Noticing that Eden had yet to notice him, Greyson went the long way around and entered his room through the window. Although avoiding her was not a long-term solution, he just needed some time to come to terms with all the new information. Treating her as his sister so quickly was impossible, for now he would try his best to become friends with her. If anything, being an orphan taught him that blood relation does not define what makes people family. Just because they were maybe biologically related did not mean he would immediately play the part of her younger brother....
Greyson did not realize, but Eden noticed him from the beginning only she did not approach him. Watching him dodge her p.r.i.c.ked at her heart painfully.
"Granny Anne, will he not accept me? I am almost one hundred percent sure that he is my seventh brother and I am pretty sure he believes me, as well."
"Milady, it has less to do with you and more to do with the boy I believe. I do not doubt your judgment, I also believe it is probably this boy. However, if someone came into your life who you did not know and suddenly tried to act as your family, wouldn"t Milady feel uncomfortable? Just give him time to adjust and get to know him slowly. I think your excitement to make up for lost time is making him feel pressured. No matter if you are family or not, it takes a long time to become sincerely close to people. Milady should understand this logic, no?"
After a long silence, Eden started to nod.
"You are right, Granny. I let the excitement of finding a family member get to my head. We have tons of time to get closer and learn about each other, I should just take it one step at a time." After leaving these words, she made her way back into the inn and to her room.
...
The next day came about quickly with news from the City Lord. Greyson was on the first floor eating his breakfast when a messenger from the City Lord arrived with a decree. Claire and Mae quickly made their way downstairs to receive the message. However, once the words on the parchment were made clear, both their expressions sank. Mae took this opportunity to glare at Greyson, but Claire quickly grabbed onto her maidservant"s arm to stop her. A bad feeling growing in his stomach, Greyson got up from his seat to walk over.
"What is it? Is there some sort of bad news because of me?"
"Hmph! Was winning so important? Couldn"t you have let the City Lord"s son beat you a little and walk away? Did you not think of the Argentum family"s awkward situation? We were kind enough to allow you to travel with us, but you repay us by causing trouble!" Uncharacteristically worked up, Mae stabbed her finger into his face. Brows furrowing, Greyson knew there was some sort of revenge from the City Lord, however, Mae"s words were out of line.
"I appreciate the caravan helping me, however, you cannot say that the caravan did not also benefit. Without my power and fighting capabilities, this caravan might not even be able to make it to this city. Plus, just sit there and let him beat me? I"m sorry, but it was not me looking for a fight, but him badgering me. I did not even injure him heavily despite the disrespect he showed me, so I do not see where I was causing trouble." Frowning, Greyson decided to make his position clear, otherwise, these people would continue to look at him like some sort of freeloader. He never even at their food or slept in their tents due to the hara.s.sment! Protection? Ha! What a joke, he was the one protecting them. The only help they gave him is allowing him to enter cities with relative ease.
"Greyson is correct, Mae. Do not make such a big deal about it. Quickly apologize." Although her face still looked troubled, Claire did not look towards Greyson with blame.
"Milady! The Argentum family can no longer trade in Acernis, and we can no longer take one step into the city anymore. The decree says we are no longer welcome. The family will surely place this blame on you since you are in charge of this venture and your status as heir will be even weaker." However, Mae still felt anger in place of her master as she was aware of the situation back at the family.
Greyson was already left speechless. The City Lord certainly did not take any physical revenge or even send an a.s.sa.s.sin in secret like Greyson worried about. Instead, he caused large damage towards the caravan that Greyson was traveling with using his power as City Lord. He had to admit that he did not expect this scenario at all. After thinking about it, though, Greyson realized the City Lord must have misunderstood his relations.h.i.+p with the Argentum Family. Obviously, the City Lord thought that he would be in serious trouble with the family after causing this mess. A real hidden knife; if he was really a guard under the family, they might kill him themselves to appease the City Lord and keep their trading rights. Instead of paying attention to Mae, he looked over at Claire to see her reaction. Surprisingly, she was not looking at him with any blame as of yet.
"It is not to that point yet, let me go to the City Lord"s mansion and try to negotiate the issue with him." Claire quickly got up and started on her way over.
Knowing that his a.s.sistance might aggravate the City Lord, Greyson stayed put and waited for her to return. Hours continued ticking by as daytime turned to nighttime. Tension stayed in the air as everyone in the caravan was waiting for Claire to return with any news. Echoing hoof beats sounded out marking her return. Everyone turned towards the entrance only to see that Claire"s expression turned from bad to ugly and realized the negotiations fell through. Even Greyson could only feel guilt since he knew that Claire would be largely affected by this turn of events later on when it came to her position in the family. However, before he could offer his help to alleviate the situation, he saw Claire"s eyes turn to him with newfound killing intent. He swallowed back any words of apology because he knew that she was now contemplating whether to try to kill him and offer his head for peace. Her intent was there, but she would not move on it because their party was too weak compared to Greyson.
Like the last nail in a coffin, her murderous intent made Greyson no longer feel any reason to continue traveling with the caravan. He would find his own way to the Beast Empire.
