Silence reigned supreme in the war room that was akin to the fish market some moments ago. Everyone was looking at the young man, who was sitting comfortably in his chair. His calm and relaxed attitude made even his compadres' face twitch. How can a person of his age be this relaxed when facing them? They wanted to ask him what medicine he took to be like this, but could only push that impulse down.
The nobles were in the same boat, that was now storming the tidal waves. They opened and then closed their mouths, clearly thinking about what he said, but every time they were on the verge of saying it, it disappeared. It was at the tip of their tongue, but then it wasn't. Clearly, the words were being a fickle mistress right now. They had prepared long and hard for this, planned and tried to prepare for every move and word of his and came with a counter, but never did they know he would thwart all their efforts with a single sentence.
Silence*
The blonde returned to consult with his "comrades." He really didn't want to stand next to Erik. He was getting goosebumps just by staying next to him, but his confidence had gained a boost when he saw Erik not doing anything to him. Clearly, they had him cornered, and he was just resisting to save face. This was what the blonde was thinking.
Erik, meanwhile, was thinking about something entirely different. Senva had been arrested and now was waiting for the captain to return so that the soldier could ask what to do with him. He was thinking about this problem for a while now. Senva getting captured was not in his plans, but the guy went and got himself captured. Not being able to control him was becoming a problem.
He could hear and see what Senva was seeing, but the issue with his dull response was making things difficult. He found out that he could affect his thoughts, which he tried for a long time before succeeding. This was how he could get him to take out the paper/ID, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to enter the camp.
He found the root of all this, his mana control not precise enough. While everyone was running around formulating how to extort Erik, he was busy experimenting with connecting his mana with the red thread.
He found out about it through a mistake he made when he was establishing the connection with Senva. His mana had formed a hand and grabbed onto the red string. Once he made the error and it resulted in him losing the hearing sense of Senva. He was surprised when that happened and thought long and hard for the reason, eventually landing on the connection between his mana and red string.
'He's a monster.'
Erik remembered asking Valcroy if he could do the same. Valcroy was confused at first and when he explained how he could hijack Senva's sense, he understood. Valcroy agreed to give it a try. He didn't have a choice, did he?
When Senva was brought back to his room, Valcroy just gave him a look, his eyes changing, black sclera, blue iris and a vertical long black pupil. The blue color deepened as it got closer to the vertical pupil. This transformation was involuntary and was the reason Erik had forced him to meditate.
More on that later as a miraculous thing happened when Valcroy looked at Senva with those eyes, they slitted slightly and behold, Senva started mimicking Valcroy, even spoke the same words that Valcroy uttered. He asked him how he did that and got a reply that made him sigh.
'He just thought about it.'
He was now a hundred percent sure that these powers belonged to Valcroy, and with how easily he wielded them, it was a no-brainer to guess that. Still, he now knew the reason for his problem and was solving it slowly, he could at least influence his thoughts now. He was progressing.
While Erik was formulating how to forward his silent advance in the Alliance ranks, the nobles were also arguing amongst themselves. Collum and Mallory stood on Erik's left and right side, looking at this. They wanted to give the nobles a bashing, but couldn't. If not for Kendrick's warning, they would've outright thrown these nobles out from the front gates, leaving them to the hyenas known as the Alliance.
These nobles were nobody, not even the real nobility of the Ironhold Dominion, some were merchant who bought nobility titles, while some were from the families who migrated from a long-lost nation/kingdom or empire and were given the honorary noble titles by the Dominion. Other than Erik and Kendrick Frostborne, there was not one person here who was from the original nobility circle in this city.
They were just fodders that the Dominion had to have to keep the city functioning and their hierarchy stable. Each one here was nothing but slightly bigger bugs in Mallory's and Collum's eyes. Kendrick's orders were the problem that made them sub-servant to these arrogant nobles.
"Hurry up." Erik said. He wanted to see what was going on Senva's side and he couldn't connect with all of these people here. Valcroy telling him about the red glow around him and his eyes changing colors made him a little vigilant. He needed to learn how to control those, but even he didn't know about this change that occurred.
'I have a lot to learn.'
The mayor, at this time, walked forward and bowed slightly, making Erik raise an eyebrow. He could see his jittery hands and could tell he was up to no good. Still, he remained quiet, waited for him to say something.
"Young master Erik, can you not do this to us?"
"Do what?"
The mayor gritted his teeth, or acted like he was doing, and continued.
"We beseech the young master to let us use the secret tunnel."
The nobles nodded vehemently, as if doing that would reward them with some otherworldly treasure. They wanted to gather around Erik, circle him, to pressure him, but Collum and Mallory were being thorns in this plan. They could only complain inside and stand behind the mayor to show their unity in this.
Erik stayed silent for a while before saying, "I refuse."
