In 'The First Saintess', the bombing incident was formulated by Novus Vita to threaten the royal family. They had first given a demonstration explosion then made a demand—for the royal family to come face to face with them, in return, they wouldn't blow up anything else. In the novel, Dominic had fallen for it and stepped out. However, in the chaotic crowd, a person had thrown a dagger at the old man, and in an instant, all the bombs were used.
On the day of the incident, Novus Vita had hidden the bombs as ordinary items and slipped them into the citizens when they had entered the plaza. Therefore, the explosions were widespread. The plaza had been completely destroyed, along with a large half of the districts near it.
This included the district Fatalite resided in.
Putting a hood over Jadiel, Ciel narrowed his eyes.
'The First Saintess' had never mentioned that the head of Fatalite was a one eyed cheetah eve, nor the fact that it had originated from a mercenary group. The Fatalite Ciel knew from the novel was led solely by Dominic, none of the eves Ciel currently knew were ever mentioned.
That could only mean that something had happened to them. If they had all died during the bombing, that would explain everything.
—The Dominic in the novel had been added to the heroine's harem for two main reasons. Number one was because she was similar to Cedric, and number two was her goal: to eradicate the demons.
On that day, about half of the capital's population had been wiped out. This included Cedric's parents, and it was very possible that Fatalite was also included in the casualties. As a result, if Dominic wanted to hate someone, he would definitely hate the demons.
Dominic had never mentioned it, but other than Fatalite, which he had created, Dominic only had some minor nobles and the Norama house as his supporters. Without solid support, Dominic would have all his followers killed and become a puppet king to the other nobles. In the novel, he had only managed to curb his losses with Cedric, who had taken the Archduke position after his parent's death and bulldozed through all the opposition the nobles had with Dominic's position.
Ciel's eyes darkened dangerously as he remembered what Cedric had said.
' "With you and my parents around, I don't have the need to change yet." '
With both his parents dead, a child had to inherit the archduke's position all by himself, and not to mention that the majority of the nobles was against him and his childhood friend.
With such pressure from all sides, no wonder Cedric had died early on in the novel.
Shaking his head vigorously, Ciel's mood became carefree again, and he quickly scanned the crowd for items that looked like mana and aura combinations.
"Verdalite, over there. See that young woman? Take her purse."
Verdalite grimaced, but fortunately, he still quickly snatched the purse.
"Good job." He was pretty fast, as expected of a White Night agent. Ciel's mana senses quickly scanned the clock tower—at this rate, they would be able to collect all the bombs before Dominic decided to cede to the old man and show up.
'I really love this new life. I'm only nine years old and so many exciting things have happened since I left the tower. Once the main storyline begins, there'll only be more entertainment. Hehehehe.'
Ciel hid his grin, and continued to direct Verdalite.
"See that old man? Take that pocket watch."
"There, the young girl with the red scarf, grab her doll. Which one? The bunny one that looks new."
Meanwhile, the old man had already finished making his demand. It was the same as the one he had made in the novel—and he had started to count down.
The countdown had stopped everyone in place, like a deer in headlights. The mages and knights that had rushed over were helpless too.
They couldn't run or he'd blow them up, but he was still going to blow them up in thirty seconds. As a result, everyone could only pray that the royal family would show up.
In the rubble, not even the soldiers were in the right mind to pay attention to the ones next to them. Therefore, Ciel smoothly navigated Jadiel through the crowd.
'Huh, this one's actually really nice looking.'
Pulling out the fourth bomb, which was in the form of a simple necklace with a blood red pendant, he scanned the crowd again as his hands subconsciously put it in his space ring.
'Huh?' Doubting his mana senses, Ciel looked around the entire plaza again. 'There are only four?' In the original novel, there had been seven.
The old man was still counting down.
"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, sevente—"
"Halt! I'm here."
A young boyish voice interrupted the countdown. Dominic stood out from the crowd, his hair was messed up. It was apparent that his escorts had tried to make him leave, prioritizing his safety first.
"Blowing up our plaza, are you trying to declare war?"
He was obviously a young child, but he had the dignity befitting of a prince. With his two ghostly pale brothers standing beside him like his guards, he only looked more majestic.
Under his hood, only the old man's wrinkled smile could be seen.
"Declare war? How could we dare? It has to be you guys who declared war first. We just want to make a proposal."
Before anyone could try to make sense of what he said, a dagger coated in mana flew out from the crowd with the shout, "Protect his highness!"
The old man smoothly extended a hand, and the dagger stopped in midair. His grin disappeared.
"My dear highness, can I take this as your refusal to my proposal when you haven't even heard what it was yet?"
"What?" Dominic reflexively looked at the direction where the dagger came from. He hadn't given any commands to attack.
"F*ck." Seeing the old man raise his hand and release four balls of pure mana, Ciel quickly hooked the bombs onto the prepared crossbow.
The bombs were currently dormant because the mana and aura in them were in a balance. The moment the balance was offset, they would go off. The previous explosions had been timed. But this time, the damned old man wanted to show off the entire process.
"Verdalite, run towards the prince. Hurry up!" Ciel himself knew that his physical strength was on the bad side. If he used the crossbow, the bombs would blow up in his face.
White Night members liked to keep a low profile. If Verdalite or Azar used the crossbow, they would be put in the spotlight. Therefore, Ciel led Verdalite to the first person he thought of. Jumping down from Verdalite's arms, he grabbed Dominic by the shoulders.
"Crown prince! Your brothers can fly right?"
It was worded as a question, but in truth, he already knew the answer. That was why he had come here after all.
His sudden movements snapped everyone out of their dumbfounded state. Looking at the old man's actions, the people immediately started to push and shove to each other out of the way in their haste to exit.
The stillness ceased as chaos broke out once more.
Minus the knight commander who was trying to protect Dominic, even the mages and the soldiers were rushing to leave. No one wanted to die.
"What are you—" Dominic was shocked by Ciel's sudden appearance with two strange men.
"There's no time to explain. They can, right?" Ciel was referring to his previous question.
"Of course!"
"Hand this to your fastest brother. Have him fly up and shoot it at his highest point. Don't let those mana balls touch the items tied to the arrow! Hurry up!" Yelling over the noise, Ciel stuffed the crossbow into Dominic's hands. They were running out of time—the mana balls were coming closer.
With Dominic's brains, he instantly caught on, and giving Ciel a look that said 'I'll question you later', he passed the crossbow over to the second prince. Both brothers were quick and efficient, and as the second prince flew up, he quickly dodged the mana balls. Ciel looked on anxiously, hiding his emotions with a light smile.
Just as the mana balls were going to touch the items tied to the arrow, the second prince stopped abruptly and released the arrow straight up into the air.
—Boom Boom! Boom!
With a loud ear-shattering noise, the sky brightened up with a flash of light. Even on the ground, Ciel could feel the heat waves buffet his hair.
However, his smile was tinged with satisfaction as he felt several familiar aggressive auras approaching the plaza quickly.
Those guys from Fatalite won't die from the bombing incident today, at least not with him around.