Chapter 10: Godless Intruders
Garfield didn’t quite make it. He collapsed somewhere in between the door to his room and his bed. The bears didn’t seem to mind as they settled in next to him.
--
The next morning, Garfield woke up to find himself in the bed but under a dogpile of bear cubs and two vampires. He looked around, but Brooke and the princess were already gone. Garfield wrestled his way off the bed and changed his clothes.
Outside the room, his butler explained that guards had come to collect both Brooke and the princess. The staff had brought Garfield to his bed at that time. Fortunately, breakfast was waiting for him downstairs.
Eleha was sitting in the room eating and chatting with Assistant Duke, who was not eating. As Garfield walked in, she called out to him.
“Duke! I humbly apologize for eating in your main dining room despite being a mere hostage.”
“Nonsense,” Assistant Duke replied. “You are a guest of the Duke and it would be absolutely impossible for you to eat anywhere else except for at this table.”
“No, you really aren’t getting it. Hannah captured—“
“It’s fine,” Garfield cut in. “Fortunately, there’s still a bit of room at this table,” Garfield stated as he gestured to the incredibly long, incredibly empty table. “Did Assistant Duke bring you up to speed yesterday?”
“Yes. I’m very impressed by the geological diversity of the Rox region. I believe there is a great deal of potential to develop it. Mostly, these opportunities would not exist where I’m from so it’s quite exciting…”
“Master, you received an invitation earlier this morning.” The butler brought Garfield a fancy envelop. This one actually did not bear the royal seal which was a nice change. Maybe the royal family would leave him alone for a little while. “Normally, we would reject anything suspicious, but I thought you might be interested in this one…”
“Master,” another servant called out as he walked into the room. “A messenger from the palace just arrived. You are requested to meet with the royal family as soon as you are well enough.”
‘There it is…’ Garfield thought privately. “Understood. Please let them know it will be at least a few hours before I’m ready to make the trip. I have some urgent business to attend to.” Garfield held up the envelop having no idea what was in it. The servant, who was none the wiser, bowed and left the room.
Garfield opened the envelope and read the invitation:
Dear Duke Garfield,
I would be honored if you would join me for a private meal at one of my restaurants. There is a matter of importance to discuss, and I’m sure you’ll be quite interested. Please plan to arrive disguised so as not to draw any attention. Details are on the back.
In Love of Math,
B.
“Hmm…”
--
In the Southern District of Bretten, two hooded figures approached a notorious restaurant. Although it famously had ties to the local crime families, few rumors were flying in recent days of any unusual activity. Crime was at an all-time low as a matter of fact.
The pair entered the restaurant and handed an envelope to the greeter. “Yes! This way, please!” They were brought to a private room and invited to sit at a fancy table. A few moments later, a new gentleman walked in.
“You’re that boss, right?” Garfield asked as he pulled down his hood.
“Yes. Thank you so much for coming here at my request. And you are?”
The other person pulled down their hood. “Pandora. I was feeling a bit restless, and Garfield hasn’t come to see my shrine yet, so I insisted on coming with him.”
“Pan—“ The boss started to bend down and pray.
“Oh, stop that. I’m a mortal right now. Treat me as such.”
“If-If you insist…” The boss stood back up and joined them at the table. “Duke, the reason why I asked you meet with me secretly is because you are being targeted by the Secular Union. And Miss, uh, Pandora, is actually involved as well.”
“Hm?” Pandora raised one eyebrow.
“You see, my organization was recently contacted by undercover agents of the Union. They wanted to hire us to help them complete their illegal mission while in Bretten. Of course, I accepted immediately, fully intending to share everything with you.”
“Ah.” Garfield turned to Pandora. “This is why you leave the local crime lord employed rather than exterminating his whole organization.”
“I think you’re just about the only one who could have predicted a situation like this…” Pandora trailed off.
The restaurant staff brought some brunch food to snack on while the boss explained the actions of the Secular Union. Apparently, they had grown wise to all the rumors of divine shenanigans in Bretten and traced those rumors to a certain Duke and his estate in particular. They decided to sneak into the city, investigate, and then eliminate anyone who has ties to the supposed gods, directly or indirectly.
