The office was silent as Camille and the old fogey stared each other down. It was a waste of time, to be honest, but I was on Camille's side here. There was no way I was allowing someone who trafficked children and hired assassins to kill me to just walk away from this unscathed. Carmen was gonna regret crossing me.
I would've thought that this Helstrom dude's attitude would get backlash from his own group, but they actually glared back at the Governor. I should've expected his followers to be as unreasonable as him.
“Is that so?” Helstrom replied at last as he waved his hand. At the gesture, his fellow robed colleagues stood up. “If that is your stance, then good luck with your endeavor. The Mage's Guild will not be participating in your mission. I'm sure you can handle it on your own with the help of that dumb brute of a Constable you have.”
Woah woah, I was willing to keep my mouth shut because I wasn't directly involved in their argument, but this arthritis-laden bitch just made the wrong move. Camille saw my expression and was about to intervene, but I wasn't having it.
“We don't need your old bones anyway, you senile old fuck!” I shouted. Once more, the office plunged into silence as everybody stared at me with slack jaws. Even Helstrom was in disbelief.
“That was an unwise move, Mister Bob,” Morgan said beside me, but he was smiling.
“A lowly peasant dares insult me?!” All the windows in the room suddenly shattered as a powerful light blue aura pulsed out of Helstrom. The aura was oppressive and pushed down on everybody in the room. “I will teach you your place!”
Shit was spiraling out of control, but I wasn't too worried. I didn't insult the senior citizen mage out of spite—well, I actually did, but that wasn't the only reason. I wanted to test how my new Class fared against magic, and what better way to do it than to bait an easily riled and arrogant mage?
Some might say that testing my new Class was not worth throwing away any chance of making connections with the Mage Guildmaster, but I wouldn't want to be connected with an asshole like him anyway. He had the very same arrogant attitude as that young noble I tried to kill that set all this shit in motion.
Besides, I already got my worth out of my actions, because I just discovered two important things. One, the aura emanating from Helstrom was made of mana. Two, I could Suck the aura touching my skin into my stomach to replenish my own mana pool.
The discovery was huge. And since I was absorbing the aura, the oppressive sensation I was feeling before I activated my Sucking Skill was gone.
Before I could taunt Helstrom into launching magic spells at me, another aura emerged, this time the signature scarlet of Camille's. The scarlet aura pushed back the blue, but I could tell that Helstrom's aura was more powerful than the Governor's.
“Magus Helstrom!” Camille shouted, her sword drawn. “Cease this instant or I will put you all under arrest for casting hostile magic in my office!”
Before Helstrom could respond, the door to the office flew off its hinges as two heavily armored warriors stomped in. It was the two guards who always guarded the entrance to the Governor's Office. They looked ready to kill as they glared at Helstrom. Like me, they easily ignored the oppressive aura, likely due to their enchanted armor.
Helstrom snorted as he saw the guards, but his aura began withdrawing back into his body. He gave me a cold glare before turning back to Camille. “This is the savage Constable you chose? How low House Grayshield has fallen. Then again, it was my folly to expect much from a Governor who valued peasants more than nobles. What a disgrace.”
Helstrom moved to leave, his cohorts following behind him. I was about to call him a wrinkly prune, but even without looking, I could tell Camille was already staring daggers at my back.
The armored guards looked like they wanted to arrest Helstrom, but Camille shook her head at them. With a nod, the guards returned to their posts outside.
“I've heard of your troublesome behavior, Mister Bob, but I didn't expect it to be this bad,” Morgan said when Helstrom and his mages were finally gone.
“Hey, the old bastard started it.”
“Enough, Bob,” Camille said with a tired sigh. “I told you to cease with your behavior of cursing, did I not? I will be deducting that from your pay.”
Fuck, I forgot all about that rule.
“From now on, you are not allowed to talk in this meeting without my permission,” Camille said to me. “Every word you speak without my permission is a deduction to your pay.”
“Got it.”
“That's two words.”
Dammit.
“As much as I'd like to blame our Constable for chasing away the assistance of the Mage's Guild, their departure was already a foregone conclusion the moment my goal clashed with Helstrom's, so let us not dwell on the lost firepower and return our focus to the mission,” Camille said, and the rest of the room seemed to agree. Some even gave me nods of respect for what I did, especially from Morgan's people. This Helstrom guy must be a big asshole if everyone liked me after talking back to the old prune.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Camille continued with the briefing. “Right now, Carmen's mansion is blockaded by the City Guard. According to estimates, there are approximately fifty mercenaries manning the defense of the mansion, all of them Elites. Because of the high level disparity, most of the City Guard will not be participating in the raid itself, only the Elites. The rest will be limited to ensuring the perimeter is secure. We will be the main force tasked with breaching the mansion and hunting down Carmen.”
“How sure are we that Carmen is inside the mansion in the first place, Governor?” Morgan asked after obtaining permission to speak.
“Good question. As of now, we have no confirmed sighting of Carmen, but we do have reports of his wife being seen inside the mansion. Unless Carmen decides to abandon his family, we expect him to be holed up inside. As for the battle plan, we will try to keep everything as simple as possible.”
