"Cat, do you have a way to teleport people into this place?" Don asked. He wanted to test the place on whether it only had beauty, or if it also had some functionalities that he could use.
Catalie didn't take long to answer, "Yes, brother. Father installed a powerful teleportation array that we could use. Why?"
The answer Catalie gave him made Don nod. He now had a safe way to transport everybody from the camp to the safety of the castle in a discreet manner.
"Show me the way," Don nodded to Catalie as he followed her to the teleportation Array.
The array was not that far away from the throne room. It was built just adjacent to it. Although it was not big as the throne hall, it was still considerably spacious. Reaching the Array, he noted that it was a gigantic circle that was engraved with magical runes. The inside of the circle was large enough that one could fit a minimum of two hundred people. However, there were some cracks on some parts of the circle's arcs.
"It would seem that the array is damaged, but we can still use it for a couple of times," Catalie hummed after momentarily inspecting the array.
"It'll do for now."
It would seem as if the river of time had taken a toll on the castle and its functionalities. Then again, Don never thought that he could get everything that he asked for, so he didn't mind it too much for now.
"Cat, can you leave this place?" Don asked.
"No, Brother. I can go anywhere in this dimension, but outside of that, I can't leave. I'm sorry," Catalie remorsefully denied. She looked very uncomfortable when she realized that she couldn't help Don. But in an instant, she had an idea. "But brother, you can still contact me anytime from anywhere using the Khals."
As explained her idea, Catalie projected a pair of small circular objects.
"What is this?"
"They are called Khals. We can use these to communicate with each other no matter where you might be. You just need to put it inside your ear."
"And we have these in the castle?" Don asked in surprise. He knew that it would useful to him in the future, seeing as he wouldn't need to physically be with Catalie to give her orders or something.
"Yes. We have these in the Magical Items room. Wait here and I'll bring them out in a jiffy," Catalie smiled as her projection flickered out.
"Don, what do we do now?" Arrora asked Don while Uncle Dior was still feeling out everything in the castle with sparkly eyes.
"You two stay here."
"What about you?"
"I'll go to the camp and bring everyone here," Don replied.
"Can't you use the teleportation Array to bring them here without going there?"
"I don't know if this Array can even do that. And even if it can, how would they know that I'm the one using the teleportation array? Knight could simply use his teleportation scroll to run away the moment he saw something weird."
Don had never used a teleportation array like this before, so he wasn't sure if he could just beam up the whole camp to be teleported here. As he was thinking about it, Catalie's projection appeared before him once more, multiple Khals floating beside her.
"Here, Brother. Take this and place it in your ear," she said as one Khal floated towards Don.
He took that one and carefully placed it on his right ear. When the Khal came into contact with his skin, it suddenly vibrated and merged with his ear and disappeared.
"Ahh!" Arrora jerked and shouted in shock at the scene as Don touched his ear to make sure that everything was alright.
"Brother, don't worry. The link-up process is completed. We can talk to each other without dimensional restrictions now."
"If I gave the Khals to some of my people, I can talk to them as well, right?"
"Yes, of course. I just have to link up their Khal with yours and your connections will be verified."
Don was happy to hear Catalie's answer. He realized that the amount of help Catalie and the castle could provide him in his path to be a conqueror was considerable. Now, he only needed to bring Knight and the elves here to start building an army.
"How does this teleportation Array work, Cat?"
"Uh... It's like this... The Array was not completely finished since the array was still in its initial stage when it all... you know..." Catalie trailed off upon seeing the confused look on Arrora's face. She thought about it for a moment and decided to make things sound simpler. "Simply put, the ruler of the castle must be in the precise target area to teleport anyone or anything from that area into the castle..."
"Alright," Don said.
"When you want to initiate the teleportation, just call my name and I'll lock on to your coordinates and start the process. It won't take long."
"Okay. You two stay, here," Don ordered Arrora and Uncle Dior as walked towards the door. Meanwhile, Catalie followed behind like an obedient child.
Uncle Dior obviously didn't have any plans to disagree with him. He already had enough of flying in a single day. Arrora, meanwhile, knew that she would just be extra baggage to him if she wanted to follow him.
