Anton was so focused on leveling up his Paladin that after three hours of work, his Paladin reached level sixty-nine. He would have continued, but there was a commotion outside his room and after a few seconds, he heard frantic knockings on his door. He had no choice but to exit his Diablo II system.
He checked the time briefly using the new watch that he purchased that resembled the watch Edward Elric was using in the anime Full Metal Alchemist and it said that it was eleven in the morning.
When he opened his bedroom door, Anton saw that it was Frederick who was knocking but he saw that the girls were behind him and they looked a bit scared. Anton also noticed that Walter was speaking to a group of three mages who looked like they were on official business.
Anton and the others walked to the living room to wait for Walter to finish speaking with the mages and after a few more minutes they were done. He looked at Walter and Frederick questioningly so he could learn what was going on.
“The Lumbert family who were nobles from New Drennor beside our suite were all murdered last night and were discovered by their sailor guide this morning. The family consisted of seven members together with their five bodyguards. The frightening part was two of the bodyguards were archmages and a part of the Lumbert family,” Walter said and the noble looked afraid as well.
Anyone would be afraid since the fact that the family was murdered even though they were guarded by archmages meant that the murderer or murderers were powerful.
Everyone gasped when they heard what caused the commotion, even Anton. The girls did hear that somebody was killed but now that they learned more information, the situation became more frightening, and instead of a little bit afraid, all the girls looked really scared.
Anton wondered if the murder was personal or related to the Undead Coalition.
“The investigation is ongoing and we will all be questioned later by the mages who are investigating the crime. Right now, the mage group who was investigating the crime is still following all the clues that they found at the scene,” Walter continued.
“Do you have more details about the crime that you can share with us?” Anton asked and Walter shook his head.
“Shouldn’t we inform Father and the others?” Anna asked looking worried.
“Frederick, you go and inform the family. It’s too dangerous to be walking about alone so bring a couple of the spirit wolves with you,” Anton summoned all of his Spirit Wolves and commanded two of them to follow, protect, and obey Frederick.
Anton commanded the remaining three Spirit Wolves to remain. He also summoned the Oak Sage spirit and commanded it to fly above the suite since it had the power to reveal beings that turned themselves invisible.
All of the girls knew how powerful the Spirit Wolves were and they appeared to take comfort in their presence. He would have summoned the Dire Wolves as well but the summons were huge and would make the place a bit cramp.
“I hate this! There’s always something scary or dangerous happening around us!” Anna complained.
“We were told that dangerous situations would occur on the ship at least twice a week and you know how dangerous our world is,” Anton told his sister.
“Yes, but I thought that the dangerous things were like storms or pirates, not mysterious murders even though they were guarded by powerful archmages! What if we’re the ones that were targeted? We only have you and you’re just a single archmage,” Anna complained.
Even though what his sister had said was a little hurtful, Anton knew that it was only fueled by fear so he didn’t mind it.
“That’s the main reason I wanted you all to practice your magery so you will have the power to protect yourself,” Anton told them.
After saying that, everyone went to the home theatre setup that they were using as their magic classroom and continued memorizing spells and casting them on the mana power banks. After around ten minutes though, Frederick returned with Anton’s father and the rest of the family and friends.
“Anton, what happened? Frederick told us that a crime was committed in the suite next to us!” Anders asked.
Anton nodded at Walter and his friend was the one who explained everything to the newcomers. It seemed like the ship’s officers didn’t want to cause panic and didn’t tell anyone about the crime.
While Walter was telling all the details he knew about the crime to his father and the others, Anton thought of what skills could assist him in investigating something . Right at that moment, Anton was a little confident in defending his family as long as everyone was within his sight. He had several summons that could assist him in combat and not only that, his Paladin level was high enough that he could choose the auras that he wanted to activate that could help protect everyone.
He opened his Diablo II system and reviewed agaSin all the spells that the Paladin had access to. Anton could even reset the Paladin’s skills if he needed to.
Based on his quick review of the Paladin skills, the auras that could be useful were the Cleansing and Defiance Auras. He didn’t need to do a reset since he did put points on all of the auras so Anton could use them in real life if needed.
After Walter was done telling everyone what he knew about the murder next door, everyone looked worried. Anton then asked to talk to his father alone in his room so Anders followed him.
“Father, you have to tell everyone that they can’t wander alone anymore. There should always be more than two in a group and they should be protected by at least two Spirit Wolves, two Dire Wolves, or a combination of both. That meant that not everyone should leave the suite which I think would be fine with all the mages in the family since everyone was concentrating on their magic anyway,” Anton told his father.
“Before I followed you here, Selena was very concern about her two friends, Norma and Belue, and asked if we can invite them to live with us. I told her I will need to ask you first,” Anders said to his son.
“You’re the Patriarch of the family, father, it’s your decision. Besides we have surplus rooms anyway. I just want to say that I knew it. You will form a harem sooner or later,” Anton joked and that made his father slap his head but it only made Anton laugh harder.
After their conversation, Anton’s father made his announcement about what he and Anton had decided their actions would be, at least up until the situation was resolved. Anders then asked Colin and Frederick to go out and order lunch for everyone so the two did, followed by two Spirit Wolves.
While they were waiting for lunch, Antonia kept complaining about the situation, about how it disrupted their plans for the Cosplay Event until Lucia and Phillip reprimanded her and asked her to be sensitive since a family was just murdered. That stopped Antonia but she still looked frustrated.
Anton then asked Walter if he managed to memorize the cantrip spell Light and Walter said that he felt like he should be able to soon which excited everyone in the group since once Walter was successful, they would have definite confirmation that a regular person could become a mage after wearing a tool that gave them the mana stat although that meant that the mage in questions would have a very low talent in wizardry.