Chapter 407 - Kindly Deliver

With Silver's speed, it didn't take long for Cecil and Ian to arrive back at the Silvaria Kingdom's Special Force's forward base camp at the edge of the New World Republic's territory bordering the forest where the ancient ruins were located.

They had left yesterday afternoon and had arrived at the base camp early the next morning. When Cecil arrived at the base camp, everyone was sent into a ruckus since a large flying wolf had just landed in the middle of the camp.

Everyone here was aware of the large silver wolf which had become the symbol of the Silvaria Kindgom after the Merkruz Principality's attack, but everyone was still fl.u.s.tered because in the end, Silver was still a giant monster.

"M-My Lord, y-you've arrived!" Anise, the vice-commander of the Special Forces quickly rushed over to Silver's landing site and hastily greeted Cecil when she saw him jump down from Silver's back.

Ian quickly jumped down and nodded towards Anise in acknowledgement.

"...I heard that my brother disappeared a few days ago..."

"Y-yes, it's been 4 days since the commander disappeared..."

"...Did you all do a proper investigation of why this happened?"

"S-sir, why don't we head to the camp's Command Center? We can discuss things there..."

"...Fine. Ian, go call the rest of the team members over!"

"Right away, Master!" Ian said before quickly turning around and rushing in the direction of his team's tent.

Silver quickly reverted back to his human form and followed after Cecil and Anise who led them to the camp's CC.

While Cecil waited, the rest of the camp's officers quickly rushed into the tent one by one. Even though Cecil wasn't part of the kingdom's government, the Special Forces were once the Exploration Division and they all had participated in the subjugation of the Ancient Hydragon which would frankly, go down in history as one of Cecil's most amazing feats which was publicly displayed.

They all respected the young man currently sitting at the head seat of the command center meeting room even if he wasn't their commanding officer or the kingdom's Grand Marshal, even though in their opinion, he should be.

Cecil didn't say anything and continued to wait. Since he wasn't saying anything, the rest of the officers inside the room, including Anise, didn't dare to speak up. Silver stood next to Cecil, who was seated, and broke the stifling atmosphere by asking what everyone thought, was a thoughtless question.

"So, Master...who're we killing before going on our adventure?"

"..."

"..."

Cecil eyed the carefree-looking boy next to him and chuckled before answering him, "Wait a bit. My disciples are almost here..."

Right after Cecil finished his words, Ian, Medel, and Tyra quickly rushed into the room. When Medel saw their master, he released a large sigh of relief and quickly mumbled something to Tyra who looked like she was about to burst into tears.

After listening to Medel, Tyra quickly reeled in her emotions and the 3 quickly walked over next to Cecil and greeted him with a bow.

"Master, it's good to see you again."

"Mhm, it's been hard on you guys. You can rest assured now. I'll listen to everyone's reports first before we go rescue your martial brother and my family."

"Yes, Master."

"Medel, I've already listened to the report from Ian, so I know the gist of what's happened, so..." Cecil paused and eyed everyone else in the room before continuing, "You've all been given 4 days' time to investigate. So can you tell me what caused my disciple, sister, and brother, to be trapped inside of the ruins?"

Medel hurriedly spoke up and said, "Master, we've been investigating things and although we can't pinpoint the exact reason as to why the ruins were sealed shut and why the monsters attacked, all evidence pointed out that the cause was due to the reckless actions of the NWR's second team that secretly snuck into the ruins after us..."

"..."

Medel continued with the report and Anise, who spoke up on behalf of all of the Special Forces' officers, spoke up from time to time to add more information. After listening, Cecil deduced that it was without a doubt the NWR's fault that something so bizarre occurred on the first mission inside the ruins. Both sides had come to a prior agreement that each side's team would only conduct an investigative sweep of the first and second floors of the ruins and command would be given entirely to Gabriel while they were inside the ruins.

Gabriel's team and the NWR's first team hadn't touched or done anything that would trigger the awakening of the worm-like monsters that nearly devoured the NWR's second team or cause the large horde of monsters to chase after them. It was confirmed that the NWR's second team had tried to retrieve something from within the ruins that most likely caused this.

Fortunately, Angelia was able to swipe the object from them and Tyra was able to take it out of the ruins.

Cecil quickly asked for the object and Tyra presented it to him. The palm-sized orb that they suspected had most likely triggered the sealing of the ruins was quickly recognized by Cecil to be an artifact. From the meticulous and ancient-styled artificing methods, Cecil was able to quickly come to the conclusion that the NWR's second team was indeed the cause of what happened inside the ruins that resulted in it being sealed.

"This is an artifact... the runes in the outer array seems to be part of a larger array that's used to gather mana for the orb's central array...not sure what the mana's supposed to be used for...but there's no doubt, after their reckless actions, they caused the ruins to seal itself..."