After which, he stood up and was about to walk out when he saw the blonde from before grabbing his hand as he turned and looked at the hand grabbing his then at the blonde, whose eyebrows were scrunched tightly, mouth corners curled down, clearly furious as he said in a suppressed voice, "Please reconsider, young master."
The other nobles also became active when they saw this, it was their only chance and they would be using that tunnel with or without his permission. But they didn't notice the mayor stepping back a little, he felt like they did something very wrong.
Erik kept his eyes on the blonde, in his chest, in the middle of the black lake, the red mist grew and formed the outline of a heart once more, it thumped lightly, generating more red mist, it seeped into his body, before the outline vanished once again.
The hectic room from before turned silent. Everyone could feel it. They looked at Erik, who was still looking at the blonde who just had to let go of his hand, as he felt a shiver run down his spine.
He hurriedly joined his "colleagues," trying to avoid Erik's piercing blue eyes, but that was ineffective as Erik kept his eyes on him.
'They just had to push him.'
Collum sighed when he saw the silent torture Erik had implemented on these nobles. Just as he was thinking about how he could deal with the aftermath, he heard something that made him doubt his ears.
"Okay, you can use the tunnel."
The nobles looked at Erik with wide eyes, clearly stunned. No one knew what to say as they stood rooted in their position.
'That's it?'
'It worked?'
Different thoughts ran through their minds, but collectively, they heaved a sigh of relief. They could finally get out of this torture chamber. The mayor was the most confused soul in all this. He felt like something was not right.
How can a Frostborne let go of all the humiliation that enforced upon him? Even he could tell that the blonde guy had gone too far, but now he could only stare at Erik, who was looking at them. Something was very wrong. He kept having that weird feeling in his guts, but didn't know why.
Just as the nobles were about to shower Erik with praise, he heard his voice once more.
"Mallory, confiscate their food supplies before they get out of the city. Collum, make sure they do not force any soldier to follow them. Their family can choose to stay here or go with them, and after leaving this city, they are no longer the citizens of the Ironhold Dominion."
Everyone was astounded by these words and didn't have the time to say anything as they saw his fading silhouette.
"Yes, young master." Collum and Mallory said as they bowed slightly. They felt giddy inside. With just a few sentences, Erik had stripped them of their riches and their nobility. Now they were nothing more than commoners and with Erik representing Kendrick, his words were as good as the decree of the emperor.
"You heard what the young master said, get to it!" Collum said, each word weighing on their mind.
'What have I done?' The mayor said in his mind, he soon got out of his daze and was about to run after Erik to apologize but was stopped by his two bodyguards, Collum and Mallory, who threw them out of the mansion, giving them an ultimatum of 3 hours, to handover everything and get ready to leave the city.
The nobles felt themselves aging visibly, many knew they messed up, some more than others, but what could they do now? The blonde just heaved a sigh of relief. He was finally out of that hellhole and hurriedly went home to prepare everything.
Erik, meanwhile, arrived back at his room and what he saw made him speechless. He wanted to facepalm when he saw Valcroy, sleeping, while sitting cross-legged.
'What did I get myself into?'
He felt his anger wash down a little when he saw this guy. Still, he wasn't going to let the nobles go like that. He had a plan for them. He sat down and closed his eyes. To see what was going on the other side, he had to prepare for things to go down smoothly.
'What's going on?'
.....
When Erik was busy with the nobles, Senva was going through some other struggles. The soldiers threw him in the cell and left, not caring anymore. There were many more prisoners in that tent, maybe cannon fodders for the upcoming siege, no idea.
Senva regained consciousness and found himself in an unfamiliar environment, and with his awesome mental health, curled up into a ball as he started muttering once more, 'A monster.'
Other prisoners saw that but didn't care as they conversed amongst each other casually, like they were here on a holiday. Many pointed at him and mumbled something, making many snickered and some didn't contain it and laughed out loud.
But Senva didn't pay them any mind as he started biting his nails and uttered the same mantra. Upon seeing him act like that, many had their eyebrows furrowed while others had their mouths corners curled down. One such person approached him and used his feet and nudged him to ask, "Hey, what you doin' there?"
"A monster."
.
.
Was the reply he got, this made the man's mood turn a little sour. How can this guy ignore him? He nudged him once more, this time with a little strength behind it. Senva had to leave his ball state, but now he still sat there, one hand grabbing his hair and the other used for biting his own nails. He uttered the same words.
"Leave him be. He's clearly not in right mind."
Someone said from a distance, maybe trying to dissuade him, but this made the man more determined as he said, "Then let me make him clear-headed."
He then kicked Senva, sending him rolling on the ground and said, "You should pay respect to the big boss."
Many shook their heads when they saw this, while others enjoyed the drama. It was getting dull here and they very much welcomed a good drama. But what happened next made everyone in the tent not fit for work anymore.