Oath Kingdom - Hit and miss

Following his encounter with Elise, Cain remained inside his carriage, and John led the caravan’s entry into the city.

The rest of the members of the thief guild were looking forward to entering the capital after their long travel, so none of them questioned their leader’s absence.

Disguising themselves as merchants, they were quickly allowed entry after a brief check. Once inside,  the group went towards the marketplace to rent an inn for merchants with stables.

Cain was sneaked inside one of the inn’s rooms by John and helped to sit on the bed.

“Boss, what are we doing now? Do we wait for you to recover first?”

Cain shook his head and replied: “We can’t remain holed up here completely deaf and blind. Tell the men to spread around the market and gather information about the general situation of the Capital. Also, tell them not to attract too much attention. The last thing we need is the headmistress of the academy fixing her eyes on us.”

“Is she really that scary?” asked John. He had heard stories about the kingdom’s protector, as pretty much every citizen had, but he didn’t know which of those stories were rumors or which were true.

“Scary? She’s a sixth shell ascended in two elements, air, and fire. If she wants us dead, there’s no place inside the capital where we could hide from her. She could find us by simply following the sound of our heartbeat from any place inside the capital. Don’t underestimate her.”

“But doesn’t that mean she could hear us asking around?” asked John.

“She mostly focuses on the palace, so if we’re not unlucky, she won’t hear us. Do you think you could listen to every sound inside the capital without going crazy?”

After John nodded and seemed to understand his point, Cain motioned for him to go and follow his orders as he sat down and focused on his recovery.

It took a few days for Cain to recover, time in which his band of thieves managed to gather quite a lot of information about the general situation of the capital, the kingdom, and its population.

“Good. As everyone is busy hunting down spies and whatnot, we’ll also be able to fulfill our mission.” Said Cain while sipping a cup of milk at the inn’s tavern.

“Yeah, but we lost some men to Necros’s people. Are you sure he won’t mess up our plans even more?” asked John.

“It will be fine. Those people died because Necros took them as spies. There’s nothing we can do, but we’ll be fine now that our information gathering is over. Have everyone focus on acting as merchants for now. I’ll do the recon on the main target myself.”

After John nodded and stood up to inform the rest, Cain also downed his cup and walked towards the tavern’s exit. Once outside, he followed the road toward the city’s inner ring.

It was late in the evening, so with his darkness energy, he was sure he could make it inside unnoticed.

An inconspicuous shadow was slowly walking around the wall surrounding the inner ring, approaching the main guards stationed at the entrance.

One of the guards suddenly shuddered, grabbing his elbows with his hands as he asked: “Did you feel that?”

The other guards laughed and asked: “What happened, Bob? Did the stuff happening lately make you antsy?”

The first guard, Bob, continued looking around with a disgruntled expression, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see anything out of order. Grunting, he muttered: “I could swear I felt something touching me…”

And he was right, Cain had to walk right past the guard, and a trace of the darkness energy he was covered in touched the guard, but he still managed to remain hidden.

His second shell darkness source was still not perfect for hiding away from other people. Still, as long as he covered his entire body in his energy, even if people looked carefully at him, he could slip by unnoticed as long as he stayed still.

Once the guard turned forward, Cain carefully continued his infiltration, stepping deeper inside the inner ring. He passed by the low-rank nobles’ houses, still walking close to all the walls he could find, careful not to get spotted, until he reached a large mansion built quite close to the imperial palace.

Still using his energy to cover himself, Cain walked past the entrance guards, headed to the servants’ quarters, and quickly grabbed a set of clothes. Once fully dressed, he stepped out of the servants’ quarters and started walking the halls of the large mansion, listening for his father’s voice while avoiding everyone that tried to take a good look at his face.

“You there. What are you doing here?” a harsh voice suddenly sounded from Cain’s back, making him stop.

“I’m heading for the master’s room to check if he needs anything.” Replied Cain without turning around, intending to continue walking forward, but after not hearing a reply from the back, he knew that he must have messed up somehow.

Without hesitation, his source started spinning, and his darkness energy covered the entire hallway, trapping the servant who spoke to him inside.

Cain turned around, at last, fixing his calm eyes on the now panicking servant, lost in the darkness. Walking carefully towards the servant, Cain asked: “Where is Albert’s room?”

