[Hexa’s POV]

I carefully dropped some drops of Dire Wolf blood into a bottle of just simply water. I didn’t know the properties of it and it could prove to be useful in the future for potions. Well I was doing that until, Mansoon shouted from behind my door, “Hey, you all better get out here, Elwen and I would like to have a team meeting, this will be about tomorrow’s battle and where each of us will be.” I looked out the window of my room, light was just breaking onto the Capital City, it was already touching the palace standing tall on the top of the city.

I sighed and sealed the Dire Wolf blood, “Another time then,” I nearly said out loud to the vial of blood. I stepped out to see some tired looking friends, “Why yell so early Mansoon?” Saaxol groaned. I looked over at Bud and saw him with a look of pure disgust, he caught me looking and growled at me. Damn, I guess he isn’t a morning person. Even Elwen looked a bit sleepy, Baldr on the other hand looked like he got no sleep with bloodshot eyes and bags under his eyes that reminded me of a bright clear sky.

Mansoon clapped his hands together, “Good to see you all awake, as you should know we will be fighting Calatemps with the assistance of Alexander and Midas’ campaigns. The fact that Elwen is inside of the fight against the large monster should prove very useful for her in order to win the crown. But we need to do more, we need to be the talk of the city… No, we need to be the talk of the country in order to truly gain from this.”

“What do you propose Mansoon?” I say as Saaxol obnoxiously yawns.

“I say we split up into two groups, the Calatemps team… And the Lucifmal cult team.” Mansoon states.

The cult… It was a problem that I pushed out of my mind. They were apparently surrounding the Constantine mansion when we were leaving for the Capital City, but it seems risky going after them by splitting the group up.

Mansoon must have saw the look on my face as he says, “I understand some concerns you may have, but I am working to get other powerful people to help us in battling the cult, we shouldn’t have trouble.”

“I’d like Saaxol, Bud and I to go to the cult side of the battle while Hexa, Baldr and Elwen should fight Calatemps with the army, Elwen should have something cooked up that will shock everyone there” Mansoon smiles at Elwen. Saaxol freezes up like a statue to him being drafted into the cult side of things, I wondered why…

Bud eyes light up, “Ooooo food! I’m excited to see what Elwen has cooked!”

“Shut up Bud.” Mansoon says.

“Hey! Be nice Mansoon! Bud doesn’t understand speaking expressions!” Elwen advocates.

“I don’t care.” Mansoon says with no hint of expression in his voice. I look over at Bud as he rubs his belly with glee most likely fantasizing about food. What goes on in that mind of his?

There was one thing that bothered me about the plan, “Why isn’t Baldr coming with you? He has the black book that the cult uses to communicate with one another, doesn’t it make sense to have Bud or Saaxol in Calatemps team instead of Baldr?”

Saaxol tilted his head, “That black book had communications with the cult?”

Saaxol had been focusing on us not dying during the carriage ride, so it was understandable that Saaxol didn’t know of the black book uses.

“Yes, only Baldr could see the writings however. They send one another messages through that book.” I quickly explained, as Saaxol narrowed his eyes towards Baldr.

Baldr had been quiet this whole time and he finally sheepishly spoke up, “Err… Yeah about that, I lost the book. I can’t find it anywhere…”

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I expected Mansoon to shout out of anger, that book is a valuable source of information against the enemy, but instead he calmly says, “Well that settles that, anymore concerns and questions?”

I raise my eyebrow, “Um. Yes, that black book? Losing that is a huge loss, we should recover that!”

Mansoon shrugs, “What's done is done, we probably don’t have time to look for it, maybe after the battles we can come back and look, Baldr could’ve misplaced it somewhere.”

Mansoon’s whole attitude to a valuable asset being lost angered me. This was out of character for him, normally he would be screaming and shouting but instead he acts like nothing is wrong. What the hell?

“Baldr, let us go look for it ourselves.” I frustratingly say. I take a quick glance towards Mansoon. Something isn’t right with him, but what could I do?

[Mansoon’s POV]

Everything was coming to plan. Just two more pieces and everything will be a cakewalk from here.

I walked up the steps of Midas’ mansion and a guard followed me, making sure I wouldn’t do anything to sabotage anything,

“Nice armor, how many times do you shine it a day?” I say.

The guard side eyed me and I snickered. He points to the end of the hall, “Midas is waiting for you.” I tipped my hood to him and walked into the room. The room had large windows covering one side of the wall showing the beautiful part of the always shining upper ward.

A white suited man sat cross legged in a black chesterfield chair, he held a small fine china plate and teacup. He had a pure smile that sent shivers down my spine.

Behind him stood a man in heavy looking gold armor, only geared up to his chest showing off his freakishly handsome face. He studied my movements like a hawk stalking its prey. He held a sword in front of him; it was the royal armament, Volant The Flying Sword.

With a soothing voice that crept into my ear, “Ah, Mansoon I’ve been waiting for your arrival.” The man in the white suit was no other than genius merchant Midas, from what I know about him he started out as an orphan, and somehow built a merchant empire with him in the center of it all. With all of this power he was able to gain he was selected to become the next possible ruler of the country.

I kneeled in front of the chair and said, “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”

“Anything for the Elwen campaign! She is quite a nice woman, you know.” Midas leaned his cheek onto his hand, “So, what do you need from a man like me?” his eyes narrowed onto me, I felt a strange otherworldly pressure as if something was pushing the answer out of me.

“I need you to lend me some of your strength, I need the holder of Volant to come with us to defeat the cult around the Constantine Mansion.” I say bowing my head.

“Ohh…” Midas gives a large grin and it feels like the entire room went red, “So you want Marshal’s aid? I could do that, but what do I have to gain in doing so?” I heard a small chuckle from him.

“Half of the credit!” I say out of breath as whatever this pressure is starts to grab onto my lungs and squeeze.

“Credit?” I hear Midas chuckle, “I do not care for credit.”

“Name your price then!” a droplet of sweat goes down my face.

“I want the black book you hold. The one you most likely stole.” Midas says pompously. How the hell does he know I have it, let alone knows that I stole it?!

Midas again chuckles, “You want to know why I know you stole it? How I could’ve guessed it was you? I know the true identity of Baldr, and knew he would have the black book. A small bird told him that Baldr had lost something important. It was of course the black book! Now on to how I knew it was you. That is quite easy actually when you factor out each possibility it would only seem like one option was the correct one. The man who has the smarts and initiative to face me must be the one that stole the valuable object.”

I stayed silent, he knew most of my plan knowing almost nothing about me, I stared up at Midas, this was no ordinary man. This was a true rival, something to rival my mind. I stood up. I'll play his game for now, because he isn’t my target at the moment, in fact he must only think I stand for heroic duties. I wonder how wicked Midas is. The black book part of the plan was already completed, so truly I had no issue handing it off as long as we got the holder of Volant, but what bothered me is,

“What is Baldr’s true identity?” I ask.

“Oh you don’t know yet do you?” Midas taunts me, “He’s powder keg about to go off any day from now.”

Midas wasn’t going to give me a clear answer, and I hated him for it. The pressure from my chest subsided, giving me space to breathe.

I took out the black book that I stole from Baldr and handed it to him. A deal that I could eventually regret.