Both An and Sol were stunned by the answer. The brothers were working together to take down Sol? Although it wasn’t much of a twist, the two men had distinctive personalities and conflicting agendas.
In no way was Sol a large enough threat that both men would have to drop their own ego’s and work together. Even without An pointing it out, Sol understood that something critical must have happened in the background.
For a moment, Sol felt helpless. Although she and the Princes were taking pot shots at each other recently, she found it hard to believe it was enough for those two brothers to put aside their rivalries. Her helpless gaze landed on An.
“Hey… Can you just go kill them off? This is absurd. Why are they coming after me so persistently?” Sol’s eyelashes fluttered a few times and her voice turned slightly coquette. “Is this Lady such a sinful woman? Has this Lady ensnared the two most useless heirs under the Royal family with this Lady’s charms?”
Unable to stand her play any further, An rapt his knuckled across her head. “Knock it off, you’re disgusting me. Your parents would be filled with shame to know their daughter is like this.”
She grimaced and coddled her head after the hit. “No need for violence! How else am I supposed to respond to this?! You tell this Lady honestly if you think those perverted lolicons have the perseverance to push aside their egos and gang up on this Lady!”
An was actually tongue tied. Both Prince Roland and Prince Elric were nothing special in his eyes. The men lusted after power and were blinded by anything else. He, too, found it difficult to imagine they were capable of it.
However, after An considered the existence of new Assemblers added to the Prince’s ranks, he felt he had a partial answer. After a moment of thought, An replied: “I think the Princes traded your life for the cognitive model. All the Assemblers I took out in the army showed signs of initial success for the Body Refinement stage.”
An gave a troublesome glance at Sol who only stared back with innocent eyes. Her fluttering lashes asked all the questions her mouth held back on. An’s attention returned to the captive. “How should I deal with him?” Sol turned solemn moments later. If this were normal circumstances, she would have turned the man over to the authorities.
However, the man appeared to be mired in the swamp of conspiracy. Releasing him was impossible. Her thoughts gravitated in one direction only, however she didn’t want to say it. “What’s your opinion?”
An caught that hesitation and thought it was a good chance to break the girl free of her morals. Despite engaging in two massive conflicts with her life on the line and seeing death, the girl had yet to actually kill with her own hands, spooky ghost-like deerish thingy be damned.
Despite being rather confident that Sol would kill when her life is threatened the girl showed multiple times now to show leniency when possible. If she was a normal Lady of a Duke family, such a disposition might be attractive, however An was very clear about Sol’s future.
Holding out a blade, An ordered Sol: “Kill him.”
“Excuse me?” “What?!” Both Sol and the man replied at the same time.
“Like I said, kill him. We can’t let this guy go. He’s obviously in league with the group trying to assassinate you.” Though reluctantly, Sol held the blade in hand and stared at it. Her inner turmoil and conflicted feelings were running rampant.
Out of habit, Sol cycled The Unchained Queen Beast to help settle her thoughts. As her mind calmed down and felt the magic cycle through her system, the conflicting feelings settled and her heart turned somewhat numb.
Silver encroached from the rim of her eyes and the man was wide eyed in shock at the girl’s sudden change in disposition. Her troublesome thoughts gave way to reason and logic. It took only a moment for her to settle herself. A metallic streak flashed through the air and the man’s throat was slit clean across the middle.
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Before blood could even spurt out, An snapped his fingers and the man’s body ignited into a blazing inferno. All blood, screams, bones, or and ash scattered, erasing the man’s existence. Sol regained herself only to find scattered ash where the man was. Her brows furrowed and her hand was slightly shaking, however she didn’t question it further and push the uncomfortable feelings away. Time was of the essence and she had to prepare for the secondary strike.
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Prince Roland was pacing about his room filled with anxiety. His face had drops of sweat lathered across it and his gaze repeatedly turned to the office door as if waiting for the latest news. Prince Elric only sipped his tea a bit before taking a glance at his brother and releasing a sigh.
“Brother, you’re going to damage your health at this rate. Sit down and have some tea with this Prince.”
Despite his brother’s attempts to calm Prince Roland down, Prince Roland continued his pacing. Prince Roland knew from his repeated conflicts with Sol that the girl was abnormal. There was a real, distinct, fear in his heart that the mission would fail.
While trapped in his thoughts, the door of the office eased open and an older gentleman around 30 years old entered the room. The man ignored the two Princes and took a seat across from Prince Elric. There was already a cup of tea waiting for him and despite his arrival, neither Prince greeted him.
It was clear the man was a third party to the two brothers. After taking a few sips of tea, the man’s gaze landed on the anxious Prince pacing back and forth.
“Prince Roland, are your men so worthless that they couldn’t beat a 9 year old girl?”
Without an ounce of hesitation, Prince Roland fired back: “This Prince respects the strength Lady Reviarra holds. Your training method might have improved this Prince’s military strength, however take this Prince’s advice to heart… Underestimating Lady Reviarra is something only fools would do.”
The harsh words drew a curious critique from the man, however as his gaze turned to Prince Elric to see his response, he was surprised to find the Prince’s face solemn. The man couldn’t help but chuckle at the two.
“Where’s all the pride, ego, and confidence you two leaked during our first meeting?”
Prince Elric returned his cup to the tray before responding. His eyes were fixed on the man as if to convey his seriousness. “With enough power, one can typically dismiss the enemy’s strengths. The problem, however, is that there’s a discrepancy between what you promised and what you provided. This Prince fulfilled his part by luring out Lady Reviarra and this Prince’s brother fulfilled his part by providing an army to kill the Lady… As it stands, only you have fallen short of their role.”
“Hahahaha! What can I say? You humans are too weak. Barely 5% of your army was able to cultivate the Militia Burst cognitive model. How is that my fault? I even went out of my way to tailor the models to help boost your numbers. With nearly 40 Assemblers in your ranks, it’d be shameful if you failed to kill the girl.”
Just after he finished, a rapid knock slammed against the office door. Prince Roland and Prince Elric glanced at each other before Prince Elric allowed the servant in. The young man who entered and genuflected on the spot had a pale face.
The two Prince’s immediately felt their hearts plummet. Prince Elric released the man and a report followed immediately after.
“Prince Elric, this servant just received news from the scouting party. The force sent out was completely annihilated. There were no survivors. Although reports are still coming in, the most recent news had Lady Reviarra in Loughzar.”
The room fell silent as the man remained in position nervously awaiting orders. Prince Elric remained silent in thought while Prince Roland instantly questioned the man. “The whole army was defeated? Not a single one escaped? Did the scouts report how they were annihilated?”
Beads of sweat trickled down the man’s face. “This servant understands the forward army was completely wiped out, the scouts were included. Our reports only contain information from spies in Loughzar and extra scouts sent out after the first team missed their reporting cycle.”
Prince Roland fell back into his seat. That was 500 of his men. It was only a twentieth of his full army, however it was still a massive number of men. Prince Elric already reported Sol’s troop size to be under 30 and yet a group of 30 men out performed 500 men that included Assemblers among their ranks?
What drove a stronger fear into his heart was that not a single member escaped to report back. How could a 30 man team prevent a 500 man army from even retreating? His mind was riddled with questions.
While the two Prince’s remained silent, the older gentleman evoked a slight smile. Initially, he wanted to use the two Prince’s to test the waters. Their information only suggested the Lady was of interest, however with this, it appears they struck gold.