And the plan turned out to be really quite simple. It was so simple that I would have liked it very much if not for one thing: I was going to be put front and center to soak up all enemy fire as a meatshield. The worst part was that I couldn't even complain since Camille didn't permit me to speak, and the damn woman knew it.
To my surprise, nobody even seemed concerned for my ass. They just grinned at me as if I got pranked or something, except the prank involved getting obliterated by concentrated enemy fire.
As if reading my mind, Morgan spoke to me. “Everybody here already knows of your powerful regeneration powers, Mister Bob. It may not seem like it, but many eyes are upon you and rumors abound of your prowess. They are eager to see you in action.”
I wanted to tell Morgan that they can fuck off, but I knew Camille was watching me closely, so I kept my mouth shut.
The plan was as simple as it could get to prevent complications, especially since slayers weren't good at mass teamwork like an army. I would be sent in first to soak up all enemy fire and make them waste their resources. Once I reached the enemy lines and began sowing chaos, the slayers would follow behind me. Couldn't get any more complicated than that.
After clearing the property surrounding the mansion, Camille's ninjas would then infiltrate the mansion to scout it out while the rest of us would leave and wait outside the estate walls, which left a few people confused. Officially, the reason why we couldn't breach the mansion straight away was the likely presence of Shadow Guild assassins guarding the inside of the mansion. However, I knew that Camille feared another Siren's Call incident. If the mansion blew up similarly to the brothel and wiped out the raiding force and the Governor, the city was fucked.
Once all the t's and i's of the plan were crossed and dotted, we didn't waste more time. We made our way to Carmen's mansion.
•••••
The estate of House Grayshield was a large plot of land as big as the compound of the Siren's Call located in the residential district of the city. The entire perimeter was demarcated by a two-meter-tall brick wall that was more for aesthetics than defense, and beyond that wall was a well-maintained garden filled with sculptures and hedges, all of it illuminated by magical bulbs that made the entire place look like it was still day.
And in the center of it all was the beautiful three-story mansion that sheltered our target. As far as mansions went, the Grayshield estate was very subdued in appearance, made entirely of brick with a predominantly gray color scheme and minimal designs. But subdued didn't mean ugly. The entire structure looked so simple yet elegant, as if its owner didn't care for ostentatious decorations but still valued proper appearances. It honestly warred with my image of Carmen. In my mind, Carmen was a decadent, lecherous pig of a person who would show off his wealth arrogantly, so to see his mansion to be this simple felt weird.
As for how I was able to see the entirety of the Grayshield estate in all its glory, I was currently floating in the air courtesy of Morgan's Force magic. Hovering more than a hundred meters almost made me shit my pants at first, but it only took me a few moments to acclimate and transform that fear into excitement. It wasn't every day I got to fly. Floating with me were Camille and Morgan as we scouted out the soon-to-be battlefield.
As far as we could see, the mercenaries were concentrated around the mansion itself, with only a token force patrolling the surrounding garden. There were about fifty mercenaries present, which matched our intel. Said mercenaries were staring at us as we watched them back.
“This is suspicious,” Morgan said. “Our intel puts the enemy numbers at fifty, and it just so happens that all fifty mercenaries are outside the mansion? Even the marksmen, who would've been more effective if they were stationed at the upper floor windows, are out there in the open.”
“Maybe they just want some fresh air,” I said.
“The inside of the mansion is likely trapped extensively, which is why they can't stay inside,” Camille said as she stared at the estate coldly, though there was a hint of bitterness there. “To think that Carmen has gone so low as to sully the Grayshield estate as such. I will make him regret it.”
“Say, how come you don't own your family's mansion, anyway? Aren't you the Governor?” I asked.
“The Grayshield estate used to be a joint ownership between Carmen and my father,” Camille replied. “My father was assassinated before he could put me in his will as the inheritor of his shares of the mansion. As a result, the ownership of his shares became a dispute between me and Carmen, one that he eventually won in the Provincial Court.”
Now ain't that a bitch. Property disputes have got to be one of the shittiest situations to find yourself in, especially because they always occurred between relatives.
“Somebody killed the previous Governor?” If Camille was this strong at her age, I could only imagine how strong her father had been. Despite that, the dude still got smoked.
Camille's expression turned murderous for the briefest of moments before going cold. “It is time. Get ready.”
I suppose she didn't want to talk about it, but I'd bet my left nut that Carmen sent out a hit for the man. It also explained why Camille had been so furious when it was revealed that there was an Enclave in town. Imagine having your father's killer setting up shop in your own home and sponsored by your own fucking uncle.
“Are you ready, Mister Bob?” Morgan asked as he floated behind my back.
“No sane person would ever be ready for what's about to happen, man,” I said as I curled myself up into a ball.
Even though I couldn't see him, I knew Morgan was smiling. “You shouldn't have suggested this entry method, then. You are a man of contradictions, Mister Dinkle.”
“I told you to call me—”
Morgan unleashed his magic, and a massive explosion of concentrated force slammed into my back and sent me hurtling toward the mansion like a meteor.