After a few minutes, Don and Catalie reached the main gates away from Arrora and Uncle Dior.
"Uh... Brother, can I ask you something?" Catalie nervously asked.
"Yes?"
Catalie still had her doubts. But eventually, she decided to quietly ask him, "Brother, the people you are going to teleport... Can you really trust them?"
Don stopped walking as soon as he heard Catalie. He stared at the nervous girl for a second. "Don't worry. If anyone tries to betray me, I'll simply kill them," he calmly said, but he knew that the elves wouldn't betray him. They simply had no reason to, and he won't just give anyone a chance to betray him. He wasn't that naive.
Catalie was a little shocked to hear him simply saying that he'd kill them. She was just a little girl, and all of this was still new to her. While she was in shock, she heard Don before he disappeared into the dark portal.
Don gave her a few parting words, "Anyone can stab you in the back, Cat. You just have to make sure you won't show your back to them."
Catalie just stood there watching the portal while repeating his last words.
*******************************
(Several hours ago)
An old man with white hair was running towards a room in a hurried manner. Everyone's faces upon seeing the old man went pale as they shivered in fear.
"Miss.... Miss Rosaline, your... there's someone here to see you!" the old man exclaimed. He was none other than Jacob, the butler of late Minister Brian.
When he heard that Minister Bryan was murdered, his heart almost stopped beating. He was unable to guess as to how someone could ever kill him in his own house while being surrounded by hundreds of guards and five freaking great masters.
But what made him nearly pee his pants was the scene where Rosaline burned a group of drunken guards who were on patrolling duty at the time when Minister Bryan was murdered. She and her team investigated everyone, including him, and they turned over every stone in the manor to find something even remotely about the killer and the half-elf. However, nobody had a single clue about how the killer got past the defensive parameter set by the great masters, or how he even escaped after the fact. As such, Rosaline's team had no choice other than to report this and call for help from the capital.
Hearing Jacob, Rosaline figured that someone from the capital had already come to investigate the murder. She was a little surprised at the speed at which the capital responded to her report. Perhaps the ugly pig was indeed someone important to the capital. But above all, the thing that currently bothered her the most was whether or not her teacher had arrived here.
"Lead the way." Rosaline didn't show her troubled thoughts on her face as she calmly addressed Jacob.
Jacob simply nodded and led Rosaline to the hallway, leading her to see the newcomers from the capital. Every step towards the hallway made Rosaline's heart beat a bit faster. She didn't want her teacher to see her as a miserable failure, but her worst fears came true as soon as she saw her teacher standing in the hallway looking at her.
"Teacher," Rosaline respectively bowed her head upon seeing her teacher.
Rosaline's teacher was a well-built man with white hair. He wore a black robe engraved with silver linings, and he had a moon tattoo on the center of his forehead.
Besides her master, a wrinkly old woman in white robes and a young man in blue robes stood beside him. The man in blue's robes had magical runes engraved into his clothing, most of which shined in the light around him. He was extremely handsome, and he had blue eyes that matched perfectly matched his robes. He also had a slight resemblance to Rosaline.
"Brother..." Rosaline said in a respectful tone as he greeted his brother. There was a tinge of embarrassment that could be found in her voice.
"Rosaline, before we proceed, meet my teacher, Aqualis: the greatest water mage," Rosaline's brother proudly introduced, his voice full of arrogance and pride.
She was startled the moment she heard the name Aqualis. She was a peak grandmaster mage just like her teacher, but mage Aqaulis was older than her master and far more powerful compared to him. Being her student was already a great feat simply because she wouldn't teach anyone but the most talented of magis, the cream of the crop, so to say. Obviously, Rosaline realized that her brother had a reason to act arrogant before anyone.
"Nice to meet you, dear. And I'm just a simple mage, unlike how Hayden described."
Aqualis had no trace of arrogance or dominance in her voice like Hayden showed. She truly looked like a humble and harmless person to Rosaline. But she knew that appearances can be misleading.
Rosaline bowed her head, showing respect to Aqualis as her team came behind her and greeted both the teachers.
