Free Web NovelChapter 167: Secret Boat
It was the day of the next departure.
While the others were chatting happily, Mika was approached by Louis and Zhen.
"I will relay the king’s message to everybody else during the next conference." Zhen stated.
He was right beside Mika when he and the king talked to each other back then.
Mika also asked him himself if Zhen could tell the other members of the Grand Order about the king’s wish to not have humans attack it or the other monsters there any further.
"Thank you." Mika replied with a faint smile.
"I will report it to Malnor’s king as well." Louis chimed in sternly.
Mika nodded.
"..."
Louis stared at Mika for a split second.
"So many things happened in such a short amount of time. To be honest, I still have difficulties digesting the fact that you’re the person, Lily was searching for all along." Louis stated with a defeated sigh.
But he wore a smile as he put his hand on Mika’s shoulder.
"Take care of my daughter."
"Yes, Mr. Hayth." Mika responded firmly, bowing lightly with a smile on his face.
Louis was about to head to the others.
"Heh, you can go ahead and call me Father, if you want to. After all, you’re her partner, right?" he chuckled.
"..."
In response, Mika could only blush a little.
[Now you have missed your chance to tell him the truth.]
"I will remember you, Mika Elbar."
"?"
Mika tilted his head.
"Our match may have ended without a winner but considering your age and your achievement during the mission, I will admit my loss to you." Zhen said.
Many, including Mika, would have overlooked his feat. But if it was not for Mika piquing the king’s interest and talking with the king, they would have met a worse fate.
"I look forward to our next meeting." he followed up immediately before he went inside the mansion again.
"..."
Agape, Mika could only look in the direction where he disappeared without the chance to say anything back.
Mika heaved a small sigh while smiling.
"Come visit us again soon, okay?" Lena shouted once everyone was in the carriage. ƒrēewebnovel.com
Everyone waved back at her and Ren, who was standing beside her.
Thus, the group left the Hayth’s residence behind them as they embarked for Loogam.
[Side quest was completed. Three out of three targets were beaten. Calculating rewards.]
"Here."
Ophelia tossed the newspaper to Mika.
"..."
The three were holding their faces above it so that they could read it together.
And without any questions, the three started to skim the headlines of each article.
"Ugh... There are still civil wars out there even though we have an even bigger problem at hand...?" Sylvia remarked disgusted after reading a small article about a civil war that was currently going on.
However, that article was overshadowed by the main article.
"!"
Mika was the first one to widen his eyes.
"Now, everyone will learn about the incident that happened in Loogam." Ophelia said as she looked over Mika’s shoulder.
Covering the newspaper front page was the report about the invasion.
But that was not the thing that surprised Mika.
"Two demons managed to escape. And on top of that, suspicions concerning the missing student Xander Maystra keep on rising." she continued.
Lily gulped down her saliva.
"Based on the reports, we were able to portray them."
There were three wanted posters for the following individuals: Xander Maystra, Martha and Beatra.
People were ordered to immediately reach out to the authorities if they were to spot them somewhere.
And instead of killing them, the priority was to keep them alive.
"We still don’t know how they were able to infiltrate us that easily nor do we have any clues yet what the connection Xander had with the demons and if he had any accomplices."
Ophelia’s gaze shifted to Mika, who was focused on one particular person.
"Do you recognize her?" she asked sternly.
"Yes... How could I forget about her?" Mika replied in a lightly angered voice.
That anger was directed at Martha, with whom Mika had a history.
"So she was there, too, huh...?" Mika muttered as he leaned back on his seat with a hand on his eyes.
Sylvia and Lily continued to skim through the newspaper.
"Considering her ability, she could be a troublesome foe." Ophelia sighed.
"I wonder what she’s up to now..." Mika pondered with an annoyed frown.
[...]
Said person was currently in Stakew, accompanied by Beatra and Xander.
To be more precise, the three were in Prat, the capital as well as the port city of Stakew.
