(Please support the author JoanB by reading only in Royal Road and Webnovel.com. Thank you.)While Averardus and the others were busy watching the spectacle outside, they heard a loud warping noise at the front side of the mansion followed by screaming people. Pheya had a good laugh.
"Oops, someone stepped on the traps. Tsk, tsk, poor fellows. They might be sinking now all the way to the prison cell. Let"s go and see."
"How "bout those falling mages and their mounts? Will that fire guy send them to prison?" asked one of the knights with two scars on his face.
"Tet, I think we need to go there now. I also want to meet that burly fairy," said Averardus. "Pheya, just go ahead. I think you don"t need our help."
The group split up. Pheya and a knight went to the front while Averardus and the others jumped down from the atrium to where the burly fairy stood. To Averardus" disappointment, the fairy suddenly disappeared when their feet touched the ground.
"Hey! We"re not enemies. Where are you? Please, come out," shouted Averardus. His eyes searching on every corner.
"Maybe he is shy. You know, with the way he dressed," said Tet, giggling as he ran. Then by using zezkeita, he jumped right out of the wall.
Zezkeita was a common skill required for all knights. It was by concentrating the body"s energy on the dominant foot while running. When the energy gathered was enough, the person only needed to stamp that foot on the ground, and he would be catapulted high up and land further away. Pretty useful for chasing and escaping.
The rest of them did the same thing and ran to where the mages and the mounts fell. Averardus looked up while running and confirmed there was no one left flying.
If Ave was astounded with what the burly guy did earlier, what he saw now made his hairs stood on end. He saw both men and beasts had flaming flowers sticking on their bodies. Only a few were spared but were not saved from the fatal injuries after falling from such height.
The weirdest, there were no fire flowers on the ground.
Tet carelessly tried to pluck out a fire flower from one of the beasts but hastily jerked his hand back.
"d.a.m.nation, this is sentient. It tried jumping on my hand," yelled Tet.
From then on, they used other means. They tried snuffing it out with water, soil, and magic, but the flame was undying.
Looking at the crying, screaming, writhing and rolling mages and beasts in agonizing pain, the knights thought they had a glimpse of h.e.l.l. Just like what the old religious priests claimed, people in h.e.l.l never dies but suffers endlessly by the unquenchable fire.
"Are they not going to die? How to stop these fire?"
Suddenly, a magic container as big as a lady"s purse landed on their feet. Inside were watery white flowers. They looked at their backs to check who threw it, but there was no one.
"It must be that guy. Let"s try these flowers," said Tet.
They wiped some watery flowers on the flaming ones and the latter fell on the ground and turned into ashes, but the skin from where it attached was swelling red.
After the tedious fire fighting work, the ground was covered with a huge pile of watery flowers but the container was still full.
"Wow, this container had a sizable s.p.a.ce inside. Better than what I have here," one of the knights said as he pulled out a cube.
"I"ll keep this for now. These flowers will be useful when we go to war," said Tet.
"Can I have the container? Or can you check how big inside? I might need it for my troop"s next a.s.signment," said Ave.
"I"ll do that later. For now, let"s put these guys behind bars and start the interrogation. Move back both of you," said Tet. The two moved ten paces away from Tet.
Tet chanted a magic spell and lifted his hand as he looked heavenward. Then they heard a whooshing sound like something was falling in great speed from the sky, and a huge cage blasted on the ground.
They covered themselves with a magic barrier as soil and pebbles flew on their way. Most of all Tet, who could be blown away by the strong wind brought by the strong blast.
When the clouds of dust settled down, they saw a huge cage enough to contain all of the prisoners, including their mounts.
"Okay, I"ll go inside and bring out one to interrogate," said Tet.
Regrettably, one of the mages overheard their conversation and chanted a death spell with no hesitation. After chanting, a cloud of poisonous smoke devoured the whole s.p.a.ce inside the cage in an instant and slowly seeped out from the cage. There was no mercy from then on.
"Tet," shouted Ave, at the same time, he raised up his hand and wind blew the smoke away. But it was too late. As the nearest person to the cage, Tet was able to inhale a little of the poison, and he fainted.
The other knight hastily jumped near Tet and open his palms on Tet"s chest, releasing healing light on him.
While they were busy saving Tet, every person inside the cage recklessly held their necks and made some gagging sounds. Not for long, their tongues laid out as they fell dead.
The beasts shrieked and roared, struggling for their lives. They tried to fly away and toss their bodies against the steel bars, but in the end, they died too.
The knights could do nothing about it.
"How is he, Dayin?" asked Ave to the knight healing Tet.
"I can only extend his life for a day. We need the antidote to stop the poison from killing him."
"Squeeze out the liquid from a rainbow flower directly to his whole face, and he will live," a voice spoke on Ave"s ears. He turned around in a hurry and jumped sideward in a flurry.
The closeness of the burly fairy"s face frightened him. It was so close enough for Ave to see the color of the guy"s irises, violet.
The fairy only smiled and placed a wet rainbow flower on Tet"s chest. Then he transformed into a black shadow and flew to Freidrech"s room.
Ave shook his head to wake himself from the shock and hurriedly followed the instructions. They saw the clear liquid permeated on Tet"s skin like water seeping through a sponge. A minute after receiving the liquid, Tet vomited black liquid.
"Haa . . . haa . . . I thought I"ll die. Thank you for saving me," said Tet, laying sideways, gasping for air.
"It was not us who saved you. It was the leaf skirt guy," said Dayin.
That left Tet dumbfounded and stared at them with eyes as big as a saucer.
"Where . . . is he?" Tet mumbled.
"He," Ave scratched his nape while looking toward Freidrech"s room. "Went back inside."
From then on, they hadn"t seen the burly fairy again.
Later, they sadly learned that the same thing happened with Pheya"s prisoners, died with poisoning.
As for Freidrech, he was unaware of the intruders because the garden was in another dimension opened only for him. He was overwhelmed with the attention given to him by the sentient plants and decided to sleep outside under a blanket of flowers. The burly fairy carried him to bed later.
Knowing someone protected Freidrech, the knights did not bother to check on the young lord.
The next day, Ave and the rest reported to the king.
"Your Majesty, we are sure they are not from Xaeviel. Either they are hired mercenaries or from other kingdoms," said Dayin.
This was a disturbing report for the king, who was now sitting behind a large table with papers and quill on top. He lowered his head with his chin propped on his palm.
"What makes you say that?"
"Because they have the mark of a foreigner on their wrist, Your Majesty."
In Xaeviel, all non-Xaeviel citizen coming in the gate had to get a mark on their right wrists and on their beasts before they would be given entrance to the city. The mark was a wing of the Griffin.
"What do you think the reason they"re here? Why are they after Freidrech?"
"Your Majesty, I"m afraid they might be after the mystical bow Amberdrift since Louvel"s child is finally back in the mansion," said Tet.
"And they can use him to guide them to the secret chamber," added Ave.
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