With the Melodious Bar burning so brightly, leaving little to no evidence, the Death Guards were left in a daze.
They had rushed over at the fastest speed since receiving a reinforcement signal from the person responsible for the bar.
Yet they were still late!
"Reporting! Zach’s body had been identified in the secret compartment alongside multiple unrecognizable Death Guards." One of the Death Guards who went inside to check reported the situation.
"This is going to be problematic." The platoon leader of this batch of Death Guards muttered.
The remaining Death Guards also knew the upcoming punishment was going to be excruciating. In fact, some of them might even have to forfeit their life.
Not even the platoon leader would be safe!
What Darius hated the most was incompetence!
For such a major crisis to happen right under their nose, it was only natural that they would face Darius’s extreme wrath.
"What should we do now, Platoon Leader?" The reporting Death Guard asked.
"What should we do, huh?" The platoon leader gazed at him and smiled coldly.
Soon, the reporting death guard realized something was amiss.
Unfortunately, it was a little bit too late.
The platoon leader made his move and killed the reporting death guard with a single sword slash.
The other Death Guards remained motionless.
"This reporting Death Guard failed to relay the news to us immediately, resulting in the loss of Melodious Bar." The platoon leader exclaimed.
"Yes, Platoon Leader!" Instantly, the remaining Death Guards clamored and pinned the blame on the deceased reporting Death Guard.
Who told the deceased to be the one responsible for relaying the reinforcement signal?
"Try to gather whatever is left on the scene. If you don’t want to die under the Marquis’s blade, then you’d better find something useful." The platoon leader was satisfied with the reaction and quickly commanded.
Just one death wasn’t enough to quell Marquis Darius’s killing intent. They required some concrete evidence to help balance their predicament.
While they swiftly made their move, Leonard’s group finally arrived at the Royal Velastra Hotel.
The hotel itself was stationed and guarded by multiple Crimson Guards.
The streets were also cleared of any corpses.
Upon their arrival, one member of the Crimson Guards appeared in front of them.
"Halt yourself." They raised their hands and ordered.
Mirelle was about to step forward and identify themselves, but was halted by Leonard.
Mirelle raised an eyebrow in confusion. She used her eyes to communicate with him. ’Why are you stopping me from clarifying our identities?’
’If you identified yourself immediately, then how am I supposed to know how they would react and behave in front of strangers?’ Leonard rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to do a karate chop on Mirelle’s head.
While they silently communicated, the Crimson Guards inspected Leonard’s group closely.
’The stench of human blood.’ They distinguished that Leonard’s group had human blood on them.
Awareness was raised among them as they had reasonable doubts about believing Leonard’s group wasn’t some survivors seeking shelter.
But rather a group of killers who wanted to lurk in to harm the Crown Prince.
"Identify yourself and explain your reason to be here." One of the Crimson Guards’ leaders questioned.
They didn’t make a hasty move to immediately attack Leonard’s group.
After all, with the current mess in the city, it was hard for one to remain civic.
There could be a possibility that they might have been forced to kill, granted that this group consisted of some beautiful women.
Moreover, they held some concern that this group could be the same as the earlier group that they had taken in.
Caroline was a well-known researcher in Velastra, so her credibility was enough for them to allow her to enter. Not to mention, she held possession of a token that represented the Crown Prince.
Naturally, that was after a thorough check for them all. They couldn’t afford any mishaps.
’Seems like the Crimson Guards’ training didn’t go to waste.’ Leonard thought to himself. Although these guards were skeptical and suspicious of them, they didn’t behave impulsively.
They kept their guards up while trying to learn about their situation first.
"It’s not safe to discuss in the open, so let us in." Leonard retrieved another representation token and tossed it to the Crimson Guard.
The Crimson Guard used mana to quickly collect the token to avoid a possible poisoning or attack, and they quickly inspected what it was with their mana.
’Another Crown Prince’s representative token?’ Dumbfounded, they hurriedly verified the authenticity.
A few seconds later, they confirmed that it was authentic and wasn’t some forgery.
When did the Crown Prince hand over so many representative tokens?
The Crimson Guards were baffled and found it hard to believe there were so many of these tokens being scattered across.
With the reality presented itself , the Crimson Guards had no reason to deny their entry.
"Do inside for a more thorough analysis. You are warned to not do anything funny because we will kill you." One of them warned sternly. For origınal chapters go to 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱
"That is natural." Leonard nodded and didn’t find the warning offensive.
Sometime later, their group entered the hotel under the scrutiny of many Crimson Guards.
Once entered, there was a magic formation active in the lobby.
"Walk through the magic formation." The guards ordered.
’An inspection formation?!’ Mirelle recognized the formation as an inspection type. It was mainly used to detect any hidden weapons or substances that were banned.
Besides Mirelle, both Elise and Nadia also recognized what the magic formation was and its purpose.
"What happens if the magic formation detects something?" Elise turned to the guard and asked.
"Relax, we’re not unreasonable. Hidden weapons are common, so as long as you willingly retrieve them to the open, you will be fine. As for banned substances, there is no tolerance." The guard explained.
However, he felt it was somewhat overboard, so he added, "But granted that you have the Crown Prince’s representation token. We will only record you having a banned substance and inform the Crown Prince later on about the punishment."
’Hidden weapons are fine, but banned substances are severe?’ Elise was startled by the statement.
Shouldn’t it be the opposite?