The Legend of the ruthless Empress Freya

Chapter 138 The Infiltrator [Interlude I]

-- POV General --

It had been over a week since the Supreme and the King had met in secret to find a way to find Princess Alayna. At the end of this meeting, where only the most important members of the Kingdom had decided to take action, it had been agreed to meet again in 9 days. Everyone prepared their Knights and Paladins and the day of the first strategy meeting was set.

Still in the same large room in the castle, awaited King Theophylactus accompanied by the first Prince, Erzian and the second, Iolas, Councilor Janell, Captain of the Knights Myles and the same four influential nobles. As was the case several days ago, the Supreme was late and although the relationship between the two rulers had calmed down, the King was true to himself.

"Damn it ! How much longer do we have to wait ? Our plan has to be perfect, every minute counts and his Excellency is still not here !"

Theophylactus still at the end of the large stone table had pounded his fist to show his displeasure. Despite everything that had happened at the last meeting, he still did not accept that the Leader of the Church was late. The King hadn't changed, and his face was even more tired than the last time and wrinkled with annoyance.

"Your Majesty ! A little patience I'm sure the Church is on its way !"

In front of the eyes of the Princes and nobles, the exact same scene was being played out as it had been a little over a week ago, making the atmosphere slightly comical. Janell had once again rushed to calm him down as he mumbled and crossed his arms.

"Sigh...it's okay I guess we have no other choice."

As the King finished his sentence, a quiet, androgynous voice came from a figure walking through the doors of the hall. His Excellency had finally arrived, still accompanied by Sage, the Chief Paladin and a few Protectors. They were all dressed in white robes embroidered with golden threads except for the Supreme, who was dressed in a black and red robe.

"I see that the more we meet the wiser you seem to become, your Majesty...is this the effect of my presence ?"

At his words, Theophylactus frowned and clenched his fist without saying anything, for there were more important things. Even though their relationship had improved, that sarcastic, almost disdainful tone still remained. Sitting in the same chairs at the end of the table, the Leader of the Church and his followers were ready, the new strategy meeting could begin.

"T-The meeting regarding the progress of preparations, the plan of action as well as the strength of each army begins. His Majesty King Zal Theophylactus I will represent the Royalty and His Excellency the Supreme, the Church of Humanity."

Janell had stood up to start the conversation and as she sat down no one spoke. Everyone was looking at each other intently, even seeming to stare at each other and think about the right way to start.

"As for our army, we have 2,500 Knights at our disposal ! Among them 2,389 are swordsmen, archers and fighters of level 15 to 20, 100 are mages of level 23, 10 of level 30 and finally the best one, a Knight Mage of level 45. One of the only ones to have reached that level in our Kingdom that we know of."

Prince Erzian had spoken to break the ice and announced to everyone, the Knights they could send into the Dark Forest. The Kingdom had not planned to deploy the entire army as many had to guard the capital, the castle, the borders and anyway they had to go accompanied by Paladins.

"As for us, we have 400 Paladins, the Church's numbers are much less than the Kingdom's but they are all mages of at least level 20. In that number, 200 are level 20 to 25, 100 are level 30 and 10 are level 35."

It was now Sage's turn to announce the composition of the Church's ranks, but not without a proud and admiring look. At these words, Prince Iolas stood up with a surprised and shocked look on his face as everyone looked at him in amazement.

"Why are you sending so few Paladins ? We are mobilizing more than five times your small battalion !"

As the Prince sat back down slightly ashamed of his hasty action, Sage opened his mouth to speak but was stopped. The Supreme still hidden by his black veil had raised his hand ever so slightly to tell him not to say anything. At that moment, no one could see him, but his eyes stared intently at Iolas, giving him the shivers.

"With all due respect Prince Iolas, all of my followers taking on the role of Paladins are mages. You all know as well as I do here that more beings in this world are born unable to use mana, so I find the number appropriate."

The Leader of the Church, who at the meeting had been the first to propose sending almost all the combined armies of the Kingdom, was finally going to send 400 Paladins to the forest. The King and his attendants could not help but curse him inwardly for it was he who had come up with this plan and his great concerns about what might lurk in the East. As everyone stared at him and his group with squinted eyes, the Supreme spoke again.

