{Few hours after the escape of Linda and Luke from the Banquet- 3rd person PoV}
"I am sorry Luke; this is as far as I can take you. From here on out everything depends on your skills and luck." Saying so Linda slowly let down the frozen Luke after a few hours of carrying him.
"Also, don't ever interfere in my works again like you did today." Before Luke could attempt to say anything Linda disappeared.
As soon as she disappeared Luke regained his movement and his ability to speak.
"Darn!" Gritting his teeth Luke quickly started on his movement.
If anything, Luke new the efficiency and workings of tracking units inside the empire better than anyone, especially award users specialised in the field of tracking and scouting.
He hadn't even been moving for even 2 minutes before he sensed someone was following him.
'Seems like whoever is following me is waiting for back-up. That means he/she is not confident in fighting me on their own.' Luke thought as he quickly turned around and dashed to where the stalker was.
Luke was only confident for 2 main reasons in engaging his stalker; one as stated above his tracker didn't engage with him, and 2 he had sensed them following him in 2 minutes.
Every adept tracker in the empire was extremely skilled, to the point where even Luke who was living his life for the seconds time could not easily notice spot trackers this quickly. In conclusion, this meant whoever following him was a beginner at best.
As he grew ever closer to his pursuer, the light of the surroundings started to reflect off the face hiding in the dark...
'The Doll killer.'
'Why is he here?' Luke thought in confusion, but he did not hesitate in his attack at all after quickly casting a speed boost.
He quickly swung his right arm to Ellis' face, only to his surprise he saw Ellis calmly stepping back slightly to evade his right arm, before grabbing his left arm that was using the feint of his right arm to move closer to him, sneakily.
Luke was surprised Ellis even had enough combat experience to tell block his feint.
Ellis quickly took a big step back this time, while still holding onto his left fist, and swung his left leg boosted by what he was assuming a strength boost spell.
With no limbs left to properly guard or even capable to move out of the way, Luke casted a Rank 2 defence spell.
Unfortunately, he wasn't a low capacity user; if he was he could have a directed the whole spell to be protecting just the area where Ellis was about to strike, thus in return increasing the amount of defence provided by the spell.
Ellis' leg met his defence spell before Luke's eyes widened in wonder not shock. 'The flip is with the strength of this maniac. Even with a rank 1 strength boost, it should not damage the rank 2 defence spell this much.'
However, unknown to Luke was the fact that along with that rank 1 strength boost was the pure physical strength Ellis gained from placing his points into 'physical capabilities' from the game realm.
Seeing that his attack had not done enough damage, Ellis quickly released Luke before moving back into a safe distance.
'Looks like I have to get serious!'
'He is more dangerous than I thought!' Both Luke and Ellis thought as they calculated.
Luke suddenly drew his sword while Ellis conjured an ice spike.
Without any hesitation, both swung, but unexpectedly both weapons didn't clash.
Instead what happened to Ellis' surprise was the wave from both their weapons clashing before both nullified each other.
"Seems like I just awakened as a sword whisperer." Law smiled in relief.
He had a feeling inside him whenever he had been using his sword for the past few times, especially in his final moments at his last life. It was like the sword was telling/ guiding him on how to move it. He had been ignoring this feeling for a while now.
But after seeing Ellis draw his sword, which provoked his memory of Ellis' match and his enthronement as a sword whisperer, he had decided to take a gamble, even though he knew it was a reckless move (what to say bad habits take a long time to get rid of, especially those carried over from his past life- the ones that put his life in danger).
'It seems my past experience with swords carried over in this life as well.' Luke thought in relief.
"Indeed, you did. But I am afraid it's not the time for congratulations." The doll killer finally spoke after their encounter.
"I presume it is pointless to say, come quietly with me, right?" Ellis asked.
As for his answer was another wave launched towards him by Luke.
Ellis launched his own wave before moving out of the way.
'Now how did that sword lover do it?
Something to do with covering the sword with your magi particles in order to increase the strength and speed of waves.
The more magi particles that are shrouded in the sword the greater the increase in strength and speed of the waves.' Luke quickly remembered what one of his colleagues who was a sword whisperer in his last life told him.
Control which was gained from practice was important for this certain application, but he could currently afford to ignore that with his overwhelming large magi particles.