"I will leave the caravan. Tell the City Lord that you guys have nothing to do with me. I would hope he would not be so petty to keep forcing you guys. It is not like we really had any connection in the first place. It seems this is where we part ways Miss Argentum." Lucius in tow, Greyson barely looked at Claire before walking out the door of the inn. Unlike before, she did not say a word to stop him and just watched him leave.
...
"I told you we should have done this way earlier. Those people are not only weak, but also treacherous. Staying with them only holds you back." Lucius snorted angrily while glancing back at the tavern.
"I just wonder if Eden will be alright. I did not tell her before leaving and I didn"t see her at the inn earlier."
"It will be fine, you at least know where she is now and know more about your biological family. That girl, Claire, did not have good intentions towards you after she came back. The only option was to leave."
"You"re right..." Although reluctant, Greyson continued walking to the city gate in order to leave. He knew the general direction and had a map that Sweetbow gave him, so he would first head out in that direction.
He had his suspicions, but it really did not take long after he was outside for a.s.sa.s.sins to show themselves. Although they were hiding their faces and wearing ordinary clothes, he could tell they must be soldiers sent by the City Lord by their tight fighting formations. He was outnumbered; however, the level of the a.s.sa.s.sins was not high. It seemed that the City Lord underestimated Greyson"s power. Seeing the waves of people rus.h.i.+ng at him, Greyson stopped suddenly and pulled out his bow and arrows. His eyes turned black sending s.h.i.+vers down the spines of the attackers, before pulling and arrow back and sending it into the ground in the middle of the crowd. A large black hole spread out from the arrow and all the a.s.sa.s.sins inside the circle were grabbed by shadow hands and restrained to the ground. Although this spell stopped more than half of them, Greyson could feel his mana stores were also halved in the process. Jumping over the restrained a.s.sa.s.sins, Greyson broke through the encirclement and quickly released Zephyr from within him. An excited roar boomed out as a large silver dragon revealed itself. The chasing a.s.sa.s.sins all stopped momentarily in awe. Taking advantage of their shock, Greyson quickly hopped onto Zephyr"s back and the dragon cast an innate spell on its wings before bursting into flight. In but a moment, Zephyr and Greyson were miles away. This was one of Zephyr"s innate spells that allowed his flight speed to increase exponentially. More experienced a.s.sa.s.sins cursed under their breath realizing their distraction and summoned their own partner beasts. Only around 20 of the hundreds of men also had a partner beast capable of flight, so they set off in chase of Greyson while the rest could only stay back and wait.
Although dragons were supposedly the fastest in the skies, Zephyr was still young and his mana came from Greyson so the a.s.sa.s.sins still were able to slowly catch up. When the chasing a.s.sa.s.sins were not too far behind and they began to fire off long distance spells. Seeing the incoming attacks, Greyson quickly cast a vortex around Zephyr to block them. However, his face was turning pale as sweat started to drip down his face. Zephyr"s flying spell was draining Greyson"s mana at a concerning pace.
"Lu, you are going to have to take over. If I want to sustain flight at this speed, I must also meditate so that I am recovering some of the mana I am losing."
"Alright I"ll cover us, you just keep us in the air. It will be like target practice, I"ll just keep shooting them down." Smirking confidently, Lucius bounded over to the back of Zephyr to face off with the a.s.sa.s.sins. Soon large arrows made of ice formed around him and he sent each of them flying towards the flying partner beasts. Some managed to dodge the arrow at first, however, Lucius used his spatial element to quickly teleport the arrows right back towards them from behind. Smas.h.i.+ng down half of the magicians from his surprise attack, Lucius also sustained an ice wall to block the coming attacks of the enemies. His offense and defense were staying strong, and he was successfully picking off the chasers one by one. When he finally shot down the last magician, he let out a sigh of relief. However, just when he relaxed, his fur stood on end as he quickly cast another ice wall reinforced by a wind vortex to block. Turning around, he saw a large earth hand slamming down towards them. Blocked by the defensive spells at first, the hand soon cracked open the spells and slammed down onto Zephyr. Although the dragon dodged to the side, his side and wing were both damaged under the attack. Greyson coughed up blood as Zephyr slowly dissipated and flew back into Greyson"s body. Greyson was already unconscious due to the damage done to Zephyr, so Lucius could only move towards him and activate a spatial spell. Both of them instantly teleported safely to the ground, however, Lucius did not let his guard down and instead looked around for the hidden enemy. The attack from before meant that the attacker was at least at the magister level.
Already exhausted from the fighting earlier and injured from the backlash after his defensive spells were forcefully broken, Lucius felt the pressure. Looking over at Greyson and feeling his weakness, he knew that he would have to rely on himself to do something.
"And he always says I just sit around sleeping all the time while he does all the work! Well, this will teach him to say that again."
Hardening his expression, Lucius climbed on top of Greyson and bit his paw to draw out a symbol on Greyson and himself while his forehead lit up and another eye revealed itself. Large amount of mana started flowing towards both of them while the symbols glowed brighter and brighter. Finally, Lucius" eye fully opened and both man and cat disappeared. By the time a figure came out from the shadows, there was no longer any trace of them. Confused, that figure circled the area looking for any traces but could not find any signs.
Bringing out a tablet, he wrote down a message with mana.
"Tell Milady the a.s.sa.s.sination failed. Targets have disappeared."