Chapter 233: Veronica"s Situation
"What"s the emergency!?" Albert burst into the room followed by the Prime Minister"s son and Mustache. His name was…Hex?
"I know you"re forgetful. His name is Hector. Although his status is just the Prime Minister"s son, most of the duty of Prime Minister has already been under his care. It will only take some time until I can announce it officially that he"s the Prime Minister. As for Lowe, the current Prime Minister, I let him take care of anything cult related in the capital. Now tell me what"s your emergency?" Albert re-introduced Hector to me again. The name was so close so it"s fine, right?
"I don"t know the full story yet. Sonia just told me that Veronica"s life is in danger. I come here right after hearing that." I said.
"Alone?" Albert asked.
"Yeah. It"s better if I come alone in case I need to travel far to save Veronica."
I can now use Air Steps as many times as I want after my air element reached intermediate level. I was helped from watching the compet.i.tion between the Werewolves a few months ago. I watched a lot of the Werewolves using Air Steps. They have gotten stronger and most of them are able to use Air Steps.
As for the compet.i.tion, I found it boring. But the others don"t seem to think that the battle is boring. Albert also think the same thing, but since the audiences loved it, he will still continue with the compet.i.tion in the kingdom. That"s why we have thought carefully on the format of the compet.i.tion together with Victoria. But we need until a certain item she suggested to be finished. Marie is busy nowadays making that thing, and make me babysit Alan as well.
Well, that"s for later. For now, it"s Veronica"s life which is more important.
"Then, where"s Sonia?" Albert asked.
"Veronica called her again, so I told Sonia to relay a message to Veronica about good methods for escaping and hiding in case she needed it. But if her opponent is an expert level mage or above, those methods will be useless."
"I hope she will be able to survive until you arrive. Let"s wait for Sonia. While we"re waiting, Hector here have something to say to you." Albert said.
"What is it?" I asked Hector who stands behind the king. Seems like just like Mustache, he can"t afford to get too close with the king. Well, it"s his problem. Not mine.
"I"d like to thank you. My father and I have been thinking of ways to make more people want to get stronger. That compet.i.tion you created help us a lot. I hope you will be the first winner of that compet.i.tion."
Oh! I know this! This is an a.s.s-kissing moment! First time I experienced it. Not bad! No wonder those with power keep people like him around them. Does it mean he has something to ask of me? But he is wrong on one thing, so his a.s.s-kissing has failed.
"Sorry, but I don"t intend to partic.i.p.ate. My power is best kept secret from the enemy. That compet.i.tion will be too big and a lot of people will hear it. There"s no way the cult would not notice." I said.
"See? Kissing his a.s.s won"t work on someone like him. He already noticed you"re up to something, and you failed when you speak wrongly. Being direct with him is the best thing to do. Anyway Roy, Hector have an important matter that he thinks you"re the best candidate for it. But I said to not give you any job for one more year. And it"s not like you"re the only one who can do it, so it"s fine." Albert explained.
"So… his presence here is totally unneeded, right? You can return to your job now."
"Well, this is his job. Helping me. With him, we should be able to make more plans to rescue Veronica."
True. I guess he can stay.
"Let"s relax for a bit and play chess while we wait. You"ve been too busy lately. You don"t even realize when both Alan and Lana already able to walk. Alan"s first word was "Mama", and Lana"s first was "Woy". I took that as Roy."
The twins are now a bit over one year old. They keep running around in the house and in the park. And since Alan has grown, Marie would leave him under my care. Well, it was Ruby and Penny mostly. While Albert and Marie got busier and busier. At least Marie still has some time to meet her children while it"s difficult for Albert to meet them. He can only meet his own children about once a month.
"That"s not true. Their first word is "Pleb," and you know it!" Albert said.
"And you"re proud having your own children calling people plebs?"
We played chess for some time while waiting for Sonia to arrive. But only after one round, both the King and the future Prime Minister are already closed their eyes and took a nap. That"s why I just play and chat with Mustache.
