Three hours and a half hours had passed since Gray had acquired the system. He had spent almost two and a half hours healing himself and Ruberno. The rest was spent dealing with the other details such as exploring the system, the dutchy scan and setting up the intial structure of the Shadow society. He immediately entered bed and went straight to sleep. A little while later someone came to check up on him and found him still asleep and went out after confirming everything was in order. The last time he was left alone he almost died so someone had to checked up on him even when he was sleeping as a precaution.
Linus Zester von Magnus of the Magnus noble family was a serious and strict man usually but now he seemed more serious than usual as he walked out of his study and asked the servants whether someone entered his study but maybe because he unintentionally released his aura most of them were shivering without saying anything. The Scarlet duke was what most people knew him by though it was unclear whether the Scarlet refered to blood or fire which was the bloodline talent of the Magnus family.
He returned back to his study and stared at a black envelope on top of his desk deep in thought. Today he started his day by going to his study to organize the affairs of the dutchy and went then down to have some mid morning tea but when he returned he saw the envelope. This meant the person who had placed it there was either a highly trained assassin who was good in stealth or a rank ten professional.
Whichever it was it was someone who had enough power to sneak into the Scarlet mansion undetected and he could massacre the entire Scarlet mansion if he really intended to do so. He slowly reached out and opened the envelope that had no markings whatsoever and pulled out the letter in it whilst being on the highest alert for anything fishy that was about to happen. A good looking and sharp pensmaship came into view as if those words were knives that could cut him if he wasn't careful.
I send my sincere greetings to the Scarlet duke and come to you with both good and bad news but before that, am sure your curious about my identity but that is of little consequence as I am no enemy to your's. Atleast for now. The bad news is there is an undead type beast lord evolving inside the Mirkwood forest in your territory and the good news is though the scout your Kingdom sent to investigate died while being surrounded by beast lords when he ventured too close, he was able to ensure the message reached you and the kingdom you serve by asking for a favour from me. The message is delivered and with that am sure someone as kind as the Duke will pay back the favour on behalf of the deceased. His name was Ruberno if he didn't lie to me so as to prove the authenticity of my statement. He gave me a relic he found at the scene and it's in the envelope. Handle this issue with care as someone wants an empirial war and your kingdoms may just be the pawns to kick starts it. Yours truly MSS. ps the note will self destruct In five minutes of opening the letter so I hope your a fast reader
He slowly put down the letter on his desk and reached out into the envelope for a disk shaped relic with markings in a already forgotten language. "This relic seems to have the function of converting environmental mana into concentrated doses of undead mana. If this was put near an evolving beast a high chance of mutation taking place is likely. I need my own facts before telling anyone elsebut I can't handle this on my own." As he fiddled with the relic and contemplated over the contents the letter the letter slowly started to disintegrate and vanish into thin air.
He started at the place the already vanished letter was just a second ago for quite sometime as if trying to decide something and slowly stood up and walked out of the room. His aura leaked out as he walked the halls as he was deep in thought it unintentionally leaked and all who saw him coming avoided him like the plague for all the times the duke had that look on his face it meant war and blood. A war was coming but the question was who had a death wish so bad that they provoked the Scarlet duke.
Magnus walked down to the secret basement after navigating through his mansion and stood there without moving a muscle as if he was frozen into place. After five minutes of just standing there the door creaked open and an old man with a very robust body walked out. This was the elder of the Magnus family and true protector of the dutchy in the dark. He's fiery eyes looked at Magnus and without speaking he had already conveyed his message but he still spoke in a deep voice.
"What happened that you had to come looking for me personally." The duke replied as he narrated the events of the past ten minutes and finished off with handing the relic to him. Such a big matter that involved the lives of the whole dutchy was not something he could take on alone.
"Contact the Kingdom and have them be on standby to come for reinforcement. No let the available soldiers rush to the dutchy as the rest will set off with the kingsguard. Fact of the matter is if this is true an evolving beast close to rank 10 is about to be unleashed on the kingdom . Will need reinforcements from both the northern and eastern battlefields. And contact the priest and make sure to have him participate in looming war inexchange for the relic and information. I will be back in half a day or a day latest finish the preparations by then."