Chapter 54 The Detour
Author: M_W Cancer
Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral
At this moment, Leo and the others were sitting on a stone bench to rest.
Realizing that an hour had already passed, Leo stood up as he walked towards Veronica.
"Lady Veronica, let's proceed now with the mission!" Leo said to Veronica as he motioned everyone to start preparing themselves. They were already well-rested, so it is now time to begin the mission.
Leo had also realized while resting a while ago that the earlier they travel the less dangerous it would be for them. They will travel in the Yellow Forest, after all, a well-known habitat of Magical Beasts. Obviously, the daytime would be the safest time for them since they could still see Magical Beasts around them, and hence make detours to avoid those that they can't handle. On the contrary, during the night time, it would be the most dangerous since they can't see Magical Beasts clearly anymore, so they would eventually encounter danger.
In conclusion, spending much longer in the Honoris Manor would just make their plan much more dangerous.
Veronica nodded in response to Leo before she took his group towards the readily prepared carriage at the entrance of the manor's gate. She then walked straight to the carriage with the help of Angel.
After looking at Veronica going to the carriage, Leo quickly observes the other soldiers around whom her Butler assigned to escort her. He especially took notice that there were a total of twelve soldiers and all of them inconspicuously talked with the Butler first before finally proceeding to their respective position.
Leo was quick to understand that those soldiers were already paid by those kidnappers. 'It seems like Lady Veronica's plan of hiring an escort was the best decision. Otherwise, she'd be like a sitting duck waiting for the hunter to pull the barrel if she had decided to stay in the Honoris Noble Household'
He truly wanted to know just what kind of offers were presented to the Butler and to those twelve soldiers to make them betray their own Master and the Honoris Noble Household. After all, the Honoris Noble Household is one of the five major Noble Households of the Silver Kingdom, though they are weak in terms of fighters, they were still a major family. So, offending them would surely cause a lot of trouble later on.
"Well, they have their own reasons. There is no use in thinking about it since we would likely be able to know it after this mission." Leo silently said to himself as he shook his head in disappointment at those traitors before finally going to the guard's wagon behind Veronica's carriage.
The wagon was covered with a white cloth all around with only two ways to get in and out, the back and the front, so no one could clearly see what was inside.
As soon as Leo got inside the wagon, just like what was planned, Veronica was already sitting comfortably right beside Angel.
This was part of Leo's plan, so he wasn't the least bit surprised.
Lady Veronica didn't get inside the carriage but was only putting a dummy inside, then she would secretly move towards the guard's wagon with the cover of Angel.
After everything was finally prepared, the carriage then began moving, departing from Honoris City to Silver City.
At this instant, both Veronica and the kidnappers' plan was now put into action, only Fate could tell which group would be successful.
After traveling halfway through the road leading towards Will City, it was finally time to proceed with Veronica's plan.
While inside the guards' wagon, Leo nodded his head towards Veronica as he quickly looked outside to check for any chances of escape. Fortunately, no soldier was guarding the back of the guards' wagon, this was a given since they were tasked with protecting the rear. And thanks to this, they could easily use the rear for their operation without anyone noticing as soon as there was a chance.
"Seriously, these men didn't even bother to guard us?"
Not putting up any guards at the rear was the same as underestimating them. This also shows just how lacking these guards' experience was. They are surely thinking that they don't need to assign anyone at the rear since their only focus right now is to guard Veronica and make sure she doesn't escape or do anything of the like...
Unknown to them, Veronica was actually inside the guards' wagon and the one they were guarding now was only a dummy.
Leo silently chuckled as he signaled everyone that it was clear.
To officially start their operation, Leo walked to the front.
"Brother, just wake us up the moment we encounter any danger!" Leo winked to the chauffeur before he gave the latter one gold coin.
The chauffeur nodded his head in delight before accepting the gold coin and quickly replying, "Don't worry, you can do anything you want inside. You can trust me that no one would bother you!"
The chauffeur has already experienced similar events in the past. Most of the students he had encountered from the different Mage Academies before, especially those that had accepted missions related to Honoris Noble Household, had also acted the same way as Leo's group. Saying the same excuse before giving him one or two gold coins. It was already obvious that they just wanted to do nothing and be able to complete the mission easily. Especially in this case since the mission wasn't hard after all; it was just to escort Lady Veronica to Silver City. He believes that no one would dare to try to cause trouble since the Honoris Noble Household was powerful, hence no one would dare offend it.