Although he"s also busy being Albert"s guard, he can manage his time to rest while letting other people to protect Albert.
Well, they can have this chance to take some rest. They have been too busy nowadays. And Victoria is enjoying putting the two in certain position. I won"t tell what kind of position it was though.
And after waiting for a while, Sonia finally appear. I quickly got those two woke up to listen to Sonia"s report.
"What happened?" Albert quickly asked Sonia.
"Well, there"s a betrayal in the cult." Sonia replied.
"She betrays the cult without consulting us? That"s a bad choice." I said.
"No. Not her. It"s Celestine." Sonia said.
"…who?"
Who is this Celestine again? I forgot her already.
"The big b.o.o.bed one." Sonia replied.
"Ah! The other one beside Veronica, huh? Then how is Veronica the one whose life in danger?"
"I"ll tell you how this happened from what Veronica told me." Sonia start telling us how it ended this way.
It started when one of the higher ups who was a criminal got bored and want to destroy a whole village just for fun. The other doesn"t care about what he did, so they leave him be. Even Veronica is holding herself back to not rouse suspicion.
But Celestine tried to stop him because there are a lot of kids in that village. Veronica found out that Celestine is in charge of a certain orphanage, and cares about children a lot.
"Wait! She"s a good girl? What about her putting spies watching on Veronica?" Albert asked.
Right, there were some spies watching her before. We thought that it was Celestine who put spies watching Veronica.
"They are from Celestine"s faction who knows the truth about Celestine. They spied on Veronica to see if she has any desire to leave the cult or not." Sonia said.
Why does it have to be so confusing? If only those two get along, this won"t happen.
So, Celestine killed that criminal before he destroyed a village. But other found out about it, then the helmet man ordered the cult to kill Celestine.
"Archbishop. Not helmet man." Albert said.
"But he did wear a helmet, right?"
Anyway, Celestine escape right away. When Veronica heard about that, she went to look for the spies that was sent by Celestine, and interrogate them without telling the other higher ups, and not even anyone in her faction. Those spies are the ones who knows about the real Celestine who cares about her children.
At first, it was like a real interrogation without torture. But one person can"t stand it anymore, and that person leak the truth to Veronica. And when Veronica learns the truth, she asked the spies to have them cooperate with her in saving both Celestine and the orphans.
Then Veronica decided to do something. She"s going to the orphanage Celestine is in charge of, and destroy it, while Celestine"s spies that she caught will rescue the children. It"s a dangerous move by Veronica.
"So, when Celestine finds out about Veronica destroying the orphanage, she will go after Veronica in revenge. But if the cult finds out that Veronica is actually sheltering the orphans, they will target Veronica as well because they will think that Veronica is in cahoots and might plan for another betrayal. That"s why her life is in danger, right?" Albert concluded.
"The orphans and the spies are on the run hiding from the pursuers, while Veronica is pretending to go after Celestine alone while the truth is that she went into hiding. If Celestine hasn"t realized her orphanage is destroyed by Veronica, Veronica should be safe for a while." Sonia continued.
"So… we have three mission. Saving Veronica, shelter the orphans, and hopefully, getting Celestine on our side as well. Is that it?" I said.
"Hmm… yes. For now, you need to find the children first. Veronica should be strong enough to handle herself for a few days. I"ll look for a good place to shelter the orphans and mark it with Blobby. You will transport them with your portal. Then, look for Veronica and transport her as well. As for Celestine… what do you plan with her?" Albert asked.
"Well, I have one since last year before Veronica leaves. But I don"t think it will work in this situation. I"ll figure it out later. For now, I"ll take my leave. Sonia, you know their whereabouts, right?"
"Veronica still have the ring you gave her so I know where she is. As for the orphans, Veronica gave me their location, but since they are on the move, it might be difficult." Sonia said.
"Once we have a plan on what to do with the orphans and the spies, we"ll contact you through Sonia. Good luck." Albert said.
Then, it"s time to find some orphans.