Everyone in the room already had their suspicions so once Cecil confirmed this, they were sent into an uproar.

"Those bastards! Their reckless actions caused our commander and the other 2 to be trapped inside the ruins!"

"Damn! Even Miss Angelia was trapped inside!"

"Don't forget that our Commander also went out of his way to rescue those poor sods from the NWR's second team. Because of his sacrifice, they didn't die, but he and 2 of our own are now trapped inside the ruins!"

Cecil lightly tapped the table in front of him and the sound produced by him sending out a small shockwave of his mana, silenced everyone in the room.

"..."

"..."

Seeing him frown, no one dared to speak up. Anise, however, gathered up her courage and respectfully asked, "My Lord...what shall we do now?"

"...First, we'll need to get some justice from—"

Cecil was interrupted when a rude banging was heard from the door. Everyone turned towards the door and they could hear a commotion outside.

It wasn't long before the door was swung open and a few people walked in with some of their soldiers hastily trying to push them out.

"S-sirs, please, we have an important guest—"

"Quiet! We've waited long enough!" One of the people who came in said.

Cecil wasn't able to recognize any one of them so he knew that they weren't part of his camp. Anise stepped forward and quickly yelled out, "Mr. Ivan, we've already told you that—"

"Quiet, woman! How dare you people take something that was rightfully ours! Do you know how many of our soldiers were lost just to get that object?!"

"What did you say?!"

"Your people snatched it from us, we have witnesses! We've respectfully sent requests over to your men to quickly return the object to us! My scientists require it for our studies! Isn't this the main reason why we even bothered to cooperate with you people?!"

Anise gritted her teeth and anger before she coldly replied, "Mr. Ivan, you better retract your words. Did you think that only your side faced casualties?! Our Commander went missing and so has 2 of our—"

"He's only gone missing! Our side has suffered actual casualties! 10! Our nation has lost 10 of our brave soldiers! How dare you weigh the life of our fallen soldiers to only 3 of yours?! And from what I hear, 2 of those are only children! What do you expect from sending children into such a dangerous place?! It's only natural that—"

The rude middle-aged man's words were quickly cut short. Cecil had released his aura and killing intent and locked the area around him. He coldly eyed the man who had just rudely entered and by using only his mana, forced him to the ground.

"Gah!"

Everyone else who had entered that wasn't part of his forces was also quickly forced to the ground, face first. Now that silence had once more ensued in the room, Cecil retracted his aura and killing intent and lightly said, "Get those fools up."

"Y-yes sir!" The officers in the room quickly scrambled forward and forced the people who had entered up on their feet.

"Now, let's hear that again? What did you say about casualties?"

Ivan, the middle-aged man who had been rudely spouting out nonsense from earlier, quickly looked up furiously when he heard those words. When he saw Cecil, the man couldn't say anything. The golden eyes that were looking back at him were cold and unfeeling and Ivan felt like he was staring at an endless void when he stared at Cecil straight in the eye.

Ivan felt like his mind was being swallowed but he quickly snapped out of the trance when a hand suddenly gripped him on the shoulder.

"!"

"Young man, I apologize for the ruckus that my people have caused for you," Another man spoke up.

Cecil eyed the person who had snapped Ivan out of his trance and remained silent while continuing to eye them coldly.

"Young man, isn't it custom that the young should introd—"

"Another word and I'll rip your throat out..."

"..."

Cecil let loose his aura once more and silenced everyone once more. He scoffed when he noticed that the man who had just spoken to him didn't seem to be affected by the pressure that he was releasing.

"Hmph, at least there's someone who isn't trash from your side..." Cecil retracted his aura before continuing, "I'm guessing you fools must be from the NWR? Good, I was just about to go find you people."

"..."

"Ah, I'm being rude, aren't I? Please, take a seat," Cecil gestured for them to sit down and the newcomers were given seats and warily sat down.

The ones who had come bursting in earlier were skeptical and wary of what caused them to be forced onto the ground earlier and they didn't see any of the Silvaria force's officers making a move earlier. They only felt a large pressure crushing onto their bodies which resulted in them being forced heavily into the ground.

The man who had snapped Ivan awake from his trance hadn't rushed in recklessly earlier but he saw for himself what had happened. The young man who was currently sitting at the head of the meeting room had only eyed the hasty fools who had burst in earlier and forced them to the ground.

'This young man...he has those supernatural powers...' The man thought. His name was Alek Hansen and he too possessed these 'supernatural powers'. It's just that it wasn't as strong as the young man in front of him.

He was also the NWR's forces commanding officer, the man who was overseeing all of the operations into the ancient ruins' exploration.

Cecil wasn't aware of who he was and didn't care. The fools that had caused his brother, sister, and disciple to go missing had delivered themselves to his doorstep. It'd be foolish of him to let them get away now.