The guard tried to feel the walls around him in panic and spoke in a stutter. “The, the master’s room is in the opposite direction than you were heading into. Please, sir ascended, spare me. I -“

The servants’ words cut out with a slight thud sound. Once Cain retracted his energy, the servant was lying dead on the ground, a small hole piercing his forehead.

“This is unfortunate…” muttered Cain as he walked past the dead body of the servant and started walking in his father’s room direction.

He walked for ten minutes until a series of loud moans attracted his attention.

“Looks like I found it.” Muttered Cain as he walked in front of the door where the sounds came from.

Covering his palm in darkness energy, he was about to make a hole through the door when a frown appeared on his face, and he stopped.

He quickly turned to walk the other way around, but he barely took three steps when a gloating voice resounded behind him. “I found you. Quite bold of you to dare make trouble here.”

Cain’s face turned cold as he turned around, looking toward the person behind the voice. It was a young-looking man, but Cain could feel slightly pressured by him.

‘An ascended, Figures.’ Thought Cain, clearing his throat and asking: “Who are you?”

The young man chuckled, and a small air blade flew out of his hand, heading straight for Cain’s neck.

Cain’s eyes focused, and his darkness energy erupted in response, blocking the attack with a blade made out of complete darkness.

The young man’s face remained indifferent even if his attack had failed, and he said: “Weird energy. Are you a spy from the north?”

Cain remained silent, eyes scanning along the hallway, planning his next move.

“Well, no matter. You are at the beginning of the second shell, so you don’t stand a chance. Why not simply surrender now? Albert might take mercy on you and accept you as a slave.”

“And how do I know you won’t kill me the moment I lower my guard?” asked Cain, his expression not changing.

“You don’t have a -“The teen’s words stopped abruptly as a clanging noise sounded behind him. “Mmm, nice trick, but trying to get the drop on an air ascended? Clearly an amateur.”

Cain smiled at the young man’s boastful words, and a loud shriek sounded from the room behind the young man next. The young man’s face contorted in anger, and he quickly rushed inside the room.

As the young man was distracted, Cain used the chance to slip back into the cover of his energy and walk out of the mansion.

Once the young man entered the room, he found Albert, his employer, completely naked and covered in blood. On the bed right next to him lay an unmoving woman, blood still squirting out of her back from time to time.

Albert fixed his angry eyes on the young ascended and bellowed: “WHAT AM I PAYING YOU FOR? IF NOT FOR THIS BITCH WANTING TO SIT ON TOP, I WOULD BE THE ONE LYING DEAD ON THE BED.”

The young ascended lowered his head while gritting his teeth, not daring to speak back.

Seeing the young ascended remain silent, Albert snorted and ordered: “FIND THE BASTARD WHO DID IT. I WANT TO CRUSH HIS NECK WITH MY OWN HANDS.”

The young ascended spread his energy over the entire mansion, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find a trace of Cain anymore.

“Sir, he, he’s gone… I can’t find him anymore.”

Albert lost his cool and jumped to his feet, slapping the young ascended, making him fall to the floor as he started walking towards the door. “Get someone to clean the room up. I’m going to find out who it was myself. Consider yourself fired.”

“Sir, you shouldn’t leave alone. He’s an ascended.”

Albert ignored the young ascended advice and continued forward. After cleaning himself up and grabbing a set of clothes, he took one of his guards with him and started walking towards the palace.

Cain was hidden not that far from Albert’s mansion, with a murderous look in his eyes as he watched his father fade into the night.

His source was spinning out of control, with tiny tentacles of darkness spreading around his body, but as much as he wanted to rush forward and end his father’s life, he managed to restrain himself.

“Enjoy what time you have left. I’m coming for you.” Muttered Cain through gritted teeth, turning around and heading back towards the inn.

Once John noticed Cain’s dark face, he asked worriedly: “Did anything happen?”

“Not really. There was an ascended keeping watch over that bastard’s place, and I’ve been spotted. There might have even been others.”

John nodded and asked: “So, what do we do now?”

“We lay low for a while, letting him lower his guard before we make our move.”

Once John nodded, Cain sent him out of his room and sat down to cultivate.