The Pink Phoenix Duchy, Scattered Petals Manor.
Azealia laid on her bed and stared blanky at the ceiling of her cramped room, occasionally she would twitch and make faces as if remembering something unpleasant. She pursed her and began tapping her fingers on her sheets, she had been waiting for an hour for someone to call her and her anxiety wouldn't let her rest. She wished she could look out the window and take her mind off her troubles by watching birds or even just receiving fresh air, but she had done that a hundred times already, now she was ready to chuck a knife at the birds if it would stop their excessive chirping.
She had a feeling they had already started the ceremony without her, after all, she had turned into a bit of a joke, and she couldn't blame anyone other than herself. But that didn't mean she enjoyed the hushed whispers and the scoffs she got when she walked past people, especially if those scoffs were coming from incompetent whores like Penelope Schuster.
Azealia clicked her tongue in anger, then she sighed heavily, her anger evaporating like vapor. She caused her humiliation, so she had to put up with it. She wished she could go back in time and stop herself from speaking, saying nothing would have been better than what she said.
Azealia frowned as she remembered that day, it was two days after she was freed from captivity, she had just returned to the Scattered Petals Manor even though she dreaded going back. Because she had been captured, she missed a mission, or rather, since she wasn't around her team had to forgo the mission since she was an integral part in the expedition that they had been planning for weeks, causing them to lose the target.
Azealia walked in the manor with shame and apprehension, when she arrived, she was immediately called by her superior who wanted to know why she wasn't around. Since she couldn't very well tell them that she had been captured, she panicked and blabbed about necromancers and undead armies. She could still remember the face her superior made after she finished talking, she had been utterly baffled.
She didn't know how, but her bevue spread throughout the whole manor. Although she wasn't demoted, she was still exempted from meetings and missions, she became idle for more than a month. Although it wasn't unusual for assassins to be jobless for long periods of time – since not everyone needed someone dead – they could still get information gathering missions in between the long wait. Azealia, however, wasn't given any.
But this day was supposed to be different, because it was the day the duchess would visit the manor, and everyone was supposed to gather around the great hall to welcome her. But she wasn't allowed to attend the ceremony, even though she wasn't confined per say there was a silent order weighing on her that wouldn't let her just attend the arrival of the duchess without her superior granting her access.
Azealia had a gnawing feeling that the duchess had already arrived, because the entire manor was unusually hushed. Her window was situated at the side of the manor, the manor was half surrounded by a small mountain from behind, the mountain had a small cave that is connected to the backyard of the manor where her and the other assassins train. Her view was blocked by the mountain side and the only entertainment she got was from a bird's nest, she couldn't see the road from her room so she would definitely miss the duchess's arrival.
But she was sure she had arrived, unless something particularly important happens the duchess would always visit the manor once a year to inspect the female assassins that she created.
Azealia didn't want to see the duchess for any particular reason, it was just that welcoming the duchess was a kind of tradition for them, the fact that she wasn't participating made her uncomfortable. She laid still, closed her eyes and breathed slowly as she tried to calm down her anxiety. She was going to try to fall asleep, and if the duchess finds out that she didn't attend her arrival ceremony then the blame would fall on her superior. Although, if she was being realistic, the chances of that happening were zero to none –
Knock! Knock!
Azealia almost fell out of her be when she heard the knocks, "Who is it?" She said and immediately winced, the octave of her voice was too high, could the person at the other side of the door hear her anxiety?
She ran to the door, donned on a nonchalant expression, then slowly opened it. She recognized the woman that was standing there, but that wasn't anything significant because there were less than a hundred assassins in the whole manor so she more or less recognized everyone.
"What is it?" Azealia asked.
"You are being summoned by the duchess." The woman said curtly.
'So, she had already arrived – wait what?!' Azealia gasped inaudibly and her whole body clenched, the duchess was looking for her. Was she going to get dismissed? Azealia gulped, everyone in the assassin world knew the fate on assassins who get dismissed.
Azealia had a lot of questions, but she didn't waste time saying what would have been regarded as 'too much nonsense'. Instead, she nodded understandably and said, "Lead the way."
