"Third floor, west wing. It normally has two guards, but with the crisis..." Larissa looked toward the window where she could see guards being redistributed to defensive positions throughout the castle.
"Probably only one, or maybe none if everyone’s focused on the defense," Liora added, though her voice carried uncertainty about whether they could count on such luck.
"The problem is getting there undetected," Matilda observed. "The main halls are going to be monitored."
Luna studied the problem, her mind working through possibilities...
"Can we teleport inside?"
"Larissa and I can’t," Liora said, disappointment clear in her voice. "We generate light flashes when we do it."
"I don’t generate light," Luna smiled, touching the shadows that seemed to respond to her presence. "My shadow jumping is completely silent and invisible."
"Yes indeed, you’re the best one to take the seal," Larissa concluded.
Arturo was buried in his desk, surrounded by maps, troop lists, and logistical documents that seemed to multiply every time he looked up. He was managing the mobilization of almost all troops at his disposal, a task that normally required at least three competent people working in coordination.
But such remained the magnitude of the crisis that no one was helping him.
He had to obtain and send orders and resources through flying beast messages, didn’t even have a secretary to take notes or bounce ideas off, and didn’t even have the usual two guards at his door. They had been reassigned to support managing soldiers at more critical defensive points.
Not that someone of his power level really needed personal guards, but their absence was indicative of how desperate the situation had become.
Handling all the logistics without Julius’s help was an enormously complicated task. Normally his brother helped him coordinate troop movements and resource distribution. But since Julius wasn’t in the city, having left pursuing Ren, he couldn’t leave this critical responsibility to anyone else.
His half-brothers didn’t have Qilins, which severely limited their capacity to handle the situation required. Victor, though competent in combat, frankly wasn’t very good at the paperwork and detailed organization that a mobilization of this scale demanded.
His mind wandered momentarily toward Larissa.
She would have been perfect for this type of work. Her political mind, education and meticulous attention to detail made her an ideal candidate for handling complex logistics. But she also didn’t have a Qilin, which disqualified her from the most critical functions.
’Maybe an antiquated rule system if it does leave out real talent...’
Arturo lamented this fact and sighed deeply, allowing himself a moment of melancholy while thinking about his younger sister and the complicated situation with their father.
He had only received a dry pat on the shoulder from Julius along with a brief message about "handling things while he was away". But as a brother and son, he could understand the pain of missing an absent father.
Perhaps because he was more accustomed to Dragarion always spending much time outside the kingdom, he had already developed certain emotional resistance to paternal absences. But he had still suffered that sensation of abandonment during his youth...
Suddenly he felt a strange energy near his office.
Someone knocked gently at the door.
His perception was elevated due to his rank and experience, though nothing comparable to the supernatural level Ren had developed with his fungus or the specialized capabilities of creatures designed specifically for detection.
Still, his high level allowed him to perceive mana patterns quite clearly, and he could tell that someone was deliberately hiding themselves.
From the specific type of mana he detected... María?
He approached the door sighing, thinking it was probably something related to Larissa. María often served as an intermediary when his younger sister, who had lived mostly confined these last years, had requests or concerns she didn’t want to bring directly. Content originally comes from NoveI★Fire.net
But when he opened the door, he encountered a completely unexpected surprise.
There was only María’s crystal armadillo with a mana concealment artifact on its nose. The beast, now Silver rank, had grown to enormous dimensions and was covered with crystal formations that glowed softly in the hallway light. The beast barely fit in the wide corridor, its massive bulk occupying almost all available space.
The armadillo offered him a carefully arranged bouquet of flowers, with a small folded note attached between the stems.
Arturo took the note with curiosity and unfolded it. In Larissa’s elegant calligraphy, it simply said: "I love you very much, big brother."
Below was a blank line, clearly intended for a response.
Arturo was someone who genuinely liked these types of affectionate and sentimental gestures, though few in the castle knew this due to his public image of political seriousness. He blushed slightly while taking the gift, feeling unexpected warmth in the middle of all the crisis and stress.
The gesture reminded him of simpler times, when their family bonds weren’t that complicated by politics and war, when love could be expressed through simple notes and flower arrangements.
He looked toward both sides of the hallway to make sure no one had witnessed this vulnerable moment, then nervously headed back to his desk to find something to write with.
He found an ornate quill in one of the drawers and began thinking of an appropriate response. His momentary focus on the sentimental task didn’t allow him to notice that the official seal he had had on top of his desk moments before was missing.
When he returned to the door to deliver his response, he sighed but smiled genuinely. Years had passed since Larissa had made these types of affectionate gestures with him. During her early childhood, she constantly sent him small gifts and notes, but since the war situation, those ’family traditions’ had sadly stopped.
"Tell Larissa," he murmured to the armadillo while handing it the note with his response, "that I love her very much too, and that when this crisis ends, we’re going to have proper time to talk about our family and some old rules..."
He handed the carefully folded response to the beast, which took it delicately in its crystalline jaws.
He closed the door slowly, still discretely checking that there wasn’t anyone nearby who could have witnessed this exchange, then returned to sit at his desk to continue with the overwhelming logistics.
When he settled back in his chair, the official seal was already on the table again, exactly where he had left it.
His attention immediately returned to the documents that demanded his urgent attention, and in seconds he was completely absorbed in calculations of troop movements and resource allocation.
Because of this and his joy at seeing his sister ’recovering’, he didn’t notice that the seal had a very light coat of shadow mana residue that would fade completely in a few seconds.
But for now, that detail was irrelevant.
Nothing could "darken" Arturo’s "bright day" now.
Luna had what she needed, and the next phase of their plan was already in motion.
Back in Larissa’s room...
"Your brother is sweet," Luna said, though her voice carried a note of guilt at having exploited his affection for Larissa. "And you know him wel... María’s distraction worked perfectly."
Larissa smiled, but there was sadness mixed with the relief. "He’s been carrying so much responsibility alone. I should greet him more often when this is all over..."
"We can feel guilty later," Mayo said. "Right now we need to escape from here."