"Whatever happens, with our soldiers together we have almost 3,000 soldiers knowing that if there is a problem we can always send more. That said, to be honest given the experience of the Knights and Paladins I don't think that will be necessary, also..."

The Supreme still in his androgynous voice had spoken with great seriousness and a strange confidence that did not fail to intrigue all present. At that moment he was acting strangely, how could the most fearful of the half-humans seem so serene ? The King, his sons, and his followers had expected an exaggerated deployment of Paladins and yet not at all.

Apart from his close followers, no one in the room knew the Leader of the Church well, but everyone guessed that there seemed to be more to him. In his voice it was almost easy to guess that he was wearing a smile under his veil. Theophylactus, who still didn't like the little secrets, tried not to shout as he asked the question that was burning the lips of those on his side.

"Your Excellency...are you by any chance hiding something ? Need I remind you that we are in this situation because you dragged us into it and now you tell us that the Church is sending far fewer fighters than we are ? If there is something, say it now..."

At that moment, the King was extraordinarily calm, but in reality the blood in his body was boiling more than ever. The veins in his face were visible and the sound of his teeth grinding could almost be heard in the room. The Supreme, who once again seemed to revel in the control he had with his information, straightened up with a hint of amusement in his voice that was absolutely unbearable.

"Come on calm down your Majesty, instead direct your anger at those holding your daughter in the forest. However you are right, I have a little something to show you that should explain everything."

As he finished his sentence, his hands clapped as the door opened once more. The soldiers outside though under Royal orders had obeyed without batting an eyelid drawing the King's attention. While in his mind he held the faces of the two unfortunate men, a huge box about 2 meters high covered with a large sheet came towards the stone table.

"That's why we were late, but now everything is ready."

In front of them was something hidden under a white sheet with a golden bird embroidered on it. No one knew what was underneath yet, but the Supreme's little trick had worked because he had everyone's attention. Janell's eyes were wide open as were Myles and the nobles as the Leader of the Church spoke again.

"Your Majesty, please do the honor of lifting this sheet hehe~"

An excited chuckle finished his sentence as Theophylactus approached the mysterious thing, wary. Erzian and Iolas had also looked up, their eyes sparkling with curiosity as the King finally put his large hand on the cloth. With a quick movement, he then pulled back the sheet to discover what was hidden underneath.

"It's..."

There were no secret weapons, no boxes revealing some incredible invention, and instead the sheet had revealed a cage. Behind the bars was a chained half-human, quite small, with crimson dragon wings and broken horns sitting in the corner. He was shaking like a leaf and his eyes showed a tremendous fear that could make him faint at any moment.

"So you own the last surviving earth dragon !!?? Yet you said at the last meeting that they were all dead ! Sigh...I don't see how this weak thing could turn things around your Excellency, is this a joke ?"

"Come now, I couldn't tell you about it could I ? Would you tell me one of your biggest secrets before the opportunity to talk about it arose ? Moreover it's not really the same race but I will come to that."

As Theophylactus shook his head aware of the truth that had just come out of the Church Leader's mouth, he remained silent, still eager for the conclusion of this scene. The Supreme had raised his arms to signal him to calm down and as he saw the King ready to listen, he continued.

"This subrace is the only one we have kept secretly in the Church until the day we could use him. To tell you honestly, he comes from an exchange between the Church of Humanity and the Order of Light that took place ten years ago. At that time I was looking for specimens to study that could be used as guinea pigs for our experiments, and I happened to find one. The Order of Vancesia was looking for new black scaled female snakes to study after one of their captives escaped and we happened to have some..."

Everyone was silent as they listened to the Supreme who was revealing a great deal. As he listened, the King was slowly realizing that he had no control over anything in his Kingdom and that the Leader of the Church had probably already surpassed his influence. While he was lost in his dark thoughts, the androgynous voice of his rival brought him out of his absent state.

