================================
Chapter 343: Julia
================================
“Stop! All of you, please stand up.”
He almost panicked there. Yeah, he had a habit of pretending to lord over those who he view as one of the enemies, but Siva would never do that to those who had never done him wrong.
Once ordered, the delighted look of the crimson-haired young woman only older than him by a few years boomed on his vision as she and the rest of the Temple Magister-robed individuals stood right behind her.
At another glance, Siva found out that this girl had the same type of beauty as Eleanor; enchanting, attention-grabbing, and very… very captivating.
She fixed her robe and then made a curtsy bow at Siva, “I apologize, Sir Kingsley. It’s just that your very existence itself had been nothing more but a rumour in and out of The Temple’s conversations through the past few years. But now that you are actually here, we, those loyal to the Grand Elder Mage’s ideals, are really delighted to finally have something to say to those factious schemers.”
Her short explanation to the reason why they all knelt that way made him remember Pistareen’s worries regarding the degrading unity of the Enchantment Temple as a whole.
The factions in the capital may have built up some ‘reason’ to the originators of those ‘factioners’ and only a few are actually left who really uphold the mission and vision of the Enchantment Temple.
Perhaps these are those few? He thought.
Siva looked around him and asked her, “So with that aside, why are you guys in here?”
“Ah. I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself.”
“Well, I didn’t care actua—”
Siva stopped midway to his sentence when the girl with the blazing red hair bowed to apologize.
Putting aside the fact that she was pretty, she is, to Siva’s surprise, the kind that didn’t care about her appearances at all. Or in other words, she was the kind who didn’t care about how other people, especially men, will view her.
When she made her bow, her loose robe fell and her healthiness was exposed for Siva to witness.
—my mama!
Siva unconsciously swallowed but at the next instant, just as his mind was about to float, he got an email from Scion.
[Are you alright? I think I just had a vision. There was this fairy who wanted you to enter her house and serve as her servant. I think it’s a trigger for a Quest or something. Just stay for the look out. I will definitely try to play this game as good as you guys so you definitely must not leave me behind.]
Siva subconsciously swallowed again.
“This girl has very sharp senses!”
He looked at the girl who had now straightened her posture, with the after effects of her snappy actions still rippling off her boo —body.
“Dear Sir Knight, my name is Scarlet Carmine, the High Magistrate in-charged of this Mansion’s very security itself. Please, pardon us from disturbing your night walk but may I ask if you have plans to go outside the city at this hour?”
Siva thought and double checked the in-game time on his player panel, and knew that it was only around 8pm. Looking at the city, the street lights were all brightly lit and in some parts, even, were the moving lights of cars and vehicles.
Being in a high ground, the location of the Grand Mansion is indeed very eye-pleasing at nights like these were the clouds were scarce.
In fact, aside from the dimly-lit lanterns around the alleys of the Grand Mansion, there are almost no more lights that could be seen around the area that the entire property was located.
…and the 5km piece of land around the hill is also shrouded in magical traps and formations that made sure the security was as tight as a rock.
Having thought of this, why indeed are these 50 or so people waiting here at this hour?
Even if she’s the Head of Security in this place, with the magical traps and formations placed in the vicinity, is there really a need to put more men to the security detail?
Just as he was thinking of these questions, the 20-something year old lady, Scarlet Carmine, who wore the blue-themed Magistrate Robe intended only for high-ranking Magistrates, spoke to him.
“If you’re wondering why we are here at this time, it’s because Elder Halma was the one who asked me to personally detail your escorts.”
Siva nodded as he understood. Elder Halma was there when he accepted the bribe offered by that Grand Knight for his silence regarding the matter back in the Guard Captain’s Office.
“But as I remember correctly, I didn’t tell Halma about my name. Who told you about me?”
“That should be Elder Barzun Cellini from the Walled City of Aarun. He is, after all, one of Grand Elder Mage’s trusted aides and confidants. But don’t worry, Sir, aside from us who the Grand Elder Mage had trusted to be stationed here in the capital, no one else are aware of your name and your identity.”
Although he was masked, Siva couldn’t hide the displeasure radiating from his shoulders which prompted Scarlet to explain the matter in earnest.
Siva didn’t sigh nor did he rebut her. He just kept his gaze down at her and then said, “Is that so.”
He gazed back to the city, “I am actually planning to go alone this time since the people I have with me are busy with their own things.” Having said that, he glanced back at a courtyard not far from his location where the groups led by Volt and Thorn had been stationed to rest.