The woman nodded and walked away, with Azealia following closely behind.
Azealia was glad that the woman couldn't see her troubled face, her thoughts were completely preoccupied as she walked past the doors lined across the long hallway, it wasn't until she reached the stairs that she began to observe her surroundings. When she reached the end of the stairs, she could see a few girls walking around and from the emblem on their chests she realized they were all Roots.
The assassins in the Scattered Petals were grouped into four ranks: the Roots, the Stems, the Thorns, and the Petals, with Roots being the lowest rank and Petals being the highest. There were less than a hundred people in the manor and the Roots outnumbered the others, in fact, there were only three Petals in the entire Scattered Petals.
Everyone she passed by gave her a curious look, it seemed her summoning wasn't made public.
She followed the woman all the way to the entrance of the duchess's office, the woman paused for a bit before knocking the door. Every pound brought Azealia more dread, she suddenly had the urge to run but was able to hold herself in the last second. If she were to run away, she would be branded a deserter, and she be running for her life from then on. She forced herself to stay in place, she decided to face whatever was going to happen head-on.
Although she didn't know which was better; dying now or being killed later after being hunted down.
The door opened abruptly, startling her. She was shocked to see that it was her superior who opened the door, while she stood there her superior and the woman who brought her there were already exchanging words.
"I've brough her Miss Zora." The woman said.
Her superior nodded, "Thank you, Miriam. That'll be all."
The woman – Miriam, nodded and walked away.
After Miriam left, Zora turned her gaze to Azealia, staring at her sternly for a few moments before gesturing to follow her inside. Azealia knew very well what that look meant; 'be very careful what you say in the presence of the duchess'.
Azealia had her eyes glued to the rug as she walked towards the desk where the duchess sat at, she bowed to the figure she could vaguely see, took in and released a deep breath, then looked up.
This wasn't the first time she had seen the duchess, but no matter how many times she laid her eyes upon her she couldn't help but squint at the sight of her dazzling beauty. Her black hair was silky and straight, her skin pale and unblemished. Unlike most noble women, she didn't wear a heavy gown but a straight, sleeveless red dress with golden flower patterns designed on it. The window behind her showered her with mild sunlight, Azealia hadn't seen a fairy, but she was sure the duchess's beauty was comparable to one.
But the light didn't reach her eyes, those black irises seemed to be devoid of light and life.
"Good day, my lady." Azealia said.
The Duchess, Cornelia, gestured towards a chair emotionlessly, "Have a seat, Azealia."
Azealia bowed again before walking to the chair and sitting on it, she took several glances at the duchess as she did this, trying to gauge her emotions through her facial expressions but the duchess's face remained as stoic as ever.
After she sat, the duchess spoke, "Azealia is it, the reason I called you here was simple; I heard that you came across some people from whom you learnt about the existence of so called undead. Now, you are going to retell everything you said, I want to here the entire story from your mouth and I would advise you not to tell any lies."
'Ah, she doesn't beat around the bush.' Azealia thought as she nodded hastily and began recounting everything she knew, this time she didn't omit her capturing and made sure to emphasize on how powerful her captors were. She could see Zora glaring at her disapprovingly, which was to be expected since she had lied to her.
"They were traveling around the kingdom and warning people about the undead by spreading the information like rumors," the duchess propped her chin on her finger, "hmm, smart. Did they tell you why they were doing this – warning the people instead of warning the king?" she asked.
"No, my lady. But they seemed to really hate the… umm, they called the sorcerers who reanimate the dead, they were ready to kill me when they thought I was one of their lackies, but they immediately apologized when they found out I wasn't." Azealia said.
"Did they tell you when and where the attack would begin?"
"No, ma'am."
"Did they mention how strong they are?"
"No, ma'am."
Cornelia sighed and nodded, "Okay, it seems like you don't know anything of great value, you may leave."
Azealia stood up and bowed, and was about to turn around and leave but then she paused. She didn't know where she found the courage but she did the opposite of what the duchess said, "Excuse me my lady, erm forgive me, but… you asked me to return, and I just thought that today would be my last day with the Scattered Petals." Azealia's voice got lower as she spoke, until it was but a squeak.
