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THE PLAN IN THE BROTHEL!
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When Caroline brought the chest, Blaze asked with a relaxed posture, "You betrayed me, right?"
"No," Caroline denied at first, but Blaze enticed and threatened at the same time, "I have a plan that can set you free from the clutches of Ezra. I wouldn't tell you unless you tell me the truth or I will leave this Empire right now."
It made Caroline shiver when Lord Ezra's threat resurfaced in her mind. She knew if Blaze left, she would be dead.
'I will take the risk.' Caroline made up her mind to tell the truth, finally relinquishing her fear. Blaze seemed more approachable and understanding than Lord Ezra. She knew she had to take the side of one person while going against the other.
"I was approached by the soldiers after they discovered I bought the knife used in your operation," Caroline stated.
"And?" Blaze questioned, wanting to hear valuable information.
"And I gave them a scroll that contained the drawing of somebody that didn't exist," Caroline said, making Blaze nod calmly even though he still held some doubt in his heart.
"Go on. The story didn't seem to end that way." Blaze waved his hand at her.
Caroline took a deep breath and exhaled before she continued, "However, Lord Ezra called for me this time around. It was at that moment I knew the brothel belonged to Lord Ezra. He specifically asked about your whereabouts since nobody had seen your face."
"I don't think you know," Blaze replied calmly.
Caroline nodded before adding with a smile, "I don't know, but I could guess your location from that kid, who looks like a noble, and your element – Dragon Light Academy." Caroline guessed his location accurately from her deduction.
Blaze remained expressionless, neither agreeing nor denying, waiting for her to continue her story.
Caroline stared at Blaze to see any reaction but continued when she failed to elicit any reaction from Blaze as when he saw the scroll of his wanted poster. "So I told him you will surely come back to the town this night."
"What made you so sure I will come to Isle Town tonight?" Blaze asked, feeling something was off about her confidence.
Caroline's smile grew wider as she elaborated, her voice tinged with a mixture of relief and amusement. "To be perfectly honest, I wasn't entirely certain. It was more of an educated guess on my part, considering the dire threat he had made towards my life if you failed to appear. I figured that taking a chance at guessing your location might provide me with a meager chance of survival. Sometimes, in moments of desperation, even the smallest glimmer of hope can make a significant difference."
"However, what I feared the most came to pass – you refused to show up. Surprisingly, my com amulet vibrated just when I was already losing hope."
Blaze said, "Skip to the part of the trap please," after he couldn't see the end of her story.
"Lord Ezra set a trap at the blacksmith's manor. A mage will be sitting in one of the rooms. That's the trap," Caroline said in a whisper.
"Anything else?" Blaze raised his eyebrows while drumming his fingers in the arm of the chair.
"Nothing else." Caroline shook her head before raising her amulet. "Here is the conversation if you don't trust me."
A holographic display of the conversation between Caroline and Lord Ezra played from a strange amulet. Blaze's eyes narrowed when he saw the way Lord Ezra covered himself.
"Good. Do you have any secret route to leave Isle town without using the gate?" Blaze asked and closed his eyes as he simulated a plan in his head. He just needed an escape route to make the plan feasible.
"Yes. Beneath the stairs of the brothel," Caroline said calmly.
"Go and confirm if the route still exists before I tell you my plans," Blaze said before shutting his eyes to think of the loopholes in his plans.
Caroline still had suspicion in her eyes, thinking Blaze would suddenly run away before she returned, but she still went to check. She had already surrendered herself to fate: either she escaped or died.
Surprisingly, when she came back, she saw Blaze still sitting with his eyes closed. This made her raise her eyebrows while giving him strange stares. A normal person would have run away when she went to check the escape route. Unbeknownst to her, her trust in Blaze increased.
"The escape route is still intact," Caroline stated while standing before Blaze.
"What about Lord Ezra? Is he still in the Town?" Blaze asked what was bugging him.
"No, he has already left. If he's in the town, he wouldn't need anybody to catch you. He is already a Grand Mage." Caroline shook her head weakly with a powerless sigh escaping her lips. She still wondered what gave Blaze the guts to oppose such a figure.
However, the mention of the Grand Mage rank made Blaze open his eyes. This is the second time he's heard it. He was curious to know the power difference between a Grand Mage and an Awakened Mage, but he threw that aside and focused on the present.
"Do you know where the gold coins are stored and how much?" Blaze followed up.
"Yeah. The cupboard close to my desk, placed in the open room," Caroline said, making Blaze nod.
"Here is the plan. You will have to play your role perfectly or I will end up abandoning you," Blaze said with seriousness, losing his prior nonchalance.
"First, I will go to the manor and pretend to fall into their trap. Then I will escape to the brothel. They will think I plan to escape out of the city, however, my destination is the brothel. This is where your role comes in." Blaze stared deeply into Caroline's eyes at the moment.
"As the soldiers had gone to guard, observe, and search around the gate and fences, that will buy us enough time. You will attack me brutally when I come in. Remember, do not hold back. Fight with everything you have. Since you're just a solid-core Awakened Mage, I will probably survive with little scratches."