Everyone thought that they are the Magic Knights and so they received the utmost treatments that their secretive Knight Order should have.
And yet, having thought about this, Siva sighed as he assumed the role and spoke, “Well, now that we have officially been exposed, I don’t think we will need to stay as low key until now, do we?” He glanced over the girl and she seemed to realize something and bowed down like a good junior.
On her face were questions she really wanted to ask but because she thought that she was in the presence of a superior, she didn’t lose her sense of propriety and overstepped her rank’s bounds.
In the entire big picture of the organization; the Temple is a country, the Grand Elder Mage is the Prime Minister, she is a 4-star General, but Siva is also a 4-star General with a special status of being a direct subordinate to the Prime Minister and no one else… a special force with a special status.
They may be same in rank but the position they hold were much different.
Clearly, Siva’s special rank, purpose, importance, and even mission –as a Magic Knight– is way, way above her own role in the overall picture of things in the Temple. And given her own support in the ideals of the Grand Elder Mage, she would never ever allow herself to make this person feel really uncomfortable.
In fact, if he ever so required it, she would even be glad to discard all of her clothes and warm his bed for him —if it means she could contribute to the progress of the Enchantment Temple and also the fulfillment of the Grand Elder Mage’s ideals.
Such was the level of her devotion and thus, the passionate look and blushing expression in her face when looking at Siva.
Which somewhat makes him… edgy.
“That look in her face is the same as Scion’s when they are about to pounce on their prey. Ah! What would have happened to me if I showed even the tiniest of weakness in front of Amanda?”
“Would you still come if I say no?”
“Of course!”
—just as I’ve suspected; if I show the tiniest bit of opening to this woman, she’d surely eat me alive.
“Then come.” Siva finally sighed and beckoned to the air, a thought command fluctuated, and ‘space’ rippled as shards and pieces of silvery white bits of oddly-shaped metals appeared in midair to join-in into his light armor.
With the final bit attaching itself on his body, the entire light armor became a full night’s armor and its appearance even rivalled the presence exuded by those Knights of the factions in Jeremiah.
Siva made sure that the red cape had the emblem of The Temple in it before walking on to lead her group towards the city.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Of course, she wouldn’t bring them all with her so she left 40 and brought 12.
In addition to that, who knows where, but another knight wearing the same white-themed armor as Siva also appeared around him.
The difference with him and this one is that he had his red cape and hood styled together like a scarf wrapped around his head and neck.
It wasn’t wearing the lose robe of a wizard though and although Siva called it the [Mage], it was more akin to a ninja than an actual wizard.
Siva only had eight BM-Puppets. Of which, five is left in the 200km defense zone around his Asgard that had the [Gunslinger] with an [S-Generator] installed in its body included in the group.
Of those he had installed [S-Generator] directly in its body, the [Smasher] was left with Scion while the [Destroyer] who don’t have an [S-Generator] was left to be her last line of security.
Thus, on him, only the [Mage] was left and unlike its three brothers, perhaps this is the 2nd place in terms of being the skinniest of the four ‘persona’.
This [Mage] is not wearing a Skull Mask. Rather, it was now wearing a red colored Oni Mask that for some reason accentuated its presence and style of appearance.
“My Lord.” The Oni-masked [Mage] bowed like a real shinobi towards Siva, a voice akin to a ghost ringing behind the devilish mask.
That voice scared some of the High Magistrates.
“Hide in the shadows. Do not come until I call on you to come.” Siva coldly ordered. Of course, this is all but a show to establish his character as the mysterious ‘Magic Knight’ Leader, Rex Kingsley.
The [Mage] replied, “As you command” and then stood up, took a step back, and vanished into thin air just like how it appeared.
From beginning to end, only a few of Scarlet’s elements were able to see it but even then, they couldn’t detect how it appeared and left like that.
Of course, it didn’t really disappear into the any ‘shadows’ since it only came back to his inventory.
The difference between the ‘Inventory’ and the [Inventory Plus Ultra] is that the former used a still to be discussed type of magic to create a limited space while the latter used “Space” itself to create a tiny packet dimension directly embedded into the item on Siva’s left wrist —that can expand with the help of EXP points, which gaining is still an alien matter in the near future.