It was really out of the chauffeur's expectations that there were actually people who would still dare to offend the Honoris Noble Household.
Just like what Leo had expected, the chauffeur's thoughts were exactly what he had thought it would be. He was intentionally giving the chauffeur one gold coin to make the latter think that way. With those thoughts in his mind, he would then just continue to focus all his attention in front of the guards' wagon, ignorant of what was happening inside.
Successfully able to implement his plan, Leo quickly turned his head towards his group as he motioned to everyone to slowly start disembarking out of the guards' wagon.
Cassandra was the first one to escape. Fortunately, she was successful as no guards noticed her disembarking from the guards' wagon. It was expected though since she only disembarked from the wagon when a tree was nearby the site which then allowed her to quickly hide behind after she jumped off.
Then it was Elizabeth. Her escape was simple. She suddenly vanished from inside the guards' wagon and appeared right next to Cassandra not long after. Obviously, she had casted a Short-Distance Blink spell to allow her to travel a short distance seemingly in an instant.
Veronica and Angel nodded their heads to each other at the same time, seemingly thinking of the same idea as Elizabeth. The two quickly cast a Short-Distance Blink spell, before they vanished from inside the guards' wagon and appeared right next to Cassandra and Elizabeth.
The both of them had concluded that the easiest way to escape was simply to use an Escape spell, unlike the way Cassandra did, which would consume so much time since they needed to wait for any available tree at the side to hide after jumping out of the guards' wagon.
Leo, who was the last person inside the guards' wagon, could only envy the three of them for being able to cast a Short-Distance Blink spell. After all, he and Cassandra are still just beginner Mages, so they could only escape the hard way.
"It is finally my turn..."
Leo thought for a moment before finally thinking of a really good idea.
He quickly made his hand absorb the Wind Mana around his surroundings, which then allowed him to slowly form a Wind Elemental in his consciousness.
After absorbing the six large Mana stones the other night, he was finally able to summon more Elementals. He was now able to summon four Wind Elementals or also equivalent to two Earth Elementals. But, since he had already formed an Earth Elemental, which was currently hiding in his pocket in a mini-soldier form, thus he could only form two Wind Elementals or one more Earth Elemental.
For his plan, what he needed the most was a Wind Elemental.
After finally being able to form the Wind Elemental in his consciousness, he then summoned it before ordering it to turn itself into a surfboard.
That's right, he is planning to use his Wind Elemental to escape.
He had noticed before that the Wind Elemental could travel extremely quickly and silently like the wind, so why not try riding the Wind Elemental to escape? In such a way, he would be able to escape easily and conveniently. Just his theory though, but he still wanted to try it.
After the Wind Elemental turns itself into a Wind Board, Leo immediately jumps on top of it to ride on the board before ordering it to take him away from the wagon.
*Whoosh!
Just like what he had expected, the Wind Board was able to take him away from the guards' wagon quickly and the sound that it made wasn't enough to attract any guards to turn around, since it was seemingly the same as how birds dive straight towards a prey they wanted to catch.
However, Leo soon realized that the Wind Elemental in the form of a Wind Board was quickly turning translucent, which obviously implies that the Wind Mana was being consumed quite fast for every distance he traveled.
With that in mind, he didn't plan to play around anymore with the newly discovered ability.
He quickly moved towards a tree before finally landing on the ground and hiding behind.
In conclusion, he was only able to travel over ten meters before the Wind Mana was finally exhausted.
Leo now understood that his theory was indeed possible, but turning the Elementals into a tool or a weapon would also make it into a consumable item which would then consume all the Element Mana that it was made of. This explains why he was only able to travel a short distance with it. Though, it was still good since he had successfully escaped without being noticed.
Hiding behind the tree, Leo thought that if he could have in-depth testing, he would surely be able to discover how long each tool and weapon could last. He has, after all, only thought of such an idea at this moment, so he is completely unaware of its attributes and the likes. Moreover, he wasn't even sure earlier whether it would work or not.
As soon as the escort group was already far enough, Leo and the others gathered together before deciding to move in their planned direction.
They were planning to travel straight to the east of the Yellow Forest, which would lead them to White River City, a city to the north of Silver City, and from there they would travel south to finally get to Silver City, their final destination.
This was the detour that Veronica had planned.
With this plan, Veronica was confident that they would be able to escape from the kidnappers.