Chapter 51: With Sword from Shadow
Chapter 51: With Sword from Shadow
***********
'From the presence alone, they weren't that strong but it's better to be cautious. You will never know if there were unexpected surprises along the way.'
It's already dead of the night when they were ambush and Eclipse ordered the coachman to take the unconscious Rheina away and leave this place.
"Still hiding? Are you guys really that cowardly and could only hide within the shadows just to launch an attack on someone like me? Aren't you guys ashamed?"
'From what I could sense from earlier, they were just around 5 people, but I could feel that oppressing aura they are emitting.'
« Host, be careful. There are around two or three high-rank swordmasters within their ranks and two skilled assassins on top of that. »
Eclipse frowns as he keep his guard up while observing around the area.
'Assassins? From what household?'
« Answering to Host, Silver wasn't sure about it since those two are just wearing normal black clothes and a veil to conceal their faces, especially the swordmasters, they wear ordinary clothes and from that point, Silver conclude that they were hiding their true identities and didn't want to get exposed. »
'Well, fair enough. Although, it's a bit excessive to dispatch high-rank swordmasters and two skilled assassins just to take care of a mere child like me? Aren't they a bit brutal though.'
« Host may this Silver reminds you that in every worldline that we entered, there is no such thing for a peaceful and clean route for those people who wanted to make trouble for themselves. Even in the modern worldlines, they were a lot of underground fights and clan wars that shed blood so this should be pretty normal for the Host. »
Eclipse was speechless because of what Silver said to him.
This is not the first time that Silver was being a sassy whenever Silver wanted to and besides, Eclipse almost forgot that Silver wasn't an ordinary system but a self-aware one. Although Silver didn't understand human emotions yet but even if that was the case then, Eclipse appreciated the warning, and the concern Silver is making.
After some time had passed, a sudden clap came from the other side as Eclipse shifted his gaze to the front where the sound came from, and Eclipse's eyes turned cold as he prepared himself for any attack.
Although he doesn't have any weapon, he could use to protect himself, but Eclipse still has his power that could back up with.
"We never expected to meet you in such places like this, third young master. Apologies if you come with us without struggle, we won't attack."
A pristine young adult man appeared as he said those words as he stepped outside from the shadows, together with two swordmasters at his both sides coming out as well and from Eclipse could tell, those two swordmasters are that man's bodyguard.
'Not only that, Silver is accurate to say that this pristine good-looking man who looks weak because of his fragile appearance is also a swordmaster as well. Just who is he anyway?'
Eclipse noticed the interesting gaze coming from the pristine young adult man and that makes the world-hopper frowns because for some reason, although the world-hopper could tell that this man was wearing a disguise, his presence felt familiar….
'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?'
« Host, that's FRANCIS AIDEN KASHAYA. Silver was sure about this man's identity even if this man is using some concealment magic to hide his true appearance. »
Eclipse didn't know what kind of misfortune that befalls him when Silver tells him about this pristine young man's identity.
'THE FUTURE SHADOW SWORDMASTER?! ONE OF THE MALE LEADS?! ARE YOU F*CKING WITH ME?!'
........
............
...............….
FRANCIS AIDEN KASHAYA…
One of the male leads of [Mystique Enchantress] and he is an instructor for Magic Sword Arts at Lumen Academy and was also known as the youngest magic swordmaster within the continent.
Francis's background origin was…. He came from the slums and was orphaned at a young age. However, he is good at sword fights as he always ended up fighting with the adults for him to survive or sometimes to escape from their pursuit.
When he was around 13 years old, he accidentally unleashed a sword aura at the middle of the fight with the scum merchants who exploits them with the foods from the village and tried to subdue all of them but ended up straining his body because he had no proper foundation to handle such powerful sword aura that he unleased.
But at the same time, in that particular event, a pair of wandering adventurers happened to witness the whole ordeal and they took upon themselves to help out, especially the young boy who ended up in a bloody situation.
After what happened there and settled everything, the wandering pair took the young boy under their wings and trained the young Francis to have a foundation in both swordsmanship and magic.
When Francis's training comes to an end, the wandering pair said goodbye to him but before that happens, the wandering pair bestow Francis a new name and was named Francis Aiden Kashaya and not only that, but he also accepted two precious items from both his mentor and adoptive parents.
A dual-wielded saber and rapier with an emblem of crimson thorn rose from his swordsmanship mentor.
The other one is a life-bound necklace with a lion insignia that couldn't be snatched or taken away from the owner. If the life-bound necklace was taken by force, the other person who maliciously tried to take it away would be subjected to have a curse heart that would explode in just three seconds.
The life-bound necklace came from his magic teacher.
In the world plot, Francis never revealed the identity of his mysterious mentors that he looked up as his adoptive parents because that was the condition of his mentors to never reveal their identities to anyone and Francis obeyed that promise.
He never confide with anyone about this secret, not even to the heroine who showed nothing but kindness to him when Francis met the heroine on her first day that she transferred to the academy.
Eclipse pondered as he remembered that information within the system archive before and the more, he looked through with it and analyzed it, the more he frowns because it seems like there is something that was amiss.
'How come a person with unknown origin became an instructor at the academy where only noble children and members of the royal family attended?'
« Host, based on the information from the system archive, because of the items that he had from his mentors. It is most likely that those wandering adventurers who mentored Francis and took care of him had some high standings that no one could neglect, and they accepted Francis as those two's proxy. That was only Silver's speculation. »
A pair of wandering adventurers with a mysterious identity?
For Eclipse's opinion, it seems like Francis is suitable to become the main male lead for the heroine Lorraine instead of the most cliché partner and that was the Crown Prince.
'However, what did this person want from me?'
In his previous life, even though Francis is one of the male leads, out of the six of them, Francis is the only person who tried to reason out and defended Ezekiel from those false accusations.
Eclipse could only think of the reason why Francis was defending him at that time.
'Maybe because of his sense of responsibility as an instructor?'
Because of the environment that Francis grew up with and his time with his mentors / adoptive parents, Eclipse's understanding of Francis's personality was…. He is the type of person who would seek the truth personally and wanted to judge everything within his own eyes rather than listening to one-sided opinions from others.
Francis also received a backlash from what he had done and because of him defending a criminal, he was stripped off from his position as an instructor and was banished within the Empire because they thought of him as an accomplice of Ezekiel but because of his contributions and the pleas from other students and from the heroine, he was only gave a light punishment.
He might be one of the male leads from the world plot but for Eclipse, Francis was the only rational male lead that he encountered because the other five male leads are braindead for the heroine.
According to the plot, after Francis was banished from the Empire, and after Ezekiel was executed from those accusation, after two years passed and when the heroine and the other male leads joined her journey, they met Francis along the way and that's where they learned that Francis became a renowned shadow swordmaster and an S-rank adventurer.
Although he was one of the male leads and joined the heroine and the others, Francis distanced himself to them and he felt disgusted as he learned what happened to Ezekiel when he was exiled from the Empire.
'From what I remember, in this current timeline, Francis is already an instructor at the academy for two years and this year would be his third year and maybe would be his last year if following the world plot but…. I'm planning not to attend the academy though.'
*********