The Path of Ruin

Chapter 79: A New Mission

In a dimly lit room, with not much sunlight coming in... a young man was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed in the center.

He was surrounded by a pale, silvery glow. A glow that seemed to try to destroy everything it touched, a glow that made the beholder involuntarily tremble inside.

But the young man didn't seem to be affected by it.

Well... why should he be affected, when he was the source?

Soon, the silvery glow slowly faded away and the young man opened his eyes.

His eyes went to the room's only window, measuring how much light was coming in... and then he sighed.

'Two hours...'

He had been working on his eon for two hours. His eon circulatory system was doing very well.

So, he stood up, prepared to leave the room... but just as he reached for the door handle, he suddenly paused.

His brown eyes narrowed, his hand in the air, he didn't react at all... but then, he sighed.

"What happened...?"

And immediately after his words, a figure slowly emerged from the darkest part of the room, an annoying smile on his face.

"I've been watching how you work, you've improved several times more than I thought you would."

"Thanks, I guess. But I know you're not here just to watch me."

"Oh ho... good, then. I can get straight to the point."

His smile widened slightly, his dark eyes narrowed.

"We have a new mission for you, Kael."

And he said exactly what Kael had expected.

'A new mission...'

How long had it been since Halve? It must have been forty or fifty days. He had really learned a lot in the time since his mission... he had improved a lot.

"And this time, you won't be with a 'team'. It will be just two people."

Only two people... either it meant that this mission was not very important, or they were afraid that too many people would attract attention.

He would have preferred the latter, frankly.

"And, well... you know this second person quite well."

But when he heard an unexpected sentence, he paused, his eyebrows raised involuntarily and an expression appeared on his face that made it clear that he was surprised.

"Huh?"

A person he knew...?

*******

'I should have guessed...'

Kael's first thought when he saw who was waiting for him... was that it was definitely not a coincidence.

Because the person in front of him...

"Oh, wait..."

It was Matthew.

"They gave us both the same mission...?"

The two had spent a fair amount of time together recently. They usually only chatted at lunchtime, though. But Kael thought he could at least refer to him as his 'friend'.

Now, though, he ignored Matthew's question and turned to Hakon standing behind him.

The man had his usual smile on his face.

"Your mission is pretty simple. There is a small gang causing trouble in an eastern barony. You will deal with this gang."

Kael and Matthew looked at each other, then at Hakon at the same time.

The last time they had said a mission was simple, nothing good had happened.

Now, what made the Empire think this gang was simple?

"Only two Bearers are known to be in the gang. No Followers, that's for sure."

And that was a quick response to their thoughts.

Dealing with two Bearers was a fairly easy task as long as they acted correctly as two Followers.

The only problem was...

'Why can't the people in the barony handle this gang?'

Not every barony had someone like Amar, yes... but almost all had a few Bearers and even Followers working for the baron. If this was a mission they thought Kael and Matthew could handle, the people in the barony should have been able to handle it too.

"Think of this mission, just like the last one, as a way of gaining experience."

And that was a response to Kael's thoughts.

'Since when did this man... become a mind reader?'

Kael pushed his thoughts aside, then sighed and straightened his posture.

Whatever, if he was given a mission... he would do it.

It would be a good way to see how much he had improved, too

*******

Kael and Matthew set off with two horses. Kael had learned to ride horses, even if it had been by force, during his training. Matthew had known how to do it for a long time... so they would have no trouble with that.

The Barony they traveled through was only slightly larger than Halve. It was called Ghran, and it wasn't much of anything special.

But it was still a little further away than Halve. So, even though they traveled on their individual horses, it took them a week.

Just as in Halve, they passed through security and went first to the Baron.

The Baron was a thin man, quite skinny, one might say. Other than that, he was blond with blue eyes.

When he saw Kael and Matthew for the first time he was clearly disappointed. Still, he didn't press too hard, he told them the problem.

"They showed up three weeks ago. They lure poor and weak people from the outskirts of town and swindle them or put them in debt. There is an allegation that they capture those who have no money and sell them as slaves. We tried to catch them a few times, but their intel is pretty good, they anticipate almost every move we make, act accordingly and avoid being caught. We have not been able to capture a single one of their men."

