The Kingmaker System-Chapter 45 - 44. Growing Pains (2)

I stayed at the Fourth Wall for the rest of the day scanning the area for the rogues while wondering how Davian was doing back at the castle.

"You... are not cold dressed so thinly like that?" Adler asked.

"No,"

"How did you fly all the way there?" He asked and I sighed releasing a gust of white smoke.

"Magic."

"Your Water Magic can make you fly?"

I nodded not wanting to explain as I stared at the white landscape that was splashed with red at a few points.

"What family do you come from?" He asked.

"Spare me the questions, Vice-Captain. I don’t like being interrogated." I said and he fell silent for a moment.

"How old are you?" He asked and I sighed.

"Thirty one."

Adler stared at me before exhaling sharply and walking away. The more I was knowing about North, the more I was worried about the child who now took the reins of this place in his hands.

After spending the whole day at the wall we returned to the castle, Lyall and I ate together without any word from Davian.

"This place is more messed up than I expected." I spoke up making Lyall look at me.

"We’ll need to be alert at all times, Lyall. Even inside this castle."

"Now that you say that," he started, "I noticed something strange when I came here."

"What?"

Lyall explained me about the things that he had noticed and I chuckled.

"Davian has got admirers, huh."

"Do you know him, Master?"

"Hm?"

"You seem like you’ve known him for a while, even in the morning you gave him your muffler."

I smiled, not answering him as I continued eating.

At night, I stood in the balcony of the room assigned to me and activated my wings after turning myself invisible.

I leapt off the balcony and let my wings carry me high up into the sky before I studied the geography beneath me. I could see the town and the castle, I flew a bit more higher and could see the Walls now.

Three intact and the one wall that was my object of interest. It was a bit far from the castle and closer to the huge mountain that I recalled from the map that I got from Adler.

"Siern Mountain," I mumbled as I looked at the largest mountain of the snowy mountain range.

There was a naturally made mountain pass that connected Frosthail and the Shifters Land. But for this specific area to be targetted was a bit surprising and it made the purpose even more ambiguous.

I flew towards that wall and noticed the debris and the rubble that was scattered around.

I landed on the ground and walked towards the wall that was being remade. There were some Seraph knights that were stationed at that place, I didn’t alert them as I walked closer to the fallen wall and activated my Mana Eyes to have a good look.

I walked across the destroyed part and scanned the inside part and then went on the other side to look at the outer part.

The stones were around two meters thick and sturdy which made it even more unlikely that it was destroyed by something.

Six months had passed by so, I didn’t know what I was expecting to find. But if the Grand Duke and Duchess found the trail of the perpetrator then there might have been some traces.

I couldn’t see past time and even if I had come when Grandfather told me about the situation here, there were quite a few chances that anything would have been left behind.

"What am I even looking for?" I sighed.

There was a sudden crunch in the snow and I turned to see a wolf who was hiding behind the mound of the snow looking at the knight who was facing the other side.

I kicked a pebble in the wolf’s direction making it growl and the knight noticed it before it could attack.

I didn’t stay back to see what happened to the wolf as there were more knights who could take care of it.

I walked a bit ahead and saw a bear who was trudging towards the hole in the wall. I looked back hearing the commotion as the knights were taking care of the wolf and then sighed as I activated my Dragon’s Presence to scare the bear away. I wasn’t in the mood for fighting.

The bear flinched as it noticed my Presence and started growling as its eyes fixed on me, it bared its claws at me as its body trembled. I stepped closer to the bear and it continued growling before its feet started retreating.

"Scram, Tubby." I spoke up.

The bear roared and slashed at me making me sigh and duck underneath its paw as I threw my fist out. I could feel it go straight through the thick fur of the bear and crush its ribcage before I swung my foot and kicked it off my course. It landed a few feet away and didn’t move.

I strolled around the area looking for something, anything that I could find as a clue but it was like looking for footprints after a stormy rain.

Not even radiation lasts six months long, how could the traces of-

[Defender of Divine Glory has assigned you a task.]

What now?

[Protect the candidate of the King’s Throne Grand Duke Davian from the assassination attempt.

<Warning: This task has a time limit. If failed to be met the candidate will die.>

Time left: 2 minutes, 59 seconds.]

