The Princess And The Lord-Chapter 1348: Trapped

"I hope we didn’t keep you waiting too long"

The sudden voice coming from behind them made Victor and his men jump to their feet, at the same time, they reflexively drew their weapons. The air in the room became tense, no sound could be heard except the beating of their hearts.

Fred stood in a relaxed manner with one hand shoved in his pocket as he greeted them "Good evening gentleman, I hope I didn’t startle you too much, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t do anything funny."

Victor was irritated by Fred’s words, his face frowned and he snorted in annoyance "Of course not, are you doubting my integrity now!"

Fred raised his eyebrows "Aren’t we here to confirm it"

"Even though you are an Archknight, aren’t you being too rude" Victor’s friend was irritated by Fred’s arrogant attitude "Are you looking down on us because you are an Archknight? Why do you think we took the trouble to arrange a meeting if it wasn’t out of good intentions to clear up this misunderstanding, but you can’t—"

"You arranged this meeting because you guys have crossed our territory and you’re afraid of how we’ll react, isn’t that right?" Fred looks at them with condescension and mockery in his eyes.

Victor’s subordinates clamped their mouth in shame then Victor raised his hand to sign his subordinates to be quiet.

"Forgive my friend he is too eager to speak his mind that he sometimes does not think twice about it. However, he did not mean to offend you at all, Mr. Knoxville."

Victor, who was the leader of the World Guild Association, knew when he could be arrogant and when he should be humble, and right now he had no choice but to be humble himself because weather in terms of power, intelligence, and authority, he is no match to this man.

Lory patted Fred’s shoulder to calm him down and after being coaxed by Lory he took a deep breath and his attitude softened a little, "Then explain yourself."

Victor was surprised by Fred’s sudden change, his eyes turned to the girl wearing a long hooded coat beside Fred. Unfortunately, her face was hidden behind a hoodie and a mask, Victor couldn’t see what the girl looked like, but one thing was for sure Fred was willing to listen to her, which meant he was quite fond of this woman, but he had never heard of Fred having a close female friend so where is this woman coming from? Victor was curious alas, he knew this was not the time to be nosy.

"Alright..." Victor and his subordinates exchanged a tacit understanding and then sheathed their weapons after which Victor began to recount his story: "About a week ago Terrence Ingram called me to ask for a meeting, it was very sudden and bizarre so I didn’t immediately agree. After all, our Guilds’ relationship is far from amicable as we have different values, interests, and goals. Still, Terrence Ingram insisted on meeting, I knew he was up to something but I was curious, so I finally agreed." exasperation was evident on Victor’s face as he retold what happened.

"It seems, you underestimated your enemy?" Fred chide.

The muscles in his jaw twitched as his entire face turned grim. "Yeah, because I didn’t expect him to work with those people..." Anger welled up in his chest and it was apparent on his face.

"And it became even worse when we found out we got a spy among us, I never thought she would betray us like this..." A mixture of disappointment and resentment flashed across his eyes, he clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

"Traitor, who?" Fred’s curiosity piqued. For someone to be able to trick someone like Victor Kross, she must be very sleek and experienced.

"Yes, her name is Julia Edgewood, she joined two years ago and became a permanent member after a six-month probationary period, she is a talented ice-gifted woman, smart, bubbly..."

"—Pretty" Fred interrupted.

Victor admitted "She does easy on the eyes"

Fred sneer "They usually are..."

Victor knew what Fred was thinking, he lowered his guard because the girl was pretty and seemed harmless, but he forgot that spies who used ’honey traps’ were usually like that. freёnovelkiss.com

"Then what happened..." Fred didn’t probe further into Julia’s matter.

"She put a slow-acting poison before we went to the meeting which meant that I and all my Guild members followed me that day" Victor became more irritated the more he talked.

"Didn’t you see or feel anything strange at that time?" Fred felt that Victor was too reckless which didn’t match his always careful attitude.

"Do you think I didn’t take any precautions before we went to the meeting but we were blindsided by Julia and because of her we all fell into the enemy’s trap"

"I wonder how charming that woman is that she could deceive all of you," Fred said in a sarcastic tone.

Victor and his subordinates’ faces immediately turned red but they couldn’t defend themselves. Victor heeded Fred’s words and continued, "The poison paralyzed us and after that, they came in and injected us one by one in our temples." Victor pointed to his temple, "...And after that, we couldn’t use our powers anymore."

Lory agape "You got MADD in you?"

"MADD?" Victor confused.

"Mana Detterent Device" Lory’s voice becomes noticeably heavy.

Victor turned to the mysterious woman who had just spoken, "You know?"

Lory shrugged "I had a brief experience with it?"

"A brief?" Victor asked with a questioning look

Lory rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "The device they implanted in me only lasted a few hours before it self-destructed, so I’m not sure if it’s the same one they implanted in you?"

"Maybe they’ve perfected it," Fred guessed.

"Maybe..." Lory mumbled then later on she said: "let me ask Ethan more about this, I’m gonna call him...you guys can continue" Lory walked to the corner of the room to get some privacy

While Lory was on the phone Fred continued his conversation with Victor, "So the enemy who trapped you, are they from Luxemborough?"

"They were right, I even had the honor of meeting Arlo Cawthorne in person," Victor threw a sarcastic sneer.

"Arlo Cawthorned? Theodore Nevaro’s confidant?" Fred was surprised because Arlo rarely left Theodore Nevaro’s side but he had been seen at the Aeon in Brinwell and now he was personally visiting the World Guild Association, perhaps he was running errands for Theodore Nevaro.

"What does he want from you?" Fred continued.

"He wants me to make a rule for A and S class hunters to use the new weapons made by Aeon and he also wants me to work with the Underground Guild to create a shadow guild inside Harland"

"In short, you become Luxemborough lapdogs" Fred teased.

"Pretty much so" Victor answered with a resigned look.

Meanwhile, Lory was having a conversation with Ethan Hamilton.

"Your Highness, you finally called me!" Ethan answered eagerly.

Lory moved the phone away from her ear in reflex, "Uh, yes... by the way, there is something I want to ask you?"

"Of course!" Ethan answered readily.

"About the Mana Repellent device, I just found a new victim who was also implanted with MADD, but I think the device they got is different from the one implanted in me back then," Lory asked.

Ethan’s voice turned serious, "Oh, that’s not strange, because the one implanted in you back then was the first generation so it still had many shortcomings so the one now being used on that poor person may be a better generation and that would be a problem..."

"Explain what you mean" Lory’s expression hardened.

"What I know is that Aeon is trying to perfect this device with the ultimate goal of not only controlling Mana but also the person’s mind, knowing this I strongly refuse to cooperate..." Ethan said with utter disdain.

"Then is there a way to help someone who has had this device implanted" Lory glanced at Victor.

Ethan was silent for a moment then said "I have to check first, is there a way to take him to N.I.M.S.?"

"Wait a minute" Lory then asked Victor "Can you come to Harland? We have someone who can handle the problem with the device on your head"

Victor shook his head regretfully "No way, they said the device has a transmitter to track our location, that’s why we chose this location that swarmed with Beasts so they will not be suspicious when they track where we are, but if they find out we went to Harland they will blow our heads off"

Fred shook his head with a chuckle "God, you are so screwed ~"

"..." Victor and his subordinates had no words to refute.

Lory turned back to her phone "No way, their whereabouts can be tracked so it’s no go,"

"Ugh, they already managed to put a transmitter in MADD, huh? Tsk, who knows what else they can do with it..." Ethan’s voice was etched with concern.

"Any other ideas?" Lory was determined to solve the problem at WGA.

"If they can’t come here, how about I go there?" Ethan said.