Chapter 118: A suspicious mission
Edward immediately moved his feet across the floor and ran to position himself between Joel and John, who were trying to flee with all their might. Although Six Fingers tried to run toward him, he couldn’t catch up.
Edward swung his sword in a perfect horizontal arc that decapitated both of them in a single stroke, and their bodies landed five meters away on the other side.
"Kill him, stop playing around!" Mr. Henry suddenly shouted at Six Fingers, who had to draw his enormous mace. It was two meters long and seemed to weigh many kilograms.
Despite that, his strength was such that he could swing it as if it were a dry stick. He swung it twice before charging at Edward. He reached his position in an instant and, using the momentum from the swings, struck at him.
Suddenly, four beasts roared from above.
Three Butterflies and a Snake.
Six Fingers trembled slightly as he felt the power of those four beasts. "What the hell are they?" Still, he channeled his strength into his mace and shattered the air before him.
BOOM!
A pillar of earth and concrete rose the moment the massive mace struck the ground. But that pillar quickly settled. Six Fingers and Mr. Henry witnessed what had happened then.
The mace had struck a pillar of earth, not Edward. Six Fingers felt confused.
When Six Fingers looked up, he saw one of the beasts vanish. His eyes gleamed with understanding at that moment.
"That guy... is tough," he acknowledged.
Behind him, Mr. Henry approached after making sure it was safe.
"Can you kill him?" Henry asked.
"If we fight head-on, I can do it. But he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve and is very cunning. I don’t know if I’ll be able to corner him into a head-on fight." Six Fingers replied.
"Heh." Lord Henry suddenly laughed, catching Six Fingers’ attention. "This is the first time I’ve seen you act sensibly. Why is that? Do you recognize him as a worthy opponent?" he asked.
Six Fingers’ scarred face twitched slightly before he replied with a terrifying smile. It wasn’t that he meant to do it on purpose; that was just his smile. "He’s not a worthy opponent, Lord Henry. He’s an 18-year-old kid."
Mr. Henry frowned and turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"
"I’m a 45-year-old thug, Lord Henry. My whole life I’ve been on the brink of death, trying to fight off thugs, and I’ve become a thug myself. My strength has earned me the nickname ’Six Fingers of the Devil.’ But I’m 45 years old. How much more am I going to grow from here?" Six Fingers revealed, for the first time, a look that Mr. Henry had never seen before. Admiration.
And he looked ahead, toward where Edward had gone. "He’s 27 years away from being my age. But he’s already so cunning and strong... He’s just an 18-year-old, Mr. Henry. That’s all."
Finally, Mr. Henry understood what he meant. ’Just an 18-year-old...’ he thought.
In fact, to be so strong at only 18 meant that this boy was far too talented. Even more so...
’I’d forgotten about him. He awaken just a few months ago. How did he grow so fast?’ Mr. Henry swallowed hard and suddenly felt the need to tell him...
They couldn’t let him grow up!
"If you want to kill him, I can do it while he’s still 18," Six Fingers said suddenly, catching Mr. Henry’s attention. "I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to do it later."
Mr. Henry was in shock, but he laughed. "I never expected to live to see Six Fingers of the Devil acting so humble. Don’t worry. We’ll kill him soon; there are only a few days left." He said and turned to leave. He didn’t care about those who died here.
Six Fingers stared at him as he walked away. He went over to Three Faces’ body and grabbed him by the shoulders, leaving the rest lying there.
"Are you planning to speak with Lord Dorne?" asked Six Fingers, curiously.
"The order for his assassination has already been given. We just have to wait and see what those above us are planning. Perhaps Lord Dorne won’t even have to lift a finger."
"That makes sense, Lord Henry. We shouldn’t bother someone of his stature. But if this boy keeps growing, he could become very dangerous."
"I think headquarters already knows that. For now, let’s return to the mansion. We have some things to take care of."
-
Edward watched the two men walk away from a distance, while his snake lay coiled in a corner of the square, hiding its wings.
’Dorne...’ Edward couldn’t help but think of Alric Dorne. Not many people in Lor had that surname, since the Dorne family isn’t from this region.
