It's been a few hours since Luke has been following Linda quietly amongst the crowd.
She was weaving through the place as if it was a familiar place to her, even though it was her first time here.
Suddenly she turned into an alleyway. Luke looked around for a bit before spotting a building he could use to safely follow her from.
He climbed it quickly and stealthily before using his high vantage to spot Linda moving through the alleyway.
He found her making her way towards the dead-end of the alleyway and staying there.
As she stood there tens of people walked out of the shadows.
In union, they all prostrated before her.
"Rise!" She calmly ordered before the people all got up from the floor in union and knelt before her, not even daring to raise their heads.
"Speak!" She ordered calmly.
Quickly the one at the front raised his head while crossing his arms over his chest. "Your holiness, it is our greatest honour to meet the apostle of the Fake one. We have been awaiting your arrival since the moment we were all informed of your visit a few weeks ago by the angel of the Fake one.
As the followers of the Fake one, we are here to assist you in any way or form. Just command us and we will follow yours and in that way his will." Luke was shaken to his core listening to the conversation below.
The amount of respect the people below showed to his sister confirmed his theory about her being an apostle not to mention an Angel. Angels are beings from myths and stories. No one has so far authenticated the validity of angels, with proper evidence. All Luke knew was that they were the messengers used by deities to communicate with their followers or apostles.
Even him being a person who has participated in the crusade didn't know if angels were real or not. They simply couldn't find any sort of information from their enemies about angels. Such were those mighty divine beings.
"I have been assigned a mission here. My target is the 3rd Prince of the Empire, John Emberson." Luke heart nearly stopped beating hearing her target. 'What the hell is she planning? And that too not just any prince, an imperial heir. I have to stop her somehow before she carries on with this stupidity.'
"We have someone who can assist you with that your holiness." The man at the front spoke.
A person suddenly stood up from the back and walked forward and knelt beside the man. From that person's figure, Luke could see it was a woman.
"Her name is Metilda. She was serving prince John for the past 11 years as his maid." The man explained who the woman was.
'Metilda? Wasn't she among the few servants who got executed for the death of Prince John in the past?' He clearly remembered Metilda due to her infamous brother. The double-edged information broker Matt.
"Was?" Linda asked.
"Yes, your holiness. Linda no longer technically serve prince John due to his weird habits." The man motioned for Metilda to speak.
"Greetings most holy one of the Fake one." Metilda greeted Linda the same way by placing her hands across her chest.
Linda nodded before Metilda started. "Prince John since a child has been staying inside the imperial palace since his mother passed away at the age of 4. He was bartered by his mums' comrades to protect him from the political influence of others till he was 15, in return for their servitude for 30 years, by an oath.
Since then other than studying and being trained in the routines of a royalty he has done nothing else. He was extremely achieving in his studies he had no other redeeming features and no friends, which was a major worry to the emperor. He was delayed from awakening at age of 10 which is the norm for other royal children's due to the emperor fearing he may awaken an award similar to his mother, the unrelenting berserker, and become a threat to his plans.
However, they could only delay this until he was 15.
The night before he was to awaken someone attempted to assassinate him but failed. It would have been a major blow to the emperor's reputation if the assassination had been successful. Everyone believed he had a secret supporter who protected him inside the royal palace.
The next day during his awakening it was revealed that he was a soulless."
'The hell! Prince John is a soulless? Just how much does this group know about him? They seemed equally very well organised, from their extensive information and their agents being even inside the imperial palace.' Luke thought as he started to carefully listen.
"Everyone thought that was the end of him and the end of his supporter. But strangely since the day of his awakening, he started to exhibit behaviours tangent to what he normally does. Visiting the library and administration office staying there for 2 days before coming back.
Strangely the next day, after this even, a cook in the kitchen made something really astonishing. The food was so tasty that John traded the cook to the emperor in return for a store of his choosing in the female market district.
However, the very next day every single influential people in the empire realised they had been fooled along with the emperor and his greatest spy, commandment Albert, for the past 11 years. Under the meek and gentle lamb was a cunning and venomous snake, who started his hunt not out of hunger but of the pure thrill of it."
Luke had thought that his sister's group of followers were really good. Now he realised how dangerous this group of people were. The identity of commandments was closely guarded secret equal to that of award or even higher. Being able to identify and name the commandment meant this group of follower were not on the simple level anymore.
'These peoples information network seems to work at a deeper level than the empires network itself.'
"The day he opened his store was the day the emperor and his butler realised it was John who made the food and not the random chef.
His food had the unique ability to conserve 100% of magi particles in it and thus increasing the magi accumulation of anyone who ate it. The accumulation increased depending on the level of ingredients provided. But that wasn't the end of it, what made his food special was its ability to revitalise someone to their youth." Even Linda was shocked by hearing this piece of information. Luke who had thought he couldn't be shocked anymore was proven wrong again.
A cook being able to return someone to their youth with his cooking. What kind of ability was that?
"So did the emperor make his move on him for his cooking ability in return for his position as an heir?" Linda asked curiously. She became very intrigued with the target her lord has chosen for her.
"No, your holiness. He planned his move so well that he made the whole empire his personal bodyguards and stopped the emperor from making his move on him. It made the emperor and the other nobles in a position of stalemate. If even one of them made their move on him, the others would have pounced on that person and tore them apart. Especially the emperor who had been hoarding the only chef able to conserve 30% of magi particles.
It became an open secret that he was a national treasure. The emperor at first was very restless when he realised John could participate in the heir competition and compete against his favoured son, the crown prince, but all that changed when he realised no would allow John to be an heir, even if the emperor himself allowed it, due to how valuable John was as a neutral party to the others.
Everyone was at ease knowing this and relaxed. Until the plague..."
"My, my, my! A rat eyeing a lions meal." Luke suddenly turned around to block the incoming attack.
*Bang* A loud sound resonated as Luke was pushed back to the edge of the roof. He pulled his body forward before he could fall below.
After balancing himself he looked down to notice all the eyes were trained on him, especially his sisters. A complicated mixed expression ran through her eyes.
Luke ignored the pain radiating from his arm and looked up to observe the person who attacked him.
A 2m tall man with black cloak with scars adorning all over his face and messy hair stood opposite him. The man smiled menacingly as he looked at Luke.
"So, you led me here on purpose?" Luke asked back.
"We had thought her holiness would deal with you. But it seems she has other plans for you." The man smiled as he drew his sword.
"We?" Luke asked back.
"You got strong way too quickly. Other would be very interested in your secret but we have no interest in such trivial details." A lean man appeared next to the buff man similarly in dark cloak. The man held back the tall man's sword.
Seeing him Luke suddenly realised something. "No wonder the mercenaries who wanted my money got strangely stronger as each day passed by." Luke replied to the barkeeper.
"Very observant for someone of your background Luke." The barkeeper smiled as he walked forward to the edge.
"Now let's not interrupt the meeting shall we." The man bowed towards his sister before casting a barrier around the roof as he turned around.
Luke turned around to see that the women have carried on her explanation while his sister eyes occasionally leaned on him.
"Move away from the edge boy. You are districting the holy one." The tall man ordered.
Luke moved away from the edge while asking. "Someone of my background? How much do you know?"
"As much as you want." The barkeeper calmly observed him.
He knew he stood no chance against that tall man, from the first move he made, let alone the barkeeper who seems to be standing on equal grounds with the tall man.
"So, what now? Are you going to kill me?" He asked while readying his distraction, for his escape, now that he is discovered and cornered.