Caroline's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. "Why should I attack you? Shouldn't we escape together?"
Blaze sneered dismissively, "That kind of thinking is for amateurs, those who only see escape or killing their enemy as their options." He took a moment to compose himself before continuing in a calm tone, "The reason you are attacking me is to burn this establishment to the ground. Fight recklessly and cause maximum destruction! I'm willing to bet that Ezra has someone closely monitoring your every move. So, during the battle, I will kill you…"
Blaze hadn't finished what he was about to say when Caroline flinched in fear when Blaze uttered 'Kill you'. She started retreating slowly with back steps.
"Did you really think that if I intended to kill, I would inform you beforehand? I expected a better reaction from you than recoiling at the sound of death," Blaze said without expression before smirking, "I thought you were prepared to die?" His smirk that bore a tint of mockery made Caroline blush in shame. It was merely a natural reaction.
Blaze wiped the smirk off his face and continued with a serious tone, "As I was saying, I will kill you when you've wreaked enough havoc and destruction. Then I will take the gold coins and your body to escape." Blaze's lips suddenly raised in an evil smirk. "But the news that will spread will be, that you died while fighting me valiantly and your body was burnt to ashes in the flame that engulfed the brothel during our battle."
"However, I have a healing potion that will heal your wound even though it's life-threatening." Blaze brought out the potion from his pocket. "From there, you will go to a village with low civilization and a small number of mages – where you wouldn't be recognized. Then you can begin a new life. You know a village, right?" Blaze asked.
Caroline thought for a while before nodding. The possibility of Blaze allowing her to die and burn in the flames after he killed her came across her mind, but she steeled herself and threw the thought away. She decided to trust him with her life, after all, she would still die in Lord Ezra's hand.
Blaze's voice remained calm as he instructed, "Now, recount your role to me once again." Caroline composed herself and repeated her role smoothly, ensuring she relayed the necessary information to Blaze.
"You can go," Blaze said with a wave of his hand.
Caroline turned and left.
"What a cruel plan!" Aphrodite exclaimed. The plan she told Blaze was the same as what Caroline thought – come back to the brothel and escape.
"It's nothing cruel. Ii just a way of keeping a person with delicate information out of your enemy's grasp. The most efficient way is killing them though, but Caroline seems interesting," Blaze said as he stripped and changed into the clothes Caroline prepared for the operation.
"Interesting?" Aphrodite asked in confusion. Blaze never replied and jumped over the window. After he had gone a considerable distance from the brothel, he searched his clothes thoroughly. His series of actions stunned Aphrodite.
"Secretary, any recorder in here?" Blaze inquired from Aphrodite when he couldn't find anything amiss.
"No," Aphrodite replied after looking at it for a while.
"Good. As I was saying, she seems interesting. She even recorded somebody she finds terrifying. To do that requires a large amount of courage," Blaze whispered in the dark.
Blaze added, "She just needs a platform to perform, and I'm going to give her one."
—
END OF PAST.
—
Blaze gritted his teeth as he stared at Zion, the Baron of Isle Town.
'The damn Ezra told Caroline only part of his plan. Who would have guessed that the real trap encompassed the whole town? I would have thought of this after the first part of the array.' Blaze cursed inwardly at his overconfidence when he knew little about the magic planet – Hadar.
"You're a dead man, Robber," Zion said calmly and slashed from his distance. Blaze jumped to the side again. An invisible projectile made a thin but long cut on the roof, at his previous position.
'That must be wind-blade, but a higher version. It blends and hides efficiently with the wind like a silent assassin, using the wind as a cloak,' Blaze thought as he sweated inside his mask.
Suddenly, Zion made another slash. Blaze, reading the position of the projectile wind-blade from the position of Zion's hand, jumped to the side. However, Zion wasn't done. He followed up and slashed without slowing down. He started slashing non-stop, sending projectile after projectile at Blaze. Blaze went into full dodging. Side flipping, back flipping, quick-rolling… Blaze did all he could to evade the deadly and invisible projectile. However, the effect of predicting an attack without seeing it abruptly shot him in the foot.
Zion slashed to the left, and Blaze jumped to the right. However, Zion abruptly halted his action and slashed at the right: precisely the position Blaze was about to land. His previous action was a feint.
With a graceful landing, Blaze had barely touched the ground when a vertical projectile wind-blade sliced through his mask with alarming precision. The blade continued its deadly trajectory, cutting across his face, and leaving a deep gash in its wake. The force of the attack disrupted his balance, and Blaze helplessly plummeted from the rooftop, his descent hastened by the shocking turn of events.
With a graceful landing, Blaze had barely touched the ground when a vertical projectile wind-blade sliced through his mask with alarming precision. The blade continued its deadly trajectory, cutting across his face, and leaving a deep gash in its wake. The force of the attack disrupted his balance, and Blaze helplessly plummeted from the rooftop, his descent hastened by the shocking turn of events.