Chapter 1301: A Classy Slap

It all happened suddenly.

The news of Rudolph prompted him to prepare for an attack. Then, Sarah convinced him to rethink. Before he could formulate any big plan, news of Merov's possible death surfaced. As if that wasn't enough, Oob urgently conveyed Sage Nevar's entry.

There's a significant chance of them subduing this man inside Hortus—Sarah and Sia with their three rank 7 powers and he, with the blessings of Hortus. But the fight itself was still risky. Moreover, there's nothing to be gained from it.

Varian wanted to avoid it if it could be avoided. If this guy was an asteroid that's going to strike anyway, then he decided, to make him strike Rudolph.

As they walked through a teleportation formation and reached a secret realm, Nevar noticed something.

"These secret realms...you are the one who did the Black Rose operations, right?" There was confusion in his voice.

If he didn't get a proper answer that could placate him for the time being, he'd lash out for sure.

Nevar was caught up in Varian's rythm and following him. The man himself was not subservient.

"Prince Oleg has vanished. Wonder why?" Varian threw a question like that.

Nevar's eyes widened. "Is he really...?"

"The Duke requested a check over him. After he led to the death of Champion Gor and Hybrid Mor, we identified him as a threat and then..." Varian didn't finish.

But Nevar understood. Like with every revelation, he was shocked.

The great mystery he sensed in his mind—the conspiracy played by the invisible hand—was all being revealed and it all started to piece together. But it was only bringing up more and more questions.

"Who exactly are your superiors? Who are you serving? Me attacking the Pri—"

"We are but mere servants of her highness, a speck of dust in front of their greatness," Varian said with a fanatical face, beaming with a crazy smile that would've selected for this year's most devoted cult member.

'He's really under Princess Eshala!' Nevar felt a chill down his spine. 'This is how her underlings behave! Madness! Pure madness!'

Then it made sense! These guys were young, he could sense that. Who else could command young, talented, and powerful rank 7s other than the Princess herself?

'But why does everything make so much sense? That makes no sense.' A corner of Nevar's mind was screaming at him, but amidst the noise that drowned him, it turned into a forgotten whisper.

"We have neutralized one of the maids," Varian briefly glanced at Sia and she rolled her eyes.

'Why are you holding me accountable for her crazy actions? I didn't even participate in this crazy mission. Only Enigma had some involvement so far.'

Sarah gave her a long glance of mild contempt.

'How about you stop being lazy and start convincing that woman to act properly? Not controlling her is a sign of weakness and you dare to say you can control your violent impulses? The elves and nymphs are still scared of your violence, they don't even attend the court properly!'

'Hey! Why are you bringing that up now of all times? Those women should have kept it in their pants instead of lusting after Var!'

'But you can't just shave their delegates all bald with your powers! How will they show their faces? Their hair didn't grow until weeks!'

'Not my problem! Isn't the Queen of Radiants taking care of the court?'

'You little—'

Varian butted into the battle fought through exchange of gazes that started becoming increasingly heated.

'Girls, you can fight all you want after we're done with this. Please learn some maturity from me and behave like grown-ups. We're all adults already. Don't make me babysit you.'

'Wh-What?!'

'The audacity of this man!'

Varian's strategy to divert their anger at each other onto him succeeded and they stopped arguing, instead deciding to try to teach him a lesson this time at least, even though they were almost certain they were going to fail.

Nevar was unaware that a short but intense exchange just ended between the husband and wives.

If he did, he'd have questioned his sanity to follow these crazies onto the battlefield, putting his life at risk.

But the poor old man was hoodwinked by a shameless young fellow who had no regard for the elderly.

"So...there is one maid in Princess Merov's mansion, she'll be alerted by the fight and will try to butt in.

So, we have to drive her away first, then we can attack Prince Rudolph and his maid, ending them properly. Then, we can kill the surviving maid."

"I-Is that it?"

"Yes, that's the end of the mission. Duke Jataur had already taken care of Prince Merov when he tried to attack the duchy's capital. You should've already gotten calls for help." Varian said with a neutral expression.

"Y-Yes, Yes, I did. But the calls have stopped."

"Because the attack has been dispelled. The perpetrator is dead. All according to plan." Varian grinned like a devil. "We'll just have to show these Palarians their place. Picking a fight with the Empire is seeking death wish. These humble bugs don't need our leaders to come out, we are more than enough."

Nevar nodded, half-agreeing and half-denying. The hot-blooded warrior part of him was excited at the prospect of killing a Prince! A crown prince candidate no less! A peak rank 7 he'd never be able to kill otherwise!

But the rational side of him was panicking. Its whispers were not being heard despite it trying hard. Its fear, however, was being felt.

"O-Okay, then how do we distract the maid?"

Varian grinned and took out a black spar with a horn engraved on it. "This is Baldur's authority key for being a regent of Centaurus. Within a certain range, it allows you to teleport back to Centaurus. We just entered that range."

The spar glowed and the space around them distorted. A few seconds later, Nevar dropped his jaw as he noticed they were inside a giant city planet!

"This is the capital planet." Varian introduced.

Nevar stood still for a few moments before lamenting. "W-Wait, they fell this low? Damn, Centaurians! How the mighty have fallen!"

Varian shrugged it off and took them to a special building within the guest complex of the palace.

All of them wore facial disguises just in case, used stealth treasures, quietly deactivated anti-stealth using Baldur's authority, and reached the destination without any hitch.

The guest complex had many palaces, not as luxurious as the main ones but still very lavish and beautiful.

The three envoys stayed in a palace each, waiting for the good news of their prince and ready to assist them in any way possible.

Right now, they were playing a board game in the backyard garden. Varian took off his mask and walked to them in leisurely steps.

They reacted differently, though with a common theme.

Ashley: "V-Varian of the new trib—civilization? How dare you trespass into our residence?!"

Finar: "Who are those three? Thugs you hired? "

Edison: "I wanted to kill you there. But well, I guess I can do it now. On reasonable grounds."

They stood up, intending to enjoy the 'hunt' of chasing the prey and savoring its struggle.

But Varian wasn't in the mood for bullshit. He raised his hand and slapped it across the air.

Paaaa!

The three envoys' heads flipped to the right and their feet rose up to the ground.

They spun in the air like tops, forming afterimages. With each rotation, they spat one tooth and when they finally collapsed and crashed to the ground, unconscious and severely injured, their faces were swollen hard.

"H-How was that even possible?" Naver gulped down hard at the casual cruelty of this young man.

Killing people was one thing. But this...this was really something else.

Not minding the old man's shock, Varian grabbed Edison's comm and messaged the maid Reina Astolf.

[An emergency discovery has been made! Please visit immediately! This is the location! Related to the prince, please do not reveal!] The message was set to the highest alert and sent.

The maid would take off any minute and would spend at least an hour searching the area for clues.

Varian grabbed the three of them by their collars and activated the spar once again. A teleportation later, he threw into Hortus.

After two minutes, the four of them quietly approached the fortress of Prince Rudolph, ready for the assault.