As a high capacity user of rank 3 facing a rank 2 capacity user who Luke knew didn't have any sort of capacity, this was all he needed.
Quickly Luke covered the sword in his magi particles crudely, before sending another wave to intercept Ellis' waves.
To Ellis' shock, his wave was destroyed and he quickly dodged the much faster and stronger wave.
Now Luke who was getting high on the feeling of awakening as a sword whisperer stared to continuously throw waves at Ellis without stopping.
Ellis, seeing the powerful waves launched by a rank 3 mage, quickly casted a rank 2-speed boost in annoyance before focusing on dodging the waves, instead of pointlessly countering.
As time went on the surroundings were slowly getting shredded by the continuous barrage of sword waves released by Luke.
After a few minutes of continuous dodging suddenly Luke stopped his assault.
It wasn't because he ran out of magi or was about to do deliver the finishing blow, but rather he was forced to stop by a hand on his sword arm.
"Now that is a good boy, or was it goodbye?" Was the last thing Luke heard before Archer knocked Luke out.
Archer caught the teenager as he fell back, before turning towards a panting Ellis.
"Good work, we are free from eyes for quite a while, due to his highness." Archer informed to which Ellis nodded in thanks before he slumped down on the floor for a few mins to regain his lost energy.
"When did awakening as sword whisperer become so easy these days?" Archer muttered in annoyance before he motioned his arms in the air.
Suddenly few people in the shadows moved in as they started repairing the surrounding damage.
---------------------------
{Dexter's residence (Few hours after Luke's' interrogation)- Ez PoV}
"When did you learn the holy language?" Maximus asked after I finished detailing what Dan had told me and the reasoning behind hiring Luke.
"Few hours ago." I replied as I got comfortable on the sofa before laying down on it.
"Impossible! How can you learn a language in a few hours time?" Titus shouted.
"Yeah, that is right, it's impossible." Hearing my answer surprised Titus, who seemed as if he was ready for whatever counter I had to his question.
"Impossible for me to take hours to learn a language when I only need a few minutes, especially when I was really tired." I smirked seeing Titus' annoyed face.
Before Titus could carry on arguing Maximus interrupted. "Titus calm down."
Titus turned towards Maximus awaiting his explanation. "After what he did with the grey zone with his head a few weeks ago, we shouldn't be as surprised at the fact that he learned a new language in minutes using that same head." Maximus smiled.
"Looks like, I don't need to convince you guys. That's good." I yawned before stretching.
"So, what now?" Dexter asked as he sat in a corner with his usual poker face.
"Now it is time to bring forth some preparations before I start to lose my sleeping time due to senseless attacks and espionage on the empire." I answered.
'Seriously people, just leave me alone. You will find that I am harmless as a kitten when left alone.' I thought in annoyance.
"Before that, don't you think you need to take care of the groups of people you pissed off a few days ago?" Dexter asked as he sipped whatever beverage was on that white porcelain cup.
"You kidding me?" I asked clearly irritated by the question.
Dexter along with the other two remained silent, as Archer poured some kind of drink to Dexter's cup.
"Aww, man... Do I have to? Can't I just claim mental trauma/ PTSD from an assassination attempt and get an extension for the meeting by another few weeks?" I asked in annoyance remembering the promise I made to those annoying nobles/ merchants/ magis.
Receiving the silent treatment from them I knew my answer.
'Man, sometimes I wonder if I should have taken the harder and pacifist path. But that meant more work which equals less sleep... probably not' I thought as I drifted off to sleep.
---------------------------
{At a random place in the empire(few hours before the banquet)- 3rd person PoV}
"See you tomorrow." The man left the embrace of the naked women as they both stood up and dressed properly inside the abandoned building inside the alleyway before separating off in the opposite direction.
*Tick*
The women knew what she was doing was wrong, cheating on her husbands and being unfair towards her kids.
*Tick*
But the pleasure and happiness she gained from it somehow offset the guilt she had felt at the start.
*Tick*
As she reached the end of the alley, she suddenly remembered that she had left her bracelet her husband had got for their wedding anniversary.
*Tick"
She knew her husband would nag her on the whereabouts of the bracelet until she found it. So, to avoid that she turned around and walked back inside the abandoned building.