Furthermore, that energy that had been in Alric’s body was also present in these two.
’What kind of energy is this?’
Despite trying to think of any kind of energy that looked like that, he couldn’t come up with an answer. Not even the cursed energy of the Cursed Lands was as terrifying as this.
’This energy stuff is giving me a headache.’ Edward complained inwardly and stood up.
He retracted his snake and decided to leave.
Whether Alric Dorne was these guys’ ally or not, he had already decided to be cautious about any missions that guy gave him. And, if necessary, he wouldn’t even do them.
He’d rather fail than die.
Edward returned the same way he had come, and as he did, he ran into Aurora, who had rushed over as soon as she received the message.
"You..."
"Don’t worry." Edward gently hugged her and kissed her. "Everything’s fine now."
"What was going on?" She hugged him back and stroked his hair, but demanded an explanation.
"Let’s go to the academy. I’ll tell you everything on the way."
--
5:00 a.m. the next day.
Edward reluctantly got up at that hour because he heard the doorbell ring several times. If he left it up to Arnold, the person knocking on the door would get tired and leave.
That’s why he had to get up.
"Who is it?" he asked lazily.
"Student Edward Lux, this is Instructor Alric Dorne. Could you open the door, please?"
The voice coming from the other side of the door alerted Edward, who immediately woke up. He went on high alert, remembering what he had heard and seen the day before.
He readied his sword nearby and then opened the door.
"Instructor Alric, what brings you here so early?" Edward asked, carefully observing his surroundings and Alric’s expression.
Even so, Alric wore his usual expression: cold and indifferent.
"I’ve come to give you the mandatory mission." Alric Dorne raised his hands to hand him a scroll. "Here’s everything. It’s an urgent mandatory mission, so it must be completed within the next two days. Please, I hope you’ll work hard on it. This will tell me how prepared you are to handle the kind of missions you can accept."
Edward frowned and grabbed the scroll in question. Indeed, it was a mission.
[Assassinate Mr. Henry, the local leader of Zone Three in the Lower Sector.]
[Reason: Treason.]
[Deadline: 3 days.]
[As this is an urgent mission, the assassination must be carried out without delay and without any investigation. The academy has already conducted its own investigation and determined that the mission must proceed without interference.]
[High-Level Mission: Only Instructor Alric Dorne may issue this order.]
Edward swallowed slightly, though he hid it. He simply nodded and closed the scroll.
"I’ll inform my teammates later today," Edward said.
Alric Dorne gave him a thoughtful look for a long moment. "Very well. If you fail this mission, you can forget about the rest of the missions for this year. So I hope you’ll do your best," he said before turning and walking away.
Edward stared at him from behind...
’Assassinating Mr. Henry... A government official who was appointed leader of a district... It’s almost like assassinating a mayor. Not just anyone would dare.’ Edward wondered if his status at the academy was enough to ward off an investigation.
Even though it was a mission from the Academy... What if it was a trap?
Edward shook his head and stopped thinking such nonsense. He closed the door and called Arnold and Aurora immediately.
-
Two hours later.
The three of them were sitting in a private room at a restaurant, looking at each other and studying the scroll.
Especially Aurora and Edward.
"Mr. Henry was appointed by Count Hazzard himself," said Aurora. "This mission... is really dangerous."
Edward agreed. "Killing him isn’t the problem. The problem is the repercussions."
Arnold was the most unconcerned. "After all, it’s a mission issued by the academy. Besides, those gold letters with black trim at the end are the official insignia of one of the elders. If Count Hazzard wanted to do anything, just having those insignia would be enough to shut him up for good. Not even a duke could do anything against one of these elders, let alone a count."
"You’re right about that. But it’s still problematic given my family’s current situation," Aurora replied with concern.
"What do you mean?"
"If we’re not careful, Count Hazzard could take control of our territory as well. His status would rise dramatically. Perhaps even to that of a Marquis or a Duke."
That was worrisome. Even Arnold had to frown.
"Though we have no choice but to do it," Edward sighed. "But I think this is a trap they want us to fall into. It’s possible something is going to happen soon."