"No," Cornelia stared at her with her dead eyes, "you are restarting your work starting today."
Azealia's eyes widened uncontrollably.
Cornelia ignored her shocked face and continued speaking, "You are very lucky, very lucky indeed. You were so close to losing your life, but a group of Roots that were sent to the Green Turtle Duchy happened to come across a town which was devoid of people, but filled with carnage and broken bones."
…
The Forsaken Lands, Overlord City.
Henry sat cross-legged in the middle of the arena as the space of his surroundings warped around him, he had about ten minutes of practicing before other people needed to use the area. Two months had past, and he was now level 18, he was the slowest to level up in his whole group and the only who hadn't reached level 20 – which George never forgot to lord over him. The Space Element was one of the hardest elements to level up, and it was only going to get harder still. After all this time, none of the level twenties had leveled up once.
Henry had unlocked a skill called [Spatial Movement], from the information he got, the skill was a very dangerous one. One mistake and he could either get shredded to pieces, or get lost in the Space Between.
The Space Between was an alternative space that was a passage created in between the space of the Mortal Realm and the Other Spaces, in that space, he could pass by people like a ghost, just like the Shadow Mages when they traverse the Shadow Realm, but he wouldn't see the world in black and white.
The warbling space around him slowly disappeared, but the space in front of him trembled violently. Henry's eyebrows furrowed and he groaned out loud as he tried to stabilize the space. The trembling slowly stopped, and the space seemingly went back to normal, but then a large crack appeared in front of him.
"Ah!" Henry gasped and hurriedly stopped channeling his magic, then cautiously watched as the space fixed itself.
"Are you okay?"
Henry turned around to see Pascal staring at him concernedly, he stood up and bowed to him, "Overlord." He greeted.
Pascal smiled and waved at him before walking up to him, then they both sat at the edge of the stage and began chatting.
"…I'm still so glad that there aren't too many people in the city yet, even when I was a prince I wasn't given any managerial duties, so I'm glad to be able to take things slow." Pascal said.
"But people are coming in, aren't they? I foresee a hectic future for you." Henry said.
"Only three people have joined in the last two months, I think I'll survive." The three people consisted of three males who were family, the youngest was a fifteen-year-old Psyonic Mage, followed by a Claymore Warrior in his 20's, then their fifty-five-year-old father who was an Arcane Mage. "And if my work becomes too much, I'll make sure to put you in my militia, seeing you work hard would definitely push me to work harder." Pascal joked.
Henry waved his hands, "Whoa, whoa. I don't need that much stress on me, at least not yet."
They talked for a few more minutes before Pascal left to find Morgana.
Henry threw himself back into his practice, and he began the way he started. He first felt the space around him through his magic sense, the space around him began trembling but he quickly stabled it. He decided to take a different approach this time, the crack that happened before gave him an idea.
He pointed his index finger forward and the space in front of him shattered inwards, he could see a blurry passage in the doorway he created and knew he had succeeded.
He looked around and bit his lip, he wanted to test the new skill but was hesitant. He shook his head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts, and walked into the passage, as soon as he entered the space closed and fixed behind him.
The Space Between was cold and silent, everywhere around him was stretched and blurry, as if he was moving at high speed. He noticed that his mp was decreasing at a very fast rate which meant the duration of the skill would be a very short one, a spark of excitement bloomed in his chest, and he began running towards the exit of the arena, he wanted to surprise his family before his mp runs out.
The space around him got even more blurrier the faster he ran, he checked his mp again and saw that it was almost finished. He sighed in disappointment at the fact that he wouldn't be able to scare George, the he thrusted his finger forward and burst out of the Space Between.
"Ah!"
Henry heard an unrecognizable scream behind him, and his surroundings were even more unfamiliar. He turned and saw a girl who was paused mid-climb on some steps that led to an archaic construction, when he took a step forward, she pulled out a knife from her side and pointed it at him.
"What – no, who are you!"