CHAPTER 87

  THE PLAN IN MOTION

  “Sneaking a spirit. infiltrating Clandor. The shitstorm you cause is always on biblical proportions, senior.” Vanir wasn’t surprised. He even had a premonition that Hans wouldn’t just sit still. It wasn’t something his lord was capable of. “So what do you need me to do?”

  “I’m gonna show you something to hit your jaws on the floor— Load Elven Codex”

  Vanir was pretty much sure there was nothing in Hans that could relate to those words, yet his mouth was agape and it dropped even further as Hans transformed into a sturdy elf. “The fuck you are smoking.” He blabbered his inner thoughts.

  “Close your mouth, junior.” Hans smirked, hiding the transformation pains.

  Hans’s slow words hit Vanir in the back of his neck, snapping him out of his daze. “What kind of element?… No, are you finally a knight? Who else knows?” Vanir had a million questions, but before he could ask some, Hans hissed him down.

  “Light element and yes, a knight.” He answered, satiating putting out some of Vanir’s burning curiosity.

  But Vanir had an erratic reaction. “Damn! Only Clandorian royals are born with light element.” He doubted, “but even in them, only women are born with that. You. You don’t look like a woman…are you?”

  “I’m a hundred percent man, you dumbass. Stop hay-wiring your brain,” Hans hissed again. He knew with light element on his back-and-call, garnering Reina’s attention would be an easy task. The name he had chosen would help too. But how could he make sure Reina’s attention would be positive? That’s what he was racking his brains about. And now, hearing his thoughts, Vanir did the same.

  “But senior, aren’t I your tool kind of guy.” Vanir turned confused. “Isn’t Ms Winters the one with whom you cooked your wicked plans with?”

  Hans knew Vanir was right. Delimira could come up with a million ways, and it wasn’t just because she knew Reina well. She was his partner in crime for every idiotic thing he did. Arat was another option. But Hans was trying to keep Parv out of Theodred’s life and so with Delimira’s . “I’m about to wreck havoc in this body. I don’t want anyone close to me to get hurt by being guilty by association.”

  “Then what about me? This hurts, senior.”

  “Don’t worry. If something happens… I’ll avenge you.” Hans pledged.

  “I’m not liking where this is going—”

  “Just focus on the task, Vanir.” Hans urged, demanding some solution, and Vanir didn’t disappoint.

  “Isn’t the first step to manipulate someone to know everything about them? In our case, her. You practically know nothing about her except that she hates the very guts of yours, and she has a pretty solid reason for that— your dear old-dad.”

  “See, you can be useful in other things too, Vanir.” Teased Hans, turning back to human form.

  “It’s a basic thing… you should’ve known… you’ve done it already. Just where is your mind at, senior?”

  “Tried getting beaten for a whole day. Then I’ll hear how fast your brain juice out results, dumb junior.” Said Hans. “I guess I need help from my Parvian contacts without involving them.”

  “Then do it in your own room, senior. It’s dinner time, and your precious subordinate must eat.”

  “Aren’t you getting cheeky—”

  “We are close…you just said we are going to live and die together, didn’t you?” Vanir stretched his lips, showing Hans the door.

  “Fine, fine. I’m leaving. You’re acting like you’re hiding a girl or something,” Hans said, frisking his eyes around Vanir left and right. But there was nothing but anxious Vanir’s face. “You sure there is no one?”

  Vanir nodded and almost forced Hans to leave. “Chairman, he’s gone. Did you have to hide? Isn’t he your descendant? He won’t appreciate you constantly asking me to keep tabs on him.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I just wanted to know what he planned forward—Sneaking the spirit means taking Reina’s permission to enter. The Clandor Royals have dedicated light-aura skills, much greater than any, even better than I can devise for him.” Dietrich contemplated, “A woman as cautious as Reina may be his toughest adversary yet. Picking the hairs out of spider’s ass would be easier than manipulating her. I hope that kid Arat has something useful.”

  Meanwhile, Hans rummaged through his stuff and pulled out the Knapbinder he had forsaken for a while. “Found you.” He picked up the communication orb. “Contact Arat.” He commanded.

  “Good evening, my Prince.” The reply came sooner. “What would you need this old man for? I hope you aren’t in some kind of trouble.”

  “Oh god No. Not yet at least.” Hans stretched a smile. “Mr PM, I need some information on a personal level. The deeper, the better. From behaviour to habits to the charade she wears on her real emotions, everything.”

