novelraw Chapter 154: New Dawn
Chapter 154: New Dawn
On that same day, I decided to leave the castle in the form of a reflection. And while I would have loved to do so with my main body, my main body would be better off training and channelling.
The reason I was going out on the other hand was that first, I wanted to accomplish a few things before the Ivos gala event, and second, I didn’t want the whole of me to stay in that castle. I’d suffocate should that be the case.
I swaggered my way to the castle’s dockyard. I happened to run into Mother on the way, but I passed after barely sparing her a glance, and arrived before an airship reminiscent of the one that brought us to the castle the day before.
However, the moment I got close to it, "Your token, your highness?" A royal guard in dark armour blocked my way with his spear in hand.
"Token?" I frowned. Since when did I need a token to access the airships here? Sure there was such a rule that you’d need a token from either the emperor or the empress to access the airships, but I never cared for such, and I didn’t think any of my siblings or cousins cared about it either. And no one dared to stop me or ask for it.
So what was wrong with this one? I decided to humor him a little.
"I do not have one." I said amused.
"Then I’m afraid I can not allow you access to the airships, your highness."
I looked at the guard again from head to toe, and the first thing that came to my mind was; Who was this idiot? I couldn’t even comprehend how he had the guts to stop me.
Did he not remember who I was? Or was he perhaps a new recruit, and had no idea how I was the devil incarnate to the other servants of this castle?
"Come here." I said. The guard looked taken back for a moment, but still took a step forward. "Tsk, come closer, I want to tell you a secret." I gestured with my fingers.
Foolish as he was, the guard actually stepped closer. The moment he was in range, I extended my arms and grabbed onto the breast plate of his armor.
"Do you intend to die?" I questioned in a faux sinister tone as I bared the weight of my suffocating aura down on him. "If you intend to, I assure you I can give you a glorious end fitting for a stickler of rules like yourself." At this point, the young man was already trembling which was quite unsightly for a royal guard of the Darkfell royal family, and... Gods, did he just piss himself?
Granted, the young man was only at the Theta- rank, and wasn’t part of the elite royal guards, but still.
The royal guard you see patrolling the castle, or serving inside the castle were just for show. They weren’t the real deal, and didn’t even come to the real deal in the slightest.
The real royal guards were hidden all around the castle, and wouldn’t show themselves unless something truly threatening approached the palace. They had members that ranged from the Zeta rank to their commander who was at the Beta rank.
Even at this moment, I felt several gazes on me, some I could pinpoint where they were, and most I couldn’t. Even still, neither the visible nor invisible guards bothered about me holding onto the young man.
"Tsk!" I clicked my tongue. "Do not get in my way again." I said, throwing him away like a sack of bones. I couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. I wasn’t an arrogant young master....well, I am kind of arrogant in a way, so forget about the arrogant part.
What I meant was that I wasn’t a cliche young master, and besides, the guy was just trying to do his job, I couldn’t fault him for that now could I? So like the forgiving prince I was, I let him go.
Anyway, that aside, the reason I didn’t want to take my own pocket airship was that while it was undeniably faster than commercial grade airships, it was significantly slower compared to the airships the Darkfells had.
And another thing I hadn’t considered when I decided to buy my own airship was that an airship with the Darkfell sigil wouldn’t be stopped unless it entered the airspace of another empire’s capital, and even then, it would only be escorted not stopped.
If I was on my pocket airship on the other hand, I’d keep getting stopped by other forces the moment I got into their airspace.
After throwing the young man away, I didn’t waste any more time and headed directly to the ships’s cockpit. Tinkering a bit with the controls, I was soon cruising above skies of the Vorde continent.
At the speed I was going, it’ll take me about two hours to reach my destination. I was heading to Silver city, the same city in which I attended the underground auction where I brought my airship and the bands of Legom.
-- Two hours later--
A masked figure shrouded within a dark cloak walked the streets of silver city, particularly it’s herbs and trinket market. With deliberate calm, they located and walked towards an inconspicuous looking door nestled within an alley and knocked in three taps, followed by four, then two, then one, and three again.
As you must have guessed, that masked figure was me. True to my calculations, it had taken me about two hours to get to spira city.
After I got here however, I ran into a dilemma. You see, I couldn’t be seen dropping off from an airship bearing the Darkfell sigil. Especially when I had disguised myself. So I came up with an idea, I used the minimum aether possible, to make a reflection and have it take control of the ship, then I’d depart the ship while it was still cruising above using a parachute like sorcery tech device called a hanger.
Though, I had to do it in a deserted place a bit far away from the city. If I suddenly landed in a bustling place, then people would definitely raise their gaze upwards to see where I came from, and thereby sight my ship.
After successfully entering the city, I headed straight towards the herbs and trinkets market, and then towards the underground market.
After exchanging the code sentence like the last dozen times I was here, the door shifted inwards with a soft creek, revealing a descending staircase, and the man behind the door. It was still the same person from the first time I was here. At this point, we were already somewhat familiar with each other, so I simply gave him a nod and continued to descend the stairs.
I entered the underground market with poised elegance, consciously projecting an aura that seemed to say I wasn’t to be trifled with. I went deeper into the underground city until I came to the gladiator arena. However, that wasn’t my destination. My true destination was the modest building next to it.
The surprising thing was that it’s doors were open, but unlike other buildings, this one had no guards in front of it, or anything that particularly warranted attention. All it had was a small plaque that read, ’New Dawn’ organization.
I walked steadily through it’s open doors, but the moment I did, the doors behind me shut by themselves. But I didn’t panic. Instead, I surveyed the the room. At first glance, it looked like any other lobby with a receptionist’s stand and all that, only that it looked grim as fuck. After surveying the lobby, I turned to my right, and spoke.
"You really like to keep up with your theatrics don’t you, Khloe?"
An alluring woman came out from the darkness. "As an intelligence organization we have to play the part, don’t we, Boss?" She chuckled.
"I guess we do." I nodded as six more individuals began walking out from the darkness.
"How have you all been?" I turned to the six.
You heard right, over the past month and a half, I had worked on creating my very own intelligence organization in this underground market. Not only that, I had also poached some of the individuals that would one day become Alistair’s allies.
Though I didn’t have Alistair’s charismatic nature. I only had to appear in their time of need, help them, and in some cases give them some much needed purpose, and they’d be willing to go to hell and back for me. Of course that wasn’t enough. I also demanded for an aether contract stating they couldn’t betray me which they readily signed.
"Welcome back, Boss!"
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