"You simply can’t stand still for a single second, do you?"

His wall of blood having protected him and Are from the salvo of lightning bolts, Mael dissolved it and charged toward the masked man.

Not pleased by Mael's sudden arrival and interference, the masked man summoned and unleashed yet another salvo at Mael. But, unimpeded, Mael continued his charge toward the man, summoning orbs of boiling blood, which he used to intercept each lightning bolt flying his way.

"What!?"

In a matter of seconds, each projectile was intercepted, and it was then, a few meters away from the man, that he summoned countless-layered, blood-made chakrams to form a rotating orb of blood that he prepared to fly toward the man like the assailant had done to him.

With a distance of only a few meters separating them, there was nothing the man could do to protect himself against Mael's attack. There was no escape from it. Or at least that's what it should've been if it weren't for a sudden interference.

Two people teleported between Mael and the masked man. It was the teleporter boy and the lightning user man who, upon his sudden appearance, summoned a light spear through what appeared to be a ring artifact, which he flew toward Mael.

Despite Mael's surprise at the sight of teleportation magic, he immediately, in reaction, sent his rotating orb of blood to intercept the spear of light.

Withdrawing to a safe distance from the explosion, Mael prepared himself to once again go on the offensive by summoning several of his blood orbs, while Arte summoned and launched his fireballs at the tree men, but just as they were about to reach them, the teleporter boy reached onto both of his colleagues' shoulders and vanished, leaving no trace behind.

"No, no, no, no!" lamented Arte upon seeing his fireball land against the wall.

Mael, who hasn’t yet fired his shot at the sight of Arte's miserable sight, withdrew his orbs and calmly strode toward Arte.

Reaching onto his cousin’s shoulder, Mael asked, "Arte, can you explain—"

"I must go after them. They got them!" Arte interrupted, his voice full of rage, panic, and desperation.

Seeing his cousin's horrified expression, Mael came to a grim assessment: "Them? "To whom do you refer when you say "them"?"

Meeting eyes with Mael, Arte averted his gaze.

Grabbing him by the collar, Mael asked, "Uta?! Where is she?"

"She was already teleported away; when I arrived, I couldn’t do anything."

"You said, "them." She wasn’t the only one taken away, wasn’t she?"

"They got Ana, as well as two others."

Arte hadn’t even finished when Mael’s fist flew his way, landing on his face. Without sparing a bit of his strength, Mael's punch sent Arte straight to the ground.

"Idiot!"

Still unsatisfied, Mael came atop him, grabbed him by the collar, and pressed him to the ground, lifting his clenched fist for a second punch.

With the event that led to his incarceration, Mael took the decision to cut ties with business involving the Rose Blanche to avoid the matter that had been settled with his punishment taking a turn beyond his ability to handle.

Naturally, despite his actual incarceration, Mael had heard of the series of kidnappings that Rose Blanche was facing, yet, aware that this was something beyond him to handle, he took the active decision to withdraw from the matter. It was to his greatest disappointment that he learned of his cousin’s involvement in that very matter, which he deemed wise to withdraw from.

Upon being freed, Mael did his best to not get involved, at least not anymore, with the Rose Blanche, as the Holy Paladin Freshet, who had this place under his protection, was no more. Not only was he gone, but before taking his leave, he made sure to put in his place the last person Mael would’ve wished to see involved with the Rose Blanche—his cousin, Arte, whom the Holy Paladin had entrusted with the task of watching over his commoner family.

For a couple of weeks after his release, Mael avoided getting directly involved in the Rose Blanche's business until he heard from a reliable source about a suspect individual at the Rose Blanche. This morning, he learned from the same source that the suspect individual was none other than Analyse Bréausler, a noble and his cousin's housemate.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Upon hearing the news, Mael's first decision was to go to the Rose Blanche. He was on his way for the Rose Blanche when he took notice of the commotion caused by Arte and the abductor's confrontation.

Mael's fist was still tightly clenched above his cousin's face; it wasn't the desire to punch for the second time that was missing from him, but still, he tried to not give in.

"Tsk… What was she doing there, pretending to be a flower?"

"She wanted … to help? To stop these abductions... She offered me her help."

"What were you thinking that caused you to accept this? Now look at... tsk, damn it!"