"Enough pleasantries. I gave you one simple job to do, Rosaline. One simple job..." Rosaline's teacher said. He was truly furious when he heard that Minister Brian was murdered. Rosaline was his star student, but now she had shamed him thoroughly.
"Don't be angry at your student, Sears. Everyone makes mistakes," Aqaulis interrupted before he could continue to vent his anger on Rosaline.
"Not my student, Mage Aqualis. Not in a simple job like this."
This was the first time that Rosaline was scolded in front of people in her entire life, especially in front of her own brother. However, she realized that it was truly her fault and she deserves this.
"Rosaline dear, show us where Minister Brian was killed." Aqualis knew of her colleague's temper, so she didn't try to cool him down. Instead, she decided to investigate the crime scene.
Rosaline nodded and led them to Minister Brian's bedroom. Meanwhile, her team followed behind them to the room.
After a few moments, they reached their destination.
"Dear, where did you say the killer came from?" Aqualis asked Rosaline. However, she didn't look at her as she scanned the room for something. All the while, Rosaline's teacher, Sears, examined the dead body of Minister Brian.
"The killer came by breaking the roof and directly jumping into the room," Rosaline said.
"But the killer didn't trigger your defensive spell, did he?" Aqualis asked.
"No, the killer didn't."
It was a simple answer, but it was the one thing that bothered Rosaline the most. How did he evade the spell?
"It shouldn't be possible to evade the spell I taught her," Sears said.
"But the killer did. Now the question we should ask is how to find him or her," Aqualis said, but there was a troubled look on her face for a brief moment. "Finding the killer would provide the answer on how he evaded the spell."
Hayden got the point that his teacher was trying to convey.
"But how do we find him?" Chase couldn't help but ask Aqualis.
"Dear, I can see that there are two magical fluctuations in the room beside us. Correct?" Aqualis answered Chase's question with another question.
"Yes. Minister Brian's and the Half-elf's," Chase answered just as a smile appeared on Aqualis's face.
"So the one you need to find is that half-elf. Find her, and you'll find the killer," Aqualis said with confidence.
"Teacher, what if the killer murdered the half-elf as well?" Hayden asked.
"If the killer intended to do that, he would have done it here. Why would the killer risk taking her with him just to kill her later?"
What Aqualis just said made sense to everyone. The killer could have indeed just simply killed her along with Minister Brian and left the body.
"I tried, teacher Aqualis, but the magical fluctuations were so weak. It disappeared after a few meters away from the manor."
"Dear, you know what a magical fluctuation is, right? It's a form of energy that acts like a fingerprint. It's unique to each person. Even if all of us use the same spell with the same power, anyone with the experience and expertise could differentiate the magical fluctuations and find out who used the spell."
As she explained, she made a sign in the air, making a bubble wrap over the part of magical fluctuations left by the half-elf.
"It would have been so much easier if you had just done your job properly in the first place," Sears scolded Rosaline once more. But before she could say anything, he sighed and continued. "It's a tedious process. But thankfully, we have the sample of the magical fluctuations and know who it belonged to. This makes things less tedious."
Hearing this, Rosaline was a little glad that she call for help. She knew that if they took longer, the magical fluctuations would have become weaker and might have completely disappeared.
"Hayden send a note to every tracer in the capital about this job and mentioned that agreeing to the job will get a spot token in the examinations of Cold Moon Mansion. On top of that, I, Aqualis, will personally owe them a favor if they successfully complete the job."
Everyone in the room was shocked upon hearing the rewards of the job. It may seem like a simple token and favor, but it was a token that could earn them a spot in one of the best Magical schools in the Empire. Some wealthy people spend millions of gold just trying to buy a token for their children. As for the favor, it was worth even more. A grandmaster teacher of a powerful titan like the Cold Moon Mansion owing you favor could get you nearly anything. With the correct plan, you can easily achieve what you wanted.
"I'll do it. As you say, teacher, with this much of a reward, even the best tracers in the Empire will make this job their top priority and find the half-elf."
"And the killer, my child. And the killer," Aqaulis said with an evil smirk.