BXBX NOVEL Chapter 206 Duke's Fury
The irritation in Arabella's face deepened as her patience ran out. "Why isn't he responding!!!!"
Duke Vesala saw that his daughter was going to lose it. As such, he asked her to calm down while doing his part to summon Visam and Hasta instead.
A few moments later, Visam's figure appeared like a phantom on Duke Vesala's balcony.
With a pale and panic-stricken face, he knelt and addressed the duke, "Visam hears your summon, Lord."
Raising his eyebrows in confusion as he only saw one of the two special knights he summoned, Duke Vesala asked, "Where is Hasta?"
"This servant seeks your forgiveness, Lord!" Visam lowered his head to the ground as if he had made a grave mistake.
"Speak about what is happening!" Duke Vesala could already figure out that something had gone wrong, but he still had to hear the details no matter how he wanted to punish the servant in front of him.
"It was only now that I have noticed... Hasta and Igor have disappeared. I last saw them two days ago and I only realized that the two hadn't been around the Capital last night." Visam bit his lip and clenched his fists in guilt and fear.
He knew that he would never have a good ending after reporting the matter to the Master. But what can he do, he was bound by the oath with him.
Nothing can make him willingly betray the trust of his master, even if it meant that he had to receive his inhuman punishment.
Crash!
A 300-year-old ceramic vase was viciously thrown at Visam's prostrating body. He felt the blunt pain assaulting the top of his head and the minuscule shards piercing his arms and hands.
"Useless! Useless, Useless!" Duke Vesala roared in a terrifying manner, his voice even reverberated in the hall.
Even Arabella had to step back and shrink in the corner, not even breathing out loud, as she was really afraid of how her father looked right now. She was afraid that even the sound of her steps would direct her father's wrath on her.
The fury on her father's face was as if he was a guard at the gates of hell, ready to claim everyone's life.
Still, with intense anger on his face, he used another notification spell and summoned someone.
The people he summoned did not even take a minute to arrive as they could already guess the graveness of the matter through the message on the paper.
Four figures appeared on the balcony, seeing that a familiar person was already prostrating in front of their master with a bloodied head and trembling body, they also immediately knelt and did not dare to let out a single word.
"Give me a good reason why you were not able to detect this anomaly earlier?" Duke Vesala's voice sounded cold in the study.
It made the people in the room shudder in fear.
"I-i…" Visam was lost for words.
How could he explain to the master that he got into an argument with Hasta and Igor and basically shunned them after walking out during the time he failed to pursue Igor to come back to his old post?!
"No good reason?" Duke Vesala's calm voice became the most terrifying sound to Visam and the four figure's ears.
"I am sorry Mast-"
Before Visam could complete his words he felt his body fly backward at the speed of light and crashed onto the stone railing of the balcony and eventually to the ground several meters from the balcony which was on the third floor.
His body was filled with agony that even as he tried to curl in the fetal position to contain the pain, he felt like his bones were piercing into his flesh.
"Bunch of useless fools! The enemy was already playing you under your nose and you still didn't have any idea?!!"
Now that Visam was already battered black and blue, the four knights could only prostrate themselves and beg for the Duke's forgiveness.
It was true that they have no idea however, how could they know if they had their own posts which he personally assigned?
Of course, Duke Vesala knew that he too was included among the people who have no idea that has already been attacked in the dark without him knowing.
He felt pathetic and humiliated. Just moments before, he was still smiling, feeling elated thinking that he had thought well of how to handle the matter with the Third Prince and the Great Inventor.
But now, some unknown enemy had already started to make a move into his forces! What's more, the two of his men were the ones whom he would supposedly depend on monitoring Leon and Eli!
There was also a sense of panic and fear in his heart.
Who was this enemy? How could they target his knights specifically? Do they know something about the movements of the Vesala?
He was feeling frustrated and angry at the same time. With nowhere to vent into, he took it all out toward the trembling useless knights in front of him!
Soon, the five guards were beaten black and blue. It was fortunate that their attire was mostly black for it will surely be dyed crimson red should they happen to wear light-colored clothing.
"Leave your posts immediately and get to the bottom of this matter! I'll give you only one day to get back to me with certain answers!" He stepped onto the edge of the balcony and looked at the bloodied bodies of the five men on the ground with disdain in his eyes.
"Y-yes.. Master." The men clutched their own stomachs and bowed to their master after acknowledging his orders.
"Scram!" Duke Vesala bellowed fiercely.
Upon hearing the Duke, it was like they had finally escaped their death sentence.
Hence even though their bodies were injured beyond recognition, they still dragged themselves with all their might and ensured that their master could not even see their shadows.
Duke Vesala watched the men with a shaken heart. He turned towards his daughter whom he knew was scared out of her wits. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to play a good father to her after learning of these things.
"Sorry Bella, could you let Father be alone at the moment.." He said in a tone lacking affection. It was not even a question but an order for Arabella to get out of the study.
Arabella didn't mind and immediately nodded before hastily scooting out of the study as if she had to escape a great calamity.
Finally alone in the study, Duke Vesala slumped to his chair, extremely stressed. His complexion darkened as if he had to bear the world's burden on his shoulders.
He sighed in distress as he activated his communication stone and contacted his sister, the Empress.
"Brother.." Empress Carolina's voice immediately rang from the other side of the stone. "What's the matter?"
"Sister.. We've been attacked." He explained without an ounce of energy in his voice.
On the other side, Empress Carolina's beautiful face was instantly shrouded with a deep frown upon hearing Maxim's news.
Her bright purple eyes dimmed as her tone became cold, "What happened, brother? Who's behind this?"
"We lost two of our dark nights. I still do not have any clue who was the enemy behind them. But I doubt that it was one of the two princes. They are too weak and irrelevant to even chance with the information about our special knights."
"Then who could they be? Are you trying to say that it was done by the Emperor?" Empress Carolina's heart leaped in fear upon realizing that it was not only a matter of losing the two knights but the danger of exposing the dark affairs of their family.
"I still do not have any idea, our private network did not even report any suspicious move from the Emperor even to any of the princes. Not even the legendary Grandmasters, for their efforts had long been centered on paving the way to the great inventor Eli." Duke Vesala wracked his brain to analyze the situation.
"If that's the case, who might they be?! Are you saying that we have hidden enemies lurking inside the Empire?" Empress Carolina's voice cracked as she was controlling the trembling of her body from the gravity of this matter.
"I do not know... I could only wait for our men to return with the feedback about the known forces of the Empire. We never know, if such an unexpected thing happened on our side, then it would be possible to even think that there were some spies lurking on our faction."
If Eli and Leon could hear their conversation, they surely would have laughed in ridicule. The siblings were so paranoid that they even started to suspect everyone, even their own people!
Unfortunately, Leon and Eli could not be bothered to care about the chaos on Empress Carolina's side.
As they were now brainstorming on how to successfully sneak into the temple to meet the High Priest!