Kael couldn't help but be surprised after hearing this.

'Well, maybe it's not such an easy mission...'

"We think there are eighteen of them in total, including two Bearers. They hide their faces when they are out and about. We have no other information... unfortunately."

Having heard all they needed, Matthew and Kael looked at each other. Many things were running through both of their minds, but one was at the forefront.

"I'm going to wander the town hidden."

Kael was unconditionally the best of the two at hiding.

Matthew was going to search more openly and see if he could catch anything.

For now, this was how they decided to make their first move.

*******

There was only one thing Kael could think about as he walked around the town, very quietly, above the rooftops.

'They know we're here.'

He knew the Baron wasn't kidding when he said the intel was pretty good, yes... But he hadn't expected this either.

He and Matthew had only been in town for two hours.

'Then... there must be someone leaking information. Not even the baron knew who was coming here, someone who knew we were meeting with him...'

The baron's butler, perhaps?

One of the authorized maids who worked at his mansion?

He wasn't sure...

But if there's one thing he knows...

'Nothing will come out of town.'

He took his eyes off the dark, dimly lit streets of the town and turned towards the mansion.

'I need to search directly inside.'

And he would do it secretly, even from the baron.

With that, he sneaked into the mansion. It wasn't hard not to be seen by the guards and maids roaming the corridors, he had mastered stealth to a considerable degree after all...

So he entered his first target, the butler's room, through the window.

But he didn't just enter... he didn't hesitate to use his Follower ability while doing so.

As the eon in his body spread around him, he moved in such a way that it affected anyone who entered a certain area... the whole room.

Thanks to his training, he also knew which senses to focus on and how. In this way, he only disrupted the sense of sight. And not completely, but in a way that targeted only his own being.

Using his ability so specifically was eating up a lot of eon. But his eon reserves were more than enough. He could spend a minimum of seven or eight minutes in the room without being caught by anyone.

So, he started his investigations quickly.

The butler was not in his room, presumably still working. So, he soon deactivated his ability. With that, he rummaged through drawers, cupboards, the bed, the armchairs, the desk... literally everything. Of course, he made sure to fix it all perfectly at the end.

The only problem... happened in the tenth minute he was in the room.

The door suddenly opened, just as Kael was checking one of the drawers.

Kael quickly used his ability to disguise himself, closing the drawer at the same time, and just stood still.

The butler was an old man. Probably in his late forties. He was careful and sharp-eyed.

But he didn't even notice Kael's presence. As if... he was simply not in the room. So, he walked over to his desk, pulled some files out of a drawer, and began to examine them.

As quietly as possible, Kael hid himself in a corner, behind the couch. Then he deactivated his ability again, so as not to waste too much of his eon.

The butler did not make any suspicious movements, nor did he communicate with anyone. When he finished going through the files, he changed into pajamas, then got into his bed and simply... slept.

When Kael was sure that the butler was fully asleep, he used his ability to come out of hiding. He looked at the files the butler had reviewed a moment ago, and saw that they were all related to the town's financial affairs.

'This guy... seems to be clean.'

He found nothing suspicious. And the man had not made any suspicious movements, either.

For now, he left the room so that he could investigate the others. His next target was the head maid's room.

And he found her already asleep in his bed.

The only difference was... there was someone else in her bed.

'This woman... wasn't married as far as I remember?'

He already had some information about the people whose rooms he was going to search.

He approached the bed with his ability active. The head maid was a woman who could be called beautiful. Her black hair was a dark shade of black, though a little disheveled now. Together with her body, she was clearly desirable for men.

The man sleeping next to her... if he remembered correctly, he was a guard.

'Anyway...'

He was not interested in people's private lives. He just came here to do research. And he did...

In the end, he found nothing. Just like the butler, the head maid seemed to be clean.

Unsatisfied, he left this room too. He snuck into a few other people's rooms to investigate. And... he witnessed a few scenes that could be considered quite intimate. But he didn't let them get in the way of his mission.

Finally, later that day... he met Matthew, completely empty-handed.

"I found nothing..."

And Matthew was not much different.

"It's like... there's never been a 'gang' in this town ever before. There's not even a trace of them among the people..."

This mission...

It was definitely going to be a bit more challenging than they thought.