"When the soldiers of the Order of Light were cleaning up the bodies of the earth dragons that died during the battle, one of those filthy females that was burned alive was pregnant and the most incredible thing was that the embryo was still alive. It wasn't formed yet but after extracting it, the specialist mages took it in hand to find an interested Organization for an exchange."

"Earth dragons are known to be able to transform into humans, so you thought it interesting to raise him from birth to have a complete hold on him and thus experiment and use him. Interesting...but I still don't see what's so special about him..."

Erzian had raised his voice in turn fully understanding the Supreme's actions as he also enjoyed experimenting on the half-humans in his spare time. The young dragon, barely eleven years old, fascinated him and he couldn't help but look at him with cruel eyes. Seeing this little thing cowering in on itself awakened his sadistic and murderous instincts.

What had caused the Order of Vancesia to keep the embryo was its incredible resilience and the opportunity to have a baby from a race as dangerous as the earth dragons at their disposal. However, it wasn't in their hands that it had ended up, as the Church had taken it over shortly afterwards.

"That scumbag dragoness must not have even known she was pregnant, from what I understand she ended up burned and her filthy companion speared both unaware she was carrying life haha~ how ironic...anyway. Ever since that thing was born, I kept experimenting by injecting him with various mana and blood from different creatures until I found the ones that were compatible !"

Nodding at Sage, the Supreme's right arm pounded on the cage scaring the young boy even more. With a threatening voice that was far from friendly, Sage almost shouted at the one in the cage.

"You ! Show the King and everyone what you can do ! Hurry up or you know what's waiting for you !"

Without further ado, the young earth dragon closed his eyes and shook before disappearing completely. Before the eyes of the King, the Princes, Janell, Myles and the nobles, the cage was now empty. No one understood what had just happened as this time it was the Captain of the Knights who exclaimed.

"W-Where is he ?"

He had one hand on his sword and was looking around worriedly as he slowly and surely approached Theophylactus. As the Protectors and the Chief Paladin watched this scene, they couldn't help but chuckle knowing full well what was going on. With another kick on the bars of the cage, Sage growled a new command and before everyone, the young boy reappeared as the Supreme explained.

"This subrace is our very first specimen borrowing magic from another. So this thing is a cross between a race of idiot chameleons yet able to disappear at will. I suggest we let our magnificent experiment travel to the Dark Forest to investigate ahead of time and infiltrate the evil grouping of these subraces if there is ! With his ability he would go unnoticed and could give us an idea of the situation without us having to risk the life of a single human !"

"How can you be sure he won't betray us ? And is he strong enough ?"

The King was still skeptical, but the Supreme's idea wasn't all that bad. Even though he knew that the Leader of the Church would never risk proposing such a plan if he wasn't sure, he doubted. This frightened little animal was far from being an exceptional being, he was shaking, almost crying and his eyes were constantly looking at the ground. How could he succeed in such a mission and especially not betray them ? Considering the life he had lived until now, it was anything but impossible.

"Don't worry about his strength, he is an earth dragon after all...well kind of. As for the betrayal, he won't do it because a drug he is totally aware of is circulating in his body and without his daily pills he would die in excruciating pain. Furthermore, he does not speak because we cut out his tongue when he was 5 years old, tired of hearing his cries of pain which at first were amusing. He also can't write anything other than the alphabet I invented especially for him so communicating is impossible except with me."

The Supreme had thought of everything and planned it all as a diabolical scheme that he had been working on for years in secret. As everyone stood in awe, Sage took his turn to speak with a proud look on his face.

"After he leaves, if he doesn't contact us with our birds every day, we won't send him any pills to make sure he goes away. The plan is to let him infiltrate the forest so he can keep us informed of any dangerous presence. This thing already knows that he must be looking for a similar being that appeared during the Age of Extinction, in other words : purple eyes and white hair."

Everything had been meticulously planned and this time everyone in the room could only sit back, unable to deny this rather ingenious plan. So it was decided, this mysterious boy would have to infiltrate the forest and discover the Empire standing proudly there.

No one knew the outcome of this project yet, but one thing was certain, there was one person in Elysium who did not know and could not imagine that on the day her family had perished, a small being had survived.