"Kwok Ryong, I might actually need you, so can you...wait no, you don't have the choice. Come with me now or remain as a beautifully tied up package that will forever remain unopened," Seunghyuk ordered arrogantly and the previous Nighthowler King had absolutely no other choice but to follow Seunghyuk's orders and to become Seunghyuk's compass and map.
"Hyung! I'll come with you!" Jisung ran forward towards Seunghyuk as his rushed, heavy footsteps sent vibrations across the whole carpeted floor, still, Seunghyuk opened his mouth to try to reject Jisung's offer for his well-being but Jisung's death stare was weirdly scary and effective towards Seunghyuk, "Choi Seunghyuk. I. Am. Coming. With. You."
Seunghyuk did not even complain that Jisung rudely used his full name even though he was younger than him, but instead he patted Jisung's head like he was trying to calm his pet hamster down. Jisung angrily shook Seunghyuk's hand off of his head which only put a smile on Seunghyuk's face.
"Well, I guess three people will do then. Now, let me commence my own third and final task. Your...My task starts...now!" Seunghyuk announced proudly and only received judging stares from an ancient old creature and a young teenager walking behind him, "Stop that now, both of you. Anyway, where is the elder Nighthowler's partner kept locked up...And I just realised I made quite a bad decision of bringing an ancient creature along with me as a modern map and guide."
Kwok Ryong raised his eyebrows judgingly and let out a whole story with his weird teenage figure of speech which was still peculiar despite the young man's body 'it' was in, "We're getting something wrong here. I've been dragged and pulled all around the current Arkawarenia, put behind bars after bars and switched from dungeons to dungeons. I'll say it was a long eighty plus years of suffering but honestly, it didn't feel all that prison-like; it was more of boredom and frustration of not being able to escape after being caught, watching the kingdom change for the worse day by day."
Seunghyuk nodded and Jisung was silent in deep thought as they walked down the broad hallways, listening intently to the very first Nighthowler King of Arkawarenia tell his tale, but of course, Jisung still was not aware of that fact, until he realised Kwok Ryong mentioned 'eighty years of suffering' then he looked up at both Seunghyuk and Kwok Ryong in confused shock.
"When I was first caught almost a century back, the whole world definitely had not seen the more magical, mystical and Conqueror side of the world yet. Still, that did not stop my brothers from doing all they could do take over my place as the Nighthowler King of Arkawarenia. I built and created the glorious kingdom of Arkawarenia by myself without any of them knowing, but once they realised the prosperous kingdom's king and ruler was me, they immediately started their sinister plotting. Well, it wasn't until too long after that they successfully caught me, made a contract with the demons and sealed my power," Kwok Ryong paused briefly to take his time breathing in some fresh air of understanding while Jisung's sea of realisation slowly flowed into his head then Seunghyuk looked up at the wistful and reminiscent figure of the first Nighthowler King of Arkawarenia, yet forced to live like he was never royalty for the rest of his lives.
"You know, living through the change of Arkawarenia, I've seen and experienced countless things. I have came across chances and dangers even amongst my pathetic life. I have even stumbled across a suitable body for me to pour my soul into, and hence I was able to escape with my changed features, but not for long. The youngest brother in my once normal and peaceful family had worked his way through plotting and assassinating all the other four brothers excluding me whom he had seen sitting on the throne for many years, and then he finally sat on the throne. It was at that time when he detected my soul residing inside an ordinary Nighthowler's body, and I was put behind bars again. Hence my answer to your question, I definitely know where your rescue target is kept," Kwok Ryong turned to face Seunghyuk after his long story and it seemed to Seunghyuk and Jisung like they have walked through space and time just to hear Kwok Ryong's entire story which led frustratingly to Kwok Ryong's one sentence of reminding, "Well, you see, you're walking down the wrong direction. I suspect the rescue target is kept in the Royal Dungeon below the throne room, so let's turn around and head tow-"
Seunghyuk smacked a forceful palm across Kwok Ryong's face roughly and pressed tightly against Kwok Ryong's lips, getting out muffled and struggling screams as Seunghyuk dragged a helpless Kwok Ryong across the broad hallway with Jisung seeming to sigh indefinitely despite his young age.
"I really am having second thoughts about breaking that 'well-made seal' of yours," Seunghyuk spoke roughly with his brows furrowing with irritation, marching towards the opposite direction with both haste and anger in his steps until he finally reached the huge red double doors layered with hints of gold, a symbol of prosperity and royalty, "Now what? The double doors will make quite a lot of sound when turning open and I'm sure the great number of royal guards keeping guard inside would put us into the dungeons. Any great plans, old creature?"
Kwok Ryong pressed his swollen lips together in attempt to lessen the pain from being squeezed together too tightly as he nodded obediently to respond to Seunghyuk's question. With a raising finger, he pointed to the golden door handles and gave his plan to the listening Seunghyuk and Jisung.
"Well, a few knocks on the huge doors would definitely draw the attention of one or maybe at most two guards to open the door for us and ask for our purpose of visiting the throne room. We will then make use of our skills to silently and quickly, preferably with just one single shot, knock that one or two guards unconscious," Kwok Ryong spoke and Seunghyuk nodded with a turning wrist action that motioned for Kwok Ryong to continue which he did after giving himself a good three seconds to tend to his still swollen red lips, "Erm...Well, after that we could get one or two of us to slip into the royal guard's armours and pose as royal guards for as long as we need to successfully rescue the target. There are quite a number of huge pillars inside for hiding and we could hypothetically go all the way to the back of the throne room and take the stairs behind to access the dungeon down there. Remember, this is a stealth mission and we ne-"
"Enough. Leave your nonsense for after we successfully completed the mission. I'll do the knocking and let's get ready to silence any royal guards that walk out of the door," Seunghyuk spoke with seriousness wrapped around his tone of voice, stood up, raised the golden door handles and used them to knock on the huge red double doors three loud times.
