Chapter 1342 - Not Even An Original
When the attack started, the trio didn"t waste any time complying with the mission they had agreed upon. Travelling through the tunnels, they had done so with Muka and the other leaders for the first part of their journey.
This was because they needed to get back to their castles to give orders and to help as quickly as possible. If anyone saw they had all come from the thirteenth family as well, then it would raise suspicion on what this group was planning to do.
At times like this, usually, they could have used Jill to send out messages to their respective knights on what to do, but that would be a red flag straight away if she was to find out about it. Especially now, she was basically Bryce"s dog, held by an invisible chain who stayed by him at all times now.
"Remember, this time, we will be avoiding any confrontation if possible." Leo reminded them as they ran through the tunnels. Muka had already opened the one that led to the king"s castle, and the leaders split, so now they just needed to travel a little further before reaching the place.
"Unlike the last mission, we are just to search where the missing people are, or if there are any missing people at all."
When Leo spoke, Erin knew that this was directed at her. She didn"t know if it was due to her fight with Arthur, but her l.u.s.t was returning slightly. Leo had noticed this based on how much of the suppression chains she had wrapped around her forearms.
After killing a few vampires and slowly weaning her urge from them, Leo thought that she was fine, but maybe that wasn"t the case when coming across more complete or stronger vampires.
The three of them could see the entrance up ahead, and they wore the same uniforms they were in last time, Covering themselves with cloaks and masks. Since no one was left alive who had seen them, there was no problem with them using them again.
The tunnel eventually started to lead upward. The familiar trap door that was stationed underneath all of the castles was seen. Silver went ahead and was ready to move it but looked towards Leo and Erin for confirmation that no one was on the other side.
Yet strangely, the two of them were looking in a completely different direction.
"What"s wrong?" Silver asked.
"There"s something in this castle, something compelling, no that"s not right, there is something under this castle", Leo said, and it looked like both of them could sense it since Erin was looking in the direction as well.
"Underground, but that"s impossible. There shouldn"t be anything underground. Other than other tunnels." Silver said. "Are you saying that someone is here with us?"
Leo shook his head, but he didn"t answer either because, truth be told, he didn"t know what the energy was, but he had felt something similar before. Underneath each of the other castles were where the tombs would be located. With the tombs, he could sense the slight presence as if there was some type of excess power keeping them alive for all those that were in their eternal sleep.
"Are there any tombs under the king"s castle?" Erin asked, having the same thoughts as Leo.
"There shouldn"t be." Silver replied. "Even the king is buried with their original family when they choose to go into eternal slumber. So all of the elders, past kings, royal knights, all get returned to the tombs where their families live."
With that answer, it just made Leo wonder why there was an energy source under the king"s castle and why was there only a single one as well. Regardless, their mission wasn"t to look into this but to look into other matters.
After checking that no one was present, the trap door was lifted, and they entered the king"s castle. This time, they had to be far more cautious than they did when entering the twelfth castle.
"There are still a large bulk of the Royal Guards inside, and we don"t know how long the fight will last this time before the attack stops outside," Leo said.
"Let"s just hope we aren"t too unlucky to run into Arthur twice this time." Silver replied.
The king"s castle was around twice the size of all the other castles from the other leaders. It seemed quite unnecessary for hardly anyone lived in the place. When looking around, most of the walls were just covered in paintings of the past kings and queens" achievements.
"Where do you think we should head to, the throne room? Or the Council room?" Silver asked.
"No, the last time I was there, I didn"t notice anything. My suggestion would be one of two things. Either the place would be somewhere that is heavily guarded by the Royal guard or if it is even a secret from them. It would be a place where no guards were placed at all." Leo said.
Following this logic, Silver and Erin agreed that this was too big a matter for the Royal guards to be involved in. So they searched each floor of the cult where there were few guards or next to none. This benefited their search as well since it was easy to look In places with fewer guards.
So far, they had found nothing and eventually reached the second-highest floor, just underneath the throne room. There were the most guards stationed on this floor. Yet, suddenly, Leo could sense someone rus.h.i.+ng up the stairs, and all of them quickly entered one of the rooms nearby.
"The castle, the second leader, has entered, and the situation is getting out of hand. We need help. He is refusing to listen and is attacking us!" The Royal guard reported.
"Inform king Bryce straight away, send a group out, while we will try to stop him and see what he wants." The other replied, and the group protecting the second floor were gone just like that heading down to the entrance.
"The second leader, as in the Original Tempus? What is he doing here, and why is he fighting against the Royal guards?" Silver asked.
"We should just be thankful that this distraction has given us time to search for what we need," Leo replied.
Now they were able to check the entire floor freely.
Eventually, their search had led them to a library. The library was enormous and reminded both Leo and Erin of the library that they had at their military school. There were three floors just like at the school, only the floors seemed to go on for far longer and wider.
"What is all of this? Why so many books?" Erin asked.
"I a.s.sume it"s just a collection of all sorts of things. Things collected by the kings, I wouldn"t have a clue, honestly. In the first place, this castle is really only limited to a select few even in the vampire society." Silver replied. "This would be a place that I would have probably never seen in my lifetime."
Ignoring their conversation, Leo continued to move around the library. In the first place, he didn"t have a care for books. He wasn"t the best reader anyway. He looked to be heading to a particular place in mind, and then on the second floor, in the corner down one of the isles, Leo stopped.
"This…is the place." When Leo spoke, he seemed to be nervous, but maybe that was because he knew what exactly was on the other side.
"Is there anyone inside?" Silver asked.
"No, it"s just, you will see," Leo said.
He took a few books off the shelf, and behind a type of lever was shown. It was an old fas.h.i.+oned design. Pulling it, the bookcase began to move.
——
On the bottom floor of the king"s castle, at the moment, the Royal guards, who all had the strength of a Vampire knight, had surrounded the second leader.
"I knew you wouldn"t listen to me. How dare you point your weapons at an original. It"s because of me that some of you are even here in the first place!" Tempus shouted with anger.
"This is the king"s castle, and not even originals are allowed here. Please leave, sir! Until we get authorisation from the king!" One of the guards shouted.
"Authorisation from the king? He wouldn"t listen to me no matter how many times I spoke. Why do you think I"m here in the first place?"
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