The former had a flash of light upon manifesting its utility while the latter has a ripple-effect in the [space] itself and thus, they all thought they were seeing someone depart with either incredible speed or concealing magic or even, perhaps, an ability.
When Siva turned his head to look at the 12 who were following behind him, he saw on their faces, especially on Scarlet Carmine, a feverish look of zeal that reflected as glittering stars in her eyes.
He saw their armors and frowned.
“This won’t do.” He said and ‘thought’ about it.
Cortana controlled his Player Panel through their link and without the avoidable hand movements to summon the player panel, summoned a few of the BMA’s hundreds of shards left to form around their bodies.
With the sounds of connecting metals with locks, the bits and parts of BMA formed into armors on their bodies that then had the same white-themed armor set as the original Magic Knights.
“This… this… this…”
“I will be going there as the Commander of the Magic Knights. What I want you all to do is to keep your silence and no matter what happens, not one of you are allowed to make a sound. And as much as possible, be as indifferent to everything you’re going to see as you can. Do I get myself clear?”
While the knights of the Knight Orders had their own personal salutes, the High Magistrates of the Enchantment Temples also have their own sign of showing their affirmation.
She placed her left palm gently at the top of her right breast and by this; the other 12 also did the same as they lightly bowed at him.
“We shall follow your instructions, sir.”
“Please do.”
With that, Siva silently ‘fed’ the [BMA Core] on the back of his left hand a Stun E-Grenade by clutching the charge on it.
The [Absolute Domain] silently and tracelessly got the source of its energy and although it’s always activated as long as Siva is online and is wearing the BMA, it was still a habit of his to feed it power even before the 1hr limit hits him.
With that, everyone’s feet floated off the ground, making a few of them surprised and shocked.
The Scarlet Carmine who had a somewhat cheery personality also panicked but she immediately became poised and found out that with certain tiny gestures, she can control her floating direction within a distance from Siva as if she was just walking normally.
Siva didn’t say anything else and gave it another thought which Cortana executed immediately.
“Wear these masks and follow me.” He told them and threw in 13 ordinary white masks made up of just plain NanoCubes from his inventory, as they floated towards the gates of the Grand Mansion and then to the city.
*****
With 14 people floating in the city like that, adding the rumours and the gossiping crowd that went on to tell that they came from the Grand Mansion’s direction, news about the Magic Knights spread like wildfire in but an instant.
The High Magistrates hiding in the disguise of the Magic Knight armour uniform felt proud albeit the fact that they aren’t the real Magic Knights Corps.
A crowd formed and gathered as they went on but they never forgot Siva’s warning.
Behind, there are people who tried to follow them but whenever they approached Siva’s 50m radius, they would always stop and Siva would be looking back at them to release his hostility.
With such pressure, no one tried to bar their path or even as much as approach their cluster so they eventually reached Warehouse 27’s area without any major kind of problems.
In here, they all found that an entire division of knights from The Wall were stationed and when the group led by that faceless knight-armoured man entered the vicinity, the knights all wore the kinds of expressions that spelled antagonism.
It was clear that they aren’t friends and is in fact in the midst of breaking into a real fight in the city.
“Well, that shouldn’t be a wonder.” Commented a passing gossiper. A few people heard this and asked him why and he explained, “Well, I am not aware of what exactly happened but I heard that earlier this day, a King Candidate had the hots for that knight’s woman and tried to work his way on her by using the laws of the Kingdom. Apparently though, he underestimated that knight and even overestimated the capacity of his status so they were both brought to the Guard Captain’s Office.”
“Ah, the kids these days! You give them a square of land and they would think they already own the Kingdom. Tsk tsk tsk.”
“Well, that’s not the end of the story!” someone in the crowd who heard the gossiper talk exclaimed with a know-it-all attitude.
This woman garnered attention and didn’t wait for anyone to ask as she told them, “I heard that even a Grand Knight had to come down to the Guard Captain’s Office just to smooth things up between the King Candidate and that Knight.”
“WHAT?!”
“A Grand Knight had to come just to say sorry?”
“Who knows…”
“By the Gods! Just who is this guy?”
Although they thought that this was just a made up story, it was still a fact that there had been a spreading rumour in the city that a King Candidate had made trouble for himself somewhere in the Western District of the Central Region.
Rumour or not, there is still a possibility to this claim to be true since there are witnesses who saw the events in the Guard Captain’s office earlier this day… not to mention that the person involved in the incident is a King Candidate.
