Somewhere in one of the palaces of the royal city, a man was sitting on a chair with his guard by his side. In front of him, was a mountain of paper. Affairs of the city, and especially cases of disappearances that were becoming more and more frequent in Chronus.
*Toc toc*
"Enter," said the man sitting in the chair, before a man entered the room.
"Your Highness, we spotted a cart carrying slaves this morning. They left in an alley but we lost all trace after a while as if they had vanished. We have, however, found the location of the auction, and according to some nobles, it will begin tonight at 9 p.m" The man who was a guard said while bowing out of respect for the all-powerful figure that was the first prince of the empire, His Highness Aether.
"I see, you can take your leave," Aether replied with a worried look.
Once the guard was gone, Aether lay down in his chair and couldn't help but sigh. His mother, who was the queen, had entrusted him with the mission a month ago to find the place of the auction and get rid of all those who participate in it. However, he could not afford to kill the nobles unless he wanted a civil war with them. And now that he had finally found the place of the event, he had to act.
The auction schedule never made sense, he did not know if the next auction would take place in a month or a year. That is why he had to act, even if the nobles were bound to complicate things. He couldn't afford to let people suffer from people who didn't know the value of life.
"Kraal, prepare about fifty Men for tonight at 7 p.m. Also sends 5 spies so they can monitor the surroundings until we arrive. If they notice anything unusual, report it to me immediately" Aether ordered to Kraal, while massaging his forehead.
"Your Highness, you know very well that I must stand by your side under the Queen's orders," Kraal replied with a smile.
"*Sigh* You weren't as serious when we were little. Send someone to do what I told you then. And made me remind me that I have to talk to mother, this order has remained for far too long," Aether, complained but also with a smile on his face.
After continuing to talk about a few other topics, Aether went back to work while Kraal continued to stand behind his friend. They continued like this for another 4h30, and once the hour approached, they began to prepare.
To appear discreet, they decided to leave with a long hooded cape to hide their entire bodies. It would therefore be impossible for them to be recognized unless their capes were removed and their faces were displayed to the public, which was ultimately impossible given the level of power that the royal family possessed.
However, just before they began the operation, the prince received a report from one of the spies.
"Your Highness, a rumor has spread around the noble slave buyers saying that some extremely rare merchandise will be sold at this auction," The spy said before leaving to continue his mission.
"Kraal brings 20 more guards. We can't leave like this if there is something like this" Aether told Kraal with a worried face.
'If a rare commodity like this were to appear, it would also mean that it will be extremely well kept. And prevention is better than cure, so twenty guards in plus would not hurt.'
They then began to take the road from the palace of the second prince to the place where the auction will take place. The travel lasted about 2h30, which made them arrive a little later than expected. However, coming a little later was also an advantage in itself. This will make it possible to lower the guard of the soldiers who would monitor the surroundings of the network, and thus, to be able to return more easily without being caught.
Once the prince and all the guards had arrived in front of the underground network, they noticed that a dozen of guards were blocking the entrance. Taking the lead, the prince used his control overtime to slow down all the enemy soldiers and at the same time, accelerate the speed of all his allies.
This allowed them to knock out the guards blocking the entrance without hindrance. Once the way was clear, they all rushed to the entrance and began to navigate inside the underground where the auction was taking place.
***
The pain that Eden felt absolute did not want to calm down. Even after what seemed like hours and hours, his belly still hurt tremendously. So bad that he felt all his organs moving inside his body. He wanted to hurt himself somewhere so that he would focus on another pain, but if he did, his regeneration will activate and make him twist even more pain after that. In addition, the fatigue of his last meditation had still not passed which made him extremely weak.
The pressure his meditation had put on his mind, plus the pressure he was currently feeling on his body would have been enough to kill an elephant. It was how much he was suffering.
After what seemed like another 1 hour of pain, Eden began to get used to it. However, it was not because he had become accustomed to it that he no longer felt it, far from it, he still had the impression that his whole body had broken into thousand pieces. However, he had become accustomed enough to it to succeed in keeping a poker face, so that the people who were going to pick him up did not suspect anything.
The last thing he wanted was that people thought he was easy prey to beat. Especially since currently, he had no way to defend himself. He felt that even a small breeze of wind could make him break into a thousand pieces so he couldn't even imagine a blow intended to make him suffer.
Once he had returned to a roughly normal posture, he began to hear footsteps coming from the other side of the door. He thought it was finally the time. He will know in a few minutes why he was captured. Even though he already had a little idea.
He wasn't completely sure because it had been completely abolished in his first life. However, it was a new life, on another planet, with totally different people, so nothing told him that his theory was 100% true or false. Only time can provide an answer. And this answer, he will have it after the guard has transported it somewhere.