Chapter 12: Lord of the land

Not only did Rei learn how to materialize mana in a day, he was able to create mana weapons that are as solid as or even more durable than high quality weapons and it even has smoother mana flow absorption that most high quality weapons.

“Rei, I’m going to show you something; make sure you watch attentively so you can replicate what I do” Feld said it like a swindler that has set his eyes one a whale

Feld cupped his hands as if he was holding a basketball and in the middle of the space between his hands was a silver light a small ball of mana similar to how Rei started his mana forging of his mana sword.

What differs from these processes is that Feld’s mana ball was like a black hole sucking all the mana he releases from his hand. This kind of process is called Essence Creation, Essence Creation is immensely more difficult to master than Mana Forging; it takes a practitioner tens of years to master this skill, although Feld mastered it in 8 years.

Rei tried it the whole day and couldn’t progress further than creating the mana ball; Feld couldn’t blame him so for it was a very challenging skill than even he spent 8 years of cultivating.

As Rei kept on trying, several soldiers that seemed to come directly from the palace of Genoah came; they were under a banner with a Whale Beast as its crest.

The Genoah palace is currently under the rule of the Earth Narwhal family head; the Earth Narwhal family is a noble family that originates from Archus.

The soldiers themselves looked as if they have been provided with good equipment, this could mean that the Lord of the palace of Genoah is someone not only powerful but is rich as well.

The noble families of Archus replaced most of the clan leaders of Ino after the war ended. Some clans are left alone, some are now on Archus’ side, and some have fled in seclusion seemingly preparing for a revolution.

The appearance of these soldiers struck fear among the country-folk as they knew that soldiers from the palace coming to the farmlands is not a good sign for them.

These soldiers seemed to be looking for someone and came closer and closer to the house of Louise; they went to a stop when they were in front of Louise’s house.

A soldier in the middle of the troop stepped forward, he seemed to be the troop leader; he had better looking equipment than the rest of the soldiers and had a red and blue feather on his helmet.

“Where is Louise Rendelfolt?!” shouted the solder

No one was answering, although nobody in the neighborhood told where Louise lived for they adored her and would not want her to be of harm’s way; the soldiers seemed to already know or even just be suspicious that Louise was in the house that they currently are in.

Louise was kept by her grandmother and mother in a secret storage compartment under their home. Louise was in tears because she believed that they are looking for her because of her capability as a healer.

Her dad was summoned to the palace and never returned, while curiosity to know of what happened to her father was urging her to come with the soldiers; her fear of not being able to return was a stronger force in her heart.

The soldier leader seemed to have already known from the start that this was where Louise resides in and just asked around the neighborhood just for the sake of procedure. How could he not know? They have kept the son of the couple that lived here for more than just a few years, and they are tasked to look for his daughter; of course she will have lived here, not unless she went out of town but it was highly unlikely. That was the soldier leader’s thought process.

Suddenly Edward came out of the house, Louisa and Roselle was busy hiding Louise that they forgot to keep watch on Edward; Edward then came to the soldiers and shouted “Why are you looking for my big sister?!!” Edward had an angry expression as if he is confronting a person he can beat

“Thanks little boy.” Said the soldier leader as he grinned and crouched to face Edward

The soldier leader then stood up and ordered his men “Get in the house! I don’t care what you do with it as long as you get the girl!”

After hearing their order the soldiers busted open the door to their home and started entering. There were dozens of soldiers destroying the house’s furniture, one of the soldiers found Glace in her bed; the soldier then proceeded to carry Glace like a bag on his shoulder.

“Sir, is this the woman we we’re looking for?” said the soldier as he presented Glace to their leader

“No you imbecile, but take her anyway!” said the leader as he instructs the soldier

Rei looked at the scene and was infuriated, his eyes were definitely filled with anger and he was about to kill someone when Feld put his arm against Rei’s shoulder as if trying to prevent him from doing anything rash.

“Master Feld, they’re going to take Glace! We can’t just do nothing!” Rei shouted silently at Feld as if trying to reason to Feld to fight the soldiers

“Are you an idiot Rei? I don’t think so, look at the enemy numbers; they have dozens and there are only the two of us. If they don’t return to their palace, the Lord will probably send an army. Do you think you can fight them and rescue Glace?” said Feld as he clenches his fist in anger for not being able to do anything

“Honorable soldiers of the palace please do not take the girl, she is injured. We are travelers and she is one of my companions, I ask that you please let her go; we will not intervene with your search of the girl named Louise and in fact we’ll even help you.” Feld said to the soldier leader as he returns to his smooth talking swindler ways

“Tch, give them the girl.” Ordered the leader to his men

“Thank you honorable leader” said Feld while bowing his head

“Tell me, where is the girl named Louise?” asked the soldier leader in a very arrogant manner as if he was stepping on Feld

The atmosphere in the area became tense, the onlookers were staring daggers at Feld with eyes saying not to tell the soldiers anything.