What if this King Candidate was the one to be crowned king? This matter involved the throne to the kingdom so of course, the possibility of the Grand Knights intervening when matters about foreign delegates and King Candidates occur is not to be neglected.
“There are witnesses saying that they indeed saw a Grand Knight going straight to the Office of the Guard Captain right after this incident and that the first people to get out of the office were not them but this knight and his woman as well.”
Many were frightened when someone’s comment that contained these words flew from somewhere.
And then, a devastating rumour began to spread as well right at that same moment: “I heard that it wasn’t a simple matter.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because before the Grand Knight even appeared in the Guard Captain’s Office, High Elder Halma also rushed in first and when they appeared next, he was behind this knight like a good follower.”
“I heard that not only that but even Lady Brea was also just standing behind him like a good pet.”
“WHAT?! Even a King Candidate like her?”
“Could it be that this guy is a high ranking knight?”
“Perhaps this person is not a simple member of the Enchantment Temple…”
“Wait, hold on. I seem to recall something.” At this time, an old person surrounded by his retainers and grandchildren with a familiar knightly dignified pose spoke from amongst the gathered citizens.
“That’s old Tulip!”
“I heard he’s a Young Squire during the time of the late Queen Astarte.”
“He was once a Knight Captain to her army and he retired around two decades ago.”
“It’s surprising that he’s still alive.”
“Well, I’m more surprised he’s even here.”
“Baka! Of course he’d be here. He lives close to the Warehouse District!”
Ignoring the bickering few, a man approached the Ole Knight and asked him, “Cap’n Tulip, can you tell us what you know?”
“Yeah, Ole Tulip, don’t leave us in suspense!”
“I say hold on, young‘uns. This is a matter that concerned a rumour amongst the Knight Orders around two maybe three decades ago.”
Of course, a few were skeptic.
“How did an old tale connected to this?”
“Well…” the old man closed his eyes, seeming to recall nostalgic events of his younger years. “As you all have known, there are ten forces resting in the capital… amongst them, nine have their own factions and Knight Orders while the last one is the Enchantment Temple that doesn’t concern themselves in the matters of the capital.”
“So?”
“Just where are you heading with that, old man?”
“Hold your horses, let me finish. Ehem. You see, while it is true that the Enchantment Temple does not have their military force on their own, just the fact that they are in the capital is enough to put a pressure to its members to join a faction just so they could peacefully exist in the tumultuous winds of the capital.”
“Just get to the point already!”
“Alright, alright… hohoho….. now, as I remember correctly, while the Grand Mansion did not join a faction nor founded their own and competed for power, the branches outside the capital did and on the city they belonged to, at least a few of its members had friendly relations to the local power or even to the henchmen that belonged to the big powers of the countries. In Zenturo, the pressure is actually so big that I heard the Grand Elder Mage was forced to form his own Knight Order to handle missions he can’t give away as contracts to anybody else.”
While the crowd had their own cliques, it wasn’t known when, but for a while now, many ears were listening to the old man’s story.
One of them, in fact, is a disguised individual.
This person had many faces and many identities, but to his customers, he is simply known by this one alias…. [Julia].
On a remote alley 20m away from the main street, wearing dark brown cloak with a hood covering his entire face, his eyes fixed at the leader of the group of knights that floated their way towards the Warehouse 27.
He pulled up his panel window and pulled out an item, an orb, and then activated it and looked at the man, then looked at the gem… then frowned as there was no sign of it changing whatsoever.
“Odd.” He murmured. “Why is it only displaying a blackened revelation? This thing never happened in the past before. Could it be that he’s using an item to protect himself from scrying?”
He stored back the item and gazed at Siva, a glint of sadistic curiosity in his eyes.
“I never thought I would find an interesting target to spy on in this boring place. How interesting can this encounter be? Ah, perhaps he’s one of those Ranked NPCs? Hehehe… this is going to be fun.”
A plan brewing on his mind, he stepped back into the shadows and summoned a cloaking [Form] of black swirling wind that is as black and as dark as the cover of the night sky on his body.
If the leader of the Ebony Sanctuary from Warjillis could see this, he would be very surprised since it was the same illusion-spell their sanctuary takes pride in… only… the difference is that [Julia] had used this spell alongside the activation of a certain weapon that only a select few could have.
.
.
================================
Julia, the Number One spy of Terroa, is a player and a BlackTech user!!
================================