Valerian, The Legendary

Fortuna asked, “Valerian, why did you not tell me any of this?”

The boy smiled and said, “You will not understand that I have learned from my mistakes till I show you my actions.”

His words clarified his meaning, after all, Fortuna was really worried that he will do something stupid again and no matter how many times he promised her to be careful in the end, she did not believe him. In the past ten days, when he was practicing in the academy, she could sense some change in his mindset but not really believed it, thinking it was her wishful thinking.

However, the child had proved her wrong and even managed to pull off such an elaborate drama with Fragrantia. That too right under her nose. Valerian had grown and this play was proof of it. The two returned with Amile to the hotel and found that Quies and Ryker had returned as well. The two were not told about the meeting with the empress.

Valerian said, “Amile has a task to complete, and you will be meeting with the shadow at the city tower, while I will go mislead the investigation team.”

Quies found this plan to be adept and nodded in support, Ryker had no problem with going to meet the shadow that will provide them with interrogation. Though both of them were curious as to how Valerian will mislead the investigation, and what task Amile had to perform separately.

The guard captain they met outside the city gates today was a grade three warrior. This was enough to show the determination of the royal military to find where Fragrantia was, and the patrolling teams all had at least one warrior among them. This made the situation troublesome for them.

Valerian waited for nightfall and headed out of his room from his window, with Fortuna following him quickly. The silver cat had turned black, and they came to a derelict alleyway. Ensis had told them to find a trace of smoke in the night sky. This smoke was different from the rest of the smoke. While the homes in the city all exuded white flames, this smoke was a trail of black and was hard to find in the black sky.

.....

Black smoke was caused by improper combustion, and the guards left behind by Ensis knew the tricks to achieve this effect. Valerian came to the alleyway and found a beggar squatting in the corner. The beggar had short hair and rugged clothes. Valerian knew that this person was a lady but she looked nothing different from a male.

As Valerian approached her, he said, “The lily burns black.”

This was the code these informants had set, and only Ensis knew this. She had told them before of Valerian’s arrival and when the beggar heard these words, she stood up straight and said slowly, “Greetings, Your Highness.”

Valerian was covered with black clothes and he was blended in the dark, but still, he said, “You do not need to be so courteous. Pay attention lest someone notices.”

The lady nodded and said, “Pardon me for the carelessness, your highness.”

Valerian nodded and asked, “The list of targets?”

The lady nodded and from the inside of her rugged baggy cloak took out a small piece of paper, and passed it to Valerian with both hands. The boy opened the paper and saw a few things listed. This list did not mention the names of the people he had to deal with but only mentioned their physical features and habits, and more importantly, their locations.

The locations were marked on the basis of their patrolling routes. Valerian nodded and said, “You have done well.”

The lady bowed and said, “Thank you, your highness.”

When she raised her head, Valerian was gone. It was like he never appeared in the spot in the first place. The lady was surprised by such a display of skills but she did not mind much as the young prince she met had a lot of people who sang his praises.

Valerian did not waste much time and went to look for the patrolling team in the area in the direction opposite the Lily Auction house. Since his purpose was to distract the investigation teams, that place was his best choice to start the chaos.

The black-clothed child skipped the roofs with the help of his shadow magic and managed to avoid the detection of the patrols. His speed was fast and Fortuna was on his heels. Soon, they arrived at the roof of a building that was a floor higher than the ones around, it provided him with a clear view of the street as well.

Fortuna asked, “So, how are we doing this?”

Valerian chuckled slowly and said, “Easy there princess. Let us wait for the patrol to pass here first and sense the degree of danger. Then we can fight it out.”

Fortuna nodded and then they waited. The night was silent and every sound in the vicinity was something they could hear distinctively. Valerian was sitting with his eyes closed when he sensed something and opened his eyes. Fortuna said, “They are here.”

Valerian nodded and channeled mana in his eyes to take a proper look at the patrol. Fortuna said, “Seven men, our target is the person in the middle of the patrol.”

Valerian nodded and said, “However, if we let the others walk away safely, it will be tricky.”

Fortuna nodded and said, “What do you plan?”

“Mages cannot kill warriors and vice versa. So I do not plan to use spells on them.”, said Valerian.

Fortuna said, “I can deal with it. I can morph into a big predator and injure them all, you can come in at the end and kill the person.”

Valerian shook his head and asked, “Tell me why do you restrain from killing humans?”

Fortuna cast him a gaze and asked, “Dragons cannot take the lives of humans till they are defending themselves or their companions.”

Valerian was shocked, but then he asked, “Since you killed the people that day to save me, does that make me your companion?”

Fortuna sighed and nodded, and then she said, “You might be my companion because you shared some of your blood when I was in the shell or because you knew my name. However, that does not mean I acknowledge you. You are far too weak to be my companion. A dragon will only allow a human to ride them when the person is stronger than them.”

Valerian was surprised when he heard this. To think that Fortuna had such deep thoughts, just when he was about to dwell deeper on this matter, the princess said, “The patrol is getting away.”

The boy woke up from his thoughts and focused his gaze on the seven people, and cast a spell to directly kill the people, ‘Laniatus Hastis’

The ground below the people rippled all of a sudden. It was so sudden that they could not even react when the spears protruded from the ground and pierced their bodies. A series of screams sounded in the region, the guards were all injured randomly, but the warrior in the center was made into a sieve.

Fortuna said, “I thought you were going to injure them lightly?”

Valerian replied, “You called me too weak and disrupted my thoughts.”

Then he did not wait for another group of soldiers to come over from the screams and left the place. They entered their room and went off to rest. While Valerian was busy with the assassination. Quies and Ryker arrived at the top of the clock tower in the center of the city. They were both warriors and easily managed to avoid detection.

The old man was a grandmaster, how could he be detected so easily? Inside the clock tower at the highest point stood the young man and the old warrior. Suddenly, another figure appeared in the space. The figure was clad in a black cloak as if shadow materialized.

Quies reacted as soon as the figure appeared and asked, “What did you find?”

The Shadow replied, “Her Excellency has been located, and her condition is fine as well. However, at this moment, it is not convenient for her to meet you in public. She asks you both to stay put and follow the commands of his highness till the day you are told otherwise. Please relay the news to his highness.”

Quies nodded and said, “I will do it. Please pass a message from his highness to Her Excellency, that we will do our best to get her out of here.”

The black figure nodded and then she vanishes into the shadows. Quies and Ryker did not linger around longer and moved out of the clock tower. On the way they found the soldiers to be extra cautious. However, they soon returned back to the hotel and climbed back into the rooms using the windows.