Chapter 459: Cost of Trust-I

A/N: Today chapter is only one because the author is high with fever

Redrick was shocked on the news. While Angels had their emotions, never had she heard of an Angel who would wish for destruction as Leviathan had said, "Do you know who it is?"

"Not yet but no matter how one tries to closes their scent if they smell stink from the beginning not even the highest perfume made by God would be able to hide their foul fragrance. I will leave my daughter's wedding in you, wish her in my stead," Levi then asked, a tinge of happiness and bitterness could be heard in his words. 

"I will," Redrick answered, "Where will you be going now?"

"Hell," Leviathan answered and he took one step to extinguish the candle by pressing his thumb and index finger to the candle wick. The flame that once danced brightly then disappeared, "I still have some people who I need to torture for what they did to my daughter and wife."

The darkness continue to roll on the sky where a carriage was moving in a lonely path scarce from people. Inside the carriage was two men who were dressed expensively, a cigar on their hands that continue to lit as they removed it from their lips, "Garfon thought by sending a letter like this everyone would nod and advantages would come running to him that would aid in pushing the Warine Lord from the throne?"

The other one laughed while looking at the letter his friend held and took it to his hand. "Seems legit but whether he could win the probability is not much wider than a melon's seed. They should know who they are messing with. If one wish to have a peaceful life the Warine Lord is the person they should avoid."

"But you are not doing as you say right?" The other man asked with a sly smile, "I know about what you did."

"Don't speak about it here," the man warned, dropping his smile as his words coming as a threaten and the other one quickly held his hand up as if in surrounding, "He is getting married the last thing I heard to think he could get marr—" the man's words disappeared to nothingness as he was suddenly pushed to the front of his carriage that stopped all of a sudden. "What is it?!" the man questioned, after opening the wooden window behind him that was used to converse with his coachman. 

"S-Sir... someone is...." the coachman didn't have to complete his words for all of a sudden the door flung open. The startled two men twisted her neck to the door, seeing a man smiling with a wide grin. His lifted corner of lips showed the sharp canines, "Mr. Albert we need to have a little tal-k, Ah!" Austin didn't finish the words as the man whose name was Albert had thrown an object to his face and quickly left using the other door, followed by the other man. "No wait!" yelled Austin but the men didn't heed to his warning and left.

"You should have followed Austin's words," came the voice of Cynthia when the opposite side of the door was opened. "And you will get some lesser punch."

Sound of fist hitting jaw, the catching of bodies to the ground, and the whip like sound caused Austin to scrunch one side of his eyes, "I warned you not to leave from that door. You will regret it." He smiled. 

"That should be enough for now," Cynthia said after cracking a few bones of her wrist.

"Aw! They are black and blue," commented Austin while he crouched next to the two men who Cynthia had told to kneel on the muddy ground. "You should go easy on them, Cy. They are humans, remember."

"No human in this world who had offered their hand to the dark sorcerer should be called as a human," Cynthia rasped her ice cold answer, "What's wrong with you?" She then raised her eyebrow on Austin who continue to rub his forehead.

"They threw me a book. Can you believe it?" Austin pulled the book he held. 

"How kind, they seem to know you need some more knowledge," chuckled Cynthia, finding it funny for Austin who hate studying and book to be thrown by a book. 

Austin rolled his eyes in response, "Let's see, isn't this the letter that Lord Ian mentioned?" The werecat pulled out the letter from the other man from his chest pocket. "The one Lord Garfon sent. He isn't exactly secretive of this, aren't they?"

"It's the reason why Garfon couldn't sleep at night either. That stupid man want to put down the Lord while fearing his life would be snatched by the grim reaper," Cynthia said with a small huff, "Now... which one of you is Alrbet Scoffly? Better answer or else what comes after won't be pretty."

"Compare to how she look Cy is a muscle monster," whispered Austin from the side which earned him a kick on his shin. Austin couldn't escape from the pain and raised the leg which had been kicked and jumped in pain.

"Back to it, will you speak or should I make you speak?" Cynthia questioned while her smile widening over Albert. The man pulled himself away from the woman wanting to run or crawl away from her but failed to. 

The next few minutes went as smooth as the snow that fell from the tips of the leafless branches of tree that grew to far from the road. Cynthia walked away from the side of the carriage where she had put the two men earlier and made her way to the coachman. "Take this," Cynthia said and threw a pocket of money to the coachman who caught it in ease but then fear came in his eyes. 

