Somewhere far away from Hargan Empire.
"Hey, do you know what date is today?" Ferdinand asked his best friend who just passed by him with a tired look.
"It's Hargan's Emperor birthday celebration event today. That's what you want to say right?" The woman in front of him answered in an uninterested tone.
After being friends for more than twenty years, Ferdinand never questioned her no matter what she did except for once.
"Then why are we still here? Shouldn't we go back to Hargan or at least call your family and give them some warning? Don't you know your family will definitely send someone as a representative to the event? Are you don't care even when knowing what will happen?"
"Relax Ferdi. The Emperor won't die just yet," her nonchalant answer just made Ferdinand more confused and angry at the same time.
"Hey, who cares about the emperor, one of your family members might die you know? Wait, which one of your family members will attend the event? You should know that right?"
"Yes. That's why I didn't do anything. It's better if he dies."
Hearing her answer, Ferdinand just realized that the woman in front of him still think of doing the exact thing he opposed which is killing her own son.
"Hey, things are not always black and white. You also said you don't know his reason so why are you still like this? Plus he still doesn't commit anything yet. Isn't it unfair?" Ferdinand knew his friend was always as stubborn as a bull.
It's hard to persuade her once she already put her mind on something.
"Hey Ferdi, do you want to know something interesting?"
"What?"
"It seems like my family already decided to disown me"
"What!? Then you just let it be? Why don't we go back now and explain to your parents? They probably believe you if you explain properly"
"Nah, just let it be. I already knew my parents will not support me. I already experienced it before."
"Isn't that because you didn't explain properly and got angry at them instead?"
"Whatever. It's easier for me to move after being disowned. I want to sleep so leave me alone."
Clack
After the bedroom door was closed, Ferdinand let out a heavy sigh.
A few years ago, or to be exact around 5 years ago, his only best friend since he was in the academy suddenly fall into a coma before her temperament became weird and unpredictable after she woke up.
She was like a different person.
After a month of persuading her to explain to him what caused her sudden change, Ferdinand finally got his answer which he never expected.
It took him, who is always rational and calm as an expert strategist, five whole days to fully process what his friend told him. Using his ability, he knew she wasn't lying and there was literally no reason for her to lie to him.
However, after that, she quickly went back to her hometown after telling him to look after their base while she was gone to do something important.
And that something important was to kill her only son that she was supposed to love with her whole life. However, it seemed like that kid's time wasn't up yet for him to go to the afterlife. He survived.
"Sigh, let's just see what will happen" Ferdinand decided even though he obviously knew that wasn't the best course of action.
Walking towards his own office, Ferdinand quickly contacted his most loyal subordinate to proceed with their plans.
"Quickly search the orphanage with the description given to you. We need to clean it before we move somewhere else"
[Boss, do we really need to destroy the orphanage? What about the kids?]
"Don't let there be any eyewitness. Do you understand what I mean?"
[Y,yes Boss]
He knew why even his most loyal subordinate was hesitant. Those kids were innocent so most people would just let them be.
Either way, their survival until adulthood would be based on their own luck and fate.
However, the images he saw made him have to pick such an extreme choice.
"We have to weed them out before they manage to bloom," that was what his best friend said to him just last month when he still hesitated with that kind of decision.
"Focus Ferdinand Carson. This is for the greater good of the future" he mumbled by himself.
At the same moment, Hargan Empire was in a festive mood. The capital city of Midas was decorated with colorful decorations with its citizens bustling on the street, heading towards the plaza where they could take a look at the nobles and the Royal family members.
It wasn't easy to see the Royal family members and also the nobles from a prestigious families, especially the representative from the six prominent noble families.
Ares sat comfortably inside a black Bentley Limousine with the Zanuki insignia flag fluttering on top of its roof.
Ron and Ran sat alongside Ares inside the car while looking through the 3D holographic in front of them. It was the birdlike view of the entire plaza.
They needed to make sure everything was within what they expected and how to proceed if something unexpected happened.
"There was a possibility that it won't be only mana bombs," Ares said while leaning comfortably.
"You suspect there might be moles within the mages from SMT," Ran quickly understood her young master's words.
It wasn't surprising if they put some moles among those weak ass mages. Moran has very low mana thus Ran was never really interested in mages.
However seeing her young master spending his precious time to warn those mages and even making plans to help them, even though she felt unwilling she still has to do her best.
Most mages were weaker in terms of physical and when they couldn't use mana, they were practically the same as normal people. That was why Ares thought it was only logical for him to do something.
Ron and Ran also couldn't let their young master's safety under the hands of someone else.
"Proceed on the initial plan and I will contact you guys through the earpiece. Just follow my order and don't think too much"
"Yes, young master!" Both Morans answered clearly.
