Two days later, Leo stood in his room at the Caulem manor, the late afternoon sun casting long shadows across the polished floor. Nimbus sleeping on the bed, sprawled across it like claiming it’s own, his purple eyes half-lidded in laziness.
Leo’s looking at a small, reinforced box delivered from Torgrim, the master smith.
He opened it, revealing a voltsteel glove.
A note inside explained that Torgrim was still perfecting Leo’s custom sword, enhancing its durability and mana conductivity for maximum impact. Leo smirked, setting the note aside, and slid the glove onto his right hand. It fits perfectly to his grip, light.
He flexed his fingers, testing its balance, and nodded. "Nice one, Torgrim." With a mental command, he sent the glove in his item space, the inventory flashing in his vision.
[Item Space]
• Mana Potion x1
• Health Potion x1
• Endurance Core x1
• Voltsteel Knuckle Glove
• Soul Resonance (Lvl 1)
Leo exhaled, dropping onto the bed beside Nimbus, who barely stirred. His stock of potions was low, he has 400 mana shards currently which he got 100 from assassins death, but these aren’t enough to replenish them properly.
Nimbus’s ears flicked, his eyes snapping open as he stared at the door. A sharp, urgent knock broke the silence. Leo, leaning back, called out, "Enter."
Liana burst in, her face ashen, her breath uneven. "Young Master!" she stammered, her hands trembling with panic.
Leo sat up, his easy demeanor vanishing as he saw fear in her face. "What happened?" he asked, his voice low and focused.
Liana’s words spilled out, shaky but clear. "The Duchess and Lady Vivien... their carriage was ambushed on the way to a tea party near the eastern road!"
Leo’s eye’s widened.
____
In a forest near Carthorn’s border, a noble carriage lay broken on a muddy road, its frame splintered, wheels shattered. The bodies of fifteen Caulem soldiers littered the ground, their armor rent by savage blows, as if their attackers had been killed with grudge.
Commander Dian knelt beside one of his fallen men, his face filled with fury, his hand balled to fist.
Nearby, soldiers carefully lifted the unconscious Duchess Maria onto a stretcher. Her gown was smeared with mud, her face pale, but her breathing was steady, she’s the only survivor of the massacre. Dian’s jaw clenched as his men worked, their movements tense with urgency.
Vivien was missing, and teams of soldiers had already spread out into the forest, their calls for the young lady echoing through the trees.
The rapid thud of hoofbeats broke the silence, and Dian turned to see Leo charging toward the scene on horseback, Nimbus perched behind him, claws gripping the saddle. Leo dismounted instantly, his crimson eyes scamming the carnage, shattered carriage, bloodied corpses, Maria on the stretcher.
Dian approached as Leo strode forward. "Young Master, you shouldn’t be here," he said, his voice taut.
"Report. Now."
Dian swallowed, his tone heavy. "Fifteen of our soldiers were assigned to guard the Duchess, all dead, even the maid accompanying the Duchess. No survivors among them. Duchess Maria has minor injuries, looks like she was dragged on the ground."
Leo crouched beside Maria’s stretcher, as he examined her. Her hair was untouched, her jewelry undisturbed, her wrists and elbows unbruised. A single, precise wound marked her temple, as if struck with a blunt weapon, they hitted her slowly not to kill.
He stood, his voice low and certain. "She wasn’t dragged. She grabbed someone, held on tight, and they struck her to break free."
Dian blinked, caught off guard by Leo’s deduction. "How—"
"If she’d been dragged, her hair or hands would show damage. They don’t," Leo cut in. "The blow was deliberate, it’s meant to knock her out, not kill her." He met Dian’s gaze. "Get her to a any nearby clinic immediately. We need her awake to know what she saw."
Dian nodded, barking orders. Soldiers swiftly transferred Maria to a spare carriage, the stretcher secured as the vehicle rolled away toward Carthorn. Leo’s attention shifted to the wrecked carriage, its harnesses slashed, the horses gone.
His voice was steady but urgent. "Where’s Vivien?"
Dian hesitated, his silence heavy, his eyes dropping. Leo’s patience snapped, his voice rising. "Where is she? She was with Duchess, wasn’t she?"
Dian flinched, his voice barely audible. "She’s... missing, Young Master."
Leo’s eyes widened, a flash of fear breaking through his control before he forced it down, his voice dropping to a dangerous calm. "Missing."
He turned, scanning the scene, his jaw tightened, and he ordered, "Pull every man back. Clear the area."
Dian opened his mouth to argue. "But, sir—"
"Now!" Leo’s voice cracked like a whip. Dian relented, signaling his men, who withdrew to form a perimeter, their faces grim
Leo stood at the edge of the scene, he took a steadying breath and thought, Elynn, scan the scene.
A faint blue holographic overlay appears in his vision, Elynn’s system mapping the area with precision. Bootprints glowed in the mud, their patterns scanned. Leo glanced at Dian. "Do our soldiers all wear standard boots?"
Dian nodded, his voice tight. "Yes, Young Master. Regulation issue."
"Anyone else enter the scene since you arrived?" Leo asked.
"No, sir," Dian replied.
"How long have you been here?"
"Roughly twenty-five minutes, Young Master."
Leo’s eyes narrowed. Elynn, filter out soldier prints from the last thirty minutes. The hologram shifted, removing recent tracks to reveal only those from the attack. Fifteen sets of soldier prints, uniform in size and weight, stood alongside Maria’s erratic, shallow heel marks.
Three heavier bootprints emerged, their depth indicating they’re far too precise for bandits.
Leo closed his eyes, letting Elynn reconstruct the sequence. When he opened them, he pointed to a spot on the road. "Three attackers, heavy builds, likely on horseback. They charged in without hesitation." He traced their paths, noting where they overlapped with the soldiers’ prints. "Their attacks were fast, brutal. Trained killers."
He moved to a cluster of tracks near the carriage, where the prints deepened. "They dismounted here after cutting down the first group. Slashed the harnesses to trap the carriage." He followed the soldiers’ prints, which formed a tight defensive ring. "The guards tried to hold them off, but these three tore through. No chance for a real fight."
Leo approached the carriage, his fingers brushing a scuffed foothold and a broken door. "One climbed up, ripped the door off." Inside, a maid’s body lay near the entrance, her throat cut with a single, clean slash.
"He went for Vivien, but Maria got in the way. He threw her out hard." He looked at the spot where Maria had fallen, the impact aligning with his theory.
His voice grew colder. "They grabbed Vivien and jumped down. Maria lunged, grabbing one of them, pleading for her daughter. He dragged her a few steps, then hitsher temple to shake her off."
Dian’s face hardened. "So... not a bandit raid?"
Leo shook his head, his gaze sweeping the scene. "No looting, jewelry untouched. This was targeted. They came for Vivien alone."
A soldier spoke up, hesitant. "Ransom?"
Dian frowned. "Taking the Duchess would’ve been more valuable."
"Exactly," Leo said, his voice a low growl. "Three men killed fifteen trained soldiers like it was nothing. This was planned, personal."
His anger surged as he stared as he can’t find any footsteps of vivien. His jaw clenched, the Aura released, a suffocating pressure radiating outward. Soldiers gasped, some stumbling, their breaths shallow under the weight.
Dian flinched, recognizing the source. "Young Master..."
A steady hand gripped Leo’s shoulder, and he turned to see Duke Alric, his expression stern but grounding. "Control it, son," Alric said, his voice firm yet calm. "Rage won’t find her."