"W-What... milady, what is this for?" He asked, feeling scared as he had just seen and heard his master being beaten to pulp until the man lost ten of his teeth, according to Austin's lovely narration. 

"Your severance payment. Bring this two men to the closest Church building and repeat after me don't let them out of the carriage no matter what until you meet a church member, got it?" The coachman's nod was quick as he didn't want to nurse the same pain as his master and his friend did. The carriage left while being pulled by the two horses. 

"So he was the one who had proposed that village to be use as a field for the Church exam and passed the news to the dark sorcerer," whispered Austin while rubbing his chin. "But he wasn't a Church member. According to Elly, she saw a key with the man but that person earlier said he didn't have one."

"Something is off here," Cynthia concluded. "The man claim to sent the letter and it was accepted by the other person but the date doesn't match. It's only a day way from when the second examination started."

"And dark sorcerers attack following an intricate plan but a day won't be enough to make a fool proof plan," Austin was quick to form the guess, receiving a nod from Cynthia. "Which mean, that man did work for the dark sorcerer but he was instead use as a scapegoat by them in case anyone would try to find out the traitor who had revealed the location of the second test," he then narrowed his brows, "If Elly didn't see the death shadow, do you think we would have caught the wrong tail?"

"Which mean all this time we have been led by the nose by the dark sorcerer," cursed Cynthia underneath her breaths, "The dark sorcerer we might have been hunting for might be inside the Church all this time, wearing the skin of a normal person."

"Wait," Austin stopped as he found question, "the Church always offer the members drink of with holy water. If the person drinks it, his skin would melt and show his true nature like Elly said what she did during the test in the village."

Cynthia nodded but her eyes were bright as if she had found the answer, "I have two thoughts. One this person is strong enough to resist the holy water which is close to impossible. Or maybe they had come using their true skin and they didn't take others's skin."

"That's possible. However, drinking the holy water should still wound them."

"Not if they drink only a little sip or two. While one sip can cause their stolen skin to melt it won't be enough to wound them," answered Cynthia. Anger suddenly spark on her eyes while her smile widened which shared a cold ruthless smile, "How we have been fooled. They have been living under our nose." An owl then cried in response that had Cynthia to look behind her where the branch of a tree shook as the owl flew from the place.

"Calm down, I know how excited you are, Cy but don't be reckless," Austin said with a worried look on his face. He knew how Cynthia would let her emotions haywire to control her and kill blindly.

Cynthia didn't reply and while her eyes looking behind her, she said, "Do you know. It's said that when an owl cry after one's words, that person would die."

"God forbid!" Austin cried, shaking his head, "you should stop speaking like that. It's only a stupid superstition."

"I know, I was just saying," Cynthia chuckled. They both begin to walk from the spot they have been standing at, "Was the letter the greedy pig sent similar to what we took from the other nobles?"

"Yes, it is..." Austin didn't continue his words for a sudden smell of waft to his nose, "Something is coming. Smell of blood is with them."

Cynthia took out the curved dagger from her back, ready to attack while their eyes squint at the darkness of the path where Austin had smelled the scent. A body begun to form in a blur and gradually come better in picture. Cynthia's eyes widened in startle when she saw it was a woman who was running, her dress was colored in red of blood and she seemed to be running desperately, clinging to her life.

The dash caused the woman to fall on the mountain of snow on the side of the ground. Cynthia quickly run over toward the woman, placing aside her dagger, "Wait!" Austin yelled but he was too late and ran after her.

"Miss?" Cynthia questioned while helping the woman. She reached out her hand and the other woman shrieked, "Don't worry miss, please be at ease. I am Cynthia someone who work for the Lord I promise you no harm should ever come to you again, can you tell me what happened?"

While hugging to her arms, the woman looked left and right, her scattered appearance, and the blood made it difficult for Cynthia to see whether the woman was wounded but she waited patiently for the younger woman to speak as forcing would only scare the woman further.

"I-I am Harriet..." said the younger woman, her black eyes moving upward looking fragile as it hid the true emotions that run in her mind, "M-my village was destroyed and my family was slaughtered by the dark sorcerer. I have just successfully run from the place they locked me in."

Both Austin and Cynthia then looked at each other. The boiling rage rush back to Cynthia as her eyes turned brighter with a tinge of violet color, "Show me that place." She advanced.