“We’ve been hired to provide them places to lay low, share information about the city and its layout, and clean up the mess after they’re done.”
“How soon until they act?” Garfield asked.
“Since you were reportedly out of the country, I was encouraging them to delay taking any action. However, now that you’re back, they likely will assault your very residence tonight. If you like, I can create some type of a ‘problem’ to force them to delay their actions.”
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“No, I don’t think that’s necessary. If it’s tonight, that gives us plenty of time to prepare.”
“Oh, this is so exciting!” Pandora declared.
--
Shortly past midnight, ten figures approached the rear wall of Garfield’s estate.
“Remember, in addition to the Duke, the bears are targets. There are also rumors of vampires. If we find any, we eliminate them using silver or wood. The fox-girl slaves, dressed as maids, are to be knocked out, only.”
“What if the princess is visiting again?”
The leader gestured towards his own neck with a throat-slitting motion. The other agents nodded. “Go.”
Nine of the figures silently scaled the wall and approached the estate. One softly chanted a spell, causing the rear door to unlock. The group tiptoed up the stairs, encountering no people or obstructions. Things were going just a bit too well.
“According to that boss guy, the Duke’s room is this one,” one infiltrator whispered. Another nodded and eased the door open. From the hallway, a large bed was clearly visible further in the room. There were people under the blankets—more than one. Two small animals were curled up on the bed as well.
Several agents stalked into the room while the rest remained on guard in the hallway. When the lead assassin reached the bed, he held up the blade in his right hand while reaching for the bedding with his left.
--
“Duke, how are we watching this!?” Kay asked, viewing the assassination attempt occurring in Garfield’s bedroom despite the observers being in a hidden room in the cellar.
“This goes into that category of magic I don’t care to explain,” Garfield responded. Yttria, Hannah, and Solana all watched the display carefully without regard for this conversation or for the method behind the magic.
--
The man’s fingers curled around the bedsheets. He yanked them back to reveal three sleeping forms. They weren’t Garfield or his close friends, though. The forms climbed up from the bed while the agent slowly stepped backwards in confusion.
“Gabriel.”
“Samael.”
“Khamael.”
They each politely introduced themselves, voices echoing. The two small animals hopped down from the bed and began growing, returning to their normal size. The first was Kodiak Mountainpelt, the Terrible Bear. The second was Bronzeclaw Bear, a mere grunt compared to the first. The room was now quite crowded.
The agents shrieked and retreated from their unexpected predicament. As they reached the stairway, they abandoned the thought of returning to ground level when they saw the Prime Igneous Demon, Leliurium, ascending with unlabored footsteps. They sprinted into a different wing of the building, only to find their path blocked by several fox-girl maids.
Normally, fox-girl maids would be simple enough to deal with, even if the assassins weren’t allowed to use deadly force. The men didn’t like their odds this time, though. Each of the maids was wielding a large double-ax in each hand.
--
While nine captured agents were being disarmed and locked in a dungeon, one more scaled the eastern wall of Bretten and proceeded northeast. Surely, they’d be searching for him to the southeast, along the straight route back to the Secular Union. His plan was to proceed clockwise around the Elvish Forest, travel south between the Elvish Forest and the Orcish Hills, and enter the Secular Union from the north. He needed to report the mission’s failure.
“Just what HAPPENED!?” he shouted to nobody in particular. He knew his allies were captured, but couldn’t see much from behind the estate. A difficult conversation awaited him back at headquarters.
His night vision was at the peak of what humans are capable of. That was a large part of the reason why he ever entered this line of work. As he ran into the forest northeast of Bretten, the man glanced up and noticed a strange monkey looking down at him from a tree branch. Under other circumstances, he might wonder about the presence of the monkey, but right now he simply regarded it as ‘not a threat’ and proceeded.
“Hah!” a voice shouted out from behind him. He spun around, blade drawn. “I figured leaving summoned animals in random places would help sooner or later. At first, all it did was cause me headaches, though…”
“Who are you!?” the man, clad in black, demanded.
