Lady Adelaide blackheart--that was a name I wouldn't manage to forget had I even wanted to. Mostly because Aeron's mother had narrated it to him multiple times, both because it interested her and because he'd pestered her about it several times despite knowing it already.
'The poor man's mother' was the title they'd given her in her own kingdom.
Daughter to Gunther Blackheart and only legitimate child bearing the Blackheart name, she rose to power as the first and only queen the land had ever had. How she ruled was also in a manner they'd never experienced--at least not in the longest time imaginable.
The first just and admirable ruler they'd been blessed with after a long and seemingly endless string of tyrants.
How did a loved leader become the very thing the government came to hate the most, I hear you not asking? The answer is ironical.
So ironical, in fact, Aeron himself found himself chuckling in surprise when he'd heard it.
Fell in love with a humble farmer, raised him into power and in turn--birthed an evil far worse than those that came before it.
Not surprised, power changes people...I, for one, knew that better than anyone else. Had a college stab me in the back after getting a hefty promotion.
In some way, the queen and I were the same, both stabbed by those we trusted. Only thing that differentiated me from her was that she stabbed back--literally.
The king's head was found impaled on the edge of his extravagant throne, the horror in his dead face saying it all.
The queen? gone, appearing ever so often to wreak havoc upon the ruling powers. Even during her own sixteen-year-old's time in power after his father's expected demise.
She'd founded the rebellion...and by the looks of it, it was well fortified.
I couldn't help but clear my throat nervously as I examined the room, its atmosphere nearly causing me to choke on my own saliva. In modern-times, the room before me was like a room filled with high-end nuclear weapons given human forms. In Calyndria...this was a literal comparison.
A heavily built orc started at the front of the arsenal, his packed body struggling to sit comfortably behind the round table--occasionally sliding his seat back to stretch. The scars on his body spoke volumes, the bloodshot eyes he had were terrifying and the war-axe resting beside him easily weighed more than my own body and towered over me. A swing with half of his strength would probably be more than enough to slice me into clean halves.
The figure beside him was no different.
Slender and considerably shorter than the orc himself, the pointy eared, golden haired elf was by no means lower in terms of power. In fact, I'd argue that they'd cause equal damage to one another were they to go all out in mortal combat. Not to mention the pressure she released.
She had a bow hanging over her shoulder but it was clear that she didn't necessarily need it to end a person's life. The amount of magic I could feel flowing around her quite literally had my own arm hairs making a firm stand.
Standing at the back of the room was a figure that even Lance himself was left wide-eyed upon witnessing, his posture falling to a one-kneed bow the minute he identified him.
"Sir Alexander...it is an honor meeting you here." He let out, admiration filling his tone.
The man simply stretched his arm out, silently nodding as he walked towards his own seat.
I couldn't identify him, but I could understand why Lance showed that much respect towards him. The amulet hanging on his neck and resting right above his breastplate was enough of an identifier.
A knight of the holy church; the central church to boot.
As if that wasn't enough, he was also a B ranked hunter according to the extra blades behind the church's iconic shield. Now that...was someone worth fearing. They dubbed men like him 'The church's core' for a good reason. Anyone dumb enough to make a move against him was for sure spending the rest of the day looking for an exit out of hell.
"Rise, the person you should bow to is Lady Adelaide alone for now." Alexander responded after clearing his throat, his deepened voice being oddly calming to hear as Adelaide herself finally came into view, the cloaked figure following right behind her before splitting and making her way to an empty seat at the table.
Adelaide silently walked towards a window, glanced past its curtains for a moment before whispering out unintelligible words. A dim glow then surrounded its frames, making the windows themselves seem like mirages formed by flames.
"Acting formal right now won't do." Adelaide let out, taking in a short breath as she pulled out her chair--adjusting away from the table to face the two of us, "...not with the plans we have in motion."
Her words easily made the atmosphere even more intense. Lance and I felt it a lot more than the others--the one feeling it more between us being me.
At the moment, our actions not only went against the king by turning away his command without his knowledge, but we also dug deeper into our grave by going knees deep into the rebellion.
At this point, if I tried to bail, both parties would want my head at the end of their blades--and if I'm being honest here, I'd rather have a swift ending at the hands of an armored knight than any of the figures before me.
Even the cloaked one wasn't a match for either of us. She hid it as well as they could, but there's only so much you can mask in front of a holy knight and a well educated prince.
Scaled tail, fiery pressure and the ability to see through things that were originally hidden...there's no mistaking it; that there was a damned dragon. Human form or not, Adelaide had been casually walking around with one of Calyndria's most feared races.
Now, another nuclear weapon had been added to the room. This one being a far greater threat than the others.
"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to fill us in." I mustered the courage to speak, my tone clearly indicating that as well. Quickly, I cleared my throat before speaking again, "All we know is that we're not exactly on the kingdom's good side anymore."
"You never were." The orc let out, glancing at Adelaide once he'd examined us well, "Lady Adelaide, I mean no offence, but are you sure these frail ones will be reliable enough for this dire task?"
"They seem weak, but you'd be mistaken to assume that they were." Alexander responded, his eyes glued to Lance, "Southern Knights are known for their remarkable strength even whilst seeming weak."
"You talk of the knight because you are one of them," The elf let out, her eyes glancing my way before quickly turning to the cloaked figure, "...would I be wrong to assume that even you can't discern this boy's power."
"Prince Aeron Tylvannis...his magic interests me." The cloaked figure responded, a chill running up my spine despite her tone being soft, "I can sense his soul well, but I cannot clearly estimate if he does have magic and how much he has."