As if in an instance, the movement of heavy armour inside of the throne room momentarily stopped as two royal guards exited the throne room, closing the heavy doors behind them as they asked with their heavily-filtered voice through the helmet of our purpose.
"Right, our purpose is to..." Seunghyuk's fingers flickered with a slight glimpse of blazing red embers which was a clear enough signal to take action, "...borrow both of your armours."
Seunghyuk swung a quick fist blazing with red flames, smacking the first royal guard at the front across his helmet lethally while the Blade Dance skill was used. Jisung's blade materialised in his hands, swinging unpredictably as the first royal guard was completely knocked out cold. Seunghyuk stretched out his leg and flexed his lower muscles to act as a cushion, silencing the first royal guard's fall.
Everything happened so rapidly like lightning flashing through the sky but even quicker, so quick that the second royal guard coming from behind could not even make out one word. Kwok Ryong summoned his crimson black sword to deliver a quick stab right to the royal guard's head, making use of the Backward Gravity skill to throw the royal guard off balance.
"Thanks for keeping quiet all this time I guess," Seunghyuk said with a smirk on his face, finishing the royal guard off with his Snake Of Ophiuchus's fangs, "Looks like three on two was a little too much. Come on, Kwok Ryong and Jisung, you two should do the tricking. I have an actual task to do."
Jisung nodded obediently as he was already satisfied that he could be of assistance to Seunghyuk whilst Kwok Ryong reluctantly put on the heavy armour. Seunghyuk stifled a laugh as he watched the humorous scene of two distinct differences, but immediately readied himself for a swift and stealthy rush in into the throne room.
"Hyung, I'm ready whenever you are," Jisung told Seunghyuk with the same usual spark in his eyes but on the contrary, Kwok Ryong's reluctance was still visible despite his face being hidden under layers of heavy armour, "I'm also ready whenever...well please go quick and come back quick."
Seunghyuk listened to the humorous figure of speech from Kwok Ryong and nodded in response with an amused smile on his face. Jisung and Kwok Ryong stood at each door and pushed them open, the doors were like sleeping beasts letting out a low hum as they slowly turn open, Seunghyuk immediately darted behind the human shield of the armoured Jisung and Kwok Ryong.
"What took you too so long?" One of the royal guards questioned the entering Jisung and Kwok Ryong and Jisung immediately thought of a response on the spot with the special helmet worn filtering his voice, "Nothing much but the Duke. He came to ask for a visit with the King and both of us had to explain to him that the King is busy and could not see him."
Jisung played a bold move as he assumed that the King was actually busy and did not want to see any guests for the time being. Seunghyuk frowned involuntarily as he gritted his teeth in apprehension as the slight silence of words with only heavy marchings and shaking of armours washing over Seunghyuk.
"Well, you did the right thing at least. The King indeed does not want to see anyone after the heated activity in House Travessle, especially the Duke," The royal guard inside the throne room walked off and Jisung followed suit together with Kwok Ryong as Seunghyuk eyed the tall and thick pillars dotted across the whole throne room, registering them as good hiding spots.
With silent steps, Seunghyuk duck-walked behind the huge human shield of both Jisung and Kwok Ryong then came close enough to the nearest pillar and hid behind it. The pillar was of a perfect shape to hide someone within it, an L-shaped pillar where the removed small square from the huge square could fit the size of a human. Seunghyuk waited for the next opportune moment and rolled forward swiftly to hide within another pillar. The process repeated itself multiple times each time with caution and controlled movements, Jisung and Kwok Ryong walking exceptionally loudly just to create more noise to cover up Seunghyuk's slight sounds from movement, then finally, Seunghyuk's four limbs touch the rough and visibly untouched steps of the stairs supposedly leading down to the dungeon.
"Now I'm just going to climb my way down like a four-legged beast," Seunghyuk mouthed out those words silently which are words that only he himself could hear in his head as he crawled down the stairs carefully, covering a long depth distance downwards before he finally reached the deep bottom of the stairs, "So this is the dungeon?"
Seunghyuk spoke more audibly than the previous time, still careful not to speak too loudly as he was not sure if his voice could be heard by the many royal guards walking front and back all the way above.
"This dungeon really isn't that big," Seunghyuk spoke in a hushed tone as he looked straight at the only jail cell in the dungeon which Seunghyuk made a quick and brainless guess that the woman lying inside was the elder Nighthowler's partner, "Erm, hello? Are you okay?"
Seunghyuk's words were sent into the jail cell and the female figure then turned around, but her face was one of familiarity as she looked at Seunghyuk with a dangerous glow in her eyes.
"Choi Seunghyuk, we meet again," Chae Myeongeun, the Head Royal Guard of the current King stood before Seunghyuk instead of his expected rescue target which momentarily stunned Seunghyuk, but he almost immediately came back to his senses when her longsword was aimed and pointed directly at Seunghyuk's chest, "You really assumed that we would not have any particular plans, did you not? How foolish."