“It was a good idea to escape in a different direction. If you proceeded straight towards the Secular Union you surely would have been caught by now. It was just bad luck that my creature spotted you along this route.”
“Creature? You mean that monkey?”
The monkey jumped down from a tree branch and landed on the second man’s shoulder. He rubbed the top of the monkey’s head in appreciation. “Yes.”
“But how did you get here so fast?”
“I have a lot of questions to ask you. Let’s return to my mansion.”
“The mission is a failure, but I’d sooner die than answer your questions.”
“Why not both?”
“Huh?”
Garfield didn’t actually have specific plans to kill the guy, but he felt like saying that.
--
While Garfield was northeast of Bretten retrieving the last intruder, Solana asked Hannah a question.
“I knew he was powerful but… what is he?”
“He’s Garfield.”
“Uh…”
“You get used to it.”
Solana’s fists were shaking.
“It will make more sense when Garfield explains his background to you…” Kay offered Solana.
--
“Hannah, could you bring everyone back upstairs now?”
“Okay. What will you do?” she asked Garfield.
“It pains me to say it, but I agreed to do a few things that Col was interested in. I’m going to do one of them right now.”
“What will you do!?” Kay asked excitedly.
“It involves the prisoners but… I’ll tell you about it later. I need everyone to leave for this.”
As everyone else left the cellar, Pandora walked down the stairs and approached Garfield. “He’s interested in vampires with no connection to She’Sin, huh?”
“Yes…”
“This is going to be difficult for you, Garfield.”
Garfield didn’t respond. After a few moments, he summoned a legendary vampire using his otherworldly magic. Garfield asked, “Are you able to turn humans into vampires?”
The vampire nodded confidently. The trio walked into the room where the agents of the Union were locked up. Garfield addressed them all.
“There are many ways I can extract information out of you all, but I’ve settled on this one.”
“What is THAT!?” one of the prisoners shouted, pointing at the vampire and not even noticing Pandora was also there. Garfield reverse teleported the loud prisoner out of the jail cell. The vampire and Pandora both looked at Garfield, waiting for the decision.
“…Do it.” The vampire elegantly held the prisoner and bit into his neck using a motion likely practiced over thousands of years. After a few moments, the man went limp and the vampire slowly lowered him to the floor.
“From what I heard,” Garfield explained, “Solana was back up after a few moments. We’ll see how long this process takes.” He turned towards the remaining prisoners who were each white as a sheet. “So, who’s in the mood to answer my questions?”
--
They were talkative. No, they insisted on telling Garfield absolutely everything. He actually had to tell them to drop certain topics he wasn’t interested in. The key information Garfield obtained was that the Union was actually mostly distracted by circumstances along their southern and eastern border, and this team was sent by one fanatical member of the political party that rules over the Secular Union. They shared their exact orders including who their targets were, and how they were supposed to handle fox-girl prisoners.
“They’re not prisoners…” Garfield objected weakly. “All right, that’s about what I expected, anyway. Oh?” Garfield looked down at the collapsed man who was beginning to stir.
“What happened… to me?” The man rose to his feet and attempted to inspect his own body.
“Is he reacting as expected?” Garfield asked the legendary vampire, who nodded. “Hey, you. How do you feel?” he now asked the man.
“I… feel… conflicted. I am powerful, but weak.”
“The heck does that mean?” Garfield wondered. “Who is your master?”
The man looked back and forth between the vampire who turned him and Garfield, confusion evident on his face. The legendary vampire stepped forward to discipline the man, but Garfield stopped him.
“Now comes the weird part.” Garfield dismissed the vampire he had summoned. The much younger vampire grunted and fell down to a crouch momentarily, then stood back up. “Who gave you life after death?”
“I… know not the name.”
“Then,” Garfield continued. “Who is your master?”
“You are, of course!” The man lowered himself to one leg and bowed.” Several of the man’s allies from the Union gasped at this turn of events. Garfield frowned, but he wasn’t surprised.