*Tick*
-----------------------
{Police HQ (Morning after meeting with Dexter)- 3rd Person PoV}
Amidst the busy shuffling of feet and bodies, one particular person moved out of rhythm as he barged into the building in anger, quickly followed by a tall dark woman.
Despite the aggressive way the man had entered not many of the officers inside the building minded him as they carried on with their own works in a hurried manner, unlike the other days when they would love to stare and watch the show that was about to happen.
A woman tried to stop the man, but seeing his furious expression the women avoided the man before she stopped the women following the man.
"Alyssa, there is som..." The woman was interrupted by Alyssa.
"Not now, Mary. Later!" Alyssa replied before running off following the man, who like Alyssa still didn't notice the unusual activities around their office.
Mary sighed in defeat not knowing how she was going to inform this to her boss. She slowly turned around and quickly jogged the way to her boss.
The man slammed open the door to a room- that had a label saying 'Det. Connor'- before throwing his outer suit onto the table in anger.
"AGAIN!
THAT FUCKING ASSHOLE DID IT AGAIN!" He screamed in rage, as he started kicking the wall in front of him, which was already partially dented.
*Bang*
His assistant quickly followed in trying to calm him down, after making sure to close the door with clear experience. "Connor you need to calm down. We are not even sure if it's him.
For all, we know she could have been involved in an accident or is staying with someone or simply might have run off with her secret lover. You know cases like this happen a lot."
"Alyssa! It's him! It IS him! The signs are all there."
*Bang* *Bang* Connor continued to increase the frequency of his kicks.
"Conn..."
"Wife with kids goes out as always saying she is going to visit someone, when their husbands go out drinking and do not come back until 1 or 2 hours later, all too tired to do anything that day. Then one day the mother fails to come back and a few days later we find her tortured remains." Connor didn't bother to listen to what Alyssa had to say.
*Bang**Bang**Bang*
"Connor..." Alyssa called out worriedly before she was interrupted.
"I mean, how are the fucking husbands so dumb to notice their wives cheating on them!? All the clues are right in front of them. Tell me Alyssa how could he not notice it?"
*Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang*
"Connor, you have..." Again, Alyssa called out only to be interrupted by Detective Connors ramblings.
"In fact, why in the name of all deities do these bimbos even continue going out for more fucking when we clearly revealed the M.O. of that psycho."
*Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang*
"Connor! Listen!" Alyssa tried to shout above the sound of kicking and ramblings of Connor to no avail.
"Sometimes I can't believe how stupid people are even when we publicly announced the M.O. of that fucking psycho."
"CONNOR!" Unable to handle anymore Alyssa grabbed hold of Connor's shoulder and pulled him back.
"WHAT!?" Connor lashed back to her.
Alyssa unaffected by his lashing out, just calmly pointed towards the side warily.
Connor turned around to notice, 3 people in the corner by his sofa.
Connor's eye widened seeing that one of the 3 people, sat at the edge of his sofa was reading one of his case files, which was an offence in itself, not to mention the guy (sleeping?) with a case file resting on his face, while using his other case files and papers as a makeshift pillow.
The last person was just standing on the other side of the sofa, calmly observing them.
And the worrying thing about them was that 2 of them were armed when even the cleaners coming in here were subjected to an extreme (in Connors opinion) security checks.
*Slam*
Before Connor could draw his sword out of his sheath, the door to his office slammed open, revealing a short, pissed off man with messy hair.
Seeing the short man's rage-fuelled eyes, managed to send a shiver down Connor's spine.
The short man lifted his index finger to his lips followed by motioning his index finger across his neck.
Connor gulped before he nodded, as he watched his boss walking out, before closing the door quietly this time.
Before his boss completely closed his door, Connor managed to see his colleagues, who were usually busy loudly watching/ listening to his furious ramblings in amusement were today quietly moving about busily.
Connecting everything together Connor quickly realised that the person in his office must be someone from a high position.
*Yawn*
Hearing the yawn, Connor was broken from his thoughts as he turned around to see the person sleeping on his sofa getting up, only for the file that was resting on his face to fall off.
Before Connor even saw the face of the man, he recognised him by his famous signature, the long hair.
"Shit!"
"Yeah, sleeping using papers as a pillow is shit." Came the reply of the Imperial Prince.