Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 273: Aragon

Chapter 273: Aragon

Aragon experienced an upheaval once the intruder was spotted.

An initial message had already been passed by Captain Miguel who had left with the coal transport earlier, alerting everyone in the city about a possible rat and so with the intruder ousted, they became fair game for everyone to hunt.

Watching her people take out their weapons to capture the intruder, Joan couldn’t help but let out a tired sigh.

With everything happening within the kingdom, yet another problem was already rearing its head.

She massaged her temples as she pondered on the best way to proceed once the intruder was caught only to be startled after an explosion of black and white flames erupted somewhere close to the East wall.

Frowning deeply, she prepared to make a move when someone called out to her.

"Regent!"

She glanced to find that it was one of her subordinates, Fernandez.

"What happened?" She asked.

Fernandez fell on one knee as he reported. "The intruder escaped. He utilized a strange power to destroy our barrier before disappearing in a flash of black and white."

"He is quite resilient. He’s the third person that has snuck into our city and escaped with his life." Joan muttered, slightly regretful.

Fernandez dipped his head. "I apologize for the blunder, Regent."

"It’s fine. In any case, we can’t say that we didn’t gain anything from this. At least we have an idea of who we are facing."

"I don’t know if that can be considered correct, Regent."

"..." Closing her eyes as though in deep thought, Joan suddenly opened them, her expression slightly distorted as she replied. "It would seem that is the case."

The intruder utilized a strange power like never seen before.

According to what was relayed to her by those who had directly seen him, Joan tried to categorize his Power into what she knew and the best she could come up with was that it was similar to the Shadow Domain of the Draconian Vampire lineage.

Of course, knowing what she knew, Joan could guess that the man’s power was a far cry from that, and considering he utilized finger snapping to utilize his Abilities, it meant that he was most likely a Human Wheel Mystic.

A Human Wheel Mystic possessing a Power from the Monster Wheel?

It made no logical sense unless the person was an Anomaly which didn’t make the situation any better.

Massaging her temples to gain some reprieve from the onset of a headache brought about by her thoughts, Joan soon let out a tired sigh. "This is getting out of hand."

"Regent?"

"With what’s happening in the Wandering Forest coupled with the news we got from Thebes and now this..."

"Regent, I know it isn’t my place but..."

"I know, keeping this from the king won’t be good. Fine then, I’ll have to inform him about this and get his thoughts on the matter."

"Thank you for understanding, Regent."

"I wished to help out in some way but the situation keeps getting worse by the day..." Joan could only mutter in a self-deprecating tone before she shifted her gaze toward a window embedded in the palace walls where a figure stood, his gaze peering down on the situation below.

Taking a deep breath, Joan remarked. "Fernandez."

"Yes, Regent?"

"About the Proxy sent by the Order, ensure he is kept out of the loop about the current circumstances in Thebes. I doubt he would take the news lightly."

"Understood."

***

"Please stay still, master," Victoria muttered softly as she picked up a potion she’d prepared using Mybella from her desk and applied it on Alex’s right shoulder which was missing an arm.

Alex let out a muffled groan as he watched Victoria pick up his severed arm and attempt to rejoin it to the stump.

"The BeastMen are quite powerful to reduce you to such a state." Ana couldn’t help but comment from the side.

She’d long since returned from BlackWatch after delivering the message prepared for the Great Families.

Alex chuckled. "Their Entropy is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Douglas did well winning against one. Unfortunately, I lack the capabilities to freeze time like he did."

"You don’t seem upset." Ana pointedly said.

"Is there a need to be?... I knew what I was getting into when I decided to sneak in. In any case, at least we know what would happen if we haphazardly attacked Aragon. They are a tough foe."

"But this only happened because Master chose not to engage them." Victoria couldn’t help but comment, clearly seething that she was unable to provide aid to Alex.

Alex shook his head. "Even if I did, I would have only caused our potential relationship with them to turn sour."

"But still..."

"It’s fine, Victoria," Alex said before glancing at his right arm to find that it had been reconnected.

"Thank you." He said with Victoria bowing in response.

He got to his feet and put on a white shirt that had been laid out for him, courtesy of Victoria, before taking his seat again.

"Now then, let’s get to business."

Ana and Victoria nodded in response as they moved to sit before him.

"Did you do as I’d asked?" Alex asked, addressing Ana.

Ana nodded. "I inspected the periphery of the Wandering Forest and discovered that it was tainted by the abyss. The farther I went, the worse the corruption became."

"The Abyss... it would seem the situation is worse than we thought," Alex muttered as he fell into brief introspection.

He’d known that Aragon had an issue in the Wandering Forest which was their main source of coal, courtesy of rumors making rounds within Thebes but he hadn’t expected it to be related to the Abyss.

Something told him that going with what he had in mind, the situation could become quite a troublesome affair.

However, he knew that there was no other way to go about it.

Though the thought of attacking Aragon to drag out the proxy was an option, he couldn’t be sure that he, Victoria, and Ana would be able to come out victorious, considering their unique set of skills.

And even if they were able to defeat them, what were the chances that the proxy wouldn’t send the word out to his backers to know what happened?... Or perhaps do something that would render their hard work pointless?

He wasn’t sure of what would happen if he took such a drastic route so despite Plan A being convoluted with the added presence of the Abyss, he had no choice but to go along with it.

Just then, Ana spoke up. "I hope you don’t mind but there was a little deviation from the scouting mission."

"Oh?.. what happened?" Alex inquired with a raised brow.

"On my return, I happened upon a large camp of BeastMen engaged in battle against mutants. I helped them deal with the monsters and in return, I asked for the location of the current king of Aragon seeing as your plan involves meeting with him."

"And?"

"He is in the forest, leading the charge against whatever is corrupting the forest. I met with him and I hope you don’t mind but, I told him you wished to see him... but I didn’t tell him we were connected."

Alex pursed his lips before slowly nodding. "It’s not bad actually. What was his response?"

"That he would be willing to meet you." Ana promptly replied, relieved that her unplanned act didn’t cause Alex any trouble.

Satisfied by the outcome, Alex replied. "Then we should be on our way. No need to keep him waiting."

"As you wish," Ana replied as she got to her feet with Victoria inquiring from the side.

"Should I inform Douglas about our leave?"

Alex paused before asking back. "How is his insight into merging his dual domains?"

"... He still has a long way to go," Victoria admitted after a brief hesitation.

"Then leave him. He won’t be of much help now."

"As you wish, master."

With that, Alex turned and left Victoria’s quarters, returning to his own to retrieve a new attire before they headed out for the meeting.