The teleportation platform in Tenfu was the one Musa planned to use and Leo intended to follow his older friend’s lead.
The city was only waking up, with very few people on the streets, thus the trio ignored everyone and directly flew towards its center. Obviously none of them had ever been here, but the teleportation platform shouldn’t be that hard to find – the guarding Nascent soul stage experts should be the indicator of its location. Henrietta was a bit wary of a potential meet with a random immortal, but normally none actively sought a direct confrontation, thus the best they could do was to wear hooded cloaks to not attract an unnecessary attention.
At this point Alice had long woken up and was still in a chatty mood. Henrietta was starting to get a slight migraine from her endless stream of words, but since the main conversation partner was intended to be Leo, he was the one to bear the main burden.
Apparently the teleportation platform in the city was it’s main pride and attraction, because it was located right in the middle of the central square. Besides few passersby there were half a dozen men near it, currently having a heated discussion.
If Henrietta would’ve known that someone had charged over last night and ‘illegally’ teleported away, she would’ve never agreed to come here. Sadly Leo didn’t consider it to be a crucial information or simply forgot to mention to her. But when they arrived at the central square, he was forced to realize he had made an ‘oopsie’.
They did land at the far end of the square and proceeded towards the teleportation platform on foot. Henrietta already began to consider the best ways of quickly disposing of the three middle aged and three elderly men at the platform, when suddenly the oldest one, a hunched, thin elderly with long gray hair that fell over his waist, suddenly threw a glance over his shoulder and froze in surprise. At the same moment Henrietta also froze in her steps, albeit in shock.
She didn’t even curse, just sighed in regret, because from now on things couldn’t get any worse. Leo and Alice, of course, looked at her in confusion, but while juniors couldn’t recognize the elderly, Henrietta knew him very well, or rather, had met him before and knew to the detail everything that was to know about the man according to the intel the Immortal Alliance had.
The awkward pause didn’t last long and the old man in surprisingly clear and deep voice, that echoed around the central square, said, “Gladice! What a surprise!”
“Good morning, overlord Farlow! Long time no see!” Henrietta took off the hood and politely said with a sad smile, ignoring the fact she was called by the hated, long forgotten name.
If it was anyone else she could’ve tried to escape, fight or discuss terms, but now they were completely screwed. Especially after the amicable looking old man will realize they killed of his Blood lord, there was not the slightest chance he would release them no matter what the Immortal Alliance would offer. At that point it would be a matter of principle.
Leo and Alice also guessed the things were bad and looked at Henrietta with questioning gazes, but before she could answer, the old man spoke first. In fact, he took a single step, but instantly arrived in front of them and smiled.
“What an auspicious day to meet you after all these years!” He said, “How have you been? Did Raynolds let you out to take a stroll? Or did you, naughty girl, break Swan’s formations and run off by yourself?”
While Leo’s eyes widened, realizing the old man had just broken the rule number four, Henrietta could only helplessly sigh.
“Overlord Farlow! Is there really a need for these games?” She said. The other five men had already surrounded the trio, but while at least two more of them clearly were immortals, none of that mattered in the presence of the old man, “Why don’t you let us go home? I’m sure the Immortal Alliance can compensate you well enough and you won’t loose out.”
“What’s the rush? We haven’t met in such a long time and you already want to leave!” The old man pretended to look disappointed, “Good thing I happened to be in the neighborhood otherwise you might’ve sneaked away.”
“Overlord …” Henrietta wanted to say something, but got interrupted.
“Imagine, last night someone attacked this place and killed few of my people!” Overlord Farlow complained and theatrically shook his head, “Although they will recover their bodies with time, it’s a long and arduous process and we need to get to the bottom of this.”
While the second part was just gibberish, the first made Henrietta look at Leo in surprise. The old man caught that and said, “Don’t tell me the junior at your side was responsible for that! Naughty children have to be punished, you know? I don’t like it, but that’s the way it goes …”
A brief moment of silence filled the air, but then the old man glanced at the teleportation platform and smiled, “Looks like either Raynolds or Swan is joining us. I really hope it’s both!”
Before the bright flash of light, indicating of someone arriving, blinded the curious bystanders, the old man noticed Leo’s weird expression, bud didn’t pay attention to it. A moment later his own turned rather similar though.
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Instead of one of the Blood lords, in the middle of the teleportation platform appeared a small crowd, around ten people and, without an invitation, surrounded the group while two positioned themselves between the trio and the old man. Overlord Farlow could’ve easily reacted by attacking or rushing away, but he was in a good mood and decided to play a bit longer.
“It really is an auspicious day!” He snickered, “So many old acquaintances visiting!”
“Cut the crap, Farlow!” One of the newcomers barked. Even Leo recognized master Zaraki despite seeing only the man’s back. The way the immortal held his sword made the previously helpless trio feel like there was an immovable mountain between them and the overlord, “We’re leaving!”