  “Who is the target? And what is the deadline?” Arat asked as if it was just on his fingertips.

  “Reina Clandor. Four months.”

  “Agh..you don’t go for small fries ..ever… we already have a lot of intelligence on the Elven queen, but I’ll compile and update the new information. Consider it done. A net of Satr would do the job.”

  “Satr?” Hans found a new word he couldn’t catch the meaning of. “What is a Satr?” He asked.

  “It’s our spy network. The orphans acting as our ears and eyes across the Genas.”

  “You are using orphans?”

  “It’s better than them dying in cold, hungry streets. Don’t you think, my prince?” Naively, Arat asked.

  “Fine then— but aren’t you going to nag me why I need it? You seem oddly co-operative.”

  “We are here to serve on your whims, my prince. You’ve grown, now you must take responsibility for the clusterfuck you cause—pardon this old man’s tongue.”

  “You are pardoned.” Asserted Hans. “You not nagging feels a bit iffy, Mr PM.”

  “I can’t be always with you, my prince. So do what you must and take accountability. You are wise enough to know not to play with Parvian lives, including yours. Aren’t I right?” Arat wanted a positive answer and he got it.

  “Good night— clack!” Hans felt on his back, his bed hugging him hard. “Man, time sure flies. That old man was nagging me right and left at everything he found. The blinding trust he shows now makes me heavy.”

  Resting, he remembered the Aura skills he had faced in Deadlands fighting Reina. How his powers had failed him, pushing him to the brink of suicide. “Soon, I’ll make those skills mine,” he mumbled, “It’s a promise, Queen Reina.” He didn’t catch on when he lulled himself to sleep.

  On the next day, before the break of dawn, he dragged himself to the Man-Eating forest. But he was happy, no excited to snap his sweet sleep for once. With a practice sword in his hand, he began to copy what he had learned from fighting Dietrich. “Remember , I need to be fast.” He swung hard with quick succession. “Faster.” He shouted and his body turned those quick stabs into a volley.

  His muscles began to tear but he couldn’t stop himself. He was someone who could make warlocks jealous as a mage but he still felt something was missing. And the moment he held the sword this morning in this forsaken forest, his body began to manifest Aura.

  “Yes, this is the feeling.” As his Aura generation picked up speed, the exhilaration he felt doubled down. His movements, perfectly aided by a little bit of Aura, started showing much different results than before.

  Time flew by and he didn’t realise. “Shite! I’m late. Here it comes—ugh!” He ran back after transforming to his human form. This time he couldn’t afford to miss the class. No matter how much he disliked Zephyr, today was the day they were going to learn the fighting tactics of Red demon hunters.

  Disheveled, he crashed into the lecture hall’s doors. His eyes searched his friends who were keeping his seat. “Ah damn it. First row again.” He complained inwardly but quickly reached the seat. “What’s up with you guys? Front again—”

  “Just sit.” Delimira hissed.

  “Yes ma’am.” Hans sank into his seat without any complaints. “Did I miss something—”

  “Yesterday’s dinner. Just where were you? I specifically asked you to be present.”

  “You can play house with Zephyr, Winters, but keep me out of this. I was asking about the tactics lecture?” His eyes searched for answers from Chris sitting across from her.

  “Nothing of significance.” Chris signalled at Zephyr. “He was just saying the hierarchy again. Just listen.”

  Hans did what Chris said, his focus only on Zephyr.

  “—The best way to hunt them is to find a pack of two-hands usually called infantry. Search for its leader. There has to be some, if not four-hands. If nothing changes, your graduation task should be collecting the sun-stones inside them, and you’ll want to be in the outer regions, trust me on that. In outer regions, you’ll face hordes of two-hands. Recognise their leader first, single him out with the best of your fighters while others distract the group. The leading position always goes to the one who could somewhat use space magic. So taking it out first-hand will give you an advantage against the infantry.”

  “What about four-hands?” Hans interrupted. He had faced several two-hands and dealt with them effectively, but a four-hands was different. That thing had made Hans run for his money. So, he wanted to know if there was a way for him to get up on a four-hands without Dispellium, but the answer was what he expected: he needed Dispellium.

  “Then how the heck did Reina one-shotted it? Does high-grade aura work differently or is hers just unique?” Hans wanted answers, but sadly the one who could give them was far away.