Chapter 100

100 Shit.

After ordering Quies, Vertex said, “Snare.”

A person appeared beside him in dark red clothes. This was his imperial protector, one of the strongest blood guards. The second prince said, “Search the city and find me a charming fox. Do not approach the enemy, they might have methods in place.”

Snare nodded and said, “As you command your highness.”

That said, the protector vanished again, his realm was that of a grandmaster. Vulcan said, “What are the chances of those people to have sneaked inside the city?”

Vertex thought about it and looking at the city behind the walls he said, “A very high chance if you ask me.”

The duke raised his thick eyebrow and asked, “Why?”

“Back when you took charge, the city was taken away from the Stella Empire. They had full knowledge of the secret pathways of the city. Given the fact that we were almost at war with them, what do you think are the chances of the enemy to use this beast tide as a cover and invade the city?”, asked Vertex.

The question really stumbled the duke. Ten years ago, this city was still a part of the Stella Empire, and Duke Vulcan had taken it down with his own hands. However, he did not have very good foresight and did not rectify the secret passages leading in and out of the city.

To some extent, he did not even know how many such passages existed in this place. Thinking about it, he said, “I will mobilize my hounds.”

.....

Vertex shook his head and said, “Your hounds cannot track a magical beast. Charming Fox may be weak but that thing is not called a ghost for anything. Let the blood guards deal with it. You mobilize the warriors and mages to search for the secret passages.”

Vulcan nodded and said to a commander by his side, “You heard the prince, take action. If you find any secret passages, inform us first. If you find any clue about suspicious people then inform us. Do not engage the enemy, lest you make them attack you.”

The commander nodded and said, “Yes, Your Grace.”

The soldiers were mobilized, and the civilians in the city were also asked to cooperate with the search and show their identity cards to avoid suspicion. The soldiers were not all warriors with blessings, but normal humans. However, to cover any slip-ups the blood guards were watching things from the shadows.

Although they could sense something to be going on in the shadows, they could not point their fingers at what it was exactly. The people in the city all behaved normally toward them. After a couple of hours, the night began to fade slowly, Snare came back to Vertex and reported, “Your Highness, there is no trace of the enemy.”

The second prince was shocked, he thought and ask, “What is your evaluation of the situation?”

Snare might be covered in cloak attire, but the man was not young. On the contrary, he has been serving as the protector of the princes for two generations now. His experience with such situations was not a trivial matter.

The person replied, “The civilians are all cooperative, although we all felt some unease, the situation seemed to be normal.”

Vertex could imagine a pair of furrowed brows as Snare finished speaking. He looked down at the city, lost in thoughts, the prince turned around and saw the chaotic beast tide outside the city and the effort of the soldiers to kill these beasts or push them back.

Suddenly, it clicked to him, if the outside was so filled with turmoil, then why is there no reflection of chaos on the inside of the city? He said, “Something is definitely wrong, in such a chaotic situation, how can the people be so calm? Did they not even ask about the present situation? Why are they not panicking and anxiously preparing to evacuate the city?”

His words shocked the people. He said, “Go, search every nook and cranny, leave no table unturned, find me the enemy. GO!”

The command was passed down, and every soldier in the reserves was mobilized by the Duke to aid the search parties.

...

While Vertex had decided to turn the city upside down, Valerian was looking for traces of humans in the woods. He had asked the owl earlier, but the result was not fruitful. However, the silver-haired ghost did not give up and was moving quickly through the dark.

A few minutes ago, he finally found a strand of fur. This strand was shining under the pale moonlight as if it was made of diamond. Valerian knew that this strand belonged to the charming fox. He finally found a clue, since beast tamers were not blessed, this strand was the indication that they all took a small break here.

Valerian wanted to make sure that he was going in the right direction when he heard a clicking sound coming from the side. He unsheathed the short sword in an instant and looked in the direction of the sound. The forest may have turned lively at night but clicks were not usually heard. He had spent enough time inside a forest to learn all this.

His silver eyes were trained on the position, suddenly, a figure walked out from behind the tree. Valerian sighed and said, “Why are you here?”

The figure belonged to a driad, who else if not, Olivis. The driads looked similar but they all had distinctive facial features. Valerian could call them out once he had seen them properly.

Olivis said, “I told you, that we are friends.”

“Allies, not friends.”, said Valerian in a cold voice.

The driad did not mind his curtness and said, “Fine, allies. Now, would you like me to help you? Because I do not think the time is your ally.”

Valerian was not a hypocrite, he nodded and the driad continued, “The group of humans you are looking for have not one but two Charming foxes. One inside the city and the other out here. This group of humans belongs to Valkyria. They are here to raise chaos at the border region so that some of their warriors could infiltrate the empire.”

The silver-haired boy did not doubt this explanation on the logical ground, but as he knew what motive did the enemy had, he asked, “Why do you help me though?”

Olivis smiled and said, “Because we do not want the forests to be cut down. The berserks are not in favor of nature. We driads protect nature as well. The situation of the berserk country is just like their name. A group of people who do not understand the meaning of the term order.”

Valerian had read about the Driads in the books and he knew that this ‘Magical’ species despised those who violated nature’s balance. He asked, “Where is the group of people responsible for this chaos?”

Olivis smiled slightly and then he pointed his finger at a big tree in the distance. This was probably the biggest tree in the whole forest, almost reaching the height of twenty meters, and the girth of the trunk could make a bunch of elephants stand together to look insignificant.

Valerian said, “Thank you.” before he ran away from the place.

Olivis was surprised by the eagerness of this boy and mumbled, “As restless as his mother.”

Another voice sounded from the distance, “Well, you forget to tell him that the charming fox can even put humans under a trance.”

Olivis opened his eyes wide and said, “Celtic, you should have said so earlier. Let’s go catch up with him.”

Celtic came out of the shadows and said, “I am afraid it is too late, the council of elders is summoning you. We have been outside the realm for a bit too long, they will send people to search for us if we did not return.”

Olivis sighed and said, “I just hope that he does not come to any harm now.”

That said, he came to the tree in front of him and melted inside it. Celtic was quick on his feet and followed Olivis and melted in the tree.

...

Valerian ran inside the forest and he was heading to the big tree pointed out by Olivis earlier, however, in his mind, he was thinking if he should find the time to inform the people in the city about his discovery, but he gave it up after thinking about it.

He quickly reached below the tree, and found that there was a big area clear of any cover around the big tree, he did not go out of the cover but first ran in a circle around the tree to check if the place was cleared of traps. Only after he was sure that it was safe, did he approach the tree.

Valerian discovered that the group of people before him had made groves on the trunk, which made things easier for him. He climbed with his body stuck to the trunk, but when he reached the crown of the tree, he was stunned, a pair of silver eyes were locked on him followed by a soft sound. The last thought in his mind was, “Shit!”