“But you just came!” Overlord Farlow said in the most sweetest voice possible. Somehow he was still amused even though their side was considerably outnumbered, “And more importantly – what made you think I’ll let you go?”
Master Zaraki itched to finally take the swing he held back for over a year, but Henri Hubert who stood next to him acted first and said, “We arrived with a proposal that might interest you, overlord!”
“And what do you think changed within the last half month since you sent your last message?” Overlord Farlow smiled back, “Don’t you think I have an extra captive here even though he’s just a junior?”
The patriarch of the Hubert family ignored him and continued, “Besides Blood lord Goodman we would like to offer Blood lord Swan in exchange for my family members you abducted.”
Finally it was time for the overlord to turn serious. While the fat alchemist was theoretically a genius, it was not like he wasn’t replaceable. On the other hand Swan had no equals, at least not within immortal realms controlled by the Army of Freedom.
Overlord took a long pause observing Henri’s expression and a faint feeling something was off began to surface from the depths of his soul. He had always trusted his gut and knew there was a catch, but it seemed to be impossible to figure out what ace the Alliance had up their sleeves this time.
“You’re bluffing!” Finally the old man said, but Henri was already expecting that.
“We both know I respect you too much to try to hoodwink you.” He said, “Besides me giving my word, you might appreciate the fact that this early morning visit is not approved by the head of the Alliance. It’s just us, a couple of family friends who came over.”
“I don’t see both Blood lords present.” Overlord Farlow Shook his head, “That means you don’t have the authority to turn them over.”
“It’s not like you can hold us back anyway.” Master Zaraki finally had enough, “But the kid’s offer is valid. I give you my word.”
Half a month ago one of the conditions that the Immortal Alliance demanded for the hostage exchange was that the Army of Freedom would fall back to the immortal realms controlled by them and within the next ten thousand years would not harass the territories of Alliance. Now, despite them having more leverage, this question was not even brought up – that part bugged overlord even more than the feeling of unease he got.
It was even to the point he began to throw stealthy glances around to make sure no one was setting up formations somewhere in the distance in order to capture him. Although it would be a completely futile attempt, that was the only thing that currently made sense.
Master Zaraki easily guessed the train of though of his old adversary and said, “As I said, there are no tricks.”
“When will I get my two Blood lords back?” Overlord Farlow asked.
“Today. Both.” Henri confirmed, “If we come to an agreement, you’ll have them by the sunset. But I want your promise you’ll return my people unharmed not later than tomorrow. I revoke my demands of compensating the damages to the Hubert clan and Zaraki will make sure the Golden city also will revoke theirs.”
“Fine!” After a brief moment of inner struggle the old man gave in.
Neither of the sides could allow themselves to openly hoodwink the other, because both knew that in such case the other party would go to a real rampage in the opponent’s territories and no one wanted that. The so called ‘war’ between the Immortal Alliance and the Army of Freedom was a kind of a tens of thousands of years old ‘mini-game’ overlord played with his old buddy who currently led the Alliance.
The moment overlord Farlow agreed, Leo found himself on the teleportation platform along side of Alice and after a flash of light they were back in the Golden city. Now only the immortals remained at the Tenfu’s central square and both Henri and Henrietta could heave a sigh of relief. Zaraki was a bit disappointed a fight didn’t break out, but from the very beginning they didn’t come here for that. The small rescue party consisting of the few immortals was thrown together in a hurry after Musa’s message finally was delivered to the head of the Hubert family.
While Henri knew that most of them couldn’t go against the old man with the long gray hair, Zaraki’s presence was enough to keep the overlord in check. The sword genius was one of the few in the Immortal Alliance who could go against overlord Farlow, but the latter was not ready to exchange blows here since it would highly likely lead to destruction of one of his only three immortal realms.
“Then we’ll do as promised.” Henri said and threw something to the one of the overlord’s immortals. Then the group gathered on the teleportation platform, but before they left Farlow stopped them.
“Wait! Who got Swan?” He asked with furrowed brows.
Zaraki and Henri exchanged glances, but it was clear that the thorough investigation that will inevitably follow would reveal who was the perpetrator, in addition to who the accomplices were. There was no need to play games at this moment and disrespect the overlord’s intelligence, but giving him a hint would put the overlord in formal and tiny, but still debt to the Alliance.
“It’s the latest Li’s pupil along with a couple of friends.” Zaraki honestly said. Mentioning elder Li was enough of a deterrence for anyone to seek a revenge – at least an immediate one, “One of them actually was abducted by you and Goodman though he converted the boy.”
Then the group vanished, but the old man was left behind, deep in though.
“Master! You … you’ll want to see this!” The immortal who caught the spatial ring Henri threw him earlier, called out in shock.
Overlord Farlow grabbed the ring only to find the old naked body of his most prized underling floating within. This was a huge loss, but from how both Zaraki and Henri acted earlier he was certain things were not as simple as they might seem at the first glance. In addition, the annoying feeling of unease only got stronger with every passing moment.