Releasing his grip on Arte, Mael sighed, got over him, and went to a corner to calm his mind.

***

A long moment of silence went on between the two cousins before Arte stood up and seemed to be preparing to take his leave.

"Is it possible to know where exactly you plan on going?"

"Doesn’t it look clear enough to you? I’m going to do something... to take Ana, Uta, Edya, and Uta back," Arte announced out loud, even though the latter certainly lacked assurance."

"And how exactly are you supposed to do that?"

"I don’t know! I don’t know yet! But I will find them, take them home safe."

Mael responded to his cousin's words with a derisive sneer. It was a reaction that made him realize how this situation had caused him to behave in a way that he didn't even recognize himself in his own actions.

Mael approached his cousins and said, 'Arte, I've told you so many times not to get involved with the Rose Blanche. I'll tell you again today, hoping you'll listen this time. Don't get any deeper into this mess. Stand aside. At least this time-' As he reached for Arte's shoulder, his hand was slapped away."

"You want me to do nothing?"

"Yes. Head quietly home, go to bed. Let those who are more equipped to handle this matter handle it."

"By those more equipped to deal with it, do you mean yourself?"

"Yes," Mael lied, as even he had no idea how to fix the whole mess that Arte got entangled in by dragging Ana into it.

"So I am supposed to leave this whole thing in your hands, you who did nothing against the abductions because you were incarcerated for..."

"Go ahead, say it. Killing people? Manslaughter? It was what you were meant to say, right?"

"That doesn’t matter; it was I to whom Master entrusted the duty to look after the Rose Blanche; it is thus my duty to find an end to this. Aside from that, a dear friend about whom I care was kidnapped, so there's no way I'm just leaving this on you."

Mael, despite what had already happened, reached out and grabbed one of Arte's arms and warned him, "It’s not too late to back off... You’re going to regret this, Arte."

"I know, despite that... I have to do this. I hope you weren’t truly hoping I would truly change my mind."

Mael let go of Arte's arm and massaged his forehead to relieve the headache induced by his cousin.

"I’m starting to believe that you’ll absolutely do the very opposite of what I would ask of you."

"That would be your fault for expecting anything of me in the first place."

"You might be right... So what are you planning to do… concretely?"

Faced with this question, Arte sank into a mourning silence.

"So you don't even have a glimmer of a clue as to what to do next," Mael sighed, "at least tell me you have an idea, a glimmer of an idea, of who might be behind all this series of abductions that Rose Blanche has been the victim of recently."

"With the matronne refusing to take this matter to higher authority and having access to such resources as even teleportation-magic users, this couldn't be the doing of just any group but one organization, the church," Arte said quietly so as not to be overheard.

"At least, you're not as ignorant as to not know that."

"You knew about it?"

"Yes, I did, and so should you. Had your unreasonable and irresponsible master taken the time to impart anything other than an inheritance, you would have been completely unaware of the burden coming your way."

"Don’t disrespect Master’s name like that."

"If hearing the truth is disrespectful to you, so be it, but it doesn't change the fact that he is the source of this mess."

As Mael looked around, he noticed people approaching them, curious about the commotion and the conflict that had erupted in this place.

"I don't have the time or energy to break everything down for you, but know that these series of abductions are not only the work of the church, but also the obvious result of the work of one man, Loran Whiteley."

When the name was mentioned, it struck Arte like lightning: "The Archbishop?!"

"Yes, the archbishop; you, like me, know him well; after all, he was the one to whom both of our parents devoted their years of research."

"How is he—"

"This is neither the time nor the place to talk about this," Mael remarked, motioning at the approaching crowd.

"Our focus as of now should be on getting the girls back."

"Yes, but how? Do you have any way of getting them back, as I can assume the Archbishop won’t just give them back by merely asking?"

"There is no doubt that he won’t. Since he is currently nowhere to be found and it is unclear whether this is his personal doing or that of one of his subordinates, it doesn't matter as long as the girls are retrieved."

Arte nodded in agreement with that statement before asking, "You have a lead, don't you?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"It’s not about what it is but rather who and where it is. As of now, let’s head for Rose Blanche’s headquarters, as that should answer the "where" question.