Receiving the spear was quite the shock of course.

It was grandfather's spear.

THAT DAMN THING!

I feel less pleased and more annoyed seeing the thing, something I had only seen in paintings.

I also saw plenty of fakes from distant relatives of the family who had tried to use it for legitimacy.

Broke all of them I did, but seeing another of its kind wasn't pleasant.

This likeness had come to haunt my dreams of bureaucratic nightmares, where I had to endlessly disprove the legitimacy of others.

It was made worse by how basic the spear looked, like a basic spear with a particularly large tooth as its tip, and the handle made of an unknown golden rod like item.

Apparently, grandfather had sent that spear to an old friend for "safekeeping" after his death.

If you ask me, he was just being troublesome again. My butler was right, he was a great old pain in the ass.

I still took it of course, because that spear was an S-rank spear.

Yeah, S-rank.

To this day, I'm not quite sure how our family gained it, but there was a reason it was regarded as a family heirloom, something passed down in the family, which gave it such legitimacy.

And then grandfather made it disappear, which led to so much ensuing chaos.

There are even times I wonder if my parent's deaths were in part due to the spear.

I thanked Tiel for the spear before leaving the room as politely as I could manage.

Let's see if I can nudge the route to the boat in direction of my old territory so I can drop this off with whomever has taken up my position, if only to stabilize the territory.

Not like I don't ever want to see the damn thing ever again or anything.

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Watching the turtle walk off with the spear, he was sure it was the right choice judging by the turtle's reaction.

It had a strong reaction, though it wasn't quite what he thought it'd be.

Frankly, Tiel had never planned to gift the spear to the turtle, but to pay him in gold.

The spear, had been meant to go to Earl, his old friend's last surviving descendent.

After his death, the old fart had sent the spear to him with a request.

Hold the spear until one of his descendants proved themselves worthy of the spear.

Doyle might've been a moron and a bit of a buffoon, but he was a responsible buffoon.

No doubt he knew the conflict that would erupt after his death.

The fact his only son died leaving behind his grandson shortly thereafter was proof enough.

Tiel had wanted to go to Earl, but bound by his obligation to hide the spear, and with the understanding that Doyle's butler was a good man that would carefully watch the child.

As the boy grew, and accrued more and more feats, Tiel grew more and more sure that Earl was the right choice, sure that the spear should go to him.

The plan had been to wait for the boy to reach 20 before gifting him the spear, to establish him as the true head of the family. He had managed to do well for so long.

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Another year or so should've been fine. To an elf, it was like another day.

Unfortunately, tragedy took Doyle's whole family this time, as an explosion killed Earl, alongside everyone in the mansion, with only one survivor.

There were whispers to the contrary, but those did not matter.

Earl was gone, and thus he was left without a worthy candidate.

And frankly, knowing the likely cause of what killed his old friend's only grandson, he was uninterested in giving them the spear. Unwilling even. They had failed to not only avenge his dear friends lost son, but had likely killed his grandson as well. Tiel had no good will for them.

So when the spear started reacting to the presence of the turtle, Tiel found it, a small chance for revenge, and a way to properly send Leon off to his dream journey.

This way, that family may never get to see the spear, and the spear would likely be forgotten and lost, forever attached to a random turtle.

Or perhaps the guards may try to buy the spear off the turtle.

Tiel didn't really care, as long as the spear was beyond the reach of that family.

Tiel didn't know Earl's plans of course, and even if he did, he likely still would've sent off the spear.

It had responded to Earl's presence after all.

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I put the spear into my inventory.

A spear of this magnitude would attract attention, attention I did not want. I'm sure even my new traveling companions may be tempted to finesse the spear, and if that did not work, take it.

Better to keep it in secret, a last resort for desperate usage. I knew the thing contained terrible magic, and it was believed the tip itself was from those creatures that lived in Australia, those "kaiju".

Whatever the case may be, it made for a good trump card.

Lenore was a bit curious about what we were talking about. I mentioned the talk about protecting Leon, and how I had been offered some gold in return for my promise.

I suspect that Servante knows I got something more, or at least believes so, but he will not likely prod, thinking it C-rank item or maybe even B.

Nothing major would a guildmaster give a turtle, and yet this one received awn S-class spear, something that Servante couldn't imagine.

So I'm sure I'm safe on that front.

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We were off the next day.

There was a tearful send-off, with many kids sobbing as they sent off Leon.

I kind of felt bad about that.

phhhhbt!

I was displeased with the occasional child who got snot on my shell(because it's really sensitive, eww) but I let it pass. They're just children.

The adults are not nearly as emotional, but they do seem somber, and seem like they're sending someone off to die more than saying goodbye.

Probably because they're sending a child off to escort a high-elf.

As far as they're concerned, they basically are sending off the child to die.

I can't assure them of anything, but I can promise that I'll do my best to protect the child.

This is the promise I made as we waved at them, watching those heartfelt farewells to the child fading into the distance.

I guess our journey begins here then!

----------------------------------------

knock knock

"Come in." Comes the cool voice as the door quietly opened, the butler entering the quiet room.

"My Lord" the old elf bowed as he walked in.

"Report." came the curt voice.

The lord in the room was looking out the window, seemingly inspecting his territory.

He paid the butler no mind, because he already suspected the outcome.

"We've yet to receive any reports from the agents my lord."

"They're likely all dead." the lord commented calmly as he played with a tool in his hand.

Seeing it, and seeing the blinking light, the butler understood immediately.

They used the bomb.

A monster core, magically bound to a far weaker, f rank core.

The result was that when the bomb went off, so too did the F rank magic stone, causing the device to begin blinking, to signify the use of the suicide explosion.

The butler's eyebrows crinkled. "So they're failed then."

The lord shrugged as he put down the device. "I had hoped that we could kill the child early on, but I also expected this as a possible outcome. They were only B-ranks and C-ranks, with an A-rank in the vicinity."

He turned and walked over to a map he had pinned up in the room.

Sip

He took a small sip of wine.

"It'll likely be a few weeks before we find out if the high elf is dead or alive. Send the traveling merchants to investigate the area."

Nothing blatant, traveling merchants were always a good way of subtly investigating things.

"Of course my lord."

Tracing the map, the elven lord gave another command. "They'll be traveling to the boat, so I expect them to take this route, which means we'll likely see them arriving at Pittendsdale in a week's time. We'll place the majority of our forces there"

"My lord what if they take another route?" the old elf couldn't help but express himself, to make sure to eliminate all ways for the convoy to escape them.

"It's unlikely" the lord commented as he sloshed the wine in its glass. "This is a race against time. The last thing they would do is dally, knowing that chances are, all the families would see them dead. I doubt we'll be the only ones sending assassins, and they should know as much as well."

He paused, contemplating this.

"Very well. Send scouts into these areas." he said as he placed pins into the nearby areas surrounding Pittensdale, as well as a few far out areas, like Skip village.

"We should take no chances. The further they get into the empire, the bigger the rebound will be. In order to avoid the brunt of it-"

Looking at the picture of a child in his room, he quietly ripped it into shreds.

"-The child must die now."