Unlike other nobles who have a few bodyguards' cars following their cars, Ares only has one car. The other Shadows followed him stealthily since there was no need to be so flashy.
From inside the car, Ares could see the crowds watching the noble cars passing by with various impressions.
Admiration, envy, curiosity, some even showed an obvious disdain.
The car was bulletproof, had various security functions, and also good sound insulation thus, Ares wouldn't hear how noisy the crowds actually were.
"Hey Ceddie, what are you looking at? We need to go find the best spot at the plaza" Shino said after seeing his friend suddenly stop and look towards the road that was heavily guarded by the Royal Corps personnel.
"Oh, I'm just curious when I saw your family's car just now, then I kind of interested with the car behind it" Cedric answered Shino's question while still looking towards the road.
"Oh, that's the Zanuki's car. Ares might be inside it. If we manage to secure a good spot, we might be able to see him"
"Oh is Ares the one attending this event? I thought the family successor will be the one coming"
"Ares is Lady Zerisa's only sibling thus it wasn't weird if he represented his family when his sister, which is the official heir couldn't make it"
They quickly went towards the plaza called the Bienvenida Plaza. It was the biggest plaza in the empire and also one of the most popular tourist spots.
At first, Shino wasn't interested in attending the event and had already planned to watch it on TV but Cedric seemed to be interested to see the Royal family members and the nobles.
Before, Cedric never care about all those things but since he interacted with Ares and Prince Theo a few times, he was curious to see them outside of the academy. To see them in an official setting like today.
From afar he could see an elevated area lavishly decorated and surrounded by knights. That area was closer to the stage where the Royal family members would stand and sit later on.
Not long after that, Cedric saw a red hair youth, wearing a lavish navy blue suit and his mask also look more lavish than normal since it had strings made out of pure gold.
Exiting the lavish limousine, Ares walk straight towards the elevated area which was for the nobles that were invited by the Royal family.
Shino just kept quiet and let his friend looked at the nobles with a curious gaze. Shino knew Cedric wasn't that interested in nobles but with the red hair youth, they saw just now.
Even though he was also a noble, as a second son that always did whatever he wanted, Shino had to admit, that he might look like a servant if he walked beside Ares.
The way of walking and the temperament were exactly how a noble from a prominent family should showcase and act in public.
"As expected of a Zanuki" Shino muttered when suddenly a young lady around his age, greeted him and asked if she wanted to buy a flower.
"Oh sure give me one" Shino responded without thinking in order to hide that he was daydreaming in the middle of the bustling crowds.
'I might be too deep in thoughts that I didn't realize when this young lady appeared beside me.'
When Ares arrived, the first thing he saw was Ramon Dorga standing in line to enter the noble area while the mages were checking each of the nobles in front of him.
'It seems like the deal is going through just fine.'
He didn't know what kind of deal Ramon proposed to the crown prince that made him agree to use his artifact to heal Ramon's crippled legs.
'It's better not to know or else I might get involved with more problems.'
Ignoring them, Ares waited for Ron to confirm his identity to the guard. A mage also started to swing a mana detection detector in front of him to see if he bring any magic device and fortunately it detected nothing since he didn't inject any mana yet into the Festia Earrings he wore.
========================
Festia Earring
Level: 2
Description: Can store holy power and mana just by injecting them into the earrings. Allow the user to use Shunpo(flash step) ability.
Restriction: This artifact level can't be improved.
Usage Limit : As long as the user still have mana.
========================
Shunpo was one of the famous ability that could be learnt but it took time to learn it and it was one of ability I wanted to have if I could but none of the Moran or Zanuki have this ability.
Despite being a clan specialized in stealth and assassination, the Moran didn't have any flash steps technique since they could create fog and stealthily killed their target. Their steps also have no sound or trace.
Thus they didn't really need a technique like Shunpo since they could also create hallucination fog if needed.
That was why I didn't sell the earrings that I got inside the dungeon during the midterm test after they were appraised. It might looked like a simple ability to move fast and agile but for someone that only wanted to live long, it's crucial to learn as much ability as I could.
Ares also has a defensive artifact with the shape of a red rhinestone ring he got from his grandpa but it wouldn't emit any trace of mana when not in use thus avoiding mana detection tools.
"Young master Ares," Ramon greeted him.
The other nobles also had arrived and waiting for their turn to enter the noble area in the plaza. The plaza area closer to the Royal stage was where the nobles would be, while the outer part of the plaza was where the public would be.
There was also a few huge monitors on the outer side of the plaza for the public to see and listen to the emperor's speech later.
"Good morning young master Ramon," I greeted him politely.
"Let's go inside together," Ramon suggested and I just nodded my head since there was no reason for me to reject him.
