In the central palace of the Bryde family, the head of the intel department was busy, working on some cases in his office room. As he was reading some papers, he heard someone knocking on his office door.
" Come in! " Mr Bricot, the head of the intel department said.
The person outside slowly opened the door and entered his office. He moved close to Bricot and gave the information slip, he got from the messenger bird to him.
" An intel came from Ashton, Sir. It's about the dark creed! " He said and moved back after giving the slip.
" Fine, I will call you if I need anything! "
When Mr Bricot indirectly told him to leave, soon the person who borough the message left.
As Bricot opened the slip and fully read it his expression froze in shock. He instantly got up from his chair and headed towards the meeting chamber, where the family meeting of the bryde family was going on.
As Bricot got there, he knocked on the door of the meeting room, despite the patriarch ordering him not to disturb.
" Come in! "
Bricot heard the patriarch of the Bryde family calling him. So as he went inside the room, he saw the eight family elders of the family sitting there. As they saw him, they got irritated about him interfering in the middle of a meeting.
" Can't you wait for a while? We are in the middle of a meeting. What's so urgent that needs barge in like this? "
The patriarch asked with an angry tone and it didn't seem like he was pleased by Bricit entering the room but Bricot knew that the news he had bought is worth stopping the meeting, so he didn't mind what the patriarch said and started talking.
" Forgive me my lord, but it's from the Ashton. It is about the dark creed. "
Hearing that, the patriarch and the elders there, also got shocked and froze for a moment. Because the news from Ashton was never good. If it was related to the Dark creed, then it would be worse, so they all started to wonder what the hell happened this time.
" So, what is it this time? " The patriarch asked, expecting bad news.
" According to the intel, four days ago, an unknown squad attacked the dark creed and destroyed one of the four towers! "
As they heard that, they were more shocked. Because they all knew that there wasn't anyone in alderan brave enough to do that.
Although the two great families of alderan could have easily attacked the cult base of the dark creed, the problem was that the cult base in Ashton was only one of the seventeen bases of the dark creed cult.
If Alderan tried to attack the cult base, then it would have gone bad and might have started a war between alderan and the dark creed cult. So they all started to wonder who was so brave enough to do something like that.
" Continue, " The patriarch said and Bigot continued.
" According to our spy, there were three of them. The intel said that one of them was a master and the other two were almost as strong as the advanced stage. And also two of them, including the master, possessed a Lightning attribute. and, and " As Bigot was about to finish something stopped him and, he didn't want to continue.
" And what, spill it! " The patriarch shouted shaking the whole room as he was furious, so Bigot continued without any other choice.
" And according to the intel, while fighting, the third one used the absolute defence sword rain technique against the cult members! And Before leaving they left a scroll there, declaring war against the Dark creed! "
That final news froze all the people in the room and they started to wonder if it can get any worse. The patriarch had drowned in thoughts and the leaders were looking at each other with horror on their faces.
The referred sword technique was the technique that had been protected by the bryde family for hundreds of years and it's only taught to the members of the family.
It wasn't a challenge for the people in that room to know who could have done that. There was only one person in the Bryde family, who could do something so reckless. It not only infuriated the patriarch but he started to blame himself and thought it was his fault that he let his daughter act on his own.
" Are sure about the intel? "
" Yes, my lord. Here is the slip. It says that more than twenty cult members died and many of them got wounded. Some members also went missing! "
" What about the attackers? Did you get any details?"
" All three were covered with black and they escaped before the bandits could get them. "
The patriarch started to bite his teeth and he was so furious that he wanted to destroy that whole building but he controlled himself in front of the elders and calmly said,
" Collect the rest of the information and inform me as quickly as possible! "
Hearing that, Brigot bowed to the patriarch and left from there. As Brigot left the patriarch asked the elders what to do about the situation.
" Nothing has been confirmed, so we don't have to act on speculation. For now, we can strengthen our defences and wait for what might come next! "
One of the elders said calmly. The others also thought the same and the patriarch accepted since he didn't have another way. As he was thinking about what to do next, an elder asked?
" So, should we call the girl back? "
For that the patriarch immediately replied,
" I was thinking about going to Bellrun to see the finals, but it seems I have to leave before that. No need to call her, I will talk to her myself! "
The patriarch said as he got up from his chair and called a servant. Immediately a servant entered the room,
"Yes, my lord "
" Tell them to prepare the airship. I am leaving for Bellrun tomorrow! " he said and left the meeting room.
*****
After riding for hours, Aran finally reached the mercenary guild station in Bellrun city. As they reached there, they got off their horses and walked into the station. As usual, everyone there greeted Elissa when they saw her.
As they went inside, Elissa called the guild worker who assigned them the mission and told him that they have gotten fourteen of the bandits and that they are in their rings.
" Follow me, my lady! " He said and took them to another room.
As both aran and Elissa went there with the guild worker, Aran saw that many strong guild members were waiting. They were the members of the culprit recovery team, who will stop the culprits if they tried to attack after getting out of the ring. As the three of them got there, the worker pointed his finger at the centre of that room and said,
" You can unload the bandits here! "
Hearing that, both aran and Elissa got ready to take out all the bandits from their rings together. As they pointed their rings at the centre of the room and took them out, everyone in that room was terrified by that horror scenery. Not just the others, Elissa was more shocked than others to see that.
Although everyone was expecting the live bandits, what they saw was the rotten corps of them!
Elissa couldn't understand what happened to them and the people in there started to wonder why she bought the dead bodies here. Elissa immediately turned towards aran who had a similar shocked expression.
" What? I didn't know this will happen if we put them in our rings! "
Aran instantly said as if he didn't know a thing. Everyone remained silent for a moment. Elissa didn't know what to do but she Immediately broke the silence by saying,
" Here are the dead bodies of the bandits. You can check if they are actually the bandits in the mission or not! "
Although they seemed dumbfounded to hear that, since Elissa was a lady of the Bryde family, the guild officer, didn't want to make it a big issue. So, he immediately called some other guild workers and told them to clean it up and brought Elissa and aran back to the office.
After checking the mission, he gave 30 high-tier spirit stones to Elissa as the mission reward. Although it wasn't a big amount for a royal lady like her, since a single high-tier spirit stone was worth a thousand gold coins, for normal people it was a very huge reward.
After signing the mission completion documents, Elissa left the guild with Aran.
As they got outside Elissa told aran that there is an artifact shop that she is familiar with and that they can sell the collected artifacts there. Aran accepted and both of them left that place.
After a while, both of them reached an artifact shop. It was one of the biggest shops in the city and Elissa was a regular customer there. They sold all the twelve rings and the artifacts that were inside the rings.
After calculating the value of all the artifacts, which were worth 980 high-tier spirit stones and with the stones that were already inside the rings, they got a total of 1780 high-tier spirit stones from that mission. After taking all the stones into the ring and greeting the manager of the shop, Elissa left from there with aran.
As they got outside, it was the afternoon time and Elissa told aran that there is a diner in the city that she always visits and invited him for the lunch. Since aran was also hungry, he accepted it.
After a few minutes' ride, As Elissa reached the diner, she asked a worker there for a private dining room and he showed them the way. They both followed the worker and went inside the private room and sat at the table facing each other. By the expressions of Elissa, it seemed, she wanted t discuss many things with aran.