Proportional to the nation’s size, the city was also small.
As the people all stayed home on that foggy day, Prat appeared like a ghost city.
"We’re finally in Prat. So what’s the next step of your plan?" Beatra asked annoyedly.
"Can’t you be patient for once?" Xander retorted.
"Why do you have to fight every single time..." Martha muttered tiredly.
The three walked outside on a wooden shaky.
It creaked with every single step they took and it felt like it was on the verge of collapsing if one was not careful enough.
"Not only do we have to watch our steps but we also can’t see anything because of this damn fog!"
"..."
The waves got stronger.
"We walked quite a bit now." Martha remarked.
It felt like they walked the distance of multiple jetties.
"Let’s fly from here on." Xander stated when he suddenly stopped.
"?"
The two spread their wings and slowly followed Xander, who used his wind magic to levitate.
Beatra and Martha looked beneath them.
The wooden jetty was still there but even they could tell that it was wiser to not step on that.
There were multiple holes in the jetty and it looked like there was nothing under those spots to support the jetty.
In other words, it would collapse immediately if a person were to walk on that.
10 minutes passed.
"Hey! How much longer now!?"
"We’re almost there."
Then, a small abandoned boat, which was clearly not taken care of, entered their sight.
It was covered in moss and algae. The boat was damaged in some spots and did not seem like it had been used since a long time ago.
"A-are we going to enter t-that...?" Beatra stuttered disgusted.
Xander sighed.
With one swift hand movement, he cut off the boat’s roof and threw it into the water.
They approached the boat’s interior from above.
"W-what’s that...?" Martha asked baffled.
"We have used this boat as a secret storage." Xander replied calmly as he slowly descended.
Inside the boat, there were no furniture or decorations aside from a table.
Instead, one could only find old documents in dusty boxes and strange-looking weapons scattered around the room.
"Watch out and try not to touch anything. Even I don’t know what those weapons can do."
"Hm? Are these relics or what?" Beatra wondered.
The way he phrased it, suggested that those weapons had certain abilities, however, Beatra could only think of relics.
"No. They’re human-made." Martha answered with a stern gaze.
"Huh?! That’s possible?!"
"Tch, weren’t you imbecile listening to us when we were holding a meeting before entering Loogam?"
While the two were fighting, Xander focused on finding certain items.
"Ah, there they are."
He threw a dagger at each one of them.
"?"
Effortlessly, the two caught them.
"What’s with that weird dagger? Doesn’t look very powerful to me."
"..."
Xander turned to both of them, holding a dagger of the same kind.
"We need those for the upcoming preparation."
"Hm?"
Beatra annoyedly tilted her head.
"We will stay here from now on as we prepare."
He put a box on the table and took out some documents.
The emphasis was put on the profiles of certain people.
"Aren’t they court mages?"
Martha immediately noticed because she possessed information about any relevant person in the human realm.
"Those daggers have the ability to drain a person from their magic and store it."
Xander continued explaining.
"From now on, we’re targeting high-ranking mages and killing them by draining them."
A smirk crept onto Beatra’s face.
"Finally some action!" she stated excitedly.
"I don’t know when that person will make contact but until then it would be wise to steal as much magic as possible." Xander said sternly.
"But why do we need magic?"
Martha sighed upon Beatra’s question.
"You really have nothing but muscle up there, don’t you?" she said, pointing at her own head.
"What did you say?!"
Xander ignored their antics like always.
"Let’s split up for now. Going around as a group would be inefficient." he suggested as he put on his hood over his head again. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Following that, he left the place.
"Hey!"
"Don’t flop this, you hear me?"
Martha was about to leave as well.
She, too, began to smirk.
Her wings were spread as she flew into the foggy air.
"Mika Elbar... Just you wait..." she muttered threateningly.
Their preparations were now beginning.
"Count your days!"
The day the world would witness the first S-rank demon entering the human realm was near.