"Not to mention that entity living in his head..." She continued, leaning forward enough for me to notice her shadowed smile.
"Enough," Adelaide let out, clearly not amused by her team's actions, "...Grat, trust that I shall not place our movement at risk by placing the incompetent within our ranks."
The orc, or now identified as Grat, simply nodded silently before crossing his beefy arms and turning back to the two of us.
"Leilatha and Assa, behave yourselves." She continued, sounding more like a mother than an actual leader of a movement aimed at overthrowing the government, "...I chose to recruit them mainly because of the very letter you brought to my table, Assa."
Letter? Her reason for reaching out to me in the first place was because of a letter?
It was relieving in some way. Had it been because of my infinite soul well, then anyone with her level of power could easily single me out again, roping me into another one of these situations. But what exactly did a letter have to do with me?
"Forgive me for interrupting, Adelaide..." I butted in, pausing for a second before finally continuing, "what exactly do you mean by that?...chose to recruit us because of a letter?"
"Ah--yes, forgive me for losing track there. But it seems we have a common enemy, Aeron."
"What common enemy?"
"The visitors. An enemy of the church and a scummy group of vile hidden people." She responded, tightening her jaw in anger for a second, "...the same group that has been backing this whole scummy government for the longest time imaginable."
The visitors--I'd heard about them. A group similar to the rebellion itself in some way, except they simply craved to cause chaos--a goal that the church had been furiously combating for centuries. The biggest thorn to the ass for anyone looking to live a peaceful life--though, their name resurfacing now was rather unexpected.
True, the church had failed to fully demolish the secret society, but their end did come. They'd unfortunately found themselves within the Dragon empire's territory whilst escaping the church's forces--their tales coming to an end there and then...oddly around the same time the dragons themselves changed in behavior. Turning a lot more aggressive and unwelcoming.
Most blamed the visitors for this, moving on with their lives now with their ties to the dragons themselves cut. In fact, seeing one right before me was a lot more unexpected than hearing the organization's name popping up once again.
"But what does that have to do with me?" A question that had unintentionally slipped out of me, perhaps my thoughts shoved it out to create more room for more thoughts.
A short silence occupied the room before Adelaide pointed at me, with Assa herself sliding a piece of paper across the table.
"They seem to really want you dead, boy." She responded as I skimmed through the contents of the paper itself, "...whatever you did to them, I do not know. But it must have been severe to have them on full alert against you."
"Goin' as far as providing the king with an A graded swordsman to ensure you're dead," Leilatha butted in, sliding a stray strand of golden hair behind her ear as she spoke, "...they've never been this serious about having someone dead."
I'd like to call them out for lying...but after reading the whole letter they'd shown me, the truth in their words were clearer than anything else.
The person writing it was unnamed throughout it all and the ink was clearly several days old--meaning they hadn't fabricated it. The wording they used were all cryptic but the last part of it all was written clearly--almost intentionally.
'Your kingdom's outskirts will be greeted by a fox-masked individual with a holy knight for a companion.
We shall provide any and all resources, weapons and man-power you require as we have always been doing in return for the boy's head.
He must, by all means, not leave your kingdom alive. These are the elder's commands and failing to adhere to them will result in your untimely demise. Our communications end here.
The boy dies within Blackheart's walls.'
Yikes! Talk about intimidating.
It was clear, whoever wrote this clearly wanted me dead. Even a blind man could understand that much after reading it through. Who they were and why they were so pissed with me was another topic, one that none of us could clearly answer.
Did I perhaps get drunk before leaving Velmoria and ended up accidentally running over one of their men with a horse carriage or something? Or did some Yakuza guy get reborn with me and remembered that I still owed them a shit load of money?
I mean, for goodness' sake, it hasn't even been a month since my rebirth and already I had a bloodthirsty group hunting me down--and here I thought that joining a rebellion was the worst of my worries. Now I have a whole A ranked human with demonic levels of power locking his aim on me.
"Assa found this at an unmarked bandit's camp in the kingdom's outskirts." Adelaide continued, noticing my reaction to the letter itself, "...that's how we knew it was the visitors who were scheming this whole thing--and that brings us to our main task at hand."
Their operation made a hefty load of sense. A lot more than anything Mes had ever explained ever since I got spawned into this messed up universe.
The camp was identified to be a prison and a base for them, somewhere they'd spend their time kidnapping random travelers for their resources before selling them off to various slave traders to never be seen again. That was, of course, the tip of the iceberg--almost like a hobby they'd collectively engage in when their main tasks are complete.
The main task itself being getting info from within the kingdom which they then send to the main base of operation. Where that is? We don't know...hence bringing us to the quest itself.
Infiltrate, gather intel and destroy.
The camp acted as an alarm, if the kingdom were to be attacked, then the main force would be notified even before the rebellion's forces made it close to the palace--that is, if the A ranked swordsman didn't get to them first. As such, dealing with it was a priority.
"I'll have you all collectively breach through, find out whether or not there are other camps and where they are before destroying it entirely." Adelaide continued, examining the room in silence before locking her gaze on Lance and I.
"The day the ground rumbles, our battle within the wall begins." She added, her tone slightly more serious as compared to her usual one.
"May the Architects have mercy on our souls." Alexander let out, standing from his seat along with everyone else, "I shall take lead of this task, unless there is anyone who wishes to protest against my leadership."
After a moment of silence, he then nodded to himself before turning his gaze to Lance and I.
"Very well then, let's get to it."