shiva had been fighting the second elemental strengthening stage cultivator and had finally defeated him. as he entered the scene after taking care of the elemental strengthening stage cultivator he noticed a scar-faced bandit near the cultivator-clearly wounded from head to toe.
aside from the bandit he immediately noticed grayson holding a war axe standing at the cell door while faes was sitting leisurely in the cell with her sister princess nia and were feeding her. shiva actually did a double-take after noticing what faes was doing but then he merely smiled wryly and shook his head.
he should have expected this.
"commander shiva" the bandit man immediately noticed him turning paler after taking in his cultivation. as shiva was planning to deal with the man along with gray, the said man dropped his weapon himself laughing.
"if you think that just your presence and cultivation is enough to make me submit then you are wrong. you think i am the leader? i am only a trader! i trade potential soldiers to the cult and they in return grant us protection and points to spend along with weapons and resources for cultivation" the scar-faced man took out a black crystal and crushed it until it turned into tiny parts falling on the ground forming a magic array.
once the array was formed it gave off a cloud of black smoke and then a silhouette figure appeared in it. just as the bandit saw the man he began laughing like a mad man
"so what if you are a peak elemental strengthening stage cultivator? this summoning crystal allows us to summon a peak vital refining stage cultivator from the cult! with them present, you are nothing but ants!"
gray had already arrived in front of faes and nia while shiva had taken a defensive formation ready to fight with the newcomer but when the black smoke dissipated all their faces went blank.
the vital refining stage cultivator was after all someone they knew!
red hair, red eyes and pale skin- asuna stood there blinking at the scene before glancing at the bandit and faes realizing something as he grinned suddenly.
"to think you failed to do an easy task!" asuna clicked his tongue at the bandit before directly making his way towards faes and taking a seat on other side of her.
"huh? my lord- this one failed to do his duty properly. next time this one will be careful; just this once help this pitiful one to take care of these intruders! as payment, we will supply a few more hundred children to the cult! we can even allow you to take her royal highness princess nia away!" the bandit was shocked to see the boy behaving leisurely.
but then again he had managed to get into such a situation and was at fault currently hence he decided to plead with the boy who was clearly a vital refining stage cultivator and hoped that he would take the bandit's side as they were from the cult after all!
who thought that the red-haired boy would snicker at him in return.
"failed to do your duty properly? that's an understatement! the cult required you to find potential candidates for the cult and give them a means to join the cult in return for cultivation resources and points but what did you do? using your connection to kidnap children and use them as a means of pleasure? that wasn't in the contract from what I remember" asuna grinned ignoring the pale and scared bandit before turning to faes who was glaring at him
"don't mind that shitpiece! you believe me, don't you? i won't meddle in this situation. we don't need them anymore either, you can take care of them as you deem fit. just don't think that the cult is evil" asuna pouted blinking at faes who rolled her eyes in return.
"my lord! what are you saying? this- we are the cult's part! you can't abandon us like this" the bandit was shocked, stunned and most of all terrified. the vital refining stage cultivator boy was clearly acquainted with these newcomers and seem to favor them over the bandits.
"this- what's going on?" nia asked confused. she was terrified when a vital refining stage cultivator appeared and thought they were doomed but she didn't expect the boy around her age to be this strong and yet behave like so in front of the girl. nia got curious about the girl's identity but she also turned alert. if the girl was from whatever cult they were talking about then was she a friend or foe?
"my lady, do you believe me or someone who you just met? you know about the cult don't you? we can do whatever we want but doing something like treating kids as playthings; its too low for even us!" asuna spoke his face turning serious.
he had been in the city eduki planning to attend an auction there when he sensed himself being summoned. when asuna arrived here he was confused but then remembered what the last report stated about faes whereabouts and the bandits. the cult didn't harm kids in any way but these bandits who were there to merely requit more people in cult were taking advantage of the cult's protection. asuna had recently received a task stating that he had to deal with the bandits but after he noticed faes asuna knew he had a chance to increase the cult's reputation in faes view.
hence he allowed her to take care of the bandits, he was going to do the same anyway why not use it to their advantage?
faes stared at asuna knowing that he was trying to explain the cult's work and felt that he was speaking truth. after all the cult had allowed her some information access and if asuna lied it would only decrease the chances of faes trusting the cult in the future.
and he was allowing her to do what she deemed fit! what's better than being the boss?
faes nodded towards asuna before turning to nia smiling slightly
"its nothing to worry about your highness; this boy here is merely someone who works for me and no i am not from the cult if you are wondering. i am merely commander shiva's disciple" faes grinned at nia's expression.
nia finally relaxed her guard completely knowing she was commander shiva's disciple and shiva nodded too agree with her claim. if faes was in altai's army then it meant that nia could trust her.
"as for the bandits i believe master shiva would take care of them?" faes turned to shiva who nodded again before hitting the stunned bandit unconscious.
"they will be punished for their crimes in front of whole city. i will personally oversee that it happens after discussing the situation with duke pastor wemilton" shiva spoke as more soldier's made it to where they were and put the two elemental strengthening stage bandits in magical chains.
after they were taken away shiva faced faes again frowning
"i was wondering- why is her royal highness still chained?" shiva asked the question nia wanted to ask for a long time. everyone turned to faes who grinned
"well we don't get a royal tied helpless everyday do we? i was wondering on what to do now. how about tickling? no it wont be that fun~ maybe i should wait till mani gets here before deciding on what to do"