"Calm down now. You don't want to scare these children, right?" Rudy said with mockery while pointing at a direction to his right.

At the direction Rudy was pointing at, a large cage filled with children came into view for the whole group. The previous number of fifteen children was already reduced to ten.

"Rudy!!!...why are you doing this?" Braum shouted in anger at first but calmed down. He knew that pointlessly getting angry will only serve him a disadvantage in their exchange.

"That is not your concern." Rudy answered coldly.

"The emblem we found in one of the rooms...that was the Hastelfield family emblem wasn't it?" Grant chimed in and asked Rudy.

"That's correct. But they're not involved with this. This is just an old property of my family which I borrowed. " Rudy answered again, seemingly not caring if this information leaks.

"...The missing small statue in the orphanage, were you the one who took it?" Braum asked.

"He was probably the one who took it as I told you before. I saw him from the corner of my eyes making extremely quick movements to pick up something off the ground in the orphanage...I thought it was nothing out of the ordinary." Grant interjected.

"Hahahahahahaha" A sinister laugh escaped the mouth of Rudy.

"Of course that was me. I didn't think you would notice though, searcher Grant. You are truly talented. I had to take that particular statue because it was still filled with our mana and would have given out too many information. But it was so obvious from the start. Why would a knight captain be assigned for this case? The children who went missing are nobodies, they're either orphans or the bastard child of the peasants. Do you think I did it out of kindness? You are truly naive." Rudy continued.

"I had to control the flow of information within this case. I had to make sure everything went smoothly. Do not be mistaken, everything you have discovered so far is information that we carefully selected to be safe enough to leak. But it is still impressive that you did solve our little puzzle..." Rudy finished explaining.

A short silence ensued after Rudy's explanation. Braum was the first one to speak.

"...I have one more question before I kill you...why are you with the order? Who are they? What are you doing to the children? And...why are you revealing your identity like this?" Braum asked.

"It's quite obvious that I'm not going to reveal any of that information...but I'll tell you why I'm revealing myself, my time to be a permanent member has arrived so I am ready to abandon my former life as a knight or as the son of the Hastelfield family. This is the last time you are going to see me...but for another reason...you people are going to die here." Rudy said and snapped his fingers.

4 columns of darkness appeared in front of Rudy. From those columns, four figures wearing dark uniforms and hoods walked out.

"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you but the next phase will soon start. Goodbye!" Rudy smiled, gave an elegant bow, then disappeared with a black smoke that suddenly appeared behind him.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"WAIT! Stay here you fucking-" Braum shouted in anger but Rudy and the black smoke already disappeared.

In the process of the black smoke's disappearance, the children's body parts in the table were also sucked up into the void.

"He's gone..." Urada said in a low voice.

"I think we have a more imminent threat we need to worry about," Kelvin muttered.

That's right. The four dark figures in front of them were entering their combat stances. It seemed the four of them were the close range type as each of them started to form swords from their dark mana.

"Alright, finally some action-" Niko said.

"Stand down everyone. " Braum ordered.

"What?" Kelvin asked confused.

"I will fight the four of them. Alone." Braum said with a tinge of seethed rage in his voice.

"But that would be too dangerous!" Urada said worryingly.

"No buts. I'm not in the mood for arguments. I will go now." Braum said and launched himself towards the four individuals.

In the middle of his charge, Braum already drew his vibrosword out and supplied it with his golden royal battle force. The control of his force seemed to have already improved.

'Elmyra did something to my body...my mind feels a lot clearer and my body feels lighter' Braum thought.

And those improvements can already be visibly seen. The four dark figures who wasted no time taking turns to attack Braum and outnumbered him were playing an in an equal field with Braum.

(CLASH CLASH CLASH)

Braum's swordsmanship allowed him to parry any attack of the four individuals.

(STABS)

After seeing an opening, Braum managed to kill one of them.

"UGH!" The dying member of the order shouted.

'It seems that they are still human in the inside' Braum thought.

Braum continued his barrage until there is only one enemy left. Seeing that he was both overwhelmed and outnumbered, the last enemy started to lift his dark mana sword and stabbed it into his own stomach.

"Wait!" Braum shouted.

The last remaining member of the order killed himself.

"Heh. He must have killed himself so we don't interrogate him. What a loyal bunch." Grant muttered from behind.

"Kaz, Stef, gather the bodies and any evidence," Kelvin ordered Niko and Urada and both of them went to work.

Braum walked up to the cage where the remaining children were kept and crouched down to see their faces.

"I have come to rescue you...don't be scared," Braum said softly.

The children's eyes were still scared. They saw what Braum could do to his enemies. But one by one, they started to stand up when they realized that they are finally going to have their freedom.

In the dark of the night. In a forest outside of Lancester, the figure of a young handsome man was sitting on a large boulder.

"What a beautiful night..."

The young man was in the middle of admiring the large moon and the countless stars above him.

"The cosmos...Oh, how I want to be closer to you..." The young man muttered with a sense of nostalgia.

Suddenly, a figure wearing a mask with a smiling face appeared also sitting beside the young man.

"Rudy...You've done a good job with the children." The masked figure said.

"Thank you, Vastel. Are the preparations for the next phase ready? Am I finally going to be an official member of the council, now?" Rudy asked while still looking up to the sky above, not sparing Vastel even a glance.

"Now now...You are still new. There is still a long way to go until you have the right to be in the council...And you DID make a lot of mistake with giving out too many evidence in this case..." Vastel answered.

"...I apologize. I underestimated them. And with the four of my underlings' presence gone from my link, it seems they are still alive as well. " Rudy said in a regretful tone.

"That doesn't matter now. As long as you don't make any further mistake. You are a talented young man, Rudy. The council needs you. You are now a permanent member of the order. Here is your new mask." Vastel said and gave Rudy a white mask shaped like a fox's head. While still looking up to the sky above, Rudy took the mask and brought it above him.

"A fox?" Rudy asked bewildered.

"Ha...ha...ha...after all, you are good at pretending and deceit" Vastel replied with a sinister laugh.

"Heh. When is the next meeting?" Finally, Rudy turned around to see Vastel but found that he was already gone.

"Tch. Oh well. Time for my next job" Rudy stood up smiling and puts his new mask on.