"Shit! Don’t drop a bomb just like that!"

I activated my wings and shot through the air rushing back to the castle.

[Time left: 2 minutes, 10 seconds]

I cursed under my breath as I increased my speed watching the castle right in my view.

[Time left: 1 minute, 20 seconds]

I managed to reach at the castle but I didn’t know where Davian was, I circled around the estate with my Mana Eyes activated as I looked through the walls of the castle.

I pushed past the walls of atoms and molecules and noticed Davian’s aura, he was in his study. Apart from Davian’s energy I spotted others, around three of them and they were already confronting him.

[Time limit: 49 seconds.]

I flew in the direction of the study’s window as that was where Davian was cornered. His aura was flaring but it didn’t seem like he was ready for the fight.

He didn’t even have any weapon and even his body temperature seemed abnormally high. Was he sick?

I reached at the window just as the time limit showed three seconds and I broke it open making the shards fly inside and I wrapped my arms around Davian’s small body.

He went still for a moment and I switched off the device of the invisibility as I landed inside the study room looking at the three assassins who were dressed as servants. The ones whom Lyall had told me about during dinner.

Davian’s body felt quite warm as I held him against me and I frowned as I realised he was having a fever.

"Are you hurt anywhere, Your Grace?" I asked and he looked up at me with a flushed face and dazed eyes.

I pushed him back as one of the assassin’s attacked, swung my foot resting a hard kick into the chest of the attacker making him fly back and slam against the bookshelf on the wall.

The other two attacked simultaneously, the one in the front had a dagger I avoided getting stabbed and gripped his wrist using his body as a leverage as I swung my feet in the air in an arc slamming my boot in the third assassin’s head.

He grunted as he gripped his head, his knife falling to the ground while I twisted the arm of the other assassin making him groan and shoved him away.

The first one whom I had thrown into the bookshelf came at me again and I pulled out my own dagger and slashed through his forearm not stopping at it as I went ahead and stabbed at his vital points so that he wouldn’t come up again.

I heard a grunt behind me and turned to see another assassin in front of Davian, I rushed over and slid from beneath his legs and crouched in front of Davian. The assassin got a little surprised but attacked nevertheless, I shoved the dagger in my hand up his throat making the blood splurt out of his mouth.

I shoved him off and looked at the last assassin who was the only one alive amongst the attackers.

"Who sent you?" I asked and the assassin attacked me.

I used full scale Dragon’s Presence concentrated on him, making him choke and fall to the ground.

He gritted his teeth and writhed on the ground as I walked towards him, the glass shards cracked under the pressure of my boots and I crouched in front of the assassin.

I gripped the front of his hair and yanked his head up to face me and asked again, "Who sent you?"

He gritted his teeth as his face grew paler and his eyes dazed.

"I’ll kill your entire guild if you don’t fess up." I threatened and he coughed making the blood sputter out.

I frowned as his eyes rolled back and he died.

I sighed as I realised what happened. The classic technique of the assassins, poison hidden in the teeth to commit suicide if caught.

I deactivated the Dragon’s Presence and stood up looking at the study which was now trashed and had dead bodies.

I turned to Davian who stood leaning against the wall looking at me, his face was red and he was breathing heavily.

I walked up to him and touched his forehead feeling the heat of the skin.

"You have high fever, Your Grace." I murmured and took off my cloak and wrapped it around his slightly trembling body.

Suddenly the doors opened and a few guards stood there looking inside with shock evident on their faces.

I looked back at Davian and couldn’t help but feel pity for the child.

"Pardon me, Your Grace." I said as I reached out and wrapped my arms around him scooping him up.

"I’m fine..." He mumbled but I ignored it.

"Another assassination attempt."

"Your Grace, are you all right?"

I saw the guards and noticed Sir Adler among them.

"Sir Ocean, why... are you here?" He asked.

"Leave that for later. His Grace has high fever, summon a doctor. I’ll take him to his chambers."

"Yes, but-"

"Hurry, he’s really burning up." I snapped at him as I started walking away as I noticed that Davian had passed out.

Everyone had different kind of growing pains while passing through different stages of life, but it seemed like this kid was having some of the most tougher ones in his share.