'I don't know why I feel this Ramon seems like he wanted to tell me something.'
Ramon's eyes sparkled while looking at me before he said, "Young master Ares, aren't you shocked seeing me able to walk properly today?"
"There's a lot of unexplainable phenomenon in this world. I should congratulate young master Ramon instead, for your success in curing your legs."
"Yes, you're right. I think I like you more young master Ares."
"I don't think I swing that way."
"Hahaha no. Don't you want an outgoing and funny older brother or maybe a funny mature friend?" he said while pointing at himself.
"...No it's ok."
"Then just call me brother Ramon after this," he said enthusiastically ignoring my words.
"..." I always couldn't defeat this kind of people.
"Let me bring you out for dinner later to commemorate our brotherhood."
'Man, who wanted to be your brother? Aren't you afraid you will be crippled for a second time by your so call brother,' Ares felt he wanted to facepalm his face looking at Ramon's easygoing demeanor but he restraint from doing so.
I decided to ignore Ramon who kept talking beside me and continued entering the noble area and went straight to my seat.
The seats were arranged with everyone's names tag put on the specific seats. The emperor and the royal family were not at the plaza just yet.
Ramon's seat was beside Ares once again even though he was not from the north and no one questioned him since they were more shocked seeing him walking with his own two legs.
At first, they might think it might be an illusion spell but who would make an illusion of Ramon's walking especially when a Zanuki was beside him. All of them stared at Ramon with disbelief expressions but didn't dare to ask directly seeing even a Zanuki didn't ask anything as if he didn't realize how Ramon crippled legs were healed overnight.
Even Stephanie Luna who was sitting beside Ramon flinched when he saw Ramon standing with his two legs before sitting on his seat comfortably.
'Artificial legs? No, impossible, his legs were crippled not amputated. So maybe a miracle cure?' She thought but decided it was rude to directly ask and just greeted Ramon and Ares normally while trying to control her facial expression.
"It's Lady Stephanie. You're exceptionally beautiful today" Ramon shook Stephanie's hand.
"Haha, young master Ramon sure has a way with words. You also looked great and so did young master Ares"
Ares only nodded his head slightly and just let Ramon chat with Stephanie while he looked around the huge plaza.
The crowds were far more huge than what he had imagined but they were not stuffed like sardines since the plaza was spacious.
The current time was 9:45 am and there was a huge silver clock tower with a huge hourglass containing silvery sand under the clock. The sand inside the hourglass was half full on both its top and bottom side and the sand wasn't moving as if the time were frozen.
The pillars supporting the clock tower from four sides have the shape of a great sword stabbed into the ground.
Ares knew that the mages must've also been on standby around the area. Ron and the other Shadows might be looking at him from the clock tower since that's the only place they could see everyone on the plaza.
The current time was 9:50 am. I could see a few robes individuals started walking around the plaza. I tried to form a small fire spell and it didn't work as they already put up a mana interference in the plaza area.
I looked around the plaza.
A cafe to the South.
The inn to the West.
A flower shop to the East.
The top of the Merchant Union building to the North.
These were the four places I focused on as I looked around.
"The plaza is indeed pretty large."
I verified the locations the magic bombs were positioned. At the same time, I looked toward the fountain area. A young lady was holding a basket of flowers and sold them around to the people. That young lady was one of the Shadows mixing in the crowds.
Those flowers weren't ordinary flowers but one-time use magic tools that were capable of making a shield when it detected incoming force towards them. Thus it might be able to at least help someone not to die instantly because of the mana bombs.
'Things are going as planned.'
"Young master something weird happened"
Suddenly Ares heard Ron's voice through his earpiece that look like a black stud earring. It was not weird for him to wear up to three different earrings since all Zanuki were well known to wear earrings.
"???"
Ron knew Ares couldn't reply thus he proceed on reporting, "The bombs that we should dismantle before the event started were already smashed down by someone else."
'It might be the mages, the terrorist, or another group with unknown objectives.'
If it was the first one then everything would become much easier.
If it was the second one, there might be a mole inside SMT and that mole tried to change the plan by making sure the bombs wouldn't explode. He might get caught if he tried recklessly to change the bomb locations.
The bombs weren't small. Each was the size of a soccer ball.
If it was the last one, things might be tricky.
"Young master, we only found four bombs that were already been destroyed. What should we do?"
'Four? Wasn't there supposed to be seven?'
Ares slightly wave his right hand as if he was feeling hot. The Shadows quickly understood and began cleaning up their assigned area while some of them prepared for the upcoming battle to protect their young master.
'The plot changed but my goal is just to prove to those mages that my information was correct and they might become Truth Agency regular customers in the future.'