Fredrick, Louisa, and Roselle were frightened, to think that their guest they had treated kindly had betrayed their trust and is now going to tell the location of their Louise!

Edward ran towards Feld and started punching him with his little hands crying and saying “Don’t tell them where big sister is!” a number of times whilst crying; Feld then waved his hand at the child to put it to sleep.

The crowd of onlookers became angry at Feld for what he did and started shouting “You fiend! How could you do that to a child! You don’t have a sense of gratitude!” and other hurtful things.

Edward’s family was brimming with anger as they watch what Feld did to Edward.

“We shouldn’t have taken them in” said Roselle as she turns red from anger and hate

Fredrick was feeling anger but he did not show much of it; meanwhile Louisa’s anger and fear disappeared after she saw Feld make Edward sleep.

“Now you two, don’t make sudden conclusions; Mr. Feldgrau isn’t that kind of man now is he? We spent quite a bit of time with them, and to my observation Mr. Feldgrau isn’t someone who sells out someone who helped him.” Said the usually playful old lady in a serious and convincing manner

After hearing what Louisa said, Roselle and Fredrick went a little calmer but then Louisa continued “I don’t believe Mr. Feldgrau will sell Louise out; you two, we must act very angry after he tells them a wrong location!”

The crown kept on shouting at Feld as he continued to smile and bow his head to the leader of the soldiers

“Don’t keep me waiting! Where is the girl?!” said angrily by the soldier leader.

“I apologize for not stating it quickly, I believe to have seen the girl running towards that cornfield right after she saw you” said Feld as he pointed at the cornfield.

“Good haha! Men, go get the girl!” the soldier leader said as he was ordering his men to go after the girl that ran into the cornfield.

The soldiers then dashed hastily towards the cornfield, they found traces of a person coming through and followed the trail. Little did the soldiers know that the one they were chasing was not Louise, it was not even a girl; it was Rei.

“Rei, I need you to run to the cornfield when you see an opportunity; create a trail for them to follow, but whatever happens do not fight them.” Feld said to Rei as he gave instructions

“I’ll meet you at the back of the barn later tonight.” Feld continued

“Okay” with no hesitation, Rei agreed to Feld’s plan and entrusted the situation to Feld

Running and running, Rei frantically ran as fast as he could without using mana as boosters because it will give away his identity. Running away from the soldiers was as hard as a fish swimming away from a shark, the soldiers were using mana as boosters for their speed. It was no easy feat that Rei was able to stall them at least 10 minutes and counting.

Meanwhile on Feld’s side, Feld suddenly attacked the soldier leader. Caught by surprised the attacked didn’t even last a second and the soldier leader was left dead in a single strike.

The crowd of onlookers changed their opinion of Feld really quickly, and listed to Feld as he gave out instructions on hiding the soldier leader’s body and covering up the scene.

Feld’s attention then went to Louise’s family, “We must leave your home, what happened here will surely get to the Lord and in no time they will assemble a punitive force to annihilate us” said Feld in a very serious manner that is hard not to obey.

Louise’s family started packing what they thought is valuable; Feld lent them a few of his spatial rings for easy storage of the items.

Feld escorted Louise out of the secret storage compartment that was told to him by Louisa.

“We’ll have to leave here, any idea to where we can hide?” Feld asked Louisa

“We can hide in any of the houses here in the neighborhood, they will gladly take us in” said Louisa in a confident manner.

Feld gave it some thought and determined that hiding in one of the nearest houses is a good idea because they probably wouldn’t expect it.

“I agree, let’s talk to them” said Feld as he nods in agreement to Louisa’s plan.

The Rendelfolt family was most welcome in any of the houses in the farm lands, not only was Louise’s father a healer that healed many of their sick and injured; Louise was the girl of all the young male’s dreams and all the parents of these young men would gladly have Louise as their daughter-in-law.

Finding a house they could hide in didn’t take long at all, in fact all of the neighbors volunteered.

Rei is getting tired of running around and seemed pretty exhausted, he used a little bit of mana boost every now and then; the soldiers who chased after him was dead out of mana and was even more exhausted than him. Rei noticed that as he gets even more exhausted he gets even better at running away.

After much trouble in was nightfall, Rei was finally out of the huge cornfield that he played hide and seek in.

He exhaustedly went to the back of the barn where Feld and he should meet.

He saw Feld waiting for him, and without much exchange of words he followed Feld in a nearby house.

*The Lord of Genoah’s Palace*

“Lord, soldier leader Larks is nowhere to be found; and the girl Louise has not been found either” said the soldier kneeling in front of the Lord’s throne as he makes his report

“They escaped eh?” The Lord inwardly spoke to himself and then said “Look for her in the neighborhood again!”

“But Lord, we already checked that neighborhood; are they so brave as to hide nearby?” pleaded the soldier

“Are you questioning my order?” said the Lord as he intimidated the soldier to death

“No Lord, I apologize!” the soldier quickly retorted

“Go” said the Lord

Without delay, the solder got up and did as the Lord asked.