it all."

Florian talked about the Apostle book, which spoke about the secret information of the continent.

He continued.

"That's why, the moment I saw that the case wasn't solved as a natural death, and that even the women lamias didn't understand why it was happening, I knew I had to investigate."

"I used my own power to learn of what was happening, though more lost their life, to my regret."

"After a lot of research around Lahro, I learned of Julian and Leonis sightings in the city, which led me straight to believe of their involvement in all of this."

"Before long, these guys personally went to kill a male lamia. I caught them in the act, saved the man, and pursued them down the road, but they escaped because the man's injury was a priority for me."

Florian looked at his surroundings, and at the houses specifically.

"The next day, I've ordered everyone to stay in their houses and avoid going outside at all cost. They gladly followed my orders. But it's been a two weeks already, and this had to change."

"So I broke my own words, and used 'Lightning Rush' to move around the city until I've found these guys."

"Today, I managed to catch them hiding around here. I immediately attacked, but only managed to capture Julian. Leonis made a break for it the moment he saw that he couldn't do anything."

'That's quite the story.'

"You've made my job easier, you know that?"

Orion pointed at the corpse on the ground.

"I don't care about that. Apostle or not, Hybrid or other faction, if you do not show any respect to the lives of the many living in my city, or cities as of now, I will not tolerate that."

His face was determined. He knew what his work was, and it was to protect what was around him.

"I killed him because he was not doing anything for himself, nor the city he was ruling over. The same could be done for Leonis. These two mostly relied on Kiel for everything."

"Mostly lamia women... which disgust me to no end."

Florian winced at that. He remembered the many reports of missing lamias, and the ones having suffered those acts.

"There's nothing we can do to save those who did horrible things to others, don't you think?"

Orion nodded. He knew what that was, because he himself was working toward fighting Elliot, who took his parents away from him, and killed both factions he belong to.

"Now that I know what is happening, do you mind following me?"

Orion turned around and lifted his hand in front of him, creating a portal.

Florian tilted his head, wondering what was that about.

"You can walk through. Think of it as a door."

He took his words, and walked through. Orion followed right after.

"Damn, it's hot in here."

Looking around, his gaze fell on someone he recognized.

"Florian?"